#both ficitonal and real

[soracities]

hello i have been following the high difference asks and i enjoyed it so much and tbh i am kinda wishing to see more scenarios where the male love interest is shorter than the woman because especially kdrama these days is going full focus on the "high" difference and it's only a male who is too high :( i understand that high difference in general or in real life is a lot a lot of work and it won't always be like we wish like if i fall for someone shorter than me there r many things i read in books or watched or fantasized about won't be able to happen because of the difference but i am thinking just what if the love of my life is a short king? Would i sacrifice it because he won't be able to pin me to the wall or because sex is going to be weird or need effort.... It's really really a struggle aaaah but i still would love to see writers considering that there r women who fall for short men too 😔

to be completely honest, i think sex is always going to be weird or require effort the first time you are with someone (even after the first time, depending on what you get up to & how familiar you become with your own body and theirs) because all bodies are different and height is just one of those; you can end up having weird or unsatisfying sex with someone who is the exact same height if both of you haven't properly communicated what you like and how. sex isn't something that happens innately and harmoniously by itself: you both have to learn what the other prefers, what they don't, what you are both willing or unwilling to try, and what works physically or not because, again, everyone is different. sex is a collaborative act, not a graded performance, and there is absolutely no "set" way to do it "right".

also, based on the number of short icons i have read who are the ones doing the pinning i promise you i don't think height is the sole determining factor here and ALSO i am sure you will find there are many other ways and places you can be pinned down (cannot BELIEVE i am writing that on this blog) and what will matter the most to you there and then is not so much how closely it resembles ficiton but that it is the love of your life there with you. i think in the absence of an actual relationship or experience with them, the things we see in media and read about take centre stage, but when you meet someone--someone who seems to be the exact opposite of what you physically imagined but who warms your heart and makes you feel settled and safe, all of that changes. if you do fall for a short king, the fact that you're in love and being loved will shift so much of your perspective in the end, provided you remain open to discovering and embracing this other human being, fully as they come to you. fiction is nice, but real life is better (even when it requires work). and as long as you are both open to each other and attentive and present, i'm sure you'll discover so much more you'll enjoy that you haven't fantasised about yet because it's the right person for YOU you get to do it with.

[cagemasterfantasy]

3rd life remastered IRL segment 2 part 1/2

A note to all of you this story is ficitonal everyone portrayed in this story (save for Slimer) is real and is used in a fictitious manner. This story is entirely satire. It is recommended to read the other parts of 3rd life remastered before reading this part. This story talks about touchy topics mainly Suicide and Self Harm. With that being said please enjoy.

After session 2 is over I exit my tent at Minecon that I've been sitting in for the past 3 hours and see Scott waiting outside for me. Scott: See you aren't in costume and we are about to sign autographs for our fans" Me: Hey alright it's hard to find a costume that's of a slime ok" Bigb: We can help with that" Bdubs: Yeah we have something for you" Me: Why are you guys looking at me like that" Tango: You're going behind the scenes and we're going to dress you up now let's go we're all dressed like our avatars you aren't and that's not fair" They then begin leading me backstage Me: Hey get your hands off of me" Once backstage I see Jimmy holding a bucket filled with liquidy green slime Me: Ok this is ridiculous JImmy: You wanted to have a slime as your avatar so we're turning you into a slime" Me: I hate all of you" bdubs: Hey lighten up you always wanted to be a slime so we're turning you into a slime" Bigb: Yeah think of it as a slime filled day of fun" Jimmy: I'm just going to dump this whole thing on you and you are going to like it" Me: you son of a bi-" I don't get to finish that as Jimmy runs up to me and dumps the entire bucket onto me Me: UGH SOME OF THAT GOT INTO MY MOUTH YOU IDIOT" Scott: Now you're a slime just like you've always wanted to be" Bigb Bdubs Jimmy and Tango burst into laughter Me: Oh you think this is funny huh?" Scott: Relax you can take a shower once you get back to the hotel"

I return to where I'm supposed to be seated and sit down a glistening green mess. The first person to approach is a girl in her teens. She has pale arms teal and yellow fingertips blonde hair and glasses on. What I don't know is this is my editor doodl3 finally meeting her after all this time. I see Rylee jump into Jimmy's lap. Me: You are a definite traitor Rylee" doodl3: Aww doggo being cute" Me: So how does it feel finally being in front of me" Keep in mind I don't know she's my editor doodl3: You're a lot slimier than I thought" Me: Blame Jimmy the Loser for that" Jimmy's eyes perk up and he looks at me Jimmy: Hey come on now I least I don't unintentionally embarrass myself all the time like you do" I look back at doodl3 Me: So do you want a picture or a autograph" doodl3: Both" Me: Alright and what's your name?" "Call me Jill" She says as she steps in front of me with her phone out me giving her a slimy peace sign" Me: Alright so what do you want me to write" doodl3: Sorry for scaring you with that video" I look flustered. Scott heard what she said and speaks up for me Scott: Excuse me young lady I am going to have to ask respectfully to please not bring up the video about him around him alright" Me: Hey Scott it's fine I don't mind talking about it but yes please choose something else for me to write" doodl3: It's been my pleasure to make you laugh and entertain you for all these 10 years" I write that down and say to her "Hey I got a proposition for you I will put a slimy handprint on this paper if you go over and insult Jimmy for covering me in slime" Scott has a grin on his face doodl3: Coming right up" Jimmy: Hello there little girl what's your na-" doodl3: Hello Loser Idiot" Everyone looks at her stunned for a second before everyone except for Jimmy bursts out laughing Jimmy: I AM NOT A LOSER" Me: Yet you never win anything"

I fall out of my chair laughing everyone else is cracking up when suddenly I feel my chest tightening and begin coughing and can't use my inhaler due to it being too slimy. Scott and Joel are the first to notice and they quickly shut up and run over to me. Joel takes off to find Grian who has my backup inhaler and as soon as he returns with it I'm all blue gasping for air. Scott: Stay with me" Jimmy: Don't die on us now buddy" Tango: Help's on the way don't worry" Joel finally runs back and uses my inhaler on me. doodl3 meanwhile looks absolutely horrified at what she saw. I get back up relieved Me: Thanks Joel" "no problem we're all here for you. Go on take your inhaler" Me: You hold onto it I'm all slimy right now and about to kick Jimmy's butt later" Jimmy: No I was doing what I had to do it's not my fault you had your mouth open" I decide to uphold my promise and give doodl3 my slimy handprint. Later she sees me getting into a cab with Impulse Scar and Tango heading back to the hotel funnily enough the same hotel she is staying at.

As soon as she arrives back she sees me get out of the cab. Me: JIMMY" Jimmy: Uh oh" We head into the lobby where I'm chasing (question mark) JImmy around a couch "Come back here. Come here I'm gonna kick your butt" Jimmy: I told you it's not my fault you had your mouth open" doodl3: Still mad at Jimmy I see?" "Oh hey Jill what are you doing here?" doodl3: This is where I'm staying for Minecon and it seems I'm with the lifers" "Probably not Jimmy in a minute while they were dressing me up in the middle of speaking and Jimmy dumped the whole bucket of slime on me without warning and some of it got in my mouth" doodl3: oh really huh? Want me to kick his butt" Jimmy: No I don't feel like getting kicked by a girl please" Impulse: Hey come on now let's all be civil about this" Me: You could have at least told me to strip to my underwear beforehand now because of you one of my inhalers got ruined and I almost died because of you" Jimmy: I didn't know what to do this was all Grian's idea" I sigh Me: Hey since we're staying here together Jill I'm about to head to the pool after I get showered off want to meet there or are you busy?" doodl3: Sure"

I'm in my hotel room in the shower full temperature there is steam everywhere. Scar comes into the bathroom and see all the steam coming from above the shower curtains Scar: Hey how hot are you making that?" "As hot as it'll get to get this slime off" Scar: You're going to turn that down right now mister" Me: Or what" Scar then flushes the toilet. Meanwhile doodl3 is walking to the pool with Cleo and Mumbo Mumbo: Really now so you're the one who edits and moderates Slimer's streams? Well I say you do a really good job" All 3 of them then hear me screaming from my room and shortly after Scar runs out laughing Cleo: What did you do?" Scar: He was in there taking a shower to wash the slime off of him and I flushed the toilet on him when he wouldn't turn the temperature down. " Cleo: Are you insane" Mumbo: He's going to emerge looking like a lobster" doodl3 doesn't do anything but chuckle at the thought Cleo: Scar I am glad you are not my roomate because you wouldn't be alive if you did that to me" Impulse: Did what to who" Impulse approaches with Lizzy and Bigby Cleo: This Pimplebrain just cooked Slimer like a lobster" I then emerge from my room in a tshirt and my swim trunks my skin red all over just as Jimmy appears as soon as he sees me he bursts out laughing. "Ryan be lucky I have asthma or I'd be chasing you around this hotel to kick your butt" doodl3 then bursts out laughing at the thought Scar: Oh no I'm so scared you're not going to hurt your Scar Wars buddy are you?" "Ryan I am going to kick your butt while you're asleep tonight you're not even going to see it coming"

At the pool everybody is in their swimsuits and ready to go into the water. Mumbo: You got your inhaler nearby?" "Yes and this one is my waterproof one and let's hope Jimmy doesn't ruin this one" Jimmy: Oh shut up" Cleo: Don't worry if something happens we're here for you" Impulse: Yeah don't worry just stay in the shallow in" Lizzy: We got you don't worry"

I stay in the shallow end with doodl3. "So what made you start watching me?" Doodl3: I love how funny you are. I especially love how you lost in tnt run to Tango" "Oh shut up I was beating him and then blocks suddenly started disappearing" doodl3: You lost miserably and you know it" I see everyone else doing a underwater breath contest and I hear the voices "Do it" is all they say "HEY LET ME JOIN IN OVER HERE" Scott enters as I shout that having just gotten ready Scott: I think you should relax It's not a good idea" I'm already under the water Scott: You idiot" My asthma begins to kick in due to the Chlorine and unfortunately my inhaler gets sucked into the skimmer in the deep end I'm now underwater screaming doodl3 is trying to pull me up to the surface along with Scott. Thankfully the others have noticed and are swimming over to me. Jimmy is in the skimmer fishing my inhaler out. The others manage to get my arm free and pull me out of the pool. As soon as Jimmy uses my inhaler on me Scott says "YOU IDIOT I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO UNDER BUT YOU DON'T LISTEN" doodl3: you really need to listen to Scott on this one" "Look I'm sorry I just felt left out" Scott: Felt left out? You could have died. Do you know how many times you've almost died and now you want to test it over some stupid contest?" Mumbo: Hey it isn't stupid but-" Impulse: You're missing the point"Cleo: You have to be absolutely insane" Me: I just don't like feeling left out and I didn't know there was chlorine in the pool" doodl3: Feeling left out? You're life is more important then being left out?" Scott: And yes there's going to be chlorine it's an indoor pool"

