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l3tm3kn0w · 6 months ago

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CHAPTER ONE: The Wheel of Fortune

jungkook x reader | friends to lovers | spiderman!au — link to masterlist

chapter summary: your mission to get an interview from spiderman reaches a new milestone as the arachnid vigilante acknowledges your presence during your latest chase, and the wheels of fortune are put into motion as you're faced with a devastating turn of events

wc: 8k

warning: explicit language, swearing, sexual innuendos/jokes, one joke about brutally murdering a best friend, mentions of drinking, mentions of kidapping, slow burn that’s burning slowly, jungkook has a crush tho ur just fucking oblivious sorry, other bitches wanting jungkook also deserves a warning i fear

a/n: hello world, hello tumblr!! first time publishing something here (a sister hailing from ao3 speaking) so please bear with me as i try to relearn how to navigate this website from my preteens. i’ve DMs open & believe i also opened asks????? with anon enabled???? (help????) so if you want to holler at me, you may do so there as well :)

aaaaand, welcome to the first chapter, where we’re really just setting the scene for what’s to come, hehe. please know that i don’t have a beta-reader, so please excuse any mistakes i might’ve accidentally left in 😣

hope you’ll enjoy it!! happy reading <3

You watch as the man plummets towards the ground from the 12th floor balcony.

A pretty jammed crowd of bystanders have formed on the street corner you, too, are standing on, watching with bated breath as the suited figure limply approaches the ground. You play with the voice recorder in your hand as parents cover their children’s eyes, and friends tightly grab onto each other in anticipation. The rest have their cell phones’ cameras up and ready, but the focus is not on the falling man.

You take a deep breath.

“C’mon,” you mutter under your breath. A man elbows you in the ribs, but you graciously ignore it in favour of not breaking your focus. “C’mon, c’mon, dude, show up. Show up. Don’t be a false reporting and an unnecessary trauma, c’mon.”

A gunshot is heard from somewhere within the apartment building. A window breaks, but it’s hard to say if it’s because of the bullet or the lean, male figure that jumped through it.

The crowd gasps as if one person, heads and cameras both immediately snapping towards the new person, clad in unmistakable red and blue. You allow yourself a satisfied smirk. He free falls for a moment, and someone shrieks, and you don’t bother trying to suppress your snort because, come on, it’s obvious that in the very next second, he’s going to— yup, Spiderman shoots a web, as Spiderman tends to do, and swings towards the suited man in a pleasant, even arch.

OK. Good. So, Spiderman is here.

Time to get into position.

“Excuse me, sorry,” you mutter as you fight your way through the crowd, trying to secure a nice spot around the edge, towards the closer side. People don’t really mind you, looking awestruck with their mouths slightly open as Spiderman’s hands steadily encircle the torso of the man who was previously plummeting towards certain death, very heroic indeed. And anyways — you’re a native New Yorker. Meaning you’re not above a little elbowing here and there when the situation calls for it. “Sorry, I’m coming through, excuse me.”

The crowd spits you out at the edge.

After stumbling a little, you huff, fixing the straps of your backpacks on your shoulders, and ruffling your hair.

You walk a little closer, just in time to hear the crowd erupt in a loud cheer as Spiderman touches ground, the loan shark looking man in his forties held bridal style in his arms. God, now that’s a sight. You should’ve brought your camera — if only you didn’t catch the report on Spidey-Watch so last minute while stepping off the subway.

OK. Approximately 25 seconds, now. That’s what you have.

You lean down to retie the shoelaces of your trainers. Tightly. With a double knot, and all.

Spiderman sets the man on his feet. Tentatively, the man, too, releases the hold he has around Spiderman’s shoulders.

He looks shaken, understandably. Face pale, clearly on the brink of vomiting, legs shaking as he takes a few tentative steps. The reality that his bones didn’t end up cracking into a million little pieces seems to sink in for him as he cries, hands flying back to grip onto the vigilante’s shoulders. “You saved me, Spiderman.”

“Yeah.” Spiderman nods. He pats the man’s hands on his shoulders — maybe in a show of comfort, maybe in an awkward attempt to get them off. “Please make more responsible deals in the future. Preferably not with the, y’know, uh. . . the mob.”

“I didn’t know they were the mob, Spiderman.” The man shakes his head, voice very utterly serious, before giving himself away by swallowing.

“Of course you didn’t,” Spiderman complies.

“Of course I didn’t,” the man affirms. He gasps, taking his hands off of Spiderman’s latex suit clad shoulders to rummage through the inner pockets of his suit jackets. “Wait a second.”

You take the chance to walk closer to the scene on the sidelines while the crowd is busy watching intently as the man produces a 5$ Starbucks gift card. Some gasp, some sigh in awe. Personally, you just think he’s a bit of a cheap ass loser as you grip your voice recorder tighter, fingers hovering ready over the buttons.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly—” Spiderman shakes his head as he declines the generous offer, holding out his palms in rejection.

“Please, take it,” says the man, pushing the gift card into the vigilante’s chest before swiftly letting it go, so that the other has no chance but to grab it before it falls to the ground. “Let me repay you. Thank you, Spiderman.”

“Thank you, Spiderman,” the crowd echoes.

The scene is a bit funny. In the same way it’s funny when people clap when a plane lands.

OK. About 10 seconds now.

Spiderman quickly says his goodbyes to his impromptu audience, throwing up a few peace signs here and there while shooting a web behind him, ready to take off.

“Goodbye, you people. Drink water and, uh, stay safe!” Spiderman starts walking backwards as he speaks, gradually gaining speed. “Oh, and wear sunscreen!”

The crowd answers, “We will, Spiderman!”

And just like that, Spiderman is off.

It’s your time to shine. In your comfortable running trainers, you take off on the pavement, right under where he swings, attention divided between evading fellow pedestrians and keeping an eye on the arachnid vigilante.

“Spiderman! Hey, Spiderman!” you shout. For a moment, you swear you see him teeter. “Spiderman, I’m ___ from the NYU Weekly, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?”

Nothing.

Spiderman keeps swinging. So, what to do, you keep running.

“Spiderman!” you continue, “I study journalism with a minor in communications and am writing my thesis on the presentation of superheroes in the media, and I think an interview with you could give great insight on the subject to the academics!”

Spiderman keeps swinging.

In your heedlessness, you faintly crash into one of the green, metal bins out on the street with your hip, letting out a painful yelp as you press a palm against the most likely forming bruise to soothe the pain.

But still, you keep running.

“Miss!” you hear someone shout. Snapping your head up, you see Spiderman looking down on you as he glides through the air, expression hidden behind his mask but voice a bit desperate. “Miss, please stop doing this, it’s very dangerous.”

“Give me an interview?” you try, starting to get out of breath.

You’ve never gotten this far before. Usually, he manages to shake you off pretty quickly at the first approaching street corner. This is a bit more than what you’ve been working out in the university’s gym for.

This might just be your chance, though— Spiderman actually acknowledged your presence, it’s been like half a minute and you’re still hot on his trail, and your new running shoes, although very, very fugly, are holding up great so far.

But before you have a chance to give it another try, a few — unexpected to your calculations — things happen in quick succession.

You hear Spiderman let out an uncharacteristical squeak, and the next thing you know, you’re falling back on your ass, some of the textbooks in your backpack painfully digging into your back as you collide with a news stand by the crosswalk.

A few metres from you, cars start speeding down the road as the lights turn green.

“I’m really sorry, miss!” Spiderman shouts once more. “Soak it in one part water and one part vinegar overnight! And be more careful watching where you’re going, please!”

And with that, Spiderman turns the corner, and away he swings above the New York traffic.

Well. There’s always next time.

Groaning, you push yourself up into a squat with both hands on the ground, before massaging the strain in the top of your neck where your head has jerked back upon impact with the news stand.

All over your chest, are slimy, gooey, sticky white spiderwebs. You try not to cry.

The sweater is cashmere.

₊✩｡🕷˚🕸⋆｡

“Where the hell have you been?” Yoongi Min, a short, mint-haired communications major senior with cat-like tendencies and an endless temperament, (and your best friend since the diapers, but that’s worth mentioning only on the margins), whisper-yells as you slide into the seat next to him during the ongoing lecture.

Eyes on the presentation screen, you pull your laptop and water bottle out of your bag without any haste, trying to get an idea of which lecture of yours you are even sitting in on right now. You catch a few buzzwords like defamation, source credibility, Johnny Depp, and deep fakes on the presentation.

Introduction to Media Law, is the most feasible conclusion you can come to.

“I had a lead,” you mutter to Yoongi as you power up OneNote on your screen.

“You mean you stalked him on Twitter,” Yoongi corrects. He drops his stylus in favour of tugging on the sweater you didn’t have time to change out of, curiously touching the gooey remains of spiderwebs before wiping it back into the material from his fingers with a scrunched up face. “Ew. You look as if someone depraved just came all across your tits. What the fuck did you do this time?”

“As you can see, I had an actual interaction with Spiderman this time.” You smirk. Yoongi raises an eyebrow. “Details are unimportant. The point is, now I’m sure he knows who I am, and the next time he sees me he’ll—”

“Wait,” Yoongi interrupts. “What do you mean next time? Namjoon told you to give up on the article.”

“That’s only because Namjoon’s been dumped again and became a defeatist.” You shake your head. The lecturer asks a question, so you start randomly typing on your keyboard. Old man Professor Hendersson’s a softie, he wouldn’t call on a student busy in the making of the perfect lecture notes. Some person in the third row answers him, and so you continue to do the same to Yoongi. “Dude’s gonna be kissing my feet when I make him the first NYU Weekly editor who signs off on an Avengers feature.”

“Avengers-adjacent.” Yoongi corrects.

“Spiderman wouldn’t appreciate you saying that.”

Yoongi snorts. “What a relief Spiderman won’t hear shit of what I say.”

“Hey guys,” whispers a third voice.

Jungkook Jeon — shy, giggly, fellow journalism major junior with a long haircut that makes him look like a triangle kimbap — slides into the other seat next to Yoongi, only a notebook and a branded cup of coffee in hand.

He looks slightly out of breath, cheeks aflame, and clothes messy, his large black t-shirt hanging inside out on his lean figure. It’s 11:42, which might as well be the ass crack of dawn in Jungkook-terms. He must’ve slept in.

Jungkook settles in the seat, taking a sip of his coffee with the straw as he turns the pages of his notebook to the next blank. That is when he seems to remember something.

Before he could even look over and ask, you reach over Yoongi (who scratches your arm that blocks his sight of his iPad, HayDay opened, which is not very nice of him, is it, but see — the aforementioned cat-like tendencies) to hand him the pen you’ve fished out of your bag the moment Jungkook sat down.

You know him too well.

Cheeks going a bit pinker, Jungkook huffs, accepting the pen as he whispers, “Thanks, ___”

“Welcome, as usual.”

Yoongi pipes up, his interrogative gaze turning to Jungkook this time. “And you? Been on a coffee date, debating existentialism and forgot time exists? Why am I the only one taking my education seriously?”

You can’t help but scoff at that. “No offence, dude, but the only thing I see you taking seriously is trying to hack into Seokjin’s farm to sell his raspberry cupcakes to yourself.”

“I need to sell some to Greg.” Yoongi shrugs. “And I, unlike you dipshits, was here on time, wasn’t I?”

“I was at my Stark internship,” Jungkook whispers, before mumblingly adding, “In case it was genuine curiosity.”

You sigh. You look at this boy, with a hint of pity in your eyes. So young, so bright, way too cute for his own good, but just a bit too easy for this big, bad world. “Jungkook?”

“Hm?” he hums.

“Do you think you’ll ever get hired?” you ask.

“What do you mean?”

“Just that, didn’t you say you’ve been interning for him since junior year of high school?” you continue. In your years of friendship with the guy, steady since the freshmen camp in Upstate NY he ditched after a day and a half, you’ve heard your fair share about this internship at whichever branch of Tony Stark’s company, both from Jungkook and his childhood friends, Jimin and Taehyung alike. “It sounds like the old Ironbag is exploiting your labour for me. Go somewhere you’re appreciated. And is relevant to your studies.”

“Damn, I just realised it.” Yoongi pipes up.

You didn’t dignify him with asking the question. Yoongi’s eyes are screaming bullshit. You’ve known your own childhood friend for a bit too long to fall for an obvious bait like that.

Jungkook, who has been looking at you with a nervous glint in his eyes, though, is seemingly not as seasoned as you are. “Realised what?”

“Thank you so much for asking, Jungkook,” Yoongi pats the younger boy’s arm, before turning to you. “I’ve realised that you’re exhibiting extreme levels of jobless behaviour and should take your own advice first.” Next, he addresses Jungkook again. “Can you believe she was chasing Spiderman down the city this morning, too? That’s jobless. Jungkookie can at least put the Stark stuff on his resume.”

“I can, too,” you protest. The only reason you’re doing any of this is for the good of your academic advancement, after all. And if you get some brownie points with Namjoon for it, too… well?

“Yeah, you can put ‘stalker psycho’ as a previous position,” Yoongi says. “Will open lots of doors for you.”

“You’ll be singing a different tune when I become the first journalist to get an interview with Spiderman, like, ever, and get hired to The New York Times straight out of college, but you do you, Yoongles.”

“Correction. Put ‘delusional stalker psycho.’”

“I—”

“Why do you want it so bad, anyways?” Jungkook interrupts, quickly averting his eyes when you look over at him again and catch him staring at your chest, and. . . right. Spider goo on your sweater. As already stated, he interrupted your bickering, but good thing he did, because you already have one hand in the air ready to whack Yoongi, and killing him might not be appropriate behaviour during lecture. Even if none of you are paying attention to it, and skinning Yoongi alive would be much more beneficial to your career in the long run. “You could just get an interview with Daredevil for the thesis. I think he gives out interviews from time to time.”

Yoongi snickers. “She’s scared of Daredevil.”

“I’m scared of Hell’s Kitchen,” you correct. “That’s very different.”

“It’s understandable, though,” Jungkook says, smiling sweetly at you while he doodles on the corner of his notebook. “The crime rate is a bit high there. I get it.”

“Oh, no Jungkookie, you don’t.” Yoongi shakes his head. He has a shit-eating grin curling on the edge of his lips, looking you up and down coyly as he whispers to Jungkook in dramatics. “She’s afraid of Hell’s Kitchen because she used to think Gordon Ramsey was Daredevil. Wanted to avoid him at all costs.”

It’s silent for the while — well, silent between the three of you. Professor Hendersson has started playing some video on the screen and that’s pretty loud.

Poor man has no clue on how to control the speaker system.

“I’m… pretty sure he’s not,” Jungkook says tentatively.

“Tell that to an 8 year-old me who was awfully confused by Hell’s Kitchen, the neighbourhood and Hell’s Kitchen, the television show.”

Jungkook looks at your best friend. “You’re right, Yoongi, I don’t get it.”

Yoongi pats his arms. “No problem, Jungkook. Being weird as fuck is her only charm.”

