#but instead I made a million side blogs lol

[antisolararc]

Worldbuilding Preamble

I wrote this a couple weeks ago for a server I'm in, but it's useful enough that I'm gonna post it here too (also I spent a while on it lol)

"Brief" (not really, but just know I could've written a lot more) introduction to the history and mechanics surrounding the setting. This information would be gradually revealed over the first handful of chapters, but it's stuff I think is important to getting a grasp on whatever the fuck I talk about on this blog

Many millions of years ago, humans on Celantri were on the verge of extinction. Only two small enclaves of humans remained when the Great Impact occurred. An "Astral World" collided with the planet, marrying the terrestrial and astral realms and causing magic to spread across the world. The collision itself sent the floating archipelago Kalirangka miles into the sky, and a large amount of debris into the planet's orbit.

On the Western continent Florene, humans who had taken refuge inside a complex system of caves gradually became the Gunari, or Cavedwellers, their evolutionary process warped by magic. On the Eastern continent Auvedaya, the same process occurred among the humans who lingered on the edges of the desolate Serpent's Gulf, turning them into the Awani, or Hazedwellers. Strange, ethereal spirits emerge escape from the astral realm, occasionally wrecking havoc on both societies. The Great Impact formed a ring around the planet that has inexplicable qualities. It never dissipates, but changes its orientation and luminosity on its own. Sometimes, it sends down a rain of Mani meteorites - a magical material with strange properties.

Two types of magic users naturally occur among both species - Elementals and Oracles. Elementals have the ability to manipulate some aspect of the natural world. Oracles have various types of extrasensory perception. It is not possible to be both, as Elementals are believed to possess an excess of a spiritual component that Oracles instead lack. Elementals are born with extraneous body parts. There are no visible indicators of an Oracle in most cases.

In Gunari society, where Elementals are more common, they served as powerful leaders and warriors, while Oracles were often dismissed as mentally unsound. In Awani society, where Oracles are more common, they serve as sacred mediums and seers, while Elementals were often pushed into laborious jobs due to their powers. Both species eventually come to colonize opposing shores of the central continent, Ishanyr.

At some point, a discovery is made regarding the strange meteorites - if someone is fatally struck by one, there is a chance they will rise again with magical powers. The actual abilities are a gamble, but they always come with three things - a strange bodily marking, a magical item that can be summoned from it, and horns. Some of these abilities are of limited use, but others can quickly come to rival (or even exceed) the power of natural born magic users.

When the two species first meet each other in the prosperous central valley of Ishanyr ~1000 years ago, the first of many wars breaks out. Despite their superior technology, the Awani are about to lose to the militant Gunari, until something akin to a miracle occurs. The floating empire of Kalirangka reveals itself. Explorers that disappeared long ago actually reached the islands, and they had since developed into a highly complex society whilst isolated from the rest of the world. The empire officially takes no sides in the war, but arrives to trade invaluable resources. They invented sorcery - an art that uses Mani to create magic items, the most powerful of which are considered relics. Sorcery is not limited to those with a preexisting magical affinity. There are three primary sources of Mani - the ring around the planet, the astral volcanoes of Kalirangka, and the epicenters of places called distortions, where the astral realm leaks into the terrestrial.

Relics are an incredible utility on their own, but the most powerful of them can mirror the behavior of the strange meteorites. If a willing host fuses with a potent relic, they can gain its magic. Though this method gives some control over the abilities granted, the other effects remain the same... as does the risk of death. Some people are killed instantly by the fusion. Some gradually break down as their body cannot handle the magic coursing through them. In order to become a reliquary, the only criteria known for certain is that in that moment, you must be ready to give your life. Further, once the fusion is complete, a relic cannot be separated from its reliquary until their death.

The war reaches a stalemate, and much side switching occurs in-between. Instead of a straightforward species divide, Ishanyr organizes itself into two new factions. For centuries, they fight on and off in the various Empyrean Wars. The culture and demographics of Ishanyr no longer resemble Florene or Auvedaya, and the two parent civilizations begin to shun them on account of their ever escalating war crimes. However, it appears the floating empire is finally ready to choose a side, thanks to the magical innovations resulting from the wars.

Shortly after a monumental deal wherein Kalirangka trades a small but dangerous piece of land to one of the Ishani factions, the war ends - but not in the way anyone expects. One day, a great pillar of light erupts from the Northern island of Kalirangka, large and bright enough to be seen across the entire world. The pillar of light dissipates, and the world is engulfed in darkness for thirty days, during which distortions cause unprecedented natural disasters and spirits ravage the lands. The Northern island disappears entirely, its neighbors are reduced to ruins, and the remaining islands fall from the sky. The two factions of Ishanyr are forced to set aside their arms in order to survive.

Though direct witnesses of the event do not live to recount it, the mythologized event is generally recorded as some variation of this story:

A beautiful prince, born spontaneously from the Astral Realm, resided deep in the Temple of the Morning Eye on Kalirangka Utara. He lived amongst the spirits and oracles, raised by the last Sihyang. When he came to adulthood, he followed the whispers of a mysterious oracle to the outside. The prince saw that the people of the world had been consumed by materialism and violence. As the last Sihyang began her ascent to the astral realm, the people of the island fought ravenously over her powerful relic. The prince easily circumvented the crowd and took it for himself. Upon his fusion, the prince declared himself the great Prophet Zenith. As a sign of warning to the world, he sent his home island into the astral realm with a great pillar of light. The prophet's actions consumed a large amount of magic, disturbing the balance between the realms. As his island disappeared, the prophet found he could hardly contain his incredible power. Mercifully saving the rest of the world from his destruction, he sealed himself within a kamcheng, declaring that when it was opened again, the world would certainly end

[feuqueerfire]

Only Friends Live Blogging

I usually just binge one show at a time but I currently have 23.5 ongoing (while it's on-air) and am on episode 4 of I Will Knock You. So I'm not quite sure why I'm starting Only Friends right now but I guess I wanted something messier than those 2, since they're pretty lighthearted shows.

I'm... somewhat nervous to get into this because there seem to be so many different opinions on the show. I wasn't really in the BL sphere while the show was airing since I took a bit of a break from watching shows in the second half of last year but I did get the general vibe that there was discourse and disagreements.

Hopefully, I'll enjoy it. I'll also try to watch just 1 ep a day while also watching 1-2 eps of I Will Knock You a day so that I don't just neglect that show but maybe I'll become hooked and binge this one, who knows.

Ep 1 (May 7)

1-1

omg 1-1 has 5.9m views another part in a diff ep has 8 million, that's wild, feels like it's been a while since a GMMTV show had that many views on Youtube, think Bad Buddy had higher views than this (though it's had 2 years to accumulate). also this has made me realize that 2gether isn't available for me on youtube anymore lol

is that First's voice singing...?

Sand-Ray argument at first meeting

Book looks so cute with the glasses, just like gives :) vibes

chaotic intro but intriguing

August

hostel business plan in Ray's father's house

lol laughed at Nick and Boston just eyeing each other up the whole time

Lookjun is so pretty

pls Top sick of the "fierces ones who already know it all" experienced sexual partners and wants to try it with virgin Mew

Does Boston have a weird reaction to Mew saying he always gets what he wants?

Drake, hii

one of these days somebody's gonna call Ray burden again and he's gonna combust fr

heh Sand driving Ray's drunk ass home

1-2

Top gulping down the water, mans was Thirsty

having ice cream instead of sex, sounds good

lol Sand's gotta take Ray to his own dorm

the vomiting sounds terrible

damn, Nick gonna get off to Boston's vid?

I'm skipping through the nsfw scenes tbh

I get Top, Mew's quite cute

1-3

the fucking Poor Boy shirt on Ray lol

"I can tell who is being honest with me. My sense is always right." well, I sure hope that's true, Mew

So freaking bold, Nick leaving his own shirtless pics in Boston's phone and getting him to check it right in front of him

1-4

damn, both Sand and Boston just constantly side-eyeing Top and Mew as they're being cute

I've remembered that there's some storyline about Boston liking Top despite hooking him and Mew up? I wonder if Ray likes Mew since he's also iffy about this relationship?

hm so Top has intentions to actually date Mew

the handwashing icked me out lol

ah, indeed even Top knows that Boston likes him

trying to watch the show and not be sucked into embarrassment at public gestures like this + my aversion to these public questions anyway because of the pressure to accept

Started 1.25x already tbh but not to the fault of the show, it's just what I like. Actually, pretty good first ep, it set up the characters and relationships well and gave us a taste of what's to come. Also, I've been seeing people mention that maybe Mew has a more sinister/manipulative underbelly and I'd be into that, some people brought up "you're the company you keep" and if he's in the company of Boston and Ray and such, then he's probably not a saint.

I know there's some cheating involved (Top cheats on Mew?), and Ray has an addiction problem I think?, and also from the talks, it seems like the expected pairs neatly end up together rather than any curveballs being thrown at us.

Also, Nick is gonna be pitiful later on when he falls for Boston but like he's also wild in this ep, not only jerking off to Boston's pics but leaving some of his own, that's sexual harassment but works out in this case.

I ended up skipping through all the nsfw scenes this ep cuz idk I feel awkward watching it right now but that's a shame tbh cuz that aspect is also supposed to be a draw for the show

Ep 2: M.F.M. - My Favourite Man (May 7)

Whelp, screw watching just 1 ep a day haha, I'm gonna be out for several hours tomorrow, so I'm gonna watch ep 2 now as well and listen to the podcast recaps while I'm out so that I have something to do while waiting (it's not like I can watch the next ep of Only Friends in public with my mom beside me...)

2-1

wonder what Sand's got against Top, mans has been sighing and rolling his eyes and giving him stick eye through this whole asking-Mew-to-be-his-bf ordeal

wonder what these cut scenes are about? like Cheum referred to the camera/whoever's asking the questions as Phi. reality show-esque

I hope Yo plays a bigger role as the story goes on and she's got a faen too

I don't know what Lookjun did (other than her lips) but she looks kinda like Wonyoung. pretty hehe

neither Boston nor Ray are into Mew's relationship but obviously they each other one half of the Top/Mew pair lol but Mew's strong-willed enough to not get swayed by their dislike while he's also not fully committed and in love with Top or anything

Ah, Nick and Sand are already phi-nong friends. I think I've seen an edit where everything and everybody is chaotic af but Nick and Sand are just buddies (each heartbroken over red flags Ray and Boston ig)

Nick and Sand are so fun what the hell

interesting that Mew brought up being embarrassed by the public asking the other night. feels like a rare thing in these BLs where public gestures are common but seen as a special, romantic thing only

Top just gives me the ick like every few minutes

lol Mew idk how many of your apparently simply standards Top actually meets

Sand selling drugs?

Ray following Sand to Roxie club

Is Ray into women as well?

Sand's selling plum wine. I thought a post also said sex worker Sand after seeing the trailer (which I haven't seen) but Idk if that's true still or if they misinterpreted (similar to Ray lol)

aghhh the drinking buddy for pay thing is getting to me, KhaoFirst my beloveds but I mustn't fall for them so easily, since it'll be episodes of pain and misery from what I can tell

also 10k baht is like almost 400CAD, that's insane

2-2

oh man, Nick looking at Boston afterwards so cutely and prettily rom the bed. save yourself my guy

[Linguistics] Boston has started using gu/mueng with Nick (and Nick follows suit)

rich, rich boy Ray

his mom passed away

have to keep reminding myself to not freaking fall for SandRay

Cheum's gf April makes an appearance

ah, Top helping Cheum

not Boston just taking everything off in the locker room before approaching Top lol, reminds me of the Army and Joe endless locker room scenes in Warp Effect. Jojo lol

girl already?! I... knew that there's a scene with Top cheating on Mew with Boston (and thus the Mew kicking Boston into the water scene) but it's not happening already, right? It's too early, they haven't even started dating the second time, Mew's still a virgin, it's only ep 2. they'll somehow wiggle out of it lol

2-3

okay, Boston managed to sneak out into the next stall thing

pls this cookie feeding/eating. stupid and silly lol

mutual masturbation my beloved

ah, Nick's already so into that he's gotta lie saying he's not that into it to keep Boston around

not Ray ruining Sand's hookup plans. let him take the girl home before he becomes inescapably into you and can't leave !!

pls Sand being like bruh no threesomes, leave me out

"Instead of going home with a girl, I'm driving a drunk man home" whelp I was hoping you'd get one last night with somebody else before you're way too into Ray to do anything else but ig it's already too late

girl he's Driving !!

why are Sand and Ray so cuteee

2-4

insomniac Top

who's that in Boston's photo? Mew and Ray?

Sand offering to be Ray's friend for free. they're so cute for now

Sand who's open to all genders

hilarious that Sand's the one who's like yeah you're gonna want more of me but we're strictly friends like girl... ok

well, I didn't skip this makeout session. i'm biased about KhaoFirst, what can I say? also, it doesn't matter that smoking in real life is gross, it looks hot when they do that

Ep 3: What Am I to You? (May 8)

3-1

nick asking the internet if fwb can turn into lovers lol

lol jojo twitter cameo

damn nick-boston sex montage

not Nick being hopeful when Boston says "who knows, we might promote our status again in the near future" like girl...

oof, Nick finds Boston's photo from the photobooth with Top

Ray's huge ass comfy looking bed

Sand and Ray can't be cute nowwww, y'all have 10 more episodes of shit to go through ahhhh

hmm CCTV and blind spots. will this come into play?

why are you singing out loud laksdfjalk;sdf it's silent disco, dkm

3-2

lol interaction with somebody who Top clearly used to sleep with and idk if it's weird to just move past it easily but ig there's nothing to talk about since the guy clearly said Top's not replying to him

Boston-Sand-Nick meeting

hehe Yo

I actually hate how into SandRay I am like they're sooo cute to me

3-3

Boston knowing Nick wants their relationship to be more but he just always placates him without giving in

feels like I've def seen gifs or clips of these characters from this party, esp like Sand's outfit here

Sand and Top fr have beef, like at the end of ep 1 when Sand was over Top's public gesture, it was like well does he dislike Top or does he just dislike some dude making a scene? but now Sand's flipping Top off

First is such a good actor but he's truly not a singer

Boston couldn't easily get to Mew to break off with Top but now he's using Ray's crush on Mew to try to see if he can do something

and now sowing the idea of Mew and Ray in Top's mind, oh Boston you're so into this, it's fun

where and when tf is that Ray/Mew kiss photo from? Is it the angle? Edited? It's real photo from before and that's why Boston asked Ray whether he STILL likes Mew because they'd kissed and Mew was like lol that was nothing, let's be friends while Ray was into it? messy

Only Friends Stay - the hostel name lol

oof, before Ray had a problem with Top but now, Top also has a problem with Ray lol

3-4

girl how am I supposed to be impartial about Ray and Sand like fr? Ray saying 'you saved me, so it's now my turn to save you' about giving Sand a ride lol

I'm fucking screaming, no way Ray poked and prodded Sand until he finally gave in but then immediately pulled back and stopped their hookup the second Mew called...

...and we have arrived at the Top-Boston car

2 year old video, long enough time man

bruh Boston getting to Top's head lol

if Mew can do something 2 years ago, doesn't mean y'all should mess around Now bruh lmfao

oh crazy

okay, Boston and Top hook-up in the car: Cheating or not? It seems like a violation of trust and indeed seems like cheating to me that even though technically Mew and Top are not "boyfriends" they sort of still are because they were already boyfriends for a day before restarting with the plans of again becoming boyfriends. They weren't boyfriends but they seemed exclusive nonetheless.

Damn, Nick wire-tapped Boston's car? It's probably from the preview right? Cuz I didn't see if but people in the reddit comments are mentioning it. I kind of expected him to go through the CCTV (esp since he was mentioning all the stuff about cameras with mics and seeing it through your phone and stuff) and catching Boston and Top in the car through one of the videos but this is much more intentional

oh wait! it's after the credits but not Next Week's Preview?

ah, so he put a mic thing under the seat earlier and he's also physically seeing them have sex in the war, whelp

lol nine pinta (the screenwriter whose college friend group this show is based on) also tweeting to nick

Ep 4: Emergency Contact (May 8)

4-1

2 Years Ago oh flashback

oh dang, Ray called Mew as sort of a cry of help before trying to commit suicide

the burden thing really gets to Ray

no wonder why Ray's so hung up on him, not only did Mew show up, but he hugged him in a way even his mother never did and also told him he loved him when he needed to hear it most

lol Boston really took that video of Mew and Ray kissing for fun lol

watched the opening credits for the first time

don't kiss him !!

agh Ray actually kissed Mew while he had his eyes closed trying to sleep

Mew is shown to be pretty strong-willed, whether it be to Top or his friends

Nick and Sand are cute friends

is this is the photobooth where Top and Boston hooked up? Top's dad's hotel photobooth would be crazy tho

Top's rich guy attitude icks me out so bad like he and Mew are just talking at the room, why is Top sitting like he's giving an interview T.T

airplane model with the letter B... Boston? Top seemed to not be truthful about it

4-2

Sand being mad at Ray and Ray trying to make it up to him

I actually hate Sand and Ray, head in hands

Top's disgust at seeing Boston

Mew at every turn talking about how he's not like Boston and Boston feeling like he's superior to Mew, what great friends they are

well at least this time Top pushed off Boston but making Boston angry doesn't bode well

omg ?! Top inviting this over guy over... for a good time? mans didn't have sex for 3 months, had sex with Boston and now is like fuckkkk I can't not have sex

did Nick get Top's number from Boston's phone?

Boston's father is planning on running for House Representative and so he can't risk a photo getting out...

Nick likes to just listen to the sex audio and torture himself fr

ah, Nick's texting Top?

4-3

Nick talking to Top about staying about from Boston like girl... Top's not the one hunting Boston down. you gotta get over Boston frrrrr

Nick saying that he knows Top's a dick and he is too... I mean, you did bug his car and now have their sex audio so you're not incorrect but well

bruh Top literally back onto Sand in his motorcycle?!

Top and Sand animosity once again, let me know where it stems from !!

"It's clear you just can't take care of what you have" did someone Sand was dating or something cheat on him with Top?

fake ass punches

did Nick tell Sand that Boston hooked up with Top?

oh he did. and is telling him about the bugging too, that's wild lol lots of trust

Top stole Sand's ex indeed

Ray apologizing to Mew, tbh idek how I'd show my face to Mew if I did what Ray did

and Top arrives to the scene, along with the stuff Boston'd told him about Mew and Ray. meanwhile Mew-Ray don't know anything about this Boston whispering in Top's ear stuff

lol Ray unknowingly admiring Sand for punching Top

ah, Mew actually telling Top about Ray liking him + the kiss from 2 years ago (not about Ray coming onto him yesterday though, which honestly I wouldn't either lol gonna make Top even more mad and he's already mad about it)

Why does Top think Ray and Mew did more? What was the video Boston showed him?

ah, Mew also picked up on the fact that Top was hiding something about the model airplane. wrong B name though

okayyy I've seen people mentioning Top doing drugs but I hadn't seen anything about it so far, so I kept forgetting but now we know he's done coke and stuff

Top's soooo sleazy while he's insinuating that Mew should sleep with him if he quits drugs ew ick ick ick

how is this a deal between two people who want to be boyfriends and have a long-term relationship lmfao

4-4

bruh, Top straight up brought drugs to Mew's place in a little teeny ziploc baggie? or like what is that? he just poured it into water? to show that it's unusable now?

oh... Boeing???? that's Mond's character right? He's Top's ex? also watching this amidst all this Boeing controversy

skipped the sex scene like I tend to but the lead up to it was so uncomfortable for me lol

Top only caring about whether he came or not and not whether his partner enjoyed the sex, who would've thought

so Ray's taking Sand seriously as a romantic interest now?

The Mew Top scene made me so uncomfortable and I don't think I can articulate why. "I'll sleep with you if you give up drugs" is just so ?? Like I thought you needed to be boyfriends or love Top or something and that's why you weren't having sex? So what's up with this, i don't get it. and what kinda exchange is this, virginity in exchange of quitting??

Also, Top could get more of that or have more at home lol, he's into it enough that he literally just carries some around with him, I don't think destroying a teeny bag is gonna do much

Ep 5: (May 9)

5-1

Sand's life of sleep, working out, and work

this is all recent right?

why are Sand and Ray so cute, I'm gonna lose my shit when problems occur in their relationship tbh

my toes curl up and I can't control my smile when watching them fr

Sand's sausage eating tease

Nick trying to become a "new" him and also somewhat trying to emulate Top at the same time i guess?

why do Mew and Top never feel... genuine

the stall is just a curtain not even doors omg

ewwww Sand jerked Ray's dick a few times and with the same hand, grabbed one of the shirts (from the store!! not theirs!!) with the same hand i'm dead, they better buy it

5-2

weird interaction with the server

bruh someone took a sexual video of Boston to make money off of it? scary af

5-3

I would not be able to do the Blind Dining thing where you don't know what you're eating

What's up with all these people noticing Top? Is it that Top has slept with the entire gay population in Thailand? Is Top's dad keeping an eye on him or something dramatic like that?

oh, Top shivering/shaking from withdrawals or what?

bruh not Sand's mother being the manager of Roxie and tricking him to get here by using the ruse of debt collectors

oh it's Sand's birthday

ah, Ray singing such a romantic song for Sand

“I just feel like If he doesn’t sleep with me he is going to get bored of me” whelp

I wonder if Boston's gonna become insane now that he knows Mew's gonna sleep with Top

5-4

The Top/Mew scene is supposed to be romantic. It does not feel that way and I wonder if that's intentional

Is Sand's mysterious father ever gonna come back to the story?

ah, good scene with "She drank herself to death" and Sand's hand pouring the liquor faltering

Ray sharing some of his story and past with Sand

oh, I'm kinda into the way Nick grabbed Boston's wrist and lead him home

Sand is so into Ray man

Boston needs to shut his fucking mouth, why is he talking about Sand liking Ray

and now talking about how Ray's been in love with Mew for years oh Bostonnnnn you instigator. but it's good that Sand also knows now ig

so does a video of Mew and Ray actually exist? like Mew pushed Ray away that night... and I've been wondering wtf video Boston showed Top

I wonder why Nick even likes Boston fr

Sand T.T

Do I not feel Top-Mew's scenes because I'm not meant to and they're being artificial on purpose or is it because ForceBook can't pull it off? I also wonder how TopMew's gonna go now that Mew's slept with Top?

Interesting to get Sand's perspective this ep.

I didn't comment on it but there are lots of moments where we can see the wealth disparity between Sand and Ray (the second-hand shop stood out to me first but also the debt collectors moment where Sand was so worried but it just seemed like a bit of fun to Ray).

Ep 6: Happy (F*cking) Birthday (May 9)

ep 6... feels like things are gonna go down this ep, esp after the debacle that was 5-4.

I'm quite enjoying this show and the characters so far but I know people have problems with the character writing, I guess that's maybe toward the latter half of the show?

6-1

The way Ray and Sand sharing the cigarette smoke in ep 1 (? or 2?) and the cookie in ep 5 mouth-to-mouth drove me insane yet I feel nothing toward TopMew sharing their cookie or this apple slice mouth-to-mouth, man I hope the artificialness of their relationship is on purpose and not just bad writing/acting/directing. I mean tbh they're cuter/more normal in this ep so far, so idek

omg Mew has two moms

Ray and Boston tension while they have to be around each other in the friend group, esp Ray sending glares toward Boston who's playing at nonchalance

omg is Drake's character (Gap) the one who fucking recorded Boston?

