#anyways here have this before i move out again and become unavailable for another month
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international-sunrise · 1 year ago
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I LOST MY FEAR OF FALLING
CHAPTER 11/? : we are so far from you...
Fandom: 외모지상주의 | Lookism
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Hong Jae Yeol | Jay & Park Hyung Suk | Daniel, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Characters: Hong Jae Yeol | Jay, Park Hyung Suk | Daniel, Hong Jae Hye | Joy, Lee Jin Sung | Zack, Lee Eun Tae | Vasco
Additional Tags: Character Study, Relationship Study, Pre-Relationship, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Canon Compliant, Angst, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, POV Hong Jae Yeol | Jay, Spoilers for Lookism
CHAPTER 11: WE ARE, SO FAR FROM YOU...
Summary:
“Well, Jaeyeol is good looking, smells like old money and doesn’t need help from Haneul to do his homework, so I definitely wouldn’t mind if people thought we were dating.”
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chemicalpink · 5 years ago
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How to be a Heartbreaker ♡ Jeon Jungkook
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Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader
Genre: smut, fluff, a bit of crack
Word Count: 2.7k
Warnings: protected sex, emotionally unavailable Jungkook, bisexual JK (implied)
A/N: HELLO whoa I thought this would be longer but as always I procrastinated until the end, anyhow, I hope you like this, please let me know what you think! I’ll keep on working on the drabbles on my inbox, I hope you are doing okay and if you need anything as far as internet would let me help, I’m here for you! Please use a mask if you go out! Stay healthy!
Summary: Girls they like a little danger and I’ll get them falling for a stranger, a player singing ‘I love you’. At least… I think I do.
Rule No.1: You gotta have fun but when you’re done, you gotta be the first to run.
You catch some movement out of the corner of your eye just as you are about to enter your room after some minutes spent doing your late dorm routine as head of the student council, having to verify that the place is intact for the night; you turn around to see none other than Jeon Jungkook, verified bad boy of campus closing a door– that is most definitely not his– as silently as possible, dishevelled hair and barely buttoned-up shirt, jacket in hand, his doe eyes expand in surprise as you catch him with a mocking smirk on your face and hand on your hip, as if asking for an explanation.
“Uh-we were studying”
“Of course you were” you laugh as he fumbles with his buttons while he approaches you, close enough to let you catch a whiff of his cologne mixed with whoever it was his laid of the night “You know you can’t be here this late, Jungkook” 
He stares right back at you and glances down to your lips, caught in between your teeth from the obvious tension the scenario conveys, innocent  shocked face long gone and replaced with a look that you very much have the pleasure of knowing as he whispers against your mouth, “Let me make it up to you then”
His large hand caressed the inner part of your thigh and starts rising upwards just in time his lips swallow your surprised moan; fingers teasing your clothed clit, a chuckle reverberating in Jungkook’s chest as you groaned unamused, separating your mouth to breathe “Stop teasing, you asshole”
Your room door closed just as quick as it opened, Jungkook’s form pushing you against the wall as he continued to kiss you, lusted eyes and fast anxious fingers working each other’s clothes, although there wasn’t much on Jungkook to begin with “I’m gonna be in so much trouble if someone sees you walking out of my room”
“I’ll jump out the window then”
“Or you know, you could stay the night” you suggest, although deep down you know Jungkook just doesn’t do pillow talk, never have, never will, he had told you one day as he put his clothes back on before rushing out the door.
“I’ll jump out of the window” just as you are about to come back at him with how much stupider that sounds, his mouth encloses your nipple, tongue working it the way only he knows how to, shutting you up surely, at least until he inserts two digits inside you, pumping them roughly, touching all the right places, your right leg coming up to round his waist, both of your breaths hitched as you have to grip his shoulders to ground yourself to the force that he is fucking you with his fingers; Jungkook grabs your other leg to hoist you up against his warm skin, hands under your ass, yours still gripping him tightly, fear of letting him escape you one more time, though you know he will do after he is done with you.
You can feel the tip of his cock brushing against your folds from the position you are both in, his face lighting up in something you could pinpoint as fondness, if you didn’t know better than who Jungkook was, before he throws you on top of the bed, peppering your face and neck with kisses that only help to fuel the heat in the pit of your stomach– a very much Jungkook signature move, from what you can tell and have been able to witness firsthandedly so far.
Jungkook was very much the type of person to get down to business, all the while not being really vocal in bed–or out of bed, for that matter. He just really liked to keep to himself and make you enjoy the moment. At least that’s what you’ve heard from all the other girls that he had left hoping for a good morning text the day after, or seconds, for that matter. Jeon Jungkook also didn’t do seconds, unless it was you. But nobody has to know about that.
He pretends he couldn’t just flip you over himself as a teasing smile takes over his features from seeing you on top of him, placing a wet kiss under his jaw as you trailed kisses down his toned chest and abs before reaching for his already hard cock; taking it in your hand you gave it a few pumps before licking the tip teasingly while looking up at him, a gasp escaping past his lips, closed lids and subconsciously grinding up as you took all of his length in your mouth, tongue licking the veiny side and kitten licking the tip before letting him prod the back of your throat, his hand tangling in your hair to keep you there for a few seconds, relishing in the pleasure that he wasn’t quite aware he could be given “Wait, stop. I need to fuck you” 
You smile innocently at him before straddling him, him sitting up to kiss you senseless once again, tasting himself on your tongue only serving as a way to fuel him further, something inside him snapping at the sight of you all flushed and needy, skilled fingers confirming just how wet you had become just from blowing him.
Jungkook places a firm grip on your thigh and finally sinks into you once before retracting and teasing your folds with your own juices that lubricate his dick, taking his time to have you wriggling underneath him, begging him to go faster, harder. Which he gladly delivers. 
He fucks you as no other had before, not even himself. Hard, relentlessly, with a look of pure admiration on his eyes as he watches you squirm and moan in pleasure, which he would never admit to, but at the time it makes his heart fill with pride and even makes him want to spend the night over. But he knows he shouldn’t, so he hoists your leg up to his hip as he pistons even faster, deeper, harder on the new angle in an attempt to make him forget just how much you captivate him; the loudest moan he has ever gotten from you leaving your lips as he feels the need to keep hearing those, but his stamina is wearing off and he can feel his high approaching at the same time as your walls clench around him, legs shaking as he spills inside you–something that is reserved for you only, ever since this weird thing you two had going on began; which he knows is weird feeling his heart pump faster at the thought but it does anyway.
“Are you sleeping over?” you ask tiredly after he had cleaned both of you up and had tucked you into bed, barely keeping yourself awake, you already knew the answer but still gave it a shot.
“You know I don’t do that, Y/N. I’m not that type of guy” his shirt is dangling unbuttoned just the way you had encountered him earlier, this time, however, even more crumpled up, your eyelids close as he bends down to place a sweet kiss on your temple, still conscious enough to hear the door click on his way out.
Rule No.2: Don’t get attached to somebody you could lose
It wasn’t like Jungkook and you didn’t get along outside of your usual rendezvous; just that you tended not to gravitate to each other that much, you were pretty much all over the place being president of the student council and he was, well, all over the place but for less academic reasons. 
You being the goody two shoes that you were came convenient to him, you two would cross paths while he was hanging with his friends at the basketball court, and you would already be there doing some planning ahead for the next campus event, and yeah, so what if he wasn’t meant to talk to you after the first time you two had fucked, he kept repeating himself that the reason he was so into keeping himself on your good side was because you could get him out of trouble if the time came where he needed your assistance.
At first, when a few days had gone by and you weren’t bumping into each other, he didn’t think much of it, but by Friday during a massive student reunion, he could feel his heart thumping against his chest when instead of you stepping up to the podium, was the student council vice president, and your friend, Namjoon– whom which he will admit, he kinda had a crush on but that’s another story.
“You’re looking for someone, dude?” Hoseok appeared to his right, bright smile as usual, but thsi time with a teasing undertone he had been hoping to get away from
“Nah”
“Really? Cause I heard that Y/N-” Jugkook’s head has never snapped back so fast before at the mention of your name, his inner self mentally slapping him for being so obvious about it, except, no, he did not had a crush on you. You two just slept around. That's it. “Yahh, I thought you were meant to be a heartbreaker, JK”
“I am”
“Doesn’t look like it” the elder took a seat next to him “So, wanna hear about Y/N then? or I mean- if she’s just one more notch in your belt I guess you wouldn’t mind much”
“Yahh hyung, if you want to spill it, do” he had hoped his retort sounded more nonchalant to Heseok than in did to his own ears, either way he was sure he would never live it down.
“Well I don’t know where she is per se, but maybe you can as Namjoonie? I just know she was sick” his head began racing with thoughts. You two had become close over the months, there’s no use in denying it, but just exactly how weird would it be for him, a casual laid, to show up at your door? Plus, he wasn’t meant to do that, he was Jungkook, the campus bad boy that did ‘em and left ‘em, how damaged would his image be if people started talking? or your image? student council president sleeping around with a player? He couldn’t do that to you. Wait. Why is he even worried about you? Jungkook doesn’t care about other people, that brings too many problems. He doesn’t even know your out of campus adress, but he guesses he could ask Namjoon, then again, he kinda may or may not have a crush on the guy and somehow Jungkook makes all their interactions awkward as fuck, but it is not his fault! The guy just has these incredible thighs that he would like to be choked with, thank you very much.
“You’re zoning out again Jungkookie” he blinked a few times before looking back at Hoseok, bright, teasing smile still on his lips
“I’m fucked” he whispers before getting up from his current spot and dashes to the side of the auditorium where Namjoon is seated after giving an amazing speech– he’s sure of it, even though he didn’t hear a word.
Rule No.3: Wear your heart on your cheek 
“Jungkook?” you said as you opened the door of your apartment, confused as to why and exactly how would Jungkook know your address, it was no secret that as part of the student council you were given a dorm, which you used on an almost daily basis but sometimes you just had to clear your mind and stay out– Jungkook and you had only been together on said dorm room. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh- I’m- ah, I brought- um, food?” he brought his hand up for you to see the take out bag, his cheeks flushed accompanied his stammering statement, truly the cutest thing you had ever seen on him, cause sure, Jeon Jungkook on campus was hot as sin, but he didn’t do feelings, so seeing him all timid and offering you food, instead of his dick, was enough to give you whiplash.
“I don’t understand” you turned to him as you both worked on setting the table, the time filled with silence ever since he had come into your house “What’s all of this for?”
He turned your way and his heart started thumping against his chest wildly once again, his inner self actively screaming at him that this wasn’t his way of doing things, he was about to break one of the rules he had set up for himself, just how he did every time he saw you, perhaps he just couldn’t control the way he felt about you, Hoseok had been right all along, he either grew a pair and tried out the romance bullshit or he stopped seeing you all together, he went to your home on a mission, he just didn’t know which one yet.
“Namjoon hyung gave me your address, he mentioned you hadn’t been feeling well” 
You hummed in thought and Jungkook could feel his fight or flight instincts kick in, telling him to run as fast and far away from you as possible, there is no way he is doing this shit. He physically can’t just blurt out a ‘hey I think I like you, Y/N’ he might as well die.
The silence that took over the room tumbled on the verge of being awkward, were it not for the two of you eating what Jungkook brought over “Jungkook, what is this for you?” he turned to look at you, mouth still full with noodles as he did so, before choking on his food at the smallest of words leaving your mouth “us, I mean”
He cleared his throat thrice “Us?”
“Yeah”
“I don’t do feelings, Y/N” ther ewas currently a massive ‘abort mission’ sign on his mind, sure, you looked cute as fuck in sweats and loose shirt – which he kept imagining to be his own– but there was just no possible way that he is doing this. He is definitely not ready to leave his usual lifestyle, how could he have thought that he could stop sleeping around and just stay with you. How could he have thought to do that to you, dating him was probably the last thing you wanted, you were the complete opposite of him. Fuck. He’s zoning out again. Focus Jungkook. Focus. “Listen, Y/N, I’m- we’ve known each other for quite some time, right?”
“If, making out and fucking can count as quality time, yeah” you giggled at the way his cheeks started to flush bright red, new favourite activity: make Jungkook the bad boy blush.
“This is really hard for me, like, really” he paused and closed his eyes, taking a sharp breath in “And I don’t even know what I’m thinking of, but I have come to the realisation that I like you a-and I don’t even know if you feel the same, man, I fucked up real big, we haven’t really talked, hell, we don’t even know each other and yeah, I’m stupid but I can’t help it anym-”
“Koo, you’re ranting”
His face flushed even further, if possible
“Sorry”
“You do that often?” you asked, looking for his sparkling doe eyes that were already looking back at you 
“Yeah, my friends say so”
“That’s cute”
Rule No.4: Kiss goodbye at the door and leave them wanting more.
“So we’ll hang out tomorrow?” you asked, body resting against your door frame as Jugkook stood tall in front of you, your hand coming up to fix his hair back in place, a smile tugging at both of your lips
“Yeah” he said before leaning in and capturing your lips on a teasing kiss, his teeth gently tugging at your lower lip, at which you pulled him into you to deepen the kiss, just the way you already know drives him crazy, his hands wrapping themselves on your waist, smiling against your lips before separating the two of you went he felt you getting a little too much eager “Yahh Y/N, let me take you out for dinner first”
“And you’re the one to talk” 
He pecked your lips one last time before turning away and seeing him disappear down the stairs, a whole zoo on your stomach, heart racing inside his chest. That was easier than he initially thought it would be. He’ll keep you falling for a stranger, saying ‘I love you’, at least, he thinks he does. 
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straybreeze · 4 years ago
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GX MONTH 2021
Day 1: “Hero Signal”
We’re kicking things off with everyone’s favorite hero Judai/Jaden Yuki’s birthday! Show the fluffy boi some love!
Yay, this is my very first time participating in a Tumblr event! Thank you @gxmonth for making this, I'm so excited!
I tried my best to include my OC as well, I hope it won't be too cringe lol.
Also, I would like to remark here, that I'm not a native English speaker, so if I made any grammatical errors or other mistakes, please let me know!
Word count: 2475
Pairing: implied spiritshipping
Warnings: slight angst
Happy, happy birthday Judai.
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The sun was already high on the endless blue sky, showering the small apartment room in golden light when a big, orange and round thing pushed the door open with its head. The cat made his way through the mess and straight to the bed, where his owner was still sleeping. Confuting his own respectable weight, he jumped easily into the bed and snuggled up to the sleeping boy’s side, purring loudly. The quiet snoring suddenly stopped as the boy slowly opened his deep brown eyes, his hand automatically searching for the cat’s fluffy head.
“Let me sleep, Pharaoh! Just five more minutes!” Judai pleaded and covered his eyes with his free hand.
But it had been proven to be an unacceptable answer to Pharaoh. If he was hungry, nothing was an excuse for being late for breakfast. And in fact, it was almost lunchtime.
“Meow!”
However, Judai still didn’t seem willing to move, so he had to try harder.
“Ouch! Pharaoh, I know you are hungry, but I’m not your food! Don’t eat me!” Judai moaned as he sat up reluctantly. He squinted in the vivid lights, reaching the phone on the nightstand. The screen was showing 11 AM and the date below: 31th August.
31st August. The last day of summer. And his birthday.
Judai almost forgot about his nineteenth birthday. But to be honest, this day is going to be just like any other of the past week. He had nothing to do besides sitting at home and feeding Pharaoh occasionally. There was no real difference from what he did ever since he arrived from his last journey.
In fact, he was stuck in Domino City and had to stay there until he would eventually get a phone call from Chancellor Samejima. In the past one year of his life, an incoming call from his ex-headmaster meant one thing: a new job is on the sight. Not that Judai minded that. He loved travelling around the world and solving intriguing cases with his dueling skills. He didn’t continue his studies in a college, nor joined the Pro Leagues like his other friends. No, he just did the same as in his Academia years: slacking and occasionally saving the day. That is the duty of the heroes after all.
…And at least he could be useful in something as well.
Judai spent the last two weeks in this apartment, which he and Johan were renting together. In the first days, it wasn’t so hard to stay put, but Johan went on a holiday to his family in Sweden more than a week ago. He promised that he will get home before the end of summer, yet he messaged his roommate that he had to stay for a few more days. So in the end, Judai was left alone for his birthday.
Okay, not completely alone. At least Pharaoh was there for him, he thought as he strolled out to the kitchen to find some breakfast for his hungry cat. And for himself.
One year had already passed since they graduated from Duel Academia. A lot of things happened to everyone and it appeared that nobody had the time to greet Judai on his birthday. At least none of his friends told him that they would like to see him today. No missed calls, no unread messages yet.
Have they already forgotten him?
No, that was nonsense. They might be just… busy.
Sho and Manjoume have joined the Pro Leagues right after their graduation, so they were already living their restless life just like his other pro friends, Edo and Kaiser. Well, in his Academia years Judai already got used to that Edo is as much unavailable as the Emperor of Japan himself, but it appeared that Kaiser is that kind of celebrity too. Since he more or less recovered from his heart condition, he started a Cyber Pro League along with Sho and they both attended various events actively in the country and lately overseas too. Of course, Kaiser was told that he must not overstrain himself and stress too much in general, but Judai would bet that he disregarded all of those rules anyway. Especially because he hadn’t talked to him in months, so he must be busy as hell as always.
On the other hand, as far as Judai knew the Tenjoin siblings still lived in North America – Asuka was still studying in Duel College for sure while her brother, Fubuki-san was… doing something too, he assumed? Judai hadn’t heard much of them lately, but he knew that Fubuki-san followed his younger sister to chase his dreams and become an idol abroad. Judai didn’t know much about the school system of America, so Asuka might have classes at this very moment, maybe that’s why she hasn’t called him yet.
For his younger friends, Kenzan graduated from Duel Academia this summer, while Rei is going to start her last year in October. Maybe they are both on a vacation right now, enjoying themselves on a beach or something. It was still summer anyway, Judai couldn’t blame them for that.
And oh, there was Aurora, too. She was the roommate of Edo (and maybe his stepsister as well? Or something more? Who knows. She was a mystery anyway), who befriended him less than a year ago. Judai supposed she doesn’t even know that this day is his birthday.
After he gave some salmon flavored cat food and fresh water to Pharaoh, he decided to grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast and lunch at once.
As much he wanted to act like his birthday was nothing, if it was just like any other day, it made him hurt deep inside that nobody, even his closest friends haven’t paid attention to him on his day. He already got used to that his parents don’t care about him, but he thought he found a new family in his friends.
Maybe he was wrong.
But hey, it was him who abandoned them in the first place, Judai reminded himself. He was the one who left the Academia without saying goodbye and ran away from them straight to another country. He shouldn’t feel sad, because he knew that their friends would be estranged from him sooner or later. And he was the only one to blame.
Judai was so lost deep in his thoughts that he didn’t even realize that the milk was long overflowed the bowl and it was already spilling down the table. Pharaoh didn’t waste a single second: he leapt to the white liquid dripping from the edge of the table and licked it with such joy as if he had never tasted it before in his entire life.
“Dammit!” Judai moaned, then hastily wiped the milk off from the table and the parquet.
Oh well. He hadn’t been awake for ten whole minutes yet, but he already knew, birthday or no birthday, this was not going to be his day.
As the day continued, Judai climbed back to the bed and chose to do nothing today besides watching silly TV shows. He could have gone out at least for a walk, that’s true. He lived in Domino City after all, the city he loved the most. If you are a duelist, this is the best place for you in the entire world, especially if you live in downtown. The coast was not too far, Kaiba Land and other fun places were within easy reach too. But nothing was entertaining enough if you had no friends around.
“I feel like you’ve forgotten something,” Judai heard a familiar voice from all of a sudden. Slowly, the television screen became blurry as he was still staring at it, and a demonic shadow appeared at the end of his bed.
“Yubel,” he spoke their name aloud as he closed his eyes. “What did I forget?”
“Me,” came the obvious answer. “Why do you feel so lonely?”
“I’m not lonely. I’m just…” Judai began but then realized that the sentence had no continuation. “No, Yubel, everything’s good.”
“You sure?”
“Uh, yeah! I’m glad you’re here. It is enough for me.”
“You are a bad liar, Judai. You know that?”
“Hey, I mean it! I’m glad you are here, Yubel.”
“… I know.” Yubel smiled, gentler than it was imaginable from them. As they took a short break, their heterochromatic eyes curiously scanned the boy who was bound to them for an eternity. “But I still don’t understand, what is the matter with you?”
Judai didn’t answer their question. At least with words. He thought it was enough for an answer that he checked his phone every five minutes if someone messaged him already. But sadly, nobody had searched him so far.
It was already late afternoon when he finally heard the standard ringtone of his phone. He almost fell asleep again, and the vibrating sound made his heart pound in excitement. He immediately grabbed his phone, but when he checked the screen, he had mixed feelings.
The caller was Aurora, Edo’s roommate. And the last one who Judai thought would call him on his birthday.
“Hello, Rory! What up?” he greeted her, a soft smile unintentionally crossed his lips. But it had soon vanished when Aurora didn’t answer immediately. “Rory? Is something wrong?”
“Judai,” she spoke finally. Her usual melodic voice was trembling somewhat as if she was nervous. “I’m glad I could reach you!”
“Yeah, I mean, you could have totally called me all day! I had nothing to do, you know.” Maybe he shouldn’t have hinted things like these, but still.
“I see. Sorry, Judai, but may I ask you something?” Aurora’s voice still didn’t sound too firm.
“Sure, anytime!” Judai’s eyes sparkled at thought of the adventure. “But you’re fine, aren’t you?”
“Y-Yeah. I just… need to talk with someone. With you.”
“Really? Well, I’d gladly chat with you, but if you wanna talk about some… girlish thing, you know I’m not your man.”
“You will be completely fine. I wanna talk about something else, not girlish things.”
“Something happened with Edo maybe?” Judai guessed.
“Not at all! Ahw Judai, stop asking questions! I will tell you everything if I see you in person. So get ready and come!”
“Come where?”
“I’ll be waiting for you at the entrance of Kaiba Land in fifteen minutes.”
“Why there? You’re not even a duelist—„
“See you later, Judai!”
Before Judai could remark that he may not be there in fifteen minutes, Aurora had already hung up the phone. Surely, she became weirder and weirder. Maybe it was Edo who was a bad influence on her.
When Judai arrived at the said place, he was nearly jumping out of his skin. He was curious about what Aurora wanted to talk to him about, and at the same time, he was glad that he finally had a reason to leave the apartment.
Though it was still a bit unexpected that he would spend his birthday with Aurora, but why not? They were friends after all. He should have thought about her sooner.
“Judai!” Aurora shouted and waved him from the distance.
As he came closer, Aurora silently turned around and headed into the Park. It was almost sunset, the monstrous structures of Kaiba Land were glowing in orange.
“Okay, would you tell me now what are we doing here?” Judai asked while he barely could keep up with her.
“You will see, I promise!”
“Come on, Rory!”
“No worries, we are almost there!”
And that was all she told him, no matter how hard he tried to get more information. But the sparkle of hope ignited in his heart, that something bigger was standing behind this weird invitation.
Kaiba Land was slowly emptied out as the closing hour was coming, so they didn’t meet too many people. Especially as they got deeper and deeper into the amusement park.
They were nearby the rollercoaster when they finally stopped.
“Judai,” Aurora turned to him. “I know that this whole thing came from all of a sudden, and I’m so happy that you followed me without a question anyway.”
“Well, actually—”
“I hope you know that it means a lot to me. Not just me. To all of us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Judai, you have amazing friends. And you are the best among the best for all of them.”
“Rory, I’m not sure I understa—„
“SURPRISE!!”
Shouts were coming from everywhere, and suddenly a shadow of a whole crowd appeared in the dim lights of the setting sun. Before Judai could have the time to react, a short figure stood out from them and started running towards him.
“Happy birthday, Aniki!” Sho shrieked as he bumped into Judai and embraced him closely. Shortly after, he found himself surrounded by people. Surrounded by his friends.
“Happy birthday, Judai!”