Jungkook looks ready to either confirm or fight that standpoint, but you interrupt.

“Anyways, I want the interviewee to be Spiderman, because… Lots of reasons, actually.” You sigh, thinking about how to put it into words. “First of all, most signs point towards him being young, like, around our age. He’s part of the digital native generation so he probably has different and potentially more complex views on social media and how it affects his job than the old farts and defrosted chickens in the Avengers. We could also assume he’s very media conscious, judging by how extremely lowkey his direct presence on the internet is, and yet he has a very unique relationship with the Spiderheads.”

“And who the fuck are those?” Yoongi asks.

Surprisingly, it’s not you, but Jungkook who answers for him. “His fans.”

“Please, not you, too,” Yoongi sighs, looking at Jungkook in horror.

The younger boy is very quick to shake his head. Vehemently. “Nah, nah, it’s not like that, I’m just very. . . uh, chronically online, you know.”

“You might wanna fix that, then.”

“Also,” you butt in. If you’ve started explaining, you want to finish explaining. Men, and their short attention span, God. “He just seems like a genuinely nice guy, you know? Other superheroes tend to end up in all sorts of scandals, and despite being high-profile and being around for years now, Spiderman’s slate is spotty clean. So he either has a killer PR team or he’s really just, like, a really nice and responsible guy, y’know? But it makes him a bit. . . well, impersonal when it comes down to it. I don’t wanna do an exposé or anything like that, of course, but I think people would like hearing his thoughts on stuff.”

“And you have the hots for him.” Yoongi adds.

Jungkook squeaks, and your hands shoot out to smack Yoongi on the chest. It’s a reflex, at this point.

“I do not have the hots for him,” you protest.

“Jesus Christ, how did I not realise,” Yoongi bemoans. “You so wanna fuck him, you samaritan-sexual freak.”

“You say that like being attracted to good people is a bad thing,” you hiss.

“Okay, here we go.” Yoongi points at you with his stylus. “Fuck, marry, kill: Hulk in Hulk form, Gordon Ramsey, Spiderman.”

“Dude, that’s so rigged!” you object.

“That’s what you get.” Yoongi shrugs.

“Kill Gordon Ramsey, fuck Hulk Hulk, marry Spiderman.” You give in, listing them on your fingers. “Obviously.”

“Knew you were a monster fucker. Freak,” Yoongi says delightedly. You hit him in the chest again, but he pays you no mind — probably has a dent in the shape of your fist on his chest at this point to soften the blows — as he turns to Jungkook. “Okay, let’s move on. Jungkook. Fuck, marry, kill: Megan thee Stallion, Rihanna, and ___.”

Jungkook looks at your best friend with wide eyes, cheeks already aflame a deep scarlet as he anxiously chews on his now soggy paper straw.

“C’mon, Gigi, don’t tease him,” you scold him.

“What?” Yoongi protest. “It’s a good line up.”

“Ignore him, Jungkook.”

“— could give us an adequate answer to that, right, Mr. Jeon?” Professor Hendersson’s voice breaks through your little bubble as the rest of the heads in the auditorium turn towards your little trio in the back in unison.

Uh oh. Busted.

Jungkook gapes a little as his eyes flit between the presentation and his blank notebook, swallowing nervously before clearing his throat. “Um. . .”

“You might wanna answer him, though.” Yoongi mutters. Utterly, utterly unhelpful.

₊✩｡🕷˚🕸⋆｡

Hari’s playlist of 5 Seconds of Summer — a nostalgia mix, strictly made up of their first three albums’ repertoire — is blaring through your student apartment.

Sitting in front of the mirror in your room, you can hear them singing along in the living room as Hari carefully braids Piper’s hair, and you have to stifle a smile during their terribly off-key high notes as you perfect your eyeliner.

Half an hour ago, all three of your cell phones pinged in unison while watching Love Island on the couch as Seokjin messaged the big communal group chat a simple, ‘seoulite @ 9? who in?’ and a quick follow up of ‘reply or like this at least if you coming fuckers’.

Which brings you to the current scene: quickly getting ready as you wait for Taehyung and Jimin to pick you guys up since they live in the same off-campus student apartment complex you do, and Taehyung doesn’t drink, but drives. (Like a maniac, really. He drives as if he did drink.)

The quickly getting ready part elongated a little bit somewhere between Hana settling on the green corduroy flares and you brushing your teeth as your phones lit up with a short additional message in the thread.

Jungkookie [20:34]: me too ^^

To his credit, Jungkook is a pretty faithful lecture-goer, and due to some cosmic coincidence, semester after semester, you guys end up in almost all of the same classes, so you, who is enrolled in the same programme he is, cannot complain about a lack of Jungkook in your life.

That cannot be said about the others, though. Piper, for one, is pretty fond of complaining about a severe Jungkook deficiency.

To put it fairly, Jungkook is not the most. . . reliable guy you know. Lacks a little bit of consistency. Too scatter-minded.

Because sometimes, the man cannot be shaken off for days on end even with some super high-tech Stark Industries scraper (for the hyperbole to work properly, please imagine that they’re producing handy tools instead of, like, weaponry).

Then, there’s the other times, the admittedly much more frequent times, when there’s just simply no sight or sign of Jungkook until he conveniently decides to pop up out of the blue again.

But to be honest, it’s the dynamic your little group always had since forming.

The first time it happened, you were worried, though. Mostly because the two of you were partnered up for a group project that was rapidly coming up all the while you couldn’t get a hold of this guy you’ve known for like three weeks at that point, but the worry, of course, extended to his person, as well.

Although, after some time, seeing how nonchalant Jimin and Taehyung — friends who have known Jungkook since the dawn of time and are thick as thieves with him — are when faced with worries over Jungkook’s where- and howabouts (‘He’s just home tending to his aunt,’ / ‘He had to travel for the Stark Internship, happens sometimes’ / ‘He sprained his ankle in the gym, no biggie’ / ‘He’s probably helping out his aunt at their restaurant for the week,’ / ‘He just travelled back to Korea for Chuseok with his family to visit relatives,’ / ‘He’s fostering a stray cat, can’t leave her alone,’ and such) you decided there’s surely no reason for you to sweat about it too much.

(And anyways, Jungkook made it up to you tenfold for that one instance. He showed up to your dorm one night with two bags of takeout from their family restaurant — amazing jajangmyeon — and braved through the assignment with you in one sitting on your shitty, spring mattress. Volunteered to hold the Q&A segment following your presentation, and stayed over late into the AMs to watch the first two Star Wars prequels with you. It really solidified your budding friendship.)

It’s probably not that easy to be all cool about any of it when you have a big fat fucking crush on the guy, though. Like Piper does, for example.

These past few weeks were also ones that have seen very little of Jungkook, so the excitement bubbling in all three of you at his message is quite understandable — it means all ten of you in the groupchat have RSVP’d Seokjin’s invitation, after all. And it’s been way too long since a get-together with everyone present.

The levels of excitement only differ where Piper got struck by a desperate need to change into a tighter pair of jeans, put on some highlighters over her eyelids, and braid her blonde hair into something called a waterfall braid.

But it’s okay. After finishing your own makeup and jumping into a looser pair of pants, you gladly join Hari and Piper in the living room to line the latter’s lips with a dark red colour. Her crush is cute.

Fifteen minutes later, Jimin and Taehyung blast up Hari’s phone with announcements of their arrival and even more messages urging the three of you to make haste. They throw in a few threats of leaving you guys to fend for yourselves in a cab if you’re not down in 10, as well, but after all this time of being friends with them, you know they’re just shooting blanks.

Grabbing your coats for the chilly September nights, the three of you lock up your apartment and make your way down from the fourth floor, and into the waiting Hyundai by the sidewalk in front of the complex.

“6.34 after the first message.” Taehyung turns to Jimin who’s sitting in the passenger seat as the three of you file into the back. “Chim, can you believe that?”

“Can’t say I do, babe. It has to be a new record.”

“Do you know who edits the Guiness’? I’m gonna call them on the way.”

“Har-har-har, hello to you, too, brothers and in-laws,” Hari chirps, poking a finger through the gap between the seat and the headrest to prick the back of Jimin’s neck with her acrylics. The boy yelps, trying to snatch his younger sister’s hand, but he’s too late. “Nice evening we have here.”

“Yeah, yeah, nice evening, pleasant breeze, picturesque light pollution,” Taehyung drones on, one hand on the steering wheel while he fiddles with the radio with the other. “Let’s get a move on, are you guys ready? Have everything, all in one piece, et cetera? I have serious business to deal with Jungkook.”

“Yeah, we can leave,” you answer him, while Piper pipes up:

“What’s up with Jungkook?”

“Got a new dog,” Jimin supplies.

“And the asshole refuses to send me a picture of him,” Taehyung huffs as he drives out of the parking lot, before pointing a thumb at Jimin. “And this asshole refuses to hack Kookie’s iCloud gallery for me.”

“After all these years, which part of ethical hacking do you still not get?” Jimin sighs.

“What kind of dog did he get?” Piper follows up enthusiastically, and that conversation entertains the three of them for most of the ride.

(Jungkook got a doberman.)

Sitting by the window on the driver’s side, you drone out their conversation and occupy yourself with the city view and your thoughts.

You’ve washed your sweater. Spiderman’s washing tip has, surprisingly, worked. Which could be a nice opener for the next time you see him.

It’s been a few days since there was any sighting of him that you could catch, though.

Two days ago, Reddit was buzzing with a store robbery the vigilante has managed to stop while you slept, and yesterday, you got an alert from a Twitter account you follow called the Spidey-Watch while eating lunch in some burger joint close to campus with Seokjin and Hoseok, but it was on the far edge of Queens and you doubted you’d even get there in time to witness anything.

But never mind. Ever since you took this on the mission at the beginning of the previous spring semester, there’s one very important lesson you’ve learned: serious journalism requires patience.

And hell, if you’re not the epitome of patience by now. (Yeah, there might’ve been some problems with your inner zen in the past, but you took up yoga over the summer).

Even if just unwittingly, you lose track of the conversation in the car as you drive through Queensboro Bridge, but then a few moments later, it’s the radio playing faintly in the background that inadvertently gets your attention.

The music on the station ends in favour of the 8PM evening news, a female voice with a bit of an irritating intonation covering a few economic and political reportings your brain doesn’t quite retain, before — “. . . so with the disappearance of Amanda Porter, we urge the young population of New York City to be particularly cautious in the upcoming weeks as the number of missing person cases increases all over the city. Especially people in their late teens to early twenties are advised to avoid remote areas and travelling alone at night. The New York Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit has yet release a follow-up statement since their press conference on —”

“Jesus Christ,” Taehyung mutters as he quickly turns the volume down, sharing a concerned look with Jimin from the corner of his eyes.

The rest of the ride over to Queens passes quietly.

₊✩｡🕷˚🕸⋆｡

The Seoulite is a small, Korean hole-in-the-wall type of bar, except it is not as much of a bar as just the owner, an old woman commonly just called Auntie Aecha’s street-front apartment with a second-hand bar from Ebay dumped into her kitchen in the place of an island, and a couple of tables and chairs scattered around her entrance hall and living room.

Don’t ask. You’re not quite certain of its legality, either.

A few things to know about Auntie Aecha:

She’s a compulsive hoarder, and the decoration (or maybe, at this point, with its excessiveness, the lack thereof) proclaims it loudly. The place is packed with rugs, vases, paintings, magazines, lamps, biblical figurines, blankets, pottery and a wide array of trinkets laying around everywhere.

She has three cats, a dog, and a parrot freely roaming around the place. You’ve never learned their names, but that’s because their names keep changing every time you're here and not because your lack of trying, even when Auntie Aecha, despite her impressive age of 70 and some mystery as she says, doesn’t display any of the typical symptoms that usually come with old age, like forgetfulness. She just simply keeps calling them different fucking names, so you’ve stopped trying to keep up.

And lastly included in this list that obviously lacks completeness — she’s a self-proclaimed psychic. No other comments on that.

Namjoon found this place accidentally (distraught from heartbreak, he was trying to go over to Jungkook’s — the only problem with that plan was that this is not the area of Queens Jungkook lives in) last year after getting dumped.

Ever since Auntie Aecha has personally nursed Namjoon’s broken heart into beating again with imported peach soju, your little group took up frequenting this bar/apartment any time the urge to get together somewhere arose. (And that was only partly because Auntie Aecha gives alcohol to those of you — Piper and Hari — who are twenty-but a little short on-one).

By the time the five of you get in tonight, everyone else is here, already sitting around your usual table by the decorative fireplace.

There’s a bit of commotion as they all stand up and everyone tries to greet everyone, before you file back into your seats. Somehow, you end up on the bench seat with Jungkook — even if you distinctly remember seeing him in the armchair, the most coveted seat, by the other side of the table — and shoot Piper an apologetic look as she dejectedly takes a seat on the puff between Namjoon and Hari.

“Congratulations on becoming a father,” you mutter to Jungkook, playfully elbowing the guy on his side.

He shoots you a confused look, eyes impossibly bigger as he peers down on you. Sitting on the small bench just enough for two people, your shoulder is pressed against his biceps. The material of his large, black hoodie is nice against the bare skin of your arms.

“Don’t look so scared, I meant your dog,” you scoff at him, teeth biting into your bottom lips as you smile. Jungkook’s gaze wanders, and you wiggle your eyebrows, “Unless there’s something else I don’t know about?”

“No, no, no, there’s… there isn’t. No,” he protests, shaking his head as spots of red freckle his cheeks.

It makes you giggle — Jungkook is rather easy to fluster, despite the many eyes that follow him around hungrily anywhere he goes. As it seems, he’s completely unaware of his own allure, when objectively speaking, Jungkook is one of the prettiest guys you’ve ever met. He has these huge sparkling eyes, an elegant nose, an endearing smile overflowing with teeth, and freckled smooth honey-skin with beauty spots to kill for. And that’s just the outside.

All in all, let’s just say that you’re not entirely blind to what captivates Piper so much.

“He’s. . . Bam,” he continues. “That’s his name. I. . . um, y’know, found him a few days ago. A stray.”

“You’re sweet, Kook,” you tell him. Seokjin with the help of Hoseok has arrived back at the table with drinks, and places your usual orders — a whiskey coke for you and wheat beer for Jungkook — in front of you guys. You quickly thank them and take a sip, fiddling with the straw as you ask, “Bam. Anything particular behind the name?”

“Yeah. It means ‘night’ in Korean,” Jungkook tells you, reaching for his own drink. “My aunt named him. You, um, you wanna see pictures?”

“Sure.” You nod, and hold your drink out of reach when Jungkook leans a bit into you to fish his cellphone out of his jeans pocket.

With two fingers, you pick the lemon out of your drink to chew on it — you’re between friends with no one to impress, so if you want to rather unflatteringly suck on the garnish, you will, thank you very much — while you watch from the corner of your eye as Jungkook unlocks his phone and starts scrolling through his gallery.

He freezes, and scrolls up and down for a long moment, before hesitantly handing over his phone to you. “This is, um,” he eloquently mumbles as a description to accomapy the picture.

