#but holy fuck dude the thought of more bugs being on me? IN FUCKING WOUNDS??? I'm gonna kill myself actually

[mosspapi]

(tw brief discussion of sh, OCD triggers, bugs)

Dear my phone: highlighting my pictures of a cut and telling me to "look up the bugs in this photo" is not fucking helping my OCD

[uglymanchronicles]

Ugly Man Chronicles Reignition Book 2 Chapter 2: My Breakfast With Evan

Just a couple dudes getting to know each other.

“If you must know,” Evan sighed, spearing a glistening sausage on the end of a flimsy plastic fork, “my jackass older sister thought it would be hilarious to give me a cupcake she'd baked with about a dozen powdered viagra for my fifteenth birthday. I wound up passing out eventually. Burst a lot of blood vessels. Damaged the erectile tissue beyond usefulness.”

Titus froze mid-coffee-sip. “Seriously? What a bitch!”

“Buddy, you don't know the half of it.”

“So... no signs of life down there?”

“Nothing for twelve years.”

“I think I would literally kill myself.”

“It's not so bad, I guess. At least I don't have to drain the blood out of it any more.”

“Eugh! Fuck! Did not need to hear that!”

“Well, maybe you shouldn't ask questions you don't want the answer to.”

“Do you get, like, blue balls all the time, then?”

“That's basically my ground state of being.”

Titus whistled flatly, avoiding looking Evan in the eye. He settled for staring at the table. There wasn't a lot of Evan's face that he felt comfortable looking at; every part seemed to at least be adjacent to some unpleasantry or another. About the only safe area was his right eye, which, as luck would have it, was directly opposite Titus's 'good' eye. Titus rallied and met Evan's gaze again. “Alright, your turn.”

They'd agreed on a sort of mutual interview process, taking turns asking questions to suss out what the other was capable or if he was worth having around. Evan took a bite out of the sausage and chewed thoughtfully for a moment.

“Who's Moreno?”

Titus hissed through his teeth. “A real piece of shit.”

“I'm going to need more than that.”

“I'm getting to it. He's basically, like... a freelance henchman? Like, sort of a mercenary criminal. Sells his services to the highest bidder.”

“And why's he matter?”

“That's another question.”

“No, it is not,” Evan said, quiet and serious. “Do not argue with me in bad faith, Titus. I have very little patience for it in the best of times.”

Titus regarded him for a long moment. The man across from him was wider than the table they sat at. His muscles were so pronounced in some points that Titus could tell when he was about to move by the way they bulged and contracted. Yet he gave the impression that he was constantly trying to pull himself inward, to make himself smaller. He spoke quietly and with a simple formality, but only hours before Titus had watched him single-handedly beat down some of the nastiest people he'd met in the past month.

Hmm.

“Fine. Moreno matters because I'm after the guy he's working for. You see, Moreno isn't just a normal scumbag. He works for people who need nasty things done. Not like regular nasty, either. How much do you actually know about magic?”

“I've got some... notes. So far I'm not able to find a lot of coherent rules. It mostly seems like it relies on things that nobody would normally do.”

Titus snapped his fingers and pointed at Evan. “Hit it right on the head. Rituals, reagents, that kind of thing... the reason—well, one of the reasons—magic doesn't just happen all the time by accident is that it's all weird little things. A lot of the more heavy magic relies on some pretty elaborate and obtuse shit to get it going.”

Evan momentarily thought back to the Book of Fate and his ritual in the woods. “So Moreno does these things for people?”

“Yeah. Thing is, though...” Titus stopped raising a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth and set it down again, as if he'd momentarily lost his appetite. “The people who use his services generally practice some pretty vile magic. Real depraved shit. And to empower depraved magic, you need depraved rituals. Moreno is the guy you go to when...”

“I think I get it,” Evan interjected, since Titus seemed to be struggling with deciding whether to continue. “Your turn.”

Titus tapped his fingers on the table for a moment, then looked Evan in the eye. “How smart are you?”

The scars on Evan's face squirmed around as he actually smirked. “What kind of question is that?”

“Hey, we agreed no 'whys'.”

“Alright, alright. Well, there's really no objective metric for it, but... I have Master's degrees in computer science and theoretical physics, Bachelor's in those in addition to mathematics and electrical engineering, and associate's degrees and certificates in everything from EMT training to ballet. I should have my doctorate in physics, but...” he said, with a bitterness that Titus made a note of, then changed gears. “Oh, and I also speak Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, French, and Arabic pretty fluently. I also know ASL. I can get by in German and Russian, too. I don't know if any of that is what you meant but--”

“Jesus, I get it,” Titus muttered, rubbing the side of his head. “How the fuck do you make money?”

“Software consulting, mostly. I specialize in security and processing efficiency. People pay me to break into their systems and then patch the holes, or to make their code run quicker or make their programs smaller. I've got a few patents I've licensed that bring in most of my income nowadays, though.”

“Anything I would have heard of?”

“If you've used a computer made in the last four years it probably has something I wrote integrated somewhere into it. I also helped develop a protein-sequencing program that helped develop a vaccine for this nasty SARS variant that broke out in China last year. They say if they hadn’t nipped it in the bud it could’ve spread worldwide and we’d be looking at millions of deaths by now.”

Titus scrunched up his face. “Oh yeah, just say that like it’s no big deal.”

“I’m just glad it turned out not to be one. What I'd really like to do is get my compression algorithm out there, but if I do that, somebody's going to try to hoard it all for themselves.”

“Are you talking to yourself or me?”

“Look, I... a few years ago I figured out a way to compress memory down by a exponential factor of six with zero loss. All it takes is a couple software plugins that don't take up much room themselves. Essentially, I could make a gigabyte fit in a kilobyte with very little trouble, now that the math's figured out.”

“Holy fuck, that's insane! Why haven't I heard anything about this?”

“Mainly because I don't tell people. If I put it up on the market, some ISP would buy it and bury it. If you make information smaller, you make it faster. Can you imagine what it'd do to internet access if dial-up and barebones cellular networks suddenly had the bandwidth of fiber optics? It would... maybe not revolutionize our society, but it would level a lot of playing fields. Bring a lot of underdeveloped areas of the world—hell, this country—up to modern levels with no extra cost. The telecomms would crash and burn so hard. But I don't have the means to get it out there without going through someone else. Yet,” Evan added. “So I basically work watered-down versions of the compressor into the software I make. Nothing that can be duplicated, and nowhere near its full potential, but enough to get me hailed as some kind of genius and pay the bills.”

“So why aren't you on your own private island or something somewhere instead of puttering around God's Ashtray in a shitty old Bug?”

“Hey, the Beetle is not shitty,” Evan said, defensively. “And I'm just waiting for the AC in my RV to get fixed or I'd be driving that.”

“Oh hot damn! Now that's the way to live!”

“Not the one I'd choose voluntarily, but it could be worse.”

“How come you're doing it, then?”

“I think it's my turn to ask,” Evan said, mildly.

“Fine,” Titus said grumpily, crossing his arms.

“How do you make money?”

“That's easy. I'm basically a freelance bailbondsman. I just roam around, drop my advertising around bars and courthouses.”

“You get many clients that way?” Evan asked, cocking his remaining eyebrow.

“Oh, you'd be amazed how desperate people can get,” Titus said, shrugging. “Of course, they're usually not the most responsible people, so when they bounce, I track 'em down myself, drag ‘em back to jail, get the money back. My eye usually makes it super easy. Sometimes they don't even see me before I get the cuffs on 'em.”

“Why did you feel the need to rob a bunch of drug dealers, then? The thrill of it?”

“I had a pressing need for a large amount of cash that my normal work doesn't bring in. That got me enough to hold it off for a while. My turn.”

Evan waved down a waitress for a refill of his coffee, trying not to take it personally when she gasped upon seeing his face. “Go ahead…”

“No, no, hang on.” Titus waved a hand dismissively. “I want to try something. Take your hair out of the ponytail.”

“What? Why?”

“Humor me.”

Evan groaned and reached back, removing his hair tie. After shaking his head, his hair fell over his face, obscuring everything but his nose and mouth. Titus pursed his lips and regarded him seriously for a moment.

“Can you see?”

“Yeah, I guess. Well enough to not walk into things, I think, and I could probably read if I had to.”

Titus snapped his fingers. “Good. Go with that from now on.”

“Why?”

“Because now you don’t look like God’s mistake. Now you look like a big, dumb-but-lovable goon. Like Jack Black would voice you in a cartoon.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

“Do you like seeing people contemplating their own mortality and the general cruel absurdity of the tragic farce that is human existence when they get a glimpse of your face?”

Evan felt his cheeks burn and was actually grateful his hair was covering most of his face. “…not particularly, no.”

“Then there you go. You’re welcome. Okay, question time. Uh… how did you get your powers?”

“Which one?”

“Oh, now who’s arguing in bad faith? Fucking all of them, you thick-lipped gargoyle.”

Evan had the feeling he hit a sore spot. Titus's easy-going, jocular tone had bled away from him, leaving behind the hard-edged razor-blade of a man that had ambushed him the night before. He decided not to belabor the point.

“I don't know why I can rege—why I heal so quickly. No, I'm serious, as far as I know, it just started happening sometime in the past few months. I can't remember. Don't look at me like that, I'll get to that in a minute. When I was younger I recovered from a lot of injuries a lot quicker than the doctors thought I would, so maybe it's something I was born with and it just got stronger recently for some reason.”

Evan took a sip of coffee, mainly to buy a few seconds to think of how much to explain for the next part.

“The ability to shut off powers... that's part of, well, I guess you'd call it a magic ritual, because I don't know what else to call it. I found a weird old book that said it contained the key to making someone an instrument of universal justice, or something of the sort. Since then I can see... I guess they're souls? Maybe? I can sort of move mine and when I run it into someone else's it seems like I can shut off their powers. Or... take them entirely, if they're dying.”

“Horseshit!” Titus scoffed. “That's... that's like meta-magic. I don't even know if that's real.”

“No, seriously! I don't think it's just magic powers, I think it... 'normalizes' things.” He briefly recounted his encounter with the pain monster.

“Are you kidding me? That...” Titus took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, exhaling slowly and loudly. “Look, I don't know much, but the fact that you even ran into something like that, let alone survived... those odds are astronomical. And you say you negated not just its powers, but its whole form?”

“Yeah. Once I... reached into it, like I did with you—oh don't make that face. Grow up—I kind of disrupted what made it... different, I guess? Like I cut it off from its special qualities. Like it was...”

“Disjuncted,” Titus cut in.

“Yeah, that's a good word for it. Like the old Mordenkainen spell?”

“Fucking nerd.”

“Eat my ass. Anyway, after I killed it, I was able to reach into its... soul? Animating force? Aura? I don't know what to call it. I was able to grab something and pull it out and it just got pulled into me.”

“Not aura.”

“What?”

“Aura's a different thing,” Titus said, dismissively. “So what did you get from doing that?”

“I.. I feel pain differently. I don't flinch or get adrenaline rushes from injuries that don't actually impede my ability to function. I think I have a better sense of what is actually dangerous to my body now. It still hurts, but I don't react to pain like people normally do. It's like...hmm.” Evan drummed his fingers on the table. “Do you know anything about video games? Fighting games, specifically?”

“I used to fuck around on an old Alpha 3rd Strike cabinet when I was a kid. Why?”

“Do you know what 'super armor' is?”

“Isn't that where a move can't get stopped by being hit when you're doing it?”

“Right. I'm kind of like that now. Pain doesn't interrupt me.”

“Fucking nerd.”

Evan's fist involuntarily clenched. “I'm trying to put this in terms you can understand, you stupid reprobate. My experience with your judgment thus far hasn't given me much faith in your intellect.”

Titus burst out laughing. “So he does know how to banter! I thought you might be one of those Rainman types.”

“Oh sure, call it 'banter' to try to excuse the fact that you've been insulting me for the past half hour. Do you say you're ‘just joking’ when people get mad at you for saying stupid shit, too?”

“C'mon, lighten up! We're partners now! Tell me more about this soul thing. I still think you're full of shit.”

Evan sighed through his nose, then held up his left hand, forming his fingers into a circle and peering through them.

“Yours is... a sort of cross between a sea green and an oil slick. The tendrils of it keep reaching out and snapping back, going all over the place. It seems to keep expanding and contracting. It's almost flickering, like... it's indecisive. Very chaotic. The tendrils that aren't snapping around seem to be kept pretty close to your body, wrapping around you like... I can't tell if it's protective or restrictive.”

Titus's expression slowly became serious. “What does that mean?”

“I don't know. I have a lot of theories, but nothing solid to go on. I'm not sure if it's allegorical or a literal representation of a person's... power, maybe? Yours definitely looks a lot different than most people's.”

“I don't believe this for a second. Let me see.”

“How would I do tha—hey!”

Titus grabbed Evan's wrist and held his hand up to his eye. “Ho-lee...”

He pulled back from Evan's hand, staring at him. Then he looked around the room, mouth slack as he took in the diner's other occupants.

“Huh. Did you know it keeps working until you blink?” He said after a moment, a faraway tone to his voice.

“I didn't even know other people could do it,” Evan said, awe in his voice. “Hey, wow, you're right!”

“Jesus, yours is, like, really blue. It looks like... a bunch of steel cables. It's weird, I felt like I both could and couldn't see the edges of it...”

“I can kind of move it, but I'm not sure if I can do anything with it beyond interfering with people's powers. It's like learning to use a muscle you didn't know you had.”

“Huh.” Titus was again silent for a long moment. “Your turn.”

“Can you do anything else supernatural? Besides your time-eye?”

“Don't call it that, it sounds stupid. And... sorta. I seem to have whatever innate talent you need to actually do magic, but it's not like it's easy to find instructions. Most of the people I know who can use it just dabble with half-broken magic items—wands, amulets, charms,” he pulled the silence charm out from under his coat and bounced it at the end of its chain. “I guess I'm sort of a dabbler. I know a few tricks, I can use a lot of magic tools, I can sense magic pretty well, I can dowse... Most of the time I really never have to use anything besides the eye, though.”

“Is the eye all-or-nothing?”

“Yeah. It's not nearly as useful as you'd think, but any edge is an edge.”

“When I turned off your power and it was coming back, though, you started speeding up—or, I guess, everything else was slowing down? You were moving faster, one way or the other. You were able to touch me, and those punches hurt.”

“Huh, yeah, you're right.”

“Do you think there's a way you could learn to only partially activate it?”

“That'd be great, wouldn't it? Thing is, just using it is a huge strain, and that time spend outside of time adds up. Going by normal calendar time I'm only 26.”

“Fuck, I'm 27!” Evan laughed.

“Yeah, well, I'd rather be prematurely gray than what you've got going on. My turn. Uh... huh, I can't really think of anything else. Uh... are you gay?”

“Are you fucking serious?”

“No, but the question still counts.”

“I'm bi,” Evan mumbled, crossing his arms across his prodigious chest. “Not that it matters. And before you ask, no, you are not my type. We're done talking about this.”

“Huh. You ever sucked--”

“We. Are. Done. Talking about this.”

“Fine, God. Go.”

Evan mentally circled back to an earlier question he felt hadn't been properly answered. “Why are you after Moreno?”

To Evan's surprise, Titus didn't hesitate. “I'm actually after his current boss. He's just the best lead I have to go on.” He took a deep breath, then started talking with a rushed, deadpan pace, as if he was eager to get the words out as quickly as possible so they wouldn't be in his mouth very long.

“Moreno is working for a guy only known as the Soultaker. He has an innate supernatural ability to pull a person's soul out of their body. When that happens, the person just... shuts down, usually. No motive force behind them. Eventually they just die of dehydration, usually. I've seen some people so set in routine that they keep going without a soul, but... it's not really life.

“It seems like the extraction process takes a while, so he can't just walk past you on the street and pickpocket your entire essence. So he needs people rounded up for him, held until he can do his nasty juju. So that's where a degenerate like Moreno comes in.

“So when he pulls out a soul, it, well, it looks like this.”

Titus pulled a battered, faded Crown Royale bag out of his jacket. It bulged strangely and made a quiet clacking when he set it on the table. He pulled out what looked like a large marble, or maybe a dull pearl, and handed it to Evan.

Evan brushed his hair out of his eyes and peered into the milky depths of the sphere. After a few moments of staring, the murky clouds inside the thing seemed to clear and a face floated to the surface. A black man, maybe in his late 40s, going thin on top. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping, but his expression had a look of discomfort to it, as if he was having a bad dream.

“Jesus Christ,” Evan whispered, “I've seen this guy... Martell Calloway? I saw some news article about how his family found him tied up in his apartment and completely comatose! But he didn't have any injuries beyond being a black eye... so he's dead?”

“Life support,” Titus said, taking Mr. Calloway's soul back from Evan's unresisting fingers, “technically, he's one of the lucky ones. They found his body before it wasted away to nothing, and I was able to intercept his soul before it got to a buyer.”

“Why would someone buy something like this? What use is it? Can you fix him?”

“A human soul is a damn near exhaustible arcane battery,” Titus said gravely. In the split second between sentences, Evan noticed something—after he'd put the bag back into his jacket, Titus surreptitiously touched a pocket on the other side of his jacket, as if he was making sure something was still there.

“If you know what you're doing, you can power a lot of magic using a soul. And you can reuse them as long as you don't overdo it. If you know what you're doing, you can wring all but the last drops of essence out of a soul and let it heal or recover or whatever, and it'll eventually be back to full strength. Very resilient things,” Titus continued. “I don't think they're conscious in there, but... anyway, it's supposed to be really hard to extract a soul. But this guy was born with or spontaneously developed or somehow figured out a shortcut to the whole process. So the market is getting flooded with torture-batteries and ECUs are getting flooded with vegetables. And families are winding up with loved ones who are as good as dead, without having any idea why this happened to them. Dozens of them have been taken off life support in the past few months. Half these souls have no body to return to. And no, I can't fix it. At least not yet,” he sighed again. “I was hoping once I found him, I could somehow get the secret out of him or force him to put them back, or... maybe I thought if I killed him it'd reverse the effect. He needs killing, either way.”