“Judai-sama! I wish the bestest birthday in the world to you!”
“Nice to see you, loser! Where the hell have you been for this long?”
“Yeah, Judai, we were all waiting for you!”
“Happy birthday, Aniki-don!”
“Damn, I missed you so much!”
Everyone was there. Asuka and Rei. Manjoume, Fubuki-san and Kenzan. Sho was still holding onto him, almost crying.
“Hehe, surprise! I came back from Sweden today just because of your big day!”
Even Johan was there. He came home finally! Judai couldn’t help, but sudden warmth flowed through his body as Johan hugged him along with everyone else. Even Manjoume was in the crew.
“Hey guys, you flatter me…”
“See, Edo? We almost missed the group hug because of you.” Another familiar voice came from the distance, and when Judai glanced up, he saw Kaiser Ryo and Edo Phoenix’s silhouettes were approaching them.
“Don’t blame me because Kaiba Seto himself wanted to talk with me. But I assume you can still join the group hug if you’re really that desperate.”
When the pros reached the crew, they greeted Judai in unison.
“Happy birthday, Judai!”
“You two…”
“In fact, these two were the masterminds for this plan,” Aurora joined the celebration too. “Happiest birthday for you!”
With suppressed tears in his eyes, Judai looked around his friends. Yeah, Aurora had right. He had the best friends in the world and now he felt terrible guilt that he had ever questioned them. Yubel were right after all, for not understanding what was his problem. Now he didn’t understand too.
“Okay, who wants some cake?”
“WAIT, we have cake?” Judai asked in shock. How the hell did they bring it to here?
“Of course! I mean you have it, Judai,” Asuka corrected him.
Before Judai could shout in happiness, his phone started ringing again. To his surprise, Chancellor Samejima called him.
“Happy birthday, Judai! Are you ready for your next adventure?”
Judai couldn’t help but smile again.
“Ready as I’ll ever be!”
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starlightxsvt · 5 years ago
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Sunrises || Choi Seungcheol au
Pairing: Seungcheol x Female reader
Genre: apocalypse au, slice of life (?), angst, kinda fluff, some action
Warning: zombies, death and stuffs
"Thank you for saving me that day." You murmur to the male sittig next to you.
Seungcheol, in return says nothing, focusing on peeling the apple in his hand.
It was the third day after he saved you and gave you a place to stay. The man didn't offer his name or any other information - though you figured it out from craved wood that hung on his room's door saying, 'Seungcheol's room' - neither asked yours but you enlightened him with it. He doesn't talk much and doesn't like to be talked much but you kept your mouth open anyway.
It was about two months since the strange virus spread and begun the apocalypse and you were lucky enough to have stumbled upon Seungcheol.
"I really mean it." You whisper. "I'm new in this place. Believe it or not but I moved here literally a few days before the apocalypse started."
You didn't get any response to that either.
"Do you have any family? I don't. My mother died long ago and my father's an addict so I basically ran from him."
More silence.
You take in his features which are too concentrated on peeling the apple. His brows were knit to a frown and he chewed on his lower  plump lip.
You swallow, "Who's Sunghoon?" You know you probably shouldn't have asked the question but curiosity got the best of you. You saw the name hanging on one of the rooms which was apparently locked.
He looks up at you, an angry look on his face. "I swear to any higher being up there, if you don't shut your mouth I am going to feed you to the corpses by myself." He stands up murmuring, "This is why I don't like helping people." 
You watch his retreating figure walk inside the house and you sigh, leaning against the apple tree and watching the sunset.
A week later
You thanked the heavens everyday for making you stumble upon a guy who's a farmer. Seungcheol had his own produce, a small field of rice and corns and a few apple and lemon trees. It was safe to say these were more than enough in a time like this.
The electricity is unavailable most of the time but it takes some surprise visits every few days for a few hours. That's when you and Seungcheol wash up and store water.
Your days go by rather quickly thanks to the neat system Seungcheol seems to have established. He had things run so smoothly that it was pretty unbelievable the world was going through an apocalypse right now. You help him around the house, cleaning things up, watering the crops and such. He had his own rules - don't waste water or tissues, don't eat too much, don't talk too much. You tried to follow them at your best but you couldn't stop yourself from starting a little conversation more often that which were only met with silence or threats. But so far, Seungcheol was a guy nice enough and you counted your blessings for meeting him.
A few more days later
When you ran from your place you only took your female necessities. Those were dumb things compared to others who ran away with guns and foods.
You sat in the guest room Seungcheol offered you, thinking about what you were gonna do after these necessities were finished.
Suddenly Seungcheol appears knocking on your door before entering. You turn to look at him as he takes a seat. "We'll be heading out tomorrow."
"Huh?"
"There's a super shop a mile away from here. We're going there."
"Why?"
"Why do you think, smartass? We need to stock up on tissue paper and dry foods. I visited there a couple times after the apocalypse started. Apparently the government and NGO's provide foods and stuffs there for the survivors out here."
"Really?Then where are they? We need to find them. They probably built a shelter, we can go live there."
"Do you think it's that simple?"
"Huh?"
Seungcheol sighs. "They are moving in their own pace, okay? The shelters are probably full now with survivors. When their capacity increases they'll let us know. I have a friend who works at the NGO. If he's okay he'll come for me."
"When was the last time you spoke with him?"
"On the day of the breakout."
"I see."
"Prepare yourself for tomorrow. Since you are living in my place, you are coming with me." He stands up to leave.
"I'm not a wuss, you know." You roll your eyes.
"We'll see."
"Yea. And you know, it didn't hurt to speak with me! We could talk more often Mr. Grumpy!" You call after him.
"Shut up."
The next day
"Listen carefully, don't waste anytime. Just grab the things you need and walk into the car." Seungcheol says parking the car in front of the convenience store.
You nod and watch him load his gun and tuck it behind him.
The store is a mess. Broken pieces and bits of metals everywhere. You both walk in and look for the things you came for. Luck seems to be on your side as you find a couple of dry food packets, some toilet papers and some pads -though they are not the best quality, you have to make do with these. You quickly put them on the tote bag you brought with yourself and turned around.
Seungcheol was on the opposite Isle looking through selves for God knows what. You walk out to the front of the store and see and notice taped there.
Food will be supplied here every week along with other necessities. If you are a survivor please hang in there. Once we manage more accommodation, we will come for you. Regarding the infected, our research says they are deaf, so please use that to your advantage.
You turn around to tell Seungcheol about this but instead you meet the eyes of a corpse. It stands there, a mess of blood and gunk as your soul leaves your body.
It approaches you, making garbled sounds and you take back a few steps. From behind him you see Seungcheol approaching will a huge piece of metal rod.
The corpse doesn't turn back to the noises Seungcheol's feet makes while approaching you through the mess, instead it's focus is solely on you, ready to devour. They're really deaf, huh. It opens its mouth ready to chunk a piece of your body when Seungcheol hits him in the head and bangs a couple more times to make sure it's immobile.
"Quick, get in the car. More of them might be around here."
You two dash back to the car, carrying your goods and he starts the car quickly. You look behind to see more of the corpses appearing from around the store. Dusk was approaching soon which meant the corpses will be more alive and ferocious.
The car speeds through the empty road as you clutch onto your tote bag. "Did you know they were deaf?"
"You didn't?" He throws at you. You roll your eyes at him.
"Thanks for saving me again."
"Maybe next time I won't."
Another couple weeks or so later
"I'm going to the supermarket."
"At this hour? It's almost dusk. Are you crazy?"
You watch as Seungcheol puts on the necessary protection on his arms and legs and checks his gun.
"They people from NGO deliver foods during this time since there is no survivors out at this hour. I'm gonna go there and try to meet the delivery guy. Also I need to refill my car."
"Why?"
"To pass a message."
"To your friend who works at the NGO?"
"Yes. I need to let him know that I'm alive. Then he'll come for me."
"What if he's dead?"
Seungcheol says nothing. You forbid him to leaves a few more times but he completely ignores your pleas saying he has to take a  chance. Before he is out the door, he hands you his gun. "Keep this with you. Until now, they corpses have never been around here so just stay inside the house and you'll be safe. I don't know if you have your memories after you becoming a corpse but if you see me coming here looking like one of them, shoot me."
What? You swallow as your heart tugs.
"Stop talking like that. You don't need to leave. We've plenty of food. We'll get by. Don't do this Seungcheol."
"Remember what I said." He speaks, ignoring you and turns around.
"Wait." You call, tears pooling in your eyes. "At least take the gun with you. You'll need it more than me. Besides I dont even know how to use it."
Seungcheol looks at you for a beat before taking a gun and giving you a small smile - the first one he ever gave you.
You watch him leave as the sky turn in hues of purple and black.
You spend a restless night, sitting in your room watching the sky and thinking about Seungcheol. You think of how he opened up a bit more in the last few days and the moments you shared.
Sunghoon was my brother. He was in the military. We were outside, celebrating his discharge when the infection spread. The corpses got him while he was trying to save me. I failed him.
I waited for him for a long time, thinking he'd come back. He didn't.
Y/n, if I don't return by dawn don't wait for me.
As the night passed anxiety got the best of you. This is it. I lost him. He's gone. I'll have to survive now, alone.
You were about to have a break down as you saw the first streak of light spread through the sky. You walked to the roof of his farmhouse watching the colors in the sky. You start to accept the fact that you're alone from now on. That is until you see Seungcheol's jeep approaching towards the house.
You held your breath and didn't move your position, waiting to see him come out.
You thought sunsets were pretty until you saw Seungcheol's tired figure getting out of the jeep, his eyes meeting yours and flashing a smile, the brightest one probably, at the crack of dawn.
Sunrises were pretty too. Even prettier perhaps.
A/N: Tbh I wasn't so confident in this one but oh well, here it is. Also thank you for loving my previous work, it really means a lot. As for this one, if it doesn't flop, maybe I'll write a part 2 👀.Anyway thanks again! 💖
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narnie3313 · 5 years ago
Text
Too Much
Genre: Fluff, Smut (not really), Angst, Pining
Warnings: Violence, Blood,
Summary: After graduating UA and becoming a Pro Hero, you find a friend, and more, in your emotionally unavailable coworker, Hawks.
Pairing: Hawks x Reader
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Standing on the 8th story balcony overlooking the streets below you could see everything from the neon signs attached to the side of the buildings, each advertising something different or letting people know what store was there, to the people scattered around. Even at 2am there was the regular hustle and bustle of the street, a sound which had become comforting to you. Feeling the winters breeze glance across your bare shoulders causing a shiver snapped you out of your daydream. With one last glance over the city, you turned and walked back to the glass sliding door and opened it slowly. As if on que, you heard a dull thud behind you on the balcony. You already knew what it was without even turning, having had this happen many times before. Placing your forehead against the glass door and letting out an exasperated sigh, you begin to speak.
“Why are you here?”
You can hear the light shuffle of feet behind you slowly getting closer. Lifting your head from the glass and turning around, you see a shadowed silhouette of a man. A man you knew all too well. The same man you had been hooking up with randomly for 3 months. The same man who told you that he would never feel anything special for you when you saw another woman getting handsy with him and asked him what you were to each other. The same man that hadn’t spoken to you after you told him you were starting to feel something for him over a month ago.
“I’ll ask again. Why are you here, Takami?” You watched as the beautiful ruby red wings attached to the man seemed to slump down onto the balcony as you uttered his last name.
“I missed you, songbird.” Songbird. The nickname he had used for you when you were in bed because of the sounds he could pull from your body whenever he touched you. It had just stuck and he decided to use it all the time because of the pink colour that would tinge your cheeks every time he said it.
“No. That’s not good enough. Why are you really here?” in this moment you’re grateful to be shadowed by his figure as to hide to the blush creeping onto your skin and the tears prickling the corners of your eyes. There really was no denying it, you missed him.
*****
You’d never really spoken about what you two had been doing. It would start with a bite to eat at lunch since you both worked at the same agency. A conversation after a raid. Sitting in the boardroom together doing paperwork bonding over just how much you both hated said paperwork. A smile here. A wink there. Harmless flirting throughout everyday. Until the work dinner. Sitting at the long table with most of your colleagues, from Heroes to receptionists to personal assistants, you could only focus on the man across the table and 2 seats down to the right. It was the first time you’d seen him out of his hero suit. He was dressed in plain black dress pants, shiny black dress shoes and a beautiful, dark grey button down dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. You guessed the shirt would have the same holes in the back for his wings but you couldn’t see. His hair was still wild as always but you could see that he had brushed it and had at least attempted to style it. The shirt hugged his form beautifully and you could see how toned his arms were that were usually always hidden by his baggy hero suit.
 You were both sharing glances at each other the whole night, until the people sitting next to either of you would pull you into a conversation. Sneaking glances back to each other and rolling your eyes as if speaking telepathically. As the night wound to a close and people finally began to leave, it was about 11pm. Standing up to say your farewells to the 3 people left next to you, you couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes scanned your every movement.
 “I’m off guys. Thanks for a good night.” You say shaking Claires hand, a PR manager at the agency. Waving towards the other 2 to the left of Claire, Jim, a promotional assistant and Kaly, the head of the HR department, you step behind your seat and look towards Hawks to see him already standing and walking around to you.
“I’ll walk you out.” He said as he placed his hand in the middle of your back and led you towards the exit.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that, you could have stayed with the others.”
“Actually, the only reason I’m still here is you. I was waiting for you to leave.” He says with a slight chuckle, noticing the confused and slightly cocky expression on your face.
“Oh? And why is that?” He smirks and chuckles under his breath. There’s that confidence that drew him to you.
“Well it wouldn’t be very heroic of me to allow someone such as yourself to walk home alone at such a late hour, now, would it?”
“Oh, true. I suppose you’re right. However will I thank you for such a considerate gesture kind sir?” You say while curtsying playfully.
He let’s out a deep, hearty laugh and puts an arm through yours as he begins walking. The walk is filled with chatter about missions, experiences and funny stories. So much so that neither of you notice that you were walking in circles with no actual destination in mind.
              “So, ah, I just realised. I don’t know where you live.” He says shyly while rubbing the back of his neck and smiling down at you.
Letting out a little giggle, you reply, “Well, I never gave you my address so I’d probably be worried if you did.” Doing a quick survey of the area to see if you knew where you were, you noticed a few familiar shops and could tell which way was home. “It’s ok, we’re actually not too far. You don’t have to walk with me though, you know. I’m sure you want to get home and sleep.”
              “I don’t mind. We both have tomorrow off anyway, don’t we?”
              “True, but I’m sure you don’t want to waste your time walking me home.” You say with a chuckle.
His head tilts to look down at you, “Anytime I’m with you isn’t wasted.”
 You’re frozen. Your legs won’t move. You can’t do anything but look up at his face which was already looking right at you. Your eyes meet his as he searches your face for any indication of what you may be feeling. Your eyes are slowly looking over his whole face as he comes to stand in front of you, closer than you’d been while walking side by side. The street lights illuminating the right side of his face. You watch his eyes as you feel his hand gently leave your arm and brush down your ribs to come to a stop at your hip, repeating the same movement on the other side. You can feel him take just the slightest step closer to you and watch as he leans down agonisingly slow. You know where this is going and what’s about to happen. You can’t bring yourself to close your eyes, instead, watching every move he makes. Watching the way his eyes keep sliding from your eyes to your lips and back. Just as you feel his breath on your cheek, his lips ghost over your skin and go to your neck, making you instinctively open your neck for him before you hear him whisper to you.
                “Y/n, I really, REALLY want to kiss you, but I need you to know that I can’t date anyone for personal reasons. If you understand that and don’t mind, then I need you to know that if you tell me to stop at anytime, I will. No questions asked. But….if you don’t tell me to stop, I don’t think I’ll be able to.” His warm breath on your ear and neck is quickly gone as you open your eyes and see him pressing his forehead against yours. “If you don’t want this, tell me now, kid.”
He watches your movements carefully as you bring your left hand to his bicep and your right hand to cup his cheek and scan his face once more as you quickly lean up and press your lips against his hard. His fingers dig into your hips hard as he pulls your body closer and his tongue slowly licks your bottom lip as if asking to be granted entry. You open your lips slightly and press your tongue to his and feel a moan rip from your mouth into his causing one of his hands to slip up the centre of your back and into the hair at the base of your neck. Both of you pulling closer until there is no space left. You need more and you can tell from the groans that come from his throat, he does too.
Pulling away just enough to separate your lips while he leans forward to chase your lips you say, “Take me home?” You give him your sweetest smile look at his lust blown eyes from through your eyelashes. The look is enough to flick the switch in him and in seconds, you’re in his arms in the sky directing him to your apartment.
***
Watching the shadows around his body morph as your eyes adjust to the light differences, you begin to notice little details of the beautiful man in front of you. He’s slouched slightly, his eyes are on your feet, there’s blood on his cheek and his glasses are gone.
              “What happened?” You say taking a slow, cautious step towards the man that had singlehanded ruined your heart for other men. His eyes watch your cautious steps but he doesn’t dare look up to your face. You notice that the blood on his cheek is coming from a gash on his cheekbone that looks fresh. Without thinking, you grab his hand and lead him inside to the bathroom.
 Grabbing a face washer wand wetting it under the tap you glance at him in the mirror to find him watching your face as if you were a masterpiece in a gallery. You turn to him and gently press the cloth to the injury and wipe the blood away while trying to ignore the heat building in your face at the fact that his gaze hadn’t changed, still looking at every little feature and movement of your face.
              “You gonna tell me what happened yet?”
You don’t miss as his eyes dart to your lips as you speak and continue to wipe the blood away. “Mission went wrong.”
              “Ok…? So who managed to get a hit on you? What was the mission?”
              “Some lower level villain. I got distracted, let my guard down, got hit. Was supposed to be a simple raid. Clean out a small gang. Was all but done when 4 came out of a side door and attacked Hiroto. He got thrown and almost died before I could get to him.”
              “I’m sorry, Takami. Is he ok now?” You say, rinsing the blood stained cloth.
              “He’s alive. I came here when they took him to the hospital.”
There’s a silence while you place the cloth on the bathroom sink and turn to face him. “Keigo, why did you come here?” You notice the way his eyes widen and dart to your eyes as you say his name. Calling him by his first name was always the sure fire way to get his attention quickly.
              “Y/n….I…” His eyes start to glass over and shimmer as tears begin to build. “All I could think of when I saw Hiroto was you. How scared I was that I’d never get to see your smile or hear your laugh again. How much I missed our talks and the stupid meme wars we’d have.” His eyes drop to your hips as his hand reaches out slowly to drag his fingertips across your hip so lightly its almost unnoticeable. “How much I missed touching you. Feeling you. How much I wanted your hands on me again.” You don’t even notice you’re crying until you drop your head to the ground and see your tears fall as he takes a few very slow, deliberate steps towards you and rests one hand on the side of your head to make you look at him. “Y/n…I am so, so, SO sorry. I never meant to hurt you, I swear. I honestly didn’t think I was capable of actually loving someone and I didn’t want you to fall for me just to get hurt, so I ran. The only thing I know how to do.”
              “Takami….” You watch as he flinches when you call him that. “Keigo, I don’t know if I can go through this again.”
              “I know, songbird. I know.” He leans his forehead down to yours and uses both hands to cup your cheeks. “ I don’t know how to apologise properly or how to make it better. But I promise you, baby, if you’ll let me, ill make it up to you everyday and it will never, EVER happen again. I am SO sorry.”
Your tears are still falling even though he keeps wiping them away. Your fingers digging into his hips to keep you grounded. Could you trust him? Could you take another risk like this?
              “I love you, songbird.” He whispered against your cheek.
Who were you kidding….you couldn’t say no to him even if you wanted to. Before either of you knew what was happening, his hands were on your hips, lifting you onto the bathroom counter with his lips pressed harshly to yours kissing you with every ounce of passion and emotion he had. Your hands explored his back and ran through his feathers, feeling them shudder, while you moaned into his mouth. This man knew you in every way and while you knew his words were genuine, every move he made he would whisper apologies against your skin. You didn’t know what would happen tomorrow but for now, this is just what you both needed.
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Author Note:    Hey everyone! Please let me know what you think! Slowly getting back into the swing of writing again! Love you all !!
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veronicaduartes · 4 years ago
Text
Thoughts
So, the thing is... I feel devastated.
I loved somebody, gave him my all and he trew me away like a pile of trash. As if he never cared for me and the last 2 years of my life were just wasted.
I worked so hard on these last 2 years, I come from a broken family, abusive father, emotionally-unavailable mother (she did her best though, she had it DAMN hard all her life). On January 2020 I got into a car crash and no one believed my version of the story, they prefered to believe I was drunk-driving (which I wasn't) and it was all my fault (which it wasn't).
So I got really resentful and decided to get myself a job, stop depending on my mother and having to put up with all the shame inflicted on me. I started working at a call center, barely made minimun wage salary but I was saving as much money as I could to get out of my house (rent a room somewhere since it was all I could afford).
At the same time, I was dating a really nice guy, that I had only met a couple of months prior. He was 6 years older than me and already had a stable job so he decided to move out with me, wherever we decided to go.
It's April now, and on the 24th night of the month we moved in together. I was on cloud 9, we were so happy, I had a the shittiest job but coming home to him and watching TV together was everything I wanted and it was worth every damn second answering the phone.
But as the months passed the guy I loved grew apart from me. Suddenly we were not spending the nights together, all he did was play videogames with his friends all night until 7am in the morning sometimes, while I was growing lonelier and lonelier. Sex wasn't even happening, and I thought he didn't want me anymore. I told him about my discomfort and he promised to make some time for me.
Some more months passed and it was ok, but the situation repeated itself, and of course I was sad again. Many hours of thinking and analyzing patterns later, I decided it wasn't working anymore for me and it was time to call it quits.
I don't know what I expected that night but as the time came, I told him to break up. He seemingly reacted very calm and peacefull so I told him we could stay friends. The next day I had to go to work, I felt really sad but hadn't even realized in my mind that our relationship was over, until I received a text from him that said "I'm moving out on Thursday". That text just sunk into my stomach and as I got home to find an empty house it felt even worse. He had already gone to his parents' house, without even saying goodbye.
I was incredibly dissapointed, I thought that if he loved me he would've fight back, or at least not ran away on the first shot he got. Anyway, so he told me he was coming on Wednesday to organize his stuff into boxes and move out Thursday in the morning. I told him we could have a last dinner together, just to give some closure to me, as I felt I needed closure and so we did. Turns out on Wednesday night after talking a couple of hours he ended up crying and asking me if he could stay. I told him he had made the strongest desition by hiring that truck to move out and getting all his shit into boxes so, there was no backing off now. (By the way, some of the appliances were his' such as the refrigerator which he did not hesitate to leave me with all the food on the floor to rot as he took his damn refrigerator). On the next morning I told him goodbye and we went our separate ways.
Since I couldn't pay the rent all by myself I was left with no other choice than to go back to my parents' house. They helped me with the moving but I still felt like a damn failure coming back, while I still mourned the end of our relationship and cried myself to sleep every night.
Some weeks passed and one morning, I woke up with a text of his telling me "I miss you". I told him I missed him too (which I really did) and so we agreed to meet once again to talk. We met and the inevitable happened: after some crying we got back together. Still living apart though. Months passed and everything was going great! Still had our arguments but by this time we had already figured out how to talk our differences with love and patience.
**At this point I need to give you some important context: since I come from a broken family, I DON'T want kids. I really don't want to have kids of my own, not as of now or in the future. I don't discard adopting, I believe that's a very beautiful way to become a parent, but I really do not want to go through pregnancy and all those things having a baby comes with. I have always been very honest about it when I'm meeting people because on past relationships I've had this issue. So, since I was meeting this guy I was talking about, back on 2019, I told him I didn't want kids and he seemed to be on the same page as me. He even told me he wanted to get the male contraceptive injection that was soon going to be available on the market. Everything seemed fime.**
So, back to the story. On January 2021, my boyfriend's sister found out she was pregnant, everyone on his family was really happy because, on the contrary as myself, they have a really beautiful, happy and healthy family (everything I wished for). I was really happy for them as well and my boyfriend and I even went shopping some nice things for the baby. We bought the cutest and fluffiest bear costume. It was adorable.