You take the phone from Jungkook that’s opened on a selfie of him and a dark brown doberman in bed. The focus is clearly on the dog, given that the picture cuts off somewhere above Jungkook’s chin, and you recognise the location as his bedroom, a few Star Wars and Overwatch posters on the wall in the background giving it away.

He’s a cute dog, Bam. He looks into the camera, deep dark eyes looking weirdly intelligent, his mouth open and tongue lolling out as he’s laid back against Jungkook’s naked torso. That has abs. Like, a fucking six pack. Wow.

You know Jungkook frequents the gym, he has even accompanied you to your treadmill workouts in preparation of chasing Spiderman from time to time, but in the oversized clothes he always wears, it’s easy to forget he's not actually scrawny. Still, wow. So he has abs. Yeah. Good to know.

Jungkook clears his throat awkwardly, so you make the executive decision to zoom in slightly on the dog as you comment, “He’s really cute, Kook. Bam looks like a smart boy.”

“Yeah, he. . . yup, he really is, very smart.”

“IS THAT BAM??!”

Suddenly, you have a Taehyung-weighted mass thrown across your lap, and two hands wrenching Jungkook’s phone out of your hold.

Caught off guard, you let out a yelp as you fall slightly over Jungkook, and you would’ve been about to spill your drink, too, if it weren’t for one of Jungkook’s hands fixing around your wrist, while the other balances both you and Taehyung by wrapping itself around your back. Quick reflexes.

“Hey, shithead!” you snap, slapping a palm over Taehyung’s back.

“I can’t believe you’ve been hiding this cutieful little cinnamon roll from me, dude!” Taehyung cries, zooming in and out of the picture with two fingers like a boomer. “Look at Bamie! So, so adorable, look at his ey— wait. Jungkook Jeon, is this a thirst tra—”

“Tsk, children,” an accented voice chides. “Behave.”

You peek your head out behind Taehyung’s shoulder to beam up at the woman who has walked over to your table. “Auntie!”

Alerted to her presence, Taehyung assumed a position with a degree more of civility (he’s now sitting perched on your legs, back straight and legs thrown over your thighs on one side) looking up at Aecha with a toothy grin, telling her something in Korean.

The woman snorts, retorting in the same language. Jungkook fails and tries to stifle a giggle beside you.

“I brought you children a little something,” Auntie Aecha says, setting a plate of cookies on the table.

Another thing to know about Auntie Aecha: though she would never admit it to your faces, too big on that tough love shtick she has going on, it’s an open secret that your ragtag group of ten are her favourite customers.

Expressions of thanks echo around the table as all of you latch onto the cookies, Seokjin standing up to offer his seat, but Aecha denies, “No, no, sit back, sit. I won’t stay to bother you young people for long, this old lady just wanted to say hi.”

“You never bother,” Namjoon says between two bites. “Stay, Auntie, please.”

“You kids are too sweet,” she smiles, patting the boy’s shoulder with ringed fingers. Auntie Aecha has the most exquisite collection, full of emeralds and intricate silverwork, unique enough craftsmanship to match her generally eccentric style. Right now, too, she’s dressed in an elegant white blouse and a long, navy blue skirt covered in detailed patterns and a beaded shawl tied around her waist.

The conversation picks up around the table again, but Aecha lingers. “___?”

“Yes, Auntie?”

“Have you had your fortunes read lately?”

You smile at her, breaking off a piece of the cookie in Taehyung’s hand. He looks about ready to protest, if only Auntie Aecha’s presence wasn’t holding him back from whining publically. But he decided he could share your seat, so you might as well share his cookie, right? Simple and fair.

“You know you’re the only one who does me readings,” you tell her.

Sometimes when the group is fewer in numbers, or when you visit in the afternoon for a cup of coffee, you entertain her charade from time to time. You think it’s rather silly — yes, you live in a world with Scandinavian Gods and purple evil aliens, but no way in hell a random old lady in Queens is, like, an actual psychic. Who tells the future from tarot cards, of all things. Right. . .

Aecha hums. “Right. . . The Wheel of Fortune. What does it mean?”

You’re unsure whether the question is directed on the card’s meaning in general, or on its possible effect on your life. But regardless, the answer to both scenarios is:

“I don’t know.”

She does that thing. The thing that chills you to the bone sometimes, the thing when her eyes seem to dim, like there’s no sight or soul in them, and her face looks paler for a moment under the lights. She fixes her gaze on you, before it slips over to Jungkook.

You feel his fingers, that are still splattered across your back, tighten as he stares back.

“So soon?” Aecha mutters, then: she snaps out of it. A smile is back on her face, a bit weaker than before, as she says. “Very well, then. I’ll leave you kids to it. There’s a clue in the night, ___.”

And with that, she walks off.

Slowly, Jungkook retracts his hand from your waist, while Taehyung’s head whips around towards the two of you. “So, that was weird as fuck, huh?”

“Right. . .” Jungkook and you both mumble.

You break a bigger piece off of Taehyung’s cookie, and then break that into halves again before offering one of them to Jungkook. He seems spaced out, but readily accepts it.

That’s another thing to know about Auntie Aecha: she says weird, cryptic shit sometimes. But that’s how you love her.

“‘There’s a clue in the night, ___’,” Taehyung repeats in a deepened, mysterious baritone. He wiggles his fingers in your face, which you promptly swap away. “Any clue what that might mean?”

“None.” You shake your head.

“Anyways.” Taehyung shrugs, picking Jungkook’s phone back up, and giddily scrolling through his gallery. “Let me look at more of these Bam pictures.”

You sigh. You’ve long since stopped whacking your brain to figure out what Auntie Aecha’s off handed comments might mean. They’re usually just similar nonsense.

Suddenly, Taehyung is yanked off your lap just as abruptly as he came, before Yoongi’s fingers latch onto your forearm next. “Bitch, I need you at the table soccer, pronto.”

“And that’s my cue, guys,” you sigh, before standing up.

After ruffling Jungkook’s hair, you step over Taehyung who’s now splattered on the floor, then take one last sip of your drink, and leave it besides Jungkook’s beer on the table.

He’s the only motherfucker here you can trust not to drink it while you’re away.

₊✩｡🕷˚🕸⋆｡

The following Thursday evening finds you tucked away in one of the public libraries of Queens, sharing a table with Hoseok who quietly types away on his short story, while you add the finishing touches to your article for next week’s newspaper before sending it over to Namjoon for editing.

Originally, you guys came over to the neighbourhood because you accompanied Hoseok to pick up these sneakers that he found on Facebook Marketplace, which turned out to be a total scam, unfortunately.

So, in Queens and awfully unaccomplished, the two of you tried to ring up to Jungkook’s (his aunt answered the intercom, Jungkook’s apparently out) and to Namjoon’s (where you guys actually got in, but were promptly kicked out at 6PM because some show Namjoon’s grandmother is obsessed with like a teenager was starting on the telly, and she doesn’t want you kids around to make a rattle) so without any idea of what to do, the two of you decided to retreat to the next best option of a free shelter in Queens, since you’ve already made the commute here. That’s the library.

“What’s another word for ‘motivating’? As an adjective,” you ask Hoseok, taking a sip of water.

“Duh. ‘Inspiring’,” Hoseok says without even looking up from his laptop. Or stopping typing, for that matter.

“It makes me so happy that you hold my intelligence to such high regards, friend.” You kick his shin under the table, but it does little to deter him. “I meant besides that and ‘encouraging’, obviously.”

“‘Impelling’, ‘propelling’, maybe ‘provoking’ depending on the context,” Hoseok lists like the walking thesaurus he is — the pros of having a friend in the English major.

“Thanksie yousie.”

“Bless you.”

You finish typing up the article, and send it over to Namjoon’s school mail inbox. Without anything to do now, you immediately fall victim to boredom.

Hoseok seems to be in the flow, though, fingers rapidly flying over the keyboard as he mumbles under his breath, so you scroll through your newsfeed for a while — someone won the lottery this week, a politician is under suspicion of tax fraud, wow, who would’ve thought, another disappearance happened in Manhattan, a baby giraffe was born in the zoo, nothing about Spiderman since you’ve last checked — before opening up a Watermelon Game with cat pictures on the web to occupy yourself with for the time being.

Some ten minutes pass with that before the silence is broken again.

“So how’s the Spiderman thing coming along?” Hoseok asks.

After combining two large, yawning cats into an even larger, screaming and wet one, you meet his gaze over your computer screens.

“Steady,” you simply say, and it’s vague enough not to constitute a lie. You let another baby kitten fall from the metaphorical sky. “Why?”

“Yoongi told me about the spider cum on your sweater.”

“Ew, it’s not fuckin—” you shriek, earning yourself a few ‘ssh’s and a dirty look from the librarian. You nod your head in apology with an awkward smile. Bending your laptop’s screen slightly, you lean in closer to hiss, “It’s not fucking spider cum.”

“Think about it,” Hoseok argues. “It’s his bodily fluid.”

“Actually, a few people on the forums think it might be synthetic,” you tell him.

“You’re just gonna have to ask him that, too.”

Humming, you take your phone out to make a quick note of it. That’s actually a pretty relevant question — for science.

“Yoongi also told me that you left class early to try and catch him again yesterday and just ended up falling into Meadow Lake,” Hoseok continues.

“So why are you asking me then, if you already know everything?”

“I’m just curious. Unlike the others, I do kinda think that you’re gonna get somewhere.” Hoseok shrugs. He continues typing as he adds. “All this embarrassment without some sort of a pay-off? Nah. Karma is kinder than that.”

That’s. . . wow, that was actually pretty nice to hear. Impelling, if you will.

Even if it was a little — a lot — backhanded.

“Aww. Hobi. . .” You pout, kicking his leg under the table playfully. “My only fan.”

“Lukewarm supporter,” he corrects.

“Whatever,” you brush him off. “Actually, nothing much happened besides those. Taking the subway back home drenched and stinking was a humbling experience, but I’m just gonna have to keep going. For the pay-off, like you said.”

Hoseok just hums again, and turns back to his writing, his curiosity seemingly running dry. Whatever.

For the next twenty-something minutes, you occupy yourself by playing round after round of Dress to Impress with Yoongi (later joined by Seokjin and Hari, as well) and you have lots of fun downrating each other’s outfits, so you don’t really accomplish anything. But who cares.

‘ur ootd look like smthng drawn on a deflated balloon lol ugly butt @ yunkiboongi’ you type in the chat, whipping out the lame PG-13 insults in consideration of the fact that, you know, Roblox is for middle schoolers, when Hoseok unceremoniously snaps his laptop shut, standing up from his seat.

“I’m perched. A quick drink at Seoulite before we leave the ‘hood?”

₊✩｡🕷˚🕸⋆｡

After consulting Google Maps, the two of you make the twenty-minute walk through Queens to Aecha’s. Sharing Hoseok’s Airpods, you listen to Epic Sax on repeat on the way, while you try to bring up the topic of Namjoon as subtly as possible.

See, you and Jungkook have a running theory.

It’s not long — it’s just that Hoseok and Namjoon are in love with each other, possibly secretly dating already (this is the point where you guys usually lose the rest of your friends when trying to get them onto the bandwagon, and to be honest, your faith has wavered at this point too, but then Jungkook raised a good point: for the past six months, you haven’t even seen pictures of these people, let alone meet them, that Namjoon is apparently getting dumped by biweekly. Jungkook thinks keeping up the pretence of Namjoon being an unlucky serial dater is part of their elaborate cover-up plan) so Jungkook and you are trying to get any sort of hint or confirmation on the matter, like the nosey little bitches you two are.

Whatever. You come up empty. After droning on about Namjoon’s chest, like ‘He has really nice tits, doesn’t he?’ and ‘You kinda just wanna suffocate buried between them, am I right?’, which are not at all subtle, you admit, you come to the conclusion that Hoseok must be either oblivious, a damn good liar, or not in love with Namjoon, which you personally refuse to believe.

When you round the corner to the street of the Seoulite, the two of you step into the flashing of red and blue police lights in the pitch black night. Confused, you hand the borrowed half of the earbuds back to Hoseok, furrowing your brows as you two keep walking closer.

A smaller crowd has gathered around the block that you know houses the Seoulite, some clearly passersby and others most likely denizens of the neighbouring buildings, clad in their pyjamas and a coat in the evening hours.

“What the fucks going on?” you croak, grabbing onto the arm of Hoseok’s coat with two fingers as the two of you squeeze into the crowd.

The pavement in front of Auntie Aecha’s door is railed off with a police line, officers moving in and out of her apartment through the opened door.

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

Hari and Jimin were here just this morning.

A weak rumble befalls the crowd as people whisper to each other, too quiet and too much for you to overhear anything.

You rummage through your backpack, taking a deep breath before noticing two officers engaged in conversation by the police line.

“Excuse me?” you call out.

One of them turns, sparing you a look over his shoulders, before saying. “Not now, kid. Please wait for the official reports.”

“I’m ___ from NYU Weekly News,” you continue, flashing him the press card you have procured from your bag.

“School paper’s covering crimes now, girl?” The officer sighs, but walks closer to inspect your ID nevertheless.

“Always did,” you reply. It’s a bit of a stretch.

The most illegal activity you’ve written about was someone stealing a piano from the music room. Which was a fun one, by the way, because how the fuck do you steal a piano without anyone noticing, and yet. . .

“Okay,” the policeman says, not entirely convinced. “The owner’s kids from Kentucky requested a wellness check. We did it. The apartment shows clear signs of struggle, and the owner couldn’t be reached, so the NYPD is opening a missing person’s case, suspecting kidnapping. And that’s all I can tell you, kid.”

You swallow, grip tightening around Hoseok’s wrists, who has gone just as rigid as you did.

“Thank you, officer.”

The man nods, and leaves the two of you alone as he walks back to his colleague.

Hoseok looks at you, expression baffled as he reaches for your hand. His tight hold is welcome. You feel like you’re about to vomit.

“Auntie Aecha’s missing?”

NEXT CHAPTER

150 notes · View notes

alcrego · 9 months ago

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Hi, I've been following you for a while now and just want to say I'm sad to see so many people speaking before they know what they are talking about and unjustly attacking you and the validity of your art (as if their opinion even matters to what you will choose to do?). I also don't like the purely internet-trained AI generated art I see more and more of, but I just ignore it. I have never used the technologies firsthand but I think it should be pretty obvious what you are doing is not in the same category or even context to that stuff at all. I think the best analogy I saw you make was saying "should I also not use a camera [or other technological tools]? It reminded me of how the electric guitar and digital music of any form was looked down on for not being "true art" either. Canvas stretched on a frame, paints and brushes etc are all technological tools and were all new at some point in history as well. I enjoy your art and how you use the computer itself to take your art to new levels. Some of the best modern musicians (imho) understand that the medium and the machines they use to record to that medium are like another member of the band itself and they embrace this and cognitively, purposefully utilize it to further their creativity. I think you are doing a very similar thing with visual art (and music) and just wanted to say I have been enjoying your stuff on here for months now. Don't listen to the haters. :)

Deep gratitude for those who can see and understand further than the noise... Truly! 🙏🥹

And the same here, I neither like the internet-trained AI generated images (I wouldn't even call it art), but in the same way I don't like the 'artists' that steal and copy styles of other artists (as it's happening to me since more than a decade ago), but this is ok, no?🥹👍

People should start to understand that for some (most) AIs are a way to obtain an image, but for few others is a tool to create our own resources/ingredients that later we mix/cook/modify to achieve our own ideas, in the same way we ALWAYS used images from the web, magazines, ads, street, etc... to achieve our ideas.