After a little bit of arguing with everyone I get dried off and head out with doodl3 trailing behind me to the banquet hall. When I see Rylee exit with icing on his mouth. He runs over and hugs doodl3. "Oh yeah don't mind him he loves people but who was the one who-" I see Tango eating a fruit parfait "I should have known TANGO DO NOT FEED MY DOG" Tango: It's a yogurt parfait they're dog friendly" Me: do not make yourself the 3rd person who's butt I have to kick today" "who are the other 2?" "Jimmy and Ryan" I then turn to doodl3 and say "Sorry you aren't allowed in here this is for lifers only" She just shrugs. Little do I know she IS allowed in there due to her being my editor and mod. doodl3: Eh it's fine I don't mind I got plenty of other stuff to do anyway like pet puppo" Me: Traitor" doodl3: Awwwww you aren't a traitor" Me: Well I'm going to eat and then see where the night takes me"

As soon as I'm in the banquet hall I text @doodl3 not knowing that I've been with her the entire time. The text says "man day 1 of Minecon and already I'm exhausted. I already have to kick Scar Jimmy and Tango's butt already. Don't know how much more I can take" I then hear the voices again "Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it"

end of irl segment 2 part 1/2

[trsf-theblog]

I just want to say that I really, really appreciate your fanfiction. I have been glued to my screen for the past week out of pure suspense, trying to finish because I am just so engaged. You are an insanely good writer, and I aspire to write like you someday. I especially like your dialogue, because it seems like something that the real characters would say, and not forced or fake, and the portrayal of Dean's inner voice. How do you do it?

Incantessant,

Hello! Thank you for your question and for the wonderful compliments. I am so honored and happy to hear you enjoyed reading mah little beastie of a story! As for how I do it, haha, oh boy, what a question. I admit some of it comes naturally. I've always been good at stringing words together in a powerful or effective manner. That part I can't really explain because it's not something I learned. The rest of it, though, comes from practice, exposure, and a whooooole lot of observation! For the writing portion of it, anytime I come across writing that hits particularly hard or that I like, I jot it down. Every once in a while I read through that list, both for inspiration but also to remind myself there's a thousand ways to write and maybe I should try something new in my own writing! It's how I ended up developing my own style, one bit at a time. I kinda plucked things I liked from all over the place and slowly worked them into my own writing until I created a style that was unique and wholly mine. For nailing dialogue specific to characters that already exist, that's all observation! I really enjoy character studies, both ficitonal and real. You know how people in your life (friends, siblings, parents, etc) act and talk. And they each talk differently. They favor different words, have individual cadences, emphasize things differently, lean towards humor or sarcasm or seriousness, monotone vs excitable, and so on. You can almost treat it like a game - try to predict how someone will respond to a specific question or situation. Something internal will tell you whether or not what you came up with sounds like that person. You may not nail the word choice perfectly and whatnot, but you'll be able to make a good general guess. Then I go and do the same things with characters! Once you have enough data (enough dialogue and screen time for a character), you can start trying out different scenarios for them and what they might say. The more familiar you get with the character, the easier that becomes. If you find yourself struggling with a specific character, try out a bunch of dialogue prompts and scenarios to play with how a character might respond. I'll admit to plenty of times where I had to stop writing because I couldn't quite nail down a character's dialogue. The key there was to let go of what I wanted to be said and focused on what the character would actually say. It's hard when you're writing and want the story to go a certain way, or have certain things that need to be said (either plot-driving lines or zingers and one-liners, etc) but sometimes what you want doesn't actually match the character. The hardest part is letting go of that and writing true to the character, even if it takes you someplace you weren't planning on. Adjusting plot and circumstance is generally easier than trying to force a character to do something that's not in their nature. That's how I do it, anyway! 😁 Hope it helps you on your own writing journey. I love talking about the writing process, so feel free to ask me stuff anytime. Thanks again for taking time to let me know you enjoy my work! Cheers,

Silence

[itswalky]

So in both continuties, do Ultra cars vehicle bodies correspond to any real world makes and models, or are they all ficitonalized?

Walkyverse Ultra Car is loosely based on a Honda Fit, but isn't technically one. And Dumbiverse Ultra Car is a game of telephoned version of that.

[worldismyne]

Making a new DRV3 AU (because foe-ficiton is my bread and butter). DRV3 takes place in the neoworld during the 53rd reboot of a time loop (long after the show 'jumped the shark'). 

Each loop the cast members could have different talents, provided there being something from their background that it could stem from. (can't get something from nothing after all). There were also different motives and themes. The final two survivors would get rebooted as the mastermind and shsl survivor respectively.

These designs are Miu's "greatest hits" so to speak.  (I'll devote a separate post for her '1st' season)

Season 11 was an Ace Attorney homage. Miu was given the talent of Ultimate Model (think runway/high fashion). Played dumb fairly successfully. Was the first killer of the season and the only contestant who succeeded in killing Kibo. Her trial was spent debating whether robots counted as a 'real' victim, which she argued for fiercely. Used the fact several students were undecided on this to split the vote, but the majority ruled her a killer. Her execution was getting torn apart by photogs.

Season 17: Ultimate Ballroom Dancer included traditional dance as well as ballroom culture. This was around the time where audiences started to notice 'producer meddling'. At this point, not everyone had a turn being the mastermind, and it was clear they wanted to force Miu to be the mastermind for season 18. But none of the motives pitched toward her landed this season. To the point where she called out getting targeted. Ended up being a victim in ch4 because she caught onto the formula too fast.

Season 51: Ultimate Tattoo artist. The second ARK season, cast members were paired with 'partners' that they wouldn't get along with. She was paired with Gonta and it was extremely awkward for both of them. Also did some etchings for Kibo. Has huge insecurities about having a talent that couldn't help anyone given the circumstances. Made it to the final round, where Kokichi and Himiko agreed to stay while she was allowed to escape. She promised to come back with the police and a gang that frequented her shop.   

[iftari]

re-reading warrior cats n its like. what if u werent white as writers? what if the positioning of medicine cats as one of the (few) speakers w starclan (literally dead spirits.!), being one of the (few) cats that understand n have herb/medecinal knowledge n also being both on the outskirts of sm of clan life while also embedded right in the core of it bc no clan can survive without a med cat was actually explored in varying interesting ways. esp bc the writers CLEARLY dont know what to do ab disability other than 'ur positioned to taking care uwu' or 'die'..........................which like....ok. lame. loser. dumb tokenizing position of interesting dynamics n archtypes.

sum1 on reddit is like 'what if a medicine cat went evil' n like GHATS interesting to me. making fake signs n weaponizing starclan against a clan. also could parallel how doctors n nurses literally treat patients n esp disabled ones like SHIT like they know better n never listen. n the whooole arc could be in dedication to making all the clans realize they need to reconcile w the abelism they clearly keep engaging in bc the med cat couldve never done whatever evil they did without having a preexisting foundation for it. an examination of the warrior code in general. of the culture. bc its so clear the book is a white savior understanding of indigenous culture so its attempting to deviate from the western lens of 'if ur not useful ur useless' by having things like 'we take care of elders n kits!' but even still the authors clearly havent understood the concept properly bc that code still embodies the capitalist notion of 'usefulness'. 'we protect the kits so we have a useful cat in the future that can Protect the Clan. we care for the elder bc they Served Us' n when a clan doesnt its seen as >:( (rightfully bc u SHOULDNT kick out elders n kits..) but like...the basis for it is that u shouldnt do it bc its a *life*. thats it. n if the clans understood that then the books couldve explored the concept of kittypets n rogues in various ways outside of just '>:( ur not one of us!!1!!' esp in relation to fascism. couldve explored rogues in specific territories continuing to be rogues/loners but engaging during specific times (like winter - easier to survive in a crew) or occasional rogues teaching specific tricks or whatever. also couldve explored the concept of like...roaming rogues. cats that exist outside of borders n roaming btwn all clans sharing info much like a merchant or smth. inevitably this leads to a 'this cat is violating the warrior code!1! its a spy!' which once again makes the clans have to sit w themselves n be like...what is the purpose of our code? what is the politc behind it? what parts r relevant and what parts arent anymore? or a plot where a rogue cat is specifically given starclan powrs n literal job is to roam btwn the clans n like. try to keep the peace. maybe a medicine cat gets >:( n is like ur undermining my authority....i'll kill u!!!! n like ok lets explore THAT as an insecutity bc medicine cats arent above evil they arent like inherently ~special~ theyre literally just. cabs.

back to the disabled cat thing its like. disabled ppl have embodied a lot of thigns. sometimes theyve wanted to do a Thing n learned how to accomodate their needs which we do lowkey see w the first arc (prophecy begins) w lostface --> brightheart n other times they become writers/storytellers n artists or whatever. which goes back to another question of like...clan culture. its so clear that the writers base a lot of clan n writing off of real human culture but also they keep it pretty simple n change things around as necessary for plot which is like. ok. what if this silly little ficitonal universe did get fleshed out? what if the writers actually did have the guts to like explore how misogyny?? shows up in a group of fucking fictional cats. how liberalism keeps paving the way for loser fascists. etc.

[absolutezerotolerance]

Gruvians: It's just fiction! stop taking it so seriously! Also Gruvians: writes long metas on why the ship is brilliant, stalks accounts they were blocked by to bitch about said account not liking their ship, stalks posts they disagree with & vehemently reading the tags within each reblog of said posts & treats head canons such as a Gray liking Lucy & Erza first before Juvia as some sort of personal attack against them.

A large part of the GrUvia fanbase seems to be built on insecurity, and I think that for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

The GrUvia ship has come under a lot more scrutiny than most other ships in Fairy Tail, and I think it's resulted in them being completely unwilling to think about their ship in any kind of nuance.

One of our friends once mentioned that they don't support the ship in one of the most innocent ways possible, and it led to several days worth of battling with GrUvia fans and explaining her stance and why she was justified in her opinion. It got to the extent that she had to explicitly state that she would not be responding to any more asks because she didn't want her blog to become known for being anti-GrUvia. Just for stating an opinion. That is how quick the ship's fanbase are to anger.

You're either supportive and unequivocally good, or you're not and you must be attacked.