As more months passed, I saw my boyfriend getting more and more excited about babies and the idea of having babies. Since he knew my position, he eventually taked to me about wanting to have babies in the future. I told him my position has not changed and most likely it will not change. I can't predict the future of course and can't know what my mind will think on 5-10 years, but I was honest with him and told him that the odds of me changing my mind are quite low, not to say inexistant. But he was confused, he still didn't know if he wanted kids or not. So I told him "think about it and whenever you have made up your mind, let me know".
On August 27th, about 12 am in the morning, his nephew was born, strong and healthy. I was really happy for all his family, since I know how much they already loved that boy. I sent them my best wishes and since he came out by c-section, they had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days.
Later that same day, I published some stupid game on instagram which really doesn't matter much what it was about but somehow it got us into a discussion and he told me "this is one of the best days of my life for you to fuck it up"... Those words really took me by surprise, I was happy and silly, literally just joking him around but he reacted very strongly and rude.
How in the hell is it ever going to be my intention to ruin his day? I thought he was very defensive. He stoped taking to me and returned hours later. However, I was really hurt and I felt like we really needed to talk about it. He sort of apologized but we couldn't continue the conversation since he was already sleepy and told me if we could continue the next day. I told him it was fine, of course.
The next day came and he didn't remember to get back to the conversation, he just pretended as if everything was fine. Another day passed so I reminded him and he told me it was late already and he was tired, so if we could talk the next day (again). A week passed and he never remembered to catch up with the conversation (or ignored it). I still felt sad and hurt and so, when making plans for the weekend I told him how I felt and that we needed to talk. We agreed on a day and place, but he followed telling me he knew I have been upset but he just ignored me... So basically that started the fight once again. How the hell if you know someone you love is upset and sad you just ignore it? Do you care how I feel at all? Some things were said and I didn't understand where did this sudden hate come from.
Ever since the baby was born he had been defensive and treating me badly like that (something I had never seen before on him). I was utterly confused until he confessed it to me: he was somehow angry with me because I do not want kids..... I had no words, how the hell was I supposed to knew that? It did make a lot of sense though, his behaviour was immediately explained to me. However he started blaming me on his smoking and a bunch of other crap I have no blame on. Turns out he told me: he decided he does wants kids and therefore I no longer had a place in his life. I told him to tell me, to confirm me if that meant we were breaking up, to at least have the guts to tell that to my face (metaphorically cause this conversation was all by text). I begged him for a goodbye, once again, to get some closure. I deserve closure, but he wasn't even able to tell me goodbye. To tell me I was a good girlfriend, to thank me for all the love I gave him, for all the times I had advised him, for all the memories we had together, to thank me for at least giving him my all. He knew I loved him, he really did.
And I respect his reason, I really do. If he wants kids and I don't then there's no point of staying together if we're going on different paths. However, it's been a week from the breakup. I'm still here devastated, crying, stalking his twitter every 5 minutes to see if there's any clue that he might be thinking of me. But all I see is the opposite. He's saying that he's happy, posting pictures with his baby-born nephew, it's almost as if I never meant anything to him. One week with the baby and I'm already out of his life. Am I so damn disposable? Does he not remember any of the happy moments we spent together? All the love that I gave him? How I even fought my own family to defend him? How I cared for him... It sucks, it really sucks.
The next morning after the breakup he had already deleated all his pictures with me on social media. So, on the next day I did the same. Oh how damn hard it was to delete that video I made about us and our adventures... I spent about 8 hours collecting little clips of our trips and I loved the end result so much... and now it's gone... forever, along with our memories.
It really sucks, some days I am ok, with just a little hole inside of me but overall ok... and some other days I feel like I want to die (yes, literally die). I cry everytime I remember. I have no friends. I can't tweet about how damn sad I feel because I don't want any of his friends or my friends even to see me how devastated and dependant I am.
The thing is, I don't believe he understands how much he meant to me... how much I loved him and how safe I felt on his arms. He's got lots of friends, a supporting family, tons of hobbies... while I'm here depressed, no job, no friends, nobody to talk to, living in my parents' house. I literally feel as if this 2 years, I tried so hard and it ended up being all wasted. I'm back to square one: no job, no money, no relationship. Lonely and sad once again.
I wish I could be like those strong women who stay single for very long periods of time... but I'm lonely. I usually need someone to hear me, someone to talk to. I like having someone to share my life with.
Sometimes I hate myself for having this romantic expectation of a perfect relationship that lasts forever and the love flame never dies... I guess Disney channel really damaged me. The dream is slowly dying though, at this moment I'm all out of hope. I know there are some men out there that would like to be with me, but I see no point in that.
First of all, I'm not interested in anybody. I don't like anybody, I don't even want men near me. I'm literally out of hope and I don't even want to meet anybody because eveything will eventually end up this way. I don't believe anymore. And it's dangerous to be out of hope.
Sometimes I'm scared, like, literally scared to become suicidal or something. Right now I'm not, sometimes I wish to die but I don't think I'm brave enough to do it myself. And then I stop to think that my mom doesn't deserve that pain. But yeah, sometimes I'm scared I may end up like Chester Bennington; with so many songs that basically were a cry for help but nobody ever took it that way because he looked so healthy and confident.
And I know I'm a great actress, I know people don't even suspect I have been fighting depression for years now. Every single day is a struggle and I'm tired already. I'm honestly so tired to be battling every day I just want to be free and give up but I can't since my demons are all inside of me.
I quit my job a month ago cause I thought that would give me happiness but guess what? Yeah, it didn't. Somehow it was easier having something to blame, than realizing that the only one to blame is yourself.
My boyfriend knew I was having a hard time with these thoughts already, he told me I should go to therapy. But I have no money to spend on therapy... and also, as I said in the beggining, nor do I have a supporting family, if they know I want to go to therapy they will think I'm crazy.
I have always been very strong, and showcased myself as a really strong woman, who thinks and analyzes and makes rational desitions... but it was always been just an act, when I'm by myself I cry a lot, I have a lot of traumas which I have been working really hard on for years now, but as I said, I'm tired.
I'm so tired of having to fight a battle everyday, I honestly just want peace and I'm scared I will never find it. Cause I can't stay like this for much longer. I know I won't hold up all my life with this sadness.
I quit my job because I wanted to start my own business. At first I was so excited about it but now I just can't find ANY motivation to work at all.
I don't know if he left me because I'm crazy and too much to handle, which reinforces my lack of hope in relationships. It has happened to me before, I don't know if all men are the same and they all forget you once they have you, which really sucks... Or if on the contrary, I keep seeking emotionally-unavailable people, just as my childhood attachment...
At least right now some friends have showed up and I have told them I've been having a hard time with this breakup (haven't told about all the other issues though, but it's a first step)... though I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it. I don't want to burst into tears and dramaticly crying in public, but oh well... We'll see how it goes.
Right now, all these thoughts are making me crazy. Sometimes I'm angry with my ex-boyfriend for leaving me right when I needed him the most... but it was a relationship doomed to end, and somehow deep inside me I always knew it. Still, that doesn't remove all the pain I'm feeling right now. If anything, just makes me blame myself for letting it come this far and letting myself fall so hard in love with somebody I knew wasn't right.
I don't know what to do right now... I'm dying to talk to him, but I know I must not. He doesn't miss me, he never loved me as much as I loved him (I don't know if he even has the capability of loving so deeply as I loved him) and we're not even compatible and I wasn't even enjoying his company so much lately... but you know, my feelings do not act by reason and I HATE them so much because of that. I feel like they dominate me, instead of me dominating them.
I gotta be strong and reasonable... These are the moments where I wish I had faith in God or something to give me strenght but I don't even believe in anything.
Why do we always cry and suffer so much about people that don't even deserve it? People that are no good for us...
Songs in my mind right now:
* Phil Collins - Against all odds
* Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 u
* Olivia Rodrigo - All I want
* Taylor Swift - Cardigan
* Selena Gomez - The heart wants what I wants
Most likely no one will read this, but it helped me try to organize some thoughts in my head so that's enough for me. Luckily, no one uses tumblr anymore.
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anangelicday-mrwolf · 4 years ago
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Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)
(previous chapter)
Chapter 54 – The Night of Horror
“Tao, duck!”
Screamed M-21, to which Tao responded by promptly letting an imaginary hand wrench his entire torso towards his feet.
Not a second after, a human body thrust its way through the exact spot where his head used to be.
Wham!
“Krrrgh!”
“Kraah!”
The agent M-21 just wrestle-flung collided with a man in a lab coat, reaping from them grunts close to beastly snarls.
They shared one thing in common – nothing about their appearances suggested they are Homo sapiens, with discolored skin reminiscent of corpses, nails and teeth jutting out in a vicious manner, and eyes seemingly brimming with blood.
And these were not exclusive to the two pseudo-zombies giving Tao and M-21 a challenge like nothing before.
Of course, it would take less than a minute and feel like less than 10 seconds for Tao and M-21 to make sure their opponents will never again disrupt them.
Alas, they could not position themselves appropriately, let alone pull out a weapon or shift into battle forms, because they happened to be facing the staff of KSA.
“Looks like that gas was combined with the technology on... What was it again? Rapid body modification?”
“Yup. Damn, I didn’t think it would be so effective.”
The two men lamented upon witnessing how employees and agents wobbled back to their feet; they could swear they did more than a proper job of hitting their vital points to knock them out.
They even twisted the ankles, solemnly swearing to get upon their knees for forgiveness once the storm is gone; however, their plan was made null by the healing power that naturally comes with body modification.
“...I don’t think we’ll be getting out of this situation, unless we pry out their limbs or a rib or spine or two.”
“...How I hate the fact that I can’t help but agree with you there.”
The outcome was beyond Tao and M-21’s expectation, probably because of Yuhyung’s adjustment.
Nevertheless, they presumed the healing power that surfaced within the victims would be below average.
After all, the project on which their modification was based off was classified as failure and ultimately canceled.
So just like M-21 said, the victims would not be able to recover the loss of a limb or skeletal structure.
Nonetheless, Tao and M-21 could not dare harm them; the only thing they have done wrong, if they have done anything wrong, was staying overnight to fully dedicate themselves to their duties.
It was not the question of post-measurements, already guaranteed by KSA and Frankenstein; it was the question of morals.
M-21’s and Tao’s faces stiffened as the victims dragged their feet towards them, the two men cornered in the room.
Just then, one of the agents bumped shoulders with a researcher closest to him, from which the situation took a precipitous downfall.
Slash!
Chomp!
The agent made a violent lash at the researcher’s face, and the researcher countered by rooting his teeth into the agent’s shoulder with full power.
Which served as a cue for the rest of the victims to tackle and thwack and open their mouths wide at one another.
Tao and M-21 turned pale as they watched how a scene from fratricidal zombie movie was being played live, their minds becoming numb with shock as the floor being slowly freed from gas was now being plastered with victims’ blood.
They threw themselves in the middle to separate the victims from each other, and that was when their communicators finally vibrated with life.
<Tao! M-21! Do you copy?!>
“Takio? Where are you? What in the world is keeping you? And why did you have to wait to...”
<What is going on? What’s wrong with these people?>
Tao and M-21 met each other in the eyes for a moment at how alarmed Takio sounded.
Then their memories rang the bell for them – the corridors of KSA were not the only area under the effect of Yuhyung’s gas.
“Don’t tell me... Are there people whose body went through modification? Shoot, I was hoping it’d take time for the gas to spread!”
<It’s not far from KSA’s HQ, but what on earth is going on? And what do you mean, body modification? I’m sure these people are civilians!>
“We’ll talk about this later! First, get over here! We could really use a hand or two right now!”
Knowing Takio, they anticipated him to fly over on the double, although they ended up acting individually, a rare occasion to begin and to continue.
Notwithstanding, there was a reason why Murphy’s law was ever coined.
<Uh... I’m afraid as of now I’m... Ugh!>
Swoosh!
Pow!
Their ears whirring upon the sonic boom so very tangible despite the distance secured by the communicators, Tao and M-21 gaped each other with their eyes trembling.
“Takio? What’s going on?!”
“Are you also under the civilian attack?”
<No! It’s the Union! I ran into two of them on my way. One of them happens to be that big guy we saw in the footage we pieced back together from the security camera outside the safehouse that was destroyed. And the other one is a woman with...>
“...Orange hair and cerulean eyes?”
<H-how did you know?>
“Takio, that’s the one!”
“That’s the woman Miss Lunark mistook for Kespar! The one who plotted against Frankenstein in joint with the 3rd Elder!”
“Hang in there. We’re coming in...!”
M-21 and Tao stomped their legs in a halt, in the middle of their sprint carrying the violently struggling people, partitioned with their arms and shoulders.
As soon as they turned the last corner connected to the nearest lab, they saw how the tiles were barely visible due to countless people with abnormal builds.
“Impossible! There’s no way such number would be remaining at this hour!”
“Tao, look at them.”
M-21 directed Tao’s eyes towards the side, where three men and women were yanking each other with their mouths like hyenas that fasted for a month.
“Look what they’re wearing. They’re no agents. Or employees.”
“Are they civilians...? Did some of them trespass?!”
Tao bellowed in dismay, which unfastened the door that was keeping the avalanche of trouble from stampeding towards them.
“Grrr...”
“Krr...”
The blood-shot eyes of people who were busy taking a bite or grab out of anyone within their reach darted glances towards M-21 and Tao.
Not long after, the artificially modified humans lunged towards the two RK’s like a pack of rabid dogs that have spotted a target, a phenomenon propagating outside KSA.
“W-what the hell?!”
“Argh! Mommy!”
“H-help me! Somebody please he... Aaaah!!!”
People who have never consented to their monstrous changes spread out from the street housing KSA’s headquarter, to hunt down innocent citizens, paving the streets with blood and gore.
Which Yuhyung was watching through his device, via the cameras attached upon interior and exterior of the KSA building.
His hands gripping the device quaked, and he hurriedly pulled out a communicative device he would keep asleep unless he has to talk to Helga.
<Oh, hey. So how’s the plan go...>
“What the heck is going on?!?!”
Yuhyung shrieked, as if he were forcing his guts out through his throat, as soon as Helga’s pointed-as-always voice hit his eardrums.
And her response successfully blew up his half-powdered mind.
<What’s the yelling for? Is there a problem?>
She sounded so very placid, whereas her voice was toned up and down deliberately, as if she had seen this coming.
“Problem? Problem is an understatement!!! You know what is... I mean, you are seeing and hearing what is going on! You said you’ll make your way to KSA, so you should know very well what’s...”
<Oh, yes. I know. Of course I do. In fact, I’ve known it for quite long.>
“...What...?!”
Yuhyung’s quivering voice listlessly scattered into thin air, like a ball of dirt caught in the wind.
<I’ve never told you, have I? I mean the reason why this project the data I gave you came from was labeled as failure and canceled. Well, you were too excited to get your hands on the data and didn’t even bother to ask.>
Helga did mention that the project has a side effect, but he heeded not much, since the way she spoke of the side effect gave impression that it is no big deal.
Still, like she said, he was so thrilled back then to at last gain the Union data he had been thirsting for.
His thoroughness, a must-have value for anyone affiliated with investigation, was discarded temporarily, as he was too occupied with letting his elation jingle his entire universe, like popping champagne open.
And when he later examined the data, he could not find anything in particular in terms of side effect, so he had forgotten about it, until now.
<That’s right. What you’re seeing as we speak is the side effect of this project. The subjects that experience rapid body modification lose the ability to tell their friends from foes. Whenever they see something living and moving, they will first and foremost react by driving their teeth and nails into flesh. And if they are devoid of lifeform around them, they will slash and masticate and take apart their own bodies.>
Instantly, Yuhyung felt as if the entire world spun right into his chest; the entire world turned into a stone of immeasurable size and unimaginable weight, smashing his heart into pieces and plummeting towards his core.
<Did you honestly think I’ll forfeit a complete, safe technology to someone like you? We’d rather die than to suffer a humiliation of allowing vermin like you walking on par with us!>
Helga snickered, stage-choking herself.
<Anyways, congratulations. You made your wish come true – turning non-modified into modified. And now, you’d get to collect as much data as you’d want, like picking apples under the falling leaves!>
Helga sneered as she smiled in vile entertainment and sinister glee, and Yuhyung could only make out his mind escaping far away from him as he watched her.
And the horror spreading throughout Seoul, delivered to his device in divided screens, did not stop assaulting his calm.
No...
This isn’t what I wanted......
I’ve never asked for something like this......!
<And now excuse me. There’s something that compels me to make myself unavailable for now.>
After peeking at something that was not accessible for sight from Yuhyung’s side, Helga cut off the signal, to restrain Kornel once more.
“I’d thought I told you to be prudent!”
“Oh, come on! Can’t you stop stopping me now?! We’re going to kill him anyways!”
“I would have let you, if it were someone else. But that’s Takio we’re facing – the one Sol told us. Takio of DA-5.”
“What? That’s him?”
“Precisely. We assumed it’d take a miracle for him to stand against Aris, let alone beat her. But he not only deleted her existence but also decided to put himself against us. Do I have to explain what we could achieve if we manage to apply the secret of his growth to us?”
“Okay, okay. I got it. Geez. But you don’t mind me beating him up just enough to leave him battered but breathing, do you?”
“Actually, that’d be more than welcome. There’s no telling what will unfold if we don’t go that far to capture him.”
This was certainly not a pleasant situation for Takio, about to battle two Union agents when immediately surrounding him was a scene from a common disaster movie.
His fingers poised upon the triggers, waiting for his order, were strained with pressure.
(next chapter)
So in summary, there are 3 battles taking place at the same time: (1) Takio (ft. Tao & M-21) vs Helga and Kornel, (2) Rael vs Deneb (with Yuhyung), and (3) Lunark vs Dark Spear. As I am posting this chapter, I finished composing part 1 of this battle. And once I’m done with the remaining parts, I’ll finally move on to the finale of this fic. I already know what I’m going to write, and I can’t wait to reach there lol. I’ll do my best as I take this fic to its ending!
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ohtheseboysilove · 5 years ago
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The greatess actress II [Ben Hardy x F!Reader]
sWords : 4, 000 K +
Warnings : mostly angst, fluff
Summary :  Things aren’t always as they seems.
Note : More angst for you guys, I know you all ask for it so here you go :) I’m really gmad for all the reviews and positive feedbacks I had for the first chapter so thank u so much ! I didn’t start writing chapter 3 yet but I have few ideas so if you guys have suggestions or theories I would love to heart hat !!! (i mostly replied to the messages in my inbox bc it’s easier to see them than the comments !!) Much love xx 
x Masterlist x
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“And…action !”
You pretended to leave and Ben grabbed your wrist, tugging him against him rather roughly. You put a flat hand on his torso and looked at him with big, lost eyes.
“What—”
“Don’t say anything, baby” Then he crashed his lips on yours, sending a wave of electricity down your spine as you replied eagerly to the kiss.
The kiss was intense, slow and hot, during for what seemed like age. You weren’t really complaining. But it was the third time you did this scene because of the director who always wanted to add something and it started to be a bit much for you and your weak heart.
“And we got it ! Awesome guys !” The director jumped from his seat and went behind the camera looking at the screen with enthusiasm. “Everyone, take 5 !”
You sighed discretely and detached yourself from Ben, running a nervous finger through your hairs.
“Are you still coming tonight ?” You glanced toward the blond man, gaze falling right on his swollen lips, tempting and deliciously-looking red.
“Hum, probably ?” You scolded mentally yourself to stop looking at his mouth like a fucking creep and instead focus on his eyes.
Which maybe wasn’t better.
“Oh come on, it’s Randy’s last day ! He won’t forgive you if you don’t come” Ben winked and you chuckled awkwardly, ignoring the way the butterflies were going crazy in your belly.
“I guess you’re right” You smiled almost shyly, his bright and beautiful eyes were always making you kind of timid. “But I won’t stay long, we got an early scene tomorrow” You felt yourself become ridiculously red when he laughed loudly and threw an arm around your shoulders, squeezing you tightly against his strong body.
“You’re right and I’m pretty excited for tomorrow anyway”
You both walked to your trailers, next to each other, as the day was done and you couldn’t wait to go back into your own clothes.
“You are ?” You briefly remembered that the scene you had to do tomorrow was pretty romantic, lot of touchy-feely moments but nothing sexual, thanks god.
“Yeah, I mean…we’re filming at the beach so obviously breaks gonna be funnier than on set” He grinned and you silently swallowed back the disappointment bubbling in your chest.
“The beach, right” You forced a smile. Of course that was the reason why he was excited, idiot. He had a freaking girlfriend for god’s sake. “I will see you later, Ben” You waved awkwardly and climbed the few steps to your trailers before closing the door behind you, barely hearing his answer.
You let your body fall heavily on your bed, feeling exhausted and completely stupid.
It wasn’t the first time you had feelings for one of your co-star, honestly it was hard to stay hermetic when your job was to kiss a handsome and nice guy all day long. Once, you had to film for few weeks with Liam Hemsworth and god, the man was absolutely breathtaking. You had a tiny crush on him during the filming but nothing horrible, it didn’t make your job more complicated or anything. It was fairly innocent. You just enjoyed what a beautiful man he was but you stayed in control easily.
You also dated for two years with one of your previous co-stars, George Mackay but it was pretty obvious from the beginning that the both of you were into each other, which made everything easier.
You didn’t forget either when you had a tiny role in a big Hollywood move where you were only needed to literally make out with Leonardo DiCaprio. It was probably the first time you were so nervous to act, which was ridiculous because you barely spent more than two hours on set. But it was Leonardo freaking DiCaprio, your first crush had been Jack Dawson from Titanic so obviously it was huge for you.
No one probably remembered you from this movie but it was your little moment of pride. You made out with Leonardo freaking DiCaprio.
But nothing could compare to your feelings with Ben. You weren’t prepared at all for the wave of feelings which hit you strong in the face. Not at all.
When you first heard that you would be filming with Ben as co-star, you did some researches and found out it was the guy from the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, you were happy because he was an excellent actor in this film. And you couldn’t denied he was pretty attractive which could help as you were supposed to play lovers in this new project.
It started with an innocent crush, making your friends a bit jealous because you were kissing and holding hands with the new heart-robe of Hollywood. But it turned out to be much more when you started hanging out with him. He wasn’t only handsome. He was really funny, humble, generous, always making sure you were comfortable for any kind of intimate scene but he was also sensitive and not as confident as you thought first.
He was everything you could dream in a boyfriend.
You sighed loudly and rubbed your face roughly, heart beating heavily in your chest.
Why did you have to fall in love with an unavailable man ?
**
“We’re gonna miss you, big guy !” You watched Ben cheekily tussled Randy dirty red hairs, a large smile on his face.
“´f course you will ! But no need to go all emotional on me, Hardy. You’re still invited to my wedding in two months” Randy chuckled, his hand wrapped around a large pint of beer.
You giggled quietly as the two friends hugged again, both of them pretty tipsy after several drinks. Randy was playing one of Ben’s closest friend in the movie but he finished to do all of his scenes and he was now, sadly, leaving the set.
You took a little sip of your Margarita, only the second drinks of the evening for you as you hated being tired or hungover to film. Especially when you had to focus much more with your feelings for Ben, making your job much harder.
“Who is gonna kick my ass at FIFA now ?” The British man complained with a pout, making the whole table giggled.
“Literally everyone, Hardy” Joshua, one of the secondary actor of the movie spoke up, earning a round of applause from everyone.
You let your eyes trailed on Ben for few seconds. You couldn’t help but looked at him. He was so different out of the set, much more relax and you loved even more this part of him. His blond hairs were all over the place, slightly longer than before and it was certainly doing things to you. The way his eyes were sparkling due to the alcohol made your heart beat faster, this childish look was good on him, always wearing his boyish smile which made your knees weak.