Titus's eye widened as a thought struck him and he looked Evan in the eye for the first time since he'd started the story. Evan realized what he was thinking and looked down at the tattoo on his left arm, flexing his fingers.

“If you can take people's powers after they die...”

“...then we can save these people.”

Titus put a hand over his mouth and for a moment Evan thought he saw his eye well up.

“I'm in,” Evan said, a sense of righteous purpose welling in his heart. “I don't really know what the universe wants, but I doubt... I know it's not this. We'll find him, we'll stop him, and we'll save as many of these people as we can.”

“...thanks,” Titus mumbled behind his hand. He swallowed hard, then seemed to come back to himself. “We're back to square one, though.”

“You said you could dowse? Like, for real?”

“Yes, for real. I can find things and people with the pendulum method. It's handy for tracking down bounties.”

“Why don't you dowse Moreno?”

“Why didn't I think of that?!” Titus said incredulously, smacking his forehead. “Because he's warded. He's not magic himself, but he's collected enough gear through his career that my normal methods don't work.”

Evan rubbed his chin. “What if we used an abnormal method?”

-------------------

An hour later, they were in the RV. Titus was poring over the collection of Evan's notes and the strange papers he'd bought from Delmann's shop. Evan was very carefully slicing a strip of skin from his own ankle up all the way up his leg. The Guiding Light—the Finder's Follysat on the table between them, filled with fresh blood.

“Even if this works, he's going to know we're coming,” Titus muttered, engrossed in the pages. “Remember what I said?”

“That's why we're not going to look for him,” Evan said, adjusting his grip on the potato peeler. “I don't know how we'd even write his name. Can you read that, by the way?”

“Kind of. This is... most of this is written in, like, arcane pidgin. Who compiled these notes?”

“I did, I think.”

“You think?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to clarify on that. Apparently a couple months ago, before the ritual, I drilled a hole in my own brain to erase some kind of very dangerous memory.”

“You what.”

“That's not a metaphor or anything. Really did it. I could show you the video.”

“I'll pass. So you don't remember where this came from?” Titus shook the Book of Fate at him.

“Nope.”

“Jesus shit, do you have any idea--”

“How reckless that was? Yeah, yeah, I'm still here and I'm the answer to your fuckin' prayers, aren't I?” Evan gave a whoop as the peeling skin reached his thigh. “Got it this time!” he said cheerfully, snipping the flesh-ribbon off with scissors.

“God, that's so fucking gross. Anyway, you haven't explained how we're going to use that thing to find Moreno.”

“We don't set it to look for him. We look for somewhere he's been. Maybe the last place he slept. Do you think you can describe him well enough in that language for it to work?”

Titus looked like he might actually be impressed, but he hid it well. “Yeah, probably.”

“Good. I've got a dictionary I've put together on that tablet next to you, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. Maybe it'll help?”

---------------------

Two hours later, they had it.

Find where a man born between the 27th and 28th north parallels during a new moon under the sign of capricorn with black hair and green eyes who has killed at least 10 people slept in the past week.

They really had to squeeze the letters in, but when Evan put a flame to the wick, it sprung to life, wavered for a moment, and then pointed east. Both men cheered. Evan threw Titus the keys.

“Drive! Drive north until I tell you otherwise!”

While Titus started the engine, Evan spread a map of the United States on the table in front of the lamp, then produced a protractor and a notebook from a drawer. “Okay, you bastard... let's see where you've been hiding...”

It took three days—one spent driving north, one spent driving back to where they'd started, and one spent driving south. While Titus drove, Evan made meticulous notes of the flame's direction, marking angles on the map. Finally he threw the pencil down triumphantly.

“He's in Salt Lake City.”

“Well, that narrows it down a little, I guess. So what, do we just go there and hope this thing points us in the right direction?”

“Too slow,” Evan called, stepping back into what used to be his bedroom and sitting at his computer. “Now I work my magic.”

After parking, Titus walked back to look over Evan's shoulder. The half-dozen monitors on the wall were flickering between rapidly-changing pictures of faces and what appeared to be CCTV footage.

“What is this?”

“This,” Evan said with dramatic pride, “is Blaccat. Facial recognition algorithms that the CIA wishesit had. I actually started working on it years ago before I thought about the implications of it, but I shelved it. I figured since I may be needing to, uh...”

“Be Batman?”

“...yeah...that I should get back to work on it. Right now it's comparing faces to the description you gave me and cycling through every damn security camera in the city looking for it.”

“How illegal is this?”

“Soooooo illegal.”

“Oh, hey, can you get into police department records?”

“Does the Pope shit in the woods?”

“See if you can get into the Las Vegas mugshots from... February 2019. Run your face-recognition thingy there.”

“Alright.... and... is that our boy?”

A handsome Latino man in his early 30s with shoulder-length jet-black hair and piercing green eyes stared at them from over a booking clipboard.

“That's him,” Titus breathed.

“Perfect! Now I just have to feed that into... wow.” Evan made a gesture and a black and white video popped up on the biggest monitor. The man in the mugshot was walking along the street, flanked by a short stocky man in bandanna and a lanky man with the ugliest white-boy dreads Evan had ever seen.

“That's him! Where is that? When is that?”

Evan grinned up at Titus. “That's live. I can track him and put us at the nearest intersection.”

Titus smiled, eye overbright, and began breathing heavily through his nose. “We got him.”

Evan met his eye and nodded. “Let's get him.”

[maddpopcorn]

It’s Okay || pjm

Pairing: Maine Coon!Hybrid!Jimin x Male!Reader

Request:  hiii can i request a jimin x male reader fic? maybe an angst/comfort hybrid au where jimin is a homeless hybrid who escaped from his abuser owner and is now trying to survive in the streets. the reader would find him and try to help him, but since jimin is scared and doesn’t trust humans, it’s a bit harder than he expected.. (i’d prefer a series but you can make it a one-shot or drabble or whatev boils your noodles lol) thank you in advance and have a nice day!

Summary: When walking down your normal road, you spy a long, fluffy tail. And when it connects to a bruised and bloodied up hybrid who immediately hisses at you, you find yourself trying everything in your power to bring him home….even if you have to suffer a couple of scratches along the way.

Warnings: Angst, lots of angst, burning of the skin with cigarettes, mentions of starving from neglect/punishment, punching, slight mentions blood and cleaning the wound, night terrors

A/N: Wow, you were my first request! I am so sorry it took long. However, I enjoyed writing this piece a lot so I hope you enjoy it, too! If people like this so much, perhaps I could make a second part (I already have one hybrid series I’m planning on making so it might be too much to make this into a series :)) Also, forgive me if there are any mistakes!

Jimin hates being a hybrid. No, scratch that. He despises it. He despises himself. Because of his nature, he’s immediately treated with little to no respect by most humans in society. He’s treated like he’s some type of scum on the bottom of their shoes.

Which isn’t true at all but who will ever listen to him, right? He is just a mangy good for nothing hybrid, after all.

He despises humans. After all of this time observing them, after experiencing them first hand, he has deemed them greedy, selfish and just evil.

They are all evil.

Without his permission, tears well up in his eyes, and he hastily wipes them away out of habit in fear of being caught. He blinks and then dryly chuckles, looking down at his burnt scars that dotted his arms. Who is going to burn their cigarettes into his now dry and cracked skin? Who is going to punch their frustrations out on him again?

No one, right?

He escaped them.

He escaped them.

.

Sighing in relief and with a smile, you wave bye to the last customer that walks out of the coffee shop. Immediately, your smile drops.

“Holy hell, today was busier than a fucking highway,” you groan, shoulders drooping dramatically. You let the broom slide in your hand until only the tips of your fingers are barely holding it up.

“Yeah, why do these people need all of this coffee on a Friday afternoon anyway?” Yoongi complains, dropping his head on the counter, his recently dyed mint hair covering his eyes. “It’s like they’re addicted or something. Damn.”

“Takes one to know one, Yoongles,” you tease, holding the broom properly again and resuming sweeping.

Huffing at your joke, he stretches, popping several bones in the process (that you may or may not be worried about).“Yeah but unlike them, I know my limits.”

“Hah, funniest joke of the year. Yeah, right, dude.”

He reels back like he has touched fire and gasps. “Wha-excuse me, mister but I know my limits.”

“No, you really don’t.” 

“Ye-”

“Yoongi-” you stop sweeping, putting your hand on your hip. “-you drank 5 cups of coffee in one sitting during exam week. And then, the next week, you kept chugging energy drinks like they were nothing so you could finish your ‘precious song’.” One by one, you start listing off all the times he has drank too much coffee and energy drinks. His body deflates with each jab at his pride until he’s crumbling in on himself.

It’s a hot minute before any of you say anything, quietly cleaning up the shop so that you could finally go home.

“Fuck off, pretty boy,” he finally says, middle finger in the air and face heating up. 

You bark out a laugh. “So you finally admit that I’m pretty, huh? Jin owes me $5.”

“You fucking-”

.

“Don’t forget, 8 o’clock tonight, my apartment. Don’t be late like last time, brat,” Yoongi scolds, adjusting his glasses. You throw your hands up, a cheeky smirk on your face.

“Of course. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

You wave bye to your coworker as you exit the coffee shop. Humming to yourself, you begin your journey on your normal path to home. Mentally checking off your to-do list before you have to get ready for the annual hangout you and your friends have every week, you spot in the corner of your eye a fluffy, blonde blob. You turn your head, fully stopping and squinting.

“What the fuck?” you mutter to yourself, creeping up on the blob. It grows until it stops at a…

“Holy shit!” You yell, quickly slapping your hand over your mouth in disbelief.

A hybrid. A cat hybrid, to be specific, is laying on the dirty and wet ground of the alley way. His eyes are closed, and you timidly squat down near him to examine him. Matted blonde hair sticks to his face with what you can only assume is sweat and dirt which is also smudging across his face. His lips are forming a pout and he moves a bit, making you jump back in surprise. When he stays still after, you continue your examination. His skin looks dry and his cheeks are sunken in. Trailing your eyes down his form, you notice how worn and ragged his clothes truly are. And how big they look on him. Your eyebrows furrow at his state. Someone did a beating on this poor guy.

He whimpers in his sleep and without thinking, you do something stupid. Something incredibly stupid.

You reach your hand out towards him, to pet him or give him comfort, not really controlling your urges to get close. And that’s when you instantly regret it. His eyes snap open, and you yelp in pain as his claws swipe into your skin. Recoiling back, you immediately grasp your now bleeding arm, eyes glued to it. Three deep scratches litter your arm and blood starts to come to the surface.

Even if you’re the one that got scratched, you apologize.

“I-I’m sorry,” you stammer, letting out a shuddering breath. “I should’ve given you your space. I’m sorry.”

“Leave me alone!” He hisses, shuffling far away from you. Growling, his entire body shakes as flashes upon flashes come back to him. Pupils reducing to slits and ears flattening against his head, he swipes at you again, 

You mentally slap yourself in the face. Of course he would scratch you. You invaded his personal space and reminded him of his abusers. You scared him. You back up, giving the hybrid one last glance, guilt racking every bone in your body for scaring the hybrid before you walk away. 

He doesn’t meet your eyes.

-

You rush home, your makeshift bandage from the napkins in your pocket soaked in blood. He got you deep. But it wasn’t his fault. It was yours.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” you repeat to yourself. “How could you be so fucking stupid?”

Someone holds the door open for you as you slide past them, muttering a quick thanks.

“Hi, Mrs. Hags. Bye, Mrs. Hags,” you yell out to the landlady, rushing past people into the elevator of your complex.

“Bye, dearie,” she calls out. “Odd fellow, he is. Isn’t that right, Mr. Whiskers?”

Her cat only yawns in response and she immediately coos, getting right back to her knitting.

Stomping your foot impatiently, you give an awkward smile to the other tenants present in the elevator. They smile back, weird looks on their faces as they realize you’re holding your bleeding arm and you silently wish that the elevator would hurry the hell up. Sighing in relief as the elevators dings, you squeeze through the opening doors.

“Odd fellow,” One whispers out.

“Yeah, very odd,” Another whispers back.

Fumbling with your keys to your door, you curse in frustration as you drop them. Picking them up, you unlock your door after what seemed like forever. Finally, practically throwing open your door, you race to your bathroom, not caring as your door slams behind you. Dropping everything, you quickly get the first aid kit out.

“Fuck,” you hiss in pain as the alcohol seeps into your wound. Tears fall from your eyes from the burning sensation. “Ah, I’m melting, I’m melting…fuck, I’m dumb.”

After 10 minutes of grueling pain, you look at your newly bandaged arm. That was so stupid of you. How could you just invade his space like that? As you focus on your arm, dumb thoughts running through your head, your phone rings, snapping you out of your thoughts. Fishing it out of your pocket, you groan again when you realize it’s Yoongi. You still had time to get there, two hours really, so why was he calling you?

“Hello?” 

“Y/N, wanted to let you know that Joon got the stomach bug so the hangout is cancelled. Hobi and I are taking care of him.”

You can hear groans of pain in the background and Hoseok teasing. “Quit being a baby, Joonie. It’s a mere stomach bug.”

“Feels like I’m dying, Hobi,” he groans dramatically.

“Sounds like you have a handful, Yoongles,” you chuckle, putting up the alcohol and first aid kit.

“Yeah, unfortunately.”

“Okay, thanks for telling me. I hope Joon gets better. I have some stuff to do so I have to go.”

“Yeah, right. Bye, Y/N-Namjoon, did you just hit me with a pillow?”

You can hear Namjoon yelling “Cuddles, now!” before Yoongi hangs up, eliciting a belly laugh out of you. How Yoongi and Hoseok put up with their boyfriend, you have no clue but more power to them. Staring back at your arm, you nod as you come up with a plan to win the hybrid over. Or at least apologize to him. You roll up your other sleeve, making your way over to your kitchen. You’ve got work to do.

-

It’s a couple of hours later when Jimin finally retreats from his hidey hole to see a brown paper bag with a note attached to it. An amazing smell wafts through the air that makes his stomach growl in hunger. He slowly crawls forward, tail swishing in curiosity, and snatches the note from the bag.

I’m sorry about today. Please enjoy your dinner.

P.S, I hear Maine Coons like this fish, assuming you are one. Enjoy :)

-Y/N (The guy who is really sorry about invading your personal space)

He hisses in disgust, shifting backward from the paper bag. The note flies from his grasp and lands in a puddle, immediately getting soaked from the dirty water. What if you poisoned it? Or laced it with something? Are you working for…her? Are you going to take him back? It’s not like he’s never had the wonderful pleasure of starving before. She would make sure of that. He can deal with it. He has done it plenty of times, one more can’t hurt…right?

He sits there, just glaring holes at the bag as rain drops hit him, trying so hard to ignore everything. The smell, the wonderful smell. He clenches his teeth so hard he’s afraid he’ll break them as another sharp pain shoots through his stomach, accompanied by a familiar grumbling. He tries to ignore it. He tries to focus on something else. Perhaps the way his bones are shivering from the rain will do? No, that makes it worse. Makes him want whatever is in the bag even more. It seems warm. Warm enough to make him warm. He wants it. He needs it. So much.

Ignore it.

Ignore it.

Ignore. It.

But, a guy can only take so much.

The smell surrounding him in mockery and the nagging pain finally makes Jimin grab the bag, fishing out the food and digging in, without sparing it a second glance. He’ll worry about the consequences later.

He almost moans from the taste he thought he had forgotten long ago. The fish is still warm, kept in a container that keeps the temperature insulated and whatever soup you got (or made, he can care less) goes perfectly with it.

In a matter of minutes, the fish is finished, and Jimin is gulping down the remaining soup. He pulls back, licking his lips and sighs in satisfaction. His stomach is warm from the soup. He’s not shivering that much from the rain anymore. He actually feels…cozy and it’s incredibly weird to him. Something foreign almost. He places the bowl back into the bag and crawls back into his hiding place. Curling up, yawning, he thinks of you and quietly mumbles a thank you before falling fast asleep.

-

It is a couple of days later when you return, bandage wrapped around your arm. Jimin growls in annoyance and begrudgingly relief. You seem..okay from his scratch.

Stupid human can’t follow a stupid task.

“I come bearing a peace offering,” you smile, holding out two bags.

Jimin’s eyes study the bags and then trail up your hand and to your arm. Annoyingly, in his opinion, guilt racks up. You notice his eyes glued to your arm and you wave your hand.

“Don’t worry about. My friend Jin said it would be fine.”

You lock eyes for a mere second before he’s immediately spitting back, “Like I care.”

He averts his eyes, letting out a loud huff. You sit down, slowly sliding one bag towards him. He views the action from the corner of his eyes. What are you doing? He turns his head just a bit to get a better view and his eyes widen.

“What are you doing?” he practically screeches as you pull out your lunch for the day.

“Taking my lunch break. What else?” you tease, waving the take out container in your hand. “Would you care to join me?”

“No.”

You shrug your shoulders and open your container. “Suit yourself, buddy.”

You begin eating and Jimin rolls his eyes, crossing his arms and looking away. Again, he repeats the same mantra from last time.

Ignore it.

His stomach rumbles and if you heard it, you make no move to comment and instead, continue to happily eat. 

“Wow, this chicken is to die for. Compliments to the chef,” you groan, giving a chef’s kiss. “Sure you don’t want any?”

He knows what your game is. You’re just trying to rile him up to eat the food so that you can do whatever you want with him. No, not this time. It won’t work. After you leave, he’ll throw the food away. He is sure of it.