Thanks a lot for these words, and don't worry, it's funny for me to 'listen haters' bc they NEVER had idea about what they talk about. Those who know what is this about can have a respectful, deep and meaningful conversation, and despite sometimes I don't agree, I totally can speak with them.

Big thanks!!

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storkmuffin · 1 month ago

Text

First Ateez Concert (Post performance write up) part 1/2

- That was so much fun! The general impression I have is one of CUTENESS, which surprised me. They’re all so endearing. I feel like I’m watching my friends put on a show. Everything moved with clockwork precision, where everyone (well except Mingi) had a firm handle on exactly what they were supposed to do, and could do it in their sleep. It felt very well-oiled, like a broadway show that's been on forever.

- A young African American woman was my seatmate to my left, and a young Korean woman was my seatmate to my right. As soon as my left side friend (I think she said her name was Danielle) took out her Lightiny I said, OH YOU HAVE ONE! I TOTALLY FAILED TO GET ONE TODAY! and we got to talking. Her bias is Yunho. She likes him for the reasons I like him - which is the naughty Catholic shit. LOL. We talked a bit about how I got into the group, and how thrilled I was to be here, and how we both hoped that they would do all the things (specifically, Seonghwa's finger suckage situation) to happen on this stage.

Danielle came with a friend who got better seats than us, on the 2nd floor. The friend did the membership thing on time, and then went to a PC Bang with the superfast gamer pcs and web connections, and fought for those tickets. Danielle came all the way to Seoul from Daegu! My dad's home town! When she said Daegu another foreign Atiny seated directly in front of me turned around and said, Oh I have to go back to Daegu too! And then tapped her friend who was seated in front of HER, "Hey, I found another person who has to go back to Daegu!" and they all confirmed when their train was. I wish I had had time to ask why all these diverse English speaking foreigners are all doing in Daegu, but there wasn't time.

The K-atiny was startled when I turned to her and asked her a question because she thought I was foreign. Her bias is San. She RENTED her lightiny, she said, and her binoculars (she had, like, military grade binoculars, which made my very good opera glasses look extremely fussy and twee). I kept trying to draw her into conversation but she was so scared of my speaking English and being a stranger who wanted to talk that she mostly heartily agreed with everything I said about San.

- The concert began by playing music videos, Bouncy, Work , and Ice on my Teeth, and there was synchronized-seeming screaming during key parts. Whatever you think a key part might be, yes, that was a key part. I put in my rock-concert ear-protection plugs with the 'maximum' protection and I was so glad I had this protection. That shit was LOUD and it only got louder throughout the evening.

- My way of watching the concert was not to try to record or memorize it but watch what moved me, and to try to watch the actual unit of people moving onstage (who were very far away) using my opera glasses as much as possible.

And now, just a jumble:

- San is a really special presence. Just, the most beautiful looking man, ever. Every time he got a solo close up the entire stadium of 15,000 exploded with screams. Lovely performer, great at camera awareness, gives it all during the dancing, sings well. Just, wonderful. And he was "on" so there wasn't any of that, Talk In Pout, Blink in Innocent Confusion stuff from his Lives happening, nor was there any shipping interaction with others. Just an ultra smooth performance, where even his eyebrows had perfectly executed choreography.

- Hongjoong was very lovable. He's so 착해 and ultra 오빠미 for his role as unofficial MC for the whole show. He said, 코아첼라에서 여까지 왔다~잉? which is the sort of chuncheon dialect he sometimes reverts to, which I would translate as "Girls, we got all the way here (to the KPSO Dome) via Coachella!" which was very sweet.

- I think they were trying to get the in-Korea audience (with many many new Korean Atiny specificially) to behave like the more expressive audiences abroad, but some of what they asked for was clearly confusing for the national audience. Mingi insisted that people had to stand up for certain songs, which we duly did, but then we all didn't know whether or when to sit down or if we could keep standing or what, and each time HongJoong came in with ''It''s time to sit now. Yes, you can rest." At one point he said, "Atiny are so well behaved. When we ask them to stand, they timidly ask each other, "Oh do we have to?" and then when it's over they wait for permission to sit again."

- Yunho is marvelous as a dancer and stage presence. Part of it is that he's tall and very long limbed, but he also looked the happiest to be there, on stage, performing. The most free and least worried. Oh, so basically being Yunho, the everyone's beloved, the everyone's boyfriend. OHhhhh. I see what you did there, Yunho. Aha. He also projected a lot of physical power, which is different from San who compared in person to Yunho actually looks quite delicate but is giving it his all. Yunho does a lot of very fast footwork that just isn't captured on camera. So much precision and details and placement. LOVED Yunho. His being 'chased by terrifying invisible forces and running away' bit was done with a lot of conviction too.

- There's an all seeing eyeball that's like, the surveillance state or something that's atop the radio tower in center stage, but the KQ people made it extra gross by having the eye make horrible squelching noises as it rolled around 'looking'' at the audience.

-Yeosang is unreal. He looks a bit surreal, like Oh wow is that a real person?? kind of surreal. He apparently lost use of the in-ear guidance device during the unit song with San and Wooyoung, but I didn't notice anything.

- SEONGHWA DID THE THING WITH THE FINGERS. Very pleased. He also looked like he is starving. Like, his eyes are starting to sink into his head, sort of a deal. Is that how he normally looks or did he get even thinner for the recent fashion week things? THE ANGEL WING RIPPAGE was everything I wanted. But then a big feathee kind of got stuck in a very awkward way in his hair and WOULD not dislodge so he had to remove it himself, and then he saved it by releasing it dramatically at the end. He really 'own's that whole sequence. When he made a transition comment, about how they were about to wrap up, and how this was the final concert, and the whole audience made a sad noise of disappointment, he said, Well, we might do more songs. It depends on how you behave. 어떻게 하는지 봐서 in his actual deep voice and ... he really is a dom. There was no reason for that little comment to be so scary but everyone was scared, in a heart-eyes way. The sword swinging to end Wonderland was also so thrilling and fun. It’s interesting how all his highlight moments involved doing these silent theatrical actions.

- Mingi. Ok, so Mingi has very dramatic coloring that I've not seen on many Korean people. Extremely pale skin, with blue undertones. Yunho is also extremely pale, but has pink-warm tones. Mingi looks like he'd be cold to the touch. So, this blue-white icy skin and then huge red lips, jet black eyebrows, eyes like a vampire. He makes TERRIFYING faces as he hollers loud enough to puncture eardrums. He also looked like he was having a good time, sort of like Yunho. But different because he seemed actually spontaneous and brought an atmosphere of actual unpredictability, of real risk taking, which this show otherwise entirely lacked.

Near the end of his duet with Yunho, Mingi pressed his forehead into Yunho's and then made an odd motion like he was trying to decide between kneeling and lunging at Yunho, which Yunho short circuited by doing the headspin, by himself, to break contact. Then Mingi warbled someting about... something (Mingi is so hard to understand) to which Yunho again cut short by saying, Just hurry up and tell them you love them (빨리 쓰랑해나 해 - with the word 사랑해 intentionally mispronounced). Then he hauled Mingi off as the lights went off, and we heard Yunho say 아 진짜! which is, For God's sake! befoe both their mikes cut off.

Later, because it was clearly confusing for everyone, HongJoong asked Yungi what happened at the end of Youth. Yunho said that Mingi insisted that he they do a 2행시 using the syllables for 유스 and then stumbled, so Yunho had to cut it short.

When it was time to pick the '"Boss" for Seoul, when HongJoong asked, who should I pick? as a rhetorical question, Mingi answered with, "Pick the hottest girl" to which everyone yelled at him, with one (whether it was San or Yunho I don't know) adding, 정신 나갔어? (have you lost your mind?).

During the moment when the members pick up the most interesting handmade signs from the floor-level attendees, Wooyoung found one that had 쓰러다 해메져 which is the famous Mingi line flub from some other concert. Mingi was like WHO WAS IT, I JUST WANNA SEE THEIR FACE and San bodily blocked him, saying, Don't be scary! That sign turned out to have multiple elements - like a request for Woo and HJ to press their faces together, which they did, and a special birthday well wishes message for Yunho, which were all nicer. Then HongJoong tasked Mingi with returning that sign back to the Atiny who brought it, Mingi said to her, smiling, "Oh you're dressed so pretty today. I'M GOING TO REMEMBER YOUR FACE" in a way that walked the line between being very funny (which it was) and feeling a little bit actually scary (which it also was).

Mingi got a LOT of screams. He also took his clothes off the most (which was not a lot, but more than any of the others but for Seonghwa and Yeosang with their already ripped-and-showing-skin type costumes.

- Jongho ripped his lip (??) singing the first two songs which he mentioned during the intro greeting. His solo was a really welcome moment of singing and sentiment in a very loud show. He tried for but couldn't reach the highest note in that song, but covered it so well and it was a lovely experience. He felt bad about this, and was very apologetic about this in his closing comment. Jongho was a surprise in being both funny and warm as a presence. He always seemed kind of defensive and stiff to me, very guarded in their reality content and the least paitent with the silly set ups. But I found myself thinking that if he gave a solo concert I would totally go listen to him sing for a couple hours.

#I have more to say but I am too tired #kpop #ateez #ateez meta #kpop meta #ateez concert #seoul concert 2025

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askviktor · 2 months ago

Note

I would like to discuss Mel Medarda with you, or rather her influence on Jayce.

Forgive me for my bluntness. I am not a woman of politics nor do I aspire to be one.

Her influence on Jayce came so easily. It was almost as if a simple promise of attention made him forget who he was talking to - a cunning, influencial woman. I could tell you were not caught by the same web. You are more observant, perhaps due to your nature or simply, because the streets of Zaun, that also raised me, brought with them the vigilance required for survival.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do not blame him. She said the right words at the right time. She set a trap as she so often does.

But there must be a way to bring him back from this enamoration. To break the spell.

It does seem like that the two of you deal with similar issues of being surrounded by people, but still feeling isolated, perhaps misunderstood.

Do you think it could be the main cause of his reaction?

- broken record

Jayce has always been eager to prove himself and be recognized. He thrives on praise. It makes him… susceptible. Mel Medarda is not merely cunning; she is an artist of persuasion, and she deftly wields her vast influence. She saw what he needed, what he craved, and she offered it all: power, validation, and admiration. A man who has fought his whole life to be taken seriously rarely questions when he is finally given the recognition he desires.

I have learned to distrust gifts given freely. Nothing in Zaun is without its cost. And you are correct: when you grow up knowing that, you become more… vigilant.

You ask if isolation is the cause. I think it plays a role. When one feels alone, the first voice that speaks one’s name with understanding becomes intoxicating.

However, I do believe that Ms. Medarda, while a skilled politician capable of seducing any whom she wishes, is an empathetic woman who truly cares for and believes in Jayce. Their relationship, while advantageous to them both, is rooted in genuine affection and respect. I do not think the "spell" needs to be broken. Whomever Jayce courts will always wield power over him due to his immense sense of devotion. Still, I believe my friend has the ability to make his own choices, when the, eh, “chips are down.”

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midnight-raven · 1 year ago

Text

Hazbin Hotel Fankids Ideas

ARIA MAGNE

Charlie and Vaggie’s Daughter.

Kind-hearted, always willing to help someone in need, and has a slight temper.

Talented singer, fierce fighter, speaks fluent demonic and spanish.

Growing up, Aria has met Lucifer a handful of times but she’s never met Lilith.

Has heterochromia; a pink and a yellow iris.

Her full demon form has wings, horns, and she wields a sword and shield.

Wants to help her mothers dream come true, and is insecure about being heir to the throne.

On occasions, Lucifer sends her a rubber duck for her birthdays.

OSCAR

Alastors’ Son

Oscar is a Shadow that Alastor brought to life as a deer demon and raised (without revealing the truth of his origins)

Polite, curious, has little social skills and a slight dark sense of humor.

Has antlers, one is half broken.

Collects old records and other relics.

Talented chef; cooks Hannibal Lector style.

Loves visiting Rosie in Cannibal Corner.

Smiles often but not as much as Alastor, and inherited a sliver of his powers.

HOPE

Husk & Angel Dusts’ Daughter

Nickname is ‘Wild Card’

Independent, feisty, and fiercely protective of the ones she loves.

Has wings, sharp claws, a second set of arms, and can cough up web-balls.

Hopes to someday break her Dads free of their contracts.

Has a strong dislike towards Overlords.

Adores Fat Nuggets.

The big sister to everyone in the youth group, she makes the best ice cream sundaes and milkshakes.

THE SNAKELINGS

Triplet sons of Sir Pentious.

FANG; The Leader (self proclaimed since he hatched first) Adventurous, Loyal, Assertive.

COYLE; The Powerhouse. Energetic, Playful, Impetuous

WRENCH; The Inventor. Timid, Curious, Imaginative.

Each of the snakelings adore their Dad and will do anything to help him.

The Egg Bois are the best babysitters/uncles.

THE VEES 2.0

VERA; Daughter of Vox

One of Hells most popular Influencers. Works with her Dad to promote Voxtec products on Voxtagram.

Has Techonopatic powers that she uses for her vlogs, and to stream shows with her friends.

Online; Vera is bold, confident and a tad boastful. Offline, with Virgil and Valerie, she’s fair, playful, and quieter.

VIRGIL, Son of Velvette.

Works as an enforcer for the Vees; dealing with unsatisfied customers, incompetent employees, etc.

The strong and silent type but is more talkative when around his mother and friends.

In his free time, Virgil enjoys sketching and spending time with Vera and Valerie.

VALERIE; Daughter of Valentino.

Passionate and Affectionate; Daddy’s Little Princess

Valentino spoils her with gifts but doesn’t let her out of V Tower very often, and scares off any suitors that look her way.

Only friends are Vera, Virgil, Kitty, and her litter of queeves.

HENRY HAVOC

Son of Katie Killjoy & Tom Trench

Blunt, Arrogant, & Insolent (Basically a Mini Sociopath)

Has to wear a muzzle and gloves because he both scratches and bites.

Works as a cameraman for 6 6 6 News, mostly so his parents can keep an eye on him.

(Sorry, that’s all I got)

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gyupinkys · 2 years ago

Text

FOUND YOU

Yandere Jihoon x fem reader.