And, surprisingly, Isis wasn’t here tonight. You felt like you could breath a little bit easier when she wasn’t around. You were so worried she found out you were in love with her boyfriend, it was scaring you more than everything.
“(Y/N) !” You jumped at Randy's voice and quickly tore your eyes from Ben’s jaw, pushing aside any thoughts.
“Yeah ?”
“I said do you want another drink ?” You nodded weakly and swallowed thickly, feeling nervous to almost been caught day-dreaming about Ben. “What were you looking at so intensely ? This little boyfriend of yours ?” The red hair laughed and pinched the blond’s cheek, making him groaned.
“Hey!” Ben pushed his hands away from his face and looked at you, an amused smile on his features. “I’m pretty sure she wasn’t looking at me, she see me enough all day long”
“True” You grinned and internally screamed. You could never be bored of looking at his pretty face. Never.
“So who where you looking at ? Did someone caught your eyes perhaps ?” Everyone turned, very discreetly, around and started giggling like teenager when they saw a quite charming brunette glancing over the table, few of his friends clearly teasing him.
“I see” Ben winked at you, finishing his drink with one gulp. “I think you should talk to him” He tilted his head toward the guy and you cringed internally.
It was literally the last thing you wanted to do. You didn’t even notice this guy until they all started looking at him. Your luck, obviously.
“I’m not sure about that” You laughed awkwardly and pushed few strands of hairs behind your ear, hoping for something, anything, to save you from talking to this stranger.
“Oh come on ! He is literally devouring you with his eyes” Ben nudged you gently. “And you were doing the same a minute before” He smirked and you were half relieved that he didn’t notice you were ogling him, not this random dude.
“(Y/N) ! (Y/N) ! (Y/N)” You wanted to disappear right now. You watched your friends cheering your name until you had enough and decided to agree, walking to the bar where you knew the guy would meet you too. “Go get it girl !” Randy drunkenly yelled and you felt your whole face turned red.
“Hey” You looked at the brunette, he wasn’t bad looking clearly. Curly hairs and cute dimples. Totally your type before you fell for a blond beefy guy.
“Hi” You smiled nervously and discreetly glanced toward Ben, looking for any kind of reassurance that he was maybe a bit annoyed by the fact that you were talking to another guy.
You couldn’t help yourself but wished that maybe he was sharing your feelings. Deep down. Maybe he was falling for you too but still confused with Isis. Conflicted. It was selfish but there were nothing you could do about these thoughts. Except keeping them for you.
But for all answer from Ben, you get a cheeky smile and two thumbs up. Clearly not bothered by the situation. You returned the smile, fake and smaller one before turning around to the man, your throat tight and your heart even more broken.
These feelings were clearly one-sided.
**
“You look like shit, hun” Molly greeted you as you sat, or rather flopped very graciously, on the chair in front of her, a fuming Costa cup in your right hand.
“That’s why you’re here” You snorted lazily before taking a sip of your coffee, not in the mood to talk much.
She glanced at you, feeling the mood immediately and decided to start your hairs and makeup in silence, humming quietly.
The whole crew was at the beach for the day and the place was truly breathtaking, a little creek mostly quiet except for the soft rolling of the waves. It was still dark outside, the sun barely peaking up and you needed to get the perfect scene as the director really wanted the whole sun rising romantic moment for your and Ben’s characters.
“Ten minutes before we started !” You sighed quietly and quickly finished your coffee, feeling already done with this way too cute scene for you.
Ben waved at you from his chair, Isis not far from him, both of them getting ready too. Yeah, like it wasn’t hard enough for you, Isis managed to get a small part as an extra for few scenes. Easy when you dated the main actor. And even more when you were as gorgeous as she was.
“All done, honey” You thanked Molly and rose on your feet, walking toward the small wardrobe department to get your clothes for the shoot.
A cute little yellow bikini and a pair of sunglasses were all you needed for today. The thought of spending so much time near Ben with so little clothes on was stressful. You nearly fainted when you spotted him walking in his blue swim trunk, a beach towel lazily hanging from his right shoulder.
What a sight.
**
And…action !“
You took a deep sight and blocked every other thoughts than the ones about Ellie, the character you were portraying in this movie.
"I’m glad we decided to come here” Ben or rather Will, murmured in your ear, hands softly resting on your hips as you were perched on his lap.
“Me too” You slightly turned your head just enough to catch his eyes, smiling sweetly.
The scene was indeed very romantic. Kind of cliché but still, it was making your heart beat much faster. Ben was seating on the white sand, his body pressed against you was bringing shivers down your frame.
Your group of friends were seating around a camp fire, giggling and chatting as you and Ben were with them but in your own bubble, looking at each other lovingly.
As the sun slowly rose, you continued to act as you had to, suppressing the love which was wrapping your entire body every time you looked at him. Few kisses were exchanged, few touches as well and other sweet little attentions between the two of you, carefully following the script.
It was even harder because for you everything felt so natural. When you had to play with his hairs at the back of his neck you weren’t acting, not really. It was easy, like you done it your whole life. When Ben rested softly a hand on your knee you didn’t feel awkward or nervous, it felt right. And it had been like that since day one.
“You’re not too cold ? I felt you shiver during our scene” Ben whispered as you had a mini break, waiting for everyone to go back at their assigned spots.
You wanted to laugh at his innocent remark. God bless this sweet, innocent Ben. Yes it wasn’t very warm but the simple feeling of your half naked body against mine was the only main reason of my shivers.
But you simply nodded. “Yeah but it’s alright we’re almost done with this scene anyway” You patted his shoulder nicely and he gently rubbed your forearm, in a nice attempt of keeping your warm.
**
Few hours later and you were still on the beach, few more scenes to film with this time, the sun high in the sky and the heat nicely warming your skin.
You shielded your vision to watch Ben cockily walked toward you, his body dripping wet from the bath he just took in the sea.
“Hey there” He grinned and didn’t lost a minute before laying on top of you, making you squirmed under him at the freshness of the water.
“Get off me idiot !” You giggled and tried to wiggle your way out but his strong body was easily caging you.
“Can’t do that, you’re really comfy” He laid even more on you and you let out a shaky breath as you could feel every muscles of his body against yours. “Everyone is having fun, except you, come on !” You gasped when he ran his wet hand in your hairs, purposely messing them on your face before moving off you.
“I’m reading a very good book” You weakly replied, the lie tasting bitter on your tongue.
You were just avoiding going near his girlfriend. You were on a break for a little hour and most of the crew was in the water and you would love to join them. But Isis was there too, gaining most of the attention as she was always speaking loudly or giggling. And did you mentioned how pretty she was ? Everyone could see that too. So you just felt awkward next to her, stupid really but she was so confident and dating Ben. You were so scared that somehow she noticed how you looked at him and understood what was going on. It would be a total mess if she did. 
“Yeah, whatever” The blond rolled his eyes at you bad excuse before catching your hips and throwing you over his shoulder. You screamed from the top of your lungs as he run toward the water, chuckling louder every time you asked, rather yelled, him to let you go.
He threw you on the water as everyone cheered, apparently really amused by his stupid joke. You felt two hands quickly grabbing you from under the water and you took a big breath, the salty water dripping on your face.
“You’re alright ?” Ben’s giant smile immediately warmed you up. You clenched your hands on his shoulder, wiping the water from your features with your free hand, couching a bit at the salty taste.
“Asshole” You mumbled as you pushed your hairs away from your face. You slapped his chest when he audibly laughed. ”This is so not funny ! I was fine on my towel" You protested but couldn’t suppress the amused smiled from blossoming upon your face.
“Why are you laughing then ?” Ben teased you and you rolled your eyes before swimming away from him, heart fluttering heavily at the simple interaction you just had with him.
Why he had to be so bloody cute with you all the time ? It wasn’t helping your case.
You looked behind your shoulder toward Ben and your smile dropped immediately when you spotted Isis, hanging around his neck as they shared a giggling kiss.
He was just being friendly, get your shit together for god’s sake, (Y/N).
You didn’t miss the suspicious glance that Isis threw you, her brows slightly furrowed like she was in deep reflection. She gave you a little smile when she caught your eyes on her before she focused back on the British man.
You deeply hoped she wasn’t thinking anything about this little friendly moment between you and Ben.
**
“Baby, can you put me some sun-cream on ?” You raised your head toward Ben and stood up, grabbing the protection from his hand.
“You knew you could do it yourself” You commented as you applied a small amount of cream in your hand before rubbing it onto Ben’s large shoulders.
“I can’t reach some part” He grinned, sunglasses hanging low on his nose.
It was like the universe like to torturing you. Every scene you had to do was painfully touchy today and it was putting you under a strong pressure. Isis’ intense gaze on you wasn’t helping either, she watching with attention every of your interactions with her boyfriend.
It wasn’t your fault, you were just acting right now. But you felt incredibly uncomfortable under her eyes. Like you were doing something wrong. Which you weren’t as it was your freaking job.
“You’re just lazy, Will” You rolled your eyes and kept rubbing the sun-cream on his back, breathing quickening as you reached his hips. “Done” You announced before he turned around, welcoming you with his beautiful and chiselled face.
“Why about here, hum ?” He cheekily drummed his digits on his firm pectoral. He cocked his head to the side, wearing your favourite boyish smile. “Don’t wanna burn” He pouted and you bit your lips, finding him unfairly adorable.
You quickly stopped your day dreaming and scoffed as you were supposed to, pretending to be annoyed.
“You’re a pain in the ass, Will” You repeated the same actions, pouring cream in your hands before rubbing it on his warm torso, goosebumps spreading all over your skin,
“But you love me anyway” He replied with a little smile, pushing his sunglasses on the top of his head.
“Yes, I do” You murmured and, not without difficulty, grinned at him. You were supposed to be happy but the painful truth hiding behind your words was hard to get along with.
“Your hands are so much softer than mine” The blond sighed as he closed his eyes, your pads barely touching his abs. You couldn’t go further or you would literally combust.
“That’s because you never want to put night cream on yours, silly” You said and took few steps away as he lowered his head toward you, eyes still closed. You sighed loudly and quickly rubbed the sun cream on his face.
“No, no ! Stop !” The director made you jump as Ben opened his eyes, both of you looking at him. “(Y/N), darling, you were doing perfectly fine but this last scene…you need to be gentle and tender, alright ? It’s supposed to be a romantic scene between Ellie and Will, not looking like you just want to get ride of him” You chuckled weakly and nodded, watching the director going back to his chair.
“Already annoyed with my presence ?” Ben teased as he went back to his previous position.
You simply smiled and waited for the green light of the cameramen before executing the script. You slowly rubbed your fingers against his face, caressing every of his features without looking away from his eyes, giving to the director all the love he wanted. You swallowed thickly at your proximity, his eyes not leaving yours for a second as you kept caressing his strong cheekbones.
“There you go” You rubbed the remaining of cream on his neck and locked your arms behind it, repressing a shiver when his hands found your face.
You absolutely adored how his digits slid softly on your skin, cupping your jaw like if you were the most precious thing in the world. His thumb gently caressing your cheek as he pressed a sickly sweet kiss on your lips. You could feel the warmth coming from his chest and the pleasant sigh which escaped your mouth wasn’t for the act anymore.
There were absolutely not better feeling in the world.
**
You let out a deep breath as you snuggled further into your hoodie, the warmth of the day already fading away as the sun disappeared slowly. You grabbed your phone and answered few texts, exhaustion rolling down your bones.
“Are you texting the guy from yesterday ?” You shook your head lazily, letting a yawn escaping your mouth as Joshua, who was playing your brother, sat next to you. “Why not ?”
“Not really interesting” You didn’t bother explaining further, to tired for that. ”How it’s going with Danny ? When he is coming already ?“
Joshua’s eyes immediately lighted up at the mention of his boyfriend.
"Very well, thanks” He beamed and showed you his new screen lock, an adorable picture of the two of them with their new puppy. You let out a little aww and Joshua smiled wider. “He is coming next week, I can’t wait to see him ! And to introduce him to you !”
You listened to his exciting chatting, a little pinching for your heart at how happy and in love he was.
**
You groaned and get up from your chair as Ben was late for filming. You knew Isis was around so they probably just didn’t see the time, laying in bed. Still, it wasn’t something Ben did often, he was always in time and ready to work.
You swallowed roughly as you walked to his trailer, praying they weren’t shagging because you didn’t know how your heart would take it.
“It’s my freaking job, Isis !” You jumped at Ben’s loud voice followed by few cursing words.
You froze and decided smartly to not knock on the door and instead waited patiently next to the trailer, ear dropping shamelessly. You shouldn’t but you couldn’t help yourself.
“Well, I don’t like it at all, Benjamin !” She yelled back and you heard him sighing, probably knowing he was already late and his girlfriend wasn’t helping. “You didn’t see the way she look at you !”
You felt the same way as the day your best friend from high school threw you a bucket of freezing water on your head. You stopped breathing by fear they would hear you and tried your best to not panic.
Was she talking about you ?
Of course she was ! Who else could be the She ? You were done, done, done. The rest of the filming would be just awkward because of you and your stupid feelings.
"Oh my god, Isis ! We already had this conversation, (Y/N) is simply doing her job, alright ? You need to stop being so paranoiac for Christ’ sake !”
You felt yourself sweating uncomfortably as you listened to them, heart beating like crazy. This was a nightmare.
“She is not acting anymore Ben ! Open your damn eyes for once !” Isis groaned as she slammed a cup loudly on the table, making you jumped again. “She is not acting at all ! It’s fucking obvious !”
“What are you saying Isis ?” Ben muttered, clearly done with this argument. “Come on, enlighten me as apparently you know better than everyone !”
There a beat of complete silence, your muslces completely tetanised as you waited for her answer.
Isis let out a sarcastic, cold laugh. It worried you a lot. And then she pronounced these six little words which would make your heart stop. 
“She is fucking in love with you, Ben”
**
Tag list :  @jennyggggrrr @queenlover05 @cubedtriangle​
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twiceblackvelvet · 5 years ago
Text
Tipsy
pt. i. pt. ii. pt. iii.
April 2nd, 2022. 22:31 PM. Seoul.
Apart from being aesthetically pleasing for photography, high-rise balconies with nothing but the night sky and light breeze for the company have always been a place of peace for Yeri. Somewhere to gather all of her thoughts and contemplate her next move, whatever that may be. Several times throughout her career, she’s stood atop a balcony, looked out over the landscape surrounding her, and tried to put everything around her into perspective. The view alone is a big part of why she bought this apartment for herself after it became clear she couldn’t stay with her parents any longer. That and it’s close to the studio where most of her time is spent nowadays.
The wine glass placed on the table beside her has been empty for the past hour, not that it matters. The bitter taste still lingers heavily on her lips as if she’d only just gulped it down. An empty bottle sits discarded on the kitchen counter of her apartment. As of late, those bottles have been piling up more and more to where her mother has grown concerned with the amount of alcohol she’s been consuming whenever she calls over to check on her. However, if it helps with getting a good night’s rest and blocks out the lingering thoughts of self-doubt that threaten to turn her into an insomniac, that’s all that matters.
Falling asleep as the sun rises used to be perfectly fine when there were several managers around and people to make sure she was on-time to different events no matter what. But, she no longer has that luxury with just one manager who barely even checks in with her anymore. A lot has changed in the last few months since the split of Red Velvet, and yet, Yeri still feels like compared to her other former members, she has achieved nothing at all. 
Joohyun has turned herself into a Mother Teresa type for plants the last she heard and is enjoying the simple life. Joy is acting again and appearing on billboards throughout the city for some cosmetic brand that is likely paying her way too much. Wendy has begun the process of kick-starting her career in America, which will no doubt end up being a success. Seulgi, well, she’s probably the only one of the group who truly understands how lost Yeri feels, but even she is preparing to debut solo. 
Whilst everyone moves forward, she can’t help but feel stuck in place. Despite the leap outside of her comfort zone after leaving SM, the creative freedom she so desperately was seeking for years is not the kind she assumed she’d have once becoming a producer and songwriter for an exciting independent label. 
“The artists don’t believe a former girl-group member with such little experience can give them the hit song their career desperately needs.” The words float through her mind once more. A constant alarm within her that triggers a deep sense of hopelessness whenever they appear in her thoughts.
A harsher breeze blows her flowing hair across her face, blocking her from pondering on the darkness inside of her head for too long. Probably for the best. It never ends well when she lets her insecurities get the better of her. The cold air sends a shiver down her spine and threatens to infiltrate her body with the flu if she doesn’t step back into the warmth of her home soon, which she does immediately. 
Like usual, her hands drift back to the empty wine bottle, sullen to find the contents missing but mentally refusing to believe that she is the one who has consumed it entirely. Light background noise stemming from the television is the only sound audible once the doors to the balcony are closed. A re-run of a drama that Yeri has tried to binge-watch three times now, every time her intoxicated brain has prevented her from picking up on the storyline. 
Her back pocket on her jeans holding her phone which is vibrating through the material. Someone is calling. Twisting her arm to grab it, her fingers almost lose their grip and drop the device which would no doubt have smashed it against the hard flooring. However, she catches it before disaster strikes and answers the call all in one motion.
Had she gotten the chance to check who it was that was on the other end of the line, she may not have wished to speak to them. But no, she has no choice. She heaves a deep sigh before putting the phone to her ear, immediately regretting how close she pressed it against her head.
“Hey! Yeri! Hello? Are you there?”
“Wendy. I’m here. You don’t need to shout, you know?”
A short laugh can be barely heard before Wendy once again bursts Yeri’s eardrums.
“I’m not shouting! There’s just an echo in my bedroom. Anyway, that’s not important, I have something to tell you!”
“If this is about the place that sells muffins that are also doughnuts again, I don’t want to hear it. I know they’re the best thing you’ve ever had but if I can’t taste them then what’s the point in telling me about it?” Yeri fires back. In Wendy’s words “heavenly food mash-ups that get the Seungwan approval,” is frankly wearing her patience thin.
“No, silly! I just woke up, I haven’t eaten yet, but I got some good news. Are you ready for it?”
“I’m practically on the edge of my seat.” 
That’s the first honest thing Yeri has said to Wendy in weeks during these phone calls that have become a bit of a habit. Her tipsy state has made sitting like a normal human being relatively difficult, it seems. 
“Well, prepare to be blown off it. The label finally got back to me about including the song you wrote for me on my album, they want it to be a bonus track, isn’t that amazing?” 
It takes Yeri a moment to recall what Wendy is talking about. The closest her hands have gotten to completing a full song lately was a poem she wrote on a napkin whilst out for breakfast with a mean hangover. However, it suddenly clicks when Wendy hums the melody, and Yeri realizes she has made a big, huge, major error. 
“Wait, Wendy. You can’t use that song! I don’t want it on your album!” She practically screeches and this time it’s Wendy’s turn to feel a sharp pain in her ears.
“Why? You were so proud of it and you know I love it too, I’ve already recorded and submitted it, I’m not sure they’ll let me take it back now.”
A throbbing sensation settles itself dead center in Yeri’s forehead. There’s absolutely no way of getting out of this one alive. Either Wendy will kill her, or… even worse…
“It’s fine, ignore me. It’s your song Wendy, I’m sure the album will be amazing but I really need to go.” 
Without waiting for Wendy to tell her goodbye, Yeri has already hung up on her and is quickly scrambling to find the right contact hoping to be able to stop what could be a disaster waiting to blow up. The phone rings for several moments before finally a robotic voice reads the age-old script of “this number is unavailable, please try again later.”
For the next thirty minutes, Yeri calls and calls, desperately hoping that on at least one of these occasions she’ll finally hear anything other than a dead end. Pacing the floor of her apartment, she deeply regrets drinking all of her wine earlier. A nice glug would go down well right now to stop her entire body from shaking. 
Just as she’s about to give up and try to sleep this awful situation away, her phone finally rings and there in bold letters lies the person she’s been aiming to speak to. Seulgi.
“Hey, Yeri. I have a bunch of missed calls, what’s going on? Are you okay?” 
The sincere, worried tone to Seulgi’s voice only makes Yeri feel even worse about what she’s about to request of the person she’s been relying on heavily these last few months to help her through the slump she’s fallen into.
“Hey, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, about all the calls I just really need a favor from you.” 
“You called me 216 times for a favor?”
Yeri pulls her phone away to check the number for herself, shocked that it’s even possible to call someone that amount of times in such a short period. But there it is, clear as day. 
“Um… Yeah. It’s kind of important, you see.” 
It isn’t. It’s just a stupid mistake that’s all her fault that she now needs to hope Seulgi will bail her out of without her finding out the real reason behind her request.
“Okay, what’s up? You’re worrying me, kid.” 
“Well, you know Beautiful Love Lost.” 
“Oh, yeah, I was just listening to the final version, funnily enough. The company loves it I even heard some people talking about how they regret letting you go.” 
Things could not get any worse, Yeri thinks.
“Well, I need you to delete it, please.” 
Silence is all that follows her words for a few seconds until finally Seulgi releases a deep exhale. 
“Look, Yeri. I know you’ve been kind of down lately with things not working out at the label. But once this gets released, they’ll see that you’re the most talented person they have there. I promise you, you don’t need to doubt yourself.”
Things did get worse. 
“It’s not that, I just think it’s too personal, I don’t want you to release it.” A lie, the biggest lie she’s ever told to Seulgi.
“I don’t understand… You were happy for me to have this and now… you’re not?”
“Yes, exactly. Now I’m not. I don’t want people to read too much into it and think they know me.” 
She doesn’t speak, but Yeri can tell that Seulgi is taking in everything she’s saying to her and trying her best to digest it all. Even to her own ears, the words don’t quite make sense, nor do they feel truthful. Seulgi has always had a way of reading between the lines and Yeri knows she’s doing exactly that now, she knows that Seulgi knows this isn’t the real reason she doesn’t want her to release the song. However, she surprisingly doesn’t question it.
“Fine, I won’t use it. But you owe me another song and fast. The album is due out on the 16th but I have four more days to resubmit anything I’m not happy with.” 
“Yes. You know you’re my favorite person, right Seul?”
“Sure kid,” The doubt clear in her tone. “But I mean it. Four days or I can’t do anything for you. I’ll have to use one of the SM producer’s songs.”
“I will, I promise.” 
They say their goodbyes to one another with Yeri breathing a deep sigh of relief she had been holding during the entire call. However, the anxiety rises in her chest once more with the realization that Seulgi, despite her stubbornness on the subject of Wendy, will probably listen to her solo project even if it’s just to be overly and falsely critical. 
Her mind goes into overdrive with worry about just how Seulgi will react. Will she bring her death slowly? Or will she simply ignore her existence as she has done with the rest of their former members? 
Before the fear consumes her completely, however, several messages from Wendy appear in the notification bar of her phone. 
00:13 AM  [Wendy]
It’s fine Yeri, I won’t use the song if you don’t want me to. I know this is personal for you.
I hope you release it one day instead. I miss hearing you sing. 
Don’t forget though, the album is out on the 15th. You better listen to it!
The only feeling Yeri is capable of at this moment is relief, however, had she took the chance to pay attention to what Wendy had said, she’d realize that another disaster was still steaming ahead on two different tracks ready to collide on the same day as each other for her two friends.
pt.v
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heartbeatan · 6 years ago
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No Expectations (Chapter 1)
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Return to Table of Contents.
Return to Taehyung Fanfictions.
Return to Masterlist.
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Chapter 1
You weren’t quite sure you had heard Taehyung’s words clearly so you couldn’t help but stare blankly back at him as your brain tried to process the declaration. You couldn’t have possibly heard what you thought you heard. It didn’t make any sense.
It had been three years since you met Jae, who you thought was the love of your life; 18 months since you two had gotten married; 15 months since you got pregnant; 6 months since you had your baby; 4 months since you were diagnosed with postpartum depression; and, 12 weeks since your husband walked out on you.
