#and yesterday we made origami figures

[ezraspiderwick]

Me: I shouldn't go too fast into romantic relationships

Also me: I have known this girl for three whole days I think she might be the one

[pbandjesse]

Today was great. I really am having such a fun time. Today was only a little hard because it was so unstructured. Which only is hard because I worry about it James is having fun. But they keep telling me they are and I am having a great time. So I have to believe them.

And it has been such a restful day. I slept well, I love the rocking of the boat. I got a little dizzy last night but in general I love it.

When I woke up I was alone and confused about what time it was. My tablet said 11, which I knew was wrong. But I wasn't sure when it was. I eventually figured out it was 8. So I got up and got dressed and decided I would go find James. I left a note in case James came back. And then I was off.

I got a little turned around at first. But I saw another couple ladies looking for the observation deck to and I remembered about the fish on the carpet. And how they point to the front. And they thought that was very funny and we all walked together.

And we ran right into James! I was so happy to see them. They had gone for a ride (which is funny to say when it's just a stationary bike) and had gone for coffee. But they waited for me for breakfast. I was looking forward to breakfast. I love sitting and watching the water. And that's exactly what we did.

I got scrambled eggs and watermelon and hash browns that were shaped like pucks. The watermelon was not as good as yesterday, but that's alright. I would have better watermelon at lunch.

James got me a water, I'm trying to stay hydrated. And we talked about what we wanted to do today. It's a day at sea so it was mostly just us deciding. I looked at the app and we saw they were teaching how to make origami whales in a few minutes and then there was trivia. So that's what we did. We went all the way down the ten floors to the atrium.

And it was fun! I'm terrible at origami. I always have been. People always think I'm going to be good at it because I do art and sculpture but I just really struggle with the picture instructions and my brain cant design my own. Like it's such a small thing but I'm bad at it. But it was fun because everyone else was bad at it too. And I just felt joyful. I have been feeling joyful a lot this trip.

After origami we stayed for trivia. Which was fun and James got us 14 points out of a possible 20. I got one of those answers so I was very proud of myself. It was that babies don't have knee caps. I learned that here on Tumblr.

After trivia we went for a walk. It was beautiful outside. Cold but beautiful. We can just see the mountains in the distance.

As we were walking I found another duck. And I was just so stupid excited. So we decided that the walk would be a duck hunt. We went all over and found two more ducks! I love this game.

We would get a piece of pizza for walking, and sat outside on the deck chairs in the wind. We actually remembered our sunglasses. And soon we went for lunch for real.

This is where we discovered that while we can't send texts we can send pictures for some reason. So we gamed the system and typed up notes and took screenshots to send to Jess and our parents and made sure they knew we were good and having fun. I thought that this was hilarious though, it's like sending telegrams.

We went back to the room to drop things off. We ran into our nice house keeper, who's name I didn't catch but was very kind. I asked about the towel monkey but he seemed a little confused about what I was talking about. But he said if we needed anything to let him know and he congratulated us. My door sign worked.

And it worked better then I expected because they decorated our room!! They put up a sign and made us swans! I was so thrilled.

After we took pictures I made a sign for our swans to "no disturb the wildlife" because I don't want them to take them away but also we don't have anywhere to put them. Hopefully the signed works.

Wait James just moved them on top of the TV. Including the sign. This is great I can see them better now.

We would spend some time after that in the observation lounge. We got a couch and cuddled and listened to music. Eventually James got a book and I got my tablet. And it was just chill. We were both almost falling asleep though. So we leaned into that and mid-afternoon we went back to the room for a nap.

And it was a good nap. We have the bridge cam going on the TV. Which is fun to watch. And I slept.

James woke me up around 430. And we got cleaned up. My hair was absolutely driving me crazy. My head was itchy. But we were dressing up for dinner so I just put it up and promised myself to wash it later.

We went to the cardroom/library to play a game. We tried to play backgammon but I didn't understand it so we switched to checkers. James beat me badly, I am much better at chess.

Right before we finished that game another 30something year old couple invited us to play a game they had brought with them. And they were awesome.

The game was fun, I won 3 rounds. Their names were Ester and Tom and they are engineers and teachers. I loved talking to them. And we ended up hanging out for them for almost 2 hours? It was a blast. And they told us about their other trips and how their world works, engineering is such a foreign concept to me. But it was fun! And they listened to me talk about art and museums and we talked about third spaces and life. It was great. I love making friends.

We had to say goodbye though because we had our dinner reservations. And so we said goodbye, and until next time, and then we were off.

And dinner was fun. I honestly prefer the buffet but it was fun still. I got ziti and a salad, James got spring rolls and pork. We didn't get desert because I was feeling a little anxious because there was an unknown $80 charged to my room card. Thankfully after dinner we went to guest services and it was just the tips. I thought that was going to be one charge at the end but doing it daily is fine. I was just very concerned I messed something up. And you know how I get if that happens.

I did love dinner with James though. I love watching the water. I love people watching. I was really happy.

We went to the newlywed game next. We did not get chosen because a couple who got married last week had been married a shorter time, but we played from the audience and the couples who did get chosen were hilarious. I was having big big laughs. One couple are both pastors and another are farmers, one couple had been married for 62 years and the husband could barely hear but didn't look a day over 60 so it was super impressive how spry he was regardless. Very handsome. It was a blast though but I was getting tired. So I let James know. And we went upstairs to see if dessert was still available but no luck. We just got the cones from ice cream to munch and went back to our rooms.

I washed my hair. And James stretched. And now we are just resting and winding down for sleep.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Jeuno in the afternoon. I'm not sure what we are planning, but I think we are going to a musuem. I'm looking forward to a good day and a new place and more pictures and memories.

I hope you are all great. I love you all! Goodnight!!

[chainsawworld]

Big Lad and the Clowns

[inverts]

Sam watched Tiger & Bunny 2 and HAS GOT SOME THOUGHTS

so! the latter half of Tiger & Bunny 2 released yesterday, so of course I spent every free moment i could watching it instantly. i’m going to put my thoughts behind a cut, but i am at least going to preface it with: i had a really fun time with this season! if you’re worried about watching it b/c you think it might not be good b/c many times, let’s be real, sequels suck, i want to say that it was enjoyable and i think really maintains the spirit of the first show.

there are, of course, more specific positives and negatives of this season, but that’s SPOILERS CITY so you gotta click the read more for that shit.

these are all my initial takes--i may come back feeling differently after rewatches, or discussion with other ppl who’ve watched! i would LOVE some discussion but just please use cuts to spare ppl from seeing spoilers, this shit came out like less than 48 hours ago and not everyone is as feral as i am for it.

SO i think this season, far more than season 1, was an ensemble piece. this is neither bad NOR without precedence--the movie The Rising, for example, is basically Tiger & Bunny & Fire Emblem, almost even more than it’s Tiger & Bunny & Ryan, lmfao. and the first half of season 1 had a lot of focus episodes to give many of the heroes a chance to shine on their own--even a couple eps of the second half of s1 did this as well. so it’s certainly fitting for the second season to also give the secondary characters a lot of chances to shine.

the negative of this, i think, is simply that our titular characters have less _time_ to shine. that’s ok--in some ways they don’t need it. they’ve got a balanced relationship, they understand each other. they still are flawed individuals and they still trip each other up, but their bond is truly unshakeable and there are several times where this gets a nice spotlight.

however, i’m not going to lie--i think the biggest downside of kotetsu and barnaby being benched so much is that the ending feels flat. i almost wanted to give it another episode to really dig into kotetsu and barnaby’s feelings. they’re really the two whose arcs somehow _don’t_ feel resolved at the end. is this because sunrise is angling for a THIRD season? it would honestly make more sense with the lack of emotional closure we get with kotetsu and barnaby in the final episode. as an act 2 out of 3, it feels sensible. as a finale, it feels... anticlimactic.

the positive, however, is that a lot of other characters give us SO much good development. i took particular joy in everything with blue rose and ryan. Karina’s character development made me scream, squeal, and cheer. Her growth and maturity is phenomenal. She’s still the young woman in love with Kotetsu, but she’s aware of herself, she understands her emotions and desires, and it’s EXACTLY the development of a natural crush on an older, unattainable figure that many young people go through. She really comes into her own and i LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! also, Ryan’s steady descent into falling completely head over heels for her is so fucking good. the balance between these two! the dynamic! THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD, SUNRISE!

likewise, origami and rock bison, sky high and fire emblem... seeing their relationships grow, struggle, and become stronger was a delight every time. Dragon Kid and Magical Cat were also personal favourites of mine. I could write about every beat of their story I loved, but I’d just be summarizing every beat of their story. They’re really good!

Sadly I didn’t really care much for He Is Thomas or Mr. Black... I don’t even remember their civilian names. I can see why Sunrise decided to add them, but truthfully, I wish that some parts of the story had been pared down and they’d been cut in order to give Kotetsu and Barnaby more time. But I can also see how that would have had quite a ripple effect on other parts of the story... still, I think they were sadly the weakest part of season 2.

And another character who really got a big spotlight that many fans of season 1 were surely hoping to see....... LUNATIC MY GUY

I’m gonna talk about my negative impressions of Lunatic’s arc and then work my way into my positive impressions. The biggest negative is that the moment he hallucinated that resolution with his father, I knew the story was going to kill him off. Rather than put in the effort of him attempting to atone for his various murders, or deal with guilt or shame at the fact that perhaps he DIDN’T handle things in the best way, I knew the show was going to simply ... not get into that any further. I was sad to be proven right. It’s true that the Next who possesses him says that his body is fuckin done for right when she abandons ship, so it’s possible that he might have died even if he hadn’t tossed himself off a million foot high overpass. But the story still wrote him choosing suicide rather than face his actions. Is it consistent with his character? In many ways, yes. It can’t be understated how he’s still grieving for his mother--more on that in a bit. Also, he now sees himself as an unjust murderer, and must deal with himself accordingly. But it also feels contradictory to the ways in which he’s learning and changing--the fact that he sees his actions as unjust, but is now going to continue those actions against himself.... Of course, emotions often contradict logic, so I guess this is fair as well. In the end, this is simply a trope I hate--the “villain” experiences regret, or determines that they were wrong after all, and then dies.

another place where i feel that the character actions and story direction are giving mixed messages is when Yuri confronts kotetsu with the knowledge that kotetsu’s hero Mr Legend beat his wife and child behind closed doors. kotetsu at least has the wherewithal to realize that what he’s said to yuri at the end there was fucked up and uncalled for. however kotetsu says ‘because it would piss him off,’ essentially. but kotetsu he’s pissed off b/c u literally said “rip to ur dad but i’m different” LIKE WHAT THE FUCK MAN. “i’m sure ur dad wouldn’t have beat ur wife if he’d just had a friend like i do” KOTETSU STOP. PLEASE STOP.

--but on the other hand, like, it’s true that having any kind of support network could have helped legend. kotetsu’s depression when he started to lose his powers in season 1 is largely helped b/c he has people around him who care and who know it sometimes happens to ppl, that kotetsu isn’t the first person it’s happened to, and also kotetsu isn’t the single great hero that everyone is looking up to. there are others to share the burden. additionally, ur wife should not be ur therapist--i’m sure yuri’s mom tried to support legend when things were going down, but it was 1) not her job to shoulder ALL his baggage and 2) she’s not like a trained therapist? frankly all the portrayals of yuri’s family when yuri is a child feel like toxic nuclear 1950s family dynamics, wholesome on screen, vile behind closed doors. if this is a purposeful critique--and it may well be--then it’s frankly muddied by kotetsu’s hero worship. i also think that considering the ham fisted nature of some of the other storytelling in this show, it would be okay to hammer messages like this a little harder, too. it’s ok to say legend was a victim of circumstance but it’s not ok to say it in a way that absolves him of responsibility for abusing his family, if that makes sense.

i don’t think yuri hallucinating a resolution from his dad muddies the message or story in any way--tho unfortunately it’s set up as prompted by Kotetsu’s shitty words. but of COURSE yuri wants approval from his dad. i’m not going to get too deep into this but it’s entirely consistent and makes a lot of sense to me that he’d crave that kind of validation, acknowledgement, and forgiveness--ESPECIALLY because he can’t get it from his mother.

Speaking of! the portrayal of his and his mother’s relationship really hit me. It’s clear across both seasons that he wants to protect his mom--he’s always wanted to protect her--but he also winds up hurting her when he does this. He is angered by her delusions and her selective memory of their mutual abuser. Hiring a caretaker for her--specifically one that the show demonstrates is an actual kind, gentle person who is good at their job--is a good solution. It gives Yuri the distance so he can allow her to have her delusions (which IIRC is really the best way to deal with someone who has dementia anyway, rather than arguing with their perceptions) as well as knowing she’s as safe and cared for as she can be.... at least until she’s not.

I find this family dynamic to be portrayed really well, at least in my experience. There are sometimes families who hurt each other despite their best intentions, and constantly return to each other for more of the same. It’s rather understated, but Yuri’s decision to hire a caretaker and allow his mother her delusions breaks that cycle and allows a fragile peace. It’s clear he’s still not wholly content with it--perhaps what he really wants is for his mother to hate his father as he does--to validate and justify how Yuri accidentally killed Legend. It’s clear it still hurts him, but he’s choosing to take that hurt to allow his mom peace in her final years. And how he grieves in the kitchen that he hasn’t yet been able to clean up after her murder--fuck, man, everything about this just personally hit me really hard. I still don’t like how it all ended but I’m really, really glad that Lunatic got this spotlight, and personally I found it to be really well handled. YMMV i guess but that’s my initial take.

hey that was a lot about lunatic. let’s talk about some other characters, lol

KAEDE! i loved kaede and kotetsu’s relationship, especially in the first half of the series. they’re getting closer although she is still not letting him off the hook for a lot of the shit he did when she was younger--and honestly GOOD FOR HER, he deserves to be held accountable more! The final episodes tho felt like a little bit of a let down with Kaede--almost like they were setting her up to take SOME action, but then ran out of time? Add “Kaede gets to do things” to the list of stuff I wish had happened instead of Mr Black and Thomas, lmao.

also let’s talk about Agnes. I was holding off commenting on this in the first half of the season, but I love that they had Agnes gain weight. I feel like her body type is one i see RARELY in anime--she’s got proportions I see regularly, every day, and I think that she’s drawn very well (barring some shots where the animators didn’t quite keep her on model, but that happens to everyone in the cast at various points). The reason I didn’t want to say anything in the first half of the season is that the narration has multiple characters comment on her weight gain, and I was afraid that the series wanted to point it out so that later there would be a reveal that she was an impostor or something, and surprise, skinny agnes would show back up. But no! This is Agnes all the time, she’s EXACTLY the same person, she’s beautiful and desirable and she gets shit done, she has feelings for Kotetsu, meanwhile Antonio has a crush on her, it’s GREAT. she just happens to have more body fat now and it changes _nothing_. (also, iirc the people who comment on her weight are Ryan, who would have been out of town and wouldn’t have noticed a gradual change, and Saito, who likewise doesn’t often interact with Agnes as he’s often in the R&D department while Agnes is in the Hero TV van, so it’s actually pretty logical for both of those characters to be like, “huh?” Having them comment on her weight may have simply been sunrise’s way of telling the viewers, no, youre not misremembering what she looked like before, but we changed it and it was on purpose, now get on with the show.)

i was also very glad that Mattia and Little Aurora 1) weren’t evil and 2) didn’t die, lol. in the case of Mattia, it’s so rare that Barnaby gets to have ppl he cares about who DON’T die or turn evil, so i was very glad mattia got to live, lmfao. with Aurora i actually at one point hypothesized that she was the head of ouroboros, but i was wrong! that was neat.

overall i feel like s2 does a good job carrying on the spirit and feelings of s1. both halves of s2 are even structured very similarly to both halves of s1, with the first half being mainly focus episodes for 8 or so eps, and then 4 or so eps of a bigger storyline that concludes foreshadowing put down in the first 8. and then the second half becomes one very big storyarc. around ep 17 or 19 i was like “this is really good, i’m having a lot of fun, but i don’t know if anything can really compete with the emotional intensity of everyone forgetting about kotetsu and he goes on the run from them, etc.” and then i ate those words! i think the final arc was really exciting! now, emotionally, i think i do still prefer the final arc of s1, because let’s face it, i love when kotetsu suffers a little bit. i love him. but i think in terms of raising the stakes and interest and rising action, s2 is an entirely fair entry to the series, i loved watching it, and i think i will love rewatching it with friends.

but the ending.....

the ending really feels like they want a season 3. and personally, i kind of wanted to just end things at season 2, because i don’t want to wait another eleven years for a third season. unless we get season 3 next year.... 2023 will, after all, be the year of the rabbit once more.

but that scene when all the heroes are standing together, agreeing to have dinner togehter, and then they just... part ways? and then barnaby’s like “so my leg didn’t fall off so i’m going to keep being a hero” like SIR you still don’t know what’s WRONG WITH IT!!!! that fistbump between kotetsu and barnaby just feels so, so lackluster after everything! so lukewarm!