WC: 3.8K

Jihoon was never one for relationships. His stoic behavior tends to bore the ladies, but he's had is fair share of flings. However, when some low life hacker tries to access his files; he cant help but look into you more, and some more, and a little more until he becomes obsessed. Jihoon makes it his mission to find you.

WARNINGS: YANDERE, stalking, DUB CON, phone sex, spying, unconsented filming, use of sex toys, fingering, mention of kidnapping, sugar daddy Jihoon, bratty reader.

A/N: i love this fic and I love you woozi.

One semester left… just one. Why on earth would they raise your tuition by $5,000? Are they forgetting both of your parents are dead and you have no job? The financial aid office is no help and you're already about $10,000 in debt. How nice. You look at your computer, contemplating. There's always that option… no it’s not safe. But damn you need money, you need your degree, you need to get out of this fucking city and start over. You look down at your cat Bruno sitting at your feet.

“Should I?”

He just gives you a judgemental look and walks away. This fucking cat…

You have no other choice. You pull out your spare laptop, not risking your pc getting any viruses. A few months ago you drunkenly stumbled upon a website on the dark web that gives you access to IP addresses of major company computers. You very easily figured out how to access their files, you can see everything; their expenses, investments, and payments. It would be so easy to transfer money to an offshore account and cover your traces. Scrolling through the list of companies you try to find one you’ve never heard of. More popular companies tend to have more security.

“Universe factory?”

Hmmm. Doesn't ring a bell. It’s located about fifteen miles from your apartment so you aren't worried about them finding you. Weirdly, you can't find any bank accounts linked to this company. Scouring through some files, this seems to be a music company of sorts? You find samples of songs, lyrics, beats, and oh shit.. Drug shipments? Why is this in the music files? You try to dive deeper only for your connection to completely cut off and your computer blue screens. Fucking hell. The computer won’t turn back on and you won't have a chance to cover your tracks. So much for being computer savvy…

“Fuckkkkk” youre actually fucked. These people are clearly good if they are able to shut off your computer so they may have already found your address by now. You're hoping your vpn and security walls help you. You get up and start to pace. Why on earth did you think this was a good idea? Of course you somehow chose the shadiest fucking company on earth. There's nothing to do now but stress and wait for your likely impending death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The fuck?”

Jihoon’s studio is his safe space. He’s lucky Cheol lets him pursue his passions on the side, this mafia thing tends to take up a lot of his time so being able to unwind in his own space is a treasure. But when he returns to his computer he senses something is wrong. Someone’s gone through his files. Now, Jihoon wouldn't be too worried if all that was on this computer was his music, but recently he’s been using the Universe factory as a coverup to store documents from past business deals. Now this couldnt have been the work of some amaetur, in order to get past all his security takes some real skill, and to be able to do it without a trace? Hm…

Jihoon looks through his files, trying to catalog all the incriminating evidence.

“Tiger’s super wicked diss track?” he speaks in disbelief. When the fuck did Soonyoung get in his studio? And record a fucking distrack?

Jihoon runs a program to see the location of the last user to access his encrypted files. Nothing? Hmm… This is too random to be a coincidence, this person must've found his IP address and started from there. He decides to be bold and search his IP addresses on his self made database, it wouldn't hurt.

“ “FoundYou.com”? What the fuck?”

Well he hit the jackpot. He was able to look at who accessed this website in the past 24 hours and who interacted with the universe factory link. He traced the computer to a rural part of antarctica… ok that's definitely not the real location. He digs a little deeper finding layers and layers of security. He’s starting to think this may not be some silly hacker and could be a rival mafia pulling at strings. After an hour he’s confident he’s found the real address and hacker. About fifteen miles from him lives a Y/N L/N, full time student, studying in computer science, $10,437.76 in debt and an orphan… hm. He looks up your instagram and woah. He wasn’t expecting you to look like that. He sees your friends, finds their instagrams, just to see more pictures of you cover his bases. Your college friends speak highly of you, your highschool friends love you, oh wow even your elementary school friends still hang out with you. He digs a little deeper, just to know who he’s dealing with. You adopted a cat a year ago, a cat who visits the vet very often. Gestational blockages, broken arm, not eating, bladder infection… This cat seems like a handful.

“Bruno? Like Bruno Mars or Bruno from Encanto?” he whispers to himself.

You visited the hospital last year from a broken pinky, your dermatologist keeps increasing the strength of your acne medication, you take very strong pills for your cramps. Car accident when you were 7, therapy for 10 years and dead parents?… Figures.

Your credit card statement says a lot about you. $7 matcha lattes three times a week despite being in debt. $15 chipotle bowls and 12am Mcdonalds. You really like shopping at Adam and eve… freaky. You bought $100 worth of things from amazon yesterday. You sure do buy a lot of cat toys on amazon, this cat is spoiled. Hair dye, batteries, water bottles, 12 pound bag of skittles?

“Woozi, what are you doing?” Soonyoung whispers in his ear.

Jihoon jumps, “When did you even get in here?”

“You get too immersed in your work, but why are you on amazon?”

“None of your business get out! AND WHEN DID YOU RECORD A DISS TRACK IN HERE.”

Hoshi’s eyes widen and he quickly makes his exit leaving Jihoon alone again. He knows he’s being a creep but he doesn't have it in him to care. You’re just so interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bruno there's no one at the door stop growling.”

You open the door to show him no one is outside, but low and behold sitting outside your apartment is a large bouquet of hydrangeas… your favorite flower.

“The fuck?”

You further inspect the flowers, seeing a note in the center.

“My precious little hacker, I’ll be seeing you soon. P.S check your bank account - Woozi’s Universe factory.”

You drop the flowers. Oh my god.You figured something like this would happen but now that it's happening you're freaked out. God, you should have minded your business. Now the little money you had is probably gone as some sort of twisted revenge. As you login to your bank app you're sure you've lost your mind and you're seeing things. $20,000 was wired to your savings account.

“What the fuck.”

You know better than to touch this money. It’s too good to be true. But, this would pay off your debt and get you a better apartment… fuck. You check your email to see what time the money was wired only to see an email from your school saying there were changes made to your account. Can this day get any worse? But it somehow gets better, not only is your tuition paid but all your debt is cleared… you must've suffered a head injury and you're making all of this up while in a coma.

“Bruno, I might be killed in the next 7 days… Then you’ll have to fend for yourself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bruno, I might be killed in the next 7 days.. Then you’ll have to fend for yourself.” your sweet voice rings out.

Jihoon had to see your reaction to his gift. He’s glad you didn't notice the green dot on your mac as he watched you through the webcam. He loves the way you talk to Bruno like he’s a human.

It took a lot of digging to figure out your favorite flower, it was one of your security questions for your bank app. He hopes you appreciate his generosity, it’s not everyday that he goes out of his way to spoil someone. He sees you looking absolutely bewildered and he can’t help but smile. But this smile quickly drops when you turn to your computer and your eyes widen, presumably seeing your camera is on.

“YOU FUCKING CREEP!” you scream as you power off your computer, leaving him staring at a blank screen.

He just smiles in response. He’s gonna have so much fun with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gifts don't end. Everyday at 4pm you arrive home and on your doorstep is something new, perfume, jewelry, bags, clothes, cat toys. This person must be rich. Though today the bell never rings. You even stand in your hallway looking for the delivery but it never comes.

“Well isn't that weird?” you say to yourself as you unlock your door.

“Bruno?” Usually he comes running up to you when you unlock your door.

You see Bruno inspecting a bright red gift box sitting on your kitchen counter. You stop dead in your tracks. How the fuck did they get in your apartment?

“Bruno! Move away from that.” you say and scoop him up.

Oh god. This is getting insane. Leaving the gifts on your doorstep is one thing but coming inside?

You stare at the gift for an hour. You're too afraid to open it. That is until it starts to vibrate. Is this a fucking bomb? You jump and open the box, seeing a brand new phone… Um Ok? The phone is receiving a call from an unknown number and obviously you don't answer it, setting the phone back down only for the same number to call again. You hesitantly answer.

“Hello?”

“Hi, my love.”

“Who is this?”

“Don’t worry about it, yet.”

“Ok, I’m gonna hang up.”

“Y/N, I wouldn't do that f I was you.”

“Stop being a fucking creep and sending shit to my door step.”

He just laughs.

“I left one more gift for you, why don’t you go look.”

You sigh and walk to your door, looking out the peephole first and opening it, picking up the large box.

“Are there killer wasps in here?” you sarcastically say.

“No, there are no wasps,” he laughs.

You open the box and pause, turning your head to your computer to see your camera is on.

“Are you watching me?”

“I’m always watching you, love.”

“God, youre a fucking creep, I should call the cops.”

“And tell them what? You tried to hack me and steal money from me? That you're a dirty little hacker and a thief?”

You’re starting to get upset, this is fucking insane.

“Open the box, love.”

You look at the computer and flip him off before opening the box. You gasp. This fucker sent you sex toys?

“ALL YOU DO IS SHOW ME HOW MUCH OF A FUCKING PERVERT YOU ARE!” you yell into the phone.

“Is it so bad I want my baby to feel good?”

“I’m not your baby! I don’t even fucking know you.”

“I know you don’t know me but I know you. I know everything about you. Your favorite color is blue, your favorite food is Japanese curry, though you eat kimchi fried rice the most. You adopted Bruno because you needed something to keep you company since you don't really date. Your best friend moved away eight months ago and you two don't really talk anymore. Should I continue?”

“What the fuck.” you say with wide eyes.

“Baby, don’t get scared. I’m just so in love with you I need to know everything.”

“Um.” What do you even say to this?

“And don’t pretend this isn’t your darkest fantasy. I’ve seen your tumblr search history.”

Your eyes somehow widen. He got you there. Just the idea of having a clearly rich man obsessed with you would be enough to make you wet if he wasn't a pervert.

“I want you to take out the shibari.”

You pull out a pretty blue vibrator. It’s even your favorite shade of blue.

“Ok?”

“I want you to use it for me.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Baby, I wouldn’t want to do things to make you upset, but I need you to listen to me. I’m not above blackmailing you and I’m sure you wouldn't want me to come snatch you up.”

Your jaw drops.

“Youre fucking crazy!”

“Baby, you just make me feel so many things for you.”

You groan, cursing yourself for ever being greedy and trying to steal.

“What do you want me to do?” you sigh out.

“Take off your pants and sit on your desk chair.”

“Do I have to?” you pout looking straight into the camera.

“Yes, baby. I want to see you.”

Why is this making you wet? God, you fucking hate that this is exactly the smut you would always search for. You groan at the situation, yourself, at this mystery pervert.

You shimmy out of your pants and sit in your desk chair. You put the phone on speaker and set it down.

“Now what?”

“Turn it on and rub it over your nipples.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I’m sure the guys waiting outside your apartment would love to do it for you.”

Your heart drops to your ass and you turn it on, quickly putting it on your nipple.

Jeez, this thing is powerful. You let out a breathy moan disguised as a sigh.

“Run it down your body.”

You slowly drag the vibrator down your body, your breathing becoming heavy.

“Put your legs up on the chair and put it on your clit over your panties, I wanna see you soak through them.”

You put the head of the vibrator on your clit a little too hard making you jump.

“Slow your roll baby.” he laughs, making you roll your eyes.

This vibrator is on a different level from the shitty ones you have. It feels like you're being stimulated throughout your whole body, everything is vibrating and you feel yourself leaking.

“I can see you getting wetter baby, fuck. I bet that pussy tastes so good.”

You moan, pressing the vibrator harder against you, feeling your toes curl.

“Does it feel good, baby?”

You close your eyes and nod, swallowing the shame. “It feels really good.”

“Move your panties to the side, let me see.”

You pull your soaked panties over and press the vibrator to your swollen clit. He lets out a deep groan. Jihoon can't believe his eyes, it’s like a dream come true. Your pretty pussy dripping wet just for him, you whining and moaning like all you can think about is cumming. He pulls out his hard cock, beginning to stroke himself, imagining he was fucking you. He would give it to you however you wanted, let you come as many times as you desired. No matter how bad you treated him, he would be on his knees begging to make you cum. The hold you have over him is unfathomable. You’re truly like an angel sent to heaven just for him and he'll be damned if he doesn’t get his hands on you. He doesn't even have it in him to feel bad about watching you, listening to you, exploring you. In his mind you’ve been his from the moment he first saw you. His to worship, spoil, love until the end of time. You’ve become his muse, his lyrics flow out with only you in mind, he makes songs with the purpose of you hearing them. You’ve taken him over completely and he is so irrevocably in love with you. You don’t even need to love him back, he already has enough love for the both of you, and it's not like he wouldn’t be able to force you. A little isolation does wonders on the brain.

“I need more,” you whine out.

“Tell me what you want.”

You just whine more in response, too embarrassed to speak. “You want to use your fingers?”

You nod furiously, opening your eyes to plead with him.

“Ok baby, slide two in for me. I want you to make yourself feel good.”

You listen and slide your fingers in, pumping them straight into your g-spot. You feel yourself on the verge of an orgasm, your moans becoming louder and more frequent.

“Turn it off”

Your eyes fly open. “What.”

“You heard me baby, turn it off.”

“No, no please I’m so close.”

“Y/N.”

You turn it off and throw it to the side, so insanely frustrated.

“What is your deal!”

“You’re not cumming unless it's around my cock, baby.”

This man never fails to surprise you. “And what makes you think I’ll fuck you?”

“Trust me when I say that won’t be an issue.”

“What makes you so sure I just won’t finish myself off when I hang up?”

“I’m always watching, baby. It’s crazy how small they make cameras nowadays.”

“Fuck you Woozi’s Universe Factory.” you say not even able to take yourself seriously.

He just laughs. “I’ll be seeing you soon my love.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is he named after Bruno Mars or Bruno from Encanto?” a deep voice rings out from your couch as you enter your apartment making you scream.

You turn to run out your apartment only to see two giants standing in your hallway blocking your exit. You groan and turn back around seeing Bruno sitting in the man's lap. Woah. Is this your stalker? Because if so, you have zero complaints. You’ve never been one to like guys with long hair, but his curls are just so hot and his lips.. How are they so plump? He’s wearing a tight black turtleneck and slacks with a gold chain. He looks so fucking hot, suddenly your not as pissed that he forced you masturbate for him.

“Who are you?”

“You know exactly who I am, my love.”

“I don't know your name. Do you want me to call you Woozi’s Universe factory?”

He breathes out a laugh. “My name is Jihoon, love.”

“I’m sure you already know my name and give me my fucking cat.” you go to grab Bruno who hisses at you. You gasp.

“You little traitor.” you growl. “The real Bruno Mars would never treat me like this.” you say threateningly to the cat.

“Ahh, Bruno Mars. I love that guy.” Jihoon says as he lifts the cat to look him in his eyes. “You want to stay with me don’t you?” to which the cat purrs.

You’re more shocked at your cat's betrayal than Jihoon breaking into your apartment.

“Y/N, sit with me”

“No.”

He raises a brow at you.

“Fine, but not because you asked.” you pout and sit next to him.

“Are you not scared?”