We've seen evidence that this has even extended over their ability to think critically about each other. We've received asks about how there is a psychologist in the GrUvia fanbase who thinks that the ship is healthy, and one of our admins was in the fandom when the whole GrUvia University thing went down. If I was a GrUvia fan, I would be disgusted by how they're treating people.

They cannot handle the idea that there is a space that exists in the Fairy Tail fandom that doesn't welcome them. Whenever we post things with the tagline "GRUVIA FANS: DO NOT INTERACT" we'd get at least 1 ask from a butt-hurt fan who could not find it in themselves to take our advise to block us and move on, and instead had tantrums after tantrums in our ask box.

(Hi, one of the other admins here popping in for just a second! Quick tw for a mention of stalking. I’ve been doxxed twice, I still get sent death threats, harrassed online, harassed in real life, and my stalker used this ship as an example of why I had to fall in love with him if he just kept trying. I personally am convinced that they’re too stupid to realize how hypocritical they are when they say don’t apply it to real life. Fiction always affects reality, even when it’s not blatantly obvious, and people really need to be more conscious of that and the fact that there are levels to it. A character’s favorite color may not have a big impact in real life, but normalizing abusive relationships has a massive negative impact, as seen by all the victims sharing their stories on this blog and those who share their stories elsewhere, because let’s face it, this nasty ship is not the only time an abusive relationship has been romantisized.

That being said, this does not mean all GrUvia shippers are stalkers/abusers. Fiction does affect reality, but that doesn't mean it controls reality. People have moral compasses, and sometimes they like to explore weird/amoral/dark things in fiction, and it's better to do that in ficiton than in real life. The problem lies within the fact that the vast majority of them that I have personally interacted with (<- reread the bold part and use your reading comprehension skills please) have been willing to doxx, harass, or abuse others. Pro-Juvia and Pro-grUvia shippers are notorious for these things, but some anti-Juvia and Anti-GrUvia people are too. The problem lies within the attitude of the shippers even more so than the ship itself. If we could both have conversations about it, with respect that neither side is going to change the other's thoughts and opinions, then the fandom would be a much happier and safer place.

Personally, I would love if we could just coexist and enjoy Fairy Tail together. Alas, it is not meant to be, hence the creation and necessity of this vent space)

On some level, I do feel bad for the GrUvia fanbase that they have to exist with so much scrutiny. But then I remember the content of the ship itself, and I genuinely think that they've only ever made it worse for themselves by being aggressive.

If the fandom was able to have discussions like this, to talk about ships through a critical lens and have an actual conversation about this, the ship would still be awful. But the fandom, itself, wouldn't be viewed as this group of people with the mental complexity of toddlers.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

You know, I feel the same way about superhero stories as OP does about vampires. It's usually pretty annoying when a zombie story gets all meta and has characters go around talking about how "this is just like my survival fantasy animes", but it's also iffy when everyone just pretends they never heard about zombie apocalypse stories, and refuses to even say the world "zombie". Sure, they're "walkers", or "shamblers" or whatever.

And the meta thing's not really an issue with stories where someone gets a superpower. In fact, it's really welcome. Because there's both this immediate contrast (real superpowers aren't like the ones in the comics!) and a handy justification for a lot of the characters (I've seen superhero stories my whole life, so I want to act out my own, too.)

I think the reason for that is, even though superhero stories precede zombie apocalypse ones for a few years, the genre is less calcified as one single thing. That's not to say I don't like zombie stories, but they feel less diverse when it comes to setting.

When a ficitonal character has a superpower, it's just something that's happened to them. They might think they're in a superhero story because they've read many before, but that's not necessarily the case. They might turn out to be Ben 10 or Danny Phantom, but they might also be Brightburn or Inuyashiki. They might even just be Alex Mack. Something different happened to each of these characters, and they're trying to fit the "superhuman abilities" peg into the "crime-fighting hero" hole with varying degrees of success.

Zombie stories, on the other hand, work by a different set of rules. Even if they're not just Dawn of the Dead. Planet Terror is a very different story from The Last of Us, and they're both different from Zombie Strippers or Fido, but despite the rules in these stories not being the same, they're pretty much about the same thing happening, and the consequences are similar, even if the tones aren't.

I can't really think of a way of making a zombie story that changes the foundations of the genre the way metahuman stories do, while still being identifiable as a zombie story. But that might just be a "me" problem.

Zombie fiction has a problem, which is that in the real world, zombie fiction exists.

So you have two basic approaches: either you have the protagonists and general public say "what's happening, why are the dead rising, I got bit but I'm going to be fine", or you have the protagonists say "this is so weird, it's just like in all that zombie fiction!"

These are both annoying in their own way, but I find the latter approach to be more deeply irritating, personally, the kind of meta that's just lazy and overdone in spite of not having been done all that often.

This is a problem that notably doesn't exist in most other genres. People go to look up vampires on their computer all the time, and they say "wait, the legends are true??", and the vampire says "I did like like our depiction in Nosferatu very much". This is totally fine, the legends bled into popular culture or whatever. But zombie fiction is among those that can't do this, because it's a different kind of story, and there's no hiding it, no covering it up. If zombies were in any way real there would be mandatory training on how to kill them and CDC warnings and structural responses, which does substantially take away from the genre.

Now, would I read a zombie story that took place in a world where zombie outbreaks were a semi-regular occurrence with policies and procedures and discourse and training? Yeah, I guess, if it was well-written. But most of the long-running zombie stories get there eventually, once all the survivors have been doing the survival thing, and I can think of a few examples. It's hard to get right, much harder than the "what is happening, what is this" sort of story.

[myamazingdreams]

Welcome to my corner

I am Dreamie (not my real name of course) I post about naruto, and other animes, like MHA and JJK.

I'm currently studying highschool in France so I might blog about that...You will hear lots of squealing of both ficitonal and real life men

Be warned. I also might post doodles I make.

I do have ocs, both from fandoms and my own worlds.

Keep dreaming and tag me on :

[fancyfade]

[image: a couple panels from Robin: Son of Batman. first, the atmosphere is very blue - Damian (Robin) and Maya (nobody) are outside at night. Maya holds a knife on Damian. She says "I'm looking forward to making you the first (kill). You killed my dad. I'm a nobody because of you!" Damian says "You want an apology or something?" Maya says "So I can absolve you of your sins? Not a chance." The camera zooms up on her face (in Nobody’s 6-eyed mask) as she says “You are unforgiven, Damian Wayne.”

next screencaps show the characters still outside at night, but it is a couple issues later. Damian is staring into the distance and Maya is behind him. Damian says "I never understood why he forgave me for what I did to his family. I never even had to ask. The truth is, I justified what I did the same way I did with your father. He was no more a villain than Damian Al Ghul was. But when I took his life, I took away any possibility he had to turn his life around.”

Damian takes off his mask and says “The bitterness that drives you wasn't put there by him. It was me. I put you on the path to be a Nobody. If you keep going... I couldn't life with that. But there's no trophy for me to put back. No magic words. You will never forget what I did to you. I'm truely without options. So I guess all I can say... All I have left... is to ask... please... will you forgive me,Maya?"

Maya, still in her nobody mask, says "Back on the island, when you were helpless under the water, I heard my father's voice whispering dark things again. But then.... I heard someone I hadn't heard in forever. IT was my mom, and it was bright. She was telling me what you had once said. That I didn't have to be a Nobody, that I could survive in the light if I wanted to bad enough... I knew then that something had changed inside me, and that for you, being Robin was real and not an act.”

The camera zooms out and we see the silhouette of Maya and Damian in front of clouds that are yellow against teh blue sky. Maya begins reaching up for her mask. She says "And you're right... I'll never forget what you did to my father, but my mother used to say "forgiveness isn't forgetting. It's giving the other person the freedom to make new choices." I'm thinking she may have been right... for both of us. So, I want you to know... even though right now you feel like you're all alone, and you've lost your father and your brothers...”

She takes her mask off and leans in close to him, handing him the Robin insignia and says "... You've gained a sister." She hugs him and says "You are forgiven, Damian Wayne."  end image]

end image, begin commentary

info: When Maya says “The first”, she’s talking about her first kill.

well, despite me normally disliking forgiveness arcs, i wound up really liking this scene and this character interaction. I think it works for a couple reasons

a) despite Maya’s mom’s claims that forgiveness is giving people the freedom to make new choices, it’s not like Damian waited around for someone to forgive him to actually make new choices and start his life down a different path

b) Maya has had 5 issues to see that he actually changed

c) it’s never acknowledge in text as something that makes it different from Maya’s dad and Talia, but Damian was like... 9 years old when he went on the Year of Blood and probably 10 or 11 when he killed Maya’s dad. And despite the main character being a kid, and it making sense that Damian wants to try to fix things as best as he can, there is a difference between a full-grown adult going around doing objectively evil things and a kid who was groomed from birth to be an assassin doing the same.

(a little personal aside: I remember when I was a kid and my mom tried to convince me we had equal responsibility in the abuse that she metted out - but kids do have different power, different brains, and a different ability to take responsibility. Not like that excuses any of the bad stuff I (or damian) did, but there is a difference). And holy shit I just realized that Damian was totally projecting on Goliath but I was projecting on Damian whoops. That probably explains why I like this comic and his character so much.