Boston's cold reception and rejection of Drake's character right in front of Nick who... also recorded (the audio of) Boston having sex. also not to mention Boston having recorded Mew and Ray's kiss lol

Gap's video of Boston is def gonna come into play again but I wonder... if it'll be Gap's doing or maybe Nick will acquire it from Gap?

damn, Sand and Top once again and Top always seems to know where to hurt Sand while Sand's quips roll off of Top

6-2

omg???? is Sand destroying his fucking phone so that he can use Nick's phone to send Mew the recording of Top and Boston?! my god let's go vengeful Sand blowing things up and being the instigator

what did Nick notice about his phone? did he know Sand sent himself the audio or did he notice Sand didn't actually call his mother

okay Top's hanging out with Mew and getting him Lasik and taking care of him even after they've had sex, so I guess they really do like each other

how can you know that it's Top and Ton from just their moans lmfao ?? anyway seems like Sand's passing it around to Ray instead of sending the audio to Mew himself, which is smart since Ray's closer to him

I wish Sand didn't tell Ray that he got it from Nick tho??

girl something or other is def gonna fuck up Boston's dad's campaign rip

Boston possibly going to New York

Nick once again mad/sad at Boston but still gives in

6-3

and Boston knowing how to get under Ray's skin even while Ray sought him out first to give him a piece of his mind (kinda like how Top gets to Sand)

Mew's reaction to Top's gift... I thought it'd be a little more happy since it's a pretty good gift for a rich guy? Wtf is this fake ass barely-there reaction that even Top has to ask if he likes it

Does Mew know something already and is uncomfortable?

damn, Ray went to the stall to get high?

nah, Mew definitely looks significantly better with glasses, I must say

omg Ray getting cross-faded and just airing out everybody's dirty laundry? yikes. even sowing discord among the lesbians pls I wonder if April and Cheum are gonna have drama now

he's an asshole to Sand too

damn, even Mew getting violent, alright

6-4

holy shit he keeps calling Sand a whore and insinuating he'd take money for sex or whatever?? and even pushed him down, Ray you fucking jackass but I'm kinda glad that there's now some sort of rawer, more terrible conflict in their relationship beyond just Ray liking Mew

"While we are together, can you not lie." yes plsss I think if Cheum and April can get that together, they'd be so far ahead of the other 3 pairs

Is Top not at all concerned that Ray at the end seemed to target Boston about Top, meaning he maybe knew about them? Because at first, I get him being like wtf what does ray even mean when he doesn't know shit but shouldn't he now wonder whether Ray does indeed know some shit

Mew being unconcerned about hitting Ray and what happened to him afterwards is kinda interesting. I'd at least expect some more anger like wtf why did he do that fuck him but now he's so... nonchalant about it all, doesn't care at all, so strange

skipping through the sex scene less bc I'm not in the mood to watch a se scene and more bc I lowkey hate TopMew but hoping I catch the dialogue

Mew likes Top's sounds during sex... which he will recognize when the audio is found?

ohhhh okay good hah he has it

okay, so Mew knew about it since he and Ray met in the bathroom, right? still don't know why he seemed guarded/uncomfortable at the beginning of the party though

I think the way Mew revealed the audio and everything was so fun + the rant at the end showing he's had so many thoughts about it and wondered why Top had done it etc. It's a good scene I think but still felt... somewhat lacking? I think I'm just being too hard on ForceBook because in a different show, this would've been Great but this show just has too many good scenes and conflict scenes and dramatic fights and this one doesn't quite deliver as well as it should.

It’s still a really good scene in general though and I’m gladI hadn’t been spoiled for it

Ep 7: After Effect (May 10)

Okay, let's see how the Aftermath is dealt with

7-1

god drunk driving is truly just so.

random ass car crash lol, would've been better if Ray'd fallen into a ditch or crashed into a tree off the road lol

will Sand have to save Ray's life in the future again too cuz this is the 2nd time Ray's explicitly thanked him for it already

random emergency reference since it's not like Sand knows Ray's emergency contact thing

I want Sand to be more mad bruh like Ray was quite harsh to him earlier and I want him to be like yeah I saved you but doesn't mean we're now made up

oh, Ray's got a dad who sometimes shows up lol

put Mew into this damn glasses again, it actually irritates me that they took them off when he looks significantly better with them on

Mew deciding to be terrible to deal with terrible people

The way the last person among the 6 guys to know about the audio is Boston himself and second-last was Top. meanwhile Nick knew for longest, then Sand for quite a long while too, and Ray and Mew became aware recently

damn, Nick didn't remove the bug?

Nick looks so pathetic

what fucking video clip man like did Boston engineer some sort of fake (deepfake?) sextape for Mew and Ray??

Mew's burning just one page, I was hoping he'd burn the whole sketchbook but ig it's fine. love the drama of it anyway

Glad BostonNick and TopMew had actual breakdowns in their relationship, kinda disappointed that SandRay are just fine and dandy. I get that they give sort of a balance and they didn't do as much shit to each other the way Nick and Top did to the other person but still... some sort of apology or conflict due to Ray calling Sand a golddigger or a whore or something, c'mon

7-2

I wonder what the father asked Sand to do. I hope it wasn't "I'll pay you to take care of Ray" or something lol

I want to enjoy the SandRay moment and bath and shaving and whatever but it feels unearned. maybe I'll try real hard to just watch the scene and enjoy it outside of the narrative

Ray is such a spoiled brat man "you wouldn't get me" girl, why would Sand who is working day and night to support himself and paid off his mother's debt and who doesn't have a father not understand? He might not explicitly understand having a dead mother who hated you but it's not like his life is roses without a reason to be stressed. annoying ass

I mean, none of y'all cared that he was driving drunk and high lol

If Ray doesn't get over Mew soon, I'm pushing him into the water as well

interesting to see Boston being iced out by all 3 of them + he doesn't have Nick anymore either, so he's gonna be alone for a bit?

the kick into the pool

7-3

okay at least Nick yells at Sand about the clip stealing

Nick is so pathetic I actually cannot. okay you love him, so what? literally so what? get over him, distance yourself, and just because you love him doesn't mean you have to be with him

aw fuck, Sand relating to Nick in terms of loving someone and not needing to be loved back

was he about to love you? Was he, Nick? but I do like the contrast of crying and being hugged by Sand while still being mad at him

Curious to see Mew being evil

Why is Nick giving intel on Boston to Mew bruh?

get in a stall

okay, so Mew now possesses Boston's secretly recorded sex tape...

7-4

my skin crawls at Mew threatening to show Boston's dad the sex tape... he's just bluffing and wouldn't actually do it, right? He even threatened Gap about the cops, so I think Mew's just bluffing

okay good he wouldn't actually post it

He still has the clip on his phone right?

Top coming in to give Mew books in public in front of the rest of the group is so gross, mans will never stop giving me major ick. kinda reminds me of the first ep ending or whatever when he put Mew on the spot by asking him to be his bf in the club

bruh, Top still calls himself Mew's bf?

how did Top even punch Mew, obviously he was right in front of him, how did he think he'd get anybody else. the fight choreo in Only Friends is a rip fr

Mew Ray is so silly to me lol idk cuz I guess I know nothing's gonna come out of it but I guess we'll see how they navigate it

Sand also needs to grow a backbone and some self-respect lol

Each person in this show is doing bad things and having bad things happen to them and I think Boston's the one who's having the worst happen to him. Wiretaped by Nick, who he trusted, and he was secretly recorded having sex by Gap, thought he got him to delete but was doubtful it's all gone, then finds out now his ex-friend Mew is in possession of it too, and threatening to show his father. To Mew, Boston's just a shitty fucker friend who slept with Top while they were dating and so it makes sense that he'd hate Boston and beat him up like the pool but doing stuff with the video is too far. Some people are shitty, doesn't mean I want their rights to be violated.

And Ray being a drunk driver... fucking hell. It kinda feels like the writing is not treating Ray's actions as bad enough. like we're supposed to feel bad that his father yelled at him and he hurt himself but he's the one who drove drunk! Sand also doesn't require an apology from him for treating him terribly that previous night, like huh??

Ep 8: Save Me (May 10)

8-1

We're starting off with Mew and Ray at the club from last time

Ah, self-destructive Mew has started drinking every day and skipping classes

a non-breakup breakup for SandRay. "Let me go already."

omg not Yo's relationship also in the trenches

age diff relationships hit in this specific way sometimes where Yo's older and has had past relationships that have all ended and is scared to repeat it again with Plug while Plug's young and eager

TopMew antagonisms are good.

8-2

Ray trying to coax Sand into doing his community service with him, shut upppp. Sand, stand up and say no!

they probably meant kiss ass but wrote licking ass plss

Nick and Papang's character are cute

Not Boston looking at his and Nick's photo damn

Mew inviting legit everybody, friends and enemies alike, to this Halloween party lol

Mew and Ray dressing up as Joker and Harley Quinn lol suits their parasitic dynamic I suppose?

damn Mew also doing coke now

"You're someone I should love" well if only love worked that way

oh Cheum invited Top

Mew looks pathetic despite trying to seem cool

Cheum looks so pretty, is she Wednesday?

whelp, avoid the kiss Ray leans in for in private but kiss him in public in front of Top to throw it in his face (just like that drink)

8-3

Papang's character is Dan

Detective Conan Nick and Freddie Mercury Sand

Glad Boston brought up Nick telling Mew about Gap's sex tape because that was actually still so wild like why the hell did he do that? It turned out well in that hopefully Mew took Gap's copy so that he doesn't have it anymore (+ threatened him with cops) and won't actually release it to the public but Mew had told Nick that he literally wants revenge so like ?? Why tell him about that omg

lol Sand about to kiss another dude in a Freedie Mercury costume before getting interrupted by Sand

Ray keeps angling at threesomes with people Sand's trying to hook up with

hello??? Why is Ray kissing Sand, isn't he with Mew now

Ray is so gross though at least Sand stood up to him this time

ohh Boston/Atom hookup is exciting somehow? similar to Dan and Nick

aw, Cheum put an end to that

I guess I like Top following Mew and giving him a shoulder? surprisingly, I think I can come around to them despite not liking their dating arc the first time

8-4

bruh, Sand gotta let Ray take the L and get caught using drugs or smth fr tbh

If Sand gets caught with the drugs instead, I'll start destroying things tbh

ACAB tho

bruh why is that cop's knee on Ray's neck

bribery too? girl... but rich people get away with anything so i'm glad that at least sand isn't gonna get caught in this mess

damn, Cheum blowing up too, makes sense although it's not like she's very kind to Ray or Boston in general either lol

bruh, Top bringing Mew to bed is Enough, why is he taking off his outerwear and giving him a sponge bath or whatever like don't overstep and be a creep... and cuddling him in bed... be serious wtf

idk why I'm into Boston and Atom lol like okay what's another bad decision? let's do it

Ep 9: The Return (May 10)

9-1

damn, we don't even get a scene of Mew waking up and being mad at seeing Top cuddling him but now have to witness Top jumping in after him into the pool

glad Sand's mad that he almost got put in jail and doesn't just easily give in to Ray but Ray's nothing if not somebody who wants everything

loll Top talking in on them while recording. Mew isn't gonna give a fuck about Ray wanting Sand but probably thinks Ray should've broken up with him first

Atom and Boston hooking up

Team Second Option talking about being masochists lol

Top has devolved from an intentionally irritating, low morals type of guy to typical BL love interest who is possessive and controlling as they act as if the main character is a child whose decisions they should oversee, agh

9-2

"Why did you do it with Top but not with me?" Ray, girl... I thought he was gonna be like when in private, you keep pushing me away but no. what even

Atom, wtf lol this isn't a freaking relationship. also, you just found out you like men... if anything, you should be finding other guys to fuck now that it's a whole new world wtf maybe ask Boston if he knows safe/good men for ONSs

SandNick kiss hehe but apparently it's nothing for either of them loll

Ray showing up at 2am

THIS IS THE THIRD COUNT OF RAY WANTING A 3SOME, they've gotta give this man one omg. but in all of them, Sand is present and idk if my man can do threesomes all casually with Ray like this...

Gorgeous, gorgeous boys First, Khao, and Mark

Nick having to be the third wheel at his own Second Option hangout T.T

agh, i got spoiled that Sand and Top kiss in a comment and that's my own fault T.T I wish I hadn't clicked Read More but I thought it was just gonna have Boeing mention

9-3

Top showing up to be all gentlemanly and helpful to Mew's mothers like man... why is their story now so typical random BL LI-tries-to-win-over-MC arc

Ray wanting Sand to be his secret lover, I gotta kill this man

"I'm not just stuff you have in your possession" okay exactly because Ray really treats Sand like an object

not the Daddy and Nick having to EXPLAIN it to him?!

oof, Nick giving his goodbyes to Boston who was also touched by it (idk about the 'you don't have to change' part though lmfao)

9-4

"Compared to Boston, you're a saint" Is he? Is Ray at all better than Boston? In which way?

cheating sex but I still like to watch KhaoFirst getting it on, what can be done? the thrusting caught me really off guard tho lmfao

crazy to see SandRay having sex in a camp at night 2 hours away then cut straight to Ray with Mew during the day in broad daylight in public

That's it? No explosion? Where are Mew's feelings about being cheated on by the first guy he seriously dates and now his rebound friend-turned-date? like what about his self-worth and such because when he found out Top was with Boston, he had the "did you guys laugh at me?" moment and now shouldn't he be having a "oh does everybody I'm with want to cheat?" moment. at least he mentioned that Ray's doing the same thing as Top and ig he's saying he can't be mad since he's also using Ray to get back at Top

"Is being a lesbian easier?" "Life is tough whatever the hell you are"

Boeing has arrived heh

oh crazy ass scene tbh, if I was watching this while it was airing with no spoilers, I would've lost my shit fr

So when Mew called somebody to come spend the night because he can't fall asleep, was that Boeing?

a very... mellow episode with typical BL-progression for each couple somehow hmm but maybe the drama will pick up again for the next episode since Boeing is introduced.

I... wonder if this episode is when this show started kinda going down for people? like the characters have become more tame and palatable? but idk if it's just a pause or if they'll end like this as well

Ep 10: Redemption (May 11)

10-1

oof, Boeing coming over and sleeping over

ahh, I'm pretty sure Boeing's gonna be trouble because it seems like that from how people have spoken about him, even though I don't actually know what he does or in what ways, so it just makes me nervous

Ray's still convinced he's not addicted and can stop whenever...girl

"You're totally his type. Like an upgraded version of me" crazy

Nick saying they can kiss or have sex, it doesn't matter because it'll always end

Boss and intern hook-up but it feels less disgusting than usual, maybe because they're similar in age and have known each other a while and also nobody's uptight and in a suit

there'd no doing rehab "for you" man you gotta do it for yourself

Also, I've realized that Atom calls Cheum Jie

omgggg Atom why are you lyinggggggg. Boston tricked you into his house and took your nudes?!?!?! I'm gonna kill you. Enough! Especially bad because Boston's somebody who has actually had sex tapes recorded of him without his consent

bruh at the very least, the texts should show that Atom's the one who's been texting Boston and Boston's been leaving him on read?

10-2

They really do get off on just... being better than Boston despite Mew and Ray having done terrible shit as well, sometimes worse than Boston

like I get that they believe he raped and took nonconsensual photos of Cheum's brother and is blackmailing him but the 2 guys are just acting superior and condescending towards him while Cheum's the only one seeming distraught

I hated Cheum suggesting that Boston preyed on some young guy though like okay he dated girls... he can also be curious about guys... that's not a crazy insinuation

Mew's smirk as they leave gives me the creeps, disgusts me a bit

I cannot believe I hate Mew and Ray while I feel for Boston

I might've been more into this Top/Mew scene if I wasn't just previously disgusted by Mew

oh, I think I'm just losing it. 10 episodes is too much. the next time Ray says he's going to rehab for Sand, I'll punch him

at least Sand says "Not for me. for yourself"

The Top-Boeing parallels of coming in to answer the trivia question

and would this other ex possibly be Sand?

Top has become so meek

not Mew accidentally liking Boeing's pic on IG, god so embarrassing

Boeing talking about whether he can check out the plants in Mew's room someday plsss

This Boston and Nick scene, fucking hell T.T talking about taking care of things because some things are irreplaceable

what do I even want from them like fr?

10-3

rest of your life? girl...

Boeing's so... girl pls this innocent act

Boeing coming onto Mew, it was in the thumbnail

I'm expecting they'll show Ray doing alright the first few days and then falling off the wagon hard

ah yikes, indeed Ray's dad wanted to pay Sand for whatever it was he asked... why have this interaction at the fucking house where Ray also is though lmfao stupidddd

whelp

10-4

once again, we're at the point in Top/Mew relationship where it... doesn't quite feel real, doesn't feel genuine

and Boeing is here too

hm, so Boeing wants Mew for real or what? And he's had a secret hatred for Top this whole time despite being his little sleeping pill?

hm, Boeing said he and Mew kissed. all this is like a cycle, reminds me of the Mew/Ray kiss thing

ah, Nick and Boston again

crying kissing

romantic sex

oof, Ray's dad telling Ray about Sand

interesting scene but Ray hasn't actually apologized to Sand for real about anything so hm idk

Ep 11: Move On Move In (May 11)

Only 2 episodes left, how will we wrap everything up man?

11-1

why am I not getting subs on my laptop?? My phone has subs on youtube agh

bruh, I restarted my browser and still nothing?

okay it suddenly works again after trying a few diff vids

Aw, P'yo :(

Yo and Plug T.T cute

what is the point of Mew doing all this song and dance with Boeing, I doubt he actually likes him but just... wants to make Top jealous or what?

"Mew, seriously. What are you doing?" Hate to agree with Top bc he's so boring to me now but so true

no why is Top saying what I'm thinking. If Mew's gonna give Top a chance, that doesn't mean he gets to now just push Top around and treat him badly and hang the cheating over his head forever. "If you think you can't forgive me, we should just separate" indeed

Nick being unable to make himself break if off with Dan yikes. surely doesn't help that he gave Nick the job, this is why the boss/employee thing is frowned upon

oof, what was that look, is Dan gonna turn out to be shitty too?

Ray's yelling and pushing resulting in bruises on Sand's back/shoulders, that's quite fucked up

Okay, Mew stops the thing with Boeing

11-2

okay Nick and Boston teaming up to take down Atom. maybe Nick's penchant for illegally bugging people to find out secrets/truths will come in handy lol

Are Atom's pants down in those photos or what? damn he lowkey stooping to the level Atom painted him as

Boston being like "How can you love me after sleeping with me once? Is it because I'm the first man you slept with?" meanwhile Nick being like whelp (is Boston the first guy he slept with?)

remembering all the stupid only-gay-for-you trope BLs while watching Boston talk about how he didn't "turn" Atom gay because nobody can do that (No Touching At All gets a pass lmfao)

not Sand helping with Ray's social work lol

never-ending cycle of back and forth with Top and Mew frr

Boeing having had enough fun with Mew and Top, how to haunt Sand and incite more Mess

11-3

oh, Top's crying

I would never show my face at the store again if I was Ray and accidentally sang aloud at the store

good thing that Atom's telling Cheum the truth but she should be more mad that he lied about somebody being a rapist + taking noncon photos + blackmailing to leak the photos

Boston's promiscuity continues to not be one of his despicable aspects

Boston/Nick are cute... though idk what I want to happen with the New York thing. I hope they date happily for a few months and then Boston goes to NYC and they break up and it's sad

11-4

TopMew moving in together?!

oh, the Boeing dumping Sand for Top thing happened just a year ago?

bruh, Sand's gotta say "no, no chance, sorry" like c'mon

Ray coming in and inviting Boeing to his house hah 3some plssss

omg pool... I've been spoiled from a Reddit post that Sand has a 3way kiss in a pool... omg. also I've been spoiled that Sand kisses Top? whennn

Ray keeps suggesting 3somes this whole show and I don't think he Actually wants them but rather just wants to throw the other person off of Sand but I just want him to offer it here again and for Boeing to say yep why not

why is there so much tensionnn if they don't have a 3some i'm gonna lose my shit and if they do have a 3some i'm also gonna lose my shit

I was expecting more of a Ray falls off the wagon and accidentally binge drinks and gets drunk af sort of conflict, not necessarily this craziness but sure.

I also think it'd be the funniest thing ever if Boeing's just making his way through every pair and we think it's because he's a menace and causing chaos everywhere but he's just being the villain on purpose to get all the pairs to end up together lmfaooo

Ep 12: Begin Again (May 12)

The final episode but... idk if it really feels like that. Doesn't feel like we should have only 1 ep left to wrap up the rest of the story, idk. Maybe I'll do a little thoughts section of what my reaction is so far to each character and the ships.

Top: Who is this guy? Very different from the beginning of the series and that's fine, people grow and change but I don't know who this man is now. Was glad he was checking Mew last episode though like either move forward or don't but enough of the revenge bs

Mew: Annoying, idk. Either move forward or don't. idc.

TopMew: Why are they trying to move in together already omg let it be a few months and also I'm so over them. I occasionally think I could be into them but nothing about it feels real to me unfortunately, doesn't feel like something lasting.

Sand: 0 boundaries, 0 self-respect. Takes Ray back with open arms every time and now Boeing comes in and we see he can't stand up to him either.

Ray: I don't quite trust him to not be a jerk and asshole and needlessly hurtful at the drop of a hat. He's going to rehab but the journey is too easy so far, it's not supposed to be easy.

SandRay: sure, idk. Their scenes have chemistry and are cute because KhaoFirst play them that way but in the narrative, I don't think they're like a cutesy, beautiful, grand romance. Which is fine to me btw but sometimes it feels like people interpret it that way and it probably has to do with KhaoFirst lol

Nick: Interesting that he's not super receptive to Boston wanting to be boyfriends, that's fun actually. Also fun that he teamed up with Boston to ambush Atom.

Boston: I just don't think his promiscuity itself is a flaw and so I don't think he needs to be monogamous to show Growth and Improvement or whatever. however, he has been talking about how he doesn't find sleeping around as fulfilling anymore and stuff, so I don't think him wanting to be boyfriends with Nick is out of the blue or anything. Also, it sucks that he's cast out of the friend group is just a cruel way over lies and nobody apologizes to him this episode either. I kinda... don't want him to make up with them, like these people have their own problems but act as if Boston is beneath them all, so I hope Boston hangs out with Nick and maybe a few new casual friends before going to NY and finding new people.

BostonNick: I want them to be dating or boyfriends but I want Boston to go away to New York and for them to have the good memories and leave their own lives because you don't need to be Big Commitment for Life with your first boyfriend at 21/22.

Cheum: She's so flawed but she's also treated like a minor/side character, so it's never like seen as that? Or idk. but the way she was fine and dandy with Atom admitting to the horrible lies is just... no.

Also, very long episode comparatively, it's like 70 minutes instead of the usual 45-55, which is par for the course of finales

12-1

so when is Ray allowed to drink vs not vs how much

Sand avoiding Ray's question of whether he still loves Boeing

SandBoeing and SandRay kiss and then BoeingRay omg

Ray and Boeing are both insane while Sand has no backbone, so he's just being puppeteered in the middle lol

I fully get Ray in this situation but I also can't help thinking about how Ray was chasing around Sand while actively being in a relationship with Mew and making Sand his sidepiece

Ray once again has valid points about Mew having to depend on Top too much if he moves in like this

man, I just... don't ask to be their friend again, Boston :( Mew is even still like "hey did you ask us?" about putting Boston's name on the project like okay kys you're giving a second chance to Top but still acting all high and mighty above Boston, dpmo

I feel like we're gearing for a happy ending for the couples and friendship group and that is so not what I care for, like one of my stand-outs so far this year is DFF Dead Friend Forever where I thought the lack of happy ending was a great choice and on the other hand, I watched Good Bad Mother, and thought the happy ending was too much and it should've had a more conflicting relationship at the end still

stupid, what is Top talking about not inheriting from his father, shut uppppp at least Mew said to be serious lol. idk why they annoy me so much but omgggg

the Boston/Nick date is cute hehe, i wonder why their date feels genuine while the Top/Mew ones... didn't and felt more calculated

they really do keep talking about "time left together" so I hope at least Boston/Nick don't end up together forever, just a sweet few months

no! stop moving to New York idea! although find at least Nick works in animation and says he'd move there for himself with Boston as a bonus

and Boston's at least like short term plans only!

girl, idc that Sand's here, why the hell is he helping so much with Ray's community service pls

Ah, Sand learning from Ray that Boeing went to Top first

12-2

"Booze?" "No. I quit" Ray's rehab is going so easily, I'm startled fr

the dog comparison well at least put Sand in a collar pls

well, seems like the 2nd couple has now defeated Boeing

discussing each other's strict habits after having already moved in together lmfao okay

Boston and Nick slow dancing and kissing in public my goddd they're so cute

pls dying laughing at Nick: I want you to introduce me as your boyfriend to your friends. Boston: Now that's a problem, I'm friendless.

pls now the 3rd couple must defeat Boston too?