“Honestly, you're too cute for me to be scared of you. Like look at these cheeks.” you say and squeeze his cheeks making him grab your hand and pull it away from your face.

“You don’t know who you're messing with, my love.”

“I mean if you were going to kill me you would've done it already. And I know you're not going to anyway because why would you waste all this money on someone you were going to kill?”

He smiles. “So smart, baby.”

Why is he calling you baby and love? This is actually kind of spooking you.

“What do you want Jihoon?”

“I want you to come live with me.”

Your eyes widen. The fuck? Your feelings must be visible on your face because he continues.

“So, you just want me to get up and leave with you?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I come with you? You've done nothing but stalk and harrass me!”

“I’ve have not been stalking you, love. Everything I’ve done is a result of your actions. You decided to try to hack me which gave me access to everything.”

“You're just trying to manipulate me!” you say and stand up.

He looked deeply offended by this. “Manipulate you? Tell me one thing in what I said that's not true.”

He has a point. You're just grasping at straw to be honest. “What If I don’t want to go with you.” you pout and stomp your foot looking like a child.

“Then I’ll take you by force.” he says with a straight face.

Oh. You weigh your options. Would you rather live in this hell hole remaining broke and sad or go with him and drain his pockets? You don’t even know where he’s taking you, he could be bringing you to a cabin in the woods to lock you up and kill you. But it’s not like you have an option and you would much rather do this the easy way.

“Ok fine. But not because you told me to” God, you sound like such a brat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six months later

“Jihoonnnnnnn.”

“Yes baby?”

“Can you buy me this?”

He groans. “Baby, what else could you possibly buy? You have it all.”

You show him your phone.

“Baby, you have this bag in three colors.” he deadpans.

“OK? This is my favorite color though.” You say like it's the most obvious thing on the planet.

Despite his grumbling he gets up and takes out his wallet, handing you his black card. Jihoon can never say no to you. Anything you ask for is yours, no matter what. Your life has completely changed since meeting him. You wouldn't say he’s your sugar daddy because you're equally as in love with him as he is with you, but, lord does he spoil you. You moved into his high rise apartment and completely renovated it to your taste without a single complaint from him. He bought you a new wardrobe, new cars, bags, jewels, anything you could ever dream of. And the sex.. It’s just incredible. And Bruno is as spoiled as ever. He’s Jihoon’s baby despite Jihoon pretending to dislike him. You know what Jihoon does for a living, that's none of your business though. All that you care about is keeping him and yourself happy. You’ve grown more than accustomed to this lifestyle, not knowing how you functioned before meeting him.

“Thank you Woozipoo”

“Stop calling me that” he groans.

“If you want me to stop you’ll get out this fucking studio and come to bed.”

He rolls his head to you. “Why would I do that?”

“So I can thank you for being so good to me.” you say into his neck making him groan.

“God, baby don’t say things like that.”

“I can’t tell my man how much I want to fuck him?”

“Get your ass in the bedroom.”

#seventeen smut #svt smut #woozi smut #jihoon smut #woozi x reader

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doomandgloomfromthetomb · 10 months ago

Text

The B-52's - Roseland, New York City, April 19, 1982

I was in NYC for a couple of days earlier this month and though time was limited, I did of course find a minute to visit a local record store — Academy Records on W. 18th St. Digging through the $5 bin, I found a nice copy of the B-52's' David Byrne-produced Mesopotamia mini-album, which I've always loved, but have never had on vinyl before. A no-brainer! As I checked out, I noticed that Mesopotamia had been recorded at Bob Blank's Blank Tape Studio, and some quick Google mapping revealed that I was just moments away from where that studio used to be on 37 W. 20th St. A legendary spot, as a footnote in Jesse Rifkin's great This Must Be The Place details:

"[T]he studio's discography includes Television's seminal punk single "Little Johnny Jewel"; disco hits by Musique, Class Action, Crown Heights Affair, and Inner Life; groundbreaking remixes by deejays like Larry Levan, Francois Kervorkian, and Tee Scott; and no-wave/mutant disco albums by the likes of James Chance, Lydia Lunch, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and DNA. It was the favored studio of genre-bending auteur Arthur Russell, and classic albums by Talking Heads (Speaking In Tongues), the Gun Club (Miami), Joe Bataan (Mestizo), Ashford & Simpson (Solid), the B-52's (Mesopotamia), Miami Sound Machine (Eyes of Innocence) and Sun Ra (Lanquidity) were all tracked there."

All that and Madonna's first single, too! New York City is like this, of course — a neverending web of connections, a labyrinth of layers upon layers upon layers. You could spend your life walking down its streets, discovering the strange stories behind every building's facade. I could never hack it there full-time, but god bless the people who can!

Anyway — the B-52's! What a wonderful band. Here they are at Roseland (239 W. 52nd St.) right around the time that Mesopotamia came out. A killer SBD tape, featuring an expanded lineup: Dave Buck and Ralph Carney on horns. We get a bunch of the new mini-album, plus plenty of stuff from their already stuffed back catalogue. As with any B-52's tape, I'm sure it's not as good as being there in person, but it's still one heck of a party. Nip it in the bud!

(Oh and hey — this old Pitchfork column of mine has more live jams if you need to further celebrate the miracle of the B-52's.)

#the b-52's

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kingmakerpod · 3 months ago

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Might be an uncouth subject, but I was wondering if you'd be willing to share some insight on what kind of money goes into producing audio dramas (specifically when it comes to reaching out to/compensating vocal talent.) I know a lot depends on what tools and connections you already have; I'm just looking for a flexible baseline to start from and make sure I'm not cheating or insulting folks by asking them to work for peanuts. Having a target to save up for would be a huge help. Thanks so much!

(And yeah, I'll totally admit this is partly just me wondering how you fine WANA folks managed to nab Jonny Sims and Tiana Camacho for Killjam XXX; let me know if this is a question better posed via email and I'll get out of your hair, sorry for bothering!)

This isn't an uncouth question at all. It's actually a great question and we'll be happy to answer it!

It's hard to give a definitive baseline for budget beyond the cost of web hosting and audio equipment, which in itself can vary quite a bit. The yeti mic and arm set we (Meg and Henry) bought for Less is Morgue (and still record a lot of Killjam and TKH on) cost about 200 dollars. If I remember correctly the hosting costs for Less is Morgue were about 30 a month, and for Kingmaker it's 14 dollars a month. Those are the only two things you absolutely need to spend money on, so it's definitely possible to make a good quality audio drama for under a grand. In fact, we would absolutely not recommend going over a grand at this point. You definitely don't want to shoot too high with the budget for your first project. Spoken from experience, you will end up spending it on things you'll later realise weren't worth it.

The most important thing is just to put something out there first so the actors can tell that the project is real and you're not just stringing them along. The few episodes of Less is Morgue were pretty much all done in-house with a cast that was mostly people we were already friends with, and we didn't do any open auditions until midway through the season. Another way to do it is to start off as a single narrator podcast then gradually introduce a full cast as the show goes on. Other shows have released a pilot episode to the public that then serves as an advertisement for what the rest of the show will sound like. Once you have a sample of your work out there, you can start reaching out to actors.

When it comes to how you compensate your talent- just be upfront about how much money you're working with. The best way to not cheat or insult folks is by giving them realistic expectations. Don't promise money you don't have, and don't ask them to do work for something that you won't be able to finish. If you're honest and easy to work with, a lot of voice actors will be willing to adjust their rates or work for free. Speaking from a voice actor's perspective, Addison said she would be willing to work for free on a first time indie project if it seemed fun and interesting and she could tell that it was something the creator was really passionate about.

As for how we got some of our big names- it really is all about cultivating a reputation for being cool to work with. Maybe not the most useful advice for a first project, but it will be useful later, and it is true. At this point the WANA core four have been involved in The NoSleep Podcast, Congeria, Less is Morgue, The Kingmaker Histories and Mayfair Watcher's Society, and that's only counting the stuff that more than one of us have been involved with. Every project we try to make loads of friends. Eventually you will have enough mutual friends with enough people that you can just hit up Jonny Sims and Tiana Camancho, because someone you know worked with them on some other thing and they're willing to vouch for you.

#behind the scenes #messages

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trashyswitch · 9 months ago

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Mess With Sun, You'd Better Run

Eclipse has been trying to take over Sun's body for the past week...And Sun is having none of it. When night time approaches, Sun decides to teach Eclipse a lesson in the hopes that it would slow his progress. Eclipse will quickly learn how scary Sun can be if you toy with him too much...

This fanfic was suggested by @anxious-lee-ler. Funny fact about this fanfic: I haven't watched through all of the web series, so I got a lot of help and approval from Drew for this fanfic! As a result, I already know he really likes it. I hope everyone else likes the fanfic too!

Sun was ready to lose it. Eclipse had been driving him nuts for the last several hours! It started with little things, like giving him small headaches while gaming with Moon. But it had escalated into trying to take him over while recording videos! He’d had enough. This has to stop. He hoped some talking and compromising would lessen the constant headache taking the form of Eclipse. He just had to wait until evening took hold.

Sun and Moon had just finished recording their episode for the day. They turned off their cameras and put their controllers down. “Alright…” Sun mumbled.

“Alright. I think a nap is in order.” Moon said aloud.

“Really?” Sun looked at Moon with surprise.

“What? Streaming makes me tired.” Moon told him.

“Sorry, just…” Sun thought for a moment. “Sorry…You go have a rest.”

Moon tilted his head. “Are you okay?” He asked him.

“Me?” Sun pointed to himself. “Oh yeah! Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied a bit too enthusiastically.

Moon stared at Sun for a few moments. “...Uh huh…” He muttered.

“I’m okay, I promise!” Sun tried to tell him, showing him a thumbs up.

Moon sighed and nodded his head. “Okay. Have a good night.” He told him before heading into the back room for the night.

“Good night!” Sun replied, waving to him as he watched his brother leave the main daycare. As Moon disappeared behind the curtain, Sun’s arm dropped to his side. Now was a better time than any to escape into his mind and confront Eclipse.

“You gonna pay me a visit, Sunny? It’s been forever…” The voice in his head asked.

Sun sighed. “Speak of the devil…” he mumbled to himself.

Sun sat himself down onto the chair behind the main desk of the daycare. With his body resting, Sun shut himself down and went into his inner mind. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a big blur of dark orange in the corner of the room.

“Well look who finally showed up…” The blur mumbled with a sneer. He looked annoyed, almost like he knew Sun would arrive to give him hell.

“What’s the deal with you?” Sun asked.

“I’m bored...It gets quite boring here after a while.” He complained.

“Why the headaches?!” Sun spat.

“Because you never let me have any time in the spotlight!” Eclipse yelled back.

“And what have you done to earn yourself a chance?” Sun asked him.

“I’ve been silent, compliant, and patient with you. I think that speaks volumes.” He clarified.

“The only thing that speaks volumes is this constant headache that YOU started!” Sun argued.

“Well what else am I supposed to do?!” Eclipse argued.

“Literally anything! Anything besides giving me a mind-splitting headache!” Sun shouted.

“Okay, then I’ll take over.” Eclipse replied.

“NO!” Sun shouted, pushing him away.

Eclipse growled and stomped away from him, muttering the word “Asshole…” as he kicked the dirtless ground of the inner code.

Sun grunted to himself as he watched Eclipse act like a petulant child. He was getting nowhere with this guy. He looked up and down, trying to figure out what to do with him. How does one stop a glitch from taking over his body? Because if it were him, he would expel Eclipse from his head. Now, normally he’s not the kind of robot to wish a shut down on anyone…but it’s a little hard to keep yourself passive when you’ve been hit with a thundering headache all day.

Sun sat himself down for a moment as he stayed lost in thought. There had to be some way to get through to Eclipse. At least, some sort of tactic to buy himself some time. He tried to think of what he would do if Moon had been bothering him. Though, Moon had NEVER stooped so low as to cause him physical pain and psychological torment. Though, there were a few times when Moon would play pranks on him or scare him…

Sun smiled slightly as he remembered those moments. Moon is such an evil prankster. And yet, he’s also quite vengeful when given the chance. The amount of times Moon had tickled him after Sun had tried to prank him back, is impossible to count on just two hands. Moon is a brutal tickle monster when provided an opportunity. And yet when it comes to Sun…He’s unbelievably playful and passive. It’s…actually really sweet.

“What?” Eclipse spoke up.

Sun widened his eyes slightly as he looked up at Eclipse. “Oh nothing…” Sun replied a little too casually.

Eclipse was now staring at him, slightly unnerved. “What…are you planning?”

Sun’s smile widened just enough to be noticeable. “You’ll see…Very, very soon.” He muttered in an almost villainous tone.

Eclipse sighed and laid himself onto the floor. “Whatever…Don’t care.”

Sun smirked as he saw the perfect opportunity to strike. He walked himself closer. “You said you wanted something to do, right?” Sun asked.

“Uhhh…Yeah?” Eclipse slowly turned his head to look at him…only for him to regret it the second he saw those wiggling fingers.

Uh oh…

“I think I have the perfect thing to play…” He heard from Sun.

He widened his eyes with slight fear. Oh god…

“Hmm? What’s that look for?” Sun asked rather menacingly.

…Oh god no… “S-Sun?” Eclipse stuttered, the look of fear worsening.

“What’s wrong, Eclipse?” Sun asked him. He moved a few steps closer. “Is someone…ticklish?” He asked.

That was all it took. Eclipse did a full 180 turn and booked it like his life depended on it. “SUN, LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS!” He shouted.

“Nah.” Sun replied in an eerily easygoing tone.

Eclipse slowed his running to a stop the moment he realized how far Sun’s voice had been with that last ‘Nah’. He turned around and was taken aback by Sun’s chasing tactic:

Sun wasn’t chasing him. He wasn’t even running! Sun was skipping! Actually skipping around like a little toddler skipping through the meadows! Any other time, it would’ve been adorable! But right now? The skipping made things even more anxiety-inducing! Was Sun…toying with him?!

Eclipse wasn’t sure what to do. With Sun just skipping his way around the code room, running felt like too extreme of an action. But…He couldn’t just sit there! He needed to keep away from the crazy daycare attendant threatening to tickle him!

The only thing he could think of doing was talking to him. “S-Sun please stop!” Eclipse tried to reason with him.

“Oh now you wanna reason with me?” Sun asked, pausing for a moment with his usual genuine, yet slightly eerie grin.

“Yes! Anything to stop you from trying to tickle me!” Eclipse reacted.

“Tickle you?” Sun tapped his own chin as he pretended to think. “Now why would I do such a thing?”

“I-” Eclipse growled. “YOU TELL ME!”

“Hmmm…Maybe it was because you were trying to take me over all day.” Sun explained in an off-hand way. “Or maybe it was because of the overwhelming headache I had been getting due to someone changing up my coding.” Sun also explained.

“I-I didn’t know tampering with your code would give you a headache!” Eclipse argued.