[mankai-onlyfans]

//Everyone in the A3! fandom is just as much of a bisexual as I am 😆

// can't speak for anyone else but I sure as hell am... 👀💖💜💙

[gothprentiss]

okay like. long and a bunch of potshots about agatha christie because 2022 was a VERY agatha christie year for mystery movies, and i think people don’t contend with her very well.

like, this isn’t only johnson’s misunderstanding of the genre— i’ve seen people praising him for insisting that the movies not be serial (which is uh. exactly how the genre works. he was inspired by agatha christie. this is obvious), or the detective not being hardboiled (hardboiled is a different mystery subgenre.), or other obvious generic norms— but it is his fault, because there’s no excuse to be this mealymouthed about shit like this. let’s unpack!

first: sims is conflating all mysteries with a particular kind of crime & punishment ethos which characterizes very little detective fiction. in the previous paragraph, i noted two mystery subgenres, both detective fiction: the whodunit (characteristic of the golden age detective ficiton johnson cites here) and the hardboiled. the whodunit is specifically about uncovering the narrative of the crime, and features an amateur detective, who does not wield the law the way a cop does. the hardboiled detective is frequently pitted against the law itself, revealing in the solution of the crime an issue far greater than a single criminal act. neither of these have an easy solution in a criminal being driven away in a cop car. frequently the whodunit finds a different, more ‘natural’ form of justice in the criminal’s suicide. the problem is solved not by an arrest, but by the removal of the criminal. so we’re starting off, it must be noted, on a foot which forces johnson to conflate things which ought not to be. i will grant him this.

but then: “it’s an essentially conservative genre. chaos is created, and then the paternal detective finds the truth and solves it all.” the first sentence is true. but then he goes and fucks it: the second sentence here seems intended to explain the first, but fundamentally doesn’t. i’m not sure whether to take “paternal” here as meaning “male authority figure” (which i assume is here more a critique on the basis of gender rather than the phenomenon of authority) or as implying “paternalistic”. both are stupid.

on one hand, to say that the genre is essentially conservative because it’s, you know, patriarchal, isn’t a meaningful critique of the genre, and also is misunderstanding what it means for a genre to have an essential characteristic. no genre with any longevity is untouched by the society which developed it. of course a male detective solving a crime is symptomatic of this. this is, of course, not something johnson is subverting; and certainly not something he’s subverting more than, say, essential conservative agatha christie (f), whose two most genre-defining detectives were the sexless (<- works as queercoding) poirot and the very much not paternal miss marple. now! a meaningful critique in terms of the genre’s politics might be to describe the detective as white, which is more often true than paternal (and its overtly implied male). that’s not much MORE meaningful, because it’s making the same mistake in its assumption about how the genre works politically— but, you know. it’s a bit more salient.

if, on the other hand, i take this as implying paternalistic: the whodunit is a genre in which the detective specifically wields limited power to incarcerate or arrest. the detective’s specific powers are in observation, analysis, and revelation. in other words, paternalism is kind of out of the picture, insofar as the detective has, of their own capacity, no real power to subjugate, control, subordinate, etc. as i noted before, the whodunit is not working towards an arrest. the whodunit conventionally begins with evidence of a crime. the narrative is one of investigation; its denouement is the revelation of a second narrative, which is the crime which was committed. (one neat thing that glass onion does is upend that structure.) the whodunit conventionally also takes place in a closed setting, with a very limited cast of characters. we are at all times in the presence of the killer, as well as the detective, but rarely is there a cop or any figure of authority present. this is notable because famous versions of the whodunit frequently do not end with the criminal in the hands of the law, and conduct their investigations in an interim period where no legal solution is available. johnson has said he was inspired by christie, and specifically film adaptations of her novels. death on the nile ends in the killer couple’s murder/suicide; evil under the sun ends with the killers in custody of the hotel staff; the killer in the mirror crack’d dies in an apparent suicide; murder on the orient express ends with the explicit decision to withhold the truth from the law. there is a clear paternalistic sense of justice here, but it’s not wielded by the detective: as we learn in murder on the orient express, the power the detective most meaningfully exerts is deciding which system of justice to assist.

as i said above, critiquing the detective strikes me as a particular misunderstanding of the genre. for example, we recognize that the administration of justice in the united states is racist in ways which go beyond the whiteness of any given individual in it. claiming the conservatism of the genre as a matter of any one thing about the detective is like seeing a lone tall tree in a desert and being like “damn! this forest is big! i can’t wait to use this bountiful harvest of wood to make paper so i can self-publish my tracts of left-wing cultural critique!”

then! he goes on to evince this claim by saying, look at when it’s been popular— in times of upheaval, when truth seems to have little purchase on the world. now, there’s the obvious response: there have been precious few points in time in the modern world when this could be said to not be the case. it’s also interesting that he doesn’t link the apparent resurgence of the genre to the current popularity of true crime; and this, too, is fairly cyclical. but the problem here isn’t his historical outlook, but rather how this evinces a conservatism. the basic claim he’s making here is that the mystery works as a structure of catharsis and comfort in unstable times. in this sense, what he means by conservatism is that it soothes a desire for return— not even necessarily a return to the particular ideologically constructed fantasy of tradition which characterizes conservatism now, but rather to a pretty recent epistemological status quo, in which knowledge and truth and revelation worked as we believe they ought to. (there’s a way, i think, that this sort of retroactively makes the “paternal detective” less a critique and more merely descriptive; part of the catharsis of the mystery would, thus, also be the lessened burden of agency and knowledge, allowing us to briefly inhabit a simpler world in which we’re all children listening rapt to the just-so story woven for us by Daddy Detective. i don’t agree with it, but there’s a tacit cohesion there.)

so here’s the deal. the whodunit is a conservative genre because it believes in a particular kind of order. this is not the paternalistic order of the single detective bringing a criminal to justice; the world which has no need to see the criminal arrested, because the revelation has, effectively, exorcised the crime from the world, and allowed justice to take its course. the whodunit believes, for the most part, that crime is individualistic, not systemic. it pairs this belief with a hyper-normalistic view on human nature. the world is orderly, static, and neat, but is threatened by individual perversions and lapses. the return to order is not one which has any space for the carceral state or any other juridical concerns. it’s not that the problem is solved; it’s that the solution allows the briefly disordered world to be resolved to order, the criminal a mere ripple where the surface of life is otherwise smooth and regular in its movement.

it’s also a conservative genre in the sense that its luminaries are frequently conservatives. for example, all who make whodunits today in the legacy of agatha christie (see: see how they run, death on the nile, and glass onion, all last year) are lionizing an old school conservative and virulent racist. here’s an easy example: the first poirot book, the mysterious affair at styles, is a book which starts with the clearly-stated premise that jewish people are sneaky, and then goes and proves it. one of her short stories, i can’t remember which, involves a meet-cute with two characters who bond over three things, and the third is hating [n words]. it’s not merely that christie and her fellow early writers of detective fiction were representative of their contemporary discursive and political norms. we recognize racism as one of the most prominent forms of structural oppression and insidious views about human nature and behavior which license contemporary abuses of justice. this normativity is inextricable from the whodunit’s ethos of justice if it is not recognized and rejected. otherwise, we tell stories about detectives working in service to a system which is recognizably abusive and corrupt, which they are capable of recognizing as such, and which they have, ostensibly, no ideological burden to respect, and doing so nonetheless. glass onion does, i recognize, admit a revenge fantasy as its own attempt at recognizing the administration of justice as a problematic ethos for a modern mystery; but it’s hard not to see this as trying to patch up a wound with a band aid. it also, in traditional style, looks outward to a world in which the juridical system will have given support to the wrong it has already righted. the catharsis it offers is, like knives out, particular care for an individual other than the wealthy victim, inaugurating an underdog hero who wins, and is given, effectively, the wealthy victim’s goods and livelihood. bad rich people are cleansed from the system. the system is put to order once more. yee haw.

contrast the whodunit with something like the hardboiled detective novel. this has a lot of parity with noir— think the maltese falcon, chinatown, psycho. here, too, arrests aren’t easy ends; they’re frequently impossible, or are shown to be a symbolic act when justice becomes impossible. rising out of, roughly, the same era as the golden age and its whodunits, the hardboiled detective novels see a system which is so corrupt it can neither punish nor remediate crime. critically, these detective novels are less about revelation and a hidden narrative than they are about the individual psychology of one (usually) man trying to do right in a world which makes true rightness impossible. this, too, has a certain conservatism to it: there’s a desire for return, or a distanced reformist ethos. but the genre considers what it means to work for justice under a system which fundamentally is incapable of administering it.

two points here. first, it’s interesting that johnson views the conservatism of the whodunit as an emotional framework, essentially. while i think conflating crime procedurals with whodunits is extremely facile, both do function as copaganda. by this i don’t mean literal propaganda for the police state; i mean that they both insist on the essential individual evil of all crime, the essential goodness of crimesolving, the goodness and righteousness of order, and the structural goodness of policing. individuals can be bad; this accounts both for crime and for bad or abusive policing. the structure, on the other hand, is beyond questioning. the kind of catharsis we’re talking about here isn’t radical so much as a pressure valve; johnson describes it as coming from a place of anger, wanting to shout about something. the punished bad tv cop and the punished bad movie billionaire both scratch the itch to see the world transformed, but imagine a world which doesn’t have to be. it’s fine, i guess, that it’s politically toothless art, but it breaks the work for me when its gummy bite is intended to tear.

second, and returning back to the idea of essential conservatism. one thing i find interesting is how the structure of revelation and catharsis works. let’s return to the mysterious affair at styles, for example. the wealthy emily inglethorp has recently married younger, poorer, and jewish alfred inglethorp. it is made apparent that all have been wary of this decision: when she turns up dead, everyone’s like, “oh well, her husband gets her money— and you know how jews are...” but the apparent poisoner, we discover, bought the poison and went all around town in a ludicrous disguise as alfred inglethorp. it turns out that alfred was, naturally, the killer, and was involved in a complex plan to poorly frame him, which would lead to his acquittal, and laws protecting against double jeopardy would prevent him from being convicted of her murder when better evidence was discovered. poirot prevents him from being arrested the first time, deducing correctly that alfred wanted to be arrested; this prevents his acquittal, which, we understand, will guarantee his conviction. (NB: typical for christie, here we have the presence of the legal system only to index a potential failure of justice which the detective is working against. see also sad cypress.) the solution we end up with has two resolutions: first, the antisemitic suspicions of the locals are upheld. their fear of an ethnically distinct outsider who brought change to their town was proven correct, and is remedied in his removal. second, the truth is revealed, allowing justice to meet it.

what this trades on, as johnson points out, is a belief that the revelation of truth has meaning. the whodunit works because it is set in a world where the truth is revelatory, total, and meaningful. it isn’t always actionable: the catharsis is not that we see systems of justice working as they should, but rather that we see truth and morality play out in a way which, effectively, automate the workings of the police and the courts. if we can come to know something, it will set the world in motion towards rightness around it, or will reveal the righting which has already been ticking away, all along… this is a relationship of the future perfect: in the aftermath of the story, we understand, the criminal will have been convicted (or, in exceptional cases, will not have been). we come to know something, and the recourse of that knowledge is granted. so maybe the point here is that my disagreement with johnson is in fact kind of shallow: as i’ve been saying here, the politics of the whodunit allow for particular kinds of individual catharsis, and might well be said to have more political salience for the writer than for the reader. if johnson just wanted to yell about the world being bad, he did it, and admits to the easy and conservative emotional work of that here. but this particular kind of political catharsis does do some kind of work in the wild— it’s not as clearly insidious as the way that true crime obsessions have made hyperreactive vultures and voyeurs out of many people online, and helped them set about harrassing victims and family members, but it would be silly to assume that the insolvency of any given form of art completely deprives it of impact. glass onion doesn’t have a particularly revolutionary or radical politics, but few really are pretending it does; what’s more useful, i think, is using it to understand how the politics of any given piece of media relate to the wider political sphere, or can have solvency at all.