Boston and Nick aren't in an open relationship where Boston can fuck other people, right?! Are they?!

broooo Boston straight up left Nick on the dance floor to go makeout with Boeing?!?!!? girl. be so serious.

okay even if you talked about it, you should've let him know before just leaving him alone and disappearing... girl

he's lying to Nick?! So they hadn't discussed it?! Boston I'm gonna knock your skull open, be sooooo serious

ahhhhh so we're back to Nick and Boston just have fundamentally different things they want from a relationship. Boston saying being boyfriends is a mental, not physical thing for him and he wants to do sweet, fun things with Nick but be able to make out or whatever with somebody else, I think that's such an interesting thing to explore, including how it can strain relationships as that's not necessarily how most people see being in a relationship. it's like obviously he's wrong in this instance because he was not being truthful towards Nick but I like seeing it.

12-3

December 31

party with everybody including Boston

Boston making up with Ray and trying with Mew and half-succeeding ig

truth or dare spin the bottle, who's surprised?

Mew only knows the skills of one person bruh

omg as soon as Mew's dare started, I paused and slapped my hand down on the table because I have remembered... apparently a Sand/Top kiss exists.

as'dlflkasjfk;ladsj hehehehehhhehe why was that so fun, mostly Sand's playful doing

Boston and Nick man, i don't even know

In The Bedroom by Boston is crazy lmfao

Nick avoiding Boston's kiss at midnight despite saying he wants that when they were still playing at being boyfriends owwwww

I'm at least happy that Mew and Boston aren't gonna be friends even though we're apparently getting happy ass endings for everybody except Boston for some reason

SandRay are cute

12-4

The thing isssss I do want this, I want Nick and Boston to pursue what they each want instead of being tangled with each other because they're not getting what they want out of the other and the compromises just hurt them but it just sucks that like... they're the only ones not getting the happy ending and I wanna know how this show might've been different if SandRay and TopMew weren't established couples

seeing Boston sitting here all alone while there are 3 other pairs + Nick who chose to walk away is like... did Boston deserve this? or at least did Boston alone deserve this? idek

unfortunately I don't have the strength to not lowkey skip through TopMew's scene

Top's fire scenario coming back but ig he has Mew this time

oh interesting, feels like there's some actual conversation about Ray's rehab since he started and him having to overcome it himself and that Sand can't just quite all his sources of income (plum wine, bar singer) just so Ray's never around alcohol

Feb 2024 oh that's like 3 months ago

P'Yo you are sooo cute

I hate seeing the 6 of them happy and together in couples and in the friend group while there's some random photo from Boston (and that would've been fine!!! if the ending wasn't this lol) and Nick is nowhere (this does make more sense bc he wasn't in the group)

oh lol Mix here and certain ominous ending but not enough For Me

Conflicted because messy people, those who make mistakes, those who haven't figured everything out still deserve to be happy but... everybody other than Boston deserves to be happy?

Overall

I'm just glad that I binged this by watching 2-3 eps a day for a week instead of watching for 3 months to arrive to that ending. Great first half of the show IMO (~6 eps), then there's a weird narrative shift there somewhere, then the last 1/4 of the show was dragging and then the last episode was boring and upsetting. SandRay and TopMew feel weirdly happy, artificially happy while Boston is the only character who is left to rot by his friends and Nick. I didn't need a happy ending for Boston/Nick but Boston's storyline felt... cruel and since the only character who wasn't monogamous got a bad ending and had all his faults amplified (while the others just had their faults or mistakes forgiven or never even apologized for them), it felt pointed at Boston's promiscuity.

Rating: 6/10

[princessozera]

Long, long, explanation made short: I wasn't happy with the original ending, so I've made-

FIGHT DIAVOLO: THE AFTERMATH

(Choose your own adventure)

⚠⚠⚠ WARNING!!: The following chapters contain MC/Reader death, major character deaths, mentions of mutilation, blood, and torture.

GN! MC (They/them, 3rd ppov for entire CYOA)

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

The sound of the heart monitor pounded into MC’s skull, but the throbbing headache was nothing compared to how their skin pulled taut from their muscles, like an overcooked sausage breaking out of its casing. MC groaned and the room came to life with a buzzing, consistent and low. As MC's hearing comes into focus, they recognize the noise as their name spoken in hushed whispers between gentle hand squeezing and cautious touches.

“Where does it hurt MC?"

“Get the doctor back in here!”

“MC look at me, open your eyes-”

“MC you’re awake!”

“MC squeeze my hand-”

MC takes a few deep breaths to steady themselves before opening their eyes, pulling on the closest arm to help them to sit up. When they can finally see straight, they’re met with 7 familiar faces, all with some degree of concern- despite their best efforts to hide it. The brothers stared back, as if waiting for MC to collapse on the spot again. When none of them said anything else, MC gave a half hearted smile and said, “well, I guess I’m not dead yet.”

Complaints fill the room as Asmo slaps MC's arm (“don’t even joke about it!”) and Satan starts reading them their patient files, “you have heavy bruising, a cracked skull, but miraculously, no concussion.”

They kept talking over each other, trying to get MC’s attention and assess their well-being for themselves, when an oppressive aura killed all noise in the room. Everyone turns to see Barbatos looming in the doorway, hand to chest and an unwavering cold smile.

“MC. You’re awake.” Barbatos gave no false well wishes, and simply ignored the brothers as they tried to bar his line of sight to MC. “Lord Diavolo has requested your presence at the RAD student council room at noon today. You know how he hates tardiness, so plan accordingly.” He leaves with no fanfare but the room was still silent for a few minutes later, the overbearing presence lingering in the air.

“It’s nice to know I get a trial, unfair as it’ll be, before I’m executed.” MC’s sigh breaks the tension in the room and it erupts into chaos again.

"No one's going to kill you-"

"It's not really a trial-"

"We won't let them-"

“You don’t have to-” Levi bites his tongue, but the thought escapes. It stills the room-hope and unease. Levi pales, and it isn't lost on anyone that Barbatos might show up and smite them on the spot for mutiny.

Asmo glares at Levi before walking over and slamming the door shut, even knowing it wouldn't do anything to keep Barbatos from hearing. “You’re talking about going directly against Lord Diavolo, if we’re caught helping MC he won’t hesitate to kill them in front of us before doing us in.”

“So you’re saying MC isn’t worth it?” Mammon straightens up, dark aura flaring with his anger. “We’re demons, anything he does to us we can come back from after a few thousand years, if MC dies it’s over.”

“Remember when you tried to ‘kidnap’ MC when Lord Diavolo was going to send them back home? It’s not just extra paperwork or chores you’ll go through, and MC will get the worst of the punishment.” Lucifer hates the words as he says them, but in all of his years working under Diavolo, he hasn’t seen the full extent of the prince's powers, and he doesn’t want MC to be the person they’re used on. Running and being captured would be a fate worse than death- he had to choose who to save. “ Lord Diavolo is reasonable, MC. You won’t be killed just for this… misunderstanding.”

“We all saw how Barbatos was just now!” Satan grabs MC’s arm from across the bed and yanks them closer to him, away from Lucifer. “He looked ready to kill MC here and now. No matter what happens, this is going to end in a fight.”

'Fight' causes another wave of anger and mistrust to go around- Satan and Belphegor openly glaring at Lucifer while Asmo, Levi and Mammon side-eyed Beel. 

"You shouldn't risk yourselves for me, if you leave now you can have plausible deniability. I’ll just sneak out through-" MC wiggled, struggling to swing their legs out of bed, but Levi and Beel gently pushed them back down. 

“You’re clearly struggling to move, if you’re running, you’ll need our help.” Levi pressed a finger into MC’s leg, hard. Although they winced, they couldn’t easily move away from his grasp. Point taken.

“We don’t KNOW you’re going to d-. It’s not for sure what Lord Diavolo will do, but,” Asmo trails off, Lucifer’s words sounding much less convincing coming from his mouth. 

“I am the one who started the fight; human or not, I am the RAD student that knowingly, willingly, challenged Lord Diavolo. At the very least, shouldn’t this be my choice as well?” MC waited while the brothers thought it over, and one by one they turned to MC.

“So, what do you want to do?”

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

Go to the Meeting

Run Away

[junko-and-riri-domain]

behind closed doors, away from your eyes | ot7

— pairing: enhypen ot7 x reader — genre: angst, headcannon (kinda?), scenarios — warnings: general mentions of deteriorating health conditions, a mention of lost of appetite (in jay’s), it’s all angst  — w/c: idk — request: hello! could i request headcanons for enhypen with a gn!chronically ill s/o? like they have low stamina and chronic pain. thank you!! — requested by: anon — a/n:

lowercase intended + this isn’t really proofread. i kind of changed things up a bit and it’s more along the lines of enhypen after seeing reader “differently”

this has been in my drafts and i decided to post it today bc idk if posted a fic this week lol

i’ll be responding to asks later (or tomorrow) !! i’m dog sitting today :)

lee heeseung

a man who can do it all. “ace” has always been the persona attached to lee heeseung’s name. yet as he enters his apartment with the memories of your date still fresh in your mind, he can’t help but slam his fists against the door knowing that you were in so much pain yet there was nothing he could do to help you. he noticed the way you slowed down earlier when the two of you walked in the park, he noticed the way your hands shakily held his, and he noticed the way you are out of breath quicker than usual. he wanted nothing more than to take away your pain, to be the one feeling it instead of you, to be the one in your place. but no matter what he did, how many nights he stayed by your side, and however many times he held your hand, he just couldn’t. his phone ringing brings him out of his thoughts, quickly he answers your FaceTime call with a smile.

lee heeseung, a man who can do it all — even faking a smile in front of the one he loves the most. 

rest of the boys under the cut !!

park jongseong / jay

as the life of the party, being with you was no different. jay liked the way you rolled your eyes before laughing at one of his jokes or your eyes shone before you smiled at his attempts to do aegyo. but earlier today,

“jay, i'm just not hungry right now,” you said with a frown. you were thankful for his efforts but despite all the food in front of you that jay had cooked, you didn’t feel like eating.  

“where does it hurt? can i give you a massage?” he offered. you shook your head no,

“can you just take me home please?” 

after taking you home and heading back to his own, jay threw out the food, sighing as he did so. he didn’t know what to do anymore, he knew that there wasn’t anything he really could do aside from being a part of your support system but the days that he felt you slipping away with him, he wished you’d take him with you, into the depths of your mind just as how you were in his. instead, all he could do was be there in the ways that you’d allow him to.

park jay, the life of the party — even if it was a party of one.

sim jaeyun / jake

saturdays were the days you and jake went on a walking layla date but today, he was doing it alone. you were in bed and told him to take layla and not wanting to press you on any further, he simply kissed the top of your head and told you that breakfast was waiting on the counter whenever you ready for it, jake knew you never liked it when he saw you in pain, you were stubborn and tried to hide it from him.

sim jake has always been known as the icon of growth — yet how can a relationship grow when both parties continue to run?

park sunghoon

sunghoon entered his apartment, eyes nearly brimming to tears as he ran his hands through his hair. he could get over many things and act indifferent towards other people but when it came to you things were different. he knew he had to keep himself under control, couldn’t lose his composure around you, but it was hard especially after seeing your eyes nearly lifeless, exhaustion written all over your face.

you had asked him to spend the night sleeping over but he left after dinner with you and your parents. he knew that he should’ve stayed but staying would’ve resulted in him admitting feelings he wasn’t quite ready to yet so he left instead.

park sunghoon, indifferent and a man made of ice — but that ice was starting to melt by the heat of reality.

kim sunoo

as the sunshine to thousands if not millions of people things were different with you. because with you kim sunoo didn’t need to be bright and bubbly, he could just be himself plain and simple. you were the reason he smiled, the reason he laughed, and the reason he enjoyed life.

yet after seeing you in the hospital tonight, it was another side that he hadn’t quite realized its impacts. despite your tiredness, you still smiled at him, you still told your corny little jokes in an attempt to get him to laugh, and you had made him realized just how short life could be. there was no tine like the present yet he asked himself, would you two still continue to be able to enjoy the privilege of the present?

yang jungwon

as someone who became the leader at such a young age, it’s safe to say that yang jungwon has faced a lot of pressure in his life. yet nothing could compare to the pressure he felt when you nearly collapsed on him while cooking curry in the kitchen and he brought you to your room. he was completely and utterly 100% lost as to what to do. he followed your instructions the best that he could but it wasn’t until your parents came back home that he was finally relieved.

yet despite the brief relief that washed over him, when he got back to his own home his mind was wracked with thoughts and questions as to what to do and how to help you. and he wondered, could he handle it?

nishimura riki / ni-ki

you had told ni-ki of your illness from the start but he had never really seen the way it truly affected you until your date today. you two had gone to festival to take pictures and eat street food together but when you weren’t feeling well and pain started to attack, you two had to leave early. so he took you home, made you some tea the way jay had taught him, made you laugh a little, and stayed until you finally fell asleep.

if anything, ni-ki couldn’t quite comprehend how this had happened, his mind trying to wrap itself around the situation and the differences. the sight of your once smiling face turning into one of discomfort and pain was a sight he never wanted to see and wanted to prevent in all the ways that he could. he didn’t quite know how to deal, unsure as to how to sort out his feelings because he was still so young.

❦ written by riri ( @enhykkul ) | main blog masterlist | blog navi

↬ taglist: @markleepooh | @sunshineshouchan | @cha-raena | @changmin-wrlds (permanent taglist open)

[foiba]

That's the actual post.

That is a rape joke.

Quit saying, "diluc isn't even asexual." They were being portrayed as asexual in that context.

You fucked up, now own it and don't do this shit again.

hello- thanks for ignoring my requests to privately dm about this and instead coming into my inbox since you intend on milking as much public attention as possible from this. anyways i’ll explain under the cut

thanks for the opportunity to explain this lol. not in a million years would i have intended for or even thought that this could somehow have been interpreted as being about rape, because it most definitely isn’t, but i realize now that it’s able to be interpreted that way and i’m incredibly sorry. i should never have expected that people would possess the basic critical thinking skills to understand that people don’t randomly joke about this. i don’t know what side of the internet you’re on that people do, but i would HIGHLY suggest you find a different space.

i created this blog as a way to continue playing a character that i’ve played for several months in a mutuals server. this character, loosely based on diluc from genshin impact, was never asexual to begin with, and the people who are with me in this server and the people who the blog was intended for (the same people) already understand that. i’m sorry that i got caught up in the character and didn’t put a flashing “diluc is not actually asexual” banner on the blog. i didn’t think i had to. he’s based on my own experiences being autistic and socially anxious, and believing i was asexual because tumblr loves to take people who don’t experience immediate horny feelings for everyone around them and push the asexual label on them. he’s a bit uncomfortable when people flirt with him, but he’s in control and is able to react appropriately when he needs to.

i see that the “you won’t be when i’m done with you” could have been interpreted as unwarranted and nonconsensual. i’m sorry for laughing about it. i see it’s made people uncomfortable. what was funny to me about it was him being in denial- not the advances on him that @/ribbonsweet was making, which were also very obviously jokes to begin with. there was zero malicious intent. once again, i guess I shouldn’t have expected people to be able to read a room or use even an ounce of context when interacting with my posts.

i am not someone who would ever condone or joke about violence, especially of this nature. i’ve repeatedly asked your crowd to leave me alone and to stop bringing this up to me. i’m a grooming survivor. this isn’t a “gotcha”. it’s repeatedly triggering to be accused of pedophilia and joking about rape. it’d be one thing if these were true accusations- it’d be keeping me accountable. it’s not about accountability. it’s about lying, spreading misinformation, and triggering me over and over again because my trauma and feelings are rendered necessary damage in the war on aphobia. and i’m not even aphobic 😭 if y’all want your cause to be taken seriously i really hope you learn to sit down and read up a bit on intersectionality. that’s not what this post is about, though, and it isn’t my responsibility to educate you on why asexuality isn’t the same thing as being black or transfem (though it should really be obvious). i wish i could say “i’m sorry, you win, it won’t happen again” but this is genuinely the stupidest shit ever and i hope you go apologize to every rape survivor right now for dragging their experiences through the dirt for a gotcha on tumblr and to all lesbians ever for co-opting the concept of corrective rape. i’m sorry for making my post unclear but i am not sorry for making your annoying asses cry in your discord server. chris out

[kiunlo]

okay that space photo i just reblogged made me remember something and I NEEEED to just ramble and talk about it.

i love space. i love nebulae. i love stars. i love black holes. i love all the strange weird things out there in space and seeing space photographs makes me sooo sosososos happy. and because of that, i often gravitate towards games or programs about space. space engine is one of those programs that i love so much because you can basically explore the entire universe and go wherever you like..

elite dangerous is also another game that i love a lot. the game has a bit of a reputation for having mixed reviews. some people love it (me), some people hate it. it for sure has it's problems, but I've always loved elite dangerous for the ability to do whatever job you want, and I obviously gravitated towards space exploration, and once i had the credits to buy the best ship for the task and the appropriate upgrades, i went out into space and started taking screenshots of all the weird planets and nebulae within our own milky way.

the part i think i loved so much was that it wasn't easy. it's not like looking up an image on google and seeing the exact nebulae or star you want to see. it's not like space engine where you can just type in the planet or nebulae or galaxy into the search bar and be teleported instantly to that location. in elite dangerous, you have a ship, and you must jump from system to system to get where you want, and make sure you have a plan for where you're getting your fuel. you have to make sure you have a plan for if you get stuck, or you get attacked by pirates or griefers (especially if you're playing multiplayer instead of solo like me lol). you have to make sure you can get to your destination and back to inhabited space in one piece so your exploration data isn't lost (which if you're doing a long journey...can amount to millions upon millions of credits, as well as having your name permanently attached to a planet or star that you were the first to discover). all to see some cool nebulae and some cool planets and some cool stars.

i find that the journey, that the fact that you could lose your ship (and your life) if you're not careful where you're going and what your doing, the fact that you have to plan your route through space like you would plan the roads you would drive along during a trip from one part of the country to another so you didn't get lost or stuck...makes seeing the nebulae that much sweeter. seeing the nebular go from a tiny speck in the distance to a large entity that covers your entire vision, seeing it change colour from the distance, being INSIDE the nebula and seeing it in a way most people never get to see it...it's incredible. i remember the time when i saw my first black hole, and it was such a small little thing, i had to get very close to it to be able to really see it...and as i moved my ship past it, as the black hole went past me on my left, i could see the black hole shifting time and space around it, the gravitational lensing covering half of my vision. although i was simply sitting at my desk playing a little game on my laptop, my jaw still dropped at the strange and weird experience. it really felt like i was seeing it for real.

it's why i keep going back to elite dangerous over and over again, even if i know most people don't really like the game that much. it's a unique experience that most people don't really get to experience, and it's one i find most other games can't really get right.

anyways if you want to see some cool pictures of nebula from elite dangerous that i've taken, you can look at my old ass side blog @cmdr-consortia (all of the entries are written in the perspective of my oc aiden)

[garfinkelstingle]

i chose you | draco malfoy

pairing: draco malfoy x fem!reader (also mentioned past!theodore nott x reader, past!george weasley x reader and past!oc x reader)

warnings: none? at least i don’t think so lol. first time i didn’t use any swear words ha. kinda angst but with a very fluffly ending though!!

word count: 2.1k

summary: inspired by “pierre” by ryn weaver; reader has tried to find someone else to love, someone whom she wasn’t so afraid to lose, but in the end she always kept coming back to draco

a/n: hi!!!! yes!!!! so sorry i havent posted in literal ages but school is a pain and my bio exam is coming up and with all the stress i just havent been able to sit down and actually write :( but i got this idea last night and just had to put it down!!! not my best work but i’m happy with it nonetheless and hope u will be too <3 ALSO OMG WHAT I CANT BELIEVE THERES MORE THAN A HUNDRED PEOPLE FOLLOWING THIS BLOG AND READING MY STUFF ??? that is nothing if not absolutely wild

masterlist

She was currently in her seventh year, which meant that she had somehow managed to break the hearts of a total of three guys in the last three years. That had to be some kind of record.

The funny thing about all of this, though, was that through all of it her heart had remained untouched because the person it belonged to, who had every right to rip it into a million shreds, didn’t.

At first there had been Theodore Nott. It had made sense for the two of them to get together. They were both pureblood Slytherins, knowing each other from when they were children and would attend the same boring events their parents were adamant on throwing and dancing the night away in some hidden corner and laughing at the adults who got too drunk and started making fools of themselves.

It had been exactly the kind of relationship one was to except from two fifteen year old teenagers who had been friends since long before they even knew that there was such a thing as kissing with tongue: Messy and childish, with unnecessary fights breaking out all the time, her screaming at him to just give her space and let her breathe and him being jealous of the time she was spending with Draco Malfoy, time she should be spending with him, her boyfriend, instead.

Every time they fought they would ignore each other for a day or two and then just pretend like nothing happened, with him being just as clingy and her spending just as much time with Draco as she had before.

He had told her he loved her by Christmas and she had broken up with him less then three minutes later.

After that came George Weasley. Things were different with him. He was older than Theodore had been, and she was, too. She could see herself falling in love with him in another life, a life that didn’t have a certain platinum-haired boy in it.

She had wanted to try, had wanted to believe that maybe things could work out. For a while, they did. George made her happy, happier than anyone around her expected.

It was an odd match, truly, with him being goofy and sarcastic, trying to take life as lightly as possible and her being the embodiment of the Slytherin house, cold and hard and as closed off as one could be. But George tried with everything he could to make her laugh, told her the corniest jokes and used the cheesiest pick-up lines on her and for the first time in her life she had felt giddy. Being with him had brought out a side in her that nobody else had before, not even Draco, one where she would giggle when she found something funny, no matter how silly it was, and one where she would snort with laughter whenever her boyfriends twin made a remark about how he truly felt sorry that George had gotten all the ugly genes, not caring how embarrassing it might be.

She had prayed, every night, that she would wake up the next morning and be in love with him, the same way she had prayed that he would wake up and decide not to tell her he was. Because she knew he was, by the way his gaze lingered a little longer on her than usual, his eyes softening and mouth turning into a smile sweeter than honey. All she wanted was to slap that look off his face because she didn’t want this to end, not now, not ever, but she couldn’t lie to him, not like that, not when he didn’t deserve it, when all she wanted to do was love him. Maybe he knows, she thought. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t said it yet. Maybe he never will and we can just pretend forever and this happiness never has to end. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But like expected, it didn’t last. She had cried that day harder than she ever had before. Not because her heart broke, because of course it didn’t. How could it when it was being held so tightly by someone else, someone who just wasn’t George? But seeing him hurt, watching his heart break, made her feel a sadness she never had before. A part of her had wanted for him to scream at her, to tell her that she was a terrible person and that he hated her, something, anything, to make her think that she had done the right thing, that she hadn’t just thrown away something good and right. Instead he smiled at her the saddest smile she had ever seen and pressed a kiss to her temple and told her “It’s alright” and Merlin did she hate him right now because why did he have to be so good?