“I am positive I don’t want your shitty food,” he snaps.

You wince, putting a hand to your chest. “Ouch buddy, that hurt.”

“Not your fucking buddy either,” he growls in annoyance.

“Just slash at my feelings, why don’t yah?”

“Gladly.”

That is his last and final word. You finish your lunch, taking one glance at the hybrid and leave. Jimin sits there and makes a move to throw out the food. He hesitantly reaches out but backs away. His eyebrows furrow at his dilemma. On one hand, should he waste food like that? That would be wrong of him. On another, did you poison the food this time? Can he really trust that you didn’t?

He lasts a total of five minutes before he’s digging into the food. Maybe, just maybe, you’re a decent human. Just maybe.

-

It takes you weeks to earn the still nameless hybrid’s trust. Even then, it was only a small amount. At least you could sit closer together and talk about random things. That’s why it surprises you when he meekly asks if he can go with you this time.

You widen your eyes at his request. “What?” 

“When you leave, can I go with you? Y/N, please?” His ears are flattened against his head and his tail is curled around his waist.

“I don’t even know your name-”

“Jimin. It’s um, Jimin.” He blurts out. He clears his throat, face flushed, eyes looking at every thing but you.

“Jimin…” you whisper, the name so foreign on your tongue. “Pretty name. What made you want to come with me?”

“I…” he didn’t expect that question. “I don’t know. You just seem…comforting, I guess? I don’t know, it was stupid. I’m sorry-”

You cut him off. “Shh, it’s not stupid. I’m glad that I seem comforting to you. My answer is yes, you can come home with me.”

His eyes widen and it’s the first time you have ever seen him smile that wide before. You hope you’ll see that smile even more in the future.

-

“And this is your room!” You gesture with your arm. “I had to quickly clean it since I honestly didn’t think you would come with me so forgive me if it’s still a bit dusty.” You walk in but he doesn’t follow. You turn around towards him, cocking your head. “Jimin?”

Jimin can’t say anything. This is all for him? But, he didn’t do anything to deserve it. He didn’t please you. He didn’t let you use him as a personal punching bag for your frustrations. This is a trick. It has to be. No one is this kind to a stranger, especially a hybrid. A hybrid who hurt you. For fuck’s sake, he scratched you. Yeah, he wanted to come home with you and yeah, he did say you were comforting but he expected that you would make him share the same room or something. He didn’t know what to expect. Just not this.

“Jimin?” Your soothing voice lures him out of his mess he calls his thoughts.

“I-I can’t accept this room, Y/N.”

You must’ve pulled a face or something because Jimin is immediately tense, ready to dash right back out on to the streets.

“Why?” is the only thing you ask.

“What?”

“Why can’t you accept the room?”

He wraps his arms around himself, his tail joining them. “Never had this before. This much kindness thrown at me. Expected to..pay you in return.”

“It’s yours now, Jimin. No payment needed.”

“Why are you so kind to me?”

His question throws you off-guard and it takes you a minute to answer. You brush the lint off of his comforter. “Because you deserve it. I can only assume you’ve been through hell and back. Why not live the rest of your life peacefully?”

“Thank you.”

With that, you smile and leave him be in his new room. A couple of hours later, he joins you for dinner. Whatever you made smells heavenly. Quietly sitting down, he watches as you put the pot on the table in between you two. The bowls are already set and you serve him first before serving yourself. He mutters a “thank you”.

“Dig in, Jimin. I hope you’ll like it. New recipe I’m trying out,” you hum, taking a spoon full of the stew and blowing on it. He waits until you take a bite first. You smile in satisfaction as the spicy fish stew came out perfectly. Just the right amount of spice. He should’ve known better, really. You never wanted to hurt him in the first place but old habits die hard and he finds himself gauging your reaction to the food. You didn’t trick him before, you didn’t poison him at all, so why should this meal be different? Maybe it’s because he’s on your turf now. He waits and when he deems the food is safe enough to eat since you aren’t spasming out of control from poison or getting sleepy from a sedative, he digs in.

Wow.

You’re an amazing cook.

It doesn’t take Jimin even 5 minutes to finish his bowl and your heart aches just a little at the mere thought of him being hungry ever again. 

“Must’ve been good?” You tease light-heartedly. Jimin nods, licking his lips clean. “Want a second bowl?”

His eyes widen at the aspect and you only take his bowl to fill it up again. Jimin wastes no time finishing the second one. He feels all warm, fuzzy even and he looks down at his stomach in confusion. This is a familiar feeling. A feeling he had on the day you two met. It takes him a good solid minute, weighing the pros and cons of asking you if you had made that soup. Would you think it was weird if he told you he had remembered the fuzzy feeling? Would you think it was weird if he told you that that was the only time he had ever felt close to home? Finally, he concludes that either way, he needs to know because he cannot stand the stupid curiosity that’s nagging him.

“I..I have a question,” Jimin mumbles.

You nod, gulping down the remaining water from your cup. “Shoot.”

He looks around the room as he hesitantly asks, “Did, did you..you know, that soup..”

“Soup? What soup?”

“You know, that soup.”

“I’m not following, Jiminie?”

His face heats up at your nickname for him but you don’t seem to realize that you even said it in the first place. He finally blurts out, “The one that you gave me the first time we met! Did you cook it?”

“Oh.” 

“I just,” he continues. “It was the only time I ever felt..I don’t know. Nevermind- it’s stupid.”

“Yes.”

“What?” Did you actually think it was-

“Yes, I made it. I wanted you to have a homemade meal. And I was apologizing to you so I thought it would be a bit more..special I guess.”

“Thank you..”

You both clean the dishes, wash up and head to bed. Jimin is finally alone to just process everything. This could be a home for him. He lays down, relishing in the softness of the bed. He wraps himself with the comforter. It smells so nice and it feels so warm and so..homey. Yawning, he doesn’t notice the smile creeping up on his face as he closes his eyes, sleep taking over.

-

A couple of weeks have passed and having Jimin around is such a delight. Not having to come home to an empty apartment feels so much better. He helps you clean, he accompanies you when you’re watching something on the tv. He lets you ramble about your day at the coffee shop. It takes Jimin a while to grow used to being here. And not everything is so pleasant. Countless of times, Jimin has woken up from night terrors, from flashbacks of that place. And this time isn’t any different.

It’s around 4 in the morning when Jimin wakes up, his eyes flying open from the nightmare. Gasping for air, he looks around. Everything seems so hazy, so dark. All he can remember is him screaming for you.

Oh no, oh no, oh no. You’re not going to give him away, right? Right?

You weren’t anywhere in sight and he could feel himself panicking. He rapidly jumps up, trying to find the light switch or the curtains or something to give light. To give him hope that you hadn’t sneakily sold him back to her. He trips over something and reaches out his hand, grasping a cloth and pulling it down with him. Moon light floods the room and he curls up, sobbing and shaking. His heart is racing and he silently begs for you to appear.

You jolt awake at the loud “thunk” coming from somewhere in your apartment. You jump up, grabbing your baseball bat and tip toe out of your room. Hearing whimpers from Jimin’s room, you drop the bat and rush in.

“Jimin, oh my god, are you okay?” you ask alarmed, freeing him. He’s shaking all over, eyes closed and arms wrapped around himself.

“Please tell me I’m not there again. I don’t wanna go back. Please, please please..” He repeatedly mumbles. “I’m a good boy. I’ll be a better boy, I promise. Please, just don’t take me there.”

Without thinking, you wrap your arms around him, rocking him back and forth. “I promise on everything holy that I will never leave you. I will never let you go back there, Jimin.”

He sobs into your shoulder, gripping tightly at your t-shirt. His tail wraps around you, and you stroke his head.

“Shh, I’ve got you. You’re here, you’re home. It’s okay, you’re safe. I promise,” you whisper. After a long time, Jimin grounds himself and he pulls back to see you, worry filling your eyes and tears at the brim of them.

“Y/N,” he mumbles, diving right back into your arms. You only rub his back in soothing motions.

That was the first night ever that he had asked you to stay in his room.

-

The next morning while you’re making a delicious breakfast for the both of you, he stalks into the kitchen. You hum a little at his presence, asking him if he is okay. He hums in agreement and stares at you. You, already used to him just staring at you, studying your movements, continue cooking. He walks up behind you, ears pinned back, arms opening up.

He back hugs you.

You’re startled for a moment and it makes him hesitate to tighten his grip but when you don’t move away, just slightly humming as you continue to cook, he smiles, ever so slightly, tautening his hold.

“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he murmurs into your back, so quietly that you have a hard time hearing him. But you hear him. He buries his head into your back, inhaling your comforting scent. “Thank you.”

That’s when you realize that the future for the both of you would be much brighter from here on.

[razberryyum]

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 10, Part 2 of 2

(spoilers for everything MDZS/Untamed)

[covers MDZS chapters 29, 30 and 48…kinda]

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰+ 🐰+ 🐰🐰+🐰🐰🐰🐰+🐰

Continued from Part 1:

I love this scene from the episode so much because for me it was absolute proof that Lan Zhan had totally fallen for Wei Ying: he actually SMILES because of him...not once, but TWICE...  

...and then the way he says good-bye to Wei Ying just about murdered me with sweetness. Even though he did smile once before, during the lantern raising moment at Cloud Recesses, one can argue that he was just reacting to the picture of the bunny because he loves bunnies; but here, there is no question whatsoever that he is smiling because of Wei Ying. I think it shows that despite maintaining a generally stoic façade in front of Wei Ying, his heart was already captured by him. Personally, I still don’t think he was actually in love Wei Wuxian yet but definitely crushing hard on him.

When I first time watched this scene, I remember being a downright distressed that Wei Ying was missing all of Lan Zhan’s little signals here because he was too busy getting drunk. At the time it felt like an opportunity lost for another lovely WangXian moment, but now I understand that the purpose of this scene really was to give us a glimpse at Lan Zhan’s feelings. That’s another aspect about The Untamed that I appreciate a lot: the fact that we are getting to see Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s love story from Lan Zhan’s point of view. In the novel, the focus was mostly on Wei Ying‘s point of view, which makes sense of course since Wei Wuxian is the main protagonist of the story, but I think by giving us Lan Zhan’s side of the story and allowing us to see in real time what he was experiencing emotionally actually adds to the poignancy of their story because for me it basically reinforces how helpless Lan Zhan was: in terms of falling in love and then eventually in not being able to do anything to save the person he fell in love with. I felt the tragedy of his situation so much more as a result.  

Odds and Ends

My first impression of Nie Mingjue: damn, he looks like a hardass. I immediately felt bad for Nie Huaisang, it’s no wonder he was so afraid of his older brother. Compared to his novel and donghua counterpart, I think he was pretty well-casted. Even though Wang Yizhou had a relatively limited number of scenes, he had a pretty strong presence so that I couldn’t help but pay attention to him whenever he was on-screen. Word is the second online movie might actually be centered on the Nie brothers, which means we might get to see much more of him and Ji Li’s NHS. Although at first I was just a teeny bit disappointed that we might not be getting more of the Yi City boys’ story instead, the more I think about it, the more I actually like the idea of getting more of the Nie brothers’ story because I actually don’t remember if much was said about them in the novel other than just their basic introduction, so I would love to see more of their past and their relationship. I think it’s fascinating that even though on the surface NHS is utterly afraid of his brother, he obviously intensely loves and respects NMJ at the same time considering the lengths he went through to avenge his death. I hope we get to see NHS’s side of the events in the live action, especially during the 16 years between Wei Ying’s death and resurrection when he realized Jin Guangyao’s true nature and guilt, and then started to put his grand revenge plan into motion. I hope this also means we might get to meet the real Mo Xuanyu before he gave up his body and soul to bring Wei Ying back. It would be so damn cool if Xiao Zhan played him as well! If they are indeed constructing these two specials on scenes they’ve already shot but couldn’t fit into the series due to pacing issues, there might very well be a chance of XZ playing Mo Xuanyu. Holy crap, that means we might get to see Xiao Zhan play a FOURTH personification in the show, since young Wei Ying, his Yiling Patriarch and Wei Ying-Mo Xuanyu are already three distinct personalities! Oh my God, I’m getting excited, but I really shouldn’t yet since it’s all just rumors and my own wishful thinking now. Guess all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that that’s the direction they’re heading for the second special.  

By the way, I just have to mention something about the captions on the show: whoever inserted those captions with the characters’ names was clearly on speed or something because they would appear and disappear so damn quickly there was hardly a chance to even read them. I’m surprised I even got Nie Mingjue’s so clearly in the screenshot because usually half the name would be gone before the rest of it had even finished appearing. It’s a minor technical issue but it did bug me at the beginning because I was trying to read the damn names.

Seeing the Twin Prides of Yunmeng actually acting like twins who are completely in sync (giggling at how NHS is reacting to his big bro) just makes my heart feel so heavy now. They will never be like this again.  Makes me want to cry.  

Lan Zhan’s look was interesting though. Whenever I see him watching Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng, I sometimes wonder if he’s slightly jealous of the bond they share or of the fun they’re having. Or maybe it’s neither and he just enjoys watching him laugh and smile. Honestly with Lan Zhan, it might be a combination of all three.

These three gossiping dorks. I love them. They’re just so adorable when they get together; I love their interactions and I wish this wasn’t the beginning of the end for all the fun between them cuz there’s really not much more time left for any shenanigans after this.

I also love that Xue Yang is like cracking up in the foreground there but it’s not even certain if it’s because he can hear what they’re saying (about Meng Yao/JGY) or if he’s just being his usual psycho self. I really like that even when Xue Yang is not the focus of the scene, Wang Haoxuan (who portrays Xue Yang of course) is still constantly acting and reacting. I’ve seen folks criticize him for doing that, but I think that’s a little unfair since that had to have been the direction given to him. Not to mention, I think it’s entirely reasonable for Xue Yang to be extra like that, all the time.  

I don’t hate Jin Guangyao, similar to how I feel about Xue Yang, I simply can’t hate him, but I do absolutely hate what he did to Wei Ying, especially when I see this scene again and am reminded of how Wei Ying had also treated him with sincerity and respect, just like Big Bro Xichen did. And yet, while JGY was only protective and caring toward LXC, he basically chose to fuck Wei Ying over. I know the difference is in whom he loved, but still, damn him for that. Wei Ying deserved better from him.   

This was an interesting scene because of how great a risk Jin Guangyao was putting himself in. Wen Zhuliu could have totally accidentally killed him. Even though his aim originally was probably just to injure Nie Mingjue, JGY is not as strong as NMJ so a strike that may only injure the other man could have easily been fatal to JGY. So I guess in this instance, JGY’s intent on saving his master was sincere? But that’s still such a HUGE gamble. He is really so fascinating as a character. And his relationship with NMJ is fascinating as well because there were obviously genuine feelings between them as well—NMJ was freaking crying when he was banishing JGY—and yet the way JGY ultimately ended NMJ’s life was so damn brutal. I know there’s a fine line between love and hate but because their lives continued to be intertwined afterwards, I wonder when exactly it was the two of them crossed over to hate completely. I mean, I have an idea, which I will eventually give voice to, but I still feel a little uncertainty because of certain events that happen immediately afterwards.  

I wish we got to see just how Jin Guangyao found and rescued Big Bro Xichen and oh my God would I LOVE to see the time they spent together, presumably alone, in hiding while Lan Xichen was recovering from his wounds. I feel like we were royally deprived of some serious XiYao time by the live drama. Considering the fact that they seem to thoroughly support this ship, I’m honestly surprised that they didn’t use this opportunity to creatively fill in that big blank. I mean, instead of giving us all those unnecessary scenes of Wen Ruohan and his stupid zombies, they should have given us some XiYao-in-hiding scenes instead dammit.  

Questions I Still Have

Why didn’t Wen Zhuliu go for NMJ’s golden core? Especially since he clearly had an opening when NMJ was busy with the injured JGY? Also, how strong is Wen Chao supposed to be that he could even injure NMJ that seriously? I now he was already weakened and Wen Chao did attack from the back like a coward, but still, his cultivation level can’t be higher than NMJ so I’m just a little surprise his hit made any impact at all, especially since he seems mostly weaksauce in all other instances. This whole fight scene was just a little weird to me. And also, damn is JGY a shitty liar at that point. I actually laughed out loud when he full on denied that he was the one who killed that dude (who I thought was a total dick tbh so I kinda don’t blame JGY for killing his ass) even though he was still holding on to the murder weapon which was dripping with the guy’s blood. Guess he still hadn’t perfected his lying skills. 

Overall Episode Rating: 9 Lil Apples out of 10

[nicostolemybones]

The Battle of Area 51

“This is not a game,” Nico lectured sternly, and Percy snickered. “This is no laughing matter, Jackson! Okay, let’s run through the plan one last time! Ares cabin, Clarisse, you’ll lead the charge, take down the guards, lay down cover fire for the Naruto runners! Poseidon Cabin, Zeus cabin, you guys whip up a storm to help the Ares cabin! Apollo cabin and Hunters of Artemis, you’re the snipers, I want you on high ground firing arrows at them! Aphrodite cabin, charmspeak those guards to let us past and to give us access codes to all the rooms and spill all the secrets! Hecate cabin, use the mist to make decoys! Nemesis cabin, remember, this is vengeance for all the imprisoned aliens and that’s why you’re here! Demeter cabin, slow the guards down with thick vines and poisonous plants! Athena cabin, you’re working on infiltrating and hacking all the computers! Hephaestus cabin, burn down gun stations, jam missiles, Festus can burn down doorways, I want to see you guys working on all the technology we steal and I want you all to figure out all the machines inside and use them for our advantage! Dionysus cabin, get them drunk, make them temporarily mad, weaken their defences! Iris cabin, use your abilities to disorientate and distract the guards! Hypnos cabin- CLOVIS WAKE UP- send the guards to sleep when you can! Hermes cabin, you’re stealing and sneaking in whilst the guards are distracted! Hades cabin- well Hazel- summon obstacles and summon weapons, shadow travel aliens to safety. The rest of you, just fuck shit up with your abilities! Romans; same rules apply, and follow the orders of your Praetors, do not go against orders unless necessary!”