this is long and i have more to say so i’m going to knock it off here. but basically, my point is that i don’t think this is correct about the essential conservatism of the narrative. i also think that we’re in an era— and may have been all along— where the essential conservatism of the narrative doesn’t have an easy relation to actual conservatives. i think often of the conversation that eve sedgwick describes in her work on reparative reading, in which cindy patton says: “suppose we were sure of every element of a conspiracy… what would we know then that we don’t know?” (cindy patton is an activist and a scholar of the aids epidemic, and i do not mean to conflate her or her worldview with that of conservatives. nor am i engaging in horseshoe theory here, though it equally applies to why this particular narrative project and worldview falls short for left-wing radicals.) i think it’s the case that people who are not in the political center are used to dominant narratives not functioning as revelation and catharsis. glass onion ends with the promise that lies will have been undone and wrongs will, though little and late, have been righted to some extent. the false ethos of disruption has been literalized into actual disruption (blowing shit up), but that still remains a false ethos of disruption: power has been taken out of the wrong hands, and life will go on. the emperor has no clothes, his wardrobe has just been destroyed… pay no attention to the other neighboring petty kingdoms, whose emperors have cloaked their own nudity under similar veneers of plausible deniability…?

i strive to be a one-stop shop for whodunit hot takes. which we all really need in 2023. anyway the thing i’ve been thinking about recently is that this

is a really just like, impoverishing take on the whodunit (the ‘question’ is worse, like by an unbelievable magnitude. johnson’s response is just myopic pablum.) but also is just case in point for why the whodunit isn’t a genre which functions for audiences who aren’t huge libs anymore. (the hot take i’m brewing, which would require me to read a lot of mid-century lit crit and reviews [AWESOME.] is that it might honestly never have; but that’s just an extension of my current take which is that the inherent conservatism of the whodunit isn’t located in the whole movement of the plot, but rather what precedes and succeeds the chaos.) imo the mystery stories that seem more zeitgeisty are noir, hardboiled— hell, even spy thrillers; if you wanted to adapt an agatha christie in a timely way, i think you’d be hard pressed to find a better candidate than the big four!!— the kinds of things where the solution doesn’t work as resolution but rather revelation. redacted here is a long complaint about kenneth branagh. redacted here as well is a caveat about roman polanski as well as a salient point about how the movie chinatown is quite genuinely like, if you want a movie which might speak to you meaningfully about politics and the state of the world through its narrative structure, you got it (another great example is the original blade runner). the fact that noir/hardboiled mysteries and whodunits have a roughly contemporaneous rise to prevalence feels relevant here too, doesn’t it? different settings, different readerships.. much to think about

[cagemasterfantasy]

3rd Life Remastered IRL Segment 3 part 1/2

A note to all of you this story is ficitonal everyone portrayed in this story (save for Slimer) is real and is used in a fictitious manner. This story is entirely satire everything they say and do is fictional so please do not harass anybody for anything that is said and done in this story. It is recommended to read the other parts of 3rd life remastered before reading this part. This story talks about touchy topics mainly Suicide and Self Harm. The main purpose of this story is to raise awareness for those struggling with mental health. This story is not for the faint of heart. With that being said please enjoy.

Slimer has just became a red life and he is very angry about it the voices in his head telling him he's worthless and he should just end it all. In his mind he won't be ok he NEVER WILL be ok. To me I'm just not- "Hey you doing ok?" A mysterious voice asks. I look up and see that Martyn is standing in the entrance to my tent. "Session's over come on let's go talk to our fans. And hey maybe after we're getting on the public server for the life smp. You in?" I just stare at him for a few moments trying to shake the voices out before saying "S-sure I'm in." Martyn leans forward and whispers in my ear "Are you ok after what happened?" Y-yeah I'm sure it's just hard because it was so sudden there were so many Enderman there but we had to build the portal to get back and an Enderman just teleported right in front of me so I looked at it and-" Martyn interrupts me saying "It's ok it happens to the best of us. Hey I went and put all your stuff in a chest next session go back next to the portal and get your stuff back." I start to calm down a bit and say "Thanks Martyn I really appreciate that"

A few hours later after getting back to the hotel Scar is waiting for me in the lobby. Scar waves at me in his wheelchair and says "Hey buddy so how does it feel being the first to be a red life now?" I look at him with a not so nice face and say "Shut up it's not funny" Scar looks a little offended but regains himself saying "Hey you know tomorrow we have a episode of the Scar Wars Buddies in our discord and our guest star this time since it's been revealed you have Mental Health is you my friend" I look a bit shocked and say "Will that video of me be mentioned at all?" Scar looks serious and says "You remember what everyone agreed we aren't going to talk about that if you don't want to if you want to bring it up though that's on you." I nod and look as Jill enters the lobby with Rylee pulling her. For the first time since I became a Red Life I have a smile on my face. "Hey you think we should invite Jill onto the server? She is my editor after al-" That's when another coughing fit begins and I take a huge puff of my inhaler. "Shoot I'm going to need to buy more at this rate. Rylee is giving me Rubbies yet JIll is making me happier than him and he's all I have left." I think to myself.

Later everyone is on the server and I decide to help Jill out a bit by giving her some starter equipment and that's when I see Rylee sitting next to Scar. "Traitor" I say before heading back to my home base where Etho is already messing around with my chest. "Do I even want to know what you're doing here Etho?" Etho looks at me and says "This is both of our bases I have as much a right to be here as you do even if Jill is with you" I sound serious and say "I meant what are you doing with my stuff" Etho says "I haven't taken anything just putting some stuff in there" Doodl3 watches me look in my stuff sees me turn to Etho and scream "ETHO WHY DID YOU JUST DUMP YOUR ENTIRE INVENTORY INTO MY CHEST." Etho says "It's our chest too we both share this place" "YOU MAKE ANOTHER CHEST NOT DUMP YOUR WHOLE INVENTORY INTO IT" I prematurely take another swig of my inhaler before continuing "YOU KNOW WHAT ETHO YOU STAY ON YOUR SIDE AND I'LL STAY ON MINE" I say before storming off away from the Life VIllage. That's when Gem approaches me and says "Hey what happened?" I sigh and say "Nothing much Etho just dumped his entire inventory into my chest Jill's back there with him till I get back" Meanwhile Etho is Expanding our base so to say Jill is grinning as she sees Etho breaking our house down only to rebuild it much.........wider.

As soon as I come back with Gem and Scar I see a humongous pit in the center of the house. Scar and Gem begin laughing but after a few minutes I calmly ask "Etho.......why is there a humongous pit in the middle of our base?" Etho laughs and says "You said you stay on your side and I'll stay on my side. Now I fixed that problem" I sound furious and say shout "THEY DRAW LINES TO INDICATE SIDES NOT PUT HUMONGOUS CRATERS IN THEIR HOUSE" I then see the chest on the opposite end "HEY WAIT THAT'S MY STUFF IN THERE" Etho shakes his character's head before saying "Yeah too bad it's now on this side" "WELL I'M GETTING MY STUFF BACK" Etho pulls out a Trident and says "Don't do it" He says as I begin blocking my way over. Etho throws the Trident at me and I fall a long way before landing on crafting tables before I can water bucket clutch. Scar suddenly bursts out laughing and says "He's sitting on his bed in our hotel room and he's hugging his dog right now" Gem and Etho burst out laughing before logging out. Before I log off I run up to Grian and say "ANNOYING VOICE AS ALWAYS GRIAN" before logging out. I begin to head to bed and tuck Rylee under my covers before he goes to lay with Scar. "TRAITOR" I say before heading to bed.

I shoot my editor @doodl3 a text saying "Sorry for getting so mad. Etho has been my partner in that server for the longest time and he's always found a way to get on my nerves. Sleep well"

[gaemkyuu]

Ready? Ready.

Mafia!AU Jungkook x Original Character Established relationship!

Summary: Things have never been better for Hana and Jungkook! Their relationship is back to what they wanted it to be and now with the upcoming arrival of their first child, they had so much to look forward to. However, things don’t go as smoothly as one would hope, not when Jungkook doesn’t answer his phone.

Warnings: Pregnancy, Mild Violence/interrogation, and medical procedures around pregnancy and childbirth but not graphic

A/N: Last one! Then I’ll be moving on to other works I have! Thank you for all the support and love I’ve received!

Disclaimer: This is a FICITONAL writing piece! In no way do I claim characters in this piece act this way in real life.

Hana’s hands shook as she passed Jungkook the envelope that would change everything for them. She went through an entire month of nausea and vomiting, worrying that she might be sick, but when she missed her period, they knew this could be it. They immediately bought tests from the store, some of them positive and some of them negative, so the only way to truly confirm was through a lab test. 

Normally, couples would be excited and waiting with baited breath. These two waited, anxious and nervous. It wasn’t like they didn’t want children or a family that expanded past the two of them. The two were a little scared as the last time Hana felt this way was shortly after they had gotten married and confirmed their pregnancy weeks later only to have a miscarriage at the beginning of the fourth month. There was no way to prevent it and while they were sad about it, they weren’t devastated. It did bring about a healthy conversation of the vision that they had for their life and to plan kids around it. 

They waited until three months had passed from when Hana missed her period, missing it again month after month, before they went to the doctors to get a formal lab test done. The boys all knew about their predicament and supported them in their decision to wait to find out and not tell anyone. They all knew that for the both of them, this baby would be the start of a new chapter, leaving everything in the past. 

“It’s positive!” Jungkook screamed, dropping the papers and lifting Hana to spin her around the room in excitement. The couple cheered and laughed in excitement as they read the results on the lab test from the hospital. The tension in the room was gone and Hana felt everything rush at her all at once, tears streaming down her face as he hugged her and kissed her head over and over again. “We’re gonna be parents Hana! I’m gonna be a dad!” he was over the moon and excited. “Baby why are you crying?” he chuckled, kissing her cheeks and wiping her tears away.

“I’m excited and-and happy, but I’m scared I’ll lose this one too” she sniffed and hiccuped. Jungkook clicked his tongue in disapproval, pulling her to his chest, cradling her head and shushing her sobs.

“That wasn’t your fault and you know it” he cooed, rubbing her back. “I won’t let us lose this one. I’m gonna take care of you and make sure you are both healthy” he smiled, kissing her head. He could see a little one running around their penthouse or their outings to the park. Things were coming together and he would make sure it came to fruition.