She had vowed herself to stop at that, to not ever go through anything like that ever again and to never, ever, put anyone through that, either.

Then Pierre came and it’s like she had forgotten everything that had ever happened.

He was an exchange student from Durmstrang who was supposed to spend the first half of their seventh year with them and for some reason, she believed that he might be the one. Believed that Pierre, with his crooked nose and broken English, might be the one who might actually make her forget Draco, who might manage to take her icy little heart from him and melt it and make it his. A part of her believed that Pierre might actually be the very first person to break it and even though it should’ve, it didn’t scare her.

They had spent every waking moment together, aware that their time together would be short. He had told her that he loved her and held her tight when she told him that she couldn’t say it back, telling her that it was okay, that as long as she was by his side, he had everything he needed. It would’ve made so much sense had it been him.

He was funny and charming, rich and beautiful, kind and caring. And yet every time she looked at him she only noticed all the things that he wasn’t, compared to Draco.

And now here she was at the Astronomy Tower, thinking of no one else but the Slytherin boy, moments after breaking up with Pierre, someone who could’ve been it, someone who had to be it, because no matter how much she wanted it, he just never would be.

It had always been and always would be Draco.

Draco, who had been her closest friend from the moment the pair of them stepped on the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.

Draco, who had been her first kiss and first of everything else, who had taken up all the time before and after and in-between her boyfriends.

Draco, who has always been the person Y/N could run to whenever something or someone was bothering her, who would listen and give advice whenever he knew she needed some, who would rub soothing circles on her back and hold her while she cried.

Draco, who had told her he loved her and whom she loved back.

Draco, who had stayed by her side even after she had told him that she couldn’t be with him, not when it meant that she might lose him.

Draco, who was coming up the stairs now after hearing the news that Pierre, too, was nothing but history.

“It’s never going to work with any of them, you know?”

Of course she did. How could it possibly work when she was never fully in, when her heart would always and forever belong to someone else?

“It doesn’t hurt to try, does it?” she told him, turning her head to the side once he joined her at the railing, looking out at the beautiful night sky. He looked so exhausted and she couldn’t blame him, not when she knew that it was partially her fault. Maybe even mainly.

Exhaling, he carefully cupped her face with both hands, as if she was as delicate as porcelain and he was afraid that he might break her. “Every time I see you with someone, anyone, else, all I can think is how wrong it is because you should be with me. We both know that that’s where you belong, Y/N.” And he was right, really, truly, right.

He was the one and only person she belonged with, the only person she could ever imagine herself belonging with. Because at the end of the day, it didn’t matter how well she fitted with Theodore, or how happy George made her, or how perfect Pierre seemed to be.

None of them would ever be Draco. None of them would ever know the right thing to say when she was upset. None of them would ever know that her favourite Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Bean was, in fact, mint, even though she insisted that it was watermelon, simply because the fresh taste reminded her of him, the way everything else always seemed to.

None of them would ever understand how there was not a single soul more important and valuable to her than Draco, who knew all of her deepest and darkest secrets and still chose to stay by her side, someone who was so irreplaceable that the mere thought of maybe, someday, somehow losing him was just not something she even dared to think of.

That had been the reason why she told him that she couldn’t be with him all those years ago. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she knew herself. She knew she was a screw-up, knew that she would eventually find a way to push him away, to make him see that he could do so much better than her. That had never been something she worried about with anyone else, because she knew that none of it mattered anyways. She could lose every single person around her without giving it a second thought because as long as she had Draco, everything would be alright.

But losing him? That’s not something she would ever be okay with.

Seemingly having read her mind, he lowered his head until their foreheads were touching, still softly cradling her face in his hands, the cool material of his rings on her cheeks sending a small shiver down her spine.

“You’re not going to lose me, Y/N. Not ever.” he reassured her, giving her a quick peck on the lips.

Tears began streaming down her face and she wasn’t even sure why. Was it because she was touched by his words? Or because she so desperately wanted them to be true but knew that they might not be, that that might not be a promise Draco could keep? Or maybe the fact that she broke up with her boyfriend finally caught up with her, even though she was highly suspicious of that being the case.

“You can’t know that for sure.” she whispered, grasping his wrists and holding on for dear life. “What if you realise that you have to? That you can’t stay?”

Wiping the tears off her face, he gave her a sad smile. “Do you know how much it hurt to watch you with them? All of them? Wishing that it would be me, knowing that it should be? I could have left, could have told you that it was too much, that I was done, but I knew, I always knew, that at the end of the day, eventually, you’d choose me because I chose you. I chose you that very first day on the train and I’ve been choosing you every day since.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck she pulled him in for a passionate kiss that was equal parts messy and hungry, the taste of her salty tears mixing with the fresh taste of the breath-mints that were almost as much a part of him as she was.

There would never be a day where she wouldn’t be terrified of losing him, but pulling away she looked him in the eyes and said the one thing she had heard far too many times by far too many people and never had the guts to say back.

“I love you, too.”

[bisexualautism]

Oh so THIS is why I’m getting anon hate. Lol.

“We’re supposed to be on each other’s sides” really fucking rich you just got me, a real life transgender, harassed. Like publicly trans. Like right below where you cropped so you could imply I’m cis it literally says genderfluid. And specifically right now I’m a trans man so. Lmao.

“They see no difference between trans people” is such a bold faced lie when trans women are the face of their campaigns against trans people. Are treated the way they are in our own spaces. Are treated the way YOU treated an incredibly polite and patient trans woman who tried to gently remove your head from your ass.

We experience transphobia. We do. But I cannot believe you would be so insecure in that you have to pretend it’s the same as what TMA people are targeted with. We are not publicly vilified in the same way. We are, often, treated as misguided and having been fooled by predatory trans women into forsaking our special divine fragile womanhood instead of being assumed malicious and creepy right off the bat.

There’s a million different other ways I could point to but it’s 1:22 am and I have no doubt trans women have tried to tell you and you’ve just stuck your head in the sand because like my original post, it made you feel bad about yourself. Transmisogyny is more than just “transphobia transfemmes face” it’s it’s own system of oppression born of misogyny and transphobia. If you think transandrophobia exists you must also think cisgender men are oppressed for being men which I mean, I wouldn’t put it past you.

Next time you want to bitch and whine about how 🥺🥺🥺 The cunts are being weawy mean tew me 🥺🥺🥺 awent we supowst tew be on teh same side 🥺🥺🥺 make it a modicum more believable by not publicly posting the trans person you’re whining about’s blog for them to be exposed to your idiot followers.

[novasintheroom]

Ooooo a fresh blog! Heyo there! So, my first request is some head canons, if you write them anyway, for the each of the turtles having a s/o who is usually the purest of beans. Like— she doesn’t get angry, usually shy when meeting new people, very humble, sweet and caring— but for the first time she does it’s like she realizes she’s frustrated and mad about something that happened during the day and it’s the first time she’s expressing it. the turtles notice her come in knowing something is off about her behavior when she’s usually so cheerful. Almost like “Sometimes it just makes me so— it makes me so... so...! Angry!” But she actually gets super surprised with herself realizing she’s actually venting just to say she’s fine in the end after bottling up for so long. The turtles just looking at her and asking if she’s okay 😂 If that makes any sense.. sorry if it doesn’t.

Oooooo my first ask!! I’m so nervous and excited! I think I got the gist of what you’re getting at. Thanks for sending this in, it means a lot to me! <3

Leo

·         Honestly caught off guard when you come in steaming

·         Your calm and sweetness is something he loves and looks forward to – it’s hard being the firm leader in his family when everyone pushes back, so you’re a pleasant break from the arguments and sassy remarks

·         Not today

·         It’s loud in the lair – Raph and Mikey are doing something with a basketball and hula hoop that’s got Raph raging and Mikey screaming, Donnie’s got a power tool going on the truck, and Splinter’s Celine Dion music is blaring to drown it all out while he works on pruning his plants

·         Leo’s up in the concrete rafters with a book, glancing down every other minute to make sure Raph doesn’t kill Mikey

·         He would have completely missed you coming in if Mikey hadn’t thrown the ball toward the entrance

·         You dodge the ball before it hits you, but instead of laughing it off like usual, you throw a dark look at his brothers and beeline toward the dojo.

·         Woah, that’s weird

·         Avoidance of his family = big red flag

·         You didn’t even say hi to him??

·         Hops down and follows, waving off Mikey’s calls to you

·         Finds you in the corner of the dojo, bag thrown to the side and hands smoothing out the sand of his small zen garden

·         Feels a bit awkward honestly

·         Listen, he’s getting better at it, but he’s not the best at feelings

·         Especially girl feelings

·         He knows something’s up though, and he wouldn’t be a good beau if he just let you simmer

·         Spooks you when he asks if you’re okay

·         Darn those ninja skills, how is someone as big as him so silent?

·         You sigh and just say you had a fight with your roommate and that it’s fine, you just needed some quiet before you went to his family

·         Okay, coolcoolcool. He can work with this. He and Raph fight all the time! “What was the fight about?”

·         Cue explosion

·         “She doesn’t pay her part of the bills on time, and she has her boyfriend over constantly and I can hear them through the walls when they’re screwing because the stupid cheap apartment has stupid cheap thin walls, and she leaves her dishes everywhere even when I ask her to not be a slob, and the landlord is getting after me for her rent when– “

·         W o w

·         He didn’t think you knew any swear words, but the names you’re calling your roommate would make even Raph blush

·         Your rant goes on and on

·         Anytime he tries to suggest a solution you get angry at him like why can’t he just listen omg

·         He shuts up quick

·         Somewhere in the process he sat down and your head moved to his lap while you laid all your problems out

·         By the time you’re finished your chest is heaving and it’s been an hour

·         Leo’s scared to say something in case you go off again lmao

·         He just plays with your hair and hums while you calm down

·         Finally you look at him with wide eyes, “Wow, geez, I didn’t think I was that mad.”

·         He can’t help but laugh, “Me neither.”

·         Your smile is back, though, and that’s the best thing he’s seen all day

·         “You feeling better now?”

·         You say yes, and give him a good hug and kiss as thanks for his patience

·         He asks you to come to him if things start building up again

·         Seriously, start talking to him – I don’t think the poor guy can handle another explosion like that lol

 Raph

·         Raph knows anger

·         Does he know how to deal with it? Ehhh that’s hit-and-miss

·         But he knows it

·         So seeing your tense shoulders, clenched fists, grinding teeth when you walk in – he knows you’re angry

·         It’s a bit off-putting tbh – you’re the calm to his rage, the quiet touch to wind him down when something gets under his skin

·         What happened to make his quiet girl so mad?

·         Did someone say something about your family?

·         Or something about your outfit?

·         Did a skeevy guy try to touch you?

·         Did someone try to kiss you?

·         Okay, now he’s getting mad

·         Decides to take a page from Splinter’s book and pulls you aside to talk

·         “What’s the matter?”

·         You pull at your sleeves, looking anywhere but him

·         You just mumble you’re fine, and that you’re hungry and try to move to the kitchen

·         Nuh-uh, that don’t work with him

·         Catches you by the arm and gives you a look, “Somethin’s bothering you, and you’re gonna tell me what it is.”

·         “And what if I don’t wanna talk about it?”

·         “Tough luck.”

·         Your glare could curdle milk, but you don’t say anything

·         Alright, you wanna play it that way? He’s got three brothers he grew up with; he can get it out of you.

·         Hauls you up and tosses you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and takes you to his workout station

·         Ignores your screams of outrage and the beating fists on his shell

·         They’re like little kitten paw pats; he can’t help but smile at how small you really are

·         When he sets you down in front of a world-weary punching bag, he crosses his arms and waits

·         You’re red faced and snarling. “What are you doing?”

·         He raises a fist, and gives the bag a good punch – “That’s for when Mikey backwashed into my water bottle today.” He throws another punch, “And that’s for Donnie’s stupid snorts waking me up last night,” and another, “and now I’m back on Mikey’s backwash!”

·         He stops the bag’s swaying and gestures for you to take a turn

·         Realization dawns in your eyes. You look at your fist and throw a pathetic punch at it. “That’s…for my fifth plant…dying this week?”

·         He almost laughs, but nods encouragement

·         You punch again. “That’s for whoever stole my lunch out of the fridge at work.”

·         And again. “And for those kids who spit on that homeless guy!”

·         And again. “And for Gina’s face when she made fun of my teeth!”

·         Punch after punch, you let out your anger and frustrations that boiled over today

·         Raph’s impressed – not just with how much crap happened to you, but how long you held it in

·         You’re a lot stronger than he gave you credit for

·         He’s also a bit freaked at seeing the rage in your eyes

·         Is that what others see when he comes at them?

·         Yeesh

·         You feel a lot better after the session, if sheepish for letting so much anger show

·         But he brushes it off, “Hey, you see how I am. It don’t bother me none, sweetheart.”

·         He pinches your butt for good measure as you walk back to the lair and laughs when you punch him in the arm

 Donnie

·         The one that takes the longest to realize something’s up

·         He can’t help it! He’s busy making sure his family is safe and hidden! He’s gotta keep the firewall up-to-date from all the new viruses being put out, check the perimeter lasers so that no one sneaks up on them, change the oil in the Turtle Tank, and why is the computer sparking over here, he needs to ask Raph or Leo to come with him to get new parts at the junkyard, but if he –

·         Bumps into you and is like ‘oh. how’d you get in here’

·         Delighted to see you though! It’s like all his worries suddenly vanished when he realized ‘oh yeah! I have a girlfriend!’ and that’s you!

·         Missed you a lot since it’s been a few days since you could visit

·         Starts showing you all of the progress he’s made on certain things, asks you how school’s going, how was that group project you had, did you get that interview for work?

·         It’s your clipped and short answers that finally makes him take a step back and really see how you’re doing

·         You’ve always been enthusiastic about his inventions, even if you don’t completely understand every technical thing he talks about. He thought you guys were past the awkward conversations too.

·         Clipped answers are a big no-no – it makes him shrink inside, like his words and ideas don’t matter

·         Takes a few seconds to look you over – awkward seconds, ones where you look down and away and not at him

·         “Are you alright? Did…something happen?”

·         You take a few deep breaths, trying to calm yourself, but then the words just start pouring out: “I’m sorry, it’s just, I can’t stop thinking about how my supervisors treated me the past few days. They scheduled me to work a triple shift! Without asking me! And I told them I had a date with you, and a million other things to do, but – “

·         You lay it out for him, apologizing every other minute for just putting this on him out of the blue, that you tried really hard to be happy coming to the lair but your boss just text you that you have another shift tonight instead of getting to hang out with Donnie, and –

·         Donnie sits you both down in a couple of chairs, his hands holding your own as you keep talking and venting

·         Rubs circles into your palm, eyes never straying from your own watery and frustrated ones

·         A breath out of the nose is the end to your rant, and you lean to put your head on his shoulder. “I just hate when people spring things on me! I just wanna stay with you and hand you tools to work on stuff.”

·         His heart warms at this, even if he’s sad at how sucky your job is

·         And it gives him an idea

·         He manages to hack into your work’s scheduling system and put your supervisors or fellow employees in your place for the night

·         Even sends out a text masked as your head boss to whoever he put, letting them know they’re on the job and that you had an emergency

·         You’re torn on this – those people had things they had to do too

·         But Donnie reassures you: “If they’re as bad as you say, then getting more people mad at them might just make them change. If not, we at least get to have our date night, right?”

·         Well, when you put it that way…

·         He gets a big, long smooch for pulling it off and for listening to you

Mikey

·         Listen, this boy is intuitive when it comes to emotions.

·         He kinda has to be with the type of older brothers he has lmao

·         Instantly knows something’s up by the sound of your feet coming down the tunnels – heavy, like you want to stomp them but don’t know how

·         He’s geared up though – his baby girl’s coming!

·         Hops off the couch and has the biggest grin for you when you walk in

·         Doesn’t even falter when he sees the glower on your face

·         Says something stupid to test the waters – “Woah, babe, I’m gonna have to call the cops – I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to be as fine as you are!”

·         Not even a smirk.

·         Okay okay. Obvi you’re not in a happy mood.

·         Man, he was hoping for a little blush at least!

·         Takes that heavy bag off your shoulders you’ve been lugging around all day and corrals you back to the couch

·         Grabs some sodas and a few chocolate bars from his hidden stash in the kitchen

·         He knows you need it more than him right now

·         Sits down and calls out to the lair that “we’re making out on the couch!!” Def keeps his family from coming in and interrupting lol

·         Isn’t even phased when you explode about your day – your coworker had it out for you, your professor told the whole class that your paper was what not to do if you wanted a good grade, etc. etc.

·         Mikey accents your day with “No!” and “He didn’t!” and “What a jerk!”

·         It’s cathartic to hear someone agree with you like that

·         He takes you in his arms when the frustrated tears start falling and you start to wind down

·         “It just makes me so angry, and I hate feeling embarrassed and…”

·         Rubs circles on your back to help calm you, just like his family did to him growing up

·         After a minute you’re better, and back to your sweet, happy self, if still a bit stuffy from the tears and snot

·         You’re surprised and apologize for your emotions, but he stops you

·         “Hey, everyone has their bad days! Sometimes you just gotta let it out, y’know?”

·         You give him a big kiss for being so sweet

·         Makes the day a lot better after that with the soda and candy and some video games

·         He’s a good turt <3

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

k.taehyung/reader 

genre: arist!taehyung, painting!reader, parallel/horror universe

warning(s): violence, mannequins+paintings coming to life (bc ppl are scared of that), blood- but like red paint instead, horror/dread/action elements (i tried okay), bittersweet 

words: 20.3k 

One-shot | Two-shot | Series | Drabble | [Rated: Pg:15] 

Loosely based on Ib, an RPG Horror/Adventure game + Leia (Vocaloid)

synopsis: Taehyung, a freelance, abstract artist is in the middle of one of the worst art blocks known to mankind.  In an act of possible inspiration, he drags his best friend, Namjoon, to a new art gallery just opened.  Only, he didn’t know that his visit would result in him getting separated from his friend and thrust into a new gallery.  One he wasn’t familiar with in the slightest. Along with this mysterious new gallery, a collection of strange creatures lurking around every corner came with the unsettling territory. 

a/n: i literally started this in March of 2019.... I have no excuse for the wait other than my bad.  Regardless, Colorblind is FINALLY done and out! It’s obvs waayyy longer than I intended it to be back in 2019 when I could only pump out like 9k at max- it’s over double that now LOL. But that hopefully aint gonna stop y’all (pls, lmk what you thought/thnk, i’m so anxious about this one alsdjf)

“Here you are, gentlemen.  Enjoy your visit to the gallery,” the receptionist at the counter smiled as she would to anyone.  Handing over two pamphlets to the two men who stood in front of her.  One was dressed in white track pants, two stripes running down the legs.  A white, collared, button-up shirt with a tie exceptionally loose around his neck with a blue, track jacket with red and white stripes down the sleeve, matching his track pants.

The other man wore loose black pants around his hips.  A black and white vertical striped, sleeveless jersey with three buttons on the collar with a red cap placed backward on his faded orange-haired head.  

These two men were two Kim’s. Taehyung and Namjoon.  Taehyung works as a self-employed, freelance artist; throwing and brushing paint over a canvas in random ways and creating objects and places for his mind to be free in abstract ways.  Namjoon is a humbled journalist for a local news blog for his exceptional wording and phrasing on all sorts of topics.  

Taehyung had come to the new gallery opening not too far from his home in search of inspiration.  He had been in a bit of a slump lately, and with nothing to do and nothing worthwhile happening, he was desperate.  Namjoon tagged along because he was tasked with the job of writing a review of the new establishment and creating a small article to include in the next online publication.

“Welcome to the grand opening of The Gallery of Leia!”

Taehyung mumbled to himself as he read the title of the pamphlet given to him.  “Why Gallery of Leia?” He questioned the name as the receptionist answered promptly.

“Leia is the one surviving piece of an artist from way back when that survived a brutal fire.  In honor of its survival, the gallery was named as such.”  She said with a smile as Taehyung nodded and nudged Namjoon’s arm, who stood next to him.

“Let’s go,” he said as he walked inside, not trying to stick around for more conversation and holding up the line of people also trying to gain entry inside. Namjoon following him as he quickly scanned a the front of the pamphlet.  

The gallery was two stories in a decent squared size building.  It was quite the exercise trip in Taehyung’s opinion.  Sculptures were placed against walls or out in the open for rotational viewing pleasure.  Paintings and sketches were hanging, littering the walls for guests to see clearly.  All the different pieces from all sort of artists featured here was amazing, such a wide variety as Taehyung’s eyes scanned the names.  Some familiar, some not.

“Wow, this place is pretty busy,” Namjoon said as he looked around. Namjoon had pulled out a tablet from his side bag, turning on the large touch screen as he took the pen attached to the side of it and opened up a program for taking notes as he started scribbling.  Taehyung peeked over his shoulder.  

“You haven’t even seen any art yet.  Why are you already jotting stuff down?”  

“It’s always good to start an article with how packed or how empty a place is.  The more people there, the more popular or interesting to the masses it is, which normally leads to more pros than cons.  It’s like a first look into how interesting it may or may not be.”  He rambled off like he’s answered the question a million times.  Taehyung nodded with pouted lips.

“You’re such a workaholic.”  Namjoon rolled his eyes at the remark, placing the pen between his fingers as he held his tablet and lowered it to his side.

“Let’s go look around.” The gallery itself, aside from the art pieces inside it, was stark white.  White ceilings to match the white walls and tiled flooring in yet more, polished white.  The lights weren’t as strong as one would think for a gallery, but if they were any brighter the receptionist would need to hand out complimentary sunglasses along with pamphlets because of all the lights bouncing off and around from the white  interior.

Namjoon was busy looking at a large-scale sculpture of a red rose as Taehyung wandered around not too far from him.  He turned down a hall that was surprisingly void of any warm bodies. He was surprised to find an area that hadn’t been cluttered with people yet.  Though, he assumed it wasn’t all that odd considering the early morning hour.  

Along the left wall was a large, long canvas, easily engulfing a vast majority of the wall itself.  It also happened to be the only piece in this dead-end corridor.

Taehyung stood in front of the painting as he looked over it.  Trying to see each and every detail.  He was in awe of the detail and how much time it must have taken to even complete such a large painting.  The dedication and time served to it was admirable.

The painting gave off an eerie vibe.  A dark background with what seemed to be the space of a studio, a spacey and wide studio with canvas’s on walls, frames hanging, paints and easels littering the space leaking into a greater mass of a space with even more dark, distorted art. As he continued to look at it, he stopped to blink, reset his eyes and rub at them so he didn’t go crosseyed and get dizzy.

As Taehyung gazed at the whole of the masterpiece, Namjoon strode up to him.  He whistled lowly in an impressed awe.

“Damn. That's one dedicated, dead painter.”  He walked to the plaque underneath the frame, kneeling so he could read the title of the particular piece aloud.  “Parallel Reality. Painted in 1996 by-” he couldn’t finish because the hall suddenly darkened.  Namjoon and Taehyung both looked at the ceiling and the flickering lights before they blacked out completely. Leaving the room dark and quiet.

“A blackout?” Taehyung questioned. Namjoon stood up, walking back over to his friend.  

“We should go back to the front desk.”  Taehyung nodded as the two of them began the journey back, stepping carefully and squinting to make sure they wouldn’t run into any sculptures or walls.  All the while, never once running into another person.  In fact, the entire gallery was completely silent besides their footsteps.

“Where is everyone?”  Taehyung asked, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.  