“Hmmm…Is that so?” Sun walked himself closer. “Y-Y-Yeah! H-Honest!” Eclipse put up his hands in arrest. “P-Please…”

Sun reached out his arms as he got closer and closer to the different-colored daycare attendant. Eclipse looked super nervous. What does he do?! Is Sun gonna tickle him? Or is he gonna tell him something? Does he run again? Does he reason with him some more? Or does he take it? So many questions, and little to no answers in so little time! Fearing the worst, Eclipse closed his eyes and braced for impact…

…

“Boop!”

“eeEEEK!” Eclipse hugged his side and doubled over.

“Ho ho HO!” Sun let out in the same signature tone. “Looks like Clipsy IS ticklish!” Sun declared. “This MUST be investigated!”

In no time at all, Eclipse felt the giggles overwhelm him the moment Sun’s fingers made contact. As Sun would quickly find out, it wouldn’t take much to get Eclipse to laugh. Just a few pokes to his thin belly would make him jump and guffaw. That, followed by a few flutters to the neck, followed up by a few scritches to his rays, were all it took to make Eclipse curl up and giggle like a little child. “EEheeheehee! Wahahait! nonono dohohon’t!” He reacted, wiggling his rays in an attempt to stop Sun’s nimble fingers.

“My goodness, you’re more ticklish than I thought! It’s funny, I almost want to forgive you!” Sun admitted.

“Ihihi’ll nehehever forgihihive yohou!” Eclipse shot back.

Sun chuckled. “Funny how you think you still have control over me.” Sun teased. “If you had been more polite, maybe I would’ve gone easier on you!” Sun sighed. “But I guess that would be asking too much from you.” He concluded.

Eclipse tried to move his rays away from Sun’s agile fingers. But this did pretty much nothing. All it did was give Sun more rays to tickle. “Suhuhun plehehehease-” Eclipse squeaked as he felt yet another ray being scratched. “NAHAHA! DOHOHOHON’T!”

Sun gasped. “Oh my god- The back of your rays are worse?!” Sun reacted.

“YEHEHEHES! CUT IT OHOHOUT!” Eclipse tried to push him away. “STOHOHOHOP!”

“Oh Clipsy, Clipsy, Clipsy…” Sun dodged his hands and kept on tickling. “You can push all you want to. I dare you to try and push me off!” Sun added. “But we both know it won’t work.” He teased.

Eclipse, thinking he could still get away, started covering up his rays instead. Maybe with no rays available, Eclipse couldn’t be tickled so vigorously.

“Goodness me! What a move!” Sun reacted rather dramatically. “Looks like I’ll have to go somewhere else…” Sun started to stroke his chin similarly to an adult with a beard. “Where else should I go next…” Sun asked aloud.

Eclipse stared at Sun. “Are you…playing with me?” He asked.

“Me? Playing? Oh no no no!” Sun said in the most playful voice possible. “Sun would NEVER play! Especially when it comes to something as serious as a takeover! That would NeVeR happen!” He kept on saying sarcastically.

Eclipse was too busy staring at Sun, to fully comprehend his words. But he could very easily read his tone and facial expressions quite clearly…

And holy crap…He’d never seen Sun act like this before! Not even with Moon! And Eclipse had been observing their relationship from within Sun’s mind for several months now! He was only now starting to take over Sun’s body!

‘So why is Sun acting like this with me?!’ Eclipse thought to himself.

“I thought you’d never ask!” Sun declared, reading his mind.

Wait, WHAT?! HE HEARD THAT?!

Sun giggled and raised Eclipse’s chin. “Because it’s funny seeing you stumble and fall while executing your mission! You’ve been so busy trying to take over my body, that you haven’t even taken the time to realize who you were messing with!” Sun declared.

Eclipse widened his eyes as an electronic shiver went up his spine. Okay…maybe he underestimated Sun.

“Oh! And I know what tickle spot to go for now!” Sun declared.

Wait, NO!

Suddenly, Eclipse felt a hand grip his knee joint…and in no time at all, Eclipse felt himself get flipped upside down. “aAH! Sun, stop! What are you doing?!”

Sun giggled. “It’s obvious, really. You are a small part of Moon’s code! Isn’t that right?” Sun asked.

“Y-Yes, but-”

“Then you’d have at least 1 similar tickle spot to Moon!” Sun declared rather happily. But his demeanor quickly changed the moment Sun raised his hand up so he could see Eclipse eye-to-eye. “And that’s perfect for me…because I happen to know Moon like the back of my hand.” He mentioned.

Eclipse tried to knee Sun with his free leg. “Damn you!” He shouted.

Sun caught his other knee with no issue at all…almost like he was planning for Eclipse to kick him. Sun moved it out of the way slightly as he made a clicking sound. “That’s not very nice, is it?” He said, staring into his soul. “Physical violence? AND bad words?!” Sun lowered his hand and flipped Eclipse around so his face was looking away from Sun. “You’re just begging for it, aren’t you?”

Eclipse gulped. “B-Begging for what?”

Sun laughed as he grabbed slightly below both knee joints with only one hand. “Oh! Begging for tickles of course!” Sun declared. “And my favorite little tickle spot to go to when Moon’s being extra mischievous…” He brought his fingers closer. “-Happens to be the back of these special little knees.” With that little mention, Sun started fluttering and scratching his evil little fingers against the pit of the right knee first. “Right about here.” He added.

Eclipse gasped before throwing his head back with a yelp. He wheezed and covered his mouth, attempting to prevent Sun from getting what he wants: Confirmation. But oh god, was it difficult! The desperation to laugh was almost agonizing! But the last thing he wanted was for Sun to figure out that he and Moon share a tickle spot! Maybe if he holds out long enough, he’ll stop!

“Oh?” Sun looked down, and noticed Eclipse’s hand placement. A little smirk filled his face. Ooooh, he could have fun with this~

Sun looked up. “I guess this one isn’t very ticklish, huh?” Sun asked, acting none-the-wiser. “Maybe this other knee is worse?” Sun asked as he switched to his left knee pit.

Not expecting this change, Eclipse accidentally let out a whimper and a snort. Widening his eyes, he tightened his grip on his own mouth and began to pray that Sun didn’t hear him break.

Oh, but Sun heard it. He heard it loud and clear. But why let Eclipse know that, when he could continue to toy with him instead? That sounds so much more fun! “Looks like this one isn’t very ticklish either!” Sun reacted, moving his fingers away. “I could’ve sworn they could be ticklish!” Sun exclaimed as he stroked his chin.

Eclipse let out a slow, but comforting breath. God, that was close…But did he do it? Did he convince Sun that he’s not ticklish?!

“Well that’s a shame…looks like I was wrong.” Sun mumbled aloud. “I guess you’re not ticklish there like I thought.” Sun added.

Eclipse was flabbergasted. He couldn’t believe it! It worked! It actually worked!!

Oh…but Eclipse quickly realized the truth…and it was all revealed to him the moment he felt skittering fingers against both pits of his knees.

“BWAHAHAHAHA!” Eclipse tried to reach up to stop him. “WAHAIT!” He shouted.

“Sorry Clipsy~” Sun watched Eclipse crash down the moment his fingers moved primarily to the right knee pit. “But liars don’t get to have mercy! At least, not yet~” He teased more.

“aAAAHAHAHAHAHA! DAHAHAHAMMIHIT!” He threw his head back with a long, slightly evil cackle.

“Ooooh! So it looks like those eeeevil cackles of yours are more genuine than I expected!” Sun reacted.

“SHUHUT UHUP! YOHOHOHOU-” Eclipse screeched as the left knee pit was attacked next.

“Ah ah ah, Careful of your words, Clipsy~” Sun teased. “We don’t want you overdoing yourself, do we?” Sun warned in a playful tone. And yet, that playful tone almost made the warning sound a lot more intimidating. Whether this was his intention, is up for debate.

But all Eclipse could worry about was how overwhelmingly tickly this was. Everything in him wanted to fight him and get out of this as quickly as possible. But the other part of him knew that resisting may make Sun go worse on him. And on another hand…

This punishment could’ve been a lot worse…He had to give Sun credit where credit was due. Never in his mind, would Eclipse even think about using tickling to subdue someone. And…Oh my god, it actually works! And it almost makes him want to take the idea and use it against Sun. Maybe with this strategy, Eclipse could weaken Sun enough to take control of his body and follow through with his original plan. But for now, Eclipse could feel himself getting tired. So as much as he hates resorting to such extremes, he needs to ask for mercy or beg for him to stop.

“HAHAHAHA! SUHUHUN! MEHER-MERCYHYHYHYHY!” He shouted at him.

“Oh, what was that?” Sun reacted with shock.

“MEHEHERRCYHYHY! PLEHEHEHEASE STOHOHOHOP!” He yelled to Sun.

Sun chuckled and stopped his fingers. “Fine, fine. You can have a break.” He gently lifted Eclipse up by his back, and placed him onto the ground of the headspace. “Are you done with your special takeover?” Sun asked.

“Yeah…I’m done.” Eclipse said with a hidden little smirk. He’s not really done. He’s just saying what Sun would like to hear, so Eclipse can get away without pushback. “I won’t try to take over.” He looked down more. ‘Yet.’ He said in his mind.

Though Sun heard his extra word, he still accepted his decision. “Alright.” He muttered, breathing a sigh of relief. Though he knew the takeover would come eventually, Sun was just glad he had gotten the code under temporary control. This would give him more than enough time to come up with other ways to stop Eclipse’s eventual takeover.

Sun took over his body again, and turned himself on. He opened his beady white eyes, and looked around the room. It looked like he was…on his couch in their hidden bedroom.

Wait…didn’t he shut himself down in the main daycare? Why is he on his couch? How did he get to his bedroom?

Sun pulled himself off the couch, and noticed the blue blanket around his chest. And on the blanket, was a note:

[Hi Sun. Found you sleeping in the daycare. Guess you didn’t make it to bed, huh?

Good night Sun.

~Moon🌙]

#pre-redemption eclipse #fighting for control #inner dialogue #evil plans #intimidation #mind games #sun and moon are siblings #ticklefic #ler!sun #lee!eclipse #brotherly love

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tabiito · 9 months ago

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chapter three: world is a fuck previous ⎯ masterlist ⎯ next

Atsumu's running one hand through his hair and shoving the mask in his bag with another has he sprints up the stairs of Otsuka.

One of the newer, nicer dorms of the Uni, he almost feels jealous of his building, characterised by its old architecture and patchy Wi-Fi. His knee hurts from where the thief from earlier managed to land a kick, but he pushes on, wiping away blood from a stray cut on his cheek and hoping it's not a deep wound.

He throws the door open to the common room, surprisingly empty at 8PM on a Tuesday, to see your figure intensely taping your knuckles as you wince. Your eyes flit up to his, and you fumble with the tape until it stretches into a long line, hanging from your hand. You gaze at the cut on his cheek, and he stares at your hand til he clears his throat.

"My cat knocked over a bowl."

"My dog's got way too much energy."

You giggle, and he laughs, feeling more comfortable as he drops his backpack at the door and moves closer to the couch you were lazing on.

"You must be Atsumu," you say, offering him your free hand, which he takes. "And you're [Name]?", he asks, giving you a once over. He can't help but appreciatively admire you, which doesn't go unnoticed.

"Are you seriously checking me out right now?", you gasp, wrangling your hand from his. He falls into his witty, charming ways almost immediately.

"If art's staring right at ya, would ya not admire it?", he drawls, and you roll your eyes in mock annoyance, unable to hide the way your lips quirk up in amusement, despite the cringe.

"You must say that to every girl you meet. A little bird tells me that you meet a lot," you speak, settling into the couch as he pulls up a chair in front of you.

"I didn't know this was an interview into my personal life," Atsumu responds in faux shock, pleasantly surprised by your directness.

"Well, that's really what's getting the views for us, isn't it?", you say, flipping your moleskin notebook open and clicking your glittery pink pen.

"I'm being objectified and I don't like it," Atsumu jokes and you make a laugh, scrunching your nose in the process.

"And no, I don't. Say that to every girl I meet. Just to sassy editors that bite back," he adds, and you have to fight the weird feeling in your stomach to continue this interview in a more ... professional manner.

Clearing your throat, you ask him if he's ready to be recorded, and after his assent, you start.

"Okay, rapid-fire questions now. Please answer with the first thing that comes to mind." He shoots you a thumbs up.

"Greatest accomplishment?"

"So far? Repping Japan at the U19 Worlds."

"What are you grateful for?"

"Myself", he smirks, and you fight the urge to roll your eyes again.

"Dream dinner guest?"

"Myself 20 years from now. To see if I've made it."

"Do you want to be famous?"

"I already am."

"Current concern?"

Washing the blood out of my suit. "If my roommate left me any dinner."

"What song did you last listen to?"

"2 soon by keshi."

"What's a secret skill that you have?"

I can shoot webs from my wrists! "I'm really good at skincare."

"Okay," you murmur, scribbling as he spoke. He feels like peering over and reading what you wrote. "Longer questions now."

"How do you manage your time between being a student and an athlete, as well as enjoying campus life?"

I don't, is what he wants to say. He barely hangs on by a thread — or a web, if you will — taking each day as it comes and knowing that as Spider-Man, he'll always need to have excuses up his sleeve to run from one commitment to another. Instead, he blabs about schedules and planning and using Notion, which in reality scares the shit out of him.

"What do you think about the current competition in the volleyball circuit? Are there any players who you think could bump you down the rankings at the draft?"

"Everyone's good," he says slowly, considering his words, and then a lazy smirk settles on his face. "But I'm the best."

"Riiight," you intone, writing something down. "You do know this is being published?", you add, and he hums. "I said what I said."

"What are your opinions on the current safety concerns on-campus?"

He shrugs nonchalantly. "I still gotta do what I gotta do. We got Spider-Man. He'll protect us."

You raise an eyebrow. "All the time? Don't you think we should take matters into our own hands?"

Atsumu's taken aback by your response. He knows reactions towards Spider-Man are extreme; some hate him, while others love him, but this is new.

"Has he ever let us down?"

"Well, yeah. He let a Five Guys get absolutely demolished by Electro last week, Rhino ran through a block in May, and everyone knows about Tokyo tower—"

He has to hide the burn in his cheeks from the embarrassment of Tokyo Tower, remembering the humiliation of that evening. "Yeah, well, some may say he was trying to protect everyone from heart attacks by letting that Five Guys get destroyed, and that Rhino thing was just police negligence if you think about it," he protests, and you scowl.

"He's a good hero, sure, but not the hero. We need more than just one guy swinging around to keep Tokyo safe."

He's about to open his mouth when he feels the hair on his arm raise, and that awful feeling of something cold creeping up his spine settle into his bones. His phone beeps with an alert, and he sees Osamu's text flash across the screen. Fire in a mall nearby. Suspected work of an arsonist.

He doesn't notice your phone light up, and Yachi sending you the screenshot of a headline along with a location, and the way you begin squirming in your seat, wanting nothing more to finish this interview now.

Atsumu beats you to it, making the worst excuse he's possibly ever come up with.