“sam did you just want them to kiss”

I don’t think that’s it? i mean not gonna lie, i would have LOVED it--the show has multiple canon queer characters, like of course there’s Fire Emblem who basically got a whole movie to flaunt being the best okama ever, but there was also the one lesbian NEXT who was sad that her hot butch girlfriend had dumped her, and then Ruby has two dads if I parsed that correctly, and then there’s Pao-Lin and Lara--

but no i don’t think that’s it. it’s just. these two are so important to each other, whether it’s romantic or not. and their partnership is ending. and that’s just. that’s that? that’s it? no scene of bunny out there heroing on his own while kotetsu and kaede fondly watch? they even set the stage for bunny to take over the wild tiger mantle and then did NOTHING with it. (though props to one friend for being like “hell yeah barnaby was inside tiger” fuck yes)

(ALSO FUCK YES KOTETSU GOT TO PRINCESS CARRY BUNNY FOR LIKE 5 SECONDS??? and their relationship is so solid that neither of them even comment on it???? I LOVE THEM)

so while there’s that last little clip with the image of tiger and barnaby in the hero museum, emotionally it just feels like the real ending was chopped off. like the studio is holding something back. and certainly there’s more of ouroboros we could explore. but where do we even go from here? kotetsu has NO MORE POWERS (which, btw, ballsy move on sunrise’s part, i’m genuinely impressed, but i’m also scared of what they’ll do in s3 because a lot of anime haaate actually committing to taking powers away from their characters and will then bend over backwards to return their powers or equivalent to them. please do NOT let mattia develop a drug that gives kotetsu his power back, do NOT, i don’t want that. make kotetsu deal with his body taking its course dammit!)

so like, idk. i really enjoyed this second season a lot, and while i don’t think they fucked up the ending, i don’t think i can confidently say they stuck it, either. :(

but that’s only if this is meant to be the conclusion to the series. if they _are_ gunning for a third season....

well i hope they fuckin get it then and i hope they do a damn good job and i hope kotetsu and barnaby fuckin KISS! FUCK!

[bluedesignwall]

It is my birthday on Tuesday so I have taken a couple of days off work and gifted them to myself to do what ever I like. We had cake and I have been showered with gifts and had a lovely birthday dinner cooked just for me. Today turned out to be a stunning day so some time was spent sitting in the sun on the deck with a lovely cup of lemon, ginger and manuka honey tea. It was a good book and I did linger there for quite some time. I did do laundry and tidied up the kitchen before retreating to my sewing room. I bought an overlocker ages ago off TradeMe. I spent some time today figuring out how to thread it up. The tension is not right so I will have to do more reading and twiddling of tension dials but it runs beautifully. I also wanted to make a pretty origami crane, just to make sure the one I made the other day wasn't a fluke. I hung it from the curtain rail in my sewing room. The paper I used was a bit thick. I might have to go paper shopping. I also made some cloth bags to attach to our laundry hampers to put our used masks in. I wash them in super hot water with Sunlight soap so the wee bags stop them getting lost in the mountains of laundry we seem to make. I also spent some time in the garden pottering and I gave my indoor plants some TLC. It has been a busy day, I have packed a lot in. The temperature has dropped and it is raining now. I should be in the tiny gym but I think I will give it a miss and keep tiding the sewing room instead and maybe foam roller later, I am still a bit sore from yesterdays run. Must be getting old!

[slythraco]

Hateful - D.M - Part 3

Summary:  Draco Malfoy falling for a Gryffindor, sounds mental right ? If only you knew.

Warnings: Swears

Words count: 3,1K

Masterlist

Tag list:  @fictionalhoomanofnowhere @lauren-100​

____________________________________________________________

"Wake up Y/N !" You're waking up by Hermione's voice. You suddenly jump on your bed, making your friend take a step back. You take a few seconds to open your eyes and once it's done you feel a horrible pain in your head. "Ouch !" You complain as you put your hand on your forehead. "Are you okay ?" Your friend asked, worried. "My head hurts...so bad." Hermione sigh and grab her bag to search for a potion she made to beat the headache. "Here, take this." She hands you the little vial, you take it between your fingers, and you drink the liquid. The pain suddenly disappear. "Thank you 'Mione !" You shouted before getting up. "You're welcome, now hurry up, or you'll be late for potion class !" No need to tell you twice, you gasp in panic and run to your bathroom to get changed and put on your uniform. You arrange your hair and make your face look less like a corpse and finally make your way with Hermione to the classroom.

You enter the classroom and quickly realize the professor is not there yet. You scan the room with your eyes and spot an empty place beside your friend, Harry. You walk to join him and sit next to him, the chosen one smiles at you as soon as you reach him. "Hey ! You survived last night from what I see." He teases, you tilt your head, confused. "What do you mean ?" You asked. "You don't remember ?" Potter frowns so do you. "No...what happened ?" You hear your other two friends sitting behind you, Hermione and Ronald immediately listen to your conversation. "The twins gave everyone a weird potion." Harry explained. "And...?" You ask for more explanation, but you're already scared of the answer. "Oh you were on another planet Y/N ! I've never seen you like that !" Ronald explain and start laughing but quickly stop when he sees nobody's laughing with him. Your eyes widen, you start to freak out, what happened at that party ? You didn't remember anything, and you can't help but be scared of what version of yourself you became. "What did I do exactly ?" You asked, still scared of the answer. "Um...Y/N ? Can I talk to you for a second ?" The second girl of the group proposes. You nod and Hermione gets up from her chair to go in the corner of the room, where nobody can hear you.

"Listen, yesterday at some point you disappear from the party..." You cut her before she even had the time to finish. "What ? Where was I ?" You shouted. "Let me talk !" She shouted and you let her speak. "The last time I saw you, you were going up the stairs...with." You tilt your head, waiting for her to give you a name. "With whom ?" You asked. "Malfoy." You stay shook for a second. You imagine the worst, a new question popped in your head. Did you sleep with Draco ? You take a step back and look at the floor, trying to remember what happened in your room but nothing came back. "That's not possible !" You shouted as you replace your gaze on your friend. "Y/N...You weren't in your normal state, and me both Malfoy is evil enough to take advantage of that. You should talk about that to Dumbledore !" Your friend, proposed. You were about to respond but your eyes wander to the entrance, like you felt him coming, Draco appears in it, making your heart skip a beat. Your gaze immediately meet his, and the Slytherin instantly understand that something's wrong. He frowns when he looks at you before sitting at his desk. He turns his head a few times to look at you, you look worried and scared when you saw him, and he hated to see you look at him like that.

"We'll go to his office after this lesson." Hermione says before heading back to her seat, but you quickly stop her. "No ! I-I'll figure this out, I'll talk to Draco. We can't tell him without having proofs right ?" She was about to answer but the arrival of professor Snape stops her. She sighs and go back to her seat, followed by you.

•••

You were writing on your sheet what the professor was explaining to your class when you get distracted by a flying origami that falls directly on your desk. You look around you and you frown when you catch Draco's gaze, he shows the piece of paper by a head movement. You sigh and open it. "Meet me here tonight., for our course." You re-lay your eyes on him, and nod as a response. You think about for a second, it might not be a good idea, knowing you probably slept with him the night before. But it could be false too, so you needed to figure it out.

•••

"Are you sure this is a good idea ?" Hermione asked you while you were about to leave to rejoin Draco in the potion classroom for the second time of the day. "Yes, I don't want more problems Malfoy by falsely accusing him of a rape." You explain, grabbing your bag. Hermione doesn't seem reassured at all by it. "Listen, Malfoy is probably the biggest idiot we'll ever meet in our lives. But, I don't think he's so bad that he did something so horrible." You added, which makes her roll her eyes. "How could you know ?" Because you spent all your nights studying with him for the past week, and the Draco you discovered is not the Draco you knew for the past 5 years. He was indeed, completely different. He showed you some patience and kindness, something you never saw in him before. So you can't help but have a shade of hope about him. Obviously you couldn't just tell her that you spent this much time with him, you would've gone mad. "I just feel it 'Mione." Is the only excuse you can give her. "I should come with you." She shouted as she leans to grab her bag, you sigh and take her wrist between your fingers before she can reach it. "No, don't worry Hermione ! I'll be fine." Knowing she'll find something to say again. You don't let her the time to do so and quickly get out of your dorm.

After passing a few corridors, you finally arrive in the potion class. As you enter, you already meet Draco, who was already waiting for you. "Welcome Miss Y/L/N." You giggle as you walk toward him, he was sitting at the professor desk, feet on the table. "You can call me Professor Malfoy !" You frown. "Alright, Professor Malfoy, why do we have our course here today ?" You're playing his game as you slowly walk towards Snape's desk. "Well, I convinced the teacher to lend us his class, so we could practice making potions." Your eyes widen, it seems like a big joke, but then you remembered that Snape likes the Slytherin more than the other students from other houses. And on top of that, Draco is his favourite one, but still, it's surprising. The blondie finally gets up and walk across the room to reach the cauldron, ready to begin. You look at him while he makes his way, until you join him. He already prepared all the ingredients for the potion you were going to make. "What are we making today ?" You asked, as you look at the table. "Your best-friend, Amortentia." The Slytherin answered and you instantly sigh heavily. Amortentia is the potion you struggle the most this week, Draco was about to torture you by choosing this one. "Noooooo ! Please ! I never understood this one !" You complained. "Yes, it's the point Y/N, you need to practice !"

"But what if I set the castle on fire !" He rolls his eyes at your response. "Oh please, don't worry ! I'll be here to help !" He reassures you as he grabs his book potion and open it on the amortentia recipe. "Ready ?" He asked like your answer could change the outcome. "No" You dryly responded. "Awesome ! Let's go !" He cheers, completely ignoring you which makes you laugh a little.

•••

As you pour carefully the right amount of pearl dust in the cauldron, you feel the need to finally ask the question to Draco. Since you got here, he hasn't seemed weird or uncomfortable as he probably should after sleeping with you. His hasn't changed at all since your last lesson together. All the signs were telling that nothing happened, but you wanted to  settle this  once and for all. "Draco ?" You mumbled, feeling your heart beating faster when he turns his eyes on you. "Y/N ?" He asked back, waiting for you to continue. "About last night..." You started, the blondie already frown when en think about it again. He found a way to erase it from his head, but you had to talk about that night. "Yes ?" He says to push into explain yourself. "Did we...? Slept together ?" Draco's reaction says it all, his eyes widen and his pale cheeks seems to become a bit more red. "What ? You don't remember ?" He tilts his head, and his remark don't help you to understand what happened at this party. "No, that's why I'm asking you. Hermione told me she saw us going in my room..." The Slytherin prince sigh and rolls his eyes. Of course, it had to be that mudblood to make you believe such a thing. "No we didn't, you took that strange potion that made you crazy. You asked me to stay but I refused. You really though I could do something like that ?" He asked, disappointed to say the least, which break your heart for a second. "No, that's why I'm here. If I'd listened to her, i would be in Dumbledore's office right now. But I knew you're not that bad of a guy."

You could see if jaw clenching for a second. "How could you know ?" He asked, genuinely curious. You stay silent for a moment, searching the right word to answer this question. "Because the Malfoy i spent the past week with is not the same Malfoy surrounded by his friends that likes to bully everyone."

"What do you mean ?" He asked again. "Don't make me give you a statement." You say in a fake annoyed way, it makes him escape a giggle. "Come on, we have a potion to finish !" You shouted as you grab the next ingredient. Now ready to finally concentrate on the recipe.

•••

You open the little jar containing the rose thorns, you carefully take some between your fingers but one directly get her place into your thumb making you jump and overthrow the jar everywhere in the table as you let out a cry of pain. Draco jumps at your scream and turns to you. "Are you okay ?" He asks worried while you suck up the blood coming out of your finger. He gasps when he sees the mess you created. "I really can't let you alone for 2 seconds..." He complains as he starts to clean up. He put most of the rose thorns inside the jar they were supposed to be in, but he jumps when one of them stings the young man. "I really can't let you alone for 2 seconds." You tease when you see the scene. You can't help but laugh when you see his deadly eyes on you. "Shut up." He threat, jaw clenched, sexier than never. You bite your lip as you make a step towards him. "Haven't you understand yet ? I'm not going to until you make me." You say in a provocative way. Draco kept himself from kissing you right now to make you shut your pretty mouth. All he does is walking slowly towards you. You don't make a move, waiting for him to reach you. "You really want me to ?" He asked, like you had a choice.

"Maybe ?" You looked directly into his eyes, even if you knew the power they could hold on anyone. But destabilized when you realize his eyes are not looking at yours at all, like that day in the hallway, they're looking at your lips. This time you can't help but smile slightly before sliding your tongue on them on purpose to make him crazy. Without realizing it, you two were getting close and closer so that at one moment your lips are only a few millimetres away from each other. And just when they were about to touch, Draco pull quickly away, a devilish smirk on his face. "You wish Y/L/N." He spits before turning around to face the almost done potion. Leaving you panting behind him before you join him to finally finish it like nothing happened. At that exact moment, you realize you wanted to kiss him. You wanted to feel your lips against his into a rabid kiss. You felt your cheek become just at this idea while Draco didn't let anything appear on his face.

With time, he became the master of hiding his feelings because he wanted to kiss you so much too, he just didn't have the courage without being sure of your feelings for him. You could just be teasing. And getting a reject would be the death of him.

•••

"I think it's done !" Draco shouted. "Did I succeed ?" You ask, impatient. "Well, the only way to know it is by smelling it, women first." He explains before inviting you to do so, you roll your eyes and lean to smell the potion. You take a few 'Sniff' and you frown slightly, smelling something, but it needs a few seconds for your brain to actually understand what's going on. Mint, expensive cologne and green apples...it could only be him. You were smelling the exact same thing you were smelling when Draco was close enough to you. Your eyes widen at this revelation, out of everyone you had to smell someone who was still your biggest enemy last week. "So, what are you smelling ?" The Slytherin asked, way to curious of your answer. You didn't have the courage to tell him, how would he react ? It was just the beginning of a good relationship, revealing this could break everything. So you lied. "Um...I believe it's...parchment paper, vanilla and...quidditch equipment." Harry's scent, it's what seems the most credible to you. Draco, who was leaned above your shoulder take a sudden step back. "And you ?" You ask as you turn around to look at him. "Nothing." He lies, but how could he tell you what he smelled with the answered you gave him a second ago. "Isn't that impossible ?" You frown slightly, the Slytherin express a fake giggle as he starts to take his stuff. "Well, you should know I don't love anybody, everything is hateful to me." He spits in his beard, resulting in you frowning even more. His clenched said it all. Was he mad for not smelling anything ?

"Anyway, bye Y/L/N." He mumbles before disappearing in the hallway. Leaving you, confused of this reaction and a mountain of ingredients to clean up if you don't want to get killed by your professor.

•••

The next day, you reach the library to join Draco for your usual lesson after school. But after an hour of waiting, you understand that he will not show up today. Which could've been understandable if he gave you some explanation the next day. But nothing, you tried to send him a piece on paper during a mutual lesson, but he didn't even open it.

And two weeks later, it was still the same, he never showed up again  to your lessons and when you tried to reach out to him, he was completely ignoring you. It broke your heart, everything build up just disappeared in seconds, without no explanation. You had a potion test this morning, you didn't really have high hopes for the results, this whole situation kept you from studying lately.

Draco's attitude was really getting on your nerves so one day, you decided to follow him, and catch him when he'll be finally alone, free of his minions that he had as friends. And your moment came, one night after the dinner in the Great Hall, you followed him until he reached to the astronomy tower. A place he loved to go to watch the sky. "Draco ?" You say in almost a murmur. The Slytherin jumps and turn around, he frowns when he sees you. You were the last person he expected to be here. "What do you want ?" He asked dryly. "I want to understand why you're avoiding me so much lately." He rolls his eyes, and he turns around again to lean on the rail behind him. "I'm not avoiding you." He simply said, to convinced himself. "Yes you are Draco ! Every time I'm trying to get to you, I get no response !" You exclaim, slowly walking toward him. "What ? I gave your lessons that's it. What did you expect ?" He turns slightly to the side to look at you by the corner of his eye. "I-I don't know...he just though we wouldn't just come back to where we started before having these lessons. I thought we could be friends." Malfoy let out a fake giggle as he faces you again, the devilish smirk you knew too well as his face. "Oh please. You really though I cared about you ? Let me tell you the truth." He takes a step toward you, his clenched jaw didn't announce anything good. "I don't give a shit about you Y/L/N, just because I was nice to you for a week, doesn't mean I would be your friend. I hate you, like I always did for the past 5 years, and it's not going to change any time soon. Now, if you could get off my back, it'll be really nice of you." He spits before quickly leaving the tower, jostling you on the way. Leaving you in a state of shock, 50 meters above the ground. Draco was clear, all his kindness was just for the lesson, he crushed your hope of friendship, and it somehow broke your heart even more.

•••

[toonjazzy]

Mother Figure

A little something for Día de las madres. ^^

Olivia sat glumly on her bed, she felt sadness even though she’s a usually happy person. The day before was Mother’s Day, not everyone can celebrate it though. She didn’t even have a mom, it made her feel sad.

“What’s wrong Olivia, why so gloomy??” Stacey asked her after breakfast. “It’s nothing Stacey.” Now Stacey wasn’t gonna take that as an answer, everybody knew they should be concerned if Olivia was extremely unhappy. “Olivia, I know something is upsetting you.” Stacey said sternly. “It’s just that Mother’s Day was yesterday and I don’t even have a mom.” Stacey knew how she felt, she lost her mom when she was about 9 or 10. “I know, Olivia. I don’t have a mom but I do have Reese.” Reese was like a mother figure to all of them, she became motherly after their mom died. “It’s true, you can celebrate Día de las Madres with us, it’s always on May 10th.” The girls turned to see Devon. “You can make something for her, Stacey and I usually make her a card, and Sicillia’s making her those lil cut outs.” Olivia got an idea “I’ll make her a paper crane!!” Ever since she learned how to fold a paper crane, Olivia wanted an excuse to make one.