“I’m sure they’ve all gathered outside.  No point in staying in a dark gallery.”  The two made it to the front glass doors.  “It’s… dark outside?”  Taehyung looked out through the glass doors.  “It was just noon?”  Namjoon shook his head, pulling on the door, but the door refused to open.  “It’s locked!”  He grunted, yanking again, pushing and pulling on the door.  Nothing.  Namjoon sighed as he turned to Taehyung.  “Go look around, maybe someone is still here.  In the meantime, I’m going to try and get this door open.”

Taehyung nodded before he turned and walked back into the gallery.  The halls still dark, every window showing nothing but a dark, deep navy outside.  He walked to a window to look outside, maybe get a glimpse of what was going on.  But, nothing.  

He turned and walked away, but jumped when he heard someone banging on the glass of the window he had just left.  Running back, he could just barely make out the imprint of a wide handprint on the outside of the glass.  It made a chill run up Taehyung’s back. 

For a moment, he assumed it was Namjoon who had gotten out and was getting his attention to run to the front and get out.  So, he did, dashing to the entrance and when he didn’t see Namjon around any longer, he tried the door.  Still locked.  

He hissed as he whipped back around and went back to the window before he shook his head. As he walked around the gallery further, his eyes began adjusting to the darkness and eventually he was even able to make out some of the art pieces again.  

A painting of a black cat.  One of a man hanging upside down by his ankles.  A basket of fruit that he swore use to have an apple included in the basket.  The back of a woman dressed in nothing but red.  

He felt like he was walking in circles. More than ready to head back to just sit at the front until someone came- since someone had to at some point, he heard another set of footsteps.  At first he thought it may be Namjoon coming back to find him; however, the footsteps were too light to be his friends- he always was a bit of a heavy stomper. Taehyung turned and headed towards the steps as they seemed to move further from him instead of towards him.  

“Hey!”  He called into the echoey halls of the dark gallery. The steps halting momentarily before they started running.  So, Taehyung sprinted after them.  “Where are you going?!”  He yelled as he ran into an open, large venue.  He looked around as he ran, seeing no one around.  “Where are you?!”  He shouted before he stepped in a puddle.  No, not a puddle.  A puddle would only be an inch or two deep.  It surely wouldn’t be enough to engulf him entirely.  

Now, Taehyung was sinking.  Drowning slowly into the Abyss of the Deep before the lights flicked back on and the murmurs of people resumed.

-x-x-x-

When Taehyung woke up, his head was throbbing, his mind was fuzzy and his conscience more than a little confused.  Laying on his chest on the floor like a jersey-dressed starfish, he groaned as he pushed himself up to support his torso on his elbows.  His hair was messier than before as his bangs threatened to poke his eyes.  Looking back and forth, he was in a hallway.  The corridor was dark, a hint of purple and indigo surrounding the entire room.  Walls, carpet, ceiling everything was the same shade of purple.

Obviously, the polar opposite than the pure white of everything previously.

Rolling onto his back and pushing himself to stand, he wobbled as he held his head and tried to will away the headache that was beginning to slowly lessen.  

Going backward before trying to even round the corner down the way, he found a single wooden door at the dead-end of the hall.  Twisting the knob, he entered the small room.  The room was square, red and on the back wall was a single large painting of a woman.  Her eyes were closed and her face was blank.  Her hair was somehow painted off the canvas, down past the frame and onto the wall like it was real hair falling out of the portrait.  

In front of that portrait was a single small wooden table with a vase.  In that vase was a single, blue rose.  A rose with 10 large, vibrant petals and a vine that lacked thorns.  Taehyung had never seen a blue rose before- well, not a real, authentic one anyways. Everyone’s seen the fake, painted blue, red, pink, yellow, purple and whatever other color roses in dollar stores before. Thinking it was manmade, he examined it further, putting his hands on the table to close inspect.  He became far more interested in the flower the more he looked at it.  

It drew him in.  The color captivated him and the aura around it seemed almost important and he felt the slightest urge to pick it up.  Maybe he should, maybe it would be fine.  Reaching out slowly, he drew the rose from the vase and something akin to a jolt of electricity ignited his fingertips. It felt like he had somehow forged an instant connection with this flower as soon as the end of the vine left the crystal clear water of the vase.

Call him crazy, but he almost felt fearful of putting it back and leaving it behind.

The vase on the table cracked as Taehyung’s attention shifted to it from the rose.  Crack after crack spread on the vase before it burst into pieces.  Taehyung hunched backward to shield his face with his arms from the exploded glass.  Shards of glass sat on the table and fell to the floor as the water pooled around the wooden surface and continued to spread as it began to drip off the table’s edge onto the carpet.

“I guess, I’ll take it along.”  He muttered to himself as he turned his back.  As he exited the room, he failed to notice the woman’s portrait shift.  Her eyes opened wide- almost insane- as she smiled.  PItch black paint writing appearing under her frame in smeared text.  

WHEN THE ROSE WILTS, SO TOO WILL YOU WILT AWAY

Taehyung left the room and the hallway he returned to had changed from what he last remembered. There were random letters on the ceiling and floor, spelling something that Taehyung couldn’t make out in the dark hall.  At his feet, he felt himself kick at something when he moved to step forward.  Picking it up, he held a small blue key in his palm.  

Going further down the hall, he came to a forked path.  He could continue going down the hall or take the staircase he that presented itself to him.  The stairs lead up higher than he could see with two paintings on either side of the entrance. Two landscapes of a mountain range; one normal and the other an identical copy, only negative scaled.  Coming to a decision, he took the hall just to cover the ground floor.  Coming to just another dead end, he returned and took to the stairs up.  

At the top of the stairs was a door.  Trying it, it was locked. 

“Naturally,” he huffed.  Trying the key he had kicked with his shoe and picked up not too long ago, it fit perfectly and unlocked the door as he stepped through it.  The door slammed shut and locked on it’s own behind him.  The key becoming useless since their was no keyhole on this side of the door.  He dropped it, leaving it behind. 

He was in a library now.  It was a small room, maybe not even considered a library.  Just a room with bookshelves and books.  Like a compact study without a desk.

He didn’t recognize a lot of the books- which was surprising considering he did have a liking for reading.  He stopped scanning his fingers over the spines of books when among all the thick, sophisticated books was a tiny, thin spine of a bright red children's book.

Pulling it out from it’s snug place on the shelf, he held it in his hands.  It was a short, wide book with a picture colored very messily in what he could only assume was crayon on the cover of it.  Sitting on the ground, his back against the bookcase, he opened it’s thick, card-stock, wobbly pages.

The book was about a painter.  He had been painting his whole life, so long in fact that he started to blend his world with reality.  He would give his paintings ‘life’ and he’d treat them like they were truly alive.  In his mind, they were his friends.  

A painting of a lion toy no bigger than the size of a book, stills of sentient objects like a fan, and even paint brushes contained souls with a conscience and mind to this painter. Even a can of pressurized air that would ‘bully’ or tease the others when they least expected it was ‘alive’, leaving the painter to rip that painting of air up for it’s rotten behavior.

It ends with the painter creating a portrait of someone, something he wasn’t familiar with painting.  People weren’t his strong suit and as such, he was left in isolation for most of his life. His devotion to painting left him alone in reality because he ‘saw’ nothing else.  Thus, he created his own friend in a painting of a woman that didn't exist.  When she ‘came alive’ he even grew to fall in love with her.  The last few pages of the story were torn out, so Taehyung would never know the ending.  

“Who would fall in love with something they knew was fake?  Something painted would never come alive,” he muttered.  Considering the painter in the story to be an utter fool.

Taehyung suddenly jumped, children’s book sliding off his legs and snapping shut as the door to his left unlocked with a loud clack.  He slowly got up, picking the book back up taking it with him as he put it back on the shelf.  The door that unlocked started to whine.  The handle was rusty sounding as something from the outside started turning it.  

In a very logical fit of panic, Taehyung rushed and grabbed the thickest book he could find and held it at the ready.  Absolutely ready to whack whatever weirdo came into this room, knock them out (with luck), restrain them and then question where the hell he was. That, or a hit and run would work too.  He’d figure out which suggestion when the time came in a few moments.

The turning of the knob halted.  Stopped for so long that Taehyung thought whatever it was had gone away.  Lowering his book, he squinted his eyes at the door.  It was quiet, all he could hear was his breathing with the occasional nervous gulp of his.  

There was only but another beat of silence before chaos erupted.  

The door busted open, nearly ripping off it’s handles.  Taehyung, with a short, shocked scream, stumbled back as two things threw themselves into the room.  One was a woman, or rather half a woman.  Long brown hair cascaded down her head and her torso was decked in a red turtleneck.  Her face had a twisted demeanor etched into what would probably be a beautiful face otherwise.  From her waist down was nothing but a picture frame.  Her lower half didn’t exist and was replaced with a black void background and frame with gold edges.  It was like some horror effect that dragged around behind her everywhere she crawled. 

The second was an actual woman.  Legs, arms, chest and all.  Dressed in ruined overalls, a long sleeved white shirt with yellow stripes up the arms.  Tacky, torn brown boots on her feet as she stomped and kicked away at the woman in the frame.  She was wielding... a stick?  Or what looked like what may be part of what was once another picture frame.  End jagged and just asking for someone to get a nasty splinter.

The woman in the frame hissed at her like a dog as her clawed hands moved to drag her across the floor towards the actual woman’s legs.  The framed lady moved faster than Taehyung imagined was possible.  Dragging her half body across the floor and slithering with an absurd amount of grace like a snake.

The lady in the frame latched onto the woman’s leg causing her to in turn repeatedly kick at the frame’s head with her opposite foot.  The frame screamed as she was kicked against a bookshelf.  Books fell, toppling onto the frame as she screeched.  However, her insistent screeching silenced when the real woman took the jagged end of the broken frame she wielded and thrust it into the frames exposed and vulnerable head.

Red ‘paint’ erupted from the frame like a fountain before it became completely limp.  The woman shook the frame piece around, whipping it like a sword after a battle to remove the blood of the slain.  Then, the woman looked over her shoulder at Taehyung. He froze in place, his shoulders jumping at him finally being noticed.

Your eyes widened as they locked onto Taehyung’s. Shocked to see him there.  Your eyes were an unusually bright colored abyss with such a dull contrasting look in them.  He wasn’t sure if he could even see his reflection if he were standing right in front of you.  

You gasped lightly as if being hit with some sort of realization before turning to face him fully. Even if you were a good 10 feet from him he flinched. More than a little bit intimidated with you still holding your broken frame piece and witnessing you pretty much kill what he would label a Feminine Frame Monster.

“You’re the one everyone is looking for…” You muttered to herself.  There was a commotion beyond the door that was hanging pathetically onto its frame.  From down the hall, scraping and screeching were heard in a humming echo. You looked over your shoulder before you moved towards Taehyung, looking at him and grabbing his bicep with little hesitation. You yanked his arm to signal that you were clearly going to be ordering him around.

Taehyung felt like a doll being pulled around by a child.  You were shorter than he expected for someone who just took out a monster as he peered over your head, like a child standing as high as possible to peek out a window. Your grasp on him loosened as you moved to grab his wrist instead.  You pulled him slightly again, snapping him out of whatever daze he was in as he finally looked at you again.

“We need to go.  More of them are coming, and unless you want to end up painting fodder, you’ll follow me.”  He looked down at you as you finally noticed the rose peeking out of his jacket pocket.  You gasped, pointing at it with your other hand that whipped around the red stained frame piece.  “Hide that!” You seethed as Taehyung’s hand immediately shoved itself into his pocket to cover the rose before she began to run out of the room, Taehyung in tow; against his will, might he add.

The halls he was being dragged through were inconsistent and almost gave him a headache. First running through purple halls, then red filled with empty black picture frames.  Zooming through green halls that had arms shooting out of them, claws skimming over Taehyung’s jacket and reaching for his rose.  He pulled it from his pocket and held it to his chest to keep it safe from anyone- thing- trying to grab it.  Finally, your running came to a stop as you swung open a door before shoving him by his shoulder. You slammed the door securely shut before locked it.  

When the door was shut, Taehyung took a moment or two to look around as he tried to regain his breath.  

He was in a blue room now.  Two bookshelves with almost nothing on them and a small table next to a violet couch.  The table held a cerulean vase on it with water filled inside almost to the point it overflowed.  On the back wall was only one giant frame with a pure white puzzle glued one the inside of it.

“A milk puzzle?” He questioned more to himself than anything else. You sighed when it was quiet and then collapsed onto the blue carpeted floor.  Catching Taehyung’s attention, he panicked as he ran to your side, kneeling beside you and debating on whether or not he should put his hand on your shoulder. You panted and pushed your forehead against the door. Hair hiding your face as it hung, falling off your heaving shoulders. “Are you.. Alright?” Taehyung asked slowly- cautiously.

You only nodded as you finally caught your breath.  Sitting up straighter, taking one last breath to even your breathing before you finally looked up at Taehyung.  He knelt higher than your head level as he confirmed that he indeed couldn’t find his reflection in your eyes he stared into.

“You’re the intruder that everyone is looking for in the Gallery, aren’t you?” She questioned.  He blinked in confusion.  

“Intruder?”

“You don’t belong here and you need to get out of here as soon as you can.  This isn’t a place for someone like you.” Taehyung wasn’t understanding anything.  You held your hand out towards him, almost asking for something.  “Your rose. You still have it right?” He nodded as he showed the rose he still held cradled to his chest. He was thankful the vine was thornless, or else his palm would have been riddled with small, painful punctures. 

For some reason, he felt like his rose would be safe with you, so he easily handed it over. You took it and looked over it’s petals.  Admiring the shade of blue, you shifted her gaze to look from beautiful azure petals and into Taehyung’s eyes.  “What’s your name?” You asked.

“Taehyung,” he answered instinctively. You nodded at the sound of it, committing it to memory. “Yours?” 

“I’m Y/n,” you curtly told him as you lifted the rose back into the conversation.  “Do you know how important this rose is?” He shook his head.  You sighed as you moved to face him fully, sat relaxed on the floor. Lifting your arm to bring you opposite hand to touch one of the petals your fingertips dusted around a single soft petal.  You held it with delicacy before your grip changed and your nails gripped and plucked it off the stem.  

Taehyung gasped, a pain shooting through his chest as his hand flew up to grip his shirt. His one-knee kneeling position changed as both knees hit the carpet. 

It felt like his heart just skipped a beat and almost seemed to stall for a moment.  Shaken up, he wasn’t sure why, but it felt almost harder to breathe?  Air came more difficult to take and his energy felt zapped.  The one petal you had pulled off fluttering to the ground at his knees.

You plucked another one, the second petal fluttering to the floor to join the first.  More pain shot through him again as he found himself bracing himself forward, the hand that wasn’t clenching around the front of his shirt, falling in front of him to join his knees on the carpet.  It felt like someone was wrapping a rope around his chest and squeezing the life out of him.  Crushing his ribs and lungs suffocating him.

“What,”  he gasped, “are you doing... to me?” He sputtered as he coughed.  He heard you move before you were at his back, picking him up and bringing him weakly to his feet.  You practically dragged him to the couch, his feet dragging on the carpet the whole way before he fell into the cushions.  

As you stood over him, you pluck another two petals off and he let out small, silent coughs of protest. Whatever you were doing, he was ready for you to stop. He really thought he was dying. 

“Watch,” you told him as the dark bags under his eyes materialized.  You walked to the crystal water-filled vase.  Taking his rose that had lost four petals already, you placed the stem over top of the vase and dropped it inside.  The stem hit the water and immediately Taehyung’s eyes widened as he watched the petals regrow right before his eyes.  

The rose seemed to glow with a calming, almost reassuring, blue hue for but a moment before the pain in his body stopped.  The pangs of hurt disappeared from within his eyes as he let go of his chest and the pain faded.  It was like the pain was just a hallucination.  You slowly withdrew the rose from the vase and handed it back to him as you move to stand in front of him. He had moved from laying in pain on the couch to sitting himself up properly.

Taehyung gently took the rose from you.  “When the rose wilts,” you start.

“So too will I…” Taehyung finishes, unsure on how he knew how to finish the phrase. It was like it was just engraved on his tongue as he said it. The dawning realization that this flower was tied to his life grew into his mind as he spun it between his thumb and forefinger.  “But, I-I don’t understand.”  He shook his head.  You moved to sit beside him, ready to answer whatever questions he has.  “What’s going on? Where the hell am I?”

“You’re in the gallery.”

“No,” he denied curtly, lifting his hand in denial.  “I was in the gallery.  Now, I’m here.”

“You were in the real gallery.  Somehow, you got sucked into this one.  The gallery you were in isn’t where you are now and frankly I don’t know how you got here.  This is a fabricated reality created from a man’s paintbrush.  A human shouldn’t be able to come here.” You got up and grabbed a small, face down picture frame from the top one of the small, dusty, bookshelves.  Bringing it back with you to the couch, you handed it to him.  

Taehyung recognized the man in the photo. “I know this artist. He died a long time ago.” Though his name escaped the young artist.  

“Guena. That’s the pen name he used in his profession.” You looked around at the small room.  “This room, and all the other rooms too.  Every painting and creature here was created by him and his desire to create souls for his non-living creations,” you told him. “But, things are different now. Everything is distorted,” you scowled.  

Just like the picture book he found.  The creations were given life by the hands of the creator then the creator died, leaving all of his ‘lives’ behind.  If that were so, then it would be no wonder why everything would begin to fall apart. It was akin to a circus without a Ring Master. Taehyung furrowed his brows before he placed the photo beside him on the cushions.

He looked up to you, into your dull eyes that somehow held the most breathtaking color.  

“How long have you been here?” He asked.

“I’ve been here since the beginning and I will remain here until the end.”  

“Do you have a rose, like I do?” He felt like he knew the answer, but nonetheless less you shook your head.  He knew what he wanted to really ask, but he didn’t know how to ask it- what words should he use?  To you, who he had just met in the most fictional turn of events that he still can’t wrap his head around.  You were nothing like him and he knew that.

“I’m a painting, Taehyung.”

When you told him the truth he was already beginning to suspect, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to say he still internally panicked.  Something that looks so human, yet wasn’t at all.  You were nothing but brush strokes and shapes somehow given life.  You probably crawled straight out of a frame too.

You saw the emotion flash through his eyes and you were almost jealous of how his eyes could change.  Unlike yours that were stuck, his could tell you a whole story without the use of words.  Anyone in this place could tell immediately he was human because of those eyes. 

In respect to him and his unease, you made sure to keep your distance.  You truly weren’t a threat.  All you wanted was for him to get out, and to get out safely.  You’ve been watching your world fall apart since Guena died.  Every creature that was alive was losing their ‘mind’ and it was only a matter of time before it started to infect you too.  It was a disease that humans didn’t need to get involved in.

“I’m going to be your escort out of here.  With your lack of reaction when in the face of danger, you’d probably get yourself killed in an instant.”  You moved back to the door where you sat on the floor, you're back against the wood as you looked at him across the room on the couch.  “You rest for now and make sure to keep your rose safe with you.  This room is safe, so you don’t need to worry about something happening.”

Then, you stopped talking.  Taehyung almost felt guilty.  You were a painting, and you couldn’t show all the emotions that the could.  You weren’t actually real after all, so it was normal to assume you had a expressional limit.  He watched as you sat against the door completely silent and still with closed eyes.  He was unsure if you were really sleeping or if you even could.  

He looked at the rose in his hands.  This rose is so important and he didn’t know how to fathom what the hell was going on. It all happened too fast and he couldn’t begin to process it all. 

He missed Namjoon as he knew that he was probably still wandering around the real gallery looking for him. He wondered if Namjoon managed to get out since he wasn’t at the front or if the lights kicked back on and he was alright.  He lifted and looked at the photo of Guena beside him again.  

It was odd.  That was the man who somehow created this world and he was also the same painter who created Leia. The painting that gave the real gallery it’s name.  Taehyung never got to see that painting in the gallery- not that he was able too see much to begin with, and he’s not so sure he wanted to at the moment.  

Taehyung was a sympathetic and empathetic person- always had been and probably always will be.  The line between the two blurred in his case.  So, when he looked at you, he felt a sense of guilt as you kept away from him.  You spoke curtly, yet kindly.  You didn’t seem to have an ulterior motive and you seemed trustworthy enough; especially compared to that framed lady from before.  

You brought him here after all. A secluded room and you didn’t attack him or take his rose.  You plucked four petals off his rose, but then turned around and healed him. You even returned it, he knew it was all to prove the point of its importance.  You weren’t going to hurt him and he believed that with his whole heavy-beating heart.  

“Y/n? Are you sleeping?”

Your eyes remained closed, but you answered. “No. I can’t.  I’m a painting, remember?”

“Okay. Then, I have a question,” he said as you slid your eyes open.  Looking at him from your place by the door.  “That thing you killed?” Did you kill it? Could paintings die?  “What was it?”

“They’re called, The Ladies.”

“They? There’s more?” Taehyung’s voice slightly quivered at the idea of more hissing, hacking, floor-crawling, psycho half ladies being out there.  

You nodded.  “What you saw was only one of many Ladies.  She was a Lady in Red.  There are also Ladies in Green and Ladies in Blue.  They’re more common than most.  About as common as mannequins.”

“Excuse me? Mannequins?” You looked at him as a shiver ran up his body.  Goosebumps littered his covered skin.  “I fucking hate mannquins,” he seethed unconsciously to himself.  The look he put on his face was that of disgust and pure anguish and yet somehow twisted into an almost comical look.  You almost smirked at his foul language and facial cues.

Your smirk twisted and soon you burst out into laughter at his face that just seemed so comical to you.  A face someone like you couldn’t pull off because you were fake.  He looked at you as you laughed at him.  The tension that was in the air seemed to be shattered like a nail being driven into a pane of glass.  Soon, Taehyung was laughing at you laughing at him.  Your fit ended as you smiled and shook your head, calming down.  

Taehyung was more than happy to try and get a small nap in now that he knew that you weren’t completely devoid of emotion.  Someone, fake or not, who can laugh and smile like that surely wasn’t a bad person.  

-x-x-x-

Taehyung was startled from his small rest when a tremor shook the room.  Panicking as he sat straight, rim-rod up, you were already on your feet and looking at the door.  You half expected something to charge inside, even when this place was supposed to be somewhere to rest up and be away from any sort of harm. Taehyung flung his legs off the sofa and stood up so quickly he had a wave of dizziness hit him as he held his head and staggered.  Shaking it off, he was at your side, standing just a step behind you.

“What the hell is that?” He lightly asked, like if he was too loud something would hear him.  You just flexed your arm, the hand around the hardened piece of art frame you kept continuing to wield tightening.  “It feels like the ground is moving,” he looked down at his feet.  Like the carpet beneath him was beating in microbursts.

“It’s a distortion wave.  This happens the weaker this world gets and that means it’s only going to get that much worse outside.” You looked at him. “I hope you have some strength in those arms of yours, because you might have to use it.” Taehyung hated the thought of violence, even if it was against figuratively inanimate objects that weren’t supposed to exist . They weren’t alive, but they were still able to die.  His toes curled at the thought of it. You saw the unease in his eyes before looked back at the door, rotating your wrist and twisting around your weapon. “Just stick close to me and run like your life depends on it.”

The lack of an additional ‘because it will’ was an approved choice on Taehyung’s ears.

You opened the door and outside it was a madhouse.  Even more paintings coming alive.  Some stuck in their frames as they clawed at the air and hissed.  Distorted in sharp and blurred strokes as they swiped.  Ghastly hands and objects plunged from walls and hung from the ceiling.  Mannequins moved far faster than previously and he could hear the hissing and scraping of frames on the floor from the Ladies as they drug themselves across the floor like lethal roaches.

You bolted out of the safe room, Taehyung hot on your heels as he stayed immediately behind you.  You dashed down halls, staying in the center away from the walls and anything reaching for you.  You kept Taehyung at your side, pulling him to and fro away from anything that could harm him if he got too close.  You rounded corners in rushed steps or slides as Taehyung occasionally grabbed the back of your overalls to keep you from skidding into the walls from your unstoppable momentum. You swung and hacked at anything that came close and kept them at bay the best you could with your frame.