“LET’S CLAP SOME ALIEN CHEEKS!” Connor yelled. Nico glared at him, whilst the younger campers plus Percy erupted into giggles.

“There will be no clapping alien cheeks,” Nico sighed in exasperation, “no alien cheeks will be clapped by anybody, by Olympus what the Hades is wrong with straight people?”

“Wait you’re gay?!”

“Yes but that’s not the point, just- go blend in with the mortals! Solace- you’re with me, we’ll go in with the Naruto runners and you need to make sure we don’t infect the aliens and they don’t infect us, and treat the wounded.” Percy wolf-whistled, so Nico summoned a skeleton to smack him round the back of the head. The group of demigods dispersed amongst the mortal army- which wasn’t much, but between the Kyles, weeaboos, tumblr trash, and Naruto runners, there was a fair few, and some cosplayers, DnD players, and medieval recreation nerds seemed to have a fair amount of weapons and armour- even if most of it was plastic light sabers, Klingon Bat’leths, and various other fantasy weapons.

Everything was quiet for a while, and the battle was more a staring down contest between the guards and the civilian raiders. Phones were beginning to live stream, and that’s when the Stoll brothers yelled the immortal battle cry “DO IT FOR THE VINE!!!” and the mortal crowd roared and cheered, repeating the battle cry.

“PEANUT BUTTER!!!” Tyson yelled as the crowd surged forwards. Nico screamed, Naruto running as fast as he could towards the guards, summoning skeleton armies of Naruto runners to back them up, but as soon as the guards opened fire, many Naruto runners gave up and turned away running back, or decided it best to run “normally”. One dedicated man had turned his electric wheelchair into some kind of turbo charged mini tank shaped like a Dalek. Fortnite dancers fortnite danced as they charged, Harry Potter fans desperately yelled out Unforgiveable Curses. Stargate fans dressed as Jaffa and Goa’uld warriors charged with staff weapons and pellet guns, some wearing “Free Thor” t-shirts- but not Marvel’s Thor or the Norse God thor- but rather the tiny alien guy Nico recognised from when Will made him watch Stargate. The Stargate Atlantis fans came dressed as Wraith instead. Marvel fans were clad in full superhero gear, although some fights had broken out between them and the DC fans. Star Wars fans dressed in Jedi robes. Clad in armour, the demigods didn’t look out of place. Nico was pleased to see the Egyptian magicians being lead by Sadie and Carter Kane, Magnus Chase and Samirah al-Abbass leading the Valkyries, Alex Fierro next to Frank Zhang shapeshifting into whatever they could. Alex stopped occasionally so she could spray mace into the eyes of Terfs.

Nico shadow travelled at the last minute, grabbing hold of Will and pulling him through the shadows. Will didn’t slow down when they emerged, and the image of Will Naruto running headfirst into a wall was going to be a source of laughter in Nico’s mind for many years to come. Thankfully, he didn’t do a Jason and knock himself out. “Ah fuck, I can’t believe you’ve done this!” Will gasped, and Nico raised his eyebrow. In the distance, they heard Grover cause a Panic- although it didn’t affect the guards about to shoot Will in the face, so Will let out a shrill whistle and Naruto ran for it.

“Dork,” Nico jibed, pulling Will into the shadows again. Nico meant for them to land inside an aircraft hangar- but it soon became clear that they were inside some kind of alien spaceship.

“Holy Hera,” Will gasped, “Nico THIS SHIP HAS A STARGATE! NICO LOOK THAT IS A STARGATE, IMMA DIAL ABYDOS-”

“Focus, Solace,” Nico warned, “we can do that once we get this back to camp. I wasn’t allowed to drive the sun chariot so I’ll drive this time.”

“I get the feeling I’m gonna die if I let you drive,” Will replied, and Nico huffed.

“That’s if I don’t kill your stupid face first,” he retorted proudly, and Will snickered, looking around the ship.

“OH MY GODS NICO THERE’S A LIGHT SABER HERE!”

“DIBS THE RED ONE,” Nico yelled, rushing over and grabbing one, almost decapitating Will in his excitement.

“We should summon up a certain ghost,” Will grinned.

“Are you suggesting we prank call Castellan?”

“Nico, dude. You have to, for humanity. Do it for our children.”

Several runs to McDonald’s later and Luke Castellan’s ghost was confronted by Nico in pitch black armour and a light saber to speak the immortal words: “Luke, I am your father.” Luke’s ghost laughed. The gods applauded from Olympus. Will was unable to get up off the floor through his raucous laughter.

After several minutes of exploring the craft, the two demigods were armed with phasers and now possessed the infinity gauntlet- although they both agreed not to let Percy near it in case he dabbed rather than Thanos snapped at monsters. Nico shadow travelled a fair amount of the loot back to camp, where Chiron stood facepalming and shaking his head. This is when Nico learned that the Party Ponies had joined the raid and found out that Monster Donut were sponsoring Area 51. Nico returned to find Will making a flower crown for a baby alien he’d found hidden in the glove compartment. “Is that what I think it is,” Nico questioned, and Will smiled.

“An alien? Well yeah.”

“No, I meant a baby. Are you seriously holding a baby?”

“Yeah, a cute little alien baby, I made them a flower crown and put a bow in their hair! Well I hope it’s a baby otherwise I just told a whole-ass adult I’m their daddy now.” Nico choked- Will didn’t appear to realise the innuendo his words would have turned into if the alien was an adult. Will appeared to have adopted an alien child and that somehow melted Nico completely. Stupid son of Apollo being a perfect dad to an abandoned alien baby found in the glove compartment of a space ship.

“You can’t just raise a child, Will, the parents won’t pay child support and you’re like- fifteen and you look- you look twelve, okay, you look like a foetus!”

“Nico I’m only two months older than you,” Will laughed, “I’m still fourteen like you are, idiot. Although technically you’re ninety, you can be the grandpa.”

“I’m not going to be your daddy, Solace,” Nico replied, forgetting how it may have sounded like an innuendo, and Will choked and spluttered.

“That word is officially banned,” Will squeaked, and Nico quickly nodded in agreement. Thankfully before it could get any more awkward, the alien child started to cry. “Oh my gods Nico what do I do with it?”

“Does it have an off switch or batteries you can take out like the babies they give you in school?”

“Um- I can’t see any off switch, Nico, what do I do?!”

“You’re the doctor! Sing to it! Just don’t do a Hera and yeet it off a mountain or out of a window, I don’t need you Percying this into a worse situation than it already is!”

“Oh my gods I’m a single parent before I’ve had the talk,” Will whined, trying to hum a lullaby to the alien baby, which screeched, turned into a bug, and ran. Will shrieked and Nico accidentally summoned a pile of alien skulls. “Hey! My singing isn’t that bad,” Will protested, and the alien bug screeched again and shot some kind of web at Will’s face. Will squealed, trying clumsily to wipe the webbing off his face. Once Nico stopped laughing, he helped to pull the webbing out of Will’s hair, although once he managed to detangle the last of the webbing, he found himself enthralled by the soft bouncy texture of Will’s hair. It was curly like Nico’s, but dryer to the touch, probably a testament to the hours of sunbathing Nico figured Will had to do in order to stay tanned all year round. He didn’t realise he was obsessively caressing his best friend’s hair until he felt Will’s hand on his shoulder. Nico gasped, snapping his hand back and muttering an apology, but Will merely smiled and gods that smile melted Nico. “Fellas, is it gay to kiss your homie at Area 51,” Will asked to nobody in particular, and Nico found himself turning puce as Will leaned in, placing a gentle but certainly not platonic kiss on Nico’s lips. Nico’s brain seemed to short circuit, skeletal butterflies resurrecting down his spine and in his stomach.

When Nico’s brain finally managed a coherent thought, all he could manage to say was “that’s gay.”

Will snorted, resting his head on Nico’s shoulder as he laughed silently. “You’re gay,” he finally replied through giggles.

“Well you kissed me, you’re gay,” Nico retorted with a huff.

“Yeah, but is it gay if it’s your homie and you’re in Area 51,” Will asked with an impish grin, lifting his head and giving Nico a mishievous grin.

“We are gay, you dumbass,” Nico replied, lightly shoving Will’s shoulder.

“I guess we are,” Will replied with feigned thoughtfulness lacing his voice, “maybe we should make out just to be sure.”

“Don’t push your luck, Solace,” Nico said sternly, and Will pouted comically. Nico stood on his toes and leaned up, but he was too short to reach, so Will leaned down and Nico was finally able to place a rough kiss on Will’s lips.

And of course, that just had to be the exact moment to hear a chorus of “two bros, chillin’ in a space ship, five feet apart ‘cause they’re not gay!” They broke apart immediately, startled by the presence of an Iris message showing Percy, Jason, Leo and Piper all grinning stupidly at them and Annabeth rolling her eyes.

“I’ll kill you all if you dare tell anyone,” Nico warned, raising skeletons to chase after them- although the skeletons were certainly not human. Leo and Percy screamed and ran, whilst Piper and Will laughed loudly. Jason merely raised his eyebrow, and Nico shrugged in response.

“So, that’s your type, huh,” Percy grinned, “I never thought we’d share a type!”

“What,” Nico snapped.

“Bossy blondes,” Percy replied, and Jason and Annabeth glared daggers.

“I agree,” Piper chimed in, “bossy blondes are worth the trouble.” This time, Jason and Annabeth both blushed.

Nico shrugged, looking back to Will, who seemed to be pre-occupied with the Stargate behind them. “Well, this one’s my bossy blond,” Nico replied fondly.

“Troublemakers are my type,” Annabeth replied, and Percy and Piper bowed proudly, “and Jason’s.”

“My type is pouty emo kids with long hair and sexy accents,” Will replied, and Nico blushed darkly.

“Your type is troublemakers,” Piper replied, “the ideal OTP formula is bossy blonde and troublemaking brunette, you can’t change my mind.”

“Whatever,” Nico protested. The Iris message cut off when a fight broke out between a Star Wars stan and a Trekkie.

“So,” Will began immediately, “can we be boyfriends now?”

“Only if you keep PDA to a minimum,” Nico replied, and Will beamed, glowing a warm amber light. Before they could do much more, however, a loud explosion ripped their attention away from each other. They both ran out to find the source of the explosion, and that is where they found Clarisse refereeing a battle between Shaggy and Thanos. The Stolls were running a betting ring, and Nico was sure they were all gonna die. But hey, it was a room full of Millennials and Gen Z, so nobody seemed particularly bothered by the danger of the situation, because this footage would certainly be legendary. Thanos snapped, and Shaggy disintegrated, only to reform using 1% of his power and steal the gauntlet. Shaggy dabbed, and Thanos was no more. Clarisse blew her whistle and the fight was over- the most epic showdown in human history and it had only taken seconds. Within minutes, lightening struck, and that was the moment Percy groaned loudly in realisation that the gods had been responsible for Area 51 all along.

“FUCK YOU, ZEUS,” Percy yelled, and the lightening would have struck him if it wasn’t for Shaggy eating the lightening bolt and letting out a loud burp.

“Do you have any wisdom, O mighty one,” Kayla asked, bowing at Shaggy’s feet.

“Sometimes you just gotta eat the enemy, man,” Shaggy replied, and the demigods let out a collective awed ‘ooohhh’. It was that moment that Shaggy burped out a heart-shaped arrow, and Nico realised that Shaggy had vored Cupid. Nico felt a smug grin break through his usually stoic expression, and Jason cheered loudly from the sidelines.

“Anyway, Shaggy said gay rights,” Will grinned.

“Actually, young man,” Shaggy said, gently resting his hand on Will’s shoulder, “I say gay and trans rights. And on that note, I think I might assassinate the president! Until next time, guys, gals, and non-binary pals!” And with that, and a wink to Alex Fierro, Shaggy dissipated into the wind, enraging the bigots and empowering the queer kids.

The raid continued into the night, the Stolls helping to take technology back to camp and Clarisse leading the charge against the military. It was only when Nico and Will made their way to the middle of the camp, all of the aliens freed and all technology liberated, that the end of the raid was in sight. Nico opened the final door, the entire raid party behind them, to find Rick Astley tied to a chair, singing Never Gonna Give You Up. It was then that they realised: they had been Rickrolled by the government.

[anika-ann]

Think Again (When You Stop Freaking Out) - Pt.4

Following the breadcrumbs

Pairing: None                   Word count: 1630

Warnings: language, hella lot confusion, attemp at science talk… irony and sass? ;)

Summary: Matt and Steve meet. Foggy fanboys and wants to bang his head against the wall in embarrassment. Punches are thrown. For once, someone is more of a drama queen than Tony. 

In other words; not so typical day at the Tower.

Story Masterlist

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When the two men entered the lab, it was one of the most surreal moments Matt had lived through. Which was saying a lot, considering he was wearing someone else’s meat-suit momentarily.

Matt’s attention was on both of them, his eyes flickering in between, unsure whom he should be observing first. The slightly chubby man in a beige suit and with long-ish hair must have been Foggy – Matt could immediately tell that, even when he was accustomed to see him in a completely different way.

Seeing the other man though… that was something else. If there wasn’t for the glasses and cane, he wouldn’t be able to recognize himself. Not thirty-year-old himself anyway. His hair had a red reflexion under the lab lights, only emphasized by the red shade of his lenses, dark stubble covering his jaw. He knew he was athletic, but seeing himself in the shirt was just different. Matt stared wordlessly, tilting his head as he was trying to connect the two pictures of himself in his mind, while Matt Murdock’s hand went to scratch the back of his neck.

“Alright, now I believe you. Cap, you wouldn’t allow yourself stare like that, plus that tick is definitely yours. Don’t you think, Banner?”

Matt’s gaze shifted back to Foggy, seeing his awe-struck expression – it was an incredible picture, seeing his friend, and he almost felt tears in his eyes. He smiled at his friend.

“Hey, Foggy.”

Foggy’s eyes went wide. “Oh god, Captain America knows my name! Wait, how do you know my name?!”

“We're best friends, Fog,” Matt chuckled, making his way to him slowly. “Or I like to think so.”

At that, captain’s lips – well, Matt’s body’s lips anyway – curled up in a smile, the movement fascinating Matt. “Would you happen to call yourself a fruit? Hey, Tony. Bruce.”

Matt snickered, ignoring the puzzled looks of everyone else, the shock all over Tony’s and Bruce’s faces. “Oh, so he’s admitting that avocado is a fruit now?”

“Oh my god! Holy shit! You're— you're really-- and you're-“

“Yeah.”

“And you’re-“ Foggy turned to Captain America’s wearing Matt’s body with an expression of pure horror and the man just smiled.

“Yeah.”

“How?! Oh shit, this is awkward. I fan-boyed!”

Matt burst out laughing, shutting up when seeing Foggy’s wounded glare.

Rogers’ hand went approximately to Foggy’s arm. “It was nice, actually. I can give you an autograph.”

“Someone kill me know.”

“Nah, you seem like a funny guy. Though I’m not sure I can forgive you for fan-boying over Capsicle and not me,” Tony exclaimed, walking to their little group. “Nelson, I presume?”

“Holy crap, Tony Stark knows my name too!”

A satisfied smirk appeared on Tony’s face, when he was addressed with proper amount of amazement.

“Yes, and that’s Doctor Banner right there. Thanks for bringing him here, Foggy. Uhm… Captain Rogers?” Matt shuffled towards the man occupying his body and the man in question turned to him fully. “It’s nice to meet you.”

The captain extended his hand to shake and Matt accepted it with a smile, only to see him grimace.

“You’re crushing my hand. I mean, your hand. My hand is crushing your hand. Basically.”

Matt quickly let go, realizing that when he had been aiming for a firm grip, he might have failed and had gone with a bone-crushing squeeze.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay and it’s nice to meet you. Believe me, I know the struggle. Speaking of which, how on Earth do you live with all the… things?” the supersoldier asked rather delicately and Matt’s heart positively stopped.

Shit. Fuck. That was a part he hadn’t considered. Steve Rogers wasn’t only stuck with blind. He was also stuck with supersenses. Fucking shit.

He cleared his throat, shrugging, deciding to ignore the matter for the time being.

“This is insane. Mr. Stark, Doctor Banner… do you have any idea how to fix this?” Foggy interjected, sounding uneasy and Matt assumed he must have realized a whole new set of problems that the body-exchange could bring.

God, Matt hoped Foggy hadn’t said anything incriminating so far. Judging by his pale face, it might be a fool’s hope.

“Well. It would be helpful to know how this happened in the first place.”

Matt had to admit that Bruce wasn’t wrong.

Which didn’t mean Matt was happy to share any activity that might have led to this.

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“So… you touched some… alien artefact and the next thing you know, you wake up in Matt’s body? Okay, ouch, that was not the best choice of words,” Mr. Nelson – Foggy, as he insisted – summed up and Steve just nodded, while the sudden swish of air told him Tony gestured wildly, whispering to Bruce ‘I told you it sounds weird’.

“Mostly. It didn’t take effect immediately. We returned to the Tower, I went to bed. Then I woke up somewhere else.”

“Matt? What about you?”

Steve heard the other man gulp, a shuffling of skin against skin as if he rubbed his palms or something. His strong heartbeat – well, Steve’s really – sped up.    