Walked out was putting it lightly. He ran and you didn’t even hear the starter pistol. One day, after he refused, once again, to join you on your routine check-up with the pediatrician, you returned home to find him waiting for you with a short stack of documents. Legal documents. One executing a divorce; one signing over his parental rights; and, another agreeing to transfer you enough money to buy out his portion of the mortgage and four years worth of his son’s college tuition – an impressive feat given that the man barely lasted a year in any job and wouldn’t have the job he was in now if it wasn’t for you who had been editorializing his resume and sending it out to prospective employers. Since you also managed the household expenses, you weren’t sure how he had managed to secretly shell away so much money, or if he had perhaps come by it by some other means. Regardless, it was a monumental enough sum that proved he wanted nothing to do with you or with his child and that he was willing to put himself on skid row in order to get out of it. Perhaps, if you had a clearer head, you would have refused to sign the agreement and at least taken it to a lawyer. The amount was a lot for him in the short term, but it certainly wasn’t enough to account for everything he legally would have owed you and your son for. However, you were so furious, hurt, and offended that you signed your name then and there and swore that he’d never be allowed to recant if he ever wanted to have a relationship with Woori. Unphased, he left, with his copy of the documents, a single suitcase which couldn’t have possibly accounted for everything he owned but again, his desire to leave meant he was fine with abandoning his non-essential belongings… except for the Play Station.
In hindsight, perhaps you should have seen the signs, but you had been so focused on preparing to bring a life into the world that his late nights, passive aggressive undertones and general disinterest in you or your impending offspring went unnoticed. Perhaps you chose not to notice. Perhaps you rationalized that his attitude would change once he finally laid eyes on his child, and he and your relationship would return to some level of normalcy. But that sadly wasn’t the case.
Instead, he became even more distant and more unavailable. You blamed yourself for causing the rift and took pity on him that he had to put up with you, on top of work and the stresses of being a new parent. You thought daily if you could just hold on and just survive a little bit longer then everything would be fine. You would become the woman he fell in love with, you would shower him with all the passion and affection you once did, and life would become blissful once again. He didn’t hold on though. You found out days after he left that he had moved in with his new girlfriend, so chances were he hadn’t been fighting for your marriage for a long time.  
After the anger had passed and you began to accept your new life as a single mother, you came face-to-face with the reality that you were lonely. You had moved to this city for work without intention of staying, but, after you met Jae you decided making a life with him was worth living permanently 10,000 kilometres away from your family and close friends. Most of your friends here were through Jae’s friends so you felt especially awkward to hang out with them, nonetheless risk Jae finding out you were a mess without him.
The only people you had really remained in contact with were Jae’s parents. They were disappointed and embarrassed by how their son treated you and how he could abandon their grandson; last you heard they had only started speaking to him recently. Mostly they desperately wanted to have a relationship with Woori and you were happy to allow that – they weren’t the culprits after all. You were pretty sure they were also the ones dropping grocery gift cards in your mailbox – a God send since between Jae leaving and your maternity pay, the household income had been cut so heavily. Despite them making you feel welcome, it still wasn’t a perfect support system; they were still Jae’s parents after all.
You were tired, broke, alone, poorly nourished on takeout food, and the house and yard was a mess. You still hadn’t lost the baby weight which made you feel like a failure and also made you say “what’s the point” to your regular personal hygiene routine. The more and more you sunk deeper into your lonely and dark routine of “just survive” the more and more anxious you became and the more you isolated yourself from the world.
That’s why when Kim Taehyung, one of Jae’s childhood best friends, arrived out-of-the blue at your door, you were trying your best to keep him occupied in the kitchen; it was a means to keep him away from the shambled living room, your form hidden behind the kitchen island, and a way to send him the message that he wasn’t to stay too long.
Nonetheless, you offered him some water and you two chatted for a while about the news, weather, and friend gossip – of course avoiding the topic of Jae. It was nice to have an adult conversation again and you were finding his company to lift your spirits. But why was he here? Taehyung definitely knew Jae didn’t live there anymore, and he had never stopped into see just you before – you were never that close. When you mustered up the courage to ask why he had come, his answer hit you like an anvil.
“Sorry,” you shook your head. “I don’t think I heard you right.”
“I’m in love with you,” he replied awkwardly as if he wasn’t sure of the answer; perhaps his insecurity is what made you misunderstand him the first time – or that fact that this news came out of absolutely nowhere.
“I--- are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
“Oh… since when?”
“Since basically the beginning,” he replied as if he was answering a question about how long he’s been able to ride a bike.
“Oh…” you couldn’t believe you were having this conversation so casually. You weren’t sure what you were supposed to do with this information. You certainly weren’t in love with him and you certainly weren’t ready to start dating again. But you liked Taehyung and wanted to let him down as gently as possible. Before you could formulate how to do that, he stopped you.
“Listen, before you say anything, I have no expectations. I didn’t come here to ask you to be my girlfriend. I know you’ve got way more important things than dating on your mind right now, I just…” he paused to collect his thoughts before he continued. “I just know a little bit about how difficult a time this can be for you. My sister went through the same thing and I saw how she struggled – and she still had a full-time husband at home.” You realize then that Taehyung was referring to your postpartum. “I also know you don’t have any family here and that you haven’t seen the women in a while. It’s difficult to feel alone…”
A crash interrupted Taehyung’s monologue as Woori chucked his toy car off the highchair and onto the floor. Unphased, Taehyung picked it up and cooed at Woori before returning it. Of all “the men” in your group, Taehyung had always been the best with children, despite not having any of his own. The scene made you smile a little.
“Anyway,” he continued as Woori began smashing his car against the tray again, “I worry about you and I just couldn’t let you go on thinking that you were alone and unloved. So, I came here because… I wanted you to know that… I love you.”
He shrugged his shoulders. His last statement made your chest tighten and tears threaten to form in your eyes. Even though you knew the love he was talking about was more than the kind of love you were looking for, it was true that it was something you didn’t even know you desperately needed to hear. Someone was on your side through all this.
“I’m not the only one, you know. The girls are all worried about you,’ he continued. “You should call them. They’re your friends too. None of us see Jae that much anymore anyway.”
The mention of his name instantly brought a bad taste to your mouth. Anger may have passed, but it had been replaced by disgust. The only saving grace was that it was coming out of the mouth of one of Jae’s best friends who had just declared his love for you…
“I also have something else,” Taehyung straightened his shoulders and spoke confidently. “I want to help you. Anything you need… cut the lawn, some fix it stuff around the house, babysitting… whatever. I’m at your service. Like I said, I have no expectations, I’m not trying to swindle you into anything, I just want to help.”
The statement instantly made you giddy. Taehyung was a good worker and the prospect of having help to complete all the projects and chores Jae “never got to” made you instantly feel as if a weight had been lifted off your shoulders.
Jae. That name came up again.
“I really appreciate the offer, Taehyung, but I can’t accept that. Does Jae know about…” you began but were uncomfortable finishing the sentence. What would Jae think if he knew Taehyung was in love with you? “What would Jae think about you around here all the time. I can’t come between you two like that.”
With a sigh, he responded. “You don’t need to worry about that. I don’t think Jae and I are friends anymore.”
“Did something happen between you?” you asked.
He shook his head no. “Nothing specific. I think the thing is he and I are really only friends today because we’ve been friends since we were kids. We are different people now. I don’t think nostalgia is enough anymore. So, don’t worry, you weren't what came between us.”
Even though you knew Jae didn’t deserve to have a friend as good as Taehyung, you still felt a sense of sadness for him at the loss. You wondered how the rest of the group felt about him. Perhaps Jae wasn’t doing that much better than you were; the thought was satisfying.
“I’m sorry anyway. Losing a friend is still tough,” you said softly. Taehyung shrugged his shoulders and the two of you sat in silence for a few moments.
“Anyway,” he broke first. “Like I said, I want to help. No expectations I’m just here if you need me.”
“Thank-you, Taehyung, I really appreciate it.”
“So, what are we doing today? Put me to work.”
You were a bit shocked. When he said he wanted to help you didn’t expect him to jump in so immediately. “Oh, no, no Taehyung, you don’t have to do anything. I’m fine really! I’ll call you if something comes up!”
“Would you really call though?” he raised his eyebrow.
You couldn’t lie. “Nooo…” you replied sheepishly.
“Well then, now is my only chance. If you’re not going to do it for yourself at least do it for me once. What were you planning on doing today?”
You paused for a bit as you considered whether or how you should shuffle him out of your house. But, despite the odd and somewhat uncomfortable declaration of love, the thought of having a work horse for the day became all to attractive and in a weak moment you answered.
“Well… I was thinking about weeding the gardens…”
“Done,” he interrupted you before you could recant.
“You really don’t need to do this. It’s a lot of work!”
“Don’t worry about it. I like to keep busy.”
“Well, Woori is going to sleep soon so at least let me help you,” you bargained.
“Nope. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it and you worry about yourselves. Why don’t you take a nap too, I’m sure you haven’t gotten much sleep lately?”
You almost scoffed at the idea. “A nap? I don’t know that life,” you quipped. Taehyung’s face pulled in amusement.
“I’ll show you a whole new world, Y/N, where adults take naps sometimes because they need one.” You too smiled at his banter. He stood up and headed towards the door to get to work. Once again, the guilt of having an acquaintance doing free manual labour for you washed over.
“Taehyung…” you called after him. He turned around to face you. “Are you sure about this?”
“Positive,” he smiled. “Don’t worry. I want to be here. No expectations.”
“At least let me make you dinner? The least I could do is feed you… Don’t say no,” you finished sternly when you saw him open his mouth to protest. He shut his mouth and smiled.
“Sure,” he said before he exited and headed off towards the backyard shed.
The smash of Woori’s car hitting the floor knocked you out of your stupor.
Did that really just happen? You asked yourself. Did Kim Taehyung, one of Jae’s best friends really confess his love for you and is now kneeling in your flower bed?
It was true. You peered out the back window to confirm it. There he was bent over the patch of grassy dirt that currently resembled the unmanicured side of the highway rather than a garden. A small pile of waste had already begun to pile up at his side.
Woori began to fuss. Like clockwork he was ready for his meal and a big afternoon nap, so you tried to put any thoughts of what was happening outside away until he was taken care of and fast asleep. For the first time in a while you felt a sense of relief.
Forty minutes later, Woori was fast asleep. You had walked out to bring Taehyung some lawn waste disposal bags and some water. You were preparing to help him out but he shuffled you away and back into the house insisting you couldn’t bribe him with water. Back in the house, however, you couldn’t sit still. Something about having Taehyung’s energy around the property had made you restless, and you felt a motivation you hadn’t felt in a while to do something. You started out with the overdue laundry, and while the wash machine did its job, you moved onto wiping down the kitchen surfaces and sweeping the floors.
Normally you would have thrown the washed clothes in the dryer, but today, in the spirit of accomplishing more, you decided to hang out a load on the clothesline as well. Taehyung waved to you from the distance and you waved back. It was nice. Just the way you had always imagined yourself and Jae to be like on a sunny chore filled Saturday. You pushed the thought aside as you headed back into the house. Today you didn’t need to waste time thinking about him. Today you were feeling motivated. Today you thought was the day you’d be able to get everything done you had been pushing off. You could wake up tomorrow as if you had pressed a reset button. The thought alone was a huge weight off your shoulders.
A while later, exhausted, you decided to take a shower before Woori woke up. For, yet another, first time in a while, you actually enjoyed showering. There was no stress that Woori would need you or that it had to be over quickly so you could try to tackle another task you’d never get to anyway. You took your time and even used the near expired luxury shower items that used to be apart of your beauty routine.
Out of the shower, you felt relax and your body was a little sore from all the things you accomplished so far that morning, but the pain was satisfying; it was the ache of achievement. You decided to lay down for just a minute before you powered on through the afternoon.
You opened your eyes to the sound of Woori’s car hitting the floor. You snapped up in bed upset at yourself for leaving it in his crib. That’s when you noticed the room had darkened slightly. You must’ve fallen asleep. You were sure you had because you hadn’t felt this rejuvenated in months. You jumped out of bed and pulled your robe tight around you as you headed off in the direction of Woori’s room.
When you entered the hall, you heard his little laugh, but it wasn’t coming from the direction of the nursery. You followed the sound and when you entered the kitchen you found Woori sitting happily in his highchair and Taehyung seated in front of him playing.
“Hey! Sorry if we scared you!” he said noticing the astonishment on your face. “I came in an he was crying so when you didn’t wake up, I brought him out here. I figured you probably needed the sleep.”
“Shoot!” you exclaimed. “I didn’t even mean to fall asleep, so I didn’t bring the monitor with me!” you felt complete embarrassment. Taehyung must be thinking you’re a terrible mother. How could you not wake up when your child was crying? “When did he wake up?”
“Maybe ten minutes ago?”
“What time is it?”
“Quarter after five.”
“Oh my god, I slept that long!” your voice raised an octave.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, I just can’t be taking naps, there is so much to do around here; I’ll never catch up; I can’t…” your pitch raised again as the anxiety that greeted you each day had come back for a visit. Woori let out a little whimper and his face contorted as he sensed something was wrong.
You began listing off everything you had wanted to accomplish that afternoon. You moved frantically around the kitchen, not sure of which direction you needed to be heading in and soon enough your eyes began to sting.
Taehyung stood up and clasped his hands around your shoulders. “Hey, hey,” he said soothingly. “It’s ok. A lot got done today, there’s no need to beat yourself up.”
You looked up to the ceiling and tried to blink away the tears. “I’m terrible at this, Taehyung,” you sobbed. “I don’t know what I’m doing, I can’t keep up. They’re going to take my son away.” The flood gates opened; another first. You hadn’t ever let anyone see how terrified you were by your new situation, but somehow here in front of someone you hardly knew, it all came falling out.
“Hey, no one is going to take your son away. You are doing a wonderful job. Look,” he encouraged you to look at Woori. “He’s happy, he’s healthy, he’s loved. You are doing a great job.”
“I’m just so overwhelmed,” you covered your face with your hands. “I never expected to be doing this all alone.”
“Look at me,” he pulled at your hands. “You’re not alone anymore. I’m here to help, remember? Anything you need. No expectations.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” you sniffed.
“You didn’t ask, I offered. I want to. Please let me.” He didn’t look at you as if you were crazy, nor that he pitied you. He looked at you with empathy and it felt genuine. It felt safe and warm. What you really wanted to do at that moment was nestle into his chest and ask him to hug you; not in a romantic way - in a way that you needed to feel a friend, or a family member show you affection. You didn’t though. His declaration of love still hung in the back of your thoughts and even though he said he had “no expectations” you didn’t want to flirt with them. To your own surprise though, you nodded your head yes. Yes, he offered to help you, and yes, you were going to take him up on that offer.
“Good,” he smiled. “Woori and I are good out here for a bit. How about I start making dinner?”
“I said I’d cook.”
“I can do it,” he gave you a quick look up and down. “Go ahead and do whatever else you need to do.”
You weren’t sure what he was referring to, until you followed where his eyes had darted and realized that you were still in your bathrobe. Even though nothing had accidentally been exposed, you self-consciously tugged the neckline a little to be sure. That’s when…
“Oh, shit!” you made Taehyung jump a little. “I have laundry on the line!”
“Do you want me to go get it?”
“No,” you replied. “Nooo,” you replied again when you remembered you had your granny panties and nursing bras hanging out there.
Taehyung chuckled as you did. “I figured. Laundry is a private business. Now get out of here. We’re fine.”
A short time later, the three of you were seated around the kitchen table eating dinner. You were impressed Taehyung had managed to actually pull something that resembled a meal out of your cupboards.
I really need to go grocery shopping, you thought to yourself, but the instant you did you felt the anxiety swell at the prospect of braving crowds alone with an infant.
“Huh?” you asked. Taehyung had said something that knocked you out of your thoughts.
“I asked if you wanted to go for a walk,” he said again.
“Oh? Where are we going?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “No where in particular. Just around the neighbourhood. I like to walk after eating, it makes me feel better.”
“I don’t know. Woori usually gets a little fussy around this time.”
“We won’t go far then. Let’s do it. We could all probably use the fresh air.”
You considered saying “no” but after everything he had done for you today, and since you didn’t end up the chef of the night as promised, the least you could do was entertain a walk around the block.
Taehyung had been right. You did need the fresh air. The mucky part of spring was ending and the world was beginning to warm up and turn green again. Woori was perfect the whole time. He cooed and awed at the big, bright world around him; in fact it made you feel a little guilty that you kept him and yourself so cooped up all the time. He needed to be stimulated and you needed to start engaging with the world again. Having Taehyung around was nice too. You had someone to speak to and not just about how you were doing, but about the small things that you didn’t realize you missed talking about.
“I think I should do this every night. This is nice,” you thought out loud. Taehyung smiled.
“Anytime you want a walking buddy just give me a call.” A small silence fell upon you both. Not an uncomfortable one. But out of your fit before dinner, when in a weak moment you agreed to let him help you, you were unsure once again if you were comfortable doing that. Taehyung picked up on the mood shift. “Sooo… you have a lot of free space now that the weeds are gone. Are you planning on planting anything new?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I always envied people who had beautiful gardens, but I don’t know if I could keep up with one.”
“Well, we can find some plants that don’t need a lot of maintenance. How about I’ll pick you up tomorrow and we can go check out the big greenhouse? We can take a look, maybe pick some stuff up and we can plant them when we get back.”
The thought was lovely, but once again the idea of braving a Sunday crowd made you panic.
“Don’t ask me again if I’m sure. I’m sure,” Taehyung jumped in anticipating you’d try to get out of your new agreement.
“It’s not that, I’m just worried about taking Woori out. If he has a fussy day – I just don’t know if I can concentrate on him and shopping. I’m still haunted by the first time I took him to get groceries.”
“I’m going to be with you the whole time. Between the two of us we’ll manage. If he gets too much then one of us can take him outside or we can just leave and try again another day. No big deal.”
No big deal. How could three small words near relieve you of all your trepidation. He was right. No big deal. And he would be there with you. It wouldn’t be like before with a baby developing a fever while you try to muscle your way through a long line at the cash. You would have help if you needed it.
“Yeah, OK. Let’s do it,” you finally responded.
“Yeah?” he sounded almost surprised.
“Yes… if you’re sure you want to waste your Sunday, of course.”
“What do I have to do to get you to stop that?” he laughed. You laughed too. It may be unconventional, but whatever was happening between the two of you now you were realizing might not be such a bad thing. Friends help friends when they need them; and the one thing you really needed right now was a friend.
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prorevenge · 6 years ago
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Oh SO You Want To Kick Me Out Of My New Job? Then Enjoy Being Unemployed, Sued, And Blacklisted!
Warning: This is a long story!
<
A few years back, I accepted a job as an assistant IT manager for a local (and popular) retail store chain. Let's call it company X. I don't work there anymore though, as I have left them after a few months. Anyway, the hiring process was generally good, except for the fact that the IT manager (let's call him Asswipe because that's what he is) who was supposed to become my boss was not involved with the hiring process. The ones who interviewed me instead were the regional IT head (RH), the general manager (GM), and this very nice lady that we would be referring to as NL. RH is a lively and positive person, GM was kind of a snub and a bit intimidating but not too bad, and NL was one of the nicest persons I have ever met.
Of course, I inquired why Asswipe isn't in the meeting while I'm being interviewed. The answer I got from RH was along the lines of: "well, technically Asswipe isn't the IT manager anymore, and our arrangement with him is that he will stay as the interim IT head until his contract has ended and not renewed." Basically, the "employment" of Asswipe has already ended sometime in the past, and that he is more or less just a consultant at this point. Asswipe is also almost always "working from home" so he would be unavailable for meetings. RH added that they are hiring me to eventually replace Asswipe when I learned enough of the business and the systems that the IT department is managing. I found this kind of odd but I was like "whatever" and never gave it much thought.
So eventually, I resigned from my (then) current employer despite them throwing me a very attractive counter offer (very bad move on my part) and started my new role at company X after a couple of months.
Day 1. The first day was okay. There were around 5 new hires aside from me, and we were all from different departments. We were taken by our recruiter (RC) to a nice meeting place outside the office to attend the usual onboarding session for new employees. I went home with a smile that day, looking forward to meet my new team when tomorrow comes. I felt that everything would be perfect from then on. Oh boy was I wrong...
Day 2. I came in an hour early so I opted to sit on the couch outside of the HR office while waiting for RC to arrive. Good thing one of the new hires was early as well, so I had somebody to chat with. After about thirty minutes, RC finally came in. She greeted and escorted us to a meeting room where we filled out some paperwork. I was seated on the side of the room where I have a full view of the lobby through a glass window. A few minutes went by when I noticed a man passing by the lobby. He has neck-long hair, wore huge eyeglasses, and was a bit on the chubby side. He's dressed quite decently though. RC whispered to me: "/u/padodo123, that is Asswipe, your manager". I felt a bit nervous as this will be the first time I am meeting him. RC stepped out of the office and had a chat with Asswipe, probably informing him of my presence. RC returned and told me that Asswipe cannot meet me right now because he is engaged with something important. I replied with: "oh, okay" and continued on with the papers.
That morning, RC gave us (the new hires) a tour of the facility, jumping from office to office, and showed us to everyone. Along the way, we met NL, who greeted me and the rest of the newbies with her sweet motherly voice. She's a bit in a hurry for a meeting but promised to have a chat with me soonest. We continued on with the tour. The rest of the staff were generally pleasant, and the atmosphere is friendly and light, at least, until we reached the IT department's office. The moment the door opened, I felt heavy air rushing through me, and the environment was somewhat tense. RC introduced us one by one, and then told the IT guys that I am their new assistant IT manager. I greeted them with a smile and expressed my excitement to be working with them finally. Nobody responded, though I saw a few forced smiles here and there. RC pointed me to the direction of Asswipe and introduced us formally. We were on the door, and Asswipe is sitting on his table which is situated at the other end of the room. Asswipe had this smug look on his face and without saying a word, nodded at me, then continued on with what he was doing on his computer. I felt quite disappointed by his behavior, acting like that being a manager and all, but I thought maybe he's just having a rough day. We left after a few minutes and carried on with the tour. Before the day ended, I got my laptop and system access from the system admin (this guy is silent, but generally okay) before clocking out.
Day 3. I headed straight to the IT department for my "first working day". Nobody except the girl sitting on a desk in the front row was present... maybe I'm just too early. She recognized me and told me that Asswipe wanted her to show me the back area (where they keep the supplies, parts, and do repairs). So we went to the area, and I was offered a desk - it is all messy with wires, computer parts and who-knows-what sitting on there. I settled in and opened my computer to test my email, access and whatnot. There were three technicians in the room that time. They were friendly and we had some nice conversation. I also had a Skype call with RH and he walked me through the entire IT organization. I inquired about Asswipe and he told me that he already sent him an email, and that I can talk to the guy tomorrow. The day ended with me staying at the back area, with Asswipe nowhere in sight.
Day 4. I again arrived early and with nowhere else to go, sat on my "desk". No emails coming in of course, since I haven't been doing any work yet. Eventually, I heared from the other side of door that Asswipe has arrived. I waited for a few minutes so he can settle down, then I went to the front area and walked to his desk. I gave my usual greetings and pleasantries, but what I really wanted was to talk with him about my role and tasks as his new assistant IT manager. He dismissed me and told me he will just send me a mail as he is doing something important. I didn't like this. I am a generally nice guy but I don't mix well with people who wastes my time and disrespects me. I tried hard not to make a fuzz out of it, agreed, and went back to my desk, waiting for his email that never came. That night, I was already having second thoughts about my decision of joining this company.
Day 5. No emails from Asswipe, though I got a lunch out invite from NL, which I accepted. I pinged RM. He then arranged a meeting for the three of us. After a while I was told that Asswipe declined the invitation but suggested another time. RH is unavailable for the suggested schedule but I told him that me and Asswipe can push through anyway. Come afternoon, I was sitting on one chair in front of Asswipe's desk, and we started to talk. However, instead of discussing about my tasks, responsibilities, and his expectations, he pulled out a copy of my resume and started "interviewing" me. I was puzzled. I politely told him that I am already hired and there is no longer a need for an interview. His face turned from grumpy to sour, and then began questioning my qualifications. He nagged about how I am unfit for the role and why I was hired without him approving it. His voice went to loud to really loud to shouting. This went on and on until I had enough. Needless to say, I engaged in a shouting contest with him, to the horror of everybody watching. "I don't like you, go back to where you came from" he said. I replied with "Don't worry, I don't like you too" and stormed out of the room. To be honest if we are not inside the office, he probably already met my fist and the ground.