It appeared that everyone was giving Reese something. Jean drew a picture of her, Devon and Stacey gave her a card, Sicillia of course made lil cut outs, Olly gave her an origami star, and Olivia gave her an origami crane. “Really, you guys didn’t have to give me anything, it’s not even my birthday yet. But it is Tyler’s birthday tomorrow, you better give him some nice gifts!!” Reese was a little modest. Devon laid on Reese’s lap, this time it was cause she wanted to. “But you’re like our mother figure, we don’t have a mom, but we do have you.” Reese began to tear up at Devon’s words.

“Ya see?? I told ya you’re a great mother.”, Said Tyler as they were watching TV. Reese smiled, she always wanted kids, she does a good job taking care of her sisters and her cousins. It’s true, she would be a great mother. “Yeah, you were right. I bet you would be a great father.” Reese said tiredly. Tyler was about to say something but Reese was already asleep, it was pretty late. He kissed her forehead “Sleep well mon amour.”

[wonwuism]

Chapter 2.

Saturday | Pledis Flowers | 12:00 am

Wonwoo wished he could stop checking the time every five seconds. He’d been anxious since he started his shift that morning and nothing seemed to be able to calm him down. Joshua had, of course, noticed that Wonwoo was on edge today the second he walked in.

“You look like you spent an hour longer in front of the mirror this morning. Did you actually put on make-up today? You really good, though, I’m not gonna lie. Like, really good.” After realizing the obvious embarrassment he was putting Wonwoo through, he’d stopped making remarks, but Wonwoo could see the smirk every time Joshua caught him glance at himself in the shiny surface of the coffee machine.

Saturdays usually weren’t quiet days at all, but for some reason no one seemed to want to buy any flowers today. Wonwoo was actually glad. His nerves were going through the roof and he was pretty sure that he would mess up any bouquet that needed to be made. On the other hand, he didn’t have a single thing to put his mind to right now, so every thought in his head was currently going over the thousands of possible scenarios that could play out later. Each one with a worse outcome than the last, with Wonwoo making a terrible fool out of himself.

As he was shaking his head to rid himself of the dark thoughts clouding his mind, he heard the bell to the shop ring and felt a breeze come in from the opening door. He turned his head towards the sound and felt his heart stop for a second. Mingyu was standing in the doorway with a camera in his hands and the hairs on his head dancing a little in the wind. He happily raised his hand to greet Wonwoo, who waved back with a shy smile. As Mingyu stepped inside, another man was revealed. Wonwoo had to blink a few times to make sure he was actually seeing him, and it wasn’t an angel he was looking at.

The boy from the picture seemed to glow in the light from outside. He had hair that was almost white and was wearing a pearly white shirt to match. All he was missing was a pair of wings if you asked Wonwoo. He felt incredibly insecure, looking at these two beautiful men. It made him hyperaware of the old polo shirt he had to put on for work and the slight bronze eyeshadow he’d dusted on his lids this morning. Before he could run away though, Mingyu and his companion were already walking his way. The thought of literally hiding behind Joshua went through his mind, but upon looking at his colleague, he closed his eyes in disappointment for a second. It seemed like Joshua wasn’t going to pay Wonwoo any attention today.

Joshua’s eyes were fixed on the angel next to Mingyu. Of course they were, Wonwoo thought to himself. The boy was exactly Joshua’s type, from his clothing to his sharp facial features. His long lashes and shiny lips. His slender figure and wavy locks that fell in front of his eyes, that he pushed back in style with long, thin fingers.

Joshua pushed past Wonwoo and reached his hand out to the stranger. “Hi, I’m Joshua, welcome to Pledis Flowers!” The man didn’t seem overwhelmed by Joshua’s spontaneity at all, which to Wonwoo was a strange concept. His face, which had seemed a little nervous before, broke. The corners of his mouth turned up into an attractive, comfortable smile, and he put his hand in Joshua’s. “Hi, Jeonghan. Are you the one that helped Mingyu pick the flowers yesterday? He was right, you are indeed very handsome.”

Wonwoos eyes went wide and he looked over at Mingyu to see him turn a fantastic shade of red. Mingyu opened his mouth but all that came out was a little strangled noise from the back of his throat as he looked at Wonwoo in a slight panic. Joshua threw his head back and laughed loudly, breaking the uncomfortable mood that hung between them.

“No, actually, that would be our boy Wonwoo over there.” He turned to point at him, and Wonwoo wanted to disappear in a hole in the ground.

Jeonghan looked over at Wonwoo and gave him a small wave with his left hand, since the other one was still holding on to Joshua for some reason. “Nice to meet you!” Wonwoo gave him the smallest “hi” ever known to mankind and went back to his new hobby staring at Mingyu while Mingyu stares at the ground.

Jeonghan and Joshua finally let go of each other and Jeonghan clapped Mingyu on his back, causing him to look up again. “Ah, Mingyu, don’t be shy. I bet he knows he’s goodlooking and hears it all the time! It’s not like you meant anything by it.” It was quiet for a few seconds before they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Seungcheol looked down at the four quiet men and chuckled to himself. “Well, is anyone going to offer these boys a cup of coffee or do I have to do everything myself?”

//

It had been a pretty nice few hours. They’d put on some music and Joshua had spent the entire time watching Jeonghan pose, asking the boy a million questions about himself, cracking a few jokes in the process so Jeonghan could genuinely laugh in some of the photos.

Seungcheol had spent most of his time in the shop helping the customers that came in and Wonwoo was mostly walking around aimlessly, trying to keep himself busy with watering and feeding plants and flowers, placing some orders and definitely avoiding the tall man in the back of the building. It was hard though, with Jeonghan’s words circling through his mind every ten seconds. ‘He was right, you are indeed very handsome.’ Followed by ‘It’s not like you meant anything by it.’

To make things worse, the few times he’d glanced over at Mingyu he always seemed to be looking back at him, making Wonwoos heart skip a beat and make him turn his head away embarrassed. To avoid himself having an actual panic attack like he did the day before, Wonwoo decided to hide out on the first floor of the building for now.

//

Seungcheol carefully gave the camera back to the photographer. “The pictures look amazing, Mingyu. You’re incredibly talented.” Somewhere halfway through the day they’d all switched from talking English to Korean and the atmosphere had turned to a comfortable one.

Mingyu gave him the brightest smile. “Would you like me to send you the finished shots after I’m done editing them? Jeonghan and I plan to use them for our portfolios, so I wouldn’t mind if you posted them on your website or even printed them for here in the shop, with the right credits of course.”

Seungcheol nodded. “You should ask Wonwoo about that, though. He’s the one who manages all the social media stuff. I never know how that works and Joshua doesn’t really care for it. Where is he by the way?” The last part of the question was directed at Joshua, who was in the middle of tucking one of Jeonghans pretty locks behind his ear. “Josh!”

“Hmm? Wonwoo?” Joshua turned his head to his boss. “I think I saw him head upstairs before. A while ago, though, so it should be fine to go up now.” Mingyu glanced over at Seungcheol with a questioning look on his face, and when he got a nod in return, he headed up the stairs.

Wonwoo was sitting with his back against the wall. His eyes were staring at the ceiling and his mind was a million miles away. As a game design major, he liked to sit around in silence thinking about new ideas for concepts or characters. Right now, he was designing a new protagonist from scratch. Not everyone could do it, design something in their mind like that and see it in front of them, but Wonwoo had done it since he was a kid, and he could get incredibly lost in it.

He didn’t notice anyone walk up the stairs until he heard the snapping sound of a picture being taken. The image in front of his eyes tumbled down into a heap of loose parts and he blinked a few times to get out of his mindset. He locked eyes with the camera that was still blocking Mingyu’s face. As he lowered it, Mingyu gave him a comforting smile.

“Is it alright if I join you for a bit?” He didn’t move until Wonwoo nodded and moved a bit on the floor. There was enough room to sit, but it was more of a metaphor in a way. To say ‘if there wasn’t any space, I’d still be okay with it’. Mingyu sat down and there was a bit of silence between them for a minute. It was comfortable though. Everything around Mingyu felt so comfortable that Wonwoo wondered why he got so nervous every time, because as soon as he got closer it all faded every single time. It was just the way his anxiety worked.

“Do you do that a lot?” Wonwoo asked. Mingyu sat with his head against the wall, eyes trained on an origami bird that hung from the ceiling. “Do what?”

“Taking pictures of random people.” Wonwoo was still not sure in what language to talk to Mingyu, so he naturally switched around a lot, like he still did with Joshua sometimes. Mingyu chuckled.

“I take a picture when I see something I like. Something that’s pretty, or that intrigues me. Do you want me to delete it?” Wonwoo shook his head.

“No, that’s okay. I don’t think I’m that interesting, but if you want to take a picture, I’m not going to stop you.” Mingyu looked at him with confusion written on his face. “You’re so shy though. I’d expected you to ask me to delete the picture, if I’m honest.”

Wonwoo turned his head to Mingyu, but when he saw that the tall man’s eyes were still focused on him, he quickly looked the other way and shrugged. “I don’t think we should question art. I might not agree with it, but it’s still art, and I wouldn’t take it away from you if it’s something you made with thought and effort. Now stop looking at me, it makes me nervous.”

“Sorry.”

Wonwoo watched Mingyu play with the rings on his fingers for a while and then looked at his own hands. There was no decoration on his fingers, apart from some almost healed scratches he’d gotten from the thorns on some roses a few days ago. His hands seemed weird compared to Mingyu’s elegant ones. Everything about Mingyu was so much more elegant. He and Jeonghan would be a good pair, actually.

“You and Jeonghan seem to be really close, by the way you act around each other,” Wonwoo started. He immediately regretted it, though. Why would he talk about that? It was none of his business.

“He’s just my best friend, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not into guys. At least I don’t think I am.” Wonwoo nodded and surprisingly felt some of the pressure fall off his shoulders at the answer.

“What about Jeonghan, though? He and Joshua seemed more than interested in each other before.” Mingyu took the ring off his right pinky and dragged his thumb over the shiny surface as he answered. “It’s a little complicated. I don’t like to tell other people’s stories, but he only really likes people on a romantic level, if you know what I mean. So unless your friend is willing to give some things up it probably wouldn’t work.”

Wonwoo didn’t really know what to say to that. He felt dumb for asking about it now. Especially since Mingyu said he doesn’t like to talk about it without Jeonghan knowing. He looked at the ring in Mingyu’s hands and realized that Jeonghan had been wearing the same one before. It warmed his heart to know that the two boys were such good friends.

“I didn’t mean to pry, sorry. Joshua is a good guy, so we’ll see.”

“We’ll see.”

Saturday | Wonwoo’s dorm room | 09:30 pm

EDM music was blasting through Wonwoo’s headphones as he sat at his desk with a drawing tool in his hands. For the past few hours he’d been designing the protagonist to a new game and he almost couldn’t believe how fast he’d done it. For the past few months Wonwoo had been stuck in a creative block. He’d barely been able to work on the concept his final project for this year, let alone think about details like this.

As he adjusted the character’s boots a little, he could see his phone light up. Jun was calling. Of course he was. Wonwoo saved his project and closed his computer. That was enough work for today. He stood up with his phone in his hand and went to sit in the little window seat that looked out over the back entrance of the college campus. “Hey Jun.”

“Hey, why didn’t you call me after work?” Wonwoo watched the few people who were still outside walk by and do their thing. They looked small from the 4th floor, but Wonwoo liked to imagine their stories as they passed his window. “Sorry man, I forgot.” He heard a gasping sound on the other end of the line and he could see Jun’s offended face in his mind. “You forgot? Oh my god, I have a terrible best friend. How could you forget to update me on hanging out with Mingyu, I can’t believe this, Wonwoo. You better tell me everything right now.”

Wonwoo sighed. He should have known Jun was going to want to know everything. “We didn’t ‘hang out.’” He made air quotations with his free hand, even though Jun couldn’t see him. “He just took some pictures of Jeonghan and then he left. Besides, he said he’s straight, so there’s really nothing to tell.” Wonwoo could hear the disappointment in his own voice, which he found to be kind of dumb, since he didn’t even have any hope in the first place. He should’ve known Mingyu didn’t like guys. The perfect ones never do.

“Oh, ew. Is he sure, though? I mean- whatever, I guess. But, he just told you that? Out of the blue? I’m not buying it Wonwoo, you’re not telling me things and I don’t like it.”

“Okay, so apparently, he told Jeonghan I’m good looking. I don’t really know why he would say something like that to his friend if he’s straight, but for all I know he’s just like that. I don’t know what kind of person he is.” He could hear Jun open his mouth to reply. “I’m not done yet. Anyway, I was upstairs in the office for a bit, because I was feeling pretty nervous about the whole situation. Joshua was no help at all, since he was just flirting with Jeonghan all the time. And then Mingyu took my picture.”

“He took your picture?”

“Yeah. I asked him why and he said it was because he does it whenever he sees things that intrigue him and then we talked about art a little and I asked him about him and Jeonghan.” Wonwoo closed his eyes in anticipation of Jun’s reaction.

“Jeon Wonwoo! What a bold ass move. I can’t believe the balls on you right now. What did he say?”

“Well, that he didn’t think he was into guys, that’s how I know. After that I gave him my e-mail so he could send me the pictures for on our website and that’s it.”

“Hmm.”

“Jun it’s fine, it’s not like I’ll ever see him again, and I’m okay with that.” Kind of a lie, Wonwoo would have loved to hang out with Mingyu again, but he didn’t really want to admit that to Jun. Or to himself for that matter. “I have to go now, Jihoon wants to watch a movie.” Another lie, Jihoon wasn’t even home right now, because he spent the weekends at his parents’ home every once in a while. Wonwoo felt bad about lying to his best friend, but sometimes Jun could see right trough him and that was just a little too much for Wonwoo to handle right now.

“Okay, say hi for me. I love you.”

“Yeah, goodnight Jun.”

“Say it back, Won.”

“I love you.”

“Goodnight Wonwoo.”

Previous chapter. | Masterlist. | Next chapter.

[starlightsoulwriting]

L’appel du Vide

Cliff Unger x Reader

L'appel du Vide (n.) The unexplainable desire to jump when on the edge of a cliff Call of The Void AO3 Link

Porters are going missing. You and Fragile are at each other’s throats, and you’re still reeling from your incident ten months ago. And, on top of all your shit, life decides to drop a Cliff on you.

[Prologue][1][x]

Part Two

Skull masks.

Blood on your hands. blood on the floor.

Knives. So many knives, all in your stomach and chest. When had that happened? When had you let Higgs back in your shelter? Why would you do that?

Sam was dead. Cliff was dead. And Heartman and Lockne and Deadman and Fragile. All dead and you would join them soon.

Higgs laughed at you when you cried.

“Didn't your parents ever tell you not to talk to strangers?”

You startled awake.

Tears streamed down your face, and you rolled over to throw up in the trash can, shaking like a leaf. Stupid brain, you thought, stupid nightmares, stupid Higgs. You coughed past your stinging throat, trying to breathe evenly but hyperventilating instead. Your scar stung in your stomach, despite nothing being there. The memories were enough to set it off.

You kicked your sheets off of you and stumbled to your bathroom, legs shaking. You needed a shower, and badly. You pressed your hands against your eyes, massaging your face in a hollow effort to calm yourself down. You felt like your lungs were made of sea urchins.

You missed the DOOMs nightmares. At least those hadn’t been so personal, so painful.

You stood under the tap and let the scalding water run over your body, forcing all the memories from your skin. His laughing, the knife, your blood - you scrubbed yourself off as if water could wash away your dreams, your flashbacks, the lingering feeling of his knee on your chest, holding you down.

When you made it to your jaw, you wanted to scream. You opted to slap the tiles of your shower instead, so hard it hurt. The phantom feeling of his tongue clung to your skin like tar, and the soap didn’t help, no matter how hard you tried to wash it off.

Let's see how fast Sam can run. His voice intruded in your head again, a record stuck on repeat, grating in your ears and spiking your heart rate. It wouldn’t go away, you could feel his hands on your neck, the knife at your side, digging in just enough to bleed.

Hot water, cold tiles, your favorite soap. Grounding was only helping so much.

You dug your hand into your thigh, nails digging in deep and stinging. You sang some old rock song to drown out the noise. He was far away from you. You were safe. You didn’t need to worry.

You don’t know how long you stayed in the shower crying. After a while it stopped, and left you feeling detached from your body, numb. You were raw and your skin was bright red, but you weren't covered in vomit, so that was something.

You turned off the shower.

You curled up in your blankets and called Heartman. You knew he might be sleeping, but there was a chance he would be up. Your hands shook as you found his contact.

“Y/N? Is everything alright?” He asked after the second ring, voice rough and tired. A wave of relief went through you. Heartman’s voice could drown out his.

“No, Heartman, I’m not okay.” You breathe, pulling the blankets over your head and burrowing in. It was dark except the soft blue glow of your comm. “I can still hear him. He’s on the other side of the continent and still won’t leave me alone.”