***

“Hey, you okay?” Hana jumped at the sound of Namjoon’s voice, lost in thought. The four Kims were seated around the conference table, each of them having a stack of paper that they were going through, occasionally typing away on their laptops. She had been focusing on a company account that for some reason dipped in the red while soothing her sizable pregnant belly. The baby had been moving around quite a bit causing her to flinch from time to time, rubbing her hand in the areas in hopes to soothe it. “Are you in any pain or discomfort?” he asked and the other two stopped what they were doing to focus on her.

“Let me guess,” Taehyung smirked. “Baby’s shadow boxing?” They all laughed at his observation and Hana nodded, smiling back. “Typical. He is Jungkook’s son” he rolled his eyes, shaking his head with a fond smile on his lips.

“Or Daughter” Seokjin pipped in, causing Taehyung to groan. “Look at the shape of her belly! It’s definitely a girl” he protested, cutting him off before he could rebuttal.

“We all know gender is a construct, it doesn’t matter if it’s a girl or boy” Namjoon sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, already annoyed that this argument came up time and time again, and he had to sit through it every time. They all froze as she drew in a sharp gasp, waiting bated breath to see if she was alright.

“Sorry, I’m fine. Just a hard kick to the rib is all” she smiled reassuringly, rubbing her tummy again.

“Did you drink anything caffeinated? Maybe that’s why they’re more movement” Seokjin, the oldest as usual, fretting more than he needed to, as if this were his own child. Realistically, they both knew that when this baby was born, it would be the first child from their generation and inevitably everyone would end up parenting them in some way.

“Relax. I haven’t had any caffeine today, remember? You all made it clear to my secretary and assistants that I’m not to be having any caffeine,” she rolled her eyes, missing the taste and effects of the brown liquid. She briefly locked eyes with Taehyung, who winked at her, a secret message and promised that he’d sneak her a cup later.

“We could play some music instead of sitting here in silence. I read that music can help soothe the baby while you rub your tummy” Namjoon suggested, pushing his chair back and stretching.

“Or we can stop and go for lunch? The other four are just wrapping up and we can meet them at the restaurant?” Taehyung suggested and Hana caught the mischievous look in his eyes. Suggesting they go out to lunch, especially by Taehyung standards, meant that they would probably get carried away in their fun and not have to work for the rest of the afternoon. 

“Lunch sounds like a great idea” she winked back at him, confirming that she was on to him and fully supported his plan. “You guys really aren’t going to argue against a pregnant woman’s appetite are you?”

The two eldest wearily looked at each other, catching the behavior of the younger two. They glanced at the stack of papers around them and silently weighed the situation in their minds, debating whether or not to shut the plan down or not. It wasn’t until Seokjin gave Namjoon a small smile indicating that he too was caving. Namjoon pinched the bridge of his nose again, letting out a big sigh.

“Fine. Tomorrow we order lunch in and work through our break”

***

Jungkook was annoyed. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He should’ve been at home with Hana, massaging her feet and telling his unborn baby about his day. Not in his suit with blaring music and lights around them.

They were at a club scouting out a threat that had been made against Bangtan and all hands were on deck. They heard rumors of a group of individuals trying to take down Bangtan, something they normally didn’t care about since they were so established and powerful. However, it was the discovery of a Rat who had been with the family for years, did they know this was a bigger threat than they thought. The rat was a trusted individual by the elders and had it not been for some poking around by Hoseok after Hana’s voiced concern, he would have flown under the radar and created an even bigger mess. 

The rat had been dealt with and disposed of much to Yoongi’s delight, but the information they did gather from them about what information was passed around was concerning. Addresses of certain safe houses were leaked, along with shipment and distribution dates and times. They increased surveillance and security on these factors, finding it odd that they hadn’t been attacked or ambushed. It was not the time for them to let their guard down though. If anything, it meant that they had to be extra careful. 

It comforted the group knowing that Yoongi and Hoseok were with Hana at home. The woman was a week away from her due date, not showing any signs of contractions or premature birth, but they couldn’t risk it. Not after the fact she had already been kidnapped. As much as they would’ve liked the seven of them together tonight, the precious cargo was too important, trusting their two strongest to take care of her, while the five of them handled things at the club. They weren’t looking to get into any physical altercations, but it didn’t mean that they weren’t armed. Guns were loaded, strapped and concealed on their bodies, prepared for a fire fight if it were to come to it. 

“The Kings of Bangtan? Here? At my club?” the silk voice of a man, pulled them out of their observations. 

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Namjoon being the diplomat and level headed one of the group rose to his feet, offering a hand shake, which the younger man gladly took.

“Jackson Wang. It’s been quite some time hasn’t it?” the nod was curt, familiarity between the two. Their gaze exchanged a private message, the others tensing and preparing themselves. “Unfortunately, I’m not here to visit you” he apologized and the man smiled fondly.

“I will say, I’m a little disappointed, but I figured as much” he glanced at Namjoon’s entourage, focusing in on Jungkook. “Congratulations Jeon. I hear you have a Junior on the way” Jackson’s congratulation was sincere, but unfortunately now wasn’t the time for it. It wasn’t a secret that Hana was pregnant and they were sure everyone who needed to know knew she was carrying his child. Still, he didn’t like it when she was brought up whenever he was working, especially in this environment with this circumstance hanging above their heads. Instead, Jungkook gave him a polite smile and nod of the head, not wanting to attract attention or take away from the point of their visit. “Let’s take this somewhere a little bit more private?” Namjoon nodded his head and began to follow Jackson towards the back of the club to the private area. “I found someone lurking around where they weren’t supposed to and figured you’d like to speak with them”

***

Yoongi rested with his eyes closed on the couch as Hoseok and Hana watched a movie, feet soaking in a bath and facemasks on their faces. He enjoyed listening to the laughter that would erupt from time to time between the two of them as a character in the film acted funny. He contemplated getting up to clean up the mess from their take out dinner, but opted to rest his eyes a bit more. With the shipping and distribution schedule leaked, he had been working more than normal, often sacrificing sleep in order to make sure everything went smoothly. He was on high alert, more than normal, and tonight he felt the exhaustion start to catch up with him. So much that he didn’t realize he drifted off to take a light nap. They both quickly picked up at the change in breaths of the older man, smiling at each other because they were glad he was finally able to get some sort of rest. They continued to watch the movie, trying their best to lower down their volume as the movie continued to crack them up. As the movie came to an end, they started cleaning up, being careful not to wake the sleeping man on the couch. It wasn’t until they were washing dishes and throwing food away that Hoseok noticed the look of pain cross Hana’s face. 

“I’m fine” she breathed, steadying herself as the pain quickly faded. She felt really mild discomfort from time to time that day, but as the movie was coming to an end they would hurt more and became more frequent. She had a week left into the pregnancy and knew she had to be prepared for early labor but surely contractions couldn’t happen this fast? All the books Hana read and the videos she watched said that the contractions start over a few days, and while the baby had dropped, she barely felt anything, waving it off as a false contraction. However, the more she thought about the pain and the frequency she began to get a little worried. 

“Are you having contractions?” he asked, turning off the sink and ushering her to the nearest stool. “How far apart are they?” he tried his best to keep his cool, but he couldn’t help it. If the baby was coming while the boys were doing business, he and Yoongi might be the ones walking into the delivery room with her.

“I don’t know. Help me time them” she sighed, relaxing a bit more into the chair and reaching for her phone. The two of them sat in silence, Hana marking down the time it happened, Hoseok counting how long her face contorted in pain. Hoseok quickly texted the group that Hana may have been having contractions, but no one responded or read the text and after sitting for an hour, he knew he and Yoongi were now in charge. “1 minute each, 15 minutes apart” her voice trembled a bit.

“Okay, you go wake up Yoongi and I’m going to start getting your stuff together” he declared, helping her up from the chair, even though she didn’t need it, and parting with her in the hallway. He rushed to their room grabbing the overnight bags they had preemptively packed, knowing that their child was coming soon. Thankfully, Jungkook had sent them all a screenshot of their list in the event he couldn’t be with Hana when they had to get to the hospital and Hoseok made sure to run over everything twice, making sure he didn’t miss a thing and hauled it all into the living room by the front door. 

“Hoseok, calm down.” Yoongi’s voice stopped him and interrupted the flurry of a storm that was running through his head. “We have time to get her there safely. The hospital is waiting for her and we’ve checked her in over the phone” he also nudged his head in Hana’s direction as she was seated on the couch, breathing through another contraction. He could tell by the look on her face that this one hurt more than the others, taking a deep breath as to not let his worry and panic show again. “H? We’ve got everything ready, let us know when you are” Yoongi rubbed her back, his voice calmer and lighter than normal, knowing that she was in a lot of discomfort. She nodded to let him know that she heard him, but she was so focused on the contraction that she couldn’t answer him back. The two waited patiently and quietly for her to be ready to move, feeling a little worried that no one had replied to the text thread.

“Okay, let’s go” she sighed, contraction passing and grabbing Yoongi’s hand to stand. They didn’t anticipate what would happen next. A gush of fluid rushed down her legs and her face paled, immediately looking at the two. “My water just broke”

***

“Let me ask you again,” sighed Namjoon, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Who do you work for?” he stared annoyedly at the man tied up in the chair. The man said nothing this time, a little too out of it from the previous hits he took. Scoffing at the lack of reply, Namjoon motioned for Jungkook to take another swing, the man coughing up blood.

“If you won’t tell us who you work for, then we could always ask your family” Jimin smirked when the man looked at him, eyes wide with fear. They knew nothing about this man, but this wasn’t their first interrogation. They knew techniques to find the weaknesses in their hostages.

“P-please... Don’t hurt them” he begged, attentive and coherent.

“Please. We aren’t sick like the people you associate it” groaned Taehyung, rolling his eyes at the cliche portrayal of mafia members. “I will say, if you don’t comply, life will be extremely difficult with a crippled father and blacklistings from banks” his face held no expression now, serious and scary. Bangtan didn’t believe in harming families, only using them for leverage. While the older generations may have done it, the boys refused. They knew how to get what they want, using violence or the harm of family members last. It wasn’t the child’s fault for their parents’ crimes, so why should they pay for it? However, they knew that if push came to shove, that would be the last option. 

The man’s lip trembled and they knew he was about the break. They stood there in the tense silence until the man broke out into sobs, spilling everything and begging for the protection of Bangatan. As irritated as Jungkook was, and as sore as his hand was, he could somewhat empathize with the man. He was sure that he would do everything to protect his family, and that included Bangtan. He would rather die than sell out his family or put their lives at risk. Knowing Bangtan, they would never let this happen to him either, as they were very keen on keeping their own safe and secret. While they had public identities and public relations, their ties were always kept secret in the best interest for everyone. They were high profile and if people found out their affiliations, other world leaders and politicians would fall with them. If Bantang wouldn’t let it happen, public leaders sure as hell wouldn;t as it would tarnish their name. As their questions for him came to a close, they were surprised to see Jackson burst into the room with a phone in his hand, panting and passing it to Jungkook.