I went to the HR office and looked for the employee relations officer (ER). Asswipe followed me but stayed at the door, giving me sharp glances that can slice potatoes. ER met me and I told him what happened. He invited me to a room along with the HR manager. We discussed the whole ordeal and I told them how disappointed I was. I almost resigned that instant but they asked me to calm down and reconsider, and that they would do something about it. Day ended with me leaving work early. I forgot to bring my laptop home though because, you know.
Day 6. I was hesistant to report to the office due to what happend the week prior, but because I was able to relax at the beach with the chicks during the weekend *devil face*, I got my composure back. I am also looking forward to the "action" ER told me that he would do.
When I arrived at the office, NL was there waiting for me. She inquired about what happened and how am I doing. She invited me upstairs to their department and ushered me to a nice looking desk. She said that I will temporarily be staying there until we resolve the conflict. I already met the people there and they are all nice. They told me about what they heared and was actually not surprised of how Asswipe acted. I learned from them that Asswipe is actually known to be a prick and a real nuisance to everyone. He acts as if he's the owner and I'm the only person who stood up to him. You see, before company X was acquired by it's now parent company, it was a family business. Being the only IT guy that time, Asswipe was able to introduce innovations to the company with the help of technology. He also only hired entry level people and never taught them too much, maybe so that he can have an advantage over the company (security of tenure). He threatened to "leave" the company on several occassions, of which each time the owner tried to win him back by addressing his demands (doubling his salary). Poor lady. Asswipe bacame the highest paid employee by then. When the acquisition was completed though, his antics no longer worked, and when he tried to resign one last time, it was accepted. However since he is the only person capable of running the IT services, company X cannot get rid of him right away. They then settled with the contract that I have mentioned earlier. How I wished I have learned about this before signing the job offer :(
As expected, Asswipe didn't report that day. My laptop is also nowhere to be found, and I wondered why lol. Meanwhile, there was a commotion going on around the facility. Apparently, the system that everybody uses just refused to work out of the blue, causing transactions to fail. I also wondered why lol. Luckily, we were able to put up an interim solution so that production can still continue, while we are investigating the root cause of the problem. Unfortunately, we were locked out of the server and had no way of accessing it or the system logs. (Only Asswipe knows the password). Somebody tried to contact him to no avail. We ended up phoning the server support and asked for assistance.
That evening, the support guys came and worked on our server. We went home (except the night shift technicians) and were promised a report early morning.
Day 7. I was issued a new laptop since the one I used last week went "missing". I read the report from the server guys and was "shocked" to find out that the downtime was actually caused by somebody deleting several files and records, and stopped scheduled jobs from running. Of course we already have a clue who is behind this but we have no evidence to back it up since all logs were wiped out and the person was able to hide his tracks. Or so he thought. Well, the mistake is that even though transaction logs can be removed, connecting to the VPN to access the server will create a separate record that would show the IP address of the person making the connection. The IP address just happened to be the one Asswipe is always using, since he has an office "extension" at home, where the internet is paid for by the company. The time of the VPN session "incidentally" aligns with the time the issue was first reported. Hmmmm... What's more is that the username that was used to log in on the network was Asswipe's. Not very bright huh. Both GM and RH were informed, and police was contacted as well.
Day 8. I was told that some talks happened which ended with us taking back posession of Asswipe's laptop. The laptop was then sent to another facility for investigation. By this time, the system is back and running, though a lot of transactions were needed to be redone. GM apparently called Asswipe, told him of the findings, and threatened to sue him if he will not respond to the company's demands, the demands being that: 1) He return his laptop, company issued phone, and any other company-related items in his posession; and 2) Perform training for the IT staff on how to operate the systems he previously exclusively handled and provide thorough documentation. He was not allowed to come anywhere near the facility or any branches of the company though, so these training sessions need to be done somewhere else. Asswipe complied.
------
The training sessions lasted for 4 weeks, with them meeting twice a week. For every session, a guard and the company lawyer was always present. After everything was settled, Asswipe was set free. Though, he is forever banned from being rehired in company X and all companies under it's parent organization. It all went well for me and company X from then on, but this is not yet the ending.
------
A few weeks have passed. Me and a colleague were doing some inventory and basic auditing when we stumbled upon a few anomalies. There were purchases made in the past that have no official receipts to them, and all we found were petty cash vouchers that you can buy at all bookstores. The purchases constitute of processors, motherboards, power supplies, and RAM sticks. What's more intriguing is that the prices were blown up, almost double than the usual prices in the market. We dug up for more info and found records for all these purchases. It turns out that the company has been "in business" with whoever the seller is for years already. There were remarks on these questionable items saying that they were "bought from an onlne seller" and that "Asswipe met them somewhere to do the transactions". There's a company name and website listed for the seller but no contact number. We tried to open the website but the page was not found. I tried to do a whois domain lookup - and whaaa laaa.... it was actually owned by somebody with a very fictitious name. I was hoping to see Asswipe's name here but oh well. However, there is an email address associated with the domain, and guess who's personal email it was.....
We documented our findings and reported it to GM and RH. Last I heard, he was being sued by the company, but this time it is for real. Also, the laptop previously issued to him was sent back to us. The forensics team was able to squeeze out lots of evidence against him from the said equipment. Bonus: I found an email sent from his account which dates all the way back on Day 5. Asswipe was apparently blackmailing GM, that he will resign immediately and he will only retract his resignation if "the new guy" was removed. Needless to say, this didn't worked. Adding salt to the would, Asswipe was also blacklisted on several IT groups and organizations. Goodluck to him finding a new job :)
(source) story by (/u/padodo123)
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onychaos · 5 years ago
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November update log
Moving to Texas has been interesting. We live in a townhouse, me and my grandmother, and have people on the side of us. The area is nice, when I’m not trying to get hit by cars, I’m taking a walk down to the store to get my grandmother some things.
And things we had to deal with.
The Townhouse we are staying in had a different service here that we didn’t know of cause the landlord, didn’t check to see before telling us. Which meant we had no internet for 2 days.. but it seems to have an unwanted side effect on our internet.
Can’t be loud in the townhouse on Sunday to Friday or we may / will get put out on the streets, and I don��t want that… So have to change things up or how I do them, anyway.
Our download is great but our upload is awful as it is all over the place in terms of being stable and it’s hard to find the cause of this issue… But have a idea of what it may be. 
It could be the smart TV’s using build in Netflix that’s taking up the bandwidth and that could be what’s messing with the internet and if that is the case, I will disable the net on my smart TV but I doubt that is the cause of the issue..
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The next and most likely is that, we have to call our ISP and have someone come out here to troubleshoot this problem as it is not getting better, just worst by the day. The worst case is that there is no way to fix this problem, and we are fucked either way at that point..
Got a weird scar on the back of my hand. It’s not a cut but looks like damaged skin?
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But on to happier notes? I been doing some things since we got here in Texas. 
Been going on walks to the store / mini plaza to get little treats for me and my grandmother.
*Almost sorta* got hit by a car. The car was not too close but not too far from me. That was a moment and a half for me. Not enough to make my life flash before my eyes though.
Been using IG (Instagram) more to post pictures of my life. but I think I may post a selfie to IG but that thought that some creep liking my selfie is something else.. You can follow my Instagram, if you like. Feel free to ask me, not going to bite your hand off. lol
I been watching how people act in discord servers. HyperSonic7701’s discord server in particular has been interesting to see how some users act around certain topics. And watching them having said convo about said topic is that of a tire fire. Then things snowball downhill. I know what topics to avoid joining or bringing up, at least around them.
Been playing a lot of smash brothers for the Switch and been having fun. No friends to play with, but that’s why we have internet and that’s ok.
Played Kingdom Hearts 3 for the first time. It’s not a bad game from what everyone made it seem like it. It has it’s moments for sure but it’s fun. I been enjoying KH3 so far. But I think I won’t stream my first experience ever again with drax and his friends..
They took away the first blind experience for me, and I am sad about that. A game that I seen nothing about was somewhat ruined. That SPECIAL Moment of a first playthrough of the unknown, the magical experience just gone. I now know for next time to play games alone.
Been going back to doing things on my own rather waiting for friends who are unavailable. I also stopped asking people and friends* to play games with me, which normally ends up being people who tell me a date to play a game but doesn’t follow through or tell me we should play but nothing comes of it.
I just ask people or friends who I know have time to play or want to play, so it’s not a complete waste of time for anyone or me but most of the people I want to play with are either, too busy, not available, too cool* to play a game with me or just doesn’t want to.
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Been watching a lot of Netflix shows and it’s great. Been watching little witch academia, and it’s a fun show. It’s cute, silly, and has charm to it. It’s a fun ride and love Season 2 so far.
Been making the most of my time till I get a job. Been cooking for my grandmother and doing what I can to keep her happy. Things are well and have got much better.
Been staying out of the dumb drama that people and friends get into. A waste of time and energy. Petty drama is the worst kind, you HAVE to be petty to have petty drama with someone.
I watched all of season 1 and 2 of aggretsuko. It left me feeling happy but confused. I can’t put it into words but it’s a great show.
I have been more open with what I feel and think. And in a time and age where people are just / can be assholes who don’t value this or care if you are open about your feelings. I am not sure if being open is good or bad since people seem to only like things when I’m having a bad day, which gives me a bad impression of them
Been using Tumblr more then WordPress. But issues that hold me back from truly enjoying Tumblr. One being trying to find out what links are blacklisted, since some links that have not been whitelisted will hide your post in search and tagged. 
People have made somewhat of a guide of what links that Tumblr has whitelisted and blacklisted.. But these posts are outdated or not being kept up to date anymore.  And there seems to be no way to get Tumblr to whitelist links that are safe to use..
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And with Automattic, now having Tumblr under their wings, maybe in a few more months, the issues I have with the site might be fixed, that being the URL ban and maybe ban URLS that are not safe. Crazy idea, I know. :o
If in a few months or a month that Tumblr is still the same, even being owned by Automattic, I will head back to WordPress for my blogging needs and make Tumblr my second blog to copy what I post on WordPress to Tumblr.
Been sticking to my little diet and been getting fit. My stuff for working out got left behind in the old place, sadly. A part of my bike that was made for working out got left. I make due with walking. I will find a workaround for this.
Never gonna post a selfie to Facebook. Feels weird. Facebook feels like a place you go when you become an adult and you share other “funny” It’s not. But I will leave it at that. Not posting a selfie on Facebook. Yucky be Facebook. You can tell I don’t like Facebook that much, no?
I don’t hate Facebook but not in love with it. lol
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I got another post in me that I want to make and why I stop being competitive and the post relates to CyberScore in someway, by proxy, quitting CyberScore. This will be a fun post to make and share.
I will go back to YouTube to make some Let’s plays. And now I got a better mic, time to put it to use, I suppose. :P
With free time, I plan on working on the fan game or may start working on an original game of my own and make something fun. I have to see what happens, of course.
It’s crazy to think that it has been 9 months since I truly quit speedrunning. And If I did get back into speedrunning like everyone has done, I would only hate it more at that point. And if a hobby I used to do makes me hate it, it’s a lost cause
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Been a while since I made an update like log. Going over things I did or done. Sharing or oversharing. That’s all for now. :3
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artificialqueens · 6 years ago
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Fire meet gasoline, chapter 10 (Craquaria) - Redside-of-the-moon
AN: Surprise, added another chapter!
Aquaria hadn’t blinked for what must have been a full minute, glaring at her present company in the diner that was packed with people enjoying a Sunday brunch. Other than a short “hello” as she’d arrived a few minutes earlier, Aquaria literally hadn’t said a word. Bobbi was starting to get slightly concerned.
“Are you… ok?” she asked hesitantly. “You’re not having a stroke, are you?” she then quipped, trying to coax some sort of reaction from the younger woman sitting in the booth across from her. It seemed to work, as Aquaria finally blinked.
“I’m fine”, she bit off, narrowing her eyes at Bobbi who looked back in confusion at the hostile young woman.
Aquaria’s eyes suddenly shot to a spot behind Bobbi’s left shoulder and her face lit up. “In fact, I’m better than fine cause here’s my GIRLFRIEND finally!” she continued as Brianna reached their table.
Aquaria slid out of the booth to properly greet Bri, but Bobbi beat her to it. She frowned at the sight of them hugging. Brianna, engulfed in the embrace of the much taller Bobbi, caught Aquaria’s unhappy stare and quickly freed herself to step up to her girlfriend.
“I’m so sorry I’m late”, she started while leaning in for a quick kiss, “but my Uber driver took a wrong tu-”. She was cut off by Aquaria closing the distance between them, dipping her back in a passionate kiss worthy of competing with the famous sailor and nurse caught on camera celebrating the end of WW2. It lasted less than 10 seconds, but it was enough to have a dizzy Brianna grabbing on to Aquaria’s upper arms for support as she was raised back up again. She stared at the younger woman, her train of thought completely forgotten. “Wow”, was all she managed to say, face flushed from more than coming in from the cold outside, earning her a loving and proud smile in return.
“Yeah, I think ‘wow’ is the word on everyone’s minds right now”, Bobbi noted dryly, turning Aquaria’s bright smile into a smug grin. Brianna looked around them. The other patrons close by were staring, most with understanding smiles. A few looked disapproving, making Bri throw a protective arm around her girlfriend and glare back, as they slid into the booth next to each other. She removed her arm only to start taking off her coat and scarf.
A sudden choked sound from across the table made Bri look up. Bobbi’s eyes were nearly jumping out of their sockets as she stared at Brianna’s now exposed neck and cleavage in her low cut v-neck jumper. Brianna blushed and glanced at Aquaria. The younger woman was positively GLOWING with pride and was quite obviously enjoying watching both of the other’s reactions to the current situation. Her gaze finally settled on Bri and she reached out a hand to move Brianna’s hair off of her shoulder, revealing more of the hickeys that had rendered Bobbi speechless. Some were healing, already yellow-tinted. Others were new, in a dark purple, almost black, shade.
Brianna shivered as images of how each and everyone of them was made flashed through her mind and she couldn’t stop a small whimper from escaping her lips as she squirmed in her seat.
The sound was lost to everyone but her girlfriend in the noisy diner. Aquaria bit her bottom lip and traced one the marks from earlier that morning with her finger. “Oh, yeah… I guess we got a bit… carried away a few times this weekend”, she drawled before leaning in and placing a feather light kiss on the bruise while recalling the delicious moans she had dragged out of Bri just a few hours earlier.
The weekend really had been nothing but perfect. They had spent the entire Saturday catching up on the events of the three months they had spent separated and making love in every room of Brianna’s apartment, Aquaria marking Bri as hers - not only as a message for Bobbi whom they had booked brunch with the next day, but also out of pure desire and desperation to make up for lost time. Not that there had been any complaints. Quite the opposite, actually, Aquaria thought, smiling against Brianna’s skin as she once again thought about how their Sunday had started.
She had woken up in Brianna’s embrace, muscles sore after their busy Saturday. But any aches had been quickly forgotten at the sight and feel of her girlfriend’s body pressed up against her. Aquaria’s eyes had traced Brianna’s curves up to the bruises on her chest and neck, making her mouth water at the thought of adding just a few more. When Bri woke up just moments later, she had done just that…
They lost track of time as they were lost in each other, making it necessary for them to separate for a short while as Brianna jumped in the shower and Aquaria went home to her own apartment to change into something else than her Friday night party dress or the sweatpants she had borrowed from Bri. They were to meet up at the diner, Brianna assuring her girlfriend that Bobbi was always late anyway.
Of course, this was the time when the woman in question would be early for once and she had already found a booth for them as Aquaria arrived. She had been about to turn around and wait for Bri outside, not feeling quite ready yet for the talk that needed to happen, when Bobbi had caught her eye and waved enthusiastically, making Aquaria sigh and join her at the table. 'Thank god Bri hadn’t been more than a few minutes late’, Aquaria thought as she now slid her arms around Brianna’s waist and kissed her cheek.
“Clearly”, Bobbi said, suddenly bursting their little bubble. Aquaria and Brianna both looked back at her, confusion evident in their eyes. Bobbi rolled her own.
“CLEARLY you got carried away this weekend. Jeez, Cracker, you look like a dalmatian!” she clarified, making Bri giggle.
Aquaria scowled. “Cracker?!” she asked, looking between the two other women.
“Oh, yeah, uh, it’s just this nickname that Bobbi came up with for me”, Brianna explained, looking a bit embarresed. “Cause I’m thin, white and salty…? It’s dumb, I know”, she continued, laughing.
“Yeah… Dumb… You’re not a cracker, you’re a… a… a curvaceous sweet treat”, Aquaria replied, tightening her hold while looking a bit unsure.
Brianna looked back at her. Knowing that what Aquaria needed right now was validation and her girlfriend in her ring corner, Brianna leaned into the embrace and said “Thank you, I love you, baby” loud and clear. Aquarias frown turned upside down as Bri cemented her words with a soft kiss.
Brianna turned back to her friend. “Don’t worry, Bobbi, it was all VERY consentual and trust me, Aquaria isn’t exactly spotless herself underneath this blouse”, she said, making Aquaria’s smug grin reappear.
Bobbi looked at her friend for a few seconds and, after a quick internal debate, nodded and flashed a big smile.
“Well, then I’m happy for you, Cracker. And you, too, Aquaria!” she added, winking at them both, making the younger of the two pause as Brianna reached out and grabbed Bobbi’s hand.
“Thank you, Bobbi, that really means a lot. And thanks again for tricking me into going out on Friday”, she laughed and turned back to Aquaria with an elated smile. “I’d like to think that I would have come to my senses by myself eventually but who knows how long that would have taken me? It might have truly been too late by then”, she added, voice cracking a little, while reaching up a hand to cup Aquaria’s cheek.
Aquaria closed her eyes and leaned into the caress. “Babe, you know I would have forgotten the name of whoever I was dating and come running when you called, no matter how long it would have taken you”, she replied and then, leaning in so only Brianna could hear her, mumbled “but for every extra day there’d be an extra hickey as punishment”.
Brianna drew in a shaky breath, getting almost drunk on her girlfriend’s perfume and guided Aquaria’s lips against her neck, when Bobbi interrupted once again.
“Ok, alright, I said I was glad for you but damn, the PDA is getting from R-rated to X, you’re gonna get us thrown out! And a bitch is starving so it will not be cute if that happens, trust me”, she laughed.
Brianna shook herself mentally and looked around her. “Yeah, where is our waiter? Maybe you’re supposed to order at the counter?”
“I’m actually really hungry myself”, Aquaria said and pouted at Bri. “Babe, would you mind going to check?”
Brianna started to get out of the booth. “Of course not, I’ll be right back!” she answered.
“Thanks babe, love you!” Aquaria called after Bri and watched her sway her wide hips on her way towards the staff at the cash register before turning back to Bobbi.
“You kissed her”, she said, voice flat.
Bobbi looked startled by the words and the sudden change in the young woman’s tone.
“What?!” she exclaimed in confusion.
Aquaria narrowed her eyes.
“You. Kissed. Her. A month ago. She told me everything.”
“Oh that! Yes. I mean… A gorgeous, single woman laughing at my jokes? Can you blame me?” Bobbi laughed.
“Maybe not if the situation had been different”, Aquaria answered. “But you knew she was emotionally unavailable and vulnerable and took advantage of that. So yes.”
Bobbi sighed.
“Look. You’re right. I shouldn’t have kissed her and the very second she pushed me away I stopped and apologized. It was a moment of weakness, fueled by liquid courage and I am completely over it. Brianna has quickly become one of my closest friends and I’m not gonna throw that away”.
She paused, watching Aquaria take in the words before continuing.
“I really do mean it, you know. I am happy for the both of you. Hell, need I remind you that I actually set this whole reunion up? Why would I do that if I was still into her?”
Aquaria searched Bobbi’s face for any signs of insincerity, but found none. She felt her shoulders drop as some of the tension was released out of her. She could live with Bobbi being Brianna’s friend, she obviously meant a lot to her. And she just wanted Bri to be happy.
But there was just one more thing that needed to be said. She glanced towards Brianna who was just turning around to make her way back to them. Aquaria leaned across the table.
“I’m choosing to believe you, cause I’m here to stay and if you and my future wife are gonna be friends it’ll be a really awkward time for the next 80 years or so if I can’t get along with you. Just know that if you ever touch her like that again I will find you and I will-”, she hissed, before straightening up as Brianna slid back in the booth again.
“Hi babe, I missed you!”, she said and kissed Bri on the cheek.
Brianna giggled.
“I was literally gone for like a minute! But ok, I missed you, too”, she said and covered Aquaria’s hand with her own while continuing, addressing them both this time. “A waiter will be coming over asap, they’re short staffed and- Bobbi, are you ok?” Brianna frowned in concern at her friend.
Bobbi, who had been staring at Aquaria in stunned silence, closed her mouth and looked at Brianna.
“Yeah, absolutely!” she answered with a nervous laugh.
That had been quite a little rant. Bobbi wasn’t actually scared, she was a big girl and could probably snap Aquaria in half like twig. She’d just been surprised by the intensity of the girl’s feelings and how protective she was of Brianna. She could respect, and even admire, that. She glanced back quickly at the much smaller woman, who was now smiling innocently back at her as if she hadn’t been about to count the ways she would hurt Bobbi if she ever tried anything with Brianna again. Bobbi hesitantly returned the smile. No, she wasn’t worried. Not even a little bit.
The rest of brunch went smoothly. After Aquaria had laughed at one of Bobbi’s jokes, surprising them all, herself included, they all felt less on edge. As they were saying their goodbye’s outside the diner and Brianna hugged Bobbi, Aquaria gave the latter the old 'I’m watching you’ gesture, pointing two fingers between her own eyes and Bobbi. They both smiled, knowing that Aquaria was only half joking.
Aquaria had brought an overnight bag from home, so she could stay at Brianna’s for the night and not have to go back home the next morning before work. Brianna helped her haul the heavy bag full of make up and “other necessities” into the trunk of an Uber, before getting in the backseat themselves. As usual, Aquaria sat in the middle, to be as close to Brianna as possible. After a few minutes, Bri broke the silence.
“So… 'Future wife’, huh?”, she said with a smirk.
Aquaria, who had been leaning her head against Brianna’s shoulder, stiffened. Slowly she raised her head, meeting Brianna’s amused eyes.
“You, ah, you heard that? How much more did you hear?”, she stuttered nervously.
Brianna giggled.
“Just that and the part where you were about to explain to Bobbi what you would do if she tried anything with me again.”
Aquaria blushed.
“Sorry…”, she started but was interrupted by Brianna.
“Don’t be, baby. I liked it. Especially the part about us spending the next 80 years together.”, she mumbled, raising her hand to tuck away a stray curl behind Aquaria’s ear.
“Yeah?”, Aquaria smiled timidly.
Brianna nodded.
“I was thinking…”, she started before pausing, unsure if she was moving too fast, before thinking 'fuck it, this can’t happen fast enough’.
She took a deep breath before continuing.
“I’ve been thinking, and I want to ask you to move in with me. I know we just got back together and should probably take it slow but fuck slow, I want to spend every free second I have with you and when you left this morning I could smell your perfume and it smelled like summer and then when you said what you said to Bobbi back there at the diner I thought I was gonna die from happiness but I totally get if you-”
Her rambling was cut off as Aquaria smashed their mouths together, grabbing on hard to Bri’s body, pulling her even closer. She pulled back after a few seconds, eyes almost shut from her huge smile.
“Yes, oh my goodness, yes! Are you kidding me?! Of course I fucking want to, I love you so much!”, she exclaimed before closing the few inches between them again, this time not letting go until the Uber pulled up in front of Brianna’s apartment.