“I went to bed and woke up in a different one,” the man said, sounding honest. Then again, it might have been force of a habit; Steve usually was honest and Matt was speaking in his voice, so…

“Okay, hotshot. Anything strange happening that day? Touched something you shouldn’t have?... That sounded weird too,” Tony noted then and Steve thought he might have made a disgusted face.

Matt’s heartbeat was going crazy now. “Not that I know of.”

Steve narrowed his eyes, sensing there was something he wasn’t telling them. And if there was something he wasn’t telling them willingly-

“Well, why don’t you just try to touch the artefact again? That could work, right?” Foggy offered cheerily, too quickly.

All alarm bells were set off in Steve’s head. Why was Foggy trying to shift their attention to something else? Was he protecting a secret? Maybe the one that led to Matt being beat up? Had Steve and Matt got their hands on a similar artefact? Was that even possible? How?

“Matt. Did you… did you do anything strange in the past few days?” Steve asked calmly, causing the man tense completely; both his and Foggy’s pulse raced.

“I-“

“And maybe it had something to do with the fact I feel like I took some serious beating? I’m ninety-percent sure my rib is cracked and the headache I have is not exactly pleasant. Not to mention Foggy said something about revealing your identity-“

“Foggy!” Matt cried out, clearly outraged, throwing his hands in the air.

“What?! You were acting weird! You act weird when you have a concussion!”

“Exactly how many times that you know of he had a concussion that you can tell that?” Steve asked incredulously, suddenly towering above them all despite not being the tallest one in the room. It was the persona of the war hero that gave that impression.

“More than I can count.”

“Fog-“

“Alright, cool it, guys. What are we missing? Steve, what are you talking about?” Tony interjected, turning to Steve. “Cap?”

“I’m sure you heard me, Tony-“ The realization dawned to Steve and he wanted to slap himself for not figuring it out sooner. He turned to Matt, shocked. “You have abilities. The… the hearing you have, the smell, the touch, everything, it’s… Matt, what is all this? What exactly it is you do at night?”

“Whoa, what?” Tony burst out, while Foggy and Matt seemed to be ready to get a heart-attack, their body-temperature rising.

“Captain Rogers, I… I’d like to talk to Fog— no, you’re gonna hear me anyway, never mind…”

Steve’s eyebrow rose at Matt’s note.

“Are you… are your other senses enhanced since you’re blind?” Bruce pried, not unkindly. Patiently. It dawned to Steve maybe he should have been gentler as well, but the secrecy was bugging him, especially when it was giving him the idea of something very shady happening here.

“It’s not just that. It’s his body reactions,” Steve added carefully, feeling everyone’s gaze shift to him.

Matt Murdock sighed and it sounded as if he ran his hand down his face. “Well, I guess there’s no point of denying it…”

“Deny what exactly?” Tony demanded, impatient. Yeah, deny what?

“Try to hit him.”

“I beg your pardon?” Tony asked while Foggy just cried out: “Matt! You can’t just ask people to hit Captain America!”

“Take off the glasses, please. And it’s my body, isn’t it?” Matt noted wryly and as Steve obeyed with a perfectly confused expression, Matt went for it by himself.  

Steve easily deflected the fist on instinct, following by a punch of his own, hitting Matt square in his jaw, gasping at both the automatic reaction and the sharp pain shooting through his hand.

Oh and at the fact that he actually hit something – very precisely despite the fact he shouldn’t have known where Matt was.

The action was followed by several shocked exhales.

“Okay, I didn’t see that coming,” Matt hummed, rubbing his jaw, while Steve tried to keep a straight face despite his hand hurting like son of a bitch.

“What the fuck just happened?” Tony asked the obvious question, breaking the stunned silence that followed Matt note.

“Dude, your hand just punched Captain America. Are you gonna get arrested?”

“You tell me, Foggy.”

“What the fuck just happened?!” Tony turned the volume of his voice up and accompanied the question with a broad gesture. “How did you do that?”

If Steve could see now, he would be staring at his aka Matt’s hands in complete shock.

Oh, excellent question, by the way.

“Easily, Mr. Stark. I’m Daredevil.”

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Part 5

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Meet Matt Drama-Queen Murdock. He is a perfect match to Steve Is-This-a-Test Rogers, isn’t he?

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Tags: @mermaidxatxheart​ @igobypoet​

[thegeminisage]

ON THE SUBJECT of the s4 finale (major spoilers ahead) 

i DID like:

arthur getting mortally wounded again. partially bc i was still angry at him, partially because it’s always good fun to see him staggering around half-dead and fueled only by determination

merlin shooting a crossbow was great. it’s so nice to see him non-magically hold his own in a fight

gwaine “singing for his supper” was pretty badass. i love that fella

i feel a way about arthur observing that everyone in his life betrays him sooner or later. under one hand: bad time for a pity party, bud, and since i was mad at him at the time i felt merlin’s subsequent ep talk/praise was a bit unwarranted. under the other hand it’s like...really fucked up actually that a lot of people DO lie to arthur (going back to 2.08) in particular because of his station or because of things uther has done - in a way, even merlin lying to arthur is a result of uther’s choices. arthur’s not a bad person, most of the time, unless the writers want to torture gwen, but he’s surrounded by quite a lot of bad people and uther’s genocide is partially arthur;s legacy too whether he likes it or not because it was arthur’s birth that triggered it. it’s just fucking sad to me that he can’t seem to fight his way out of the ugliness he came from and was born into

MERLIN CALLING DOWN A MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON TO AMITE AN ARMY FOR DARING TO FUCK WITH HIS LIL HOMETOWN...BABE...WHAT A BADASS. HE CAN COMMAND A DRAGON

in fact love merlin getting to be a badass so much i put up with his old man merlin guise for it but JESUS FUCK that was so much more than i ever expected. he DECIMATED an ARMY with a few words! if merlin had half a mind to be evil he’d be fucking unstoppable and instead he uses his powers to polish armor and heal battle wounds

arthur’s very long look after merlin leaves to go “create a diversion” aka perform more badass sorcery without having to worry about being seen

I WAS SOOO HAPPY TO SEE AGRAVAINE DIE LIKE FUCK YOU DUDE LOL

oh man. you could see it on his face. a very long pause where merlin’s counting up his enemies, calculating his move, pros vs cons, can he take them all out at once, will there be survivors enough to tell his secret

i realized what he was gonna do about a split second before he actually did it and i YELLED OUT LOUD and spent the entire section laughing like a maniac

he fucked them all up without moving a muscle. he just stood there and his eyes glowed and he toppled nearly a dozen men. i. was. LOSING IT

merlin really is the bravest character on this whole show. when arthur thought he was gonna die he was bugging but merlin faced down both morgana and an army without one little bit of fear. totally cool and calm. i LOVE this, who he is, when he’s really pressed down to the wire, and lets himself be seen. he’s grown up so much and he’s so GOOD 

doubly impressive: agravaine is so SHOCKED by what merlin truly is he’s delighted and laughing and impressed, in spite of the fact that merlin just killed maybe a hundred of his soldiers and is about to kill him too. it’s a bruce wayne/batman situation. i know i complained about merlin keeping it too close to the vest before but now i’m actually impressed with how his cover is SO good his enemies are delighted to find out his secret

arthur taking time out of his escape to go back and look for merlin and merlin REALIZING WHAT HE’D DONE and arthur going “you’re my only friend”

THEY ARE FRIENDS! NONE OF THIS “WE COULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS” THEY ARE FRIENDS

THE SWORD IN THE STONE THING look i can’t believe after all arthur angsted about being lied to merlin would then lie more to him but OH MY GOD no matter how they did it i was always going to love it. i died. arthur went full legend of zelda

and like. ok. merlin tells this whole dumb story and arthur argues with him the entire time and THEN merlin finally goes “are you calling gaius a LIAR?” and arthur says “no im just calling YOU an idiot” and merlin says “oh yeah? what’s that then?” and arthur stops dead in his tracks and gives that sword the llllooongest look and the muted piano comes in and sldkfgjhlsdfkjhlsdjfghsldfjgh

the timing. the drama. the cinnamon topography. i hate the word epic but it was epic. i’m such a fan for swords in stones. i’m so glad they gave it some nice fanfare

i do also feel human emotion about merlin’s like...faith in arthur. somehow all of merlin’s onetime flaws have become good character traits for him - him saving uther seems like weakness and then strength, him keeping his secrets close seems cold and then clever, and now his belief in arthur, which at first seemed blind faith but has since sort of matured into true devotion...arthur doesn’t always deserve it but since it’s coming from someone so WISE the more merlin says it the more i believe it. in season 1 it’s like “someday arthur will be a great king” and you’re like “yeah whatever” but NOW it’s like “holy shit he really might be” and it’s nice that arthur can believe merlin even when he doesn’t believe in himself

merlin’s one-man mission to sneak into the castle in the middle of the night as old man merlin just to sabotage morgana’s magic was like...also really badass tbh. he REALLY used that braincell

GWEN WITH A SWORD

the knights reunion: “elyan! oh thank god! are you alright?!” “well, i have been locked up with gwaine for a week”

merlin is SUCH A BADASS him blocking morgana’s magic ON THE SLY with ALL THOSE PEOPLE LOOKING god god god

GWEN IS QUEEN NOW AND GOOD FOR HER! i really hated their breakup and reconciliation but whatever she looked so good in her dress it’s everything she deserves

i did NOT like:

that will-bending, make-someone-compliant spell. that is skeevy as shit and i hate that they introduced something like that into canon. angry as i was with arthur it made my skin crawl the entire time. especially unfun when they played it for laughs...like...the amount of agency lost...it’s not funny. any normal person should feel terrible about doing something like that

furthermore, arthur even in his right mind having to pretend to be stupid is like...what? this is the season finale. this is NOT the time for hijinks

WHY are we still torturing people LEAVE elyan alone

you know? fuck morgana. like. it’s not her fault. the writers dropped the ball. i understand that & will always be angry on her behalf about it. but between this and turning gwen into a deer to be SHOT at...i’m like. really done having sympathy for her character or rooting for her to succeed. i don’t like that feeling but there it is

HOW did gwen not see merlin using magic to save her also WHY is she forced to see morgana who has hurt her more than anyone

speaking of gwen, they did not have time to do That Plot and reconcile arthur and gwen all at the same time. it was SO badly paced. i’m not talking about the gwne thing bc i will black out from rage but wow

don’t like tristan and isolde mostly because he looks WAY OLDER than her. although i did soften up a little when she was like dying and she was just lying in his arms and all she wanted was for him to hold her.........That’s Sad. i did feel human emotion

[ryouverua]

Back to the Library

Maki’s smiles are few and far in-between but they always warm my heart <3

Also, ‘Hope Searching’ is growing on me. I know it’s a remix of ‘Despair Searching’, which, in turn, is the DRV3 jazzy version of the two investigation themes from DR1 and SDR2 but I was... maybe... quietly... hoping for a remixed version of ‘Living in a Lazy, Parallel World’. >3> I’M SORRY I KNOW I WON’T SHUT UP ABOUT HOW MUCH I LIKE THAT SONG -

HER RELUCTANT FAITH IN KOKICHI (AND HER STRONGER FAITH IN KAITO) PAID OFF AND I AM ECSTATIC -

I like that she used the term ‘worried’ here, lmao.

.............. Huh. I haven’t thought about the ‘there are no bugs’ question in a while, tbh. Ah, Gonta...

... Oh my god Kokichi took Gonta seriously. Oh my god Kokichi took Gonta seriously, despite Gonta backing down and being self-deprecating and cowed by his classmates not taking him seriously. Oh my god Kokichi respected Gonta’s expertise in his talent and didn’t actually just write him off oh my god -

HOW MANY THINGS DID HE TASK MIU TO MAKE?!

Miu is either super into pastel or super into steampunk when she designs her stuff, man. 8′D

OKAY DAMN THAT’S ACTUALLY REALLY LOUD

That.... has to be important, though. The absence of something that should be there is just as important as them catching something. Right??? And the game is clearly telling us that it’s an important clue - also, hell, the fact that Kokichi latched onto this strongly enough to commission Miu to make something alongside the hammers and the electrobombs means something!

“I spent time trusting in Kokichi’s good will and I’m trying to get back in your good graces so appreciate this and validate my efforts, damn it.” tsun

Well apparently it’s important enough to warrant a truth bullet...

AAAAAAAW

Oh god, can you imagine if part of the building collapses here before Himiko got to the room and killed Shuichi, Maki and Tsumugi? Ffff that would be so damn awful -

I JUST COMPLETELY LOST MY SHIT THAT COMEDIC TIMING WAS ON POINT -

oh

oh fuck

LMAO WHELP

K1-B0 CAN I PLEAD FOR MERCY OR -

....... is that a no -

don’t tell me what to do, game.

LMAO WHELP HIMIKO AT LEAST WE WENT OUT TOGETHER

anyway RECORD SCRATCH, REWIND, plz don’t kill me again k1-b0 I can’t help the fact that I love fluff text -

Am I losing my mind or is this the second strong Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice reference they’ve made???

“Also it’s stuff like this that led you to being blown up a moment ago. Please prioritize.” never

DUDE WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT LOOK YOU LITERALLY JUST GAVE US

is this what happens when you get blown up

you switch timelines and now everyone’s mad at you for no reason

??? Where did this reaction come from??? I-I feel like I’m missing something here?! Why would we get mad at you for this?

E... Every time I think I’ve come to grips with Himiko’s character, she says something that throws me for a loop...

MAKI NO -

If I’m still going with the necklace theory, maybe that’s the only one he had? I mean, it would make sense - if it’s from Monokuma, he would only make one copy of it. I was just assuming because it was part of his outfit that Rantaro would have multiple, but maybe that assumption itself is wrong - because it’s not part of his ‘official’ outfit, there’s no need for copies of it like everything else (shirt, pants, etc). He just has the one soldier tag, as his ‘perk’.

....... Or I could be completely wrong. That’s on the table too - it always is. 8′D

.... Kokichi...? He can lockpick and he did have a clear interest in Rantaro - but I feel like Maki would have come across it if so? it’s buried under all the clutter, dear god K1-b0 give us more time do you know how hard it is to go through a hoarder’s things?!

Also, also! I’m enjoying working in tandem with Shuichi. It feels like we’re both coming up with ideas independent of one another, as opposed to me being leaps ahead - his ideas are prompting my own. And honestly, that’s how it should be with our detective character!

TSUMUGI WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER I AM LITERALLY THE MOST SUSPICIOUS OF YOU

YOU SHOULD BE THE WARIEST ONE OF ALL OF US

T A N T E I    I N T E N S I F I E S

M-MAKI I’D SAY YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE BUT I’D BE AFRAID OF YOU TAKING ME SERIOUSLY

we.... we LITERALLY have talked about this. TALK FIRST. SEARCH FIRST. THINK FIRST, NO KILLING.

“Maki why do we need to keep having this discussion -”

oH MY GOD TSUMUGI SCREAMED AND IT SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME

Oh. Great.

I FEEL LIKE THAT DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF CONTINUING THE KILLING GAME -

SWEETCHEEKS THE K1-B0 GUN -

!!!!!!!!

asd;klfj k1-b0 holy fuck

.... I... I’m not even joking when I say that I so badly, so desperately wish I could see Kokichi’s reaction to the new K1-b0. Miu’s reaction to the new K1-b0 oh god the kiiruma vibes would be real. JUST. I WANT IT SO BADLY. DAMN IT.

A K1-b0 who doesn’t even look at his enemy after taking him down, who seems infinitely more sure of himself but so much more extreme, who still does care for his classmates in an abstract sense but has become so much more cold.... I, I just can’t help but wonder. Is this the real K1-b0?

Damn, he just doesn’t care at all anymore. It’s all about direct action now. No time for play, no time to talk. I hate to see it, but it’s very... robotic of you. Of course, that might just be what we need right now...

Like??? He does care for their safety in this situation??? But he also is clearly willing to blow up the building with them in it, as clearly shown in the fact that SWEETCHEEKS WAS LITERALLY BLOWN UP FOR TAKING TOO LONG IN HIS INVESTIGATION AND K1-B0 DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO EVACUATE THEM -

wHAT IS THE TRUTH

before K1-b0

after K1-b0

like if you think both pictures are equally beautiful

I’d like to think that there’s nothing left to attack us? All the exisals are on the outside and the Monokubs, too - we also haven’t seen any copies of Monokuma lying about. lmao at it being Tsumugi being worried about going in there now btw

MAKI JUST... STRIKE BACK NON-LETHALLY, OKAY -

I-If you’re in here protecting us while we explore the hidden room, you won’t blow up the school if dawn happens to reach us first, right

because that would defeat the purpose, right

RIGHT - ?!

K1-B0 I DON’T LIKE THIS SILENCE -

also:

literally clicks on Maki, she immediately gets defensive about having the ‘no killing’ talk for the 15th time this chapter pff

I, erm, would like your definition of ‘revenge’ though. I feel like that’s important.

8′)))))

god right in the kaito

GOD EVERY TIME YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT, I GET LESS SURE ABOUT MY SUSPICIONS TOWARD YOU... BUT............... uuuurughghugh

Okay, that’s fair. Just, you know. Remember. No killing. Nonlethal wounds only. Maybe stick to knives - crossbows seem a little bit ‘too soon’, considering.

Ah Kaede, if only you were here to see us now. 8′\

[taesunglifer]

Boy(z) In Luv: A Story

6 months ago....

* Knock Knock *

Tae sat straight up in bed, confused. Normally he isn't a light sleeper so he struggled to wipe the cobwebs away from his brain and wonder why he reacted the way he did. He looked around the room, realizing it was still dark. He glanced at the window to see if maybe the shades were just closed but no, the darkness peeked in through the slit in the curtains. He couldn't even see his hand in front of his face.