Taehyung pointed ahead of you, a set of doors ahead.  

“Go into one of those!” He wasn’t sure where he got off telling you where to go. Especially since he was literally the worse qualified person to do so. You didn’t seem to argue back though, so he continued. “The, uh, the yellow one!” He yelled over the chaos.  You just looked back at him slightly over your shoulder, brows creased.

“Which one is the yellow one?!”  You shouted as he slightly stumbled before he grabbed your wrist and took off, running faster and ahead of you before he stopped at a door of brilliant yellow, pulled it open and pushed you inside, slamming it closed. The room was empty save for a single mirror on the back wall.  Thankfully, yellow seemed to be a pretty safe choice.

Taehyung could always trust yellow. 

“Y/n,” he called as he still held your wrist in his hand and you were hunched over.  You weren’t alive, but you seemed unwell.  “What’s wrong?” He looked at the skin under his hand that showed with the fabric of your long sleeve pushed up your wrist.  He gasped silently when he saw it’s complexion shift into a distortion of ugly, muddle colors before vanishing as quickly as it came.  “What was that?” He shook his head. “No, hold on.  Different question.  Can you not see color?”

“No, I can’t.” You stood back up, yanking your wrist out of his grip.  You looked at your skin as you hissed.  The distortion was starting to hit you and the stages would eventually progress into a problem- but he didn’t need to know that.  “I was painted as portrait by a lonely, selfish painters.  He didn’t think to give me the ability to see color so, I can’t see colors or tell them apart.” You shook your wrist out. “Is that a problem?” 

Taehyung jolted. You were clearly touchy on the topic. He cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Uh, well not really . I guess if you have me, I can point out colors for the both of us.  Why didn’t you tell me you were colorblind though?  It would’ve been pretty useful to know before we started running for our lives through some fucked-up haunted house reality check.”

“I didn’t think it was relevant.” You sighed.  You had made it this far without relying on the colors you couldn’t tell apart.  Why would now be any different?  You couldn’t even see the color your body or clothes were- if they had color to them at all. For all you knew, you were all black and white and grey. You walked to the back wall and stood in front of the mirror there, frowning as Taehyung came up behind you.  He was as black and white as you were in your eyes.  

“So, you can’t see any color?” He touched his shirt, opened his jacket and pulled his headband.  He pulled your hair up dramatically and motioned to yourself as a whole in the mirrors reflection. “Nothing at all?”

“Nothing at all,” you confirmed.  “I can conceive the idea of colors, but I’ve never had a proper need to see or tell them apart.  I know when something is a threat and I know when something is not. That’s all that really matters here.” Your indifference was something Taehyung- a painter- couldn’t comprehend.  What kind of painting can’t see their own colors? Wouldn’t that be painful or frustrating at the very least?

“Your shirt is yellow and white,” Taehyung spoke. You looked at his reflection with raised brows.  “Your overalls are faded and nearly ruined, but they’re dark blue and your boots are brown.  Your hair is really pretty and your eyes are too.” He described your outfit to you like you were a child, but he meant well. 

Just saying the color of your clothes didn’t help you grasp the concept of what it really looked like aside from the range of grey and white and black you saw through your eyes. “Maybe that doesn’t matter, but I thought you’d like to at least now,” he muttered.

“Thanks,” you told him quickly as you pulled at your sleeves, fixing and adjusting them to cover your arms properly again.  So, that light shade of grey- nearly white- was yellow? “I've never actually learned what color is what to my eyes,” you told him.  “It’s nice knowing at least one color,” you whispered more to yourself than anything.

So, it did bother you. Taehyung felt something swell like pride in his chest as he was acting the role of teacher.

If it were any other situation and if you were a person instead of a painting, he’d be glad to teach you all the colors he could. He felt it was his duty as an artist- freelance or not- to educate those about all the corners of art.  However, you weren’t real and he wasn’t at home in his studio, but in a haunted gallery of danger.  

Taehyung stepped away from you as he made his way back to the front of the room and the yellow door. He put his ear to the door, not hearing much of anything outside anymore. He hoped that you and he were able to give them the slip- as obvious as a tactic as that was. When he tried the doorknob, however, it didn not twist.  Jammed or locked, he knocked his forehead against the yellow wood in frustration.

“Of course,” he groaned before he turned to see you still standing in front of the mirror in the back of the room.  “Y/n, the door is locked. Unless we have another way out, we’re stuck in here.” He announced, making his way back to you as you seemed to finally break out of your own reflection and look around.  

“There’s got to be something we can trigger to open the door or another way out.  Just look around,” you told him.  You started wandering the room, but Taehyung only stood still, crippling his chin in thought and tapping his toes.  The room was completely empty, what could he possibly miss if nothing was in the room except a single, wall mounted mirror?

He thought of all the cheesy cliches like a floor tile trigger or a secret compartment in one of the four walls of ht boxed room.  However, he wasn’t sure if he had the patience to test out those ideas. 

Taehyung stood in front of the mirror, looking at his own reflection that scowled back towards him in thought.  He scurried away from the mirror in a haste as he yelped when the glass cracked.  Splitting down the center in crooked, ugly cracks and small splinters of glass falling from the mirror.  Your ear picked up on the continuous cracking of the mirror’s glass, unlike Taehyung and before he knew what was happening, you were yanking on his shirt and jacket collar. He choked slightly at you pulling him away from it completely as it shattered.

Bursting from the inside out, glass shot forward before raining down to the hard tile of the room.  What was left behind wasn’t the wall behind the mirror, but a matte black door with a sign hanging on the center of it. 

‘PASSAGE’

“Is that our way out?” He asked skeptically as he stood back up and brushed off his clothes of any stray shards that clung to him.  Looking back, the yellow door you both had rushed through had disappeared.  Nothing, but this black door and the walls remained.  He huffed. “Guess that answers that, huh. Wha- hey!” He called as you had already started opening the black door to enter it.  “What if it’s dangerous in there?!”

“There’s no other option,” you told him, pushing the door open before stepping into the same, thick blackness the door represented.  “Stay here if you’re so scared,” you sarcastically teased as you stepped inside. Unsurprisingly, the artist was hot on your tail inside.

The two of you walked through the black hall that stretched from the door you both entered, Taehyung behind you as he grew in more in nerves.  There were no lights and the light front he doorway was long gone behind his back.  He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face and he felt like he was losing his mind.

He could only hear your footsteps, his footsteps and the sound of your sharpened frame weapon dragging across the ground that you had taken from your belt loop as soon as the darkness became thick enough to warrant a twinge worry.

The air in the ever stretching corridor became so thick it was hard to catch his breath as he moved to grab your wrist for guidance.  Then, giggling began echoing from every direction.  Bouncing off what might be a nearby walls and drilling directly into his head. Giggling that mimicked creepy doll sound effects in horror movies, only so much worse. You, unsurprisingly, weren’t phased by the verbal taunts- Taehyung, however, was.

You could feel the trembles in his fingers around the wrist of yours he held so tightly.  You twisted your wrist, freeing it from his grasp for a moment and you could physically feel his panic the moment his fingertips left your skin. He was quick to calm down when you shot your arm back and grabbed around his hand instead.

Taehyung only grew more and more nervous as the darkness didn’t seem to end.  There was nothing in front of him or behind him to act as a beacon of any sort of hope that it would eventually come to a brightly lit finish.  Not even your presence he knew was there was any comfort to him.  It felt like the darkness was ebbing away at his sanity and choking him. 

In the midst of his silent anxiety, he thought he felt something whisper along the back of his neck.  He let out a small, strangled noise of startled protest as he unconsciously ripped his hand away and out of yours.  His panic set in tenfold now that he had no idea where you were anymore.  

He reached out in front of him in a frenzied panic as he waved his arms around in front of himself like a crazy person. He was sure if he was in light or if someone could see him, they’d think him completely bat-shit insane.  No matter where he reached or how hard he searched, he couldn’t find you. He couldn’t even hear you anymore.

Your footsteps were gone along with the frame dragging and he couldn’t hear anything aside from his own hiccuped gasps of air.  A horrible humming filled his ears and he quickly brought his palms up to the sides of his head, covering his ears to try and block out the noise.  It only seemed to intensify though, as if he had cupped around the humming and shoved it directly against his eardrums.

His knees wobbled and his footing staggered before his knees finally hit the ground.  The hard ground that was below his feet changed the moment his knees collided with it.  

Water was running along the hard ground that now felt like tile. If he ran his fingers along the floor, he would be able to trace the groves of cement and glue holding the pieces of breakable flooring together. He wasn’t able to properly process it in the overwhelming state of mind he was currently becoming more and more trapped in.  

The water that seeped into his pants drew higher and higher before engulfing his knees, thighs and eventually coming to reach his waist. His hands stayed covered over his ears as he shuttered and shook his head back and forth- trying to chalk it all up as another nightmare.  He’d wake up on another couch any moment in a room that you had taken him too.  This was just his mind playing trick on him- wasn’t it? 

The humming grew louder and louder before it went completely silent. The shift in noise to nothing was too sudden; uncomfortably sudden.  He should be relieved that the horrible, horrible sound that drilled into his head had stopped, but he was only accompanied by the newfound silence with a chill running up his spine and staying in the base of his neck .

Taehyung couldn’t move.  He shook and trembled, waist deep in cold water.

Was this what insanity felt like? Was he really losing his mind?

Then he remembered.  He was finally able to move again when he remembered his rose.  The flower that was somehow keeping him up and kicking. He moved his hands from his ears and began to frantically pat around his body.  His chest, his hips and thighs. In and out of pockets. He couldn’t find it.  He thought he had already reached his maximum panic level, but he was oh so wrong.  

He lost his rose and he felt like he was near his breaking point.  He hated that it affected him so much in both a mental and physical sense. Taehyung had normally defined himself as a more or less tough person to break down in more cases. 

He hardly had time to adjust to the life threatening new world he found himself in with art coming to life to kill him. Not to mention that his life was tied to a blue flower and he was dependent on a painting for safety.  

Taehyung was literally walking through his own personal nightmare. Who wouldn’t start losing their marbles after all that? 

His ducked down head shot up when he thought he heard something drop into the flooded flooring. He swore he heard the water ripple as it sounded like someone was walking, or dragging their feet through the water.  The sound of moving water echoed and he couldn’t pinpoint from which direction whatever was around him was moving.  Then the water pushed up his legs like something pushed the water towards him and he froze again.

He felt a breath blow against his forehead, his hair blowing in small, annoying strands that tickled his eyebrows and forehead. Whatever was wading in the water beforehand, was now right in front of him.

His mouth opened like he was going to scream, but nothing came out before the room erupted in bright lights.  He flinched under the extreme difference, the humming coming back to drill into his skull as fluorescent lights lined the ceiling above him.

When he was able to pry his eyes open, they glued themselves open at the sight of the creature in front of him.  It was… he couldn’t even begin to explain what it was.  

It looked like it had the basic shape of a person, but the limbs were far too long and lanky and it was engulfed in a thick looking, black tar that oozed and dripped from it’s appendages.  It’s head was also shaped like a humans, but turned completely sideways. The side of it’s head parallel with the floor as that same, thick blackness dripped from it’s chin that pointed directly to the left.  The mouth was nothing but a white circle in the middle of its face with black dripping between it’s ‘lips’ like jail bars.  

Whatever it was, it was horribly ugly and Taehyung thought his mind was distorting. The space around the creature seemed crackly- like tv static.  

The artist couldn’t move, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t flee.  He couldn’t even scream.  But it could. It could move, it could groan and moan, it could scream.  And it did.  

The mouth opened further into an elongated oval and a set of eyes showed themselves in small, crescents with the ends pointing to the left towards their chin on their crooked head.  The shrill shriek it let out made Taehyung’s bones rattle under his skin, like someone had just run a xylophone stick across his ribs.

It had brought it’s long, thin, dripping arms up as it seemed to ready lunge at the young, fear-stricken artist.  It screeched once more before it began to lunge, but it was immediately stopped in it’s tracks before it could do any sort of physical harm.  

The screech was cut short, as the head- in fact- the entire torso of the creature was pushed down by something.  It fell face first into the water at Taehyung’s knees as a long, golden strip of a picture frame stuck out of the back of it’s head.  

Red paint leaked out of the creatures head as it lay still and motionless in the water, dying the flooded area a shade of crystal pink. The smell wasn’t what he expected- what he expected to smell like iron, blood and death instead smelt of a flower shop, honey and lemonade.  The monster with a frame in the back of it’s head smelt like summer. 

Was it… dead?

Then he heard more footsteps, however with the lights on and eyes properly adjusted now, he could see exactly where they were coming from and who.  It turns out that somehow he had made it into a room- a small cube area that had no windows and only one door that was now thrown open.  Through that door, your body was slouched against the frame out of breath- once again ironic since you weren’t alive- and dripping blue drops of paint from your chin.

He was speechless- no longer from fear, but from shock.  

You wadded through the pink water to stand in front of him.  You turned to the creature you had just taken down by hurling your frame piece at it and quickly pulled the frame out.  Red spurt from the wound like a pathetic, paint-filled fountain. Before long, it was simply oozing and rolling off the skull of the creature into the water before it started to completely fade away like ash.

You looked back to Taehyung who had disappeared previously from your grasp and you knelt in front of him. Waving your hand in front of his face, he didn’t respond.  You looked down and around him to see his hand stuck on the inside of his jacket- like he had stopped looking for something mid-search.  

“Tae-”

“Rose,” he whispered urgently, interrupting you.  You gently dug into the small pouch you had on your side- where you got that, he wasn’t sure- and before a moment longer passed, blue petals were shown in his line of sight.  That seemed to finally start to snap him out of it.  “That’s my,” he whispered, the rest of his words dying on his tongue.

“You dropped it earlier when you let go of my hand,” you told him.  You gently took his hand from the inside of his jacket and placed the flower delicately inside his palm.  “You need to take better care of that if you want to get out of here.”

One, small tear fell from his eye before he was throwing his arms around your shoulders and pulling you towards him.  Your face fell into his shoulder as you felt him shake around you. You raised your arms tentatively and started to pat at his back awkwardly.  

“Don’t worry,” you shushed, as you stared at the back wall. You could hear the ashy pieces of the creature disengerate behind your back as his tremors quelled to shivers and soon he was still and his breath wasn’t ragged anymore.  He had calmed himself down as he squeezed you against his chest.

“Thank you,” he breathed.

-x-x-x-

Once Taehyung was able to move again without shaking or fearing for his safety and he had properly calmed down, you led him out of the room he had been trapped in.  Going down another long hall with nothing but lights lining the walls, he briefly stopped at a plaque on the wall next to another door.  This door wasn’t colorful or odd- it looked so ordinary it stood out among the bright purple hall he stood in.

“Gallery ahead,” he muttered, reading aloud as the sighed at the plaque that had an arrow pointing ahead beyond the door.  

Opening the door, there was no noise and all was quiet.  Taehyung followed you as he looked around.  

True to the plaque, it really was just another portion of the gallery.  Proper paintings on the walls with names below it, statues sectioned off with rope and dividers, mantles with busts- it too looked like an authentic, ordinary gallery.  The door you both passed through shut with a soft click as he looked behind at it still jumpy from earlier on. He was thankful it didn’t slam at least.

The floors were tile and shining like they had just been cleaned and waxed.  The walls were covered in a boring, but oddly suiting wallpaper fit for an aged art gallery while chandeliers hung along the ceiling lighting the place in a soft, glowing light.

“This is a nice break from the rest of the place,” Taehyung told you, catching up to your back as you were making your way through the place.  He came to walk beside you, looking at your eyes that couldn’t see any color.

“It is a section of the world that hasn’t been touched too badly by the distortion. If anything is alive here, it shouldn’t be a threat,” you assured him.  The fact you had put away your makeshift weapon put him further at ease.  He looked back and forth at the walls lined with art.  

This was what he was hoping to experience coming into the real gallery today.

Just browsing around to try and spark something in him to create something new.  To inspire him- not threatening his very life after sucking him into an actual nightmare world. He briefly jumped when a painting of a black cat blinked before it stretched and jumped right out of it’s canvas. He meowed up at him as he rubbed against his leg before scampering off somewhere else.  His padding paw steps disappearing down the hall.

Taehyung almost smiled at that.

The two of you walked in silence, the only sound in the gallery was the sound of both of your footsteps and the occasional sound of harmless art brought to life.  Taehyung stared at your back as you walked ahead of him and he began to wonder.  He wondered about a lot.

He wondered what would happen to you when he managed to get out of this place.  What would happen if he tried to maybe take you with him? Could you survive outside this place since you weren’t really born?  Would this gallery even exist when he leaves it or would it cease to be?

He stopped in his tracks he he caught himself. Why was he even thinking about taking you with him? 

The young artist was ripped from his thoughts when he saw your body jerk forward before you were staggering on your feet then falling to your knees on the tiled floors of the peaceful part of the gallery.

“Shit,” he cursed under his breath as he jogged up behind you.  He placed his hand on the middle of your back as he knelt beside you and dipped his head down to try and catch a glimpse of your face. “Y/n, hey!” He called as your body shook and heaved like you were a living breathing person in the midst of a breathing fit.  You were a painting with a soul, but not really alive so did you breathe? He found himself asking that to himself way too often.  

He shook his head- that wasn’t the thought he needed to overthink right now. “What’s wrong? Talk to me,” he tried coaxing you.

You just shook your hand towards him; whether to shut him up or shoo him away he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t move from your side regardless.  When your arm raised, he saw beneath your sleeve a sort of discoloration. It was just like what he saw earlier in the mirror room.  

He took your wrist in his hand as he pushed your sleeve up when you suddenly fell into him. He jolted as he rolled you to lay on your side- your head lolling off in a way that looked uncomfortable with your shoulder pushing into the ground. He lifted your head, putting it on his leg to try and help you at least a bit.  

You twitched as he examined your skin. It looked like your arm was covered in a horrific bruise.  Ugly splotches of black, blue, purples, greens and yellows engulfed your arm like a tattoo sleeve gone horribly wrong. His brows dipped as he looked at the rest of your arm before he looked at the other.  It was the same thing, but not nearly as severe in terms of color and blotches.  It was like it was spreading.  

“What the hell?” He murmured as you seemed to be calming down.  You pushed yourself of his leg to lay on your back on the ground as your chest stopped heaving and you stopped twitching.  You closed your eyes, focusing on coming back down from whatever attack had ailed you and before too much longer, you were forcing yourself to sit up again. 

Taehyung sat beside you, slowly drawing his hand back and away from you as you pushed your sleeve back down to cover your ruined skin.  He narrowed his eyes at you as you looked back at him.  For someone who wasn’t really alive, you seemed to have bags under your eyes.  Something was straining you and you weren’t telling him about it.

“So?” He asked with a sharp tone as you just returned his word with a sigh as an answer.  He wanted an explanation and he wanted it sooner rather than later.

“It’s not-”

“Tell me or I’m gonna annoy you continuously until you give in. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

You ticked your eyebrow up at him. “You’re threatening me? You realized I’m the one who’s been taking down everything that has attacked us so far, right?”

“It’s not a threat,” he promised as he crossed his arms sitting on the floor. He looked like a child.  In the end you let out another defeated sigh. There would be no point in arguing with him.  He’d probably run you in verbal circles until he got his way anyway.

“You know how the rest of the gallery is corrupted, you’ve seen it. Everything in this world that is art is affected.” You grabbed the sleeve of your arm as you sat more comfortably.  “Just because I’m fighting against it now, doesn’t mean I’m uneffected.  It’s a distortion that affects the arts- good or bad- and we can’t do anything about it. I’m just stubborn.”

Taehyung sat for a moment before opening his mouth again.

“So, you’re going to turn bad too?” He asked timidly.

“It’s unfortunate, but inevitable.”

“That’s crazy,” he whispered to the floors when his chin dipped down.  He groaned as he brought his hand up to ruffle his lightly colored hair.  You had been protecting him ever since you found him and now there’s a chance you could turn against him too? That was just crazy. You wouldn’t just turn on him like that, right? It’d be gradual and not just flipping a switch from sane to insane, right?

He was pulled from his thoughts again when you moved to stand and he quickly mirrored your actions to stand in front of you.  His arms hovered around your waist and back in order to catch you if you happened to fall again.

“Whatever happens, we just need to get you out of here as soon as possible.  If we find the exit quickly, we can get you out before I completely lose it.” You turned, ready to start walking off again to explore further when Taehyung shot his hand out and caught your arm.

“Wait!” He shouted, the echoes of his voice bouncing off the white walls adorned with art that wasn’t malicious.  “Will you be okay?” He asked even though he really knew the answer.  You had just told him that you were going to eventually turn from who you are now to someone else- one way or the other.

You smiled at him, trying your best to reassure him but didn’t offer him a verbal answer.  You slowly pulled his hand off you before you were telling him to follow you.  His arm dropped back to his side slowly as he looked at your back with sad eyes.  

He didn't know what hurt worse; the fact that you basically just told him ‘no’ or the fact that you didn’t say anything for him to understand because even if your eyes are just strokes of paint, they held so much in them and it twisted his gut.  

Taehyung wasn’t very fond of the idea that he had to leave the peaceful atmosphere of the white gallery and go back out into the one that actively tried to kill him.  His rose was safe in the zipped pocket inside his jacket as opposed to the outside pockets at his sides. He watched before he began to follow you once again.  

The drastic difference between the white, bright gallery and the dark, dim, purple backlight one just from passing through a door still through him for a loop each time he went through another passageway.  He stopped trying to guess what kind of room he’d be going into, because he’d probably guess wrong every time if he did. 

You stayed on guard with your picture frame piece and he stood beside you-more ready to throw down with a sculpture than before- even if he still didn’t want to. He’d tell you what colors were where and lead you in directions if you asked if a certain color was around.  

He briefly wondered how you managed to get around before he got there with your inability to see color, but then he stopped thinking about it because if you just went into a room that was filled with a problem- you probably just got rid of it.  You were more than capable, you’ve proved that more than enough by this point.

“Taehyung,” you called from ahead of him. He had been so lost in thought his steps had slowed down and he was further back away from you than he knew.  “Don’t lag behind.”

“Oh, right,” he called before he was jogging back to your side.  Following you through a doorway, he wasn’t as shocked as he should have been to see a room that was dark with only a trunk inside of it.  Walking in, you stepped up to it before you tapped it with your frame piece to see if something was inside.  

There was only silence before the lid of it burst open.  

You jolted, stepping in front of Taehyung as he raised his hand instinctively to maybe try and throw a punch at whatever might leap out of it, but nothing came out.  The lid bounced against the back of the trunks frame. The inside of it looked like a pink cloud- it wasn’t empty, just unsettlingly pink.  It was like cotton candy or maybe something thicker like thread that could trap you if you touched it.

“What-,” you started before you were yelping into direct fight or flight.  The still pinkness in the trunk jolted before it shot out like sentient strings and separated into long, thick arms of darkened red that wrapped around you and Taehyung’s bodies.  

Your backs were forced together and to your misfortune, your frame was knocked from your hand and clattered to the ground.  The thick strands of red wrapped tightly around your midsections and squeezed as it entangled around your legs and arms and even around your forehead to keep you completely still. Immobilizing the two of you, it then started to slowly reel you in.  

Your feet dragged across the ground and your toes lifted up and off the ground at some point as Taehyung was left to keep fumbling over his own feet.  He wouldn’t fall no matter how tangled his feet got since he was bound and tied so tightly.

The pair of you were stopped in front of the trunk that seemed to bulge in size- like it was taking into account the size of two people before you were swallowed into the cloud of pink turned red.  The sound of the trunks lid slammed above you both boomed like thunder before you were falling.  