“Where are you?!” he was expecting the rival gang to be on the phone, with a message threatening them once more. Not his screaming wife who was panting. “I’m at the hospital and they said the baby’s coming!” she squeaked, before another voice came into the phone.

“There is no way NONE of you checked your phone! Her water broke an hour ago and she’s 7cm! Get here now” Jungkook swallowed hard, looking at the others in panic, they too heard Yoongi’s growl. The phone went dead after that and they assumed it was to take care of Hana who was currently progressing through labor quickly. 

“Go! I’ll take care of the rest” Jackson assured, ushering the rest of them out of the room, leaving the once begging man confused and at a loss for words.

***

“Okay Mrs. Jeon, you need to get ready. You’re fully dilated and your contractions are close enough to push” the doctor smiled at her at her feet as she put her feet in the stirrups. The doctor smiled weakly at the two men on either side whose hands were being crushed as Hana pushed through another contraction. It wasn’t until this pain dissipated that Hana relaxed her grip on their hands and laid back, that she realized just exactly what the doctor said.

“I can’t. Jungkook’s not here yet” she whimpered, anxious that an hour had passed since they had called them. Hana had never felt this kind of pain before and seriously wished she could get an epidural. She had a mild case of anemia and her platelet count fluctuated her entire life, so they knew early on that she most likely wouldn’t be a candidate to get an epidural. She was confident Jungkook’s presence would help her through the pain and she hoped her high pain tolerance would help, but this was a completely new kind of pain she didn’t foresee. She tried really hard not to cry but everything felt incredibly overwhelming and she couldn’t hold it back. Her sniffles were soft and she wiped her tears away, Yoongi kissing her on the head and squeezing her shoulder in support.Hoseok tried to reassure her with a weak squish of her hand and a hopeful smile that Jungkook would be here on time.

“I can give you fifteen minutes, no more” the doctor sighed, truly understanding how important it was for a pregnant mother to have her husband with her. The doctor walked off to prepare herself to help birth the babies and the nurses flurried around making sure everything was ready to welcome the baby. Yoongi and Hoseok exchanged a look of concern, unconfident that Jungkook and the other’s would be arriving on time. In a rush to make a point and take care of Hana, they failed to ask him where they were and what was happening. They felt her squeeze their hands hard again, watching her bite her lips and more tears streaming from her eyes. Although she was in extreme pain, the two were extremely impressed at how well she was managing when showing her pain. They heard other women screaming and groaning as they passed by other rooms when Hana was rushed into her labor room. In the quiet moments, they could still hear cries of agony and distress far off that even the soundproof build of the unit couldn’t hide. They let her break their hand as she worked through the contraction, both of them eyeing the clock and watching her fifteen minutes dwindle.

“It hurts so bad” she whimpered, collapsing back onto the pillow and wiping more tears away.

“Are you sure we can’t get you an epidural?” Hoseok asked, desperate to find some way to ease the pain. 

“Her blood work didn’t pass the test. Doctor said it’s too risky” Yoongi sighed, rubbing her shoulder and bicep, hoping to soothe the tension that settled in them from the contractions. They both tensed as another one ripped through her, frowning as they were so frequent and strong, not to mention the doctor entering the room again, signaling her time was up. “H it’s time, we can’t wait anymore” Yoongi frowned, squeezing her shoulder.

“He isn’t here yet, please” she pleaded, tears fully streaming down her face. Hoseok wiped them away again and Yoongi caressed her head, softly planting a kiss on top of it. The doctor was fully dressed and ready to deliver the baby, so the likelihood of them walking away was low.

“Hana, you’re losing steam. You need to be able to push the baby out and I can tell you’re getting tired” Yoongi was firm but loving with her, knowing that he still had to push her to deliver the baby despite her wishes of Jungkook being there. His heart broke when she looked into his eyes, scared, in pain, tired and anxious.

“I can’t do this without him” she whimpered, another tear falling from her eye. Hana never pictured Jungkook’s absence when she thought about the birth of their child, but here she was without a husband, only two of her closest friends beside her. She knew Yoongi was right and that she had to deliver this baby now. She could barely hold her head up, exhausted from the discomfort and pain the labor process brought her, not to mention the rollercoaster of emotions she was feeling as a result of her missing husband.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Jeon, but if we wait any longer, we compromise the health of the baby” the doctor explained and both boys could immediately feel her anxiety rise. Hana now had to choose between the health of their child or the presence of her needed husband. Before she could reply, another contraction hit her and she knew that this baby was coming with or without Jungkook. “Okay Mrs. Jeon, it’s time to get your baby out” the doctor nodded more to the two at her side and Hana defeatedly agreed to follow the doctor’s orders. Yoongi and Hoseok coached Hana the best that they could, encouraging her throughout the process and reiterating the doctor’s instructions. She listened as much as she could, the pain and process taking up most of her focus, that she didn’t notice the sudden commotion that erupted briefly during her labor when her husband rushed in and the other two were rushed out. 

“You’re doing such a great job baby” she knew that voice, and realized that Jungkook had indeed replaced the other two. He was panting and there was sweat on his brow, most likely from his sprint to her. He kissed her forehead and cheek, smiling at her encouragingly. As much as she wanted to yell at him for being late, she needed to focus on delivering the baby. He assumed the previous role of Yoongi and Hoseok, guiding his wife through the process with the doctor, knowing how to encourage her in ways the other two did not. 

However, she was undeniably losing steam, her feet slack in the stirrups and her neck resting on the back of the bed. Hana was as upright as the bed setting could get her, but she kept slumping, making it more difficult for the baby to come out. There was so much noise and so much pain that all she wanted to do was fall asleep. They kept telling her she was close, but it felt like an eternity would pass each time. She could hear the doctor and she wanted to follow, but she was just so tired. Jungkook quickly maneuvered his way to sit behind Hana, pushing her body upright and tilting her head back to lay on his shoulder. “Okay Hana, you can do this. I’m right here with you” he cooed into her ear, kissing her temple. “Just focus on me okay? Focus on my voice and just do what I tell you to do okay?” He kissed her temple again, receiving the nod from the doctor that she was in a better position to push. “Push baby, push” he encouraged and Hana bit her lip, finding what little strength she had left. She felt an extreme stretch at her opening and gasped in pain, but Jungkook was quick to soothe her and calm her. “It’s the head baby, you’re almost there. Push baby” and she did. Hana only focused on his voice and his touch. Jungkook focused on listening to the doctor and calming his wife, gently sitting her up more and more, using his body to support her. She felt her body was splitting in half, but she was grateful that Jungkook continued to coach her, and with a few more pushes, the pressure disappeared.

A cry erupted in the room and Hana felt Jungkook rip at the buttons of her hospital gown to receive the baby against her bare chest. She felt the tiniest amount of weight on her bare chest and her arms instinctively came up to hold the newborn in her arms. She opened her eyes to look at her baby, tears of exhaustion and joy streaming down her face. Hana looked down in admiration, astounded how something so small and so beautiful had the craziest of entries into the world. The nurses then took the baby away and Hana finally collapsed in Jungkook’s arms, relieved at the arrival of her baby, still panting with her eyes closed in exhaustion. Jungkook sang praises in her ear and she could feel his tears on her temple as he kissed her over and over again. He coached her through the last push to rid her body of the placenta as the nurses took the crying baby to check vitals and clean them up. 

“Thank you baby. Thank you so much for giving me a child, for carrying them in your body, for all the work you put in” he softly cried, holding her exhausted frame to his chest, still behind her. “Fuck, I love you so much. Thank you” he kissed her temple again and held her until the nurses shooed him away to be with the newborn while they cleaned her up. Jungkook assured Hana that it was okay now and that she was able to rest, as he would take care of everything from thereon. She felt herself slowly slipping into a slumber, occasionally disrupted by a nurse asking her questions or the doctor checking her in. The next thing she knew, she was waking up to the soft sounds of her baby fussing and Jungkook’s gentle coos. “I know little one, I'll just fix your diaper and then we’ll wake up mama”.

Hana shifted and pushed her body up to let them know she was in fact awake, but they didn’t quite notice her. She took a moment to admire the sight before her and tears came to her eyes. Sure, she was still exhausted but to see her husband fix their child’s diaper and scoop them up, his smile ever present, made all of it worth it. Jungkook loved with his eyes first and the love he had in his eyes was the same he had for her, but something else sparkled in them. She could see the silent promises he made to their child, the happiness for their presence and the eternal love for them. Her small sniffle caught his attention, looking up alarmed, but understanding right away. “Look! Mama’s awake!” he cooed, walking over, eyes never leaving the baby. “Are you ready for Mama cuddles?” he asked as if there would be a reply. He gently loosened the swaddle as Hana unbuttoned the top of her gown again for some needed skin to skin contact. “Jeon Jiseol, meet your Mama” he smiled at her, passing the baby in her waiting arms.

“Hello my beautiful princess” she whispered, holding the little bundle of joy ever so carefully in her arms, as Jungkook moved to sit beside her on the bed. “Great name baby” she smiled, kissing his cheek, “I couldn’t have thought of anything better” he kissed her forehead, linking his finger with Jiseol’s tiny hand.

“How are you feeling?” She could hear the concern in his voice but also the joy of this new chapter. 

“Tired, but it was so worth it. Isn’t that right, beautiful?” she cooed, kissing the top of her daughter’s head softly. 

“So worth it,” he chuckled softly, admiring both of his beautiful girls. “The nurse should be coming soon to help you nurse for the first time. Then breakfast should be arriving and visiting hours will be open. Your mom and dad are flying in and should be here by tomorrow morning.” he recited, which was foreign to Hana as she normally was the one who knew all the plans. Jungkook listed off their hospital itinerary as if he was her secretary but never took his eyes off of their daughter. However, she saw the slight furrow in his brow as he suddenly grew silent. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there” he whispered, unable to look her in the eyes.

“I mean, I wanna say it’s fine, but it was really scary,” Hana admitted, Jungkook looking at her apologetically. “However, it does make a very entertaining story” she giggled, much to his relief. “Where were you anyways?” she asked, laughter in her eyes at their situation.