* Knock Knock *

"Yeah yeah yeah" he grumbled, fumbling with the hotel comforter. It remained twisted around his legs, holding him in place.

"Jesus fucking Christ..."

* Knock Knock Knock Knock *

"I HEARRRRRR YOUUUUUU BUT I'M STUUUUCCKKKKK!" he wailed to the unknown knocker.

He heard a laugh outside and he instantly knew who it belonged to.

"I'll wait!" Jungkook yelled back, confirming his thoughts.

After several agonizing minutes, he was able to pull his sweatpants off, untangle THEM from the blanket and put them back on. He grabbed a tshirt from a pile of clothes and threw it on as he opened the door.

Clearly, jungkook hadn't been to sleep yet. His sleeveless Timberland shirt and Puma joggers were the last thing he remembered him wearing at practice yesterday.

"For someone who likes to take 4 showers a day, why are you still in practice clothes?" Tae asked while yawning.

jungkook laughed and hung his head.  

"I've just been busy with some things....can i come in for a minute?"

Tae eyed him carefully but stepped aside. He shut the door and turned to watch Jungkook's back as he walked further into the room.

Man, all of those workouts are really doing his body good. Tae thought.

He rolled his eyes internally at the thoughts he had recently begun having about Jungkook. They had always been the best of friends being a part of the younger group. They naturally wound up together, enjoying the same things. But lately Tae had been feeling something different in the pit of his stomach when he looked at his group mate.

No, don't lie to yourself. you have always had feelings for him. But you finally started to ADMIT it to yourself....that i'm actually in love with him. Tae thought.

It terrified and excited him all at the same time. He'd know he was gay for a long time - he had admitted it to himself and he was pretty sure the rest of the guys knew even though he hadn't announced it.

And he was pretty sure Jungkook wasn't.

But Jungkook had begun to look at him differently as well. At first Tae thought maybe it was just his imagination and his HOPE....his DESIRE to want Jungkook to look at him that way. But soon Jungkook began to be more 'touchy feely' towards Tae than he ever had been. He had gone out of his way to make sure he was there whenever Tae conveniently needed someone for something. He would catch Jungkook staring at him at the oddest moments.

Was something really there?

Tae sat in the hotel chair and watched as Jungkook sat down on the bed, leaning back on his arms.

"So why have you awaken me from my beauty sleep at..." Tae checked the clock. " 3 fucking 13 in the AM."

Jungkook laughed and rolled his eyes.  

"I was playing Overwatch and got lonely so i thought I would bug someone."

Tae smirked. "Ah. And everyone else was doing what exactly?"

Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows.  

"I....don't know. I just came here first." He grinned.

Tae laughed and shook his head.  

"Of course you did. Since I was up knitting and all."

Jungkook sat up, resting his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor.

Taehyung felt the goosebumps rise on his arm.    

"Is...there something on your mind Jungkookie?"

Jungkook knotted his lips together and cleared his throat.    

"I, uh. Well i need to talk to you about something...It's been bugging me for awhile and...I just need to get it out."

Taehyung instantly felt his stomach drop.

Is he....does he..know...? he thought.

Jungkook looked towards the window but realized the curtains were closed. He ran a hand along his neck and up into his hair, ruffling it.

Tae watched the muscles ripple in his arm and was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open.

Yep.

He quickly closed it.

Taehyung waited for Jungkook to compose himself and continue.

"Well its...its kind of...complex...sort of thing...that...i don't know how...it..." Jungkook covered his mouth, struggling.

"Dude, just come out with it." Tae said, ready to get this torturous experience over with.

Jungkook stared at the floor again. He shook his head from side to side, as if trying to collect his thoughts.

He laughed and looked up into Tae's eyes.

"Man, i think i'm just really tired. I need to get some rest. I don't know what's going on with me...I'm just...spacing out."

He rose from the bed and walked quickly to the door.

Tae raised his eyebrows, wondering what the hell he just witnessed. He followed behind him, grabbing Jungkook's wrist.

Jungkook turned and stared down at Tae's hand before raising his eyes to meet Tae's.

Tae stepped back when he saw how the scared look that encased Jungkook's eyes.

"If you, uh...remember what it was, just come back and we can talk. I'm sure i'll be up for awhile now that some asshat woke me up." Tae said, grinning.

He was hoping he could ease Jungkook's struggle even just a little.

Jungkook smirked and nodded.

"Yeah, i'll do that. For sure. You got it." and out the door he went.

Tae stared at the closed door for several minutes, wrapped in confusion.

He really felt like Jungkook had something terrible to say. Maybe he knew how Tae had felt and he was coming to let him down.

Oh god, that would have been terrible for the both of us. he thought.

Tae grabbed his phone, his hotel key and threw on his slippers. He opened his door, peeking outside to see if anyone was in the hallway. Seeing it empty, he walked across the hall, knocking lightly on the door directly in front of his.

"Shit! Ow! Coming! Hold on! Dammit!" he heard from inside the room. A few seconds later, the door opened and Namjoon stuck his head out..

"What did you break, drop, maim or bruise?" Tae asked him.

"What?" Namjoon asked, startled at first. He quickly realized what Tae had said and responded with a "Shut up jack ass" before opening his door to let Tae in.

Tae slipped through the door and dropped down on Namjoon's bed, eyeing the elder as he limped to the other side of the bed.

"Okay well you didn't break or drop anything so that means you maimed and bruised yourself."

Namjoon rolled his eyes as he gently sat down beside Tae on the bed. He brought his right leg up and rested it across his left knee.

"I banged my fucking knee on the mini fridge. How?? Who does that??" Namjoon asked, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Kim Namjoon does." Tae responded.

Namjoon punched him lightly in the arm and sighed.

"So what brings you to my room at..." he glanced at the clock. "3 fucking 23 in the morning."

Tae laughed at the irony of his words. He fidgeted with his hands and took a deep breath.

"Remember the talk we had a month or so ago...About Jungkook."

"Mmmm...Yes...about you having strong feelings for him?" Namjoon asked.

Tae nodded, letting the breath back out.

"Well he came to my room a little while ago...to talk about something but he didn't say before he took off, scared shitless. It seemed serious and i kind of thought..." Tae let his words trail off.

Namjoon finished his thought. "You thought he was going to tell you he liked you too?"

Tae shook his head quickly. "No, no...No, i thought he was just going to tell me he knew and to let me down...Did you say something to him?"

Namjoon pursed his lips together. "No. I didn't tell him what you told me. I told you that was between us and i meant that."

Tae nodded, feeling reassured. "Okay...Okay good. I just told him to come back and talk to me when he wanted to talk about it...."

Tae jumped up and started pacing the room.

"But seriously, what am i going to do, Joon? When he tells me he can tell i have feelings for him and he OF COURSE doesn't feel that way about me."

Namjoon crossed his arms and leaned back against the bed, watching Tae wear a path in the carpet.

"I mean, i like him. LIKE HIM. No. No." Tae stopped and turned to stare at Namjoon.

Namjoon raised an eyebrow. "No...because you love him."

Tae sighed, dropping his head and shoulders, suddenly feeling exhausted. He sat on the bed again, slumping forward.

"God dammit. I do. I do. I'm in love with him. and it hurts. It hurts so much that when i look at him sometimes, it hurts to BREATHE. Why do i have to feel this way?"

Namjoon smiled softly and laid a hand on Tae's back, rubbing it lightly.

"Because that's the kind of person you are, Taehyung. You love. And when you love, you love fiercely. You don't know any other way to love."

Tae sighed again, letting Namjoon's words roll over him.

He's right. Tae thought.

A knock at the door interrupted Tae's thoughts. He turned and looked at Namjoon.

Namjoon sighed and heaved himself off the bed, slowly making his way to the door.

"I probably should have done that for you, since you're injured and all..."Tae said smirking.

"Ass.."Namjoon mumbled, opening the door.

"Joon, i tried. I tried to tell him how I felt and I just couldn't do it. You told me i needed to tell him how i feel, to just get it out but i'm terrified and i..."Jungkook came in, a flurry of words and hand gestures.

Taehyung stared at Jungkook, mouth agape when the younger man finally stepped around Namjoon.

Jungkook continued, not seeing Tae sitting on the bed.

"I mean, have you looked at him lately? He's so damn gorgeous that just looking at him makes me want to throw up from nerves and it's intimidating but you said i need to tell him how i feel and i just blew it...i blew it, Joon and how will i EVER build the courage back up to finally just fucking...say...the words....JUST SAY THE WORDS, JUNGKOOK..."

Jungkook turned around, arguing with himself and speaking AT Namjoon who had turned to stare between the two younger men.

Tae sat wide eyed when Jungkook finally saw he was there.

"And ohhhhhhhh holy shit how long have you been sitting there?" Jungkook asked, pointing at Tae.

Tae struggled to find his vocal cords.

"Uh. The whole fucking time you were ranting."

Jungkook sucked in a breath, placing his hands on his waist. "Well that's not good. That's not good for me at all."

Tae cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow.

"No? Is there something I wasn't supposed to hear?"

Jungkook laughed nervously.

"Uh. Well. All....of...that...."

Tae laughed lightly.

"Who were you talking about? Who do you need to say words to, Kookie?"

Jungkook shifted from foot to foot, running a hand through his dark hair.

"You know what. I think the two of you need to talk right now. " Namjoon said, grabbing his phone and key.

Jungkook stuttered "But i...I can't....right now..."

Namjoon placed a hand on Jungkook's shoulder. "This is the perfect time. No time is better than right this moment. Seriously. Talk."

Jungkook nodded quickly, biting the inside of his lip.

"I'll be in Yoongi's room." he shut the door quickly behind him, leaving Taehyung and Jungkook in silence.

Tae could feel the air thick with tension.

This is agonizing. he thought.

He glanced up at Jungkook's face to find Jungkook staring at the door.

"Kook....hey..." Tae said, trying to draw him back into reality.

Jungkook turned to stare at Tae carrying a terrified expression on his face.

"Will you sit with me?" Tae asked, patting the space beside him on the bed.

"Uhm.." Jungkook stared from the door to Taehyung before nodding. "Yeah....yeah i can sit. I can do that."

Tae smirked at Jungkook's extensive nervousness.

He's so damn cute when he's like this, he thought.

Tae felt the nerves he had held for months drip away. Now that he had some sort of idea of what Jungkook's feelings were towards him, he just needed to get him to say them to his face. And he needed to let Jungkook know that they were well reciprocated.

"I.." Tae started but Jungkook interrupted him, throwing his hand up.

"No...Let me talk first. Namjoon told me to get my words out so let me do that and then you can let me down and tell me i'm crazy after that..."

Tae tried to hide the smile that was attempting to spread across his lips.

Beyond cute, he thought.

Jungkook picked at the hotel blanket as he spoke.

"Okay so...I noticed that whenever I was around you, i felt strongly...like different...than i felt with the other guys. And i thought it was just because we were close, like we're the closest in the group...But then i started having these thoughts...and these dreams....and..."

"Whoa what dreams? You had dreams about me?" Tae asked, letting the grin envelope his face.

I thought i was the only one having the sex dreams about a band member around here...he thought

Jungkook's head snapped up and widened his eyes. "LET ME GET MY WORDS OUT, WILL YOU??"

Tae covered his mouth. "Sorry, sorry. Continue. I won't interrupt again." He stifled a giggle as Jungkook stared back down at the blanket.

"So i knew that this was something different...like...it wasn't just some brotherly kind of thing. There was something else going on there. And I always thought i was straight so it confused me and i didn't know what to do with it...But as time went on, i had to really face it myself and talking with Namjoon and stuff...realized that it's like...you know...FEELINGS kind of feelings...like i like you...in a romantic kind of way..." Jungkook mumbled the last few words, not daring to look up at Tae.

Tae tilted his face down slowly, trying to get Jungkook to look at him. The lower he went, the lower Jungkook went until Tae's head was upside down on the mattress. He started laughing, shaking the bed with his body. Jungkook finally looked up, breaking into laughter when he saw the position Tae was in.

"This isn't funny, Taehyung! This is serious shit, MAN!" Jungkook yelled, slapping Tae playfully on the arm.

Tae continued to giggle while still looking at Jungkook upside down.

Gah, hearing that laugh and seeing that smile makes my heart want to explode.  he thought. Ill stand on my head for years if i can get that every second of the day.

Tae finally righted himself and scooted himself closer to Jungkook. Jungkook eyed him carefully.

"Jungkookie....I'm in serious like with you too. I also talked to Namjoon about it." he laughed.

Jungkook shook his head, grinning. "Seriously? Wow, he's good at keeping secrets."

Tae nodded. "He's a good sounding board really. He lets us get out what it is we need to say and gives the exact amount of advice we need."

Jungkook nodded. "Yeah, he really fits that leader role well, in all aspects of our lives."

Tae agreed. He continued to stare at Jungkook, completely dumbfounded at what just happened between the two of them.

"So...Wow...we both like each other." Tae said.

Jungkook let out a small laugh. "Yeah its...weird."

Tae laughed, adding "Weird is an understatement i think,"

Jungkook took a deep breath after a moment of silence. "So what do we do now?"

Tae licked his lips and stared at Jungkook, taking in every inch of the face that used to belong to a friend...but now belonged to the man he wanted to smother with his love.

"What do you want to do?" he asked quietly.

Jungkook drew in a deep breath and Tae saw his eyes drop to his lips.

"Would it be...REALLY WEIRD...if i asked if i could kiss you?"

Tae raised an eyebrow. "You want to kiss me?"

Jungkook nodded, licking his own lips several times. "I really want to. Really bad."

Tae grinned, feeling his heart warm and grow.

"You most definitely can kiss me."

Tae waited for Jungkook to make the move even though he wanted to leap across the bed and rip his clothes off. He wanted to crush his lips to Jungkook's, taking every breath left in his body. He wanted to scratch at his back while he pounded himself into Jungkook, hearing Jungkook scream his name. He wanted to make Jungkook HIS.

Staring at the beautiful brunette, he knew he would in time.

Jungkook leaned forward, taking Tae's face between his hands.

"I've never kissed a guy before so...just..."

Tae smiled softly and nodded. "I know...It's fine..."

Jungkook licked his lips a final time before bringing Tae's face to his. Tae felt Jungkook's plush, warm lips trembling as they connected with his. Tae brought his hands up to his own face, laying his hands over Jungkooks and rubbing them softly in reassurance.

He felt the trembling slow as Jungkook pushed his tongue against Tae's lips, asking for entrance. Tae, of course, obliged instantly.

Whatever Jungkook wanted, he would give him. He'd give him everything in a heartbeat as soon as he asked.

Their tongues danced together slowly as Tae waited for Jungkook's comfort level to rise.

It didn't take long. Jungkook deepened the kiss quickly, moving his hands to tangle in Tae's hair, gripping and pulling Tae closer into him.

Tae thought he would suffocate but he didn't care. What a wonderful way to die, on the lips of the man he loved with every inch of him.

Jungkook sucked on Tae's lip and moaned. He pushed Tae backwards on the bed, climbing on top of him and continued the fervent makeout session.

Tae wrapped his arms around Jungkook's strong shoulders, crushing his chest to Jungkook's as if he was melting into him.

He couldn't get close enough to him. He couldnt get ENOUGH OF HIM.

Jungkook's hands moved to Tae's waist, raising his shirt. Tae felt his stomach knot with excitement. Jungkook quickly moved down Tae's body to splay a dozen kisses across his soft belly. Tae closed his eyes, losing himself in the feeling of Jungkook's mouth touching his skin. He loved how his warm breath left heat trails.

Tae buried his hands in Jungkook's hair as he sucked and nibbled lower across Tae's stomach. He felt Jungkook hesitating and he knew the nerves were coming back into play. He pulled Jungkook back up to his face.

"Hey....You don't have to do anything you aren't ready or comfortable doing, okay?" Tae said, staring directly into Jungkook's eyes.

Jungkook nodded quickly, his breathing ragged. He moved back to Tae's lips and hungrily demanded their attention. Tae felt the heat knot in his stomach and his groin began to ache.

There was a loud knock on the door and a yell "I HOPE YA'LL AREN'T MAKING OUT IN MY BED!! YALL BETTER NOT BE MAKING OUT IN MY BED! SOMEONE WILL DIE IF YA'LL ARE MAKING OUT IN MY BED!!"

Tae and Jungkook laughed loudly as Namjoon pounded on the door with emphasis.

Jungkook laid his head on Tae's chest, breathing his scent in deeply. Tae wrapped his arms tightly around him and then added his legs for comedy. Jungkook laughed and kissed Tae's chest several times.

They laid tangled together for several minutes in silence.

Tae sighed.

"We so made out in Namjoon's bed."

They both erupted into laughter.