“What do you need? Should I put on my music?”

“Sure,” You needed to keep him on the phone, you could focus on him instead of your nightmares. “I’d like that.”

Neo-Classical music played over your speaker as he shared it with you. You closed your eyes, listening to the soft piano. This wasn’t the first time the two of you shared a late-night call.

“I can still feel it, sometimes,” You started again, just over a whisper, restless. “The knife.” You gulp, trying and failing to shove away your thoughts. “I’ve been doing everything Julia said would help but it’s not going away and I’m still so afraid, all the time,” You stopped talking when your eyes welled up, shutting your eyes harder as if that would stop the tears.

“I’m sorry,” He said simply, voice heavy. “I wish there was something more I could do to help. Do you want me to come over for a few days and keep you company? Or would that just make it worse?”

“I already have a visitor, but... Maybe after that.”

“You took in a guest?” He sounded surprised, but why wouldn’t he? You only let him and Sam in. Not even Lockne or Deadman, no. Or friends you’d known in your old shelter. You didn’t run your clinic or tours anymore, either. Too many strangers. Too dangerous. Not since you came back. Not since Higgs.

Not until Cliff.

“Yeah,” you murmured. “He’s a friend. Just needed a place to stay for the night.”

Heartman was quiet for a moment. “Do you think that’s why you had a nightmare tonight, having someone there? I know that’s a… sensitive matter.”

You sighed, not wanting to talk about technical aspects of your trauma with him. “Maybe,” you bit your lip and played with your fingers, itching to make paper stars but not wanting to move out from under your blanket mountain. “I’ll bring it up with Julia, though.” You said to reassure him more than yourself. You hated the thought of him worrying about you.

So you changed the subject, breathing starting to level out. You had so many thoughts running through your head about Cliff, you needed help figuring it out. “Hey, Heartman… some things happened yesterday that sound really crazy.” You took the risk in asking. You needed to know. “Promise me you won’t think I'm nuts?”

“Cross my heart,” He replied, going along without question.

“Is there a time limit on repatriation? Like, could someone be on the beach for ages and then come back just fine?”

“I suppose, as long as the body wasn’t destroyed, there shouldn’t be any reason they couldn’t. Why do you ask?”

You rubbed the back of your neck, mulling over your next words. “What if there wasn’t a body left?”

“Then there’s nothing for the soul to return to. They’d be trapped,” He paused. He’d heard the tension in your voice. “What’s wrong, Y/N? I thought you weren’t going to the beach anymore.”

He was right, you weren’t. There was no point in going unless it was to keep him company. “I didn’t find him on the beach. It was out in the mountains.” You stopped, bracing for his reaction. He was going to think you were insane, you just knew it. “He died forty years ago. He says he just woke up out by Lake Knot in spring. I know it’s true, too, but it’s making my brain explode trying to work out how it happened.”

There was a long silence. You tried not to think of how he was probably calling Julia, your therapist.

“You’re absolutely certain of this?” He said, eventually.

You nod absently, before remembering he can’t see you. “One hundred percent. I have his file and everything. How he died, the date, the cremation records - everything. I met him on the beach when I was looking for Sam, even.” The knot in your chest was untangling itself as the one in your brain wound itself tighter. “But here he is, alive and talking. I don’t know what to make of it.”

“I’ll call Fragile and have her take you both here right away then, this is unprecedented.” He started, voice picking up speed. “If what you’re saying is true, this could revolutionize the way we think about repatriation, especially in the wake of Amelie’s separation. There might even be a direct correlation - you said he woke up in spring? There might be unforeseen instabilities in the beach gone completely unnoticed -”

“Heartman.” You cut him off, wincing as soon as you did it, but you had to stop him before he got too far in. “Fragile is already taking him to Sam.” You’d gotten through to him after dinner, and given Cliff and him privacy by staying in your room and making an absurd number of paper stars. Fragile would be there in the morning to take him.

“Why would you take him to Sam’s?”

You were quiet as you double-checked your connection to make sure it was secure. Bridges liked to monitor the networks, to eavesdrop. “You’re using the VPN I sent you, right?” Your voice dropped back down to a whisper.

He must’ve sensed your seriousness because he responded in kind. “Always, of course.”

You hesitated. You could trust Heartman, but did he really need to know? Would Cliff be mad? Surely Sam would tell Heartman, himself, right?

“Y/n?”

“It’s Sam’s dad,” You breathed, barely hearing your own voice. “It’s Cliff Unger.”

...

“Fascinating.”

--

You’d given up on trying to get back to sleep at about four in the morning, opting to work on some projects instead. Or, more accurately, obsessively making origami to distract yourself. It gave your hands something to do, your mind something to focus on. Your works had become increasingly more complicated, thanks to network access. You could make anything you wanted. That morning you were working on an Asian dragon design you messed up three times before.

Cliff woke up just after than four-thirty, with bags under his eyes. Both of you were surprised the other was up so early, but neither of you pried. You didn’t ask so he wouldn’t. You assumed he did the same.

Breakfast was easy and quiet. You worked on making omelets while he cooked roasted vegetables with potatoes. They were really tasty, too. You missed having someone to cook with. You enjoyed making meals with people, so the comfortable dance around the kitchen with Cliff had been a breath of fresh air. These days you only got to cook for Sam, Louise, and Heartman, and their visits were few and far between for obvious reasons. You hummed a song as you flipped the omelets. You missed Cliff’s smile, but soon he was humming along too, baritone ringing through your quiet house.

You felt less alone, then. You wished he would stay.

Somehow your morning silence was comfortable and awkward at the same time. The eerie quiet of the early morning did that, sometimes. He thanked you again for letting him stay and you thanked him for helping with breakfast. He’d scoffed at that, saying that was the absolute least he could’ve done - he wasn’t a freeloader.

Then he made a pun about his roast potatoes being “Spudtacular.”

You groaned. Dad jokes!

Afterward, at around ten, you were taking care of your indoor plants while Cliff read some recent history title in your favorite armchair. You were looking forward to seeing Fragile - it had been a few months since her last visit. Tension was still thick between you, and you were pretty sure it would linger until you felt safe. But you were trying, and that’s what's important. Both of you were, delicately avoiding reference to Higgs. It’s worked for the most part, thankfully.

At least if Rami - who still hadn’t been found - caused a Voidout, she and Cliff would be out of implosion distance. That was good. Sam didn’t need any more tragedies. You would’ve been out looking still, but there was no way in hell you were leaving someone alone in your shelter unless it was actively on fire, no matter how much you may or may not have liked them.

You looked over at him then. Talking with him had been difficult, like pulling teeth. Harder than it had been before, when you were on the beach. It was frustrating. You were too nervous to start a real conversation with him, too. He was quiet and closed off, and answered you distantly when you tried, redirecting to jokes instead of real answers. He had shut you out.

You supposed both of you were out of it. He’d been through hell in the past you months, you could tell - the weight lingered on him like useless cargo. And after your nightmare and panic attack that morning, you hadn’t felt like talking much either. Maybe he just didn’t like relying on people, and you shouldn’t take it personally.

It was nice, though, having company. Just his presence was reassuring, conversation or no.

Rocky liked him, too, which was something. He’d been bothering him all day, headbutting his hand to demand pats, and persistently returning to his lap time and again, purring happily. Cliff seemed to like the attention, too, whispering baby talk to him as he purred. It was unbearably cute, seeing him so sweet with the cat, and you had to turn back to your plants before you turned into a puddle of goo. He obviously needed his space. And he was leaving today; there was no use in feeling such a mess over it.

You continued to tend to your African Violets, their fuzzy leaves brushing your fingertips. They weren’t blooming yet, but it looked like they would soon. It would be nice to have a bit of color in the house again.

Cliff caught your attention again soon enough, though, with a sudden, rich laugh - and his smile actually reached his eyes. You were confused for a moment, he was reading a non-fiction book - but then you noticed him looking at Rocky’s name tag like it was the best joke he’s ever heard. Then he looked at you, light in his eyes, and your heart twisted.

Oh boy. Here it comes. This was too embarrassing.

A scarlet blush worked its way up your face.

“You…” he stammered, interrupting himself with a chuckle. “You named your cat Rocket Launcher?”

Yes, you had.

You wanted to die.

“Yeah,” you choked out, fighting your urge to run and hide. His megawatt smile kept you in place, though. Your stomach was doing backflips.

At least he had your sense of humor.

You turned back to your plants to avoid his gaze, face hot with embarrassment. His laugh echoed quietly behind you as he whispered baby talk to said cat named Rocket Launcher. This man would be the death of you, you knew it.

--

Your anxiety had started with unease at eleven-thirty. Then it escalated to worry at noon, then to actual distress by one; you were going to make a wear pattern in your carpet if you kept pacing like you were, but she never missed time. Something had happened.

Fragile hadn’t shown up by three. She was supposed to meet you at eleven.

So you were worried. Like, there’s-no-way-you'll-sleep-tonight, can't-eat, shaking-ball-of-mess worried. You were short with her, but god, you still cared.

You called her at twelve. And at one, and at two.

Her comm didn’t even ring, it went right to voicemail. All three times. Maybe it had just run out of power, you told yourself. And she was busy with an emergency delivery? You hoped it was as benign as that, but you had a sinking feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.

Sam called you at two, asking why you were late. You told him you would call him back if Fragile didn’t show up for a while longer. So, when you called him at three he picked up right away, your fingers tapping against your thigh in a nervous rhythm. His hair was messy and he looked even more tired than he usually did. He was just as worried as you.

“I’ve tried to get through to her, but there’s nothing.” You started, voice unsteady, “You get anything?”

“Nah, no updates since last night.” Sam wasn’t the most expressive of men, but you heard the stress in his voice loud and clear. He had no idea where she was, either.

Your brain was going a million miles an hour, trying to see if there was something you missed, something you could do, someplace Fragile could be where she’s safe. “I’ll call Lockne and Heartman,” You said, hoping someone else would know, “Can you check in with Deadman and the President?”

Sam looked at you like you’d asked him to hike across the US a third time, but he nodded. He was far more likely to get through to Die-Hardman than you were and he knew it, even if Sam was walking on eggshells. He would want to help.

At that point you felt heat on your back. It was Cliff walking up behind you, getting in view of the camera. Most people wouldn’t have been bothered by it, but you moved aside anyway, giving him space. You didn’t like people close to you anymore; it made your gut churn.

Although this time you weren’t sure if it was because you didn’t like people close to you or if it was because you really liked him. So you did the logical thing and ignored it. There were more important things to do than ponder your personal space issues.

--

Cliff was beyond frustrated. How many more things would keep him from Sam? He ran his hand down his face with a heavy sigh. These past eight months had been the longest year of is life. But nothing could stop him, universe be damned. If fate wanted to make his journey hell, then so be it. It was nothing that had stopped him before.

So he decided that if you two hadn’t found your friend by morning, he would have to take that hike through the Rockies, BTs and all. Of course, he would have loved to stay with you, but he knew the longer he did the harder it would be to leave. He’d gotten an amazing night’s sleep for the first time he can remember, and the only meals that weren’t freeze-dried. It would be best if he didn’t linger. He couldn’t get complacent, he should move on as soon as possible. He could rest when he on the other side of the mountains.

He spent his time that afternoon going through possible routes on your map, let you handle things yourself. But then he heard you mention John, who now called himself by his war name, Die-Hardman. It chilled him to his core; the thought of his best friend wearing Bridget Strand’s mask was enough to make him ill. He didn’t blame John for Strand killing him, but to wear her mask? He’d made it clear what was important to him, so Cliff hadn’t bothered him when he was so clearly busy upholding the legacy of a murderer.

So he joined your call with Sam. It was unnerving, these holograms. Sam was so solid, but hundreds of miles away from him still. Like a mirage in a desert. Cliff didn’t even notice you tense up until you stepped aside. He would have to be more careful with you, then, you seemed on edge and he would hate to make you uncomfortable.

He focused on the call, though, conflicted. “Sam, please don’t mention me to John. I don’t know what I would say to him, I’d prefer if he didn’t know I’m… traveling.” He had to stop himself from cringing at himself. Traveling, truly an amazing euphemism for being back from the dead, way to go.

Sam’s brow furrowed just enough to see. His son was quite the stoic, it seemed. “Don’t you think he could help set you up out here? He would come all the way out here himself if you asked. He... “ Sam was uncomfortable for a moment, crossing his arms and looking away from him. “He never really got over losing you. He thinks it was his fault.”

Cliff closed his eyes hard and shoved the guilt deep, deep down. His resolve would crumble if he let himself think too much, and that wouldn’t end well, not then, not while he was still so hurt. “Later, Sam.” He forced passed his teeth. His tone didn’t leave room for argument.

He would sort it out later, surely. He had priorities.

He would talk to John.

Eventually.

When he disconnected the call you were already working on your computer.

You had multiple screens set up, and at least ten programs open. Were you pulling up security cameras? He put his hand on the desk and leaned in to get a better look, careful not to intrude in your personal space too much.

Technology had improved so much during the time he was gone that he could barely tell what you were doing. He knew you were busy, though, so he suppressed the urge to question you about every last detail. He hated not knowing how things worked, especially as someone who used to know tech like the back of his hand. It made him feel all the more out of place than he already did. “What is this? You said you were going to call your friends?”

You nodded absentmindedly, focusing on the screen. “I will call them, after I look for Fragile myself.” You pulled up another program and dragged in a headshot of a blonde woman Cliff assumed was your friend. The software mapped her face and started combing through the video feeds. You busied yourself with some other program while the facial recognition ran.

Cliff tensed - there were Bridges logos plastered in the corners of the videos you’d pulled up. You’d told him you weren’t affiliated. Would you lie to him? What did you want? “How do you have these feeds? Bridges has a strict no-access policy.” He grit out, trying not to sound too high-strung - he didn’t need to make more problems for himself.

“I gave myself access.” You stammered. You sipped your coffee and kept working, not looking back at him. He studied your face, searching for any sign of a lie. He wanted to trust you. But he couldn’t trust the company that killed him and took Sam. You mostly just seemed embarrassed, though, there was no sign of you lying. Just a focused, serious look in your eyes. “They’re bullies,” You continued after a moment, more spite in your voice than he would expect. “They can take their secrets and drown in them for all I care.” Your fingers rapped on the desk as you worked.

He couldn’t say he condoned hacking into confidential servers, but they had shut him out, too, so…

Maybe it was petty, but Bridges’ security being breached by a civilian was hilarious. Good for you.

As you continued working he grew uncomfortable, though - restless. There was a tightness growing in his chest. He knew there was nothing he could do to help you. Nothing short of finding Fragile would. He’s had too many men go missing in action - he was used to the distressed searching, the anticipation, the threads of hope that would keep you searching. But he wasn’t used to being useless. He’d always prided himself in his ability to work through a crisis, so being obsolete was an unwelcome, grating itch on his nerves.

He needed something to do.

He squeezed your shoulder lightly in what he hoped was a comforting manner. You met his gaze with a tense smile that didn’t reach your eyes. “Is there anything I can do?” He asked simply, praying you would respond.

You sighed. “Not really, but thank you.” You squeezed his hand softly in response.

Damnit.

That sad and grateful face you made was almost physically painful. It worried him, how quickly he had grown attached to you. But he supposed it was inevitable. You had been there for him on the beach. You had shown him the way home. Following you into the water had been a long-shot, desperate move on his part - but it had worked. He was alive, and had a chance to spend time with his son.

All because you had been a kind stranger when he was lost.

He shoved that deep down inside him, though. Everything was painful these days, even the possibility of friendship. Guilt and pain and apprehension? No, he couldn’t do this now - he would leave in the morning and it would all be irrelevant anyway. He would be a world away from you and it wouldn’t matter how much he enjoyed the company. No use thinking too much about it know.

You went back to work on your computer.

He still didn’t know what to do with himself.

You seemed to notice, though, and took pity on him. “You can get dinner started, if you want.”

His whole body relaxed. He could do that much for you, at least.

He got out some ingredients, and had to look in five different places to find a knife - they were hidden deep inside one of the cabinets, shoved underneath some Tupperware.

He’d barely started chopping the vegetables when you blew past him, frantic, eyes wide and hair messy, and ran outside. You hadn’t even bothered with a raincoat - no one went without one, even with how infrequent timefall was now.

He stood at the doorway for a moment, baffled. But it all became clear when he moved to look at your computer.

Security footage was playing on a loop. One of Bridges’ feeds, out near Capital Knot. It was time-stamped for that morning at 09:42.

At first it looked like any other porter drop-off he’d seen. Fragile dropped off the cargo and began walking to the road.

Just as she was almost out of frame, she froze, body going tense. She tugged something out of her neck with a visible wince. A second later her frame was wracked with tremors, starting in her hands then progressing through to her arms and legs.

She fell.

Her head hit the pavement, and Cliff knew that if the feed had sound, it would’ve made a sickening crack. Fragile lay still.

A tranquilizer dart, hummed the back of his mind.

Blood pooled around her skull.

A white-gloved hand came just into frame to touch her arm - and Fragile disappeared in a flash of black shimmers. The hand retracted.

There was no other sign of the assailant. The feed was empty again.

Cliff ran after you.

--

You tore out of your shelter, not bothering to pull on a suit or Odradek. It was too hot and cramped, you were about to burst, this was all too much. You needed space, you needed to breathe.