'OUR apartment’, Aquaria thought happily while following her girlfriend out of the elevator and to the front door. Brianna unlocked it, took a step inside and turned around, holding out her hand.
“Welcome home, baby”.
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brianjpatterson · 6 years ago
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SPOTLIGHT: “THE BIG LEAP” (Reaching the Next Level in Your Journey as a Performer)
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If you’re just joining Spotlight, then I’d like to welcome you to my personal journal of my personal journey as a performer. It’s a kind of way for me to look back on all of my experiences, and lessons I’ve learned, while simultaneously sharing what I’ve learned with you. Disclaimer: The word PERSONAL was utilized twice in the first sentence. Therefore, this is not the gospel or the truth, it’s just me sharing MY experiences in an effort to assist, if possible, in other people’s discovery toward climbing the ladder toward their own version of artistic success (end disclaimer). Today, I’m going to continue my detour past part (Part 5) of my observation of the Industry’s Corporate Structure (AGAIN), to touch briefly upon a concept that I live by in “Brian’s B’s” (Being aka Awareness, Business, and Behavior aka Conduct), of my A+B=C method. It is the concept and idea of how to make things practically tangible for others. When you make something tangible for someone, it becomes easily accessible to them. And if you can make it easily accessible in a brief way…even better! SIDE NOTE: If you are reading this blog for the first time, here’s a brief over view of my A+B=C method. A stands for the Abstract; It’s your dream and what you desire. C is the Completion or end result to the equation. It’s that Concrete product you have Concocted. However, B is the thing that doesn’t get much attention, and it is the most vital portion of the equation; It is your Being, your Behavior, and your Business. All the things that YOU actually DO to mix with the A and make the C happen! That is the basic overview of my system. Today, I’m going to focus briefly on the being side. Cultivating awareness is the most important part of ‘Being”. Knowing who you are, means knowing how you show up in every day life in different situations. Today, I’m going to break down five simple questions you can ask yourself when you are feeling stuck at a particular level.
This particular story begins earlier this year just after the events of “What Would Wonder Woman Do about Depression - part two”. If you haven’t read it, then let me give you the truncated version. Basically, my entire life had fallen apart and I lost everything. I barely had a few dollars to my name, everything was in storage, and I was living with my brother from another mother Louis Trenta. Keep in mind that my agency had closed and the theatre where I was employed wasn’t hiring. In effect, I had absolutely no income whatsoever. I didn’t know what else to do, so I looked into doing extra work. I hadn’t done any extra work in nearly 20 years, and it wasn’t necessary for me to do any over the last decade, because all of my acting-based income for the last ten years (including over $15k in savings/401k I had built and lost) was generated from principal, lead, or supporting work. Needless to say, at the time I considered diving back into the extras world, I was feeling a bit defeated and deflated. But I absolutely needed to generate income so that my life could get back on track. Therefore, I made my way over to Central Casting in Burbank, which is the premiere extras casting agency (in LA and probably the world), so that I could get listed.
If you know anything about their registration process, you know that in order to register, you must arrive very early in the morning (like 4:30am) and wait in line for hours (until 9am or so) just to make certain you make the cut to be in the registration group for that day. They only take so many people each time they register, and they only register a couple of days a week. Naturally, I was running late that day, and didn’t arrive until about an hour and a half before they began letting people inside. But I stuck it out anyway and waited in line for an hour or two. I met some really wonderful people in line. We ordered coffee together and kept each other company until it was time to count off for entry. The doorman who controls everything counted and counted until he finally got to the person in front of me…and stopped. I had missed entry by one person. FUCK! One of my last ditch efforts to generate income and I missed it by ONE FUCKING PERSON! I wasn’t going to let this stand. I proceeded to ‘pull out my chapstick’ as my friend Elijah says. Which is our code for putting on a winning smile and positive attitude. I then walked up to him with genuine genuflect in my voice and said, “Excuse me, I’ve been away from this for a while…If I was already registered about 20 years ago, would I still be in their system?” The doorman’s tone became immediately warm and helpful. He answered with a gracious tone, “Oh yeah, sure man. Let me get your info and I’ll go take a quick look for you.” I jotted down my identifying information for him. He took it, and walked away. Within a minute or two he came back and said, “Check it out, you’re still in the system. It just shows you as ‘inactive’. So all you need to do is come back tomorrow at 10am for the update session”. “Wow. Thank you so much!” I said to him and left gleefully. I returned the next day, updated my information and became active in the system. Within a couple of days I was on set doing extra work.
One of my very first extras job was downtown at the LA convention center. It was for an Apple commercial and there were about 350 people there all together (including extras, cast, & crew). i immediately made friends with a few people on this shoot. One of which was a guy named Robert. When I met him, I was utilizing one of my super powers. What is it, you ask? Well, I have this weird 360 awareness, which I think comes from being on stage so much, (or watching too much Xena: Warrior Princess lol) and as I was chatting with one person, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Robert (who I hadn’t met yet) was sitting at a table by himself and slightly away from everybody. After finishing my conversation, I began to walk back to where my things were and said hi to Robert, whose table was along the way. He stopped me and asked, “Hey, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. Did you say that you had done principal work on commercials before?” “Yes.” I answered. “Can I ask you a little bit about that?” he said. “Of course. I’d be delighted to share what I can with you.” I replied. Over the course of the rest of the day, we talked about the industry, shared stories, shared struggles, and even found some of the things we had in common like martial arts and stunt work. Throughout the course of the conversation, Robert mentioned that he was feeling stuck and wanted to move to the next level. I told him about some of my tactics and that I was planning on writing a book about all of them and how my triumvirate approach had aided me in producing some pretty remarkable results. He asked about my techniques and I shared some with him. After a really long talk, I asked him if I could make a recommendation. He agreed and I told him that a key ingredient to my approach was the idea of consciousness. So, the two books I recommend he read were “The Big Leap” and “The Four Agreements”. The two as a pair give a double punch approach to my idea of consciousness: first, becoming aware of what holds you back, and second, creating a code to follow for the future. As we worked over those two days (which was how long the job was), we continued to bond and even connected with others including the first AD, second AD, director, and assistant director. As Tina D’Elia would say, “It was a good day!” :)
Cut to a few days ago. I was doing some extra work again and when I got to holding my face lit up. There sat Robert from the Apple/LA Convention Center job. We immediately went into ‘catch up’ mode, and since we had a little time to talk before the first shot, I figured I’d share a story with him. I said, “I have some really great news and a cool story to share with you!” “Oh?” he said sounding interested. “Oh yes!” I replied. I went on to explain to him that a couple of months ago I received an audition request for a commercial. It was only (and approximately) the 8th audition I attended after moving to Los Angeles. The audition was for State Farm Insurance, and I felt pretty good about it. The good feeling must have been correct, because the very next day I was asked to come in for a callback. This is where things went slightly sideways.
As I mentioned in the beginning of this piece, I went through a really difficult and challenging time over the last two years, which included a debilitating depression. (Link to  “What Would Wonder Woman Do about Depression - Part Two”) due to loosing everything and my life falling apart. Therefore, at the time I received the callback, I had three dollars in my account and the car I owned (which was barely running at the time) was nearly on empty. I remember looking down at the display which told me how many miles I had to go until empty and it said ’27 miles’. The audition was in Santa Monica, and I was in North Hollywood. That was 22 miles round trip, and with LA traffic the way that it was at that time of day, I knew I wasn’t going to make it. What could I do? I was at a stand still.
I began considering my options. On one hand, I had already marked myself as unavailable for extra work AND confirmed for the callback, so I was already out a hundred bucks and had given my word to be there. Besides loosing money, I was obligated to go. I opened up the Bank Of America app and checked my account….I only had $3 in ANY account. This was barely enough for a gallon of gas. And gas was what was missing from this equation…*gasp*! THat’s when it hit me, and I knew exactly how to get just enough gas to get back and forth. It dawned on me that I had a premium AAA membership which provided emergency gas as many times a year as you need it. So I called them up and had them bring me some emergency gas. It took about 45 minutes, but the AAA truck finally made it to me and gave me enough gas so that I could make the round trip to my audition and back.
I made it to the audition 20 minutes early. As I walked up the ramp to the casting office, I noticed a gentleman talking on the phone, while standing on the ramp just below mine. He looked very familiar, and within a second I recognized him as the first A.D. on the Apple commercial where my buddy Robert and I met. I said a prayer that I would  see him in the audition room. After waiting for a period, it was my turn to audition and it was a cakewalk. It was for a stunt person, so they asked me to do a couple of easy falls. After which they brought in another guy who did a basic mirroring acting exercise. The audition was actually a lot of fun and we ended on a fantastic note. I got in my car and went to the gym which was only a few blocks away and proceeded to get in a killer celebratory workout.
About two weeks passed. I was sitting in my brother’s room and, was preparing my next move. I heard absolutely nothing from the commercial. so I had released it in my mind and come to the conclusion that it went to another actor. That’s when my phone rang. I looked down and it was my agent. He must have another audition for me. I picked up the phone, “Hey, Joe!” “Hi Brian.” I knew something was up. My agent is a ‘get to the point’ kind of guy, so when he didn’t immediately go into audition information, I knew it was a kind of news. “What’s going on?” “Well, you’ve got a fitting for that State Farm commercial. It’s between you and another guy. They want to see you both to see who fits the costume the best.” “Okay. Where and when?” I got the information, went to the fitting, and made sure that I was my best Brian possible. I was wearing my usual Wonder Woman attire which included WW T-Shirt, necklace, bracelets, socks, and phone. I had a lot of commercial experience (over 110 commercials and industrials), and had a good bit of stunt experience, including costume work. And, since they were the effects company who did all the Marvel movies, I being a collector with over $15k in comic books, immediately had tons of things to talk about with them. They shared their concerns with me, and I assured them they had nothing to worry about by answering any and all questions. The other guy got there, and I was wrapped. Needless to say, I left the fitting feeling very strong. At least so I thought.
I heard absolutely nothing from my agent for a week. The phone rang and it was my agent. He let me know that he inquired and they haven’t made a decision as of yet. Another week went by and I accepted that I hadn’t booked this one. So, I let it go. Two weeks had gone by, and if I didn’t hear anything by now, then I probably wouldn’t. So I began to pray, and ask the universe to guide me to the next one. Louis walked in just as I got started meditating. We began chatting about our day and I heard my phone ring. I looked to see my agent’s name come up. It’s Friday at 4:30pm. Business should be…”*gasp*! This is it!” I said audibly to Louis. I knew that the commercial shot in a week, and they had to make a decision today. I answered the phone and heard my agent’s voice. It had a weird smirking tone as he said, “Hey Brian, it’s Joe. I’ve got some bad news for you…(pause)…You booked it!” And with that, I booked a principal role in a SAG/AFTRA National Commercial where I was opposite two celebrities. The exciting part about this, is when I got onto set and walked into my dressing room/trailer the second AD was waiting for me….and he was the same one that was on the Apple commercial where I was an extra. Matter of fact, the first AD, second AD, assistant director, and director were all the same exact people from the Apple commercial where Robert and I met. My world had come full circle in just a few months. But here’s the kicker…I still didn’t have the money to properly fix my car. So the day we were filming, I had to take the bus to set. And since I didn’t have enough money to get back home, I went to set on faith. Knowing that I might have to call Louis for a pickup. Luckily for me, I was able to get a ride home, and when I got home a check from last week’s extra work was waiting for me. So I made it back and forth to set with no problem for day 2. However, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without asking myself 5 questions about 5 specific topics along the way. Here are my five suggestions for things to ask yourself when attempting to move to the next level in your journey.
ONE - DO YOU HAVE FAITH? Wonder Woman once said that “Faith is a perception beyond the vision. Sometimes we must close our eyes to see the light”. This lines up with the Bible’s idea of ‘walking in faith and not by sight”. Not to say that we should deny reality, but that we must rather “Run with the Vision”. In earlier posts I posed the question: “What’s your mission?” After figuring out what your mission is, you can then create a tangible and detailed vision for yourself and your career, which I cover in “My Annual Business Plan Creation: ‘Twice As Good’”. And by having a detailed vision, you then have something tangible in which to have faith. By having your own simple, clear, distinct, detailed, and realistic vision, you have something in which to believe, to refer, and ultimately manifest and bring into fruition. The law of attraction states that ‘thoughts become things’. So when our thoughts are clear and direct we can manifest that much more efficiently. But remember that the law of attraction is neutral. So if your vision is selfish, you will produce results as such. If your vision is full of love, it will be full of love; bountiful and effervescent. Universal law is that we reap what we sow. The bible references the law of the universe when it mentions that things return to us ‘7 times 7’. So again, be careful about what you want and why. Therefore, to make sure you’re on the most efficient, effective, positive, and clear path as possible, One of my favorite first questions to ask is: Do I have a simple, clear, distinct, detailed, and realistic vision, and do I wholeheartedly believe and have faith in my vision? Because thoughts truly do become things. You just have to have faith, and very much like my aforementioned story mentioned, it may even be in the most difficult and trying of times!
TWO - WHAT CAN YOU DO RIGHT NOW? Sometimes, things can be more trying than usual, and your faith will be tested. Often without warning and sometimes repeatedly. Emotions will run high, and circumstances will seem near impossible. That’s why after you first, have grounded yourself through having faith, you can then move to step two which is to figure out what steps you can take right now. For me, figuring out situations in life very much parallels figuring out a character’s journey as an actor. When preparing a character we first figure out the given circumstances of that universe and how it works, which then grants us the ability to begin to make informed choices on what to do next. When we create the ‘givens’ of our own universe through detailed mission and vision, we are creating the intention for how things are going to run. It is after that, we can then make informed decisions on what to do next. This way, when we are in situations like when I was completely without gas or ability to get to a callback, I knew that my mission and vision was clear and that I had to accomplish this. Therefore, I simply asked, what I could do right now to ensure it happened and came to fruition. Mine was to call AAA to get gas so that I could make it to my callback. It was an answer that required a little creativity, but that is part of what it takes to win and create your own game of creating the character detailed in your mission and vision. So when things get tough and your faith is tested, rely on your mission and vision as a guide. Look back over it and ask yourself if there are simple, clear, distinct, detailed, and realistic tangible steps that you can take right now to ensure this step of your mission/vision come to fruition? Just be prepared for what the answer may ask of you.
THREE - ARE YOU MAKING SACRIFICES WHEN NECESSARY? You may have created a very clear and precise mission and vision, you may have strong faith in it, and you might even have been able to figure out what to do right now as a next step. But what happens when that next step requires you to make a sacrifice?  My thoughts on this are pretty simple. Ask if the sacrifice is necessary, and if so…then make it! I had to ask myself this when I was first asked to attend the callback for the national commercial. I had been supporting myself with extra work, and was being asked if I could work the day of the callback. Although I was in a particularly precarious situation financially, I knew I had some options. First, I could opt to not attend the audition, and instead make money, which I needed. If I did, then I was missing out on an opportunity to begin working my way up the corporate ladder of success in the industry, which would ensure I stayed in ‘the mailroom’ level of the corporate pyramid even longer. The second was to to do more extra work on the day of the callback audition. Instead, I skipped a days pay and attended the callback. I knew that attending a callback of this magnitude would put me into a very strong chance of booking the job. I realized that skipping a day’s pay was a necessary sacrifice toward moving up the ladder of success. So that is my third question when faced with a potential sacrifice: Is this a tangible and necessary sacrifice? But a new problem, may come into your path after you’ve made some sacrifices. It is when the sacrifice presented seems too much to handle.
FOUR - ARE YOU COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE? Sacrifices like deciding to attend a callback audition to book a national commercial instead of working for a day, were the kind of sacrifices which I had grown accustomed to making.  Mostly because the same scenario would return to me regularly for the last ten years in San Francisco. I was comfortable being uncomfortable, but only in a certain arena, and that was with scheduling and day to day matters. I hadn’t experienced it on a larger scale in a long time. I had known for a while that a bigger sacrifice was looming over my head, but it wasn’t until the events of “What Would Wonder Woman Do about Depression: Part Two” that I was forced to make it. What i discovered is that the idea of making sacrifices and potentially being perpetually uncomfortable was something that affected all areas of life when accepting the position of performer as an independent contractor. We must truly learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. This can be one of the most difficult steps in climbing the corporate ladder, but once it is gotten, it can be a gateway toward the final step toward reaching new levels in one’s journey as a performer. So ask yourself about most things in your life and career: Am I comfortable being uncomfortable? Some people come to answer this quickly, and some do so at a slower pace. But it’s those who are able to get to this place quickly that are often the ones asking this fifth and final question.
FIVE - ALWAYS ASK ‘WHAT’S NEXT?’ Unless you come upon a ‘Flo’ Progressive Insurance deal where one or two days of work can potentially pay your entire year’s salary, then you’re probably like every other performer who are in a perpetual state of looking for the next job. If you are a performer who is making a living at your art, then one day of work could probably pay for a month’s salary. Therefore, the career artist will constantly be asking his/her self ‘what’s next?’. The very next day that I wrapped on filming my national commercial for this year, I wondered “What’s Next?”, because I knew this job: wouldn’t pay for a full year’s salary, wasn’t going to pay forever, wasn’t going to last forever, nor was it going to be career longevity. So once I was out of the moment of working that job, I was immediately ambitious and hungry for the next one. Therefore, this question was a great guide on my journey.
I noticed that there was an secondary benefit to having this question as a helpful career guide: I wasn’t sweating the small stuff. You see, after the national commercial, I also continued to do extra work, so that in between residual checks I was keeping enough money flowing and continuing to pay bills in a timely manner (Mostly lol). When I arrived on a set for extra work, I was always completely prepared and attentive to getting the job done as efficiently and effectively as possible, due to my mind being on my big personal goals. Extra work was a supplement so that I could get the work for my main job done. I was literally not sweating the small stuff on the set of my extra work jobs because I was so focused on getting things done for my main job, which was principal/lead work. I did continue to do more principal work in other arenas, because I was seeking them out and asking what’s next continued to be my guide. At one point this year, I was in the holding of an extra work job, memorizing a SIX PAGE script (of nothing but me talking to camera - with no teleprompter, mind you) for an industrial commercial I was shooting for a major fortune 500 company a few days later. I was not sweating the small stuff, and physically working on what was next! Keep in mind that I never advocate laxing on your duties at one job for another, but since extra work didn’t require anything but being there, and often times sitting for hours in holding, I knew there would be a lot of down time for me to read or study. So I made the best use of time possible which helped me to stay productive, active, and avoid being physically or mentally sluggish. I was staying mentally, emotionally, and even physically healthy by utilizing “What’s Next?” as a guide. This is usually a pretty good litmus test for those making a living at their art and those who don’t.
WHEN YOU’RE REACHING AND LEAPING, DO IT WITH WONDER The last two years, I have learned a lot about myself, my career, and the world around me. Mostly of my take away has been how it all fits and works together. It’s why I have endeavored to finish writing a book which takes my own personal experiences and use them to craft an autobiographical narrative which helps encourage and elucidate young artists in their journey. The previous entry was an sample portion of a chapter in the book that I am crafting. My hope is that the book will create a powerful three pronged spotlight. One which illuminates: 1) the corporate structure of performers’ careers, 2) The powerful triumvirate needed to create a competitive artist, and 3) an the glue on how it all works together in an empowering, inspiring narrative to help support the next generation of performers toward being the best they can be!
This previous chapter talked about moving to the next level of one’s career. For me, I found five commonalities with those working in careers where there are continual new levels to explore. Those five commonalities began with creating a fully crafted vision, and having faith in it. Then, (#2) taking tangible next steps in the now, which are sometimes (#3) sacrifices. All while (#4) getting comfortable being uncomfortable in many of those sacrifices, and after each goal has been achieved asking (#5) ‘What’s Next?’. They are five commonalities of those on the path of success and five ways/questions to ask yourself to see where you are in that journey. In my book, I’ll have additional writings to accompany this one which explain some of the previous work and personal theories which fuel each chapter, but for now I’ll just say that NONE of those five questions should be asked without a sense of wonder behind it. I believe it to be imperative that each step of one’s career (like everything in life) be approached with a sense of wonder. When you ‘wonder’ you are expressing a true love for something. and replace asking more questions in the spot where your assumptions arise, it will transform your life. It will cause you to seek opportunities at every level, and the questions it will get you asking will be in alignment to the five I previously mentioned, if not them exactly. So as you are reaching that next place in your journey and are taking a new big leap in your career, do it with a sense of wonder.
I hope you found value in this post.
Best,
Brian J. Patterson “Only love can truly save the world!” - Wonder Woman
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koganphrancis · 7 years ago
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WE ARE FINALLY, TRULY CAMLESS!
Season 9 Episode 6 Recap
First and foremost, I want to single out Noel Fisher for being a truly class act and returning to this demon show to give fans what happiness he could-the ONLY happiness a lot of fans have found here, myself included, in a very long time.
Next a serious piece of appreciation to Cameron Monaghan.  I know he worked hard on what little they gave him to do in the past few years, and I’m thankful he had Gotham to work on to actually use his talent while mired down in the stinky swamp this show has become.  In another actor’s hands, I don’t know that Gallavich would’ve been as captivating as it was-without Noel I know it wouldn’t have been, but Cam does deserve credit for bringing the other half of the couple to life-when they were on screen together, they had an undeniable magic happening.
Finally to any of the “fans” that are thinking or posting that we got this actually pretty shitty prison endgame because people pestered the show producers, writers, and actors too much to “bring Mickey back” may I please direct you to watch the early episode (I believe it was in Season 1, but certainly no later than S2) where Lip tells Ian prison must be a gay man’s dream with all the tattoos and unlimited sex partners.  THAT is John Wells’ perception of gay men and it has been since long before he even thought of breaking Ian and Mickey up, let alone bringing Mickey back.  
Personally I’m supremely disappointed this gay couple, like so many others, did not get a free and truly happy ending in canon, even though my friends know I predicted this could very well be all we got in the end.  FFS it’s the year twenty gayteen-couldn’t ONE iconic gay couple be given a nice, normal happy ending?  John Wells is a fucking dinosaur.  He needs to go to a sensitivity training camp run by Dan Levy, Emily Andras, and Ryan Murphy.  
Anyway-my last recap (baring a miracle) of this shit show is under the cut
(screen cap credit: justmikhailothings)
This episode was brought to us by White Castle.  I’d like to think they gave every dime they got from them to pay Noel, but I’m sure it went to the other “big name” guest stars.
Also the show was (disappointingly) written by Nancy “Ratfucker” Pimental, so you know it’s gonna be bad.
The show begins with Ian putting his stuff away up in the attic and claiming he wants to eat a shitload of White Castle.  Sure, whatever.  Everyone is trying to offer ideas of what they should all do on his last day of freedom, but suddenly THIS Ian is talking and making decisions for himself.  WHERE HAS HE BEEN THE PAST 4 SEASONS?  He only appears when Mickey’s about...
Debbie offers to bring him to a gay bar to “get laid” (flashing back to Monica in S3, ugh-it was a bad idea then, it’s a bad idea now), Ian says, “Pretty sure I’ll get laid a lot in prison.”  He says it with a grim expression, but considering how they end the show/who his cellmate is, he should be so lucky.  
Frank pretty much ignores Ian in the scene, and they certainly don’t interact.  Frank recommends Ian should read James Joyce’s Ulysses in prison, but other than the fact that it’s by an Irish writer and it’s extremely long and dense to get through (aka it’ll take Ian some time to do it), I don’t know if there’s any significance to his suggesting it.  
This scene with just a throwaway send off from Macy seems to be in line with John Wells’ vision to have the series fade away with the characters going about their daily lives rather than end, but I really think both Cam and WHM were screwed out of not having a final scene together with just the two of them.  Their comedy timing was always the best out of Macy and all the Gallagher kids.  The lack of respect is just astounding-especially since the show wasted so much time on rando actors/characters we’re never going to see again.