Part Four

[cutepimook]

GOT7 Newscaster AU

They're the morning show, and have a love-hate relationship with it 

At the beginning of the day, everyone is already dead. Wake up time is 2:00 AM, and Youngjae and Yugyeom always whine about their job choices 

First brodcast is at 4:30, and they barely rest during commercial breaks because of changes in script and touch ups and it's hell 

After the first brodcast, there's another at 5:30, and the last is 6:30, but there's always work afterwards. It's a truly hectic job, but it's Their Job so it's okay- most of the time

Jaebum is the floor director, and is part of the unofficial morning hype crew. He doesn't show up on camera, and the rest of them hate him for it

Jaebum knows everyone's coffee orders by heart and massages his poor babies' shoulders when they're half asleep and getting make-up done. A true dad bro

Jinyoung and Yugyeom are the main newscasters, who inform the general public of the things happenin and so forth

Jinyoung does "Word of the Day" and Yugyeom mimicks him with a funny face to lighten it up because literally No One Cares Bro (but Jinyoung is so into it it's cute) 

They do local news, so it's more light hearted in general- no one wants to watch depressing news when they wake up! And Jinyoung and Yugyeom are good at making people at home happy

Yugyeom always asks people at home what they're eating for breakfast, and playfully scolds viewers "you better be eating! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and it's the cutest thing ever- even though he never eats breakfast, which his twitter followers never fail to point out 

Because of their relaxed broadcasts, funny interactions with each other, and allaround handsomeness, each person (sans Jaebum, who doesn't even use social media) has a mass following on Instagram and Twitter. Jackson and Bambam being the most popular follower count-wise

Mark is the traffic informer guy and Bambam is the meteorologist and both use the green screen, which is next to the front of the building- which has like giant windows instead of walls

Bambam is always interacting with people passing by and he's become a local internet meme- #weatherbamselfie #NewsBam #IDABBEDWITHTHEWEATHERMAN, etc 

Mark is more chill, and knows that nobody really cares about the traffic. Even so, he's no stranger to the mass following on social media. He "doesn't believe" Bambam when he says it's because of his looks (tho he knows it's the truth)  

There's two dogs on set- Coco and Miho. Miho sometimes interrupts Bambam when he's giving a forecast and Bambam ends up both giving the weather and throwing Miho's toy- only for the puppy to come back to him. You can hear laughing in the background 

There was once a bug on the Live Traffic Cam, and the green screen showed it and Mark SCREAMED and will never live it down, ever 

One time Yugyeom couldn't wake up enough to put in his earpiece and ended up fumbling with it on Live Television while Jinyoung laughed at him 

Another time, Jinyoung accidentally said "food fuck" instead of "food truck" and the rest is history

"At least I'm not into foodplay" 

"Oh I heard about this good food fuck that's stationed down the street" 

Bambam wore a black and white stripped turtle neck one day, and will never wear one ever again. Reason: when Yugyeom and Jinyoung transitioned from regular news to the forecast, Yugyeom announced with such a serious tone "And Now, Weather, with The Hamburglar." And Bambam had to be forcibly reminded by Mark that he couldn't tackle a news anchor while they were Live

Mic check usually includes things along the lines of "I want to kill myself, one, two, but first I'll kill Yugyeom, one, two" "I want to go home, one, two, and get away from this abuse, one, two" 

Jinyoung constantly flirts with the makeup artists and Yugyeom fake barfs 24/7 

Sometimes to mess with Yugyeom, Jinyoung and Youngjae bribe the people in the script office with lunch to make slight changes to Yugyeom's script. The shade of red on Yugyeom's face is one of the greatest things on earth

Jinyoung and Yugyeom are the most busy, having to do promo videos and prerecordings, and while the rest of the boys wait for them to finish up, they take Snapchat videos of them with filters and try to make them laugh. Yugyeom is weak

There's a running joke that when Mark does his report, he keeps his left arm glued to his side and only moves his right arm, but barely. Even though he's more free flowing now, when he first started he was so awkward. At random times, one of them (mainly Jackson) will stiffen his arms and waddle around and EVERYONE LOSES IT except Mark ofc 

To mess with both anchors (because what else is there to do, honestly) Mark and Bambam convince the stylists to have Yugyeom and Jinyoung wear matching suits, and it's always too late for the two to change anything and they're always so??? Flustered about it. It's hilariously adorable

One time Bambam forgot about the green screen and wore green pants to work... nobody said anything because everybody's an asshole, and Bambam didn't realize until he saw himself on screen. He was so embarrassed he flattened himself against the wall, but in the end, told the forecast "like a ninja" and only covered his face when he finished 

Being the floor director, Jaebum is constantly moving around the studio, in and out of rooms, up and down different floor levels, and always on his feet. There's a sense of respect for him, because before, during, and after each broadcast he's telling everyone what's happening and waving his arms around and pointing at cameras and making sure everyone has their scripts and earpieces and the field reporters are where they should be- it's crazy for him. Though this doesn't stop the boys from messing with him lol. He's constantly Stressed(tm)

They make it up to him, though, and always treat him to things after each workday is done

Youngjae and Jackson are field reporters, who go out on the street and to local events like fesivals or parades, and the occasional farmers market. The inside workers envy their freedom, but only slightly because of the things they go through 

Youngjae once had to go interview miniature pony handlers, and while he was talking to the camera, Live, a pony came over and PEED ON HIM. It was traumatic

Jackson once got yelled and lectured at by an old lady because his hair was bleached, and took all with a smile, though he was constantly makin eye contact with the camera 

Youngjae was at the beach interviewing a group of surfers, and a really hot dude came over and slung an arm over his shoulder and he Couldn't Stop Messing Up His Lines Holy Crap 

Both Jackson and Youngjae are afraid of the "Runners"- the people who go behind field reporters and yell things like "OH MY GOD IM ON TV" or run by them shirtless or something. Once one of them accidentally crashed into Jackson and he continued his report from the ground

There was a grand openeing to an amusement park, and both Jackson and Youngjae were sent to go and report together. In the script, they had to ride the "FALLEN ANGEL: DEATH DROP" and Jinyoung and Yugyeom from base phisically tore their earpieces out because the screaming was so loud. Jinyoung still whines about his wounded eardrum

Once when Youngjae was out doing a market brodcast, he didn't hear the cameraman say it was Live and couldn't hear the anchors calling for him, and Twitter EXPLODED because he was singing along to the random street musician and "Well, instead of hearing about fruit stands, I think we all would rather like this." 

Youngjae didn't notice until he saw the cameraman crying 

When Jaebum got sick (from when he "visited his parents" aka overworked himself) the studio was IN CHAOS because the stand-in, Jae, was still under the title "floor director-in-training" and holy

Jaebum watched the morning news from his place and almost cried when Yugyeom messed up and looked up to where He usually stood and frowned when it wasn't Him, because He is on His couch and Couldn't be there for Yugyeom :( he got emo over his favorite bub

After the workday, everyone practically ran to Jaebum's apartment, only stopping to say hi to people who recognized them lol, and demanded he get better!!! But jokingly ofc 

They made him soup and treated him like a king for the rest of the day. Youngjae and Jinyoung stayed after everyone else and because of their care, Jaebum was back on his feet in no time. (He wishes he stayed out for longer tho, he loved getting the attention) 

Mark accidentally swore on Live Television because as he was walking to the other side of the green screen, he tripped and fell with a loud "SHIT" and it got so quiet he thought if he laid there long enough he would disappear 

"There seems to be some trouble over at the traffic center, Yugyeom, how was your morning so far?" 

"It was good, though I could have gone for a longer rest. I'm tired." 

"Me too." 

"..." 

"I think our traffic center is back to normal, what do you think, Mr. Tuan?" 

"I want to die, thank you, and now on 6th street-" 

[itsbenedict]

OH RIGHT YEAH I FINISHED PERSONA 5 ON SUNDAY

first i’m gonna say stuff that isn’t spoilers, and then after i’m done with that i’ll put spoilers under a cut. (at least, plot spoilers- there’s going to be details on the game in general, so if you haven’t played it yet and want to go in blind, hurry and scroll past this)

It’s good. It’s really very very good and improves on previous Persona games in... I think every possible dimension, except for how in this one every single female social link is romanceable, including the adults, including your teacher, um, hey??? Don’t???

Using personas as shadows was a really good move- the masked shadow designs from Persona 3 really fit that game’s aesthetic and had a whole unified design language, but they were sort of out of place in Persona 4 and would have been very out of place in P5. It was a savvy move both from a saving-on-art perspective, and from an aesthetic perspective- they were free to pick and choose from their huge library of persona designs to populate the palaces with thematically appropriate bad dudes. And, of course, as a fan of the series, it was fun going up against personas I’d used in previous games as enemies, and applying that knowledge to get an edge in combat.

The social stats system, where you have to grind up smarts and courage and charm and stuff in order to unlock things? Still terrible. Still a huge drag on the pacing and the game would have been way better without it. Hated it. But, it was slightly better than in P4, because social link activities often give you points in your social stats in addition to s.link points, so you don’t always have to choose between one or the other. Not that having the system at all wasn’t still bullshit, but it was ameliorated by some smart design decisions.

Speaking of social links- every single link, this time around, provides mechanical bonuses as you rank up. It’s not just a matter of, okay, I get an extra level on personas of this arcana- investing in social links provides a huge array of quality-of-life improvements. Getting extra time in the day, unlocking special moves in combat, letting you rearrange your party on the fly, improving your stealth in dungeons... it’s not just your immediate party members who are empowered by s.links.

Your crew is constantly having conversations in a group chat on your phone, and it really does a lot to make you feel connected to them- you have whole-group interactions on a daily basis, without having to meet up in person or have plot contrivances to justify it. That little touch (I say “little”, but it’s a big undertaking in terms of volume of writing) did a lot to make me care about the team as a whole.

EVERY PART OF THE GAME IS STYLISH AS FUCK AND THE MUSIC IS GREAT AND IT LOOKS AMAZING AND I WAS CONSTANTLY SUPER PSYCHED ALL THE TIME, THE HYPE IN THAT AREA WAS NOT A LIE, THAT’S ALL I NEED TO SAY ON THE MATTER

In general, it kind of made a show of departing from previous Personas, while really sticking pretty close to the formula overall. The main improvements were in the dungeon-crawling stuff- fixed-layout palaces with loads of cool setpieces and puzzles, stealth mechanics that made sneaking up on enemies engaging (except when the dang hiding spots restricted your camera for absolutely no good reason, dammit, i can literally reach out and touch this shadow’s toe and i can’t lock onto it from here??? fuck off), and cool faux-platforming sections.

anyway, PLOT SPOILERS (spoilers: the plot is good):

So, dang. The big thing that bugged me about Persona 4′s plot was “hey, so, you could at any time just go to the police, show them that you can go into TVs, and explain using the easily demonstrated evidence that the killer is using the magic TV world to do murders”. It made zero sense- particularly because the protagonist was living with a senior police detective. The usual “oh, they’ll never believe us” angle is nonsense in the face of how you can totally prove it no problem. 

Persona 5 neatly sidesteps this by putting the protagonist on probation, and making the core group a bunch of Phantom Thieves, and oh shit yeah actually making the cops the bad guys- so of course you keep all this stuff secret and don’t just let the authorities sort it out. YOU WOULD GO TO JAIL. (In fact, you do go to jail, as the flashback framing device points out early on.)

And speaking of this framing device: holy shit the clever plan for how you get out of that situation is genius. When the protagonist gets shot directly in the head and the bad guy checks the head wound to confirm that he is in fact dead? That looks pretty damn final until you remember that hey, realistic fake people are totally a thing and have been substantially involved in the plot this whole time, and of course if the police believe you’re in a cell then there’ll be a cognitive duplicate of you in the police’s cognition. There were so many layers to that plan that, in retrospect, didn’t seem like unrealistically risky gambits. No shit, it worked perfectly! It was a really fucking clever plan!

I’ll be honest: I didn’t exactly see Akechi coming. At first I saw him coming- like, okay, who’s going to be the traitor? We know there’s a traitor- I wonder if it’s the guy who we know works for the police, and has been trying to capture us? It was way too obvious, and so- while I kept him as my first guess, in acknowledgment of that obviousness, I was ready to pounce on any alternative explanation. (My secondary hypothesis was that I hadn’t been betrayed at all, and that the cell was in the Metaverse and the whole thing was a fiendishly elaborate setup. So, in a way, I was double right? While being, in fact, completely wrong.)

I caught the pancakes thing, but I didn’t put two and two together with his explanation- I knew he had to already be a persona user because of it, but when he confessed “I’m actually already a persona user”, I didn’t think too closely about the timeframe he presented- his claim that it had been recently, during our Okumura Foods heist. Or- well, I sort of considered that, but wrote it off as “maybe he misheard “cakes” as “pancakes” the same way Ann originally misheard “pancakes” as “cakes”. His thing on TV where everyone was blaming the Phantom Thieves, but he was like “actually, I think it might be someone else” threw me off the scent entirely.

(i also suspected Mishima, at least until i got further into his social link and he became less of a disaster area)

The Igor twist fucking ruled super hard. I thought it was kind of eerie that they introduced “Shadows are Personas, and they talk like people do, and are alive” at the same time as “hey, let’s do fusion with GRUESOME EXECUTIONS”, and I did think “wow, this doesn’t sound like how Igor should sound at ALL, but I guess I’m going to have to get used to it.” That said- I get that it would have taxed the art budget, but they really should have phased out the guillotines and gone back to the tarot card stuff once Lavenza and real!Igor came back into play. It was weird that they had the open door, but put an invisible wall in front of it, too- like, I guess they planned to revamp the Velvet room after that twist, but ran out of time?

The final fight was kind of eh. Big marathon against a god with multiple limbs and a lot of health, and then he kills you but your social links give you strength and your persona turns into a bigger cooler persona (although  and you win the fight good. Kinda boilerplate Persona final boss there- but not as disappointing as I assumed the final boss was going to be, because with Igor I ♪ never saw it comiiiiiing ♪ and thought Shido was the big bad, which would’ve been kind of anticlimactic. The whole bone bridges full of angels situation in the leadup, though, was pretty damn rad.

Let’s see what else. Sojiro Sakura is best dad, Hifumi Togo is best girl, Morgana is best cat, Akechi’s little foot dance thingy after all-out attacks is more adorable than he deserves to be, and Becky Kawakami deserves a god damn vacation.

I’ll probs have more P5 opinions to say later?? It was a VERY VERY good game that I liked a lot, tenouttaten.

[stelleralcid-blog]

I added an epilogue to “Tango’s Secret Santa” and realized i never posted the full work here

so yeehaw have the entire thing here or on ao3

Rated Teen for some swearing and heavily implied heavy makeouts

“Everyone, listen up, this is your captains speaking!”

Holster’s voice boomed to the back of the bus and shook Tango from his dozing against the window.

“I’ve always wanted to say that. Okay, Ransom, go!”

“Yeah, so! We’re doing a team gift exchange. It’s mandatory. And anonymous. Like a Secret Santa, or Secret Snowflake, or Nondenominational Winter Buddies. Blame Holster for that one.” “It’s true, my fourth grade teacher was afraid of offending the one Jewish kid (me), so we called it that. And I got to teach everyone Dreidel. That part was great.”

“Anyways. We’re putting a $25 limit on this. You all have a week and a half, we’re doing this the Friday night after finals end at the Haus. Homemade gifts are encouraged and treasured, but don’t make crap, yeah?”

“And Bits, pies don’t count, we know you’d make them for us anyways and we love you for that.”

“… I’m revoking your pie privileges, Mr. Birkholtz.”

“Fine, pie AND some other gift.”

“Deal.”

Ransom held out a snapback with folded scraps of paper inside. “Time to pick! We’ll come to you!”

He made his way up the aisle, as hands reached out from the seats to grab paper. Tango took a slip and unfolded it to see Ransom’s name scrawled in small, tidy handwriting.

“Be careful about keeping this a secret!” Holster shouted as Ransom made his way back to the front of the bus (Tango made sure to scrunch the paper into his fist tightly). “If your buddy finds out you have them before next Friday, that’s a fine!”

Ransom finding out was the last thing on Tango’s mind. It was still stuck in holy crap I have one of my captains he’s a SENIOR I can’t let him down but I have no idea what he wants/likes??? mode. What was Ransom even in to besides hockey? Could Tango get him something hockey related? Was that too much of a cop-out? He had a vague recollection of his captain being on a pre-med track. A stethoscope? One of those little round things they grow germs on?

Tango’s thoughts were interrupted by the bus pulling in to the parking lot of the rink, and Lardo standing up to give an overview of the evening’s game logistics. As the team filed off the bus, Tango’s usual stream of questions directed towards Lardo was strangely absent. Tango moved towards the storage compartment to collect his bag. As he grabbed it and turned to walk in to the rink, he came face to face with Lardo.

“Bro, if you’re out of ideas, ask someone for help. Trust me, guessing is not always a great plan on this team. I think Shitty’s ego is still wounded from when Wicks threw out the Hulk underoos he got.”

Tango had a brief image of Ransom in Captain America underpants, fervently insisting that they weren’t right, he was Canadian.

“Yikes, okay. Who should I ask? I don’t want to bug anyone—“ (Lardo rolled her eyes, Tango missed it) “—so I guess I’ll wait till after the game? Who would be good for this? Not Holster, obviously, because he’d definitely tell, but I dunno who…”

Lardo glanced over her shoulder at a head of orange hair retreating to the rink. “Why don’t you ask Dex? He’s your roommate tonight, right?”

“Oh! Yeah! He’s a defenseman, too, so he probably knows what Rans likes!”

“Sure, Tango. Kay, gotta go wrangle the rest of the team now. Good luck, see you later.”

Lardo flashed a peace sign, flipped her sunglasses down (why is she wearing them if the sun is setting? I have to ask her about that later.), and strode purposefully towards the rink.

---

Back at the hotel, as the Samwell Men’s Hockey team waited to check in, they relived the highlights of their victory.

“Dude, that pass to Ollie was slick. Some mad sauce to set him up for that shot.”

“Brah, not as sweet as Bits’ takeaway in the second. That defenseman didn’t know where the puck went for a solid 10 seconds.”

“Oh stop it, that was nothing. Look at Chowder! Stopping all those shots on that PK!”

Just then, Lardo turned away from the front desk and approached the gaggle of hockey players strewn about on the lobby furniture. “Got all your keys. I’m not your mom, but the bus is leaving at 5:30 tomorrow. Don’t stay up too late.”

Tango wasn’t planning on it, but he did still have to talk to Dex, and work on his communication assignment that he had missed for this roadie, and wait did the professor say she’d give him an extension until tomorrow or the next day? And what part of his grade would this go into? Participation?

“Hey, Tony, grab your gear, c’mon.” Tango was shaken away from his fretting by Dex chucking a key card at his head.