Of course as soon as you thought something might finally start to be alright with you two Fragile gets kidnapped! What the hell was wrong with these people? Why did they even care? Why were they taking people?

You blinked away tears as you shambled to your greenhouse.

You needed to hit something.

You rummaged around your pumpkin patch and found the squashiest pumpkin you had. Then you grabbed your shovel from the supply closet. Then you pulled the shovel over your head, and you slammed the shovel into the gourd. The sound you made was inhuman, a hot rush coursing through your veins. You were so angry!

And then you did it again.

It gave a smack-squelch sound and caved in, guts oozing out of the gaping cracks you’d made. Your hands were shaking? You hit it. Your knees wobbling? You hit it. Fet like your heart was ready to burst? You hit it. You hit it again. And again, and again, letting its gross pumpkin guts get all over your clothes. Were you screaming? You weren’t sure if you were screaming or not. You didn’t care. Your friend was gone.

By the time the pumpkin was nothing more than puree you were spent and sweaty and gross, panting and flushed. You didn’t even notice how hard you were crying until you wiped pumpkin seeds from your cheek and it felt all teary.

You… didn’t really feel better either. Just less pissed off and more sad. Empty, like someone had hollowed out your insides and replaced them with cotton.

You heard footsteps on the grass behind you.

Damn it! You didn’t need Cliff seeing you like this! God, how embarrassing. You turned around reluctantly, shoulders slumping and shovel barely in your grasp.

There he was, warm eyes and kind heart.

That was almost enough to get you crying again - you weren’t used to people caring enough to come after you. People out here took care of themselves.

You saw him take in the scene - the destroyed pumpkin, the seeds on your clothes, the tears streaming down your face. He cautiously cracked a smile, after a moment, “If I had known you were making pumpkin pie I would have helped.”

You laughed and burst into tears at the same time, dropping your shovel. That was such a stupid thing to say! He was ridiculous! You covered your face in your hands, mortified but unable to stop crying.

You and Fragile never truly reconciled - you had just ignored your argument altogether and held a tense peace.

You felt like the worst friend on the planet.

And now someone had taken her.

Careful hands rested on your arms, lightly pulling you in. You could have resisted if you wanted to; you could’ve told him to go away, to leave you alone and he would have done it in a heartbeat. But you’d been crying alone for so long.

So you let him pull you close, let him gently wrap his arms around you as you cried. He was warm, and had strong arms, and you cried into his shirt like some damsel in a shitty movie. But you felt safe. “It’ll be alright.” He murmured into your hair. You could feel his voice rumbling in his chest. You clung to the fabric of his shirt like a lifeline. “You’ll find her.”

You knew those were empty platitudes, that neither of you had any idea what the future would bring.

But for now, just for tonight, you would choose to believe him.

A/n:

This chapter is brought to you by the need for therapy. I hope I’m holding the right balance between vague and intriguing with Reader-San’s flashbacks. They won’t feel like going into full detail until much later, so I hope its enough to almost tell what happened, but not quite.Anytime I mention singing you can insert whatever song you want, btw.I would also like to apologize to the Fragile and Higgs stans. This fic isn’t really nice to them and I really am sorry about that, but Fragile’s teleportation is too convenient. How else am I going to get (Y/n) and Cliff to hike across the Rockies, huh?So what do you guys think? I’d really appreciate some feedback, I don’t have a beta so I’m not sure.I hope you enjoyed it!

Edit: Change what Higgs said.

@paanchu786

[vermemesol]

Forever | Evan Lin Yan Jun - Part 1

I recently listened to his song ‘Competitor’, so yeah, this is based off of that, but maybe a little different? I’m going to make this as detailed and as sweet as possible. Also, I’m very bad at naming my works. :’D

Pairing : Evan Lin Yan Jun x Reader

Genre : Angst (?), Best Friends to Lovers AU, Fluff

Next Part

“Woah, you got into the top 10 again Y/N!!!” your best friend, Lin Yan Jun, exclaimed. He seemed to be more excited for you than you. Yan Jun didn’t have great results. He’s street smart, not book smart, so he really admired how you could always get such good grades.

He admired you for your intelligence, but you admired him for his good looks, personality, talent and basically everything about him. It was probably more than just admiration, it was probably loved. Yes, you loved your best friend since birth. You’ve been around him for so long that it’s impossible to not fall in love with him. There weren’t any reasons for you not to love him anyways. But there are reasons for you to not confess your love to him, the most important reason being, friendship. 

“Y/N!” he shouted your name all too suddenly, making you jump. “What?” you looked at him. “I want you to tutor me!” he requests. You were shocked at the sudden request because in the 18 years that you have known him, he has never asked for you to help him study. College entry exams were just months away, you could tutor him, but would he really be able to absorb all the knowledge in just these few months? You had no idea what he was planning to do, but you accepted his request anyways because why not.

For months you would tutor him endlessly. Often times he would end up playing around or sleeping instead of actually studying and you actually let him do so. He always lightens up the mood, which was always way better than having intense and silent study sessions. 

“What are you making?” you watched as he folded the piece of paper on the bench. “East, South, West, North.” he answered followed by a slight chuckle. “I don’t really have good sense of direction.” you state. “I know. You used to get lost a lot when we were kids.” he replies. His statement made you blush a little. You are thankful that he doesn’t see that one moment where you were blushing as he was focusing on folding the paper. “Don’t you think figuring out where you want to go is more important than getting to a random place as fast as you can?” you ask. “...It’s done!” he proudly shows you the origami and gives it to you. “It looks like a mouth.” you say as you fiddle with the origami.

He watched as you fiddled with the origami. Seeing you smiling happily made him happy as well. He can’t seem to remember when it started but somewhere along the road, you started to smile less and less and he misses that genuine smile of yours.

You couldn’t help but smile at the little things that he does around you. You always try to suppress it because you think that suppressing your emotions would help you rid of your love for him. But really by doing so you were just hurting both you and him. You not being able to show your love and happiness around him, and him not being able to see the best friend that he always knew and loved.

One day, you return home and you see that Yan Jun’s parents were there, having afternoon tea with your parents. And as you were heading upstairs to your bedroom, you hear them talking about both you and Yan Jun. Specifically, the question “Where are you going for college or university?”. Of course your mum told them that you had not decided yet, but they don’t worry about it a lot since you’re smart enough to go wherever you want and do whatever you want. Here’s what hit you hard. Yan Jun was planning to go all the way to the US to further his studies. 

At that moment, you kind of regret helping him study because now that you did, the chances of him leaving are higher than ever. It was selfish of you for thinking that you don’t want him to do well so that he wouldn’t have to leave. Now you’re starting to reconsider helping him study for the remaining two months. More thoughts start to flood your mind and you feel warm droplets trickle down your face. Why were you crying? He’s just your best friend. You can’t ruin his dream. You could always go with him if you wanted to. If he could follow his dreams, why couldn’t you? Why shouldn’t you? 

This was hurting you so much. It’s so minor, yet it hurt you so bad. It hurt you so bad that you spent the entire night silently crying your eyes out. You didn’t sleep a wink. And when you finally did, it was already daylight. You slept through the day and missed out on your study session with Yan Jun. 

Yan Jun on the other hand was worried about you. You didn’t show up, you didn’t text or cal to let him know that you weren’t coming, heck, he couldn’t even text or call you because your phone was dead. So the only thing he could think of was to head straight to your house. 

After waking up, you immediately shot up from bed, grabbing your phone to check for messages or calls, but it was dead. “Shit. What time is it?” you frantically plug in your phone. “5PM.” you hear an all too familiar voice answer you. You jump at the sight of Yan Jun sitting at your desk. “Yan Jun... I’m sorry... It’s just- I couldn’t sleep last night and I unknowingly fell sleep this morning so I didn’t call or text you. I’m sorry, I really-” Before you could finish your sentence, you felt a pair of arms wrap around you. He rubbed your back as you were still stiff from his sudden gesture. “I was worried that something had happened to you.” he spoke softly. This alone made your heart ache again, you remembered everything from yesterday, all those thoughts coming back again. Why did he have to make you feel this way. It felt terrible yet you wanted to stay like this forever. Slowly but surely, you start to push him away. 

“Y/N?” he looked at you upon letting go. He noticed that your eyes were puffy and brimmed by tears. You couldn’t smile nor frown. You didn’t know what emotion you should be showing now. You didn’t know what to say either. “Please go home.” you finally said softly. “Y/N... Are you okay?” he attempts to put his hand on your shoulder but you back away, hitting the wall on the other side of your bed. “Don’t touch me!” you yell, instantly covering your mouth with your hand. ‘Shit, I didn’t mean to. What the hell did I just do?!’ you thought. “Okay...” you watched as Yan Jun picked up his stuff and left. You wanted to stop him but you couldn’t say anything. 

A few days pass and you never left your house, you never called or texted Yan Jun, he too never called or texted you. It felt terrible not being able to see him, so in the end you decided to text him anyways. 

Text :

You : Yan Jun, I’m really sorry for that day, I didn’t mean to. I just wasn’t in the mood.

Yan Jun : I know... I didn’t know what to do either, that’s why I just left like you told me to. You know, I planned on texting you, but I wasn’t sure if you would reply me... You seemed really frustrated that day.

You : I’m sorry... Really am... I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Tomorrow same time same place?

Yan Jun : Sure.

- End Text -

Things didn’t quite feel the same ever since. There was always this teeny tiny bit of awkwardness. You didn’t explain to him why you were like that and he never asked. 

You two continue to study together until finals and entrance exams. You were always still hoping that he would do well, while also hoping that he wouldn’t leave. 

After a while, Yan Jun asked to meet up at the usual spot. And as you arrive, you see him sleeping on the bench with an envelope under his head. You snatch the envelope, waking him, and start to read what was inside. 

Of course, he got accepted to his choice of university, all the way in the US. You congratulated him. He was going somewhere and you were still lost. “Don’t miss me.” he jokingly says as you two were on the way home. “You think too much.” you reply. Honestly he’d miss you a lot, so when you said that, it kind of made him a little upset. He thought that maybe you really wouldn’t miss him. 

Time flies and he is finally leaving for university. Of course you have to see him off. You watch as he puts the last of his stuff in the car. Trying to fight back the tears. He shuts the boot of the car and opens the passenger seat. He looks to you and says “I’ll be going then...”. “Mhm...Bye bye...” you smile and wave at him.

- END - 

Next Part

Masterlist

[finsterhund]

Plush Dog Scarf - Little Boy Gift

The lockdown here is in full swing. There’s lineups for all the essential stores still open, the post office is giving me special privileges because I’m considered an at-risk individual, and there’s a shortage of the medicine I need to breathe. So it’s been pretty stressful.

Paper Beast has been like, the only thing (alongside Heart of Darkness of course) that’s been keeping my mind active in a constructive way. But due to the fact that I can’t play video games for ten hours a day due to my chronic pain and how long periods of wearing the headset are hard on my eyes, I can’t just entirely retreat into the world of origami critters and never leave until the crisis is over like I’d want to.

You’d think that since my normal daily life is already “stay in your room bored out of your mind, never go out, have nothing to do” that I’d be used to this. And while I’m prepared for this and have a better handle on my anxiety surrounding the pandemic, I am certainly not adequately prepared. It feels like there’s a looming disaster yet also an insurmountable tiredness. It’s also sobering to find out that there are provincial-wide shortages of ventalin and I had to go to a different pharmacy just to get only the rescue inhaler for the time being. That has made me realize just how serious things are getting. It’s weird seeing the general populous as concerned about catching things as me. I’m laughing a lot at these events, but it’s not a humorous laugh. It’s an anxious venting fear laugh.

The point I’m trying to get at is that the lockdown is driving me to the depraved edges of my mind, which generally means writing about the Heart of Darkness deaths (which I have trouble writing in general right now) drawing stupid jokes (which my tablet is currently misplaced due to rearranging my entire room to play Paper Beast) and my weird fixations I get onto hobbies that orbit me like some tiny lopsided moon that show up for months at a time, disappear again, then smack me in the face within the next ten to twelve months.

I designed a fictional version of myself, currently named Cayden (who I have shown already) that I lowkey am thinking to have be a member of Andy’s class or something, who gets to run around having adventures with Spot, wear all the 90s clothes that I can find in vintage children’s catalogs, and get killed by the Master of Darkness. Fun stuff.

At some point I’ve also been retreating into the whole beanie babies thing again, and discovered to my excitement the subject of this post.

Someone made a scarf out of Spot.

And I’ve been memeing it up on twitter because the listing looked like this:

As can already be garnered from the listing, the insistence that this scarf is in fact for a little boy meant that I immediately started joking that it was “the perfect gift for me” and that I needed it because I was “the greatest little boy in all of Canada” both statements of which are true.

I also decided that because in Cayden’s time turning a beanie baby that was valued anywhere between $50 and $200 (yes) USD into a scarf would be such a superfluous flex and spit in the face of collectors that I just had to have him wear it.

And after much descent into madness and deciding that my Andy cosplay bandanna didn’t deserve to be my makeshift facemask as the person who made it for me disappeared off the planet so getting it replaced would be a long and arduous task I decided after seeing so many people wearing scarves in the Costco to finally get the famous Plush Dog Scarf - Little Boy Gift and fulfill the madness-induced prophecy.

This is mine now. When will it arrive? No idea.

I have also been trying to get my friends to buy scarves like these (there are MORE) but it’s a luxury item people can’t afford. I get that. I mostly got it because of the joke and because my old scarf is falling apart (the red one in case you remember it) and because the lockdown has been slowly driving me insane.

Spot’s squeaky steak (or rather one just like it I found on the internet) arrived yesterday but was filled with such an awful permeating aura of ancient mold that I had to clean it or immediately die so I spent much of today cleaning it out with vinegar. I think it works. Now it just hurts my breath because of the smell of vinegar. I held a flashlight to it and there’s no mold inside. Any more tips to kill mold inside a vintage dog toy would be appreciated.

Spot’s squeak steak is also a lot smaller than I expected it to be. Which i shouldn’t be surprised by because if my hands hadn’t grown since I was a toddler there would most certainly be problems. But it is weird. My hands are so big now. Strong.

I also have finally photoshopped my magnificent creation known as Negaspot into digital existence. Negaspot is possible, but requires cutting off Spot’s head and putting it onto the body of another beanie baby which is a bit too insane and deranged for me at this point in time, I would hope that I do not stoop to this level of depravity.

One would morn the loss of a perfectly good Spot if Negaspot were to be brought into existence and made flesh. A headless Spot would be forced to suffer the crimes of an unfeeling god. I don’t think I could live with these consequences after the virus has passed.

Perhaps the headless body of this Spot could be attached to the end of another Spot, creating an eight-legged extra long DoubleSpot. Two crimes against beanie baby god for the price of one! The price of which would be literally under 5 dollars because beanie babies are worth nothing now except for Spot without a spot who mark my words I will get someday. If we are putting two Spots together perhaps we could give Negaspot the tail of the front of DoubleSpot, alleviating the problem of a wasted tail. These are normal things that perfectly healthy and well-adjusted children think about.

If I create Negaspot, send help.

On the topic of spots, I am still very sad I had to postpone the Spot party, as I have gotten her a ton of presents that are now sitting in my room waiting for the party. I did get her a chew rope for the time being as a “sorry we had to cancel your party” gift but it’s not the same man! I want to have that party!

A thought has crossed my mind that when I am in a better state of mind and can therefore judge better if this is a wise use of my time and resources, is that I should commission the creator of Plush Dog Scarf - Little Boy Gift to create a super long, like excessively long, unnecessarily long, Spot Scarf. That was I can give Spot the Plush Dog Scarf - Little Boy Gift and I can have one that is more decidedly an abomination and an affront against the laws of nature.

Since I figure I am providing you all with a lot of unnecessary information, I feel the need to let everybody know that in Paper Beast there is a big plant-serpent looking creature that eats everything that crosses its path called, and I quote, Voraxo.

Just a nice little tidbit of information. Make of it what you will.

[queenofmoons67]

something wild (calls you home): chapter four

Word Count: 2012

Hey everyone! Sorry this is a bit late, yesterday was really busy. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!

WARNING for dehumanization (other characters feed Kotetsu dog food, and give him a collar).

Thank you to my beta @bookdancerfics!

Chapter 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5: Kotetsu and Agnes

Agnes had not woken up that morning, nearly twenty hours before, anticipating a missing hero. She also hadn’t expected to be volunteering to take care of a dog. But the heroes needed to be able to focus; after so long missing their friend, they had started coming apart at the seams. She didn’t blame them, of course.

As shocking as it was to realize, she missed Wild Tiger, too. His friendly flirtations, his annoying habit of putting everything—including her show—on the line, his nonstop talking—they had all become part of her daily routine. While she wouldn’t say she loved the hero, she wouldn’t say she hated him, either. And she definitely didn’t want him gone.

She couldn’t say she wanted him back as badly as his fellow heroes did, though. They were the ones who had gone out at night to look for him, despite orders to go home and rest. Keith, Karina, Ivan, and Pao-lin could pretend all they wanted that the call had woken them all up, but she knew as well as they did that the three teens had bullied Keith into taking them with him on his nightly patrol.

And Antonio was no better—that hero lived nowhere near where Tiger’s call band was found; the only way he made it there first was if he grew wings, or if he’d already been in the area.