It felt weightless, but you could feel the wind rushing past you as you were sure you were coming closer to hitting the ground.  

It was pitch black all around, but you felt Taehyung reach for you- now freed from the strands of red thread that had encased you both. You felt him wrap his arms around your shoulders from in front of you.  His chest pushed against yours before his weight overcame your own and he was falling first in front of you.

The fall wasn’t long and it didn’t feel like enough to particularly kill a person, but when the two of you hit the ground with Taehyung bracing the fall you were quick to shoot up from his chest as he groaned laying on his back.  

“Are you stupid?!” You scolded as he winced both from your shrieks and the pain of the fall. He sat up, rubbing his back as he just weakly laughed.  

“Yeah, so?” Your eye twitched at his lame excuse for a joke at a time like this. As he recovered from his fall and came back to his senses that weren’t cloaked in sensitive fall-stricken shock, you looked around to where exactly you two fell.  

It looked like you were pulled into a child’s coloring book.  Scratchy, uneven lines of what looked to be crayon or oil chalks were used to make up houses, roads and not too far from you both was a mass of uneven, patchy blue chalk that you assumed was a lake of sorts from its size.  It was dark, but it was lit with small patchy lights lining walls or suspending overhead like floating light bulbs.

You made it to your feet after you helped Taehyung, grabbing his hand and offering your shoulder for him to lean on.  He graciously took it and you were quick to ask if his rose was alright.  He dug it out of the inside pocket of his jacket and showed it to you.  A petal or two were missing, but you assumed it was caused from the fall.  

No wonder he hurt so much, you mentally noted with an eye roll; his rose was damaged.  

You looked around and peered over the chalked created houses.  Maybe if you investigated inside one of them, you’d find a vase for him to use to restore his rose petals.  You hiked his arm over your shoulder for a more firm grasp on his body's weight on you.

“Alright, first things first,” you started as you got his attention. “We need to find a vase with water to get your rose to grow.  That should take the pain away.” He muttered in agreement before both of you walked- ambled- off.  

Walking with a body hanging off you was a lot harder than you initially though it would be.  He would walk the best he could, but the injury and loss of his petals were obviously affecting him more than he was willing to let on. 

The first house you both entered was a small one outlined in pink chalk and inside was just one big open room with a drawn, blue couch, a table and a coat rack.  On the table was a vase, but it was empty.  If it wasn’t all black and white to you, maybe you would have found the place almost charming in it’s own way- but it was just dull.

You quickly moved Taehyung to the couch and told him to stay put.  Taking the vase you left the house and quickly moved down the chalked, dirt road down the lake you saw.  Maybe you could put some of the fake water into the vase and just somehow make it work, who knows.

Making it to the lake, you knelt and dipped the vase into the mass of blue as it filled the vase.  Your arm twitched before it was jerked and convulsed with it’s own corruption again and the vase slipped from your fingers for just a moment- but that moment was enough to lose it in the chalky blue mass of scribbles.  

Without much thought, you dove into the water, quickly snatched it back and as fast as possible swam and pulled yourself out of the mass before anything that could possibly be in the lake even thought about grabbing you.  

You huffed in annoyance as your clothes were dusted with chalk and even though it wasn’t real water- you felt damp.  You shook out your sleeves before you got to your feet and went back to Taehyung who was waiting in the house you left him laying on the couch with heavy breaths.

When he saw you, his eyebrow quirked.

“What’re you covered in? Dust?” He asked as you just shook your head, kneeling at the couch side and replacing the vase filled with vibrant blue on the table again.  

“Forget about it. Give me your rose, please.” your hand was outstretched and waiting as he quickly pulled it out and handed it to you. You hesitantly placed the stem into the water and let it sink as the blooms of the petals rested against the rim of the vase.  You heard Taehyung sigh as if his pain was floating away and to your relief, two petals grew once again. “Thank goodness that actually worked,” you sighed.

Taehyung chuckled beside you. “Yeah, no kidding.  That was all assumption- if that had taken more petals off, I think I would’ve passed out or something.”

“You mangled to take four petals of damager before,” you told him. “Besides, you weren’t that injured,” you told him as you took the rose back out of the vase and handed it to him to replace in his jacket. “You just don’t know how to take a fall.”

“Excuse me,” he scoffed in disbelief. “Who was the one who took the brunt of that fall, huh?” He sat up and crossed his arms like a child pouting. “A thank you would be nice to hear, you know.”

Your lips tilted in a smile as you moved to stand up and stretched your arms across your chest.  You felt helpless without your frame piece that you had lost before you wound up here with the young, human artist.  Looking at him like this, you wouldn’t think he’d be in as much danger as he is.  He was in a whole different dimension with enemies at his back almost constantly, but here he was pouting for a ‘thank you’.  You chuckled.

“Thank you, Taehyung,” you told him. You weren’t sure if it was the dim lights or maybe your vision going because of your own distorting body, but you thought you saw the blank shade of his skin to your eyes darken.  Like color had possibly bloomed over his cheeks.

He cleared his throat before you could ask and he was getting up off the couch, walking to the door of the house. He was ready to leave, but stopped short.  You came up behind him and opened your mouth to ask him what the problem was when he spun around and shushed you.  He pushed you back and led you behind the couch, crouching down and covering you with himself as you both hid.

You had no idea what he thought he heard, but you kept quiet before you heard the door of the house you both were in squeak open.  You looked at Taehyung as he looked up, focusing on listening for any indication of someone coming closer to your hiding place.  

You racked your brain trying to think of what or who could be following you both.  Had someone been inside the trunk before you and had seen you at the lake? You weren’t sure.  You heard them pad into the house before they stopped and then a crash sounded through the walls of the room. The footsteps then walked back out of the room and the door slammed shut.  

Taehyung and you stared at each other, still remaining silent for a few more moments before determining you were safe. He let out a breath as he peeked over the couch first and scanned the room.  There was no one.  

“It’s clear,” he whispered as he stood up and moved away from you as you stood up next to him.  Your brows dipped as you saw the vase you had just used to heal Taehyung’s rose shattered into pieces with splashes of blue- grey to your eyes- dusted around the table top and blew onto the floor.  

You looked at the door with a narrowed gaze.  Just what was that? Could something you didn’t know about be wandering around? Then again, even you didn’t know everything there is to know about this gallery. 

“I think we need to hurry,” you muttered, Taehyung quickly agreed as you both scurried out of the house.  The two of you walked along the dusty, chalk paths before you were stepping up a set of stairs back into a proper gallery. It led to a section that you recognized. You started walking with ease, knowing what was where in this section and Taehyung took notice of that.  

“Do you know where we are? I mean, you’ve known a good part of where we’ve been, but I mean-”

“This is my section of the gallery. My frame is hanging around here, so yes I know it.” You told him, interrupting his rambling for an answer to his question.

“Your frame?”

“Yes. You know I’m just a painting. The frame I was placed in and the frame I came out of is around here.”

“Can I see it?” He asked without much thinking before you stopped and turned to him.  He almost slapped a hand over his mouth to keep himself from saying anything else without a filter before you turned on your heel and started off around a corner. “Y/n! Wait!”

“You wanted to see my frame, didn’t you?” You popped your head back around the corner to motion him to follow after you and he did so.  He trailed you- just as he had been- and eventually you took him to a deadend hall.  At the end of it, on the wall facing the rest of the narrow corridor, was an empty frame. “This is it,” you told him, motioning to it with as little care as you would as if you were showing off a bag of dog food.

The frame was silver and engraved with all sorts of weaves across it.  It was sturdy and not undamaged.  The glass of the frame was broken; however it must’ve been broken from the inside if the evidence of the glass at his feet was anything to go by. You must have burst from the inside out and created the glass mess in front of it.  The plaque under the frame read ‘Leia’ as the young artist looked back to you with wide eyes.

“You’re Leia?” He asked. At the discovery he had a pang of small guilt in his stomach from thinking earlier on that he didn’t even want to see the painting since the rest of the gallery was out for his blood. You blinked at him as you nodded simply.

“That was my title when I was created, but I was given a new name because I was granted a soul and free will within this dimension.” You crossed your arms. “Why does it matter what my art piece name is?”

“It's just that the gallery I came from was named after you,” he told you. “I guess I just never expected you to be the last piece of art from someone- not that it’s a bad thing!” He defended at the unimpressed look in your painted eyes. “It was the discovery of that painting that gave my gallery the name it has. You’re like the main centerpiece of everything.”

You looked blankly at your empty frame.  

“I doubt that the ‘Leia’ in the real gallery is like me. I may be ‘Leia’, but I’m more Y/n. It sounds ridiculous, but that painting isn’t me.” You softly traced the silver frame with your fingers before you were turning around again. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time. No more detours.”

Taehyung was quick to chase after you but he couldn’t think of a thing to say to you.  He wanted to talk to fill the silence that gaped between the two of you.  Taehyung kept telling himself that he had no reason to try and figure you out, you were a painting for God’s sake.  What could he possibly want to know?

Other than everything.

He wondered about a great many things and couldn’t help but overthink what you may or may not have been through.  How did you feel about this world? Did you consider it home or maybe a sort of prison you were unfortunately born into. How did this world look to your colorless eyes? Just how did it feel being a painting exactly? 

When you were ‘born’ and thrust into a world that was already starting to collapse, how did you survive? Did you fight from the beginning, or not? He wanted to ask all these questions, but he knew that he wouldn’t. It wasn’t his place to ask anyway- this world isn’t his and you weren’t even human.

Taehyung followed behind you as a feeling in his gut started to bloom. He raised his hand to his stomach and palmed it through his shirt as his steps slowed and he watched you ever so slowly get further ahead of him.  He felt like he couldn’t do this without answers.  So, he acted idiotically and moronically and selfishly.  

Without you realizing, you got separated from Taehyung once again- only this time on purpose.  The next time you turned around to check on why he was so silent, you stopped in your tracks not seeing him around you.  

“Dammit,” you seethed.

-x-x-x-

Taehyung had back tracked all the way to your empty portrait frame.  He stood in front of it once more as his fingers traced the letters of your plaque. The letters spelling out ‘Leia’ in fine script before he was tracing the frame itself.

He felt selfish for wanting to know about you- a painting- and keeping himself here in a world that actively tried to kill him longer than he needed to be. He scoffed at himself, his mind remembering how he had judged the artist in the book he had read before and how the artist got attached to something like a painting. 

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” he chided to himself.  

He needed to go home and although he understood that, he wanted to know more about the living painting that had been protecting him up until this point.  The same painting who was slowly getting infected with some weird, paint disease that could turn you against him at the drop of a pen.

He knew he was pressed for time. Time was precious, but he couldn’t help but feel like you were too.

Taehyung inspected the black emptiness of the frame that you had come from and reached his hand out.  His hand jerked back when the pads of his fingers weren’t met with the sturdy wall that the frame hung on.  Instead, the blackness encased by the silver frame rippled like murky water.  It was like a pool of ink as he reached out to it again and started to sink his hand into it further.

He wondered how deep that ink went, how far could he reach inside before it stopped him.  Could he be able to submerge himself fully into it, or maybe crawl into the frame like a painting himself.  

“But then, what would that accomplish?” He questioned himself with a half-sarcastic attitude. However, even if he knew it was more than likely fruitless, he started to climb inside anyways.  The frame was big, so he had no problem with grabbing the edges of the frame, lifting his leg over the bottom ledge of it and heaving himself inside the blackness.  

He braced himself, feeling like it would feel like that monster from before that encased him in terror as it threatened his very life.  However, this blackness wasn’t like before.  It was dark and felt endless, but it lacked the deep pit of dread that the monster had.  It felt like something- but he couldn’t place exactly what.

Loneliness maybe? Or perhaps a bittersweet sort of feeling; like being free, yet not being as free as a true human being.  He walked around aimlessly in the blackness, feeling less and less like he was walking on the floor.  He started feeling weightless, like he was walking on air.

There was clearly no end where he was, and he wasn’t so sure if he really wanted there to be.  A light at the end of the tunnel? That wouldn’t apply in this situation and he knew that perfectly well. Or, he thought that would be the case.  From behind him, he started to feel something close by, like the feeling of someone standing directly behind your back.

Whirling around, he saw nothing, felt no one and squinted his eyes as his ears started to pick up on some noise around. It sounded like it was echoing around from every direction, but he was still able to follow it- maybe it was because wherever he was in your frame was a directionless void.

It was nowhere and everywhere all at once.  

As he walked, the blackness started to slowly light up from a greyscale and before long he was standing in a room.  Like, a real room, but in this room he couldn’t touch anything.  He was in a studio- covered in easels, paints, canvases, stains and tarps and cloth and everything in between.  

However, if he even tried to touch something, his hand would just phase right through the object he wanted to grasp. He walked around the studio before the door to the room opened and hobbled in was an older man whose face he couldn’t see.  His face wasn’t even that, it was just black scribbles where the features should have been.  Static echoed around the room as he assumed that the old man was trying to speak, but the words didn’t reach Taehyung’s ears.  

He walked to an easel that was covered with a white cloth before he set up his area and sat on a stool.  He cleaned up some brushes, cleaned his palette and rearranged his paints to suit his needs and wants.

Taehyung watched in silence as the old man began to paint and even though there was clearly a passing of some sort of warped time, in the moment it all felt timeless.  The end result was none other than your own portrait.  He shouldn’t have been shocked to see your spitting image in your portrait, but he couldn’t help it.  

Then the old man just turned his back, his fake face seemingly looking right at the young artist before he pointed at you.  More specifically, he pointed to the white space of your canvas and Taehyung could have sworn he saw it ripple like water.  

The setting of the studio began to suddenly fade out as he started hearing murmuring in the distance echoing around him.  It sounded unbearably loud as he covered his ears and the studio brushed away in flakes like eraser debris.  

“-yung! -hyung!” He felt like his head was about to burst as he felt something grab the back of his jacket and yank him backward.  He was then tumbling out of your frame, out of the void and onto the floor of the demented gallery. “Taehyung!” Someone shouted his name above him as his eyes were blurry and he rubbed at them to try and get them to regain their focus.  He blinked as his brows shot up when his eyes shot open wide.

“Namjoon?” There, above him, hovered his best friend. Taehyung quickly whipped around to his stomach before pushing off the ground and looking up to the blog journalist.  “What? What are you doing here?”

“I should be asking you that.”

Taehyung was sure he was the only one who happened to fall into this sketched out dangerous gallery. Namjoon wasn’t even where he was left when Taehyung looked for him. He looked his friend over.

“How have you made it this far?” Taehyung was impressed. Aside from the disheveled state of his clothes with wrinkles and small beads of sweat on his brow and temple, he seemed fine.  

“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that.” Namjoon groaned as he pulled the artist off the floor and straightened out his jacket, brushing him off. “I’ve been running around like crazy for hours looking for you.”

Taehyung was shocked and honestly glad to see a familiar face.  Then you came to mind.  He wondered if you were looking for him after he just decided to pull that disappearing act on you.  He felt guilty about it now that his actions settled in. For all he knew, you thought he got himself caught in another dangerous situation when he was really as safe as he could be in the moment. 

“Did you happen to pass by a girl? Like, our age but wearing outdated clothing.”

“Someone else? No, I didn’t. Is someone else here?”

Taehyung shook his head.  “No, she’s not a person, she’s a painting and- argh forget it!  It’s a long story and from the look you’re giving me, you don’t believe me in the first place.”

“How hard did you hit your head when I pulled you out of that thing?” Namjoon asked as he used his thumb to lazily point to your empty frame.  Taehyung squeezed his eyes shut as he rubbed at his temples.  He remembered the way his head spun when Namjoon started calling him before he was dragged out by the man.  His head had pounded just like how it did when he was in the room with the tar monster from earlier. 

He tried thinking back to the man in the studio he witness and tried putting together anything that could be used as a clue on how to get home. He seemed to obviously be pointing to something, something Taehyung couldn’t help but feel was important.  “Whatever you saw,” Namjoon called his attention, “forget it.  It’s probably a trap or something.  You can’t trust the things here.”

“Not everything is dangerous,” Taehyung countered with you in mind.  “Y/n isn’t.”

Namjoon sighed annoyed. “You don’t know that. You said ‘she’ was a painting, right? You can’t trust something like that thing.”

“Don’t call her a thing,” Taehyung growled.  “She’s kept me safe up until this point. Like it or not, I trust her. We need to find her before we get attacked by something.”

“Taehyung-”

“I’m not arguing about this.  Finding Y/n takes first priority.” Normally, Taehyung was more than obedient when it came to Namjoon.  Not only was he older, but the sense of leadership the older held made it easy to listen.  However, Taehyung didn’t feel that air of ‘need to follow’ right now around him.  

“What about leaving? What about that priority?”

“She can help us. Y/n comes first,” he finalized before he was turning on his heel and going off into the direction he had fled from your side.  Namjoon clicked his tongue as he reluctantly followed behind.

Logically, even Taehyung knew that you’d probably be agitated for prioritizing your location over his freedom and escape out of this place.  But, the nagging in his head didn’t let him argue the topic, even with himself.  He wasn’t going to just find a way to escape and not tell you goodbye at the very least.  

You had done nothing but help and protect him, the least he could do was tell you thank you properly before he left.  It was the right thing to do, even if a little bit foolish.  He knew that.

To his luck, it didn’t take nearly all that long for him to catch a glimpse of you rushing around a corner.  You were jogging around, looking to and fro for something- he knew it was him- and he was quick to start shouting at you with his arm raised in the dark halls.  Namjoon stood behind his shoulder, still unhappy.

“Y/n!” He watched your head whip around as you started running towards him.  As you didn’t slow down in your approach, the closer you got the more nervous he became before you skit to an abrupt halt at his toes and got up into his face, grabbing his jacket collar.

“Stop going off on your own! Are you stupid or do you want to get attacked again that badly, huh?!” You shouted in rightful anger as he felt sweat gather on his neck.  He raised his hands in defense as he slightly pushed your shoulders down to gain some distance away from your rage.  

“I know, I shouldn’t have run off.” You slowly released his jacket. “That was my bad and I apologize, but,” he stepped away from you and twisted to show Namjoon. “I managed to find my friend.  He was in the gallery with me before I got here. This is Namjoon.”

Taehyung introduced the two of you as you just stared at the man and he stared back in a silent competition that Taehyung definitely picked up on.  Clearly, there wasn’t much hope of friendship on the horizon- but he figured you’d cooperate with him so that they could get out safely.  You were that kind of person- cooperative if not a bit on the stubborn side.

“You found him, huh? Where?”

“Oh, I went back to your frame and he was there.” Taehyung easily answered, deciding to keep the fact that he crawled into the frame and saw what looked like memories to himself.  What if it stirred something up with you? Your mood was already foul enough, he didn’t want to risk it.

He wasn’t one to stir the pot, so to speak. 

Your brow twitched at his seemingly carefree manner at his ditching stunt.  You groaned as you whacked him on the arm before pointing your finger at his face in a warning manner, making him go cross eyed momentarily.  

“You run off like that again, and I’ll tie your wrist to mine. Got it?”

“Promise?” He teased as you just threw your hands in the air in defeat and started walking off.  He wasn’t planning on running when your back was turned again.  Just that one time was enough.  Now that he was with Namjoon too, he couldn’t risk being as careless.  “We’re going. Come on.”

“At your beck and call, Leader,” Taehyung chided, still trying to get your spirits higher from the mood he put you in.  Namjoon followed behind silently with skeptical eyes as Taehyung chatted with you like he’d known you all his life.  

-x-x-x-

Taehyung had since stopped his yammering as you lead the charge of three through halls and told them when to be silent and when to be cautious. You kept a close eye on Namjoon, something about the friend of Taehyung’s rubbing you the wrong way.  You couldn’t say whether or not you were a good judge of character since Taehyung was the first human you ever met, but you still felt something off.  His cold glare made your artificial skin crawl.

You had just walked through an archway before Taehyung made a noise of recognition as you turned to him.  He looked around with wide eyes.  

“What is it?”

“I feel like I’ve been in this area before.”

“Really?” You questioned.  You’d never really gone into this portion of the gallery.  It was always too dark to see and you were always put off by how quiet it was.  It was like there was something on the other side of the walls that irked you.  “Maybe you passed by here before I found you. I’ve never been in this part before.”

“You haven’t been here? I thought you had been everywhere.” Taehyung wasn’t accusing you, he was just curious.  He wanted to know why you hadn’t been here.  

“I had no reason to be,” you told him.  “Besides, I don’t think a creature like me who’s slowly corrupting belongs in a tranquil part of this place.”

“So,” Namjoon finally intervened from behind the two of you.  You both turned to look at his cross-armed figure, still glaring and fuming with some odd sense of presence you hated.  “You admit you’re dangerous?”

Your brows furrowed.  “Excuse me?”

“You said you’re corrupting.  So? That sounds like a red-flag if I’ve ever heard one.”

“I’m sorry,” you scoff in disbelief, “has it been you getting Taehyung through this place in one piece? Or maybe it was you who has been taking down threats left and right and going on wild goose chases when things go south. No?”

“Guys-” Taehyung tried dispersing the stifling air, but Namjoon’s ire interrupted him.  You both went back and forth and before long you were at Namjoon’s toes, arguing with him face to face- quite literally.  Taehyung watched as he tried to think of a way to calm you both down.  The last thing he wanted was to both waste time and have the two sides of his trust arguing against each other.  

Taehyung was going to open his mouth and shout or something, just to break the string of tension, but his jaw had just dropped when you had stopped mid-sentence.  Your hand was raised, an accusatory finger pointed at his best friend’s chin when it started to drop just a fraction to his chest.

“Y/n?” Taehyung called.  He shrieked when your hand came to grip his chin, squeezing his jaw as you yanked Namjoon’s face down to look into his eyes.  “Woah! Y/n, c-calm down!” You narrowed your eyes before you shoved him away, making his feet stumble back a handful of steps to keep himself upright.  Taehyung came to your side as you shook your hand as if it was contaminated. He looked you over and noticed the uneasy look on your face. “What’s-”

“Why are you sticking to that painting like glue?” Namjoon called to Taehyung as he rubbed his jaw.  “I’m your friend here, not that.” Taehyung looked up and towards the journalist with confliction.  

“T-that’s true, but-”

“But nothing.  That thing just grabbed and shoved me, but you’re at it’s side like I did something wrong.  You should be checking on me, not fawning over that.” He pointed at you, his eyes grew small in anger as you just shot back at him a silent glare.  

Taehyung was less than pleased to keep hearing Namjoon refer to you as ‘it’ or a ‘thing’.  Painting or not, you were still alive and, dammit, Namjoon needed to accept that already. He was ready to tell him off, defend you when you spoke first in a low tone.

“Do you trust me?” You asked. You were looking dead at Namjoon, but the artist knew you were addressing him.  You repeat the question when you’re met with only silence.  Taehyung immedately nodded when the question was repeated.

“Yeah, of course I do.”

“WHY?!” He jumped from Namjoon’s shriek across from the two of you. Your shoulders squared and the action didn’t go unnoticed. “Why trust something you just met?! Who is admitting to killing things and slowing losing its mind?!” His brought his hands to his chest, gesturing to himself. “You should be trusting me!”

“What is wrong with you,” Taehyung whispered in concern, wondering what happened to his best friend.  He was normally the type to roll with anything, even in stressful situations he always tried to take it with a grain of salt.  He was an optimist, or at least he always tried to be.  No matter the dark tunnel, there’s always a light; it was basically Namjoon’s life motto. “Did something happen? Stop accusing Y/n and just talk to-” he gasped when he felt your hand grasp his.  Your face was downcast as you squeezed his palm. “Y/n?”

You whipped your head up and looked at him dead in the eyes.  “We have to run.” Taehyung jolted back.  Run? From what? You looked back at Namjoon, your colorblind eyes slowly unveiling just who and what that best friend of Taehyung’s was.  “We need to get away from him as soon as possible.  He’s dangerous.”