The rest of Frank’s story this week takes place with Liam in tow again and it’s just dumb and boring.
The next scene shows Fiona and Bored looking at an apartment-they’re going to move in together (why?  And when was this decided?  Not that I care, but they could’ve cut a scene of them bickering to show a scene where they arrived at a decision together for once).  It makes absolutely no sense-they have Fiona’s whole place to themselves, why waste $3000 a month living in some other apartment all to themselves?  Just because it has two bathrooms?  Do they shit that much?
And then, ooh, bad news for Fiona-her business partners require her to kick in another 25 grand or their investment will be dead in the water.  I still don’t know how she went from having $50K to invest to $100K, so this new twist is just more bullshit that I can’t care about.  
Then there’s a scene where we have to see Carl’s new girlfriend’s head in Ian’s lap.  WTF.  We need to see Mickey’s head there-or better yet, Ian using Mickey’s perfect thighs as a pillow.  
There’s a couple of boring, unfunny bits of the nun and then the priest (is it supposed to be hilarious that the dad from Full House is spewing out sex scenario names Nancy must’ve googled?) from Kev and Vee’s kids’ preschool with a dildo.  Seriously, Nance, not even close to funny, probably time to put yourself out to pasture, old girl.  This show has used dildos as a sight gag so many times at this point there’s just nothing more to do with them except maybe shove them up the writers’ asses.
Lip’s storyline this week is something out of very, very bad fan fiction: A movie star comes to their house!  Cuz, that happens, okay?  I’m sure studios and billion dollar make up companies don’t run any kind of background check on people they hire to babysit their clients-why would they?  It’s not like a crazed fan would rape/maim/kill the object of their obsession or anything.  ANYONE can be a star minder for one day, surely.  
BORING ALERT: Lip has a couple more running scenes this week, because no one got enough of that last episode.  This week the least they could’ve done was play the Friends theme song over the endless footage where he’s chasing Courtney Cox around on location in Chicago.  
While watching, I was wondering if Courtney’s role was written for her or they just settled for her when Roseanne Barr was suddenly unavailable-the stuff they had her say and do (except for the sprinting) seemed like it was written for a more jaded motherly type-but I’m jumping ahead.  Since we DID get CC, here’s a couple of stray observations.  1. She looks like a rich man’s Emmy Rossum, and 2. was part of the purpose of her storyline to throw shade at Jennifer Aniston?  Her character is named Jen Wagner, and there’s this whole dumb thing where Nancy’s trying to make, “Face it, you’re gorgeous” happen as her make up commercials’ tag line-which was reminiscent of Aniston’s ads for L’Oreal that stated “I’m/you’re worth it”.  
Meanwhile, after Fi gets the devastating news that she needs to come up with more money she tries to get out of taking the new apartment with Bored by lying to him and telling him she smelled mold there-HE RESTORES OLD HOUSES/BUILDINGS FOR A LIVING why does Nancy think that was a clever lie for Fiona to come up with?  How stupid is Fi supposed to be?
Back at the Gallaghers, Ian is practicing self defense moves with Carl and Kelly to prevent someone from raping him at knife point.  Everyone’s flipping each other in these scenes and it just felt like they wanted to give their stunt coordinator (and Cam’s double) a lot of (boring) shit to do this week...Ian’s final scenes being played out with this meaningless newbie (who Carl will probably wind up killing or dumping or both) made me very sad.  I guess maybe it was to build dramatic tension for when Ian’s in his cell later and the door slides open before he turns around.  But it’s lame because the scenes play like he’s JUST realizing prison’s rapey.  
Someone knocks at the door-my heart started racing but it wasn’t Mickey.  A guy who wasn’t in the jail scenes tells Ian Joselito sent him.  Ian starts asking him about the guys he was in county lock up with-WHO CARES.  The guy tells him the couple he’s asking about broke up when one of them got out and Nancy throws in a line about long distance relationships not working.  Joselito sent this Antonio guy to give Ian an “in-depth safety orientation about Beckman Correctional” before they send him up.   
Antonio draws Ian a map of the facility and tells him the areas to avoid, then draws a big circle with Mickey Mouse ears on it and tells him that’s “Disneyland” and he can get all good things there-smooth blowies, weed, Snickers...I’m sure ol’ Nancy thought she was being clever, but it just took me out of the scene hearing Antonio say “Disney” at least three times-reminded me of Cam’s publicity stunt “coming out date” there last year.  
Fi comes in and asks if anyone has any money (shades of S4 when Ian gave her his Fairy Tail tips) and that she needs 25 grand.  She’s so stupid.  And she’s honestly that out of touch with the family that she thinks maybe one of them has thousands of dollars they could give her?  (although, if she had only gotten to Lip before he tried to buy Xan...)
Fiona tells Ian, “Don’t forget, I’m driving you to prison tomorrow.”  And that’s the last time they see each other.  So much for family, eh, Nance?
A huge time waster of a scene where Kev and Vee pack up all their sex toys and then another drawn out scene of them throwing the stuff off a bridge happen.  Seriously, these are Cameron’s final moments on this shit show-they couldn’t think of anything for him to do?  This was all screen time Cam and Noel could have had, SHOULD have had!
I have to recap this next bit because it was beyond belief unrealistic-Frank steals a bicycle and goes following Katey Sagal and her ex-husband when they leave the hospital in an Audi-and Frank manages to keep up with them all the way to their nice neighborhood that must be some distance away since it was daylight when they left and dark when they get to their door.  Frank.  On a bicycle.  Kept up.  YOU’RE SUCH A DUMB FUCK, NANCY.
Then there’s more White Castle with the money shot of the food and packaging all over the Gallagher kitchen table.  Courtney gets to make a bulimia joke Nancy wrote into the scene.  Hope you weren’t looking for a Guest Starring Emmy, CC.  
Ian tells a “Carl story” about him puncturing his scrotum (on purpose) with a screwdriver when he was a kid.  Carl must have the most mangled dick and scrotum on the planet between his several botched circumcisions and now this.  Kelly asks him if that’s why he has “that scar”.  You know what, Nance?  While some people do in fact find scars sexy, self inflicted ones on scrotums don’t make that list.  
Debbie comes in, recognizes “the chick from the make up ads” having dinner with them.  I’m sorry-having WHITE CASTLE with them.  Now everyone else sees it too, and Kelly insists that CC says “the” line that Nancy made up to make happen-why do they keep trying to make meaningless things A Thing?  
After dinner, Jen is giving Ian advice about prison: “Find a hobby, it makes time go so much faster.”  Ian asks, “Did you learn that from one of your movies?” and she says she did 48 hours for DUI (hey, just like Ethan, Nancy!).  Jen really needed to get into making TP paper mache to get through 2 days?  
Debbie, desperate to make shit about her says, “Maybe I should go to prison too.  It seems like the only way I’ll find a real relationship.”  WHY are they acting like Ian’s going away on a single’s cruise?
Jen says to Debs that’s not true and Debbie says it is, that she’s unlucky in love (when the fuck has she ever been “in love”?)...”men, women...”  
Jen tells her she’s a special woman (how the fuck does she know?) and that she doesn’t want just anyone, she wants somebody “who gets you” and then for the second time in two weeks an older woman, without determining if Debbie is of age, pulls her into a kiss and the others (Ian, Lip, Carl, Kelly) stare like, “WTF?”  The kiss ends and Debbie looks all amazed like she did after the Mel kiss, but then Jen looks at everyone and says, “I played a lesbian once in a movie.”  And that’s what your research into that role led you to believe lesbians do?  Kiss random teens when they’re whining?  Lip starts the “Face it” line and everyone else chips in with “you’re gorgeous” and everyone laughs and I don’t get why it’s funny or even why it’s supposed to be funny.  Seemed like they were trying to drive home the point that ACTORS only PLAY gay characters, but no matter how convincing they seem, they are in reality the much more “preferable” heterosexuals we can feel safe with and really want them to be.  Fuck you, Shameless.
Also, Courtney/Jen is three times older than Debbie-CC is 54 irl and Debs is forever 17 now, so more Kash vibes for anyone who was missing those.  Also perpetuates the writer room’s fantasy that hot young actors would find middle and past middle age folks suitable sex partners.
Fi goes to Patsy’s Pies and there’s another hysterically lame scene where she opens the office safe and is counting out money-I don’t know how much a place like Patsy’s rakes in (or keeps in their safe) but I would think it would take a long time to accumulate 25K in CASH in this day and age of debit and credit cards.  She abandons that bad idea and winds up going down to the docks and drinking with a Patsy’s employee and reciting all her “mo money” problems while he counters with the facts that his car’s been repossessed and that he and his moms are being evicted from the projects.  Then the guy kisses drunk Fi but she tells him she has a boyfriend and that she has to apologize for lying to him (although, really, the underlying implication is she has to apologizing for never seeing that he’s always right about her being a dumb woman who has no head for business decisions).  
Lip and Ian have their last one on one scene.  After the movie star mom for a day leaves, Ian’s fake smoking on the front steps and Lip joins him.  Lip gives him money for his commissary account and Ian says, “I’ll pay you back,” (but not thank you) and Lip says, “No you won’t,” and I’m at home saying, “Lip, why are you being such a dick?”  Ian goes to hand him the lit cigarette, but pulls it away when Lip reaches for it, but then gives it to him and rubs his shoulder.  I guess this is supposed to signal to us that they’ve said everything that’s needed to be said?  Except we’ve been watching and we know Lip is supposed to be a mouthy motherfucker and in the old days they would’ve had actual conversations that they DID NOT have at all-all their conversations this season have been short and awkward.  Ian’s been made into a fucking mute now, even in these final moments.
Their last scene should’ve been in their room, in their beds-Ian can’t sleep and they talk things out in the dark like the brothers they used to be, but no.  Can’t have that.  
The Fiona drama finding out Bored has a wife, kid, and house and then drunkenly smashing up her leased vehicle is so “bad soap opera” I can’t believe this show is still on the air.  If we were supposed to cry for Fiona as her make up  and fake blood ran down her face after her millionth time of being let down by a guy everyone else could see was an ass from the start-well, we just didn’t.  
Next day the Gallaghers are waiting in the living room for Fiona to take Ian to prison.  Kev steps up to drive them all in his truck.
They get there, get out, and Ian looks around, then says to his family, “All right.  I thought Geneva and some of the others would be here but...”  Thank christ they weren’t!!!  The show/Ian wasted too much time on those randos as it was.  However, credit where credit is due-the show got us all the way through this swan song arc without bringing up Terror once!  But I digress, back to our scene.  Carl says, “You can only count on family, dude.”  I scream BULLSHIT at my TV screen.  
Debbie says, “I’m gonna miss you.” 
Group hug.  Kev says, “Don’t get too raped in there, aight?”  Everybody breaks apart, the moment ruined.  Kev says he doesn’t know what to say in these situations (and clearly no one can improvise but Noel).  Vee says, “How about goodbye and I love you?”  
Kev says, “Goodbye, man. I love you.”  
Ian says, “I love you guys too.”  Wasting it on the wrong fucking people!  All of them-except Kev and Vee who never voiced an opinion-didn’t care if went to prison!  
Ian looks at Lip, walks over to him.  “Hey, uh, thanks for being my brother.”
Lip, still a dick, says, “Never had a choice.”  That’s right, bitch-you didn’t get to choose to play the interesting gay brother, you got cast as the dick know-it-all who never cared about anyone but himself.  
During this entire farewell scene I was sitting at home, strangely unmoved.  I felt nothing watching it, probably because everyone was such an asshole about Ian going to prison all season, plus never caring about what he was doing all last season, plus the fact that none of these characters are the characters we first got to know.  It hasn’t been a case of character growth and development, it’s been character assassination and retconning.  
Ian breaks the hug.  “All right.  See you guys.”  He goes to the gate, shows his papers, gets let in through the gate, waves to his family as he walks past the fence, walks into the prison, slaps his phone (wouldn’t he just give that to Lip to hold on to?  Battery’s gonna be dead by the time he gets out) and watch (probably ditto on the watch battery) onto a counter, strips down so we see one last quick shot of his naked ass (what, no cavity search?  And just how long has it been since we’ve seen his unclothed ass anyway?), and a glimpse of the boob tattoo.  
Next we see him in his yellow “I Love You, Philip Morris” jumpsuit, carrying his bedding through the GP.  He’s attracting “fresh meat” attention and Cam actually does a really good job of looking a bit scared while trying to look tough and “don’t fuck with me”-there’s a vulnerability there, but he’s not overplaying it, and he’s certainly not overplaying the fronting.  His acting was really powerful in that scene.  
They put him in his cell and slam the door and he winces a little at the sound, then he sadly looks at his 6X8 foot (or whatever the dimensions are) room, puts his bedding pile on the top bunk and leaves his hands up there and lets his head hang down.  He hears the door slide open behind him again and gets this, “Ugh, here we go,” expression on his face and turns around to see it’s Mickey standing there.
Me at home: Not what I wanted for end game but I’m still thrilled to see the man, the myth, the legend again anyway.  He’s all beefy still from when he was shooting Fonzo and looking good.  
Ian’s looking at him like he’s not sure he’s really there.
Mickey mildly says, “I rolled on the cartel I was working for and in exchange guess who gets to pick where he gets locked up?”  
Ian’s got tears in his eyes now and says, “Holy fuck.”
“Oh hey-I got bottom,” Mickey says as he points to the lower bunk.  Then he walks past Ian and says, “So...you’re on top,” in a bit of a sing-songy voice. 
He flops down onto the bunk, puts his hand behind his head-and check out the gifs closely, especially on Twitter-in the jumpsuit you can see the outline of his dick and it “twitches in interest” as the fan fics say (don’t know if Noel did it by adjusting his thigh, don’t know if it was intentional or what-but it was a sight to see whatever the case).  He does a lip lick/bite combination, Ian’s face lights up a bit and he gives a smile, he crawls onto the bunk on top of Mickey, pinning his hand down while Mickey smiles softly, they gaze at each other a beat, Ian gently strokes Mickey’s cheek, Mickey wraps his free hand behind Ian’s neck, their noses boop, and Ian sort of gently thrusts into a kiss (it was good-definitely had a bit of a sexual vibe to it), which Mickey expertly returns.  It was a very good kiss, tender and loving, but that scene needed words, needed Ian to say SOMETHING to Mickey-needed an “I’m sorry” and a “thank you for always being here for me” and exchanged I love yous.  Neither of these boys are ever told they’re loved!  JFC, nine seasons and the show couldn’t manage to work mutual ILYs in ONCE?  Fuck you, Shameless.  They didn’t even say each other’s NAMES!  
Mickey (and Noel) looked so fucking good lying there-relaxed and happy, finally back with his love where he’s always belonged.  Even when his eyes are closed, they’re perfect.  The angle the scene was shot at, we see more of Mickey’s microexpressions than Ian’s.  
An after the credits began scene of them lying in an afterglow embrace would’ve been nice.  Mickey could’ve mocked Ian’s hair (give us one last “Fire Crotch” you cowards!) and boob tattoo (or offered to fix that for him while they’re in the joint).  
Mickey’s got new ink on his forearm we never see clearly.  Until and unless we’re told otherwise, I’m saying it’s a big ginger root ;)  Bam.  
On a personal note, and not to rain on anybody’s parade, while I believe 100% in Drunk Crew Guy and what he said, I really don’t see us getting another scene in the finale.  This show’s attention span is down to nothing now, and I can’t see them dragging these guys back out now that they’ve given us (shitty) endgame. I don’t think enough time will have passed to let them out of prison by then, I think those final episodes are going to be about Fiona leaving and not Ian and Mickey getting to Mexico-and I can’t really see Mickey being able to go back there now that he’s crossed a cartel.  My feeling is the show filmed 2 possible endings using Noel to choose from-one ending with them in Mexico and the other being the one we got.  They probably ripped off The Shawshank Redemption too much with a Mexico ending and decided to go with this “original” idea instead.  I’d love nothing more than to be wrong, and to get one more scene of these two free and happy.  Cam’s question mark at the end of his farewell post and the fact that I do trust everything DCG said leaves a spark of hope burning in my heart, but hopefully I can back away from endless online speculation and theories about it over the next 5 months.  If it happens, beautiful.  If it doesn’t, at least we got one last look at Mickey and he’s getting dicked down and the love he’s always deserved, even if I hate the fact they’re locked up and will be in danger whenever they’re not in their cell-not to mention this is the shitty way gay love stories get handled in general, but I must not go down that path again in this recap.  
I want to add that Mickey didn’t sound all that “Mickey” in his scene, but maybe he didn’t need his swagger and was being more “real” to let Ian know he had a choice (as always, Mickey didn’t force himself on Ian-he let him come to him).  And kudos to Cam for not doing his hideous Chicago accent for most of the episode.  
There WAS love and chemistry in that final scene.  Just sucks that we don’t get it anywhere else in the show and they wasted so much time last night that could’ve been given to Cameron and Noel.  
But hey, I’m finally free of recapping ;)  While I’m sorry the Gallavich parts are now over, I’m not sorry I can finally quit missing what we used to get while watching what the show now does.  Mickey and Ian are back together now, so, fuck you, Shameless.  
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djinmer4 · 7 years ago
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Untitled 1/? (Avatar)
“I wish Asami had been able to accompany us.”  Korra sighed, and leaned over to watch the land pass below Oogi.
“The two of you got six months to explore the new Spirit Portal and get a good start to your relationship.  Now it’s time for both of you to go back to your responsibilities.” Tenzin lectured as he continued to guide the sky bison to their destination.
“Don’t be such a wet blanket, Tenzin, they’re in love” commented Bumi, lazing about.  “When you married Pema, we let you take a year off for your honeymoon.”
“You said you’d give me a year, but I actually had to come back after three months to deal with problems.  Six months is plenty of time for a vacation.” The younger brother argued back.
Korra rolled her eyes and interrupted before the two of them got into another argument.  She may have been ill for three years and in the Spirit World for another six months after that, but she knew these two well enough not to let them get into it.  “So, what’s so special about that it required the Avatar presence to fix?”
“It’s not an emergency this time, just something I thought you’d like to see.”
“Yeah?”
“A new Airbender.”
“Uh, didn’t we pick up all the Airbenders from the Harmonic Convergence back before the whole thing with the Red Lotus?” Despite herself, Korra couldn’t quite repress a shiver.  She’d healed from the trauma and fear, but she still instinctively flinched when she remembered how close she had come to dying and how long she had spent trying to recover.
“We picked up those closest to Republic City while you were with us, and during the three years of your recovery we also traveled to both the North and South Pole Water Tribes and the Fire Nation recruiting more.  But due to Kuvira’s actions, we don’t know if we’ve recruited all the Airbenders in the Earth Kingdom.”  Behind Tenzin’s head, Bumi raised his hand and began mimicking his brother’s words, muttering “Blah, blah, blah.”  Korra stifled a giggle.
“But today we’re going to see a new type of Airbender.  One who didn’t receive the power through Harmonic Convergence, but instead was born with it naturally.”
“When you say naturally . . . “
“No Airbender lineage.  In fact, no bender lineage at all.”
“And you’re sure they didn’t get it via Harmonic Convergence?”
“According to our contact in the area, the kid’s only three years old.” answered Bumi.  “Harmonic Convergence was five years ago.”
“Oh that is weird.” she agreed.  “Who’s the contact?”
“One of the Airbenders who chose not to join us.  Although he has his reasons.  He’s an older man, and when Opal and Kai met with him, apparently had been crippled by an accident, meaning it would be difficult for him to move to the Temple.  In addition, he’d just been appointed Mayor of his town when he developed Airbending, he didn’t want to abandon his responsibilities.”  Was that a crack at her?  With Tenzin’s straight face it was difficult to tell, and he wasn’t exactly turning colors.  Maybe it was just an observation.  “He’s advanced over the past three years to become Governor of the surrounding territory, so he’s never really had a chance to train with the rest of us, although we’ve sent training manuals and from what Opal and Kai said, he’s almost a natural at it.  If the parents are uncomfortable with us taking the kid for training, he’ll be a good basic trainer.”
She nodded, then what Tenzin had said earlier registered.  “Wait, was he working for Kuvira?”
“And so did Bolin and Varrick, and we forgave them and worked with them.  Kuvira didn’t become a tyrant overnight, initially many people joined her because she was quelling the chaos that appeared after Hou-Ting’s death.  And this guy was actually one of our better contacts after she started cracking down and isolating the Earth Kingdom.  Not to mention he and his brother, a Waterbender, got rounded up in those purges of hers.”
“Alright, I get it.  I’ll give the guy a chance.  What’s his name anyway?”
“Tarkik.”
“Huh, I guess he and his brother were from the North Water Tribe then.”  She rested her chin on her hands.
“Hey bro, are we there yet?”
“So help me, Bumi, I will turn this bison around and-oh, we’re here.”  With that, Tenzin started to bring Oogi down to the ground.
They landed, and after removing and cleaning Oogi’s tack (and making sure the bison had plenty of grass to graze on), Korra and the two Airbenders made their way to the governor’s residence.  Korra had been surprised that he hadn’t come out to greet them, then remembered that Tenzin had said the man was a cripple.  She was definitely interested in getting to meet the man who had so impressed both Opal and Kai (who were well on they’re way to becoming Master Airbenders as well) and how the man had managed given that he was too injured to join the rest of them at the Temple.  Once inside they were allowed in without any issue and informed that Tarkik was in his study with his brother and that they could go right in without needing to be accompanied by any guards.
Which turned out to be a good thing, because their reactions would have been really hard to explain.  “You two!” screeched Korra.
“Tarrlock!” yelled Tenzin.
“Councilor Tarrlock?  You’re alive?  We thought Amon had killed you.” said Bumi, then did a double-take, clearly confused that he was the calm one out of the three.
The ex-Councilor sighed and rubbed his sinuses with his left hand.  From where she stood, Korra could see the right had been replaced by a prosthetic.  She couldn’t spend more attention on him because she was focused more on Noatak, who was arching an eyebrow sardonically at her.  “I take it Opal and Kai are on another good will mission and were unavailable to act as liaisons?”
“That’s one way of putting it.  What the hell are you two doing here?” she snapped.
“Woah, woah, woah, time out!” shouted Bumi stepping between them.  “Let’s calm down and talk this over rationally.  Maybe some explanations on why everyone’s so mad at each other?”
Tenzin stared goggle-eyed at his brother.  “I never expected a day when you’d be the voice of reason.”
“Yeah, yeah, Bumi the reckless, I know what you think of me.  So think about what it means when I say I don’t want to get in a fight right now.”
“Bumi, how do you know Tarrlok?”
“Kid, I’ve was Commander of the Second Division of the United Forces before this guy,” he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Tarrlok.  “-was appointed to the Council.  Of course I know who he is.  But what’s gotten into both of you?”
“That traitor-” spat out Tenzin.  “Is Yakone’s son, and a bloodbender!  He kidnapped the Avatar and tried to frame the Equalists!  He ran once his secret was discovered, but I guess he’s been building power again since then.”
“Tenzin-” Tarrlok was interrupted by Tenzin launching an air punch at him.  Surprisingly, it was deflected when Tarrlok put up an air shield, with the swipe being pushed away towards the window and not even ruffling the papers on his desk.  “You don’t give your students enough credit Tenzin.”
“How are you an Airbender?!?  Did Harmonic Convergence magically change your affinity?”
“No,” Korra hadn’t taken her eyes off the real threat since they’d walked in.  “Amon took away Tarrlok’s bending when he captured him.  I guess the Harmonic Convergence gave it back, but in a new form.  Little surprised to see you working together now though.”  Tenzin and Bumi slowly registered her words, then turned to the other man in growing horror.
“Well met, Commander Bumi and Councilor Tenzin.”
“What the hell?” whispered Bumi.
Ignoring him, Noatak addressed Korra.  “To answer your earlier question, Avatar, there was a recent flood that caused damage in the water treatment plant that supplies drinking water for this city and the surrounding towns.  The Governor and I were going over plans to repair the plant.”
A moment passed.
“You were doing civil planning?”
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