Barnaby’s new dog had given them all what they desperately needed: hope, and a break from their nerves and anxiety. But the problem was that they didn’t need the latter right now. They needed that hours from now, when every inch of their new lead had been exhausted and they had time to rest. They needed that when their hope was at its lowest.

Agnes twisted in the passenger seat, bracing her arm against the center console and peering into the back. Cain was driving, which left Orlando with the equipment and Charlie.

The dog had squished himself all the way up against the back of the console. Despite the problems with Charlie’s legs that Barnaby had quickly told her, the dog was stubbornly remaining upright and relying on Orlando bracing him so that he didn’t fall over on the turns.

“You better not hurt yourself,” she told Charlie.

His eyebrows furrowed as he peered up at her, panting from the effort of standing. Cain coughed, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge she was talking to a dog.

“Those heroes are going to need you, you hear me? Regardless of whether or not we find Tiger, and regardless of if he’s alive or…” Agnes trailed off. He wasn’t dead yet. He was missing, and gone, but not dead. Not yet. Not yet.

She reached back and rubbed Charlie’s head.

“We have to keep you in the best shape possible.” She turned away sharply, staring out at the street before them. “Make a stop at the nearest 24/7 pet store, Cain. And hurry up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kotetsu stepped carefully out of the van, but his haunches pushed off the last step and sent his hind-paws to the ground more heavily than he would have liked. His entire body shook as it absorbed the shock—and then three different pairs of hands were steadying him.

“Careful, Charlie,” Agnes sniffed, already turning away when he looked up.

“Careful, Charlie,” Cain and Orlando echoed. The latter turned away to follow Agnes into Apollon Media, but the former gave his side a few reassuring pats.

“Come on, bud,” Cain said. “Let’s get some food in you. That sounds pretty good, right?”

Kotetsu followed them, but his ear twitched restlessly. Food did sound pretty good right now, considering he hadn’t eaten anything since dinner more than twenty-four hours before, but he wanted human food. Not—his nose twitched, taking in the strong scent of fake meat and bread all mashed together and dried. Not whatever dog food they had picked up at the store.

A hand landed on his head, and Kotetsu skittered to the side, head twisting to side-eye Cain. The man had stopped beside him, but his hands had pulled up to his chest—where Kotetsu couldn’t reach them.

“Sorry, Charlie,” Cain said. “I should have let you know I was there.”

Kotetsu didn’t know what to say. Not that that really mattered.

“You walked right past us, bud.”

Kotetsu frowned. What? No, they had barely entered the building—

A bag ripped open, and Kotetsu jumped again, peering around Cain’s legs. Orlando looked back at him, frozen in front of an open food bag with a bowl in one hand and a measuring cup in the other.

“Are you hungry, Charlie?” Agnes asked, leaning over him.

Kotetsu started to back away, unsure what was wrong other than that he hated having her loom over him like that, only for his hind-legs to collapse underneath him again. They just would not stop doing that.

Agnes did back up, though, so at least there was that.

“We’re just going to hang out in the lobby, okay, bud?” Cain said. “That way we don’t miss the heroes when they get back, and you have room to move around.”

That… made sense, Kotetsu guessed. He had been moving on autopilot. Not even a year in this building, but he was already used to heading up to the office with Bunny.

He missed going to work already, and he’d only missed a day.

It had only been a day.

He had wanted to go to the office.

Kotetsu was already sitting. It was only too easy to lay the rest of the way down, set his head on his paws, and close his eyes.

Agnes’s heels clicked away in a fast tempo, then clicked back even faster. She came to a stop right in front of him.

“Charlie.”

Kotetsu ignored her.

“Charlie, you need to eat.”

“I’m sleeping until I’m human again, Agnes,” Kotetsu mumbled.

The smell of dog food wafted into his nose, too close to be more than a foot away from him. Kotetsu turned his head away.

“And I’m definitely not eating dog food.”

Something shifted in front of him. There was the clicking of Agnes’s heels again, the slapping of skin on tile—and then he could smell a mix of film, printer ink, and faded perfume. Agnes, undoubtably. Except… except she hadn’t reapplied perfume in a long time. But she always came to work wearing perfume, why hadn’t she—?

Kotetsu cracked an eye open to see Agnes kneeling before him and holding one hand out. She stared down at him, expression even.

“What did I say about keeping you in shape, Charlie?” she asked.

For the heroes. Kotetsu opened his eyes all the way. The food still looked unappetizing. It was dehumanizing, but then he wasn’t human right now, was he? He was a dog. He might be a dog for the rest of his life, and there was very little he could do about that now that he had tracked down his last location as a real man.

He might not be a hero again.

He might not get to see his little girl again, or his mom or brother.

But for the heroes… his friends, his family… he could be there as a dog. He could be there as the best dog there ever was, and support them in whatever way his current form allowed. Just like he had already tried to do.

Kotetsu stood up slowly. Bunny had already lost his parents, and now he might lose his partner, too. Nathan and Antonio might lose their best friend. And the other heroes… they were all so young, even Keith. They had lost heroes on the job before, but this would be different. He would… if they didn’t figure out how to turn him back, he would just disappear.

Kotetsu leaned down, took his first bite, and swallowed. For his family.

He took another. It actually didn’t taste that bad. Better than it smelled, at least.

Agnes smoothed a hand down his head and clicked a collar into place. “Thank you, Charlie,” she whispered.

Kotetsu ignored both her and the collar and kept eating. He had to keep up his strength and finish getting used to his new body.

For his family.

Agnes stirred when the lobby doors whooshed open. Groaning, she opened her eyes to see the sun, only just peaking over the horizon, cast halos over the heroes entering the building. It outlined the slump of their shoulders, the way their legs dragged—and Agnes knew.

Taking a deep breath, she stood up. Her muscles ached from sleeping in a chair, but she ignored them. There were more important things to focus on.

“Nothing?” she asked, voice echoing in the large space. Orlando and Cain jolted awake on the couch. Rock Bison shook his head, and Charlie—Charlie bolted.

The dog had been resting by the table. He had refused to settle at any of their feet, or even by the heater, and the last she had seen of him was his head resting on his paws, ears pricked toward the door. Now, though, his legs scrambled under him, claws skittering across the tile for only a second before they found purchase and propelled him toward the heroes, Barnaby and Fire Emblem at the front.

“Barnaby!” she called. “Barnaby, watch—!”

Charlie leapt at Barnaby, his paws colliding with the hero’s chest. If he had been wearing his suit, it wouldn’t have done much, but he had been in a hurry to get out and hadn’t bothered with it, so the leap knocked him back into Fire Emblem, who tried to steady him.

Both heroes were dead on their feet, though, and Fire Emblem was in no way prepared to catch both a fully grown man and a medium-sized dog. All three of them fell back into the other heroes, and in a matter of seconds, Charlie was standing in the middle of six downed heroes and a steady Rock Bison. He took the opportunity to jump from one to the next, nosing at their bodies and collecting pets while they were all at his level.

Agnes groaned and shook her head. That was not what she had meant, but… well. She guessed it was ok.

Origami Cyclone, Blue Rose, and Dragon Kid were all giggling, though that was probably also from lack of sleep. Sky High and Fire Emblem were both smiling. Rock Bison actually sighed and sat down next to his fellow heroes, giving Charlie a quick pat when he was next to him. Barnaby, though… Agnes frowned.

“Charlie, come here,” Barnaby ordered. He patted his own thigh as he walked toward the elevators. He took the bag of dog things Cain held out with a muttered thank you. “Agnes, we’ll be in the staff room. Please wake me in a few hours?”

“Of course,” she said, though she didn’t bother to check the current time. He would wake when his body was ready, and not before. He would have Charlie, she noted, watching as the dog disentangled himself from the other heroes and trotted after Barnaby, tongue lolling happily. Wild Tiger… Agnes sat back down, opened her bag, and pulled out her laptop. As much as she hated to admit it, they weren’t going to find him any time soon. Not after their one lead faded to nothing. Barnaby could afford to take care of himself.

“What are you all waiting for?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at the heroes. “Get some sleep! I’ll see what I can do from here in the meantime.”

They could all afford to take care of themselves. They needed Charlie now, but Wild Tiger would need them twice as much when they got him back.

Agnes turned back to her screen, fingers clacking across the keyboard as she wrote emails to the mayors and police commissioners of all the cities in a hundred mile radius. They would get him back.

She didn’t want to know what they would do if they didn’t.

Next Up: Kotetsu and Barnaby 2. Second verse, same as the first. A little bit harder and a whole lot worse. Or, in which Kotetsu takes off running and so does this fic.

[vgckwb]

ML: Are They Worthy? Chapter 23: Those Closest to You!/Scrap Heart

“I can tell something is bothering you. Why don’t you go first?” Master Fu said, delaying the inevitable.

“Sure” Marinette said. “Well, it appears that Hawk Moth has someone else working for them. Yesterday, a mysterious person lured Vincent the photographer away and they messed up his camera, which lead Vncent to be Akumatized.”

“It is as I feared” Master Fu said. “Hawk Moth is gaining more allies.”

Marinette grew concerned. “Master, what if Hawk Moth is blackmailing more people? What if it isn’t just one person? Now that he no longer has Lila, he might be targeting others like her.”

“We cannot deny that possibility” Master Fu said. “Marinette, I have come to a difficult decision. Since Hawk Moth is trying to stack the odds in his favor, we need to do the same.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Marinette asked. She noticed the Miracle Box was still there. “Uh, why is the Miracle Box still out?”

“I didn’t want to do this, but Hawk Moth has forced our hand” Master Fu said. “Marinette, I want you to take the Fox and Turtle miraculous and give them to Alya and Nino.”

“For what? The Akuma is gone” Marinette said. She then saw the look in Master Fu’s eyes. “Oh. Are you sure about this, Master?”

“This was a difficult choice to make. But with heroes out there that Hawk Moth is familiar with, it might reduce the amount that he isn’t needing to show up” Master Fu said. “Plus, it strengthens our numbers.” He took off the turtle miraculous and gave it to Marinette.

Marinette grabbed the fox miraculous, She saw the bee miraculous and had a thought. “Master? I know this might sound crazy, but do you think we can give Chloe the bee miraculous for keeps as well?”

“What makes you say that?” Master Fu asked.

“Well, it’s just yesterday I talked with Chloe. It seems Hawk Moth is also targeting her as well. Like how he targeted Lila” Marinette said. “I know that it’ll put a lot of hardship on Chloe, but since he’s targeting her anyway, with or without a miraculous, I think it might be better if Chloe could defend herself.”

“Hmmmm. I will agree to it” Master Fu said. Marinette lit up. “On one condition: She has to be proven worthy.”

“You mean by Vlad” Marinette said, frowning.

“You seem concerned” Master Fu said.

“Well, it’s just that Chloe is difficult” Marinette said. “I don’t know if Vlad or Beyyo would come to trust her. I believe in her, she is changing, but I've also seen what she’s capable of. I don’t want to leave her alone though.”

“Marinette, if Chloe is changing like you said, then everything should be fine, correct?” Master Fu said.

Marinette smiled. “Right Master.” Marinette left.

After Marinette left, Master Fu went to the miracle box, took out the goat miraculous, and put it on. “Hello Ziggy.”

Meanwhile, Vlad enters his room after finishing up his interview. “I have to say, despite it getting interrupted by a maniacal clown bent on making people smile, that was one of the better interviews I’ve had,” he said.

“Well, it’s all a first for me” Beyyo retorted. “Most people with the wolf miraculous don’t usually talk to others this much outside of other miraculous users.”

“Do you mind me being an exception?” Vlad asked, sitting at his computer.

“No” Beyyo said. “I kind of think it’s fun. A bit challenging, but fun.”

Vlad laughed. “I’m rubbing off on you.” He did some research on the LadyBlog. “Reflekta, huh?” He read the details of the story.

“Are you going to make her fight herself?” Beyyo asked. “Like brother, like sister?”

“Not Really. Let me tell you what I have in mind” Vlad said. He went over his plan with Beyyo.

At the Liberty, Richard and May were dropping off Juleka and Luka. “The kids had a great time,” Richard said.

“Mom. You’re not going to believe it” Luka said, excitedly. “Oh. Wait, can I tell her?” he asked May.

“Of course” May said.

“May is May from Pest Control” Luka said.

“Really?” Anarka said. “Richard, you lucky duck.”

“Ha ha, yeah” Richard said. He looked at his girlfriend. “But not because she used to play for the best band ever. Because she’s May.”

“Oh stop” May said. The two shared a kiss.

Anarka shrugged. “That’s Richard for you,” she said.

“Well, we should get going,” Richard said. “I assume we’ll meet to finalize our new arrangements.”

“Of course Richard” Anarka said.

“Bye kids! Bye Anarka!” Richard said, getting in the car.

“Bye everyone!” May said. They drove off, and Anarka, Juleka, and Luka waved goodbye. They all went into the boat to get some sleep.

Judgement Wolf hopped onto the Liberty sign. “Good. She’s here. I’d hate having to track down where Richard lives.” He hopped down onto the boat. He snuck in, and found Juleka asleep. “Wolf Mist!”

Juleka was in school, smiling ear to ear. She was the most popular girl in the class after all. She walked in and was greeted with the usual his and hellos from fiends. “Hey Juleka” Nathanial said.

“Hey Nathanial” Juleka replied.

“Hi Juleka” Max said.

“Hello Max.”

“Hey Juleka. Wanna try on my newest design after school?” Marinette asked.

“Of course Marinette” Juleka said. Juleka was feeling confident. She sat down.

Rose came in the class, looking down as usual. No greeting for her, except a quite “Hey Rose” from Marinette. Rose took her seat next to Juleka.

Juleka could tell something was wrong. “Rose? Is something the matter?”

“Not more than usual” Rose said, in her usual downer voice. Juleka didn’t understand it. Rose used to be so outgoing and fun.

“We all know what’s the matter with Rose” Chloe said. “She scares everyone off. She’s so cheery, it’s detestable.”

“Back off, Chloe!” Juleka said.

“It’s OK Juleka” Rose said. “What she says is true.”

“But it isn’t Rose!” Juleka said. “Why are you letting her get to you?” Even though Juleka said that, everyone else in the class was murmuring. She knew that Rose’s strong approach to meeting people wasn’t well received. Juleka enjoyed it though. But it wasn’t enough. Not for Rose anyway.

After school, Juleka headed to the art room. She noticed Rose leaving the other way. “Rose? What are you doing? The art room is this way?”

“That’s OK. I don’t feel like scrapbooking today. You go on ahead” Rose said, leave.

“Well, I’ll come with you” Juleka said.

“DON’T!” Rose yelled. “I just want to be by myself.” Rose left. Juleka was concerned, but she wanted to respect her friend’s wishes. She headed to the art room.

“Hey Juleka. Ready to try on my design?” Marinette asked. Marinette took notice of Juleka’s sour mood. “What’s wrong?”

“Rose isn’t coming today” Juleka said.

“Oh” Marinette said. “Well, I’m sure she just needs to work things out.”

“I hope you’re right” Juleka said.

Meanwhile, Rose was hiding under the stairs, looking through her scrapbook. All she saw were pictures of things and herself. Not one other person. She had even tried to ask Juleka, but Juleka was always busy with something else. Of course she was. Everyone loved her.

“A lonely heart that just wants some friends. I can sympathize with that” Hawk Moth said. “Fly away my little Akuma, and evilize this poor unfortunate soul.”

The Akuma flew and fused with Rose’s scrapbook. “Hello Scrap Heart. I am Hawk Moth. Anyone whose picture is in your scrapbook will instantly become your friend. What I want in return is Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculous.”

“Friends loan each other stuff all the time,” Rose said. A purple-black aura surrounded Rose.

Juleka was trying on a hat Marinette made. She was enjoying it, and she loved whatever Marinette designed, but she was still worried about Rose. “I’m sorry Marinette. I just want to check on Rose” she said.

“OK Juleka” Marinette said. Juleka put the hand down and left the room. Juleka went one way, but from behind, coming up the stairs, was Scrap Heart.

Scrap Heart looked like Rose, but she was made of paper folded like an origami figure, and was wearing a samurai body armor, and a headband. She also had a belt, which had a scrapbook on one side, and a camera on the other. She walked into the art room.

“Hello” she said.

“Rose?” Marinette said, shocked.

Scap Heart shook her head. “I am Scrap Heart. And from now on, we’re going to be best friends!” She took out her camera and took a photo of Marinette. The photo came out of the camera, and Scrap Heart placed it in her scrapbook.

Marinette’s eyes turned pink. “Scrap Heart!” she said, leaping into her arms to give her a hug.

Scrap Heart returned the hug. “Now, let’s make some more friends.”

Juleka was still looking for Rose. “Rose? Rose? Where are you Rose?” Juleka heard some clicks and some commotion. She decided to follow it.

She ran into her classroom, where Scrap Heart had amassed numerous friends. Juleka saw Scrap Heart take someone else’s picture, as her friends were holding them down. Scrap Heart put the picture in her scrapbook, and suddenly she gained a new friend. Scrap Heart turned around and saw Juleka. “JULEKA!” she said, excitedly. Juleka ran away and hid. “Juleka? You’ve never had time for photos before. Now we have all the time we could ask for. We can be together forever. I just need a picture.” Juleka was afraid. She wanted what Scrap Heart was saying, but not like this.