“Oh! What room are we in? Are all the rooms in a cluster like last time? I know Lardo told us to go to sleep early but is there a time we absolutely need to be quiet by? Because I know if we end up playing cards in Ransom and Holster’s room again we might get loud. But we don’t have to if we should all go to sle—“

“We’re in 212, don’t know, I don’t think so, we’re not all hanging out because I need to sleep. I’m turning the lights off at 10,” Dex snapped back.

“Okay.” Tango had learned that Dex was not always the happiest roommate after a long bus ride and a tiring game. He had offered at the beginning of the season to switch with Nursey into Chowder’s room, but Dex had prickled even more at that.

They rode up the elevator in silence. Dex frowned straight ahead at the door, Tango drummed his fingers on his thigh. They walked down the hall, Dex unlocked and opened the door, and immediately threw his bag on the bed closest to the door. “Great, I get the window, then? Thanks!”

Tango received a grunt of recognition as Dex dug his charger out and plugged in his phone.

“Hey, were you gonna take another shower tonight? Or one in the morning? If you aren’t, I’m gonna take the little shampoo bottles, because my mom said they have to throw them out anyways but she likes collecting them because hey, free soap.”

Dex raised an eyebrow as he focused on his phone. “All yours, T.”

“Cool!”

Tango threw on his pajama pants, plugged in his phone, then went to grab the soap and brush his teeth. He was planning on going to bed, but something was bugging him. He wanted to ask Dex something about… Oh! Ransom’s present!

“Hey ‘ex! Haat hould I ‘et hor Ransom?” Tango barreled out of the bathroom with a mouth full of toothpaste and an armful of soap. When Dex glanced up from his phone to give him an incredulous look, he ran back in, spit the toothpaste out, and tried again.

“What should I get Ransom? For the secret gift thing. I don’t know what he likes, and I don’t wanna disappoint him because y’know, captain, and I don’t have any good ideas.”

“Fuck, I don’t know. Isn’t he a bio major?”

“Something like that? I was thinking about some, like, icky medical equipment because maybe he could use it and he’s in a lab all the time but I don’t know where to get any and I’m worried it’ll be over 25 dollars. And you and him are both defensemen, so I dunno, maybe you had better ideas?”

Dex sighed, and put his phone down. “You’re not gonna shut up until I help you, are you.”

“I can stop talking to you! If you have work or something. I can just come up with something by myself. I might just talk myself through it a little, though, but I can do it quietly!” “No, you can’t.” Dex stared at Tango with a look strangely similar to the one Bitty always had when he said “oh, honey.”

“What’s something you know he needs?” Dex prompted.

“Um. Good grades? Less stress?” “Tony. That is literally every college student.”

“I could get him a starbucks gift card because he drinks coffee?” “Cop-out.”

“Red bull?”

“More interesting, but still a cop out, and you’ll get yelled at by Holster for ‘upsetting the coral reef with toxic waste’ or something like that.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard caffeine can really stress people out. It doesn’t do that for me, though. Does it do that for you?”

“No.” Dex frowned. “You might be on to something, though, with the stress thing. Ransom could use an outlet. I want to be able to be in the Haus while he’s studying and not be one hundred percent silent.”

Just then, Dex’s phone made a definitely not silent “BRAAAMMP BRAAAAAMP BRAAAAMP”.

“Shit, that’s my alarm, it’s 10. I’m turning in,” Dex said as he fumbled to stop the noise.

“You have an alarm to go to sleep? Doesn’t that wake you up?”

“Good night.” Dex got up, flipped the lightswitch, and collapsed back onto his bed, leaving Tango stranded in the darkness all the way next to the bathroom.

He picked his way back across the room to his bed, and ended up running into the coffee table. Tango must have hit it at an odd angle, because in addition to the clunk he heard a buzzing sound. Do tables make that noise? Maybe it was the carpet? Weird. He finally made it to (well, ran into) his bed, and crawled under the covers.

So I could get Ransom something for stress relief. A stress ball? Those are sometimes squishy rubber… so kind of like a round, soft, puck? Could I make one out of a puck? I wonder if they melt. Could someone freeze a stress ball and use it as a puck? I bet you could do that with a lot of things if they’re cold enough and round enough. Would they shoot as well? What else is small and round?... a cookie! Bitty would kill me, though, so maybe not…

Tango was drifting off to thoughts of baked goods flying around the Faber ice when he heard the soft kchunk of the door opening. He ignored it because Lardo said go to sleep and I want to dream about flying mini pies, until he heard sheets rustling and a low murmur from the other side of the room.

Well that is certainly weird. Tango was about to sit up and look over when he heard a groan choked off in a short gasp. He decided he most certainly did not want to see whatever Dex was up to. Instead, he stared at the clock on his bedside table, with a look of horror on his face, probably. He didn’t have a mirror.

Ten thirty seven that could rearrange to seventeen oh three or oh one thirsty seven OH SHIT THIRSTY SEX DEX IS DOING UNSPEAKABLE THINGS RIGHT OVER THERE.

He tried his hardest not to hear the bed creak or the occasional wet sound, or to wonder who Dex was making those scarring noises with. I can block the noises out and Dex won’t notice. I have a pillow. It’s fine, he doesn’t need to know I heard him. Just gotta be careful.

Tango steeled himself, shut his eyes, and rolled over, taking his pillow with him over the top of his head. The rustling across the room paused. Tango caught a faint whisper, “… owder… sleeps like a log…” and a reply: “let’s go.”

He heard soft padding footsteps, then a louder thud made his eyes fly open. Whoever it was had hit the door in a tangle with Dex. A hand fumbled for the handle, and pulled it open. The hall light briefly glanced off of a patterned band of a tattoo on an arm, and shone through half lidded grey eyes, then the door closed and Tango was left in the dark trying his best to ignore the fact that Nursey and Dex were making out next to him thirty seconds earlier.

---

The next morning, the team stumbled onto the bus in various stages of “didn’t get nearly enough sleep”. This ranged from Ransom and Chowder, quietly debating who had the tastier granola bar, to Bitty, snuggled up in a hoodie with the strings pulled to obscure his face, dragging his feet up the aisle. Tango could not tell if Bitty actually had his eyes open or not. Tango himself was probably closer to Bitty on the tired scale, as he had laid awake for a while after Dex and Nursey had left, trying to purge the memory of the sounds he had heard and the knowledge that ew, they were hooking up right there who DOES that??? From his mind. He couldn’t figure out when he had finally fallen asleep, but must have, because Dex reawakened him when he came in at 1:26 AM. That just set his brain off again.

Tango saw Dex head towards the back row of seats, so immediately ducked into one of the front rows. As he crammed his backpack under the seat in front and settled against the window, Ransom swung in across from him.

“Hey, T. You look a little tired. Sleep okay?”

Holster shushed him on his way to the seat behind Ransom.

“It’s before 6. Not everyone is as used to running on zero sleep as you.”

As Ransom reached back to punch him good naturedly, Tango realized this could be a good opportunity to make at least a little sense of what he had witnessed last night. He piped up as the bus started to pull out of the lot,

“Actually, I have some questions for you guys. As captains? It’s why I didn’t sleep well.”

“Contemplating life’s big questions, are we now?”

“Not really, it’s more romantic-related-ish.”

Holster gave Ransom a gleeful look. “It’s your turn to give the uncomfortable sex talk to the tadpoles!” “Nonono, not for me! Like, a third wheel question! Like, I saw something I shouldn’t have!”

“Oh?” Ransom quirked an eyebrow, which Tango took as an invitation to explain.

“Yeah, um, and it may have involved…,” he dropped his voice to a whisper, “people on the team.”

“Oh.”

Ransom shot a look at Holster, held up a finger to Tango, and put his head over the back of the seat. The captains whispered furiously to each other, then turned back to a squirming Tango with what he recognized as their Serious Captain Faces. Mostly they just looked like they were slightly in pain, but Tango and the rest of the team always played along.

“Okay,” Ransom began. “First, thank you for coming to us first about this. You didn’t tell anyone else, did you?”

“No.”

“All right. Good. Thank you.” Ransom let out a breath. “You probably should not tell anyone. Because, not to name any names, but we know how this could turn out.”

“Right.” Tango was vague on whatever details Ransom seemed to be implying, but he could imagine grumpy Dex getting a lot grumpier if he had a secret get out without his control, and he didn’t want to imagine Nursey losing his chill.

“Also, probably don’t talk to him about it. He’ll let everyone on the team know when he’s ready, yeah? Don’t want to rush anything,” Holster said, and Ransom nodded sagely.

“Okay, that makes sense.” “As for getting it out of your head, we got nothing. We’re still reeling from when we found out. Baby animal pictures help as a good distraction, but that’s about all, and it’s not permanent. Lardo does have a pretty large file of ducklings she can send to you.” “Bro. Instead of dick pics, she sends duck pics.” “BRO.” Holster boomed.

“Shhhhh!!!” said the entire rest of the bus.

---

Rain poured from the December sky as Tango hurried through the yard up to the Haus. He was just glad that it was warm enough to rain today; 40 degrees felt downright balmy when it had been in the 20s the week before. He opened the door to warmth and the smell of something fried, and as he took off his jacket he pulled out the small present with a card marked “Ransom” in his pocket.

“Bitty? Ransom? Holster? Chowder? Lardo? I’m here!”

“We’re in the kitchen, come on back!”

Tango poked his head in to see Bitty at the stove with Holster, and Ransom, Lardo, and Chowder at the table. Lardo was holding a piping bag, and Chowder was covered in powdered sugar.

“Hey, Tony!” Chowder smiled. “We’re helping Bitty and Holster make snacks for later! They’re like jelly donuts, but not quite, I guess. Holster can explain better.” He spotted the package in Tango’s hands. “You can put that in the den! Or I can do that, I need to go get mine and put it there, anyways.”

Chowder took the present from Tango and ran upstairs to grab his own. Tango turned his attention to the piping bag Lardo had.

“What’s that for? And is Bitty making donuts? Are those the ones Chowder was talking about? Oh, and is that why he had powdered sugar all over, too?”

“One answer to all of those, T. Bitty and I are making sufganyot!”

“Bless you.”

“No, Tango, that’s what they’re called, dear. They’re for Hanukkah, Holster wanted me to try making his grandma’s recipe.”

“They were a tradition, until my mother decided that she didn’t want the entire house smelling like fried and banned us making them. I haven’t had them since high school! Basically, Hanukkah’s one of those ‘they tried to kill us all, they failed, let’s eat’ Jewish holidays, which also involves an oil-related miracle. So the ‘let’s eat’ portion is fried food.”

“Holster’s turned us into a production line,” said Lardo. “You can take over powdered sugar duty from Chowder, if you want. Take the ones I’ve already put the jelly in.” She nodded towards a plate of golden fritters leaking jelly from their ends.

“Okay!” Tony grabbed the plate and the sifter full of powdered sugar. “When are we starting with presents?” “Oh, the youth, always on about their presents.” Ransom put on his best old man voice. “When everyone else gets here. You’re like 10 minutes early.”

“Oh! All right.”

They listened to the rain beat on the windows of the kitchen and the pile of completed sufganyot grew steadily larger. The rest of the team slowly trickled in, and the volume of the conversation grew until Ransom and Holster announced it was time for the gift exchange. Everyone filed into the den, and Tango found himself squashed between Whiskey and Nursey on the couch. Dex was on Nursey’s other side. Tango couldn’t stop himself from raising his eyebrows at that, and he saw Dex catch him and turn red. Ohmygod he knows I know. I’m going to have to move to Australia. Do they have hockey there? He almost missed Holster’s explanation of how opening gifts would work.

“We’ll pick one person to go first. Find your gift from the pile and open it! Whoever gave it to them, fess up, and you can do the hugging/thanking/whatnot. The person who gave the gift that just got opened then goes next.”

“Also, if there’s a card, read that first. We were not raised by wolves. Well, I hope not.”

“Okay, the captains have decided that one of the taddies has to go first because we said so. Whiskey! Go!”

Whiskey extracted himself from the couch, walked nonchalantly to the gift pile, and drew out a bag with tissue paper. He pawed through the bag, and pulled out what looked like a little booklet.

“Does this count as a card?”

“No, that’s part of your present. What’s it say?” Holster encouraged.

“101 reasons to stay away from the lacrosse team.” Whiskey raised one eyebrow. “I’m guessing this was you, Holster?”

“I can’t take all the credit, Shitty helped too.”

“Gee, thanks…”

“What else is in there?” Whiskey pulled out some stick tape and held it up.

“So you can remember where you come from, my dude.”

As he sat back down, Tony saw Whiskey roll his eyes.

“Holster, your turn!”

Holster extracted a small package, covered in what looked like burlap splattered in acrylic paint.

“I totally know who this is from,” Holster grinned.

He peeled the fabric back to reveal a book on coral reef care. “Lards, this is a terrible joke, thank you.” “Only the dad-liest for you, brah.” Lardo pointed at Holster and winked. Nursey leaned over to Dex and whispered something in his ear. Tango wished he had picked a different spot that was not on the couch.

The gift opening continued. Lardo got a box of crayons and a dictionary for her next project from Nursey, Nursey got a Falconers scarf from Bitty, Bitty got an Amtrak gift certificate from Ransom. Tango barely had time to wonder why he would need that, the train only ran to Providence, when Ransom got up to open his gift.

He picked the small package out of the pile, and peeled back the tape clumsily holding the paper together to reveal a stress ball and some ballpoint pens. Tango piped up, “I thought you could use the pens to take notes, and also click them to have something to fiddle with in your hands? Or just use the stress ball if the pens aren’t going to cut it.”

Ransom looked over at Tango with a look of mild surprise on his face. “No, the pens are perfect! How’d you know I needed more?” “I didn’t?”

“I sort of broke the rest of mine clicking them too hard. But like you said, I can use the stress ball if they’re getting too beat up on.” Ransom put the present down and crossed the room to the couch, and promptly put Tango in a friendly headlock. “Thanks, Tony, now everyone knows I’m a nerd!” He mussed up his hair, then let him go.

“Tango, your turn!”

“Oh!”

He approached the pile and saw a small box with a bow and an envelope with “Tony” scrawled across. Remembering Holster’s words, he opened the card first.

“Tony,

First of all, don’t read this out loud. Second: I’m sorry about that night on the roadie. I realize that was probably really uncomfortable for you. I also owe a lot to you for not telling anyone about it, or us (oops, Tango thought. Well, I think they already knew, so I guess it’s okay?). These are some things I wish you had, and you could probably use them for the rest of college, too. Especially if you end up in the Haus. I’ve heard the walls are thin. Nurse and I will tell the team when we’re ready, but till then, thanks for having our backs, and we’ve got yours too.

                                               William Pointdexter”

He opened the box to find a small bag of earplugs. Chowder peeked over his shoulder.

“Who’s this from?” Dex raised his hand from the couch.

“What are they for?” Chowder asked.

“Dex snores on roadies,” Tango blurted out, and glanced at the couch. Dex mouthed “thank you” or “fuck you” at him, he couldn’t quite tell.

“Practical and snarky! Nice, Dexy,” Nursey elbowed Dex in the ribs. “Your turn!”

The gift unwrapping moved on, and Tango felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He munched on a pastry when they were passed around, laughed at the cat in a Sharks hoodie that Whiskey gave to Chowder, and when he noticed Nursey and Dex’s hands pressed together in the small space between the couch cushions, he didn’t freak out. He had a lot of baby goat pictures saved on his phone, and that was good enough.

---

Epilogue

---

“To sum up: Me and Jack are dating, and it’s really important that you all keep this a secret. I’m sure y’all could guess how the media would react if they knew there was an NHL player who isn’t straight. But we really trust everyone on this team, and wanted to share this with you.”

“We’re really glad you did, Bitty. Thank you for trusting us, and we won’t let you down. Right?” Holster glared at Tango, Whiskey, and the other tadpoles piled onto the couch. “Right!” said Tango, elbowing Ells and Brady on either side, and kicking Whiskey, who was leaning up against everyone’s legs.

“Yeah, Bits, we got your back.” “Yep, that’s what this team’s about.”

“You’re cool, Bitty, we got you.”

“You all are the best teammates.” Bitty beamed. “Oh! I almost forgot! I baked a thank-you pie, it’s chocolate chess! If all y’all want to come to the kitchen, I can serve it up!”

Whiskey, Ells, and Brady immediately sprang up and jostled each other in an effort to get to the kitchen. Tango was about to follow them, when Ransom spoke up from where he and Holster were standing.

“Hey, Tango, wait a sec.” Uh oh. They both had their Serious Captain Faces on.

“Um, if this is about the soccer ball through the window, I want to say I do know who did it, but I’m not going to narc.”

Holster lit up. “Wait, you do? Shit, Tony, why didn’t you—wait, no, that’s not what this is about.”

“But we’ll come back to that later,” added Ransom, raising an eyebrow. “We wanted to thank you for keeping Jack and Bitty’s secret. It’s hard to do that sometimes.” Tango frowned. But I just found out about them?

“Yeah, I gotta say, we were a bit worried when you first came to us.”

Wait…

“Not to mention a bit confused,” Holster plowed on. “We didn’t know how you could have seen something because Jack isn’t around that much, but whatever, they weren’t exactly discreet.” Tango’s mouth fell open. They thought I saw Bitty and Jack Zimmerman. “Oh, before I wasn’t talking about—”

“Seriously, all the pet names over the phone? Gross. I sort of wish Bits told us earlier so we could have fined them more. Dex has been grousing about the dryer for months.”

Tango didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the mention of Dex.

“I know, Rans. At least he hasn’t been taking it out on Nursey. Tango, if you heard the way those two used to go at it…”

Tango rushed to the kitchen to cram his mouth with pie and stop himself from blurting out “I already did”.