"I'm having an attack of explosive diahhrea."

taglist: @diorzs @egoistars @southernfrogprincesd @dazqa @milesmoralesluvs @she-lovesmyheartshapedsunglasses @dailyakira @giocriedpower @punkhazardlaw @loverlunaire

#[ tracklisted ]#[ bys ]#haikyuu x you #haikyuu x reader #haikyu x reader #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu #atsumu fluff #miya atsumu x reader #atsumu x reader #hq atsumu #atsumu miya x reader #miya atsumu fluff #alisa haiba #miya osamu #atsumu smau

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mariacallous · 3 months ago

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A young technologist known online as “Big Balls,” who works for Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has access to sensitive US government systems. But his professional and online history call into question whether he would pass the background check typically required to obtain security clearances, security experts tell WIRED.

Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old high school graduate, established at least five different companies in the last four years, with entities registered in Connecticut, Delaware, and the United Kingdom, most of which were not listed on his now-deleted LinkedIn profile. Coristine also briefly worked in 2022 at Path Network, a network monitoring firm known for hiring reformed black-hat hackers. Someone using a Telegram handle tied to Coristine also solicited a cyberattack-for-hire service later that year.

Coristine did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

One of the companies Coristine founded, Tesla.Sexy LLC, was set up in 2021, when he would have been around 16 years old. Coristine is listed as the founder and CEO of the company, according to business records reviewed by WIRED.

Tesla.Sexy LLC controls dozens of web domains, including at least two Russian-registered domains. One of those domains, which is still active, offers a service called Helfie, which is an AI bot for Discord servers targeting the Russian market.While the operation of a Russian website would not violate US sanctions preventing Americans doing business with Russian companies, it could potentially be a factor in a security clearance review.

"Foreign connections, whether it's foreign contacts with friends or domain names registered in foreign countries, would be flagged by any agency during the security investigation process," Joseph Shelzi, a former US Army intelligence officer who held security clearance for a decade and managed the security clearance of other units under his command, tells WIRED.

A longtime former US intelligence analyst, who requested anonymity to speak on sensitive topics, agrees. “There's little chance that he could have passed a background check for privileged access to government systems,” they allege.

Another domain under Coristine’s control is faster.pw. The website is currently inactive, but an archived version from October 25, 2022 shows content in Chinese that stated the service helped provide “multiple encrypted cross-border networks.”

Prior to joining DOGE, Coristine worked for several months of 2024 at Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant startup, and, as WIRED previously reported, is now listed in Office of Personnel Management records as an “expert” at that agency, which oversees personnel matters for the federal government. Employees of the General Services Administration say he also joined calls where they were made to justify their jobs and to review code they’ve written.

Other elements of Coristine’s personal record reviewed by WIRED, government security experts say, would also raise questions about obtaining security clearances necessary to access privileged government data. These same experts further wonder about the vetting process for DOGE staff—and, given Coristine’s history, whether he underwent any such background check.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about what level of clearance, if any, Corisitine has, and if so, how it was granted.

At Path Network, Coristine worked as a systems engineer from April to June of 2022, according to his now-deleted LinkedIn resume. Path has at times listed as employees Eric Taylor, also known as Cosmo the God, a well-known former cybercriminal and member of the hacker group UGNazis, as well as Matthew Flannery, an Australian convicted hacker whom police allege was a member of the hacker group LulzSec. It’s unclear whether Coristine worked at Path concurrently with those hackers, and WIRED found no evidence that either Coristine or other Path employees engaged in illegal activity while at the company.

“If I was doing the background investigation on him, I would probably have recommended against hiring him for the work he’s doing,” says EJ Hilbert, a former FBI agent who also briefly served as the CEO of Path Network prior to Coristine’s employment there. “I’m not opposed to the idea of cleaning up the government. But I am questioning the people that are doing it.”

Potential concerns about Coristine extend beyond his work history. Archived Telegram messages shared with WIRED show that, in November 2022, a person using the handle “JoeyCrafter” posted to a Telegram channel focused on so-called distributed denial of service, or DDOS, cyberattacks that bombard victim sites with junk traffic to knock them offline. In his messages, JoeyCrafter—which records from Discord, Telegram, and the networking protocol BGP indicate was a handle used by Coristine—writes that he’s “looking for a capable, powerful and reliable L7” that accepts Bitcoin payments. That line, in the context of a DDOS-for-hire Telegram channel, suggests he was looking for someone who could carry out a layer 7 attack, a certain form of DDOS. A DDOS-for-hire service with the name Dstat.cc was seized in a multi-national law enforcement operation last year.

The JoeyCrafter Telegram account had previously used the name “Rivage,” a name linked to Coristine on Discord and at Path, according to Path internal communications shared with WIRED. Both the Rivage Discord and Telegram accounts at times promoted Coristine’s DiamondCDN startup. It’s not clear whether the JoeyCrafter message was followed by an actual DDOS attack. (In the internal messages among Path staff, a question is asked about Rivage, at which point an individual clarifies they are speaking about "Edward".)

"It does depend on which government agency is sponsoring your security clearance request, but everything that you've just mentioned would absolutely raise red flags during the investigative process," Shelzi, the former US Army intelligence officer says. He adds that a secret security clearance could be completed in as little as 50 days while a top secret security clearance could take anywhere from 90 days to a year to complete.

Coristine’s online history, including a LinkedIn account where he calls himself Big Balls, has disappeared recently. He also previously used an account on X with the username @edwardbigballer. The account had a bio that read: “Technology. Arsenal. Golden State Warriors. Space Travel.”

Prior to using the @edwardbigballer username, Coristine was linked to an account featuring the screenname “Steven French” featuring a picture of what appears to be Humpty Dumpty smoking a cigar. In multiple posts from 2020 and 2021, the account can be seen responding to posts from Musk. Coristine’s X account is currently set to private.

Davi Ottenheimer, a longtime security operations and compliance manager, says many factors about Coristine’s employment history and online footprint could raise questions about his ability to obtain security clearance.

“Limited real work experience is a risk,” says Ottenheimer, as an example. “Plus his handle is literally Big Balls.”

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susicheng · 3 months ago

Text

.𖥔 ݁ ˖⌗﹒ the truth we share

chapter 2: quietchaos is typing

wc: 1,804 next in series: where shadows speak

receiving anonymous tips was nothing new to you. oftentimes they were just recycled theories from web threads you had already done a deep dive on. people trying to sound smart, wanting to impress a faceless girl on the internet. the notifications clogging up your inbox were normal.

what wasn’t normal, however, was the content of these notifications. amongst all of the inappropriate compliments (seriously, who used true crime podcasts to find a nice voice to get off to?) were a series of messages from the same user. each message was a couple of hours apart from the last, as though this person was considering what they wanted to reveal in the time between each tip.

they started off as many other messages you received regularly. a simple:

“there must be something deeper going on.”

“too many questions were left unanswered by this case.”

observations on your own theories, additions referencing widely known conspiracies. nothing to raise an eyebrow about. until you got to the seventh message.

“what did she have on her when she died? there could be something in her journal.”

this particular piece of evidence was very hard to get a hold of. for some reason, the authorities did all they could to cover up what she had when she died. it had taken you hours of research, and dozens of questions to her loved ones, to find out she even had a journal on her when she died.

that should have been enough, but it only got stranger as you read.

“was she wearing any jewelry?”

“look more closely at her necklace.”

“do any of these symbols look familiar?”

“what was she looking for?”

“what did she know?”

“what was she writing in her journal? what was she recording?”

“i might be able to help you.”

. . . logging on

. . . welcome back: nosecrets

nosecrets: alright, i’ll bite.

how can you help?

you obviously know more than you’re letting on.

how?

quietchaos: can i trust you?

nosecrets: who am i to tell you whether or not to trust me.

that’s your decision to make.

you did say you could help, though.

quietchaos: i can.

i knew her

vaguely

nosecrets: is that how you knew about the journal?

quietchaos: no

i can’t say much online

too much is monitored on here

nosecrets: are you asking to meet in person?

quietchaos: do you want my help?

>nosecrets: *link attached*

meet me here on thursday

4pm work?

it’s usually deserted by then

quietchaos: i’ll see you then

. . . logging off

. . . now offline: nosecrets quietchaos

you were left with more questions than you started with. a gnawing feeling encompassing you. just who was this person, and how did they know so much? you couldn’t help but worry you were getting yourself into something dangerous. whether this person was a danger to you, or this case as a whole was more than you signed up for. after all, one young girl’s life was already claimed by whatever she was seeking to uncover. who’s to say you wouldn’t be next?

. . . you have 3 notifications waiting for you

quietchaos: have you ever been inside the tunnels?

they may contain some of the answers you’re looking for

though, they might only raise more questions.

. . . logging on

. . . welcome back: nosecrets

nosecrets: is speaking cryptically just a thing for you

or can you speak clearly

quietchaos: not on here

like i said, too much is being monitored

you should know to be cautious

nosecrets: alright

guess i’ll keep trying to decipher your code until tomorrow

quietchaos: i’ll answer what questions i can.

tomorrow

. . . logging off

. . . now offline: nosecrets quietchaos

there was something intriguing about the way this person spoke. with the hesitation and mystery of someone that had been doing this for far too long. curiosity got the better of you. was this a man? a woman? someone that knew lily, sure, but vaguely? what do they mean by that? why and how do they know so much? did they have anything to do with her disappearance?

questions were swarming in your brain, eating at you with every step you took. it was hard to focus on anything else, especially once thursday rolled around. anxiously counting down the hours, and then the minutes, until 4pm. quietchaos was like a mystery to you as well. though not as pressing as the girl in the tunnel, still consuming your every thought.

. . . you have 1 notification waiting for you

quietchaos: i’m here. back left corner.

you glanced at the message, eyes shooting up to scan the room, directing your gaze to the left corner. there was a man there, appearing to be around your age, maybe a year or two older. his appearance was not anything you were expecting. to be honest, you thought it would be some greasy middle aged guy with nothing better to do with his life. or someone less… flamboyant? the platinum hair really wasn’t selling the whole “mysterious and cryptic” vibe he had online.

walking quickly, you approached his table and slid into the seat across from him. judging by his lack of surprise, you assumed you had the right guy. if he wasn’t expecting anyone, he would have probably looked more appalled at your sudden appearance.

“i wasn’t expecting you to be hot.” your filter tended to fail you at the moments you needed it most, but you were nothing if not a girl that stood by every word she said. maybe you didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it had already been heard and there was nothing to do about it now. oh well.

“what, quietchaos wasn’t giving you the freakishly handsome vibe?”

“no. i actually thought you’d either be a 13 year old using chatgpt to sound mysterious or a 50 year old man with a conspiracy board occupying every inch of your apartment.”

“would you rather i be one of those things?”

“i actually quite like the surprise of working with someone that partakes in personal hygiene, thank you.”

“lucky for you, i showered right before coming here.”

“as lovely as it is to learn about your showering habits, i was promised help.”

“you were. are you opposed to going into the tunnels?”

“what kind of question is that? are you asking me to go into the tunnels with you the first time we meet in person? because absolutely the fuck not. who’s to say you won’t kill me right then and there?”

“you’re cautious. that’s good. i just mean eventually. i think it’ll be helpful for your investigation.”

really, this guy was getting on your nerves. he’s nice to look at, for sure, but you were getting nowhere. maybe the cryptic talk was just how he communicated. “look, i get that. i’ve considered it. but why are you asking me that and not later, when i actually trust that you won’t clock me over the head with a metal pipe? did you just come here to waste my time?”

he grinned at you wolfishly. you raised an eyebrow.

“alright. you pass.”

“you—” you spluttered “that was a fucking test!? god, you are such a dick. i don’t know if i even want the info anymore.” you pushed your chair back, rolling your eyes.

“sit down. trust me, you do.” well, when he was saying it like that… it was hard to say no (so you had a weakness for pretty boys, was that really a crime?)

“alright. so you said you knew her? how?”

“you’re really getting straight into it. okay. i used to go into the tunnels a lot. tends to happen when you’re in a friend group of bored college guys without enough alcohol. i saw her down there a couple of times.”

“what? seriously? did you talk to her?”

“of course i did. i’m full of charisma. wasn’t that obvious?”

you stared at him in silence, face devoid of emotion.

“tough crowd. yes, i talked to her. not much. but i got glimpses of what was in her journal. weird shit. weird girl. she was pretty sociable when i talked to her, but if i asked what she was up to, or what she was writing, she’d get pretty defensive.”

“can you really blame her? some weird older guy came up to her in an abandoned tunnel system and started pressing her about what she was doing, how could that not freak her out? she probably thought you were out to kill her. also, didn’t you say knowing her wasn’t how you knew about the journal?”

“oh… damn i never thought about it that way. i just figured she was too shy to show a hot guy her personal stuff. and that isn’t how i knew about the journal. i can’t say that part right now.”

“jesus your ego is unbelievable. i really want to leave. this is going nowhere. all i’ve learned is that you have a crippling narcissism problem.”

“you’re the one that called me hot before even exchanging names.” he paused. “speaking of, i don’t think we ever did that. i’m jaemin.”

“oh my god. this is the least linear conversation i have ever had. i’m yn.”

“great! it is so nice to meet you. unfortunately, i really can’t reveal much else in public.”

“i’m sorry?”

“don’t be! anything could be bugged. gotta stay safe out there, yknow?”

“are you one of those guys that thinks birds are all government controlled drones?”

he pressed a hand against your mouth in a flash, glancing outside anxiously.

“shhhhshhhh. they’re everywhere. if they know you know, you’re toast.”

you noted briefly that he smelled good. like, really good. god dammit. you tore his hand away from your mouth.

“what do you wear?” truly, it was a curse to have no filter. especially in moments like these.

“... huh?”

“scent. your cologne. or perfume. what is it?”

“oh. dior ambre nuit.”

“dior? and you said you’re in college?”

“never said that. i said i was in college 3 years ago. i’m a surgeon now.”

“what the fuck. i can’t talk to you any longer. i can feel the headache forming.”

“oh great, because i actually gotta blast! next time we’ll meet at my apartment! i’ll text you!” he stood quickly and began to gather his belongings.

“what? but you don’t have my number?”

“oh. yes i do! i took it while you were busy sniffing my wrist.” he slid your phone back to you. you hadn’t even noticed it’s absence. your jaw dropped.

all you could do was watch in awe as he walked out of the cafe, offering you a wave and a wink as the door shut behind him.

what the fuck.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖⌗﹒ the truth we share

a/n: SURPRISE!!! i didn't forget about this fic... i promise.......... i have so many ideas for this i swear i'll actually update it now..

taglist: open - comment or message to be added #: @sunghoonsgfreal @yukisroom97 @ayukas @f6llsun @i03jae @jeonghansshitester @holyhaech @chenlezip @mi1kteaa

#🍡 susicheng #nct #nct dream #nct x reader #jaemin #jaemin x reader #jaemin x you #jaemin x female reader #na jaemin #nct fic #nct fanfic #jaemin fic #jaemin fanfic #na jaemin fanfic #na jaemin fic

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