Suddenly, Scrap Heart was hit from behind. “This isn’t how you make friends” Ladybug said.

“If you want advice, I have a few pointers” Cat Noir said.

Scrap Heart smiled. She took out her camera. Juleka became worried. She came out of hiding and shouted “DON’T LET HER TAKE A PICTURE OF YOU!” Ladybug and Cat Noir lept out of the way. The picture Scrap Heart took came out blurry. She got frustrated and crumpled it. 

She kept trying to get a picture of the heroes, but the two kept dodging. “We can’t keep doing this” Ladybug said.

“You’re right, this needs to end in a flash. Where do you think the Akuma is?” Cat Noir responded.

“It’s probably in the scrapbook” Ladybug said.

“OK. I’ll keep her distracted” Cat Noir said. Ladybug nodded and ran off. “Yoo hoo. Try to get my good side” Cat Noir taunted, while running in the other direction.

When Ladybug thought she was safe, she called out “Lucky Charm! Diet soda?” she looked around and saw some Mentos on a teacher's desk, and also took stock of Scrap Heart’s paper body. Ladybug smiled.

Scrap Heart noticed Ladybug standing still. “Picture perfect” she said,aiming her camera at Ladybug.

“No!” Juleka said. She rushed in and stood in front of the hero as the picture was being taken.

“Juleka!” Ladybug said.

“It’s OK. You’ll save the day. And afterwards, so will I” Juleka said. Ladybug rushed into the classroom and grabbed the Mentos. Scrap Heart put the photo in her scrapbook. Juleka’s eyes turned pink.

Ladybug closed the door and locked it. She found some string and a stand. She placed the Mentos in the diet soda, and put the cap back on.

“Oh Juleka? Would you be a dear and get the door for me?” Scrap Heart said, coming up the stairs.

“Of course. Anything for a friend” Juleka said. She tried opening the door. “I’m afraid it’s locked.”

“That’s OK” Scrap Heart said. “Someone as sweet and delicate as you shouldn’t be confronting superheroes on your own anyway.” Scrap Heart kicked down the door, which pulled the string, opening the diet soda bottle with the Mentos aimed directly at Scrap Heart. “NOOOOOO!” she said, as her paper body started to collapse on itself.

Ladybug grabbed the scrapbook and tossed it to Cat Noir. “Cat Noir!”

Cat Noir Caught it. “Thanks bugaboo. Cataclysm!” Cat Noir destroyed the scrapbook, freeing the Akuma.

“No more evildoing for you, little Akuma. Time to de-evilize! Gotcha. Bye bye, little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug” she threw the bottle in the air, and the magic ladybugs undid everything Scrap Heart did.

“Take a picture of your victory, Ladybug. It’ll be all you have of you winning once I have your miraculous!” Hawk Moth said.

Rose returned to normal. “Pound it” said the heroes. Their miraculous started to beep.

“It’s OK. I’ll take it from here” Juleka said.

“Thanks” Ladybug said. “Bug out!” She and Cat Noir left.

Juleka walked up to Rose. “What happened?” Rose asked.

“You were Akumatized. But it’s OK now” Juleka said. She lifted up Rose and together they walked to their classroom. They entered on a bunch of confused students. “Everyone. I have something to say” Juleka said. All eyes were on Juleka. “Rose is the sweetest, gentlest people I know. If you can’t accept that, then you can’t accept me either. From now on, I will be with Rose constantly. She got Akumatized because she felt alone. No one should feel that way. So either you get me and Rose, or you don’t get me at all.”

“Juleka…” Rose said. The group of students looked at each other, and one by one came up to Rose to apologize to her.

Later on, Rose and Juleka were sitting on a bench together. “Thank you for sticking up for me earlier,” Rose said.

Juleka smiled. “You’d do the same if our roles were reversed” Juleka replied.

Rose got nervous. “Hey, can I tell you something?”

“What are friends for?” Juleka said.

“Well, about that…” Rose said. She put her hand on Juleka’s leg. “I was kind of hoping we could be more than friends.”

Juleka was surprised. She then smiled and said “I was kind of hoping you would ask.” The two of them kissed.

“Why don’t we take a picture to commemorate this moment?” Rose asked.

“Good idea” Juleka said. Rose took out her phone and took a picture. In the flash, Juleka was warped to a mysterious white void.

“Hello Juleka” Judgement Wolf said.

Juleka was confused. “So, was this my test?” she asked.

“Yes” Judgement Wolf said. “You always aspire to be part of the group. To never be left alone. I wanted to give you that, but give someone else that burden. And it turns out you were true to your morals either way. So you passed.”

Juleka smiled. “Thank you. You’ve given me such wonderful things.”

“You’re welcome. You’ve also given such wonderful things to me as well” Judgement Wolf said. “Well, good night.” He lept out of the mist, and Juleka fell back to sleep.

The next morning, Vlad woke up to a text from Marinette. “Hey Vlad. We need to talk ASAP.”

Vlad looked at it. “Well, it looks like today is going to be busy. Isn’t that right Beyyo?”

“You’re the one who made it that way” Beyyo said.

“Well, do you mind?” Vlad asked.

“Not really” Beyyo responded.

“Then let’s go” Vlad said. He started getting ready for school.

[sweetasssuga]

Taegi Fic Recs

personal favorites = ♡

new additions = ϟ

Little Lion Man by mucha [3k] [teen]

Deep down, Yoongi always knew that making rash decisions would one day send him early to his grave.

(Or; Yoongi confesses to Taehyung via text and immediately regrets it)

in all dishonesty by fruitily [3k] [teen] ♡

while taehyung is trying to figure out whether or not min yoongi wants to stab him with a fountain pen, they find out they make an excellent team when it comes to board games.

feelings you provide by sugarlizard [3k] [teen] 

Feeling a little daring, Taehyung slips the ring on his finger. He’s not expecting it to fit, he knows that part of the victorious appeal of this jewelry is it was designed to fit only Yoongi, but instead it slips over the knuckle of his ring finger like a glove.

*

taehyung borrows one of the SUGA diamond rings when he needs a comfort object

help me out by clumsy_taegi [4.6k] [teen] ϟ

Taehyung talks Yoongi into helping him rehearse for a play.

Of Handlebars and Heartbreak by bananamilks [5.5k] [teen] 

Totally unprepared are you, to face a world of men.

[or, the mutual pining fic in which: one of them is in denial, one is oblivious, and both of them are idiots]

caught in a lie by booksinaballroom [5.6k] [teen] 

Ten years, one acting degree, and a frankly embarrassing amount of student debt later, his plans have...changed, a bit. Turns out waiting for callbacks from Colgate toothpaste commercials and roles as extras in dramas isn’t exactly lucrative. Certainly not lucrative enough to pay off his mountainous student debt.

Which is why he has turned to a spinoff of the acting industry. The underground of the acting industry, if you will. A place to hone his skills while raking in plenty of cash. A high-stakes challenge, something that tests and proves his ability to perform under pressure.

In other words, Taehyung is what might be better known as a con artist.

(soulmate au: you can't lie to your soulmate)

A Different Kind of Magic by tryst [5.8k] [teen] ♡ 

Wherein, Taehyung doesn't really need extra Potions help, but could definitely use a hug and Yoongi is pretty indifferent about being a tutor, but is down to hold hands.

my heart flutters from the sugar high by hoars [5.9k] [mature]

Yoongi and Taehyung sneak around together, cheating on their diets. The group? They’ve drawn different conclusions.

Birds in Your Heart by m_aur_a [6k] [not rated] 

Origami cranes with cute, if kitschy, words of advice are popping up on campus. Yoongi is struggling with a lot right now, but they help. So does the pretty boy that leaves them.

Ring the Hogwarts Bell by mucha [6k] [general audiences] 

“No, it’s fine,” Taehyung interrupted him, circling his fingers around Jimin’s wrist and squeezing reassuringly. “It’s just a few days, I’ll be okay.”

It was the furthest thing from truth, though. Christmas was always his favorite holiday and in his mind, it was irreversibly connected to home and family and watching silly Christmas movies with a mug of hot chocolate in his hand and his puppy, Yeontan, in his lap. He was hoping that maybe at least one of his friends would be staying in school too, but that hope quickly vanished when he checked the list in the common room and saw no familiar names. Well, he saw one familiar name but it belonged to someone Taehyung had never spoken to, so it didn’t matter anyway.

As if he could read Taehyung’s mind, Jimin spoke up again:

“I noticed that Yoongi is staying at Hogwarts too.”

(Taehyung spends his Christmas at Hogwarts and makes a new friend)

human by awsuga [7.7k] [mature]

Taehyung almost kills the most beautiful mortal he has ever seen.

yesterday’s tomorrow by locks [8k] [mature] ♡

Yoongi just wants to get through the night with his pride intact.

Enter Kim Taehyung.

Or, the one where they used to date and meet again at their ten year high school reunion.

but not for me by raviolijouster [8k] [teen] ♡ 

Taehyung’s straightforward, he thinks. A 2 + 2 = 4 kind of guy. He’s just not always sure that his 2’s are other people’s 2’s. Sometimes it seems like they might be 3’s. Or 7’s. But Yoongi’s 2’s are the same 2’s, they’re just in italics, size 8 font, while Taehyung’s are in bold and size 72.

or,

People think Yoongi and Taehyung are dating. Taehyung wishes they were.

ring ding dong by chlexcer [8k] [explicit]

the one where taehyung loses his precious gucci ring the very first time he meets yoongi, but he doesn't lose it just anywhere, oh no— he loses it inside of yoongi.

By Tomorrow by Oh_Hey_Tae [10.6k] [teen]

“Why are you freaking out now?” Seokjin asks, and the seconds tick by and suddenly the atmosphere shifts. “Ahh, I get it.”

Yoongi perks up, swivels, spots Taehyung stepping from the hall into the room and he’s in fitted slacks and the baby blue button-up from earlier and he looks divine.

Yoongi’s heart just stopped and he’s not sure how to get it beating again. Namjoon’s a doctor. A doctor in training, but some form of medical professional regardless. Namjoon knows CPR and cardiac arrest symptoms and all that shit. He’ll know Yoongi’s dying.

“Perfect timing. Let’s eat.”

Or he’s going to wink at Yoongi and send suggestive eyebrow raises the whole night. Great. Fabulous.

(Or: Yoongi loves Taehyung and Taehyung loves Yoongi and somewhere along the way they figure that out.)

neons and watercolors by aimandignite [12.6k] [explicit] 

“Do you stare at the sky in the middle of roads at night often?” he asks.

Yoongi shrugs. “Do you join random people staring at the sky in the middle of roads at night often?” He glances at the guy and his heart slams in his chest at the wide smile he sees.

“I’m Taehyung. Everyone calls me Tae though.”

Yoongi nods slowly, “Yoongi.”

Tae seems to repeat the name to himself, carefully remembering how it feels in his mouth. Yoongi can’t look away. “Yoongi? Do you want to get out of the middle of the road and get hot cocoa?”

812 (rock my world) by aileron [13k] [explicit] ϟ

Jimin sniffs in a way that lets Taehyung know he’s an ungrateful brat. “Look, some people would pay good money to get a free pass that allows them right in front of the stage and hence right under the nose of Min Yoongi.”

“Min who?”

Jimin waves his hand dismissively. “The rock star you couldn’t care less about but whose face you have to stare at through your camera lens tonight.”

Taehyung slings his camera bag on his shoulder and shoves the press pass into his back pocket. “Sure, whatever. Just point me in his direction when we get there.”

- or: the fic where Taehyung thinks Yoongi is an arrogant piece of shit (albeit a hot one), but as Jimin puts it, “Which memory is going to be more awesome to look back to when you’re eighty: the time when you went and fucked a rock star or the time when you didn’t and went home instead?”

Chasing the Sun by almostsophie1 [17.6k] [mature] ϟ

Yoongi calls it a phenomena.

Whatever it is, it brings Taehyung to Yoongi again and again, twining their lives together. If it's a kind of magic, it's not one that Yoongi understands. But it pulls Taehyung to him and him to Taehyung, and somehow that's all that matters.

Out to Lunch by roebling [19k] [teen]

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Taehyung is not above taking a soul-killing office job solely for the benefits. The drab cubicle he now calls home is bad enough, but his new boss Yoongi is possibly a robot and definitely an asshole. Vision and dental coverage are enticing, but Taehyung’s not sure how long he can stick this out.

Siren of the Interstate by fringecity (indiachick) [23k] [mature] ϟ ♡ 

Yoongi is a traveling salesman circling the same set of weird towns and highways. Taehyung is a gas-station clerk in the middle of nowhere.

"Won’t space be lonely?” Yoongi asks. Taehyung shrugs—Yoongi can feel him move beside him, just a finger-breadth away. “It’s lonely down here too.”

Heart of the Matter by fringecity (indiachick) [33k] [teen] ♡ 

Disaster witch Kim Taehyung meets perfect senior Min Yoongi in the poison greenhouses of witch school. Years later, Taehyung owns a clinic that fixes hearts, Yoongi has a celebrated apothecary, and they (don't) get along.

Harry Potter-ish, but not in that universe.

A Breeze Blows, and My Heart Swells by roebling [36.6k] [teen] ϟ

Former Idol Min Yoongi is struggling to write his next album. He knows he'll never live up to the success of his first solo outing, and the pressure is getting to him. After a series of minor scandals, his manager and best friend Jimin ships him off to Harmony Retreat, an ecotourism resort deep in the Daegu countryside. With electronics strictly forbidden and no company but a rooster, a dog, and his eccentric host Kim Taehyung, Yoongi's not sure how he's going to get through this -- let alone write a hit song.

a spoonful of suga by ellievolia [38.6k] [explicit] ϟ ♡ 

“Good evening, ladies and gents. You’re listening to First, the premium digital station, and this is Spoonful of Suga, hosted by your very own Suga. Relax, let the music do its job. We’ll be taking requests later, but first, please enjoy the next uninterrupted half hour of music.”

Min Yoongi, a late night radio show host, has a regular caller. He also has busybody best friends, too much music on his playlists, dreams that feel too big for his heart, and a genius dog.

Kim Taehyung works nights as a mortuary cosmetologist, likes to listen to the radio, and he also has a genius dog.

Say My Name (And I'll Lie in the Sound) by fadetomorrow [51k] [explicit] ♡ 

Taehyung wakes up 500 years in the past and catches feelings for a Joseon prince.

The Romance of Old Clothes by fringecity (indiachick) [59.6k] [explicit] ♡ 

Min Yoongi is an art director with zero tolerance for bullshit, looking for ultimate perfection in everything he creates. Kim Taehyung is the co-owner of a vintage fashion boutique who talks to clothes and learns magic from Tumblr.

It’s a match made in the depths of hell.

[“Taehyung-ah,” Seokjin says, wily and soft, “You’re not scared of meeting Yoongi, are you?” Taehyung knows this is bait. Seokjin knows this is bait. Even Yeontan, running circles around Taehyung now, knows this is bait. His angry brows are very expressive, and right now they’re saying 'don’t take the bait, don’t be a stupid fish.' Taehyung's a stupid fish.]

[lacquerware]

Mega Man should stop presenting its flaws as indispensable features

When I was fifteen, I learned to play the song Malagueña on the piano. It was a laborious project; the culmination of nine years of piano lessons under the tutelage of Mrs. Diane Miller, and the main event for her upcoming student showcase.

This arrangement of the piece was a seven-pager, and somewhere around page four was a problem phrase I kept playing wrong, a rapid two-handed run up the keyboard with tricky fingering. I got to a point where I could play flawlessly up to that phrase, only to flub the phrase every time. Each time I flubbed it, my teacher would stop me and send me back to page 2. “You have to perfect that phrase,” she would say, “so try it again, but first play the preceding two pages, so it’s no longer fresh in your mind by the time you get to it again.” Alas, this would result in more flubs, and after three flubs in a row she would send me back to the beginning of the entire piece. “You’re still not getting it,” she’d say. “So I think we should run through the stuff you’ve already mastered one more time.” I would glance at her, trying to read her intent, and she would stare back at me, bug-eyed and malevolent.

The above story is false,because Mrs. Miller was a kind, intelligent, and non-insane person. Like all people of that description, she understood that you don’t work out a problem area by indiscriminately repeating ALL PRACTICE. When you get one problem wrong on a math quiz, you don’t review the entire textbook. You don’t work on your free throws by drilling layups and then also free throws. You can’t learn to poach an egg by toasting English fucking muffins all day. To suggest otherwise is an act of hostility.

Mega Manhas always carried this hostility. The game dishes out its challenges in neat little screen-sized units, but penalizes your failures with gratuitous setbacks, often requiring you to replay entire stages from the beginning. This makes learning inordinately tedious. You have to retread every yard for every yard gained.

I guess this is a relic of the arcade age, when games were designed with the express intent of punishing players—unless they paid up. Indeed, most of Mega Man’s NES contemporaries inherited this same feature in the form of finite lives and scarce checkpoints, but it never made much sense on home consoles. You could argue that it prolonged the lifespan of each game, but that only held true for the masochists who continued to tolerate this torturous system rather than reallocate all that wasted time to more fruitful pursuits like, I dunno, learning to play piano or poach an egg.

I’ve always liked Mega Man, but it was already starting to feel like a tired concept as early as Mega Man IV. I was about eight years old by then, and starting to catch on that they were running out of boss motifs. Pharaoh Man felt like a red flag.