“We were interrogating a guy and our phones weren’t in the room. Didn’t want to be tapped. Luckily one of the two was able to get a hold of Jackson. Unfortunately, the club was all the way in Chuncheon, despite me breaking traffic laws” he sighed heavily, remembering the chaos that ensued after they received the phone call. Right after the call, they ran out of the club and piled into the SUV, telling their other staff to stay behind and help out Jackson. The four of them sped back to Seoul breaking all traffic laws without garnering too much attention. As soon as they pulled up to the hospital, Jungkook jumped out of the car and demanded to know where his wife was. He sprinted up the stairs to rush to her, only for Yoongi to hold up his hand for him to stop before coming any closer. Yoongi explained that Hana was losing steam and the doctor was worried that they would have to proceed into surgery, so Jungkook had to figure out a way quick to get her back to pushing. Grateful for the older two, he nodded and replaced them to help Hana. 

Now they sat there with their bundle of joy. Jungkook had never known this type of love and happiness. He thought what he felt with Hana would be the strongest he would ever feel towards anyone, but having his daughter here, a family to call his own, that was greater than he could imagine. He was a dad. He would be the one to protect his princess against monsters under her bed and boys that would break her heart. To walk her down the aisle when she gets married and to welcome their grandkids into the world. He stared lovingly in her eyes and silently promised the world to her as he did when he married Hana. 

Their moment was interrupted by the nurse knocking on the door, entering to help Hana nurse her baby for the first time. The nurse smiled sheepishly, embarrassed that they were interrupting a very intimate moment, but knowing that they had to. Jiseol began to whimper and whine, a cry starting to leave her mouth as she sensed feeding time had arrived. Jungkook watched attentively as if he was the one being taught how to nurse and of course Hana was a natural at it. She was able to nurse Jiseol so smoothly that the nurse complimented her and their daughter. The nurse stayed and they made small talk while Jiseol fed, Jungkook jumping at the opportunity to burp her when she was finished. 

“Your breakfast should be here shortly, but there is a group of men waiting downstairs to visit you. Are you comfortable if I send them in?” the nurse asked, updating the chart at the foot of the bed, knowing that these two had everything taken care of. 

“Yes, but if possible,I’d like to wash my face and freshen up a bit before you send them up” Hana requested, moving to get up and out of the bed on her own, wincing at the discomfort between her legs.

“Here, let me help you!” The nurse rushed to her side and escorted her to the bathroom in the room, leaving Jungkook and Jiseol to have quality time together while Hana freshened up. Hana wasn’t used to having someone attend her and help her around, but she was grateful for the nurse as she found getting ready more exhausting than usual, not to mention the increasing pain in her nether region after peeing. She made due with her appearance knowing that she didn’t have to look put together, but still wanting to be fresh before seeing her family. After settling back into her bed, the nurse adjusted the bed in a more comfortable position, and went to fetch Jiseol’s eager uncles as her breakfast rolled in. She managed to eat a couple bites before the seven men rushed into the room, Jungkook’s loud SHHHH, causing them to whisper and tone down their excitement.

“God, you look great for a woman who just pushed a watermelon out of her vagina” Taehyung chuckled, kissing his cousin on the head and cheek.

“Do you have to be so graphic about it?” moaned Jimin coming around the other side of the bed, who also kissed Hana on the head and cheek, something they’ve always done since they were younger.

“You weren’t the one in the room when she first started labor” scoffed Yoongi, pushining Taehyung out of the way to give her a side hug.

“Or the one whose hand she crushed,” Hoseok teased, as he massaged her feet gently, smiling at her. 

“Hana, she’s beautiful,” Seokjin cooed, already pulling Jiseol away from Jungkook, showing her off to Namjoon.

“You’re so tiny. So cute,” everyone laughed at Namjoon’s sudden cute baby voice he adapted when speaking to Jiseol, that a blush rose to his face in embarrassment. The leader Namjoon, cold as ice and level headed, melting in front of his niece. They poked fun at him, mocking him and passing the baby around, giving Jungkook and Hana a moment to rest and enjoy their company. In true Seokjin fashion, he brought them food that was still warm, stating that the food at the hospital wasn’t made with the finest ingredients that would contribute to both of your health. He vowed to cook for the both of you every day that you were going to stay in the hospital, not taking no for an answer. As they joked about the new chapter of their life, Jungkook sat back watching them interact with each other and his daughter.

“Thank you Hana'' he whispered, afraid that if he spoke any louder, his voice would crack and he would lose his composure. “You’ve given me the world and more” he kissed her softly on the lips, ignoring the rest of them as they reveled in the beginning of the next chapter of their lives.

Taglist: @thedarkwinterrose

[coquettedragoon]

When it comes to war fiction do you like to draw from (mostly contemporary) ficton or any non-fiction/classical sources?

bits of both? if you asked me what my influences were with war fiction the list would be like gundam 1979, legend of the galactic heroes, catch 22, all quiet on the western front, verhoevens starship troopers, and then a million small articles or essays or w/e of accounts of being in war. im in the position (same as most of these works) of being fascinated by war and just utterly disgusted with it. i think people write war ficiton to try and wrap their head around how such a terrible thing is real and ongoing, but idk. my brain is just my brain.

this insane account from a soldier who killed civilians using a anakin skywalker avatar in vrchat is something that is stuck in my head forever.

[drkoestersmithrpg]

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

I had a Starker dream.

And, beause it was a DREAM, it was awful.

But it was so EPIC I think I’ll have to post about it on Tumblr

(But I ALWAYS wake up thinking ALL my dreams are epic, so I am telling you first.  Later I might read it and decide it’s not so awesome.)

So - I was Peter Parker.  all the adventures were over and everybody had settled down.  Tony and Pepper were off living their lives.  I happened to be at ONE of their houses, not one they were nessessarily at right that second.  I was invited to go work out in the newest, fanciest gym, which is why I was in his house.

And that’s when I found out that Tony knew about my Epic Starker Fanfic.

Because I had written an Epic Starker Fanfic.  Multi-chapters, with other characters and plot and twists and a trhilling conclusion.  Something like The Thing That Lives Under The Bed, but not an AU.  It was about our real life adventurs.  There was a LOT of sex in it, because of course there was, as well as a long emotional arc.  I had used actual things that we had actually been through, and added a lot of analysis on how Tony’s expieriences affected the decisions he made (you know, romantically, like when he pushed people away)and how that informed his emotional journey.  To the epic conclusion where we wound up together.

It was a novel.  What can I say?  Everyone else settled down and got on with th their lives.  I wrote a Starker Novel.

Now my brain was on fire.  Had Tony really READ the whole thing?  (Probably, he reads very fast.)  What did he THINK?  Did he feel like it was an invasion of privacy?  (Hard to say, he was Tony Stark AND Ironman.  Ficiton had been written about him for decades now.)  More importantly, DID HE RECOGNIZE THE PARTS that only I could have known about?  Was he focused on the intamacy (this novel was MORE like “The Perils of Dating Tony Stark” than “Thing.”  Lots and lots and lots of casual sex, then epic sex, right up until the conclusion where they decide to be together.)  Or was he reading the analysis of his emotional state and his behavior?  What would he think about that?  How would he react now that he knew (or at least, now that he could confirm) how I felt about him?

I couldn’t have these thoughts while riding a Very Lame Stationary Bycicle, so I retreated into a dark room.

Tony’s bedroom.

I REALLY needed to think about the part where Tony had read all the hawt!Starker scenes that I had slaved over for so long.  Even if we nevre wound up together, even if our friendship was never anything but platonic, it was still HUGE that he had read those scenes.  It was a type of intimacy, in it’s own way.  

I REALLY wanted to stay in that dark room, in Tony’s bedroom, to think about it.

Problem was, it was dark in this narrow bedroom because it was dark outside.  But now it was daytime and I realized that the walls were ALL GLASS (because of course they were) and people could see inside.  The room was on the second floor of The House That Was Famously Tony Starks House and not only COULD people walking by look up to look into the room, they DID ON A REGULAR BASIS to see who had been staying at the Tony Stark house.  Who was the guest?  Was it someone famous?  I fled.

Many stilly unrealted dream-like things happened, all getting inbetween my quest to find out WHAT Tony knew, if he even knew I had written the fic at all, and if he had even really read it or had already dismissed the whole thing and forgotten about it.

Then two younger people we both knew came up to me, teasing me about the romance I had written about me and Tony.  Stonefaced, I denied I had ever written such a thing.

It was easy to deny.  They were holding a published book.  With professional art on the cover.  *I* hadn’t written a book.  I had written a fanfic novel on Ao3.  Under my Ao3 name.

Their faces fell.  They mentioned a woman’s name... something like Ashleighiy or Brayidenn or something like that.  “Ashleighiy/Brayidenn told us YOU had written it,” they confessed.  

That’s when it hit me.

I HAD told Ashleighiy/Braidenn about my story.  And she had stollen it.  Stollen it, and written it up as her own, putting her name in it, and published it.  Now it was selling as a I Slept With Tony Stark tell-all book.  Because of course she did.

Now I was REALLY confused.  There were things in that story that ONLY TONY AND I WOULD KNOW and I couldn’t guess how much of that translated into her tell-all book.  I went searching Tony’s other-house for answers.

Inside, I naturally realized that OF COURSE Tony and Pepper’s house didn’t consist of a gym and a narrow bedroom.  OF COURSE their house was huge and opulant.  I passed through a kitchen where 12 dogs and one cat slept.  (That made me rethink ANY idea of Tony and I ever getting together.  Tony and Pepper were an established couple.  Still, I really wanted to have a conversation with him about the novel I had written about the two of us.)

Then I found it.

Tony had (because of course Tony had a lot of money) bought the EXPENSIVE set of Ashleighiy/Brayidenn’s book.  Which included PICTURES.

In plain brown wrappers.  Each chapter included glossy pictures in a plain brown wrapper.

Because Ashleighly/Braidenn was a playboy model.  Because of course she was.  And she had millions of professional photos of herself to chose from.  When you bought the super expensive set of her book, you got the glossy photos of her from her playboy centerfold days as well.

This is when the dream turned sour.

I opened one envelope only to find all the moodboards for my Ao3 epic novel.

Because I had printed out the entire book.  Along with the moodboards (that I had made?  I guess Peter Parker could probably figure out how to make good moodboards.)  

I realized, right then and there, I was going to have to burn the whole thing.  Pictures and all.  Deleate it from Ao3.  It was terrible to see all that work dissapear, but that was what I had to do.

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That’s it.  Then end.  I see AT LEAST two Starker fics that could be written from this - Peter getting jealous when Tony talks to a former playboy model that he famously banged - Tony finding Peter’s fanfic and confessing that Peter had him dead to rights - he WAS emotionally closed off beause of all the things Peter write about... but I don’t have much writing time in my future.

UNLESS I publish what I just wrote.