Mega Man has since proliferated into a multi-faceted franchise spanning more than 120 titles and three decades (and for the record, I’ve played through almost all of them), but it’s never really dispensed with its ancient baggage. Mega Man X brought new visual flare while diversifying the core action; Mega Man Zero imbued the series canon with new consequence and cool factor; Mega Man ZX fused the classic gameplay with the Metroidvania template; but all of these spin-offs continued to punish, punish, punish, to gatekeep their content from the series’ own consumers to no certain end.

When Capcom revealed Mega Man 9, I was momentarily taken with the nostalgia of it, but quickly lost interest when I realized that Capcom had no intent of evolving the series’ concepts, even in basic quality-of-life ways. Lives and weapon energy were still pointlessly commodified, checkpoints sadistically scarce. They’d even removed what few innovations the series had seen to date, such as the slide and the charge shot. Nor did the roster of Robot Masters appear any more inspired than the cast of rejects that had turned me off five installments prior. Capcom had had seventeen years to think about it and all they’d come up with were lame analogs of pastbosses, like Tornado Man and Magma Man. It’s like they thought they hadto retread the same shit beat for beat or people would get confused. Even their ace, Splash Woman, was just another in a long line of water-themed bosses.

Mega Man 10 as a follow-up was downright depressing. Strike Man, Pump Man, and Chill Man are what you get when you realize yesterday was the deadline and all you’ve got is a pen and a cocktail napkin. I can’t fathom that a bunch of game designers sat around brainstorming ideas for Mega Man fucking 10 and someone was like, “Hmm, what about an ice-themed boss.”

Now we have Mega Man 11, the long-awaited, belligerently-demanded revival of the MM franchise after some eight years of dormancy. After playing the demo, I find myself wondering why. Why are we here? Why is Mega Man 11 Capcom’s answer after saying no to Mega Man for eight years? It’s the SAME.

Yes, it looks and sounds nicer and there’re a couple new mechanics—which are themselves comically uninspired takes on the ancient tropes of bullet time* and Devil Trigger—but I’m mystified at how unchanged the formula still is after eight years of seemingly adamant dismissal of the entire franchise, let alone the thirty-one years they could’ve been critically examining it. Do they realize that other developers have been building on this genre since the eighties?

*Weird side note: The tutorial for Mega Man’s new “Speed Gear” ability explains that the gear makes you “move so fast that everything else seems slow,” but in practice Mega Man moves just as slowly as everything else. So it’s not Mega Man who’s moving fast, it’s. . . the player?  

Punishment as “Difficulty”

In the Block Man (lol) stage of the demo, there’s a section where you have to jump and slide through elaborate platforms as they scroll toward you, an insta-kill grinding device nipping at your heels all the while. The third platform has very peculiar collision detection, such that your head bonks against the empty space you’re supposed to jump through, seemingly rendering the challenge impossible. This is several screens into the stage but still prior to the first checkpoint (on Normal mode), so every time this platform killed me, I had to start the entire stage over. After about fifteen tries, I discovered that the collision doesn’t trigger if you’re holding left as you make the jump—an illogical thing to do unless you’ve died so many times you’ve run out of other ideas. By the time I cracked this idiosyncrasy, I’d already spent close to an hour replaying the preceding screens over and over for no reason. Why is this still a thing? This is punishment, not difficulty. It contributes to the challenge only in that it makes the experience less fun, “challenging” your resolve to continue playing. Think of all the origami you could be learning. All the old ladies you could be helping cross streets.

The Mega Man games are quite clever in the way they parse out the platforming and shooting in little bite-sized units. Each screen is essentially an action puzzle for you to solve. It would be so logical for each screen break to be a checkpoint, because each screen break isa checkpoint—the start of the next challenge. Games like Super Meat Boy do this, meting (meating?) out their challenges in bite-sized, infinitely repeatable increments. Nobody accuses Super Meat Boy of being too easy because it doesn’t make you repeat the shit you’ve already completed when you fail at the current task. If you wantthat kind of punishment, no one’s stopping you from resetting the game.

Mega Man 11 adds a “Casual” mode which increases the number of checkpoints, but it’s still annoying to me that the more punishing model is treated as the norm while the more logical distribution of checkpoints is treated as a concession. Soulsplayers will tell me to “git gud,” but that’s why I led with the piano analogy. I got damn good at Malagueña, and I still had time left over to do my homework and play video games.

Special Weapons

Using your Special Weapons in Mega Man games is like spending the money you might need to pay rent on stuff you could be getting for free through your well-connected friend Dave. The trial-and-error pairing of the right weapon and the right boss is such an integral part of Mega Man’s progression that any other use of anyspecial weapon becomes a high-risk gamble—unless, of course, you just Google the answers.

I understand the need to impose limits on the more powerful weapons, but games have figured out countless better ways to do this in the thirty-one years since Mega Man 1. Cool-down times. Cool-down meters. Recovery proportional to damage inflicted. Recovery proportional to damage received. Recovery by way of skillful attack, à laMetal Gear Rising. Enemy fire absorption à la Alien Soldier and Radiant Silvergun. Ranger X on the Sega Genesis had solar-powered special weapons; why not steal that idea for this game’s allegedly solar-powered protagonist?

Instead, even in its eleventh installment in two-thousand-goddamn-eighteen, Mega Man still employs an RNG-based item drop system. Replenishing your meter is as simple and menial as finding an enemy spawn point and brainlessly standing and shooting until an enemy happens to drop the energy you need. Don’t forget to cycle over to the gun you want to replenish, or else the battery is wasted, as if Mega Man just eats it by mistake.*

*Later games in the series introduced the Energy Balancer, a purchasable item which automatically refills the weapon that needs refilling even if you don’t have it selected. Why is that a thing you have to buy? Why put a fundamental improvement to the game behind a paywall, virtual or otherwise?

Meanwhile, MM11still employs the same bizarre meter continuity between deaths as past installments. Each death means repeating sections of the stage without reacquiring any previously spent meter, effectively creating a difficulty vortex—the harder this game is, the harder it gets. There was a ruthlessly capitalistic logic to this in the arcade days,but the Mega Man series has never been coin-operated (with a few obscure exceptions). It hasnevermade sense that, often, the best strategy is to voluntarily leap to your death over and over to force a Game Over, just to restart with a full weapon meter as an alternative to the tedium of refilling it manually or facing the boss without it. What is the explanation for this meter continuity in the first place? Are we supposed to think Mega Man is repeatedly exploding and materializing but he can’t materialize a few extra shots from his bubble gun while he’s at it? There’s a multi-faceted idiocy to this whole system.

Rush

Capcom ought to take a long, hard look at Rush, Mega Man’s transforming robot dog companion. It’s hard to believe the same guy who invented a fully autonomous solar-powered robot boy couldn’t design a dog-shaped spring that runs on renewable energy. Special weapons are one thing, but why does Rush have an exhaustible meter? He’s a fucking spring. It makes no sense as a narrative detail nor as an element of game design. What exactly are the designers trying to limit? Your ability to spam high jumps? The logistics of the Rush Coil already do that; you have to set him up like a lawn ornament and he peaces out after a single bound. He’s unspammable, even with a full bar. To begin with, there are rarely that many useful opportunities to use the Rush Coil within a single stage, and energy power-ups are infinite as long as you’re willing to endure the chore of finding them, so it’s not as though the game is challenging you to budget your resources—it’s just discouraging you from searching for those meaningful jump opportunities in the first place. It’s driving you to Google.

Bosses

The Robot Masters have always received special star treatment in the Mega Man games but rarely been very interesting as boss fights. You know the deal: dodge the dizzying hail of projectiles in an empty square room while desperately scrambling to land enough hits with the weakness weapon before you die. Considering all the fanfare these bosses get (mug shot, intro screen, and now reveal trailers), most of them feel kind of interchangeable. Most of them have nearly identical silhouettes and shoot functionally redundant projectiles in superficially different shapes. Every gun is a Lucky Charms marshmallow.

The boss fights actually do seem a little more interesting in Mega Man 11—Block Man in particular stands out with his mid-fight transformation into a hulking colossus. I’d hoped to see more of this in future Mega Mans—fights that evolve and really set each Robot Master apart as a distinct embodiment of its corresponding motif—so maybe they’re onto something this time. Still, it’s a little ridiculous that this game has yet another fire boss, electricity boss, cold boss, and bomb boss. Why are we still here?

Before the mob comes for me, I want to stress that there’s always been lots to love about Mega Man, and I’m glad Capcom is investing in the IP again. I just hope this is the start of a long-term effort to reevaluate and improve the series, not another short-sighted extension of a tired status quo.

[linaofthemyscira]

Bad At Love

Pairing: Dick Grayson x Reader

Words: 1854

Prompt: I’ve never been good at requests, so here goes! Can you please and thank you write an imagine for Dick Grayson based off of the song “Bad at Love” by Halsey? Maybe angsty by referring to the reader’s past relationship experiences and Dick just hates watching the reader get hurt over and over again? (I am so so sorry if that’s long and confusing, you don’t have to do it if it’s too confusing)--Requested by @writing-yj

Warnings: angst and fluff together (flangst?? Is that what it’s called?) and language!!

A/n I really like this song so like YES! Also, I hope it’s not too clichéd cuz I’m a sucker for certain cliches in instances like these. I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!

You and Dick had been living with each other for only 6 months, and your apartment was already getting cluttered with unnecessary items.

“Dick, it’s time we clean out our apartment. I can’t live like this anymore. It’s a mess!” You had told him.

“Okay, okay. I agree it is messy. We could clean some stuff out,” he looked around, scratching his head.

“No, we have to clean most of this stuff out. Most. Not some.” You placed your hands on your hips.

“Fine. Most,” he sighed.

Weeks passed and neither of you cleaned out your belongings from the apartment. Finally, you had one weekend off and took the time to start clearing things out. You started with old furniture, taking an old, worn down nightstand and putting it outside in the alley for someone to take. You also took an old armchair that was dusty and ratty and put it in the alley too, right next to the nightstand.

Next, you moved on to little trinkets and things you collected over the years. You grabbed a trash bag and began to fill it up with tiny papers with guys’ phone numbers, old calendars, pieces of origami and broken pencils. Everything that you no longer needed, dumped in the trash.

You then took all of the clothes you no longer wore and put them in a bag to donate to charity. It was better than just throwing them away, especially since you knew that someone out there needed clothes as much as you did.

Lastly, you took care of the miscellaneous items. You were rummaging around in your closet when your hand brushed a small box on the top shelf way in the back.

“What the…?” You mumbled. You took down the box and blew the dust off the top. Then, you turned to your bed and sat on it.

You opened the mysterious box slowly, unsure of what to expect, but once you fully took off the lid, you gasped. All the memories came flooding back and you dropped the box on the floor, some of the contents of the box falling out. Tears started rolling down your cheeks, and you quickly wiped them away in case Dick came into the room.

You picked up the box and the items that fell out and placed them on your mattress, sifting through them and beginning to let the tears fall shamelessly.

The first thing you picked up was a photo of you and your first boyfriend, smiling happily atop a mountain in the Appalachians. You recalled that day, how much fun you had and how carefree you were back in high school with him. It was all so fun, but it ended as quickly as it began.

Your boyfriend broke up with you because he felt that you weren’t paying attention to him, and it was true. Deep inside, when you were that teenager back in high school, you knew you were only dating him to say you had a boyfriend. You didn’t even love him. It was infatuation at best. Yet, it left you in tears and heartbreak.

You set the photo aside along with the tiny teddy bear that he had given you for your birthday. Next, you found a photo of your next boyfriend giving you a piggyback ride. You smiled fondly at the photo, remembering the day it was taken. It was your one year anniversary with him, and your mother had taken the picture. You fell in love with this one. He was good to you, treated you the way you were meant to be treated. You paid attention to him and cared about him, and even fell in love with him. Everybody thought you two would last...but it fell apart soon after your anniversary.

You broke up with him this time because he fell in love with another girl. He left you feeling broken and insecure, like you weren’t good enough. The break-up shattered your world, and you swore on that day that you would never date a guy again. They were snakes and liars, and it wasn’t worth the pain.

So you experimented a little, which is where your next relationship brought you.

You put the picture of you and your second boyfriend back in the box, along with the locket he gave you for your anniversary. Next, you came across a picture of you and your first girlfriend. She was from California, and she was amazing. She made you realize your true sexuality and helped you discover more about yourself than your past boyfriends ever could have. She was a free spirit, one with nature and it’s living beings. She was bubbly and lively and she was a singer who had a steady job at a restaurant. You thought it was meant to be...until you got a call from the ER.

You didn’t know she was taking it until you rushed to the hospital, desperate for her to be okay. “She OD’d,” the doctor had told you. She was gone. Another relationship shat on by the universe.

You put her photo back in your box and picked up a new one. Sure, you had fun with your first girlfriend, but the next one that came along was a guy again.

You held out for a long time though, since, by this one, you had trust issues. But he wasn’t willing to let you go that easily. He came back to you over and over until you told him that you would go out with him. Once you started dating him, it took off and it was the best. He was everything you could have ever asked for and more. Personally, you thought he was the one. You thought you two would last forever.

Then you met Dick.

And everything changed.

Suddenly, your boyfriend at the time (who you dated for 2 and a half years) wasn’t everything you wanted. He seemed insignificant compared to Dick. You and Dick started off as friends first after you accidentally smacked into him while he was chasing a perp on foot and you were running into your work building. After that, it was clear that you were truly meant to be with him.

But you were with someone else. And he had a relationship that “complicated”. The timing just wasn’t right. So you stayed friends for a quite a while until you couldn’t take it anymore. You remembered that night all too well.

“I’m sorry, Tyler, but I can’t keep pretending that I’m in love with you anymore! I’m sorry.” You cried.

“I—I can’t believe you, Y/N! I thought this was real! I thought we were going to be together for the rest of our lives! Hell, I even bought a fucking engagement ring. I’m just—I don’t even know what to say.” Tyler rubbed his temples. When Tyler mentioned the engagement ring, you gasped. You had no idea he was going to propose.

“You...you were going to propose?” You asked.

“I was. But I guess that’s not happening anymore,” he scoffed. Both of you stood in an awkward silence for a couple of minutes before he broke it.

“Who is he?” He asked.

“Who is who?” You asked back.

“He. The guy you’re leaving me for. Who is he?” Tyler asked. You gasped at Tyler in shock. How did he know? You didn’t even tell him about Dick. You sighed and sat on the couch solemnly.

“He’s a police officer. From Blüdhaven,” you said, “How—how did you know?”

“Please, Y/N. I can tell that someone else came into the picture. I was that person before,” Tyler laughed wryly.

“Which person? The one who came into the picture or the one who fell in love with the new person?” You asked.

“I’ll let you figure that out.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Ty...I’m so sorry. I wish that this didn’t happen,” you started silently crying.

“But it did. It’s okay. He better be worth it though,” Tyler told you.

“I hope he is too,” you muttered.

That night, you packed some of your belongings and slept at Dick’s apartment, telling him what happened as soon as you arrived.

And, since then, you’ve been with Dick. It felt like it happened just yesterday, but it was only a year ago.

You smiled sadly at the photo as you placed it back into the box with the other little gifts your past boyfriends (and girlfriend) gave you. You began crying again at all of the emotions that bubbled up from going through memory lane.

“I’m bad at love,” you sniffled and wiped your eyes.

Dick heard you from the living room and decided to investigate, worried that you had hurt yourself or something.

“Y/N? He called as approached the room. When he saw you crying, an alarm went off in his head and he immediately rushed to your side.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked you with concern. You tried to speak, but all you could do was sob and sniffle. Dick brought you in for a hug to calm you down, caressing your hair and pressing soft kisses to your forehead for comfort. Eventually, you stopped crying and slowed your breathing down enough to form a sentence.

“Dick...I’m bad at love. I think you should leave now while you have the chance,” You sighed.

“What? No, Y/N, don’t think that.” He gave you his puppy eyes as you looked down ashamedly, “Hey...hey. Look at me.” Dick brought his hand to your cheek to tilt your face up so you could look at him clearly.

“You’re not bad at love. I know you’ve had a rough romantic past, but that doesn’t mean you’re bad at love.” He told you.

“Dick--” you started.

“I’m not going anywhere, I’m gonna stay right by your side to love you...to protect you....and to cherish you forever and ever,” He continued while pressing kisses on your cheeks.

“The last time someone told me that, he left me.” You sniffled.

“Well, I’m here to stay. I hate seeing you broken like this, so...I vow that I’ll be by your side and I’ll love you. No matter what. Okay?” He said. You nodded in response and offered a small smile.

“There’s that smile I know and love! Come on, show me those teeth,” Dick beamed at you. You rolled your eyes and bared your teeth at your boyfriend, but not in a smiling manner.

“Hey! Not like that!” he backed up. You laughed at Dick as he stood up, knocking over the box onto the floor again. Though, this time, you paid no attention to it. Dick laughed with you and launched himself at you, pinning you to the bed and hovering above you.

You giggled beneath him, feeling much better now that he was around. Dick caught you off guard when he suddenly placed his lips on yours.

Somehow, you knew that this time, you wouldn’t be left feeling battered and heartbroken. You finally felt secure, and it was the best feeling in the world.

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