“What?” Taehyung was in instant denial.  Namjoon? Dangerous?  The same Namjoon who would cry if one of his plants died or would lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling if someone asked him what his favorite brand of pen is for the hundredth time? “That’s not true, he’s-” Taehyung looked at his best friend to defend him, but stopped short.

Something about him was off. Taehyung had noticed it since the beginning, but dismissed it all. Now, it looked like some veil of black was hovering around his friend’s body as he glared at you. Namjoon didn’t look like himself.  He looked fake and at that, Taehyung’s eyes widened.  

He looked artificial- just like how you did to his human eyes.  

You must have seen it in his eyes, that’s why you grabbed his chin to inspect him further.  That’s why you shoved him away and that’s why you wanted Taehyung to flee.  

Your hand dropped his as you caught sight of the thing disguised as Taehyung’s friend moving just slightly.  You stepped in front of the artist before you took off before ‘it’ could.  It lunged and you were quick to react.  You lifted your foot and slammed it into it’s stomach as it leaned forward- not at the lack of air, but the force you put into your stomping.  You locked your arm around the back of its neck as you tucked it’s head under your arm and held it in place in a lock.  

You groaned as you felt your arms burn with contamination again and your grip almost loosened at the paintings thrashing because of it.  You planted your feet as firmly as you could, even if the thrashing made you teeterd from your heels to your toes and skid an inch back or forward here and there.  

You weren’t sure how long you’d be able to keep the thing under your arm contained and although you had just told Taehyung not to leave your side again, you were ready to tell him to run off and hide somewhere until you could find him.  

The moment you turned your head on your shoulders to shout for him to do so, you halted to see him literally at your back already.  His large hands had planted themselves one on your back to steady you and the only ensnared in the fake Namjoon’s clothed back, gripping it’s clothes firmly. Even the fabric felt like paint under his nails as he started to rip the thing away from you.  

Taehyung caught sight of the fake’s face and what used to be identical to Namjoon had muddled away to show a white tar surface with no sense of expression. He sneered as he took your place of taking it on before he was shoving it backward.  

Although he wasn’t a fighter, Taehyung was no push over.  He could hold his own if he really ended up needing to and at the moment, he did.  He pushed the fake as it stumbled on it’s own clumsy feet before it started to go after him again.  Taehyung swung his elbow out, cathing the fake in the whiteness of it’s face before it hit the ground.  

He backed up away from the thing he just put on the ground, turning to you and snatching your hand in his again.

Taehyung’s hand squeezed yours and when he did, you spun on your heels and took off, fleeing with the young artist beside you.  You both heard ‘Namjoon’ scream behind your backs as Taehyung looked back to see it still laying on the floor, skriming.  

Taehyung was terrified, more terrified than he was before.  He was terrified on how it gained his trust so easily- a thought that almost made him angry.  He felt stupid as he held onto your hand like a linelife as you weaved through the halls and soon came to a staircase.  

You stopped as you looked over your shoulder as Taehyung buckled to his knees and heaved after sprinting for so long.  He used the wall to support himself as you looked at him trying to gather his breath.  

You looked at your hand in his and attempted to pull it away from him, but he just squeezed tighter onto you and tugged it back.

“A little longer,” he whispered.  After a few minutes of him gathering himself and you making sure you both weren't followed, he stood back to his height and continued to hold you hand.  “Hey,” he called with a tight throat. “If we run into anyone else, if you don’t trust them, tell me and I won’t either.” You didn’t say a word to try and deter him from using your judgement as his own, you simply nodded in agreement.  

If all worked out, he wouldn’t need to use your opinions for much longer.  You were going to get him out.

The two of you ascended the staircase before you and when you reached the top, Taehyung looked around to see the spitting image of the original gallery.  

The white walls and matching floors and ceilings. The chandeliers that weren’t on with the power out and the windows all greyed out as if they were blocked by cement.  The front doors were locked as if there was no escape.  Trying a switch, he wasn’t shocked to see the lights not working.  

“Can you lead from here,” you asked him, just trying to get him to talk again.  “I don’t know my way around.” He only nodded before he was walking off, tugging you in tow as you thought of ways to make his voice come out again.  You felt oddly uneasy when he was silent.  The previous incident with the fake friend of his obviously taking a mental toll on him.  It was to be expected, but it still hurt your chest.

If you had a beating heart, you’d call this feeling heartache.

It was when you passed by a rather mundane looking couch that was suclupted in a strange, wavey shape when you figured out a way to get him to talk. You stopped and your hand in his anchored him when he looked over his shoulder.  When he looked at you, you pointed to the sofa surrounded in rope dividers.

“What colors is that?” You asked when you looked back at him.  Your actions and unspoken desire to get his voice to come out didn’t go unnoticed-  

He smiled. “It’s red,” he told you.

-Nor did it go unappreciated.  

From that, he would tell you the colors of whatever you pointed at that you passed and before he knew it he had come to a deadend with only one, giant painting on the wall- taking up the entire space of it.  His mouth opened as his hand dropped from yours as he looked at it.  

“That’s,” he looked at it as his eyes ran over every edge. “That looks like the gallery. The real one,” he smiled as he gazed at it.  This was it, his way out. He felt in his bones that this was his exit.  His hand reached to touch the canvas, but gasped when his hand just phased right through.  It was just like how your frame was.  He could climb into this and be somewhere else.  

Then he felt a chill run down his spine and a heavy feeling fall in his gut.  He pulled his hand back as he turned around and looked at you.  You were well behind him against the back wall, your hands behind your back as you watched him.  

“What?” You asked.  This was his way out and you both knew it.  You expected him to jump on through and finally be free of this hellscape, but instead he made his way back to you and away from his exit door disguised as a painting. He stood in front of you, toe to toe as he looked at you.

Taehyung gazed at you, his eyes began to sting as they felt misty.  This was ridiculous, he felt ridiculous. How could he cry about leaving you behind when he just met you?  You didn’t belong in his world and he knew that just as much as you.  Yet, the feeling of parting ways with you made his throat tight.

“I’m leaving,” he told you. “And I won’t ever see you again,” he choked.  You were shocked to see the first tear run down his face.  You wondered if tears were blue. You brushed it away with the back of your hand as more just kept coming.  He could see the distortion on your skin under your sleeve from the angle of you wiping his tears and he just wanted to cry more.

His mind started becoming delusional.  

If he chose not to leave and stayed put with you, would you hurt him? Would you hunt him down in time and kill him like the others had before?  Would he lose his humanity even? Turn into a painting and spend the rest of his time with you. You wouldn’t be alone if he did. What if he tried to take you back with him? Would you just disintegrate into paint splotches because you had no physical body to speak of?

So many hypotheticals and you wouldn’t allow any of them to come to fruition.

“Go home, Taehyung,” you told him softly with a smile, the hand you placed on his cheek rubbed his skin before letting it softly fall.  You urged him, not commanded him and he knew he had to go.  He sniffled as he grabbed your hands and held them again. “What, you want a hug goodbye or something?” You teased but when he didn’t reply, you rolled your eyes.  “You do, don't you?”

“And? What about it,” he sniffed as he pouted. You pulled your hands away from his, even if he chased after them when you did.  You swatted at his hands that tried grabbing yours once more.

“Do you want me to hug you or not?” You asked in impatience while he nodded like a child. “Then let my hands go.” He immediately abandoned your hands and wrapped his arms under your own and pulled you to your toes against his chest.  You felt your chest hit his with a dull thud as he held you like you were dying.  

Well, you sort of were, but he didn’t need the finer details repeated on your unavoidable fate.  

He started swaying you on your toes as he found a home on your shoulder. One of your hands was on his head, shushing him and the other pat his back between his shoulders.  He really was like a giant child.  Was this what a goodbye hug felt like? It felt nothing like the hug he gave you when he was attacked previously and reunited with him.  This one felt much more sad- desperate even.

“Teahyung,” you whispered as you felt him hum against your shoulder. “You need to go.”

“I know,” he admitted before he started to pull away from you when your hands moved to land on his shoulders to push him softly.  His eyes looked swollen and wondered what color the skin around his eyes were. It looked darker to your black and white vision. “I think- I think I’m going to miss you.  A lot.”  

You brought a hand to his cheek again, stroking it as you smiled at him.  

“You’ll forget a painting like me in no time,” you eased.  He frowned at that, wanting to hug you again, but you just pushed him away. Turning him by his shoulders, you started to push him from behind to the frame before you came to his side.  You gestured towards it. “Home is waiting for you.”

He swallowed another large lump in his throat.  He curled his lips over his teeth to keep from crying anymore.  He was so overly emotional and he was annoying himself because of it. He could only imagine how you felt watching his waterworks.  

“What’s going to happen to you?”

“I’m going back to my frame,” you told him.  “I’ll go back to my home too,” you smiled.  He felt a small sliver of relief at your answer.  “We’ll both go back to where we belong, just as he should. It’ll be okay.” You pat his back. “I promise.” You felt bad, lying straight to his face like that.  

He nodded before he grabbed the inside of the frame, and began to hull himself over.  He had one knee resting on the frame edge and the other still hanging out when he turned and looked down at you hovering above you on the wall.  He reached in his jacket and pulled out his rose before he handed it to you.  It was a silent agreement as he passed it onto you- he knew he wouldn’t need it anymore. You’d keep it safe even if he wasn’t there anymore and he knew you would.

He put on his brightest smile, “see you around, Y/n,” before he jumped completely through.

As his body faded into the stretched, painted fabric of the canvas and the frame seemed to close like a locked portal that you couldn’t ever even think about passing through, you fell to the ground, screaming as your body felt like it was on fire.

You laughed bitterly as you were just relieved that the one precious person you managed to meet in your miserable existence as a painting without a future was someone as kind and warm as Taehyung.

-x-x-x-

Taehyung felt dazed.  

He was staring at a plaque as his eyes were bleary like he had just woken up from a long nap.  He felt like yawning before he felt a shake on his shoulder.  He lifted his head, rubbing his eyes.  

“Hey,” Namjoon called with concern written on his face, “what’s with you? You zoned out for like two minutes.”

“I dunno,” he replied.  He moved to look at the giant painting of a black location with messy brushes of what looked like some haunted locations.  “I feel like I just woke up from a really nap.” He yawned as he read the name of the painting loud to himself.  “Parallel Reality,” the words read and they sounded familiar to him.  “I feel like I'm forgetting something,” he frowned. “Didn’t the lights go out a little while ago or something?”

“Dude,” Namjoon’s hand fell from his friend’s shoulder. “You really need to get some proper sleep if you’re taking micro-naps, standing up, around this many people and dreaming about power-outages.” It was only then that the artist was aware of all the sounds around him- buzzing from every corner of the building.

“I don’t wanna hear that from the reigning champ of disarranged sleep schedules.”

The journalist and young, free-lance artist continued walking around the blinding white gallery.  People crowded the place and the murmur of them all talking in whispers comforted Taehyung for a reason he couldn’t exactly explain.  

He and Namjoon had started down the final hall they had left to view. The sme hall that happened to contain the naming right to the gallery in the first place.  At the end of the hall, hanging on the dead-end wall was the one painting called ‘Leia’. The piece Taehyung came to see specifically to see if he could be sprung out of his art-block.

As he stood in front of the painting, he inspected it.

It was a young woman dressed in dated clothes with her eyes looking off to almost mimic looking off the canvas.  Her legs were coiled in thorns and she looked like she was running from something, but with a protective sense and not a fearful one.  She held a blue rose in her hand as the silver, engraved frame encased the painting.  

The piece wasn’t what he was expecting, but somehow looking at the piece, he felt calm despite the action set formed in brush strokes.  As the tour guide in charge of 'Leia’ began to explain how it was the artist’s last piece, Taehyung began to zone out again, while Namjoon scribbled down notes beside him.  

As she yammered on and on, Namjoon soon caught sight of his friend’s face. He stopped his writing as he lifted his pen up and lowered his arm to tuck it away in his pocket,. When his hand was free of any writing utensil, he placed it on Taehyung’s back.

“Hey,” he whispered softly to not gain attention from the other’s standing around them. “Why are you crying?”

Taehyung jolted as he quickly brought his hands to his face.  

He was crying.  

When did he start and why? He wiped them away only for more to follow through.  He was soon silently hunched over sobbing.  Why did he feel this way by looking at a painting? Art had always given him a sense of emotion- but he hadn’t felt such sorrow before.  

“I don’t know,” he whimpered as Namjoon took him to some place less crowded. As Taehyung calmed down, he felt oddly refreshed.  

“You okay now? I’ve got enough notes for an entry if you want to leave.”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I want to go home and paint,” he announced as Namjoon smiled, happy to see a spark behind Taehyung’s eyes return.  The spark of an artist that had finally overcome his art-block. 

“Alright, then let’s get going.” As the two men walked out, reception bidding them farewell, Namjoon started making conversation. “So, what do you want to paint?”

“I’m not sure, but maybe a blue rose garden or something. Paired with something old fashioned, like outdated clothing or old picture books. I’ll figure it out when I get to my studio.”

He didn’t voice it, but he knew he’d be back to view ‘Leia’ again, and this time he wouldn’t cry. The calmness he felt from the painting- regardless of his tears- was like being reunited with an old friend. 

What kind of man would Taehyung be if he cried in front of a friend?  

-END-

[arkannis]

Hello,

I just recently got into the Old Republic Fandom, and the Eternal Empire is my favorite arc. I do wish there was more story content to give more development to the characters, particularly in Arcann's case. While I love his romance scenes, I wish there were more scenes about his redemption and relationship with the Outlander or a dark side ending where the Outlander or Arcann takes the throne with the other as a consort. I found your blog while trying to find content further developing his character. Thank you so much for posting all your headcanons and musings!

With that being said, what are your headcanons for Zakuul culture? And could you post a masterpost compilation of your Arcann headcanons? I am trying to find the post where the romance novels headcanon originated in the tags and not having much luck.

Hope you have a nice day!

Hi anon!! Sorry for a late reply. First I’ll answer the second part of your message. The romance holonovels headcanon originated from the this post ; the post doesn’t outright say it, but some people in the tags (when they reblogged it) mentioned that Arcann probably seemed like the type to read romance in his free time. As of what I can remember the tags were from this reblog and this other reblog and both say that Arcann reads romance holonovels. The continuation of this headcanon were in replies or tags, so it’s hard to track them all down! Secondly, my Arcann tag is a mess, and I probably threw in multiple headcanons in reblogs or tags so it would be hard to find them all... I’ll think about making a masterpost, but I don’t think I have time for something like that right now. Ok, now that’s over with... I 100% agree with you, anon! I HAVE so many things to say about the possibility about that dark side ending. I don’t think devs were planning to make Arcann a possible romance option in the beginning, so it wouldn’t have been possible to be his LI and rule as emperor/empress. I also agree with the development of the characters... however, Arcann’s redemption and relationship with the Outlander was definitely rushed, because the plans to make a third expansion was apparently cancelled due to the backlash from fans who wanted pub vs. imp back. I made a whole post complaining about that... Otherwise, I definitely think they would have had more time to flesh out his characters and the other Zakuulan characters as well (Vaylin, Senya, Koth, etc.). I’m like pretty much sure content was cut out from KOTFE/KOTET to make them shorter. Due to such lost content, I have to create my headcanons from extrapolation based on the Sacrifice trailer, available codex entries, existing dialogue, and implications of existing issues. As well as other people’s hcs and commentary!! WARNING: SUPER LONG BULLET POINTS for Zakuulan culture headcanons.

The reason why I don’t have that many Zakuulan culture headcanons is because.... I feel like it’s so weirdly explored in the expansions.

I think the arts is a big thing in Zakuul! The Dragon’s Maw chapter gave me that kind of vibe. I also discussed this mildly (not) with Arcann. Most specifically THEATRE, PERFORMANCE AND SINGING. 

Evidence: Senya sings and composes and there’s the famous Zakuulan holoperformer, Malita Tal. No, I don’t have evidence for theatre, but honestly? Zakuulans are so goddamn dramatic, they most definitely have reality TV series or drama series... 

arcann be like oh you listen to malita tal? name all of her albums in alphabetical order or you get exiled

Zakuulan culture most definitely has idol culture, based on Malita Tal (and reportedly her performances were watched by millions). And those fans apparently also protested against Arcann’s rule. personally i think if they had twitter the u.s. gov*rnment would be wiped out.

I just think singing is a big thing in Zakuulan culture. I mean, even Valkorion sings (if you decide to kill Senya, his force ghost appears. They both have an exchange and it’s actually sweet for like 0.1 second). 

I also think there would be typical Zakuulan fairytales embedded in the culture. Hear me out. Most specifically those type of royal fairytales with the princes and princesses. This can be heavily contributed to the fact that a royal family is essentially in power. 

You cannot expect me to believe not a single person in Zakuul has written a Prince Arcann x reader holofic. You just can’t. Or Prince Thexan. Actually, I think Thexan would be more common, I think he was perceived to be more compassionate and kind compared to Arcann by the common folk? Since I know there’s that NPC dialogue where one of them goes how different it would be if Thexan took the throne instead. 

The fairytales would probably involve a lot of references to the Old Gods. I kinda imagine that the enemy would be some sort of serpent, that is, Zildrog, because apparently he’s just a bedtime story to scare children away. 

I think these Zakuulan fairy tales would contribute to the theatre and performance, acting culture that Zakuul has. 

Furthermore, I just think the Tirall kids probably read these fairytales as well. francis dont talk about arcann reading again

I want to talk about the Old Gods and that religion, which is one of my favorite things ever... probably because the Gods are machines. Superweapon machines... ok ill shut up

Even if Valkorion basically got rid of the religion, it’s clear that the religion is still incorporated into heavy talk in Zakuulan culture (e.g. eyes of Esne, heart of Scyva). 

My headcanon is that there are sanctuaries or small secret churches (?) for those who want to worship the Old Gods. Obviously the Herald of Zildrogs who believe in the Old Way are a cult, so I think people would look for an alternative. 

I think there would be great effort to hide these places, as it can get you exiled. Thus these would probably be located in the Old World, rather than in a more obvious position like the Spire. 

The beliefs of the Old Ways isn’t exactly clear, they aren’t exactly touched upon, which is a shame. I think people would ask for help from each of these gods depending on what they want.

Those who ask for Izax’ guidance want to seek success, accomplishments, power, and glory.

Those who ask for Scyva’s guidance ask for her to guide souls peacefully to death (she is described as someone who weeps beside Zakuulans as they march towards Izax - basically death) , or ask for help/compassion from her. Maybe maternity as well? Or parental love?

Those who ask for Aivela (goddess of passion) want her to guide them with her passion (Aivela accompanies Tyth, who is kind of a god of war/warrior). I think there would also be romance related stuff as well. If someone asked for help regarding their love related issues, it would probably be from Aivela!

I’m not sure about Esne - but maybe in a similar sense, if someone is suffering with jealousy - in any situation, they would ask guidance from her. I don’t know where I read this but I think the “eyes of Esne” expression meant like having eyes of jealousy.

Nahut? I don’t think he was worshipped.  “Nahut was considered to be gray, formless and cold, and was denied worship by all except his mother Scyva.” But regardless, I think he still had a role to play. 

After the Outlander takes the throne, and Zakuul renounces their membership from the Eternal Alliance, I think people would be allowed to openly express their religious beliefs, that is, the Old Ways. Oh, personally I headcanon that they would build beautiful places of worship in the Spire with similar geometrical pyramid designs...!! 

Yeah...I think that’s all I got! I’ll need to see how I can somehow make this post easily found, lol. This is quite a long list, and I have to emphasize that these are my headcanons! They are based on what I see and I just kind of fill in the gaps to fit my own stories. This took a while to write because I KNEW I had these headcanons, but they just didn’t appear at the time I saw this anon ask. Anyways, I’ll probably create more headcanons in the future. Also:

a dark side ending where the Outlander or Arcann takes the throne with the other as a consort

I have so many things to say about this. I know the game won’t permit it, because if you think about it, both the light side choice (Eternal Alliance) and the dark side choice (Eternal Empire) are happy endings for your characters anyways. They can continue as the “hero” or the “protagonist”, so I don’t think this route could ever be implemented. However, I think it would be absolutely interesting if throughout the gameplay, players are given a choice to flirt with Arcann. The Outlander and Arcann agree to get rid of Valkorion, but thats if the Outlander decides to betray the Alliance and joins Arcann instead. And should they join him, they have the choice to romance him... and I guess it’s a happy ending for you both :P Obviously this won’t happen, but maybe it will. I wouldn’t mind being the prince consort of Arcann lol idk! me and vaylin are gonna be besties and we’ll paint each others nails or something Oh and have a nice day too anon...!!

[makeste]

just another long rambling post trying to explain why I, a Bakugou fan, would treasonously want him to lose his quirk

this is something I had originally intended to post about later down the line, after we actually know for sure whether or not Bakugou is going to lose his quirk. but seeing as parts of this post (see: point #5) also indirectly address some issues that people had with the latest chapter (283) as well, I decided I might as well jump the gun.

this is a topic I’ve gotten a lot of asks about, and so I’ve tried to gather all of those various arguments into one single post with my own comments and rebuttals. however, the purpose of this post isn’t really to convince anyone or change anyone’s mind. it’s pretty much just an explanation of why I am so sold on the idea. I think it’s a little defensive at times, and I definitely feel like one of the side effects of getting asks like this...

...is that I feel compelled to explain that yes, as the veritable mountain of Bakuessays on this blog can attest to, I am in fact a Bakugou fan, and have not been standing here this whole time just waiting for the perfect moment to rip off my disguise revealing my secret “#1 Deku Stan!! BAKUGOU CAN SUCK IT” shirt underneath while cackling nefariously. like. just so we’re clear on that here.

I know I’ve said this repeatedly, but it’s precisely because I’m such an adamant fan of Bakugou that I’m excited over the story potential of him possibly becoming quirkless. as for why I keep bringing it up, honestly it’s mostly just because I keep getting the asks, lol. and so my options are basically to either say “ah you know what, you’ve convinced me,” or to keep trying to explain my reasoning at the risk of making everyone increasingly mad and/or bored.

anyway, so there are five arguments which I want to address, and they are as follows:

it’s repetitive/boring/we’ve already had the plotline of a prodigy student losing their quirk.

it cheapens Bakugou’s character development by directly “forcing” him to learn something, instead of him arriving at the conclusion on his own.

losing his quirk would put him on the back-burner, story-wise, and exclude him from further fights and story development.

Bakugou doesn’t need to learn anything more/there isn’t anything important Bakugou could learn by losing his quirk that he couldn’t learn in some other manner.

losing his quirk would mean him falling hopelessly behind Deku, and playing second fiddle to him when he should be Deku’s equal. it would render his whole story and all of his development meaningless.

before I get started, please be advised that this is a very long post. like, tragically long. idk I did my best to rein it in but it just got ramblier and ramblier sob anyways so here’s a cut.

okay!

1. it’s repetitive/boring/we’ve already had the plotline of a prodigy student losing their quirk.

have you ever heard people pose the argument that all of the good stories have already been told? the idea is basically that there’s no such thing as a truly original story anymore, because humankind has been telling stories for thousands of years and we’ve exhausted any and all original ideas by this point. the problem with this, though, is that it assumes that (1) stories must always be 100% completely original in order to be good, and (2) if the basic building blocks of two stories are the same, then those stories must basically be identical. which is very much not the case. classic story structures are classic for a reason. the best stories are based around themes and conflicts and story beats which have been reimagined in a million different ways, and which work precisely because they’re familiar, and because they still resonate with people each and every time. and each and every time, it’s still a different story, because even if the ideas and themes and even some of the emotions are the same, the people are different, and no two people’s stories will ever be exactly the same.

all of which is to say that firstly, just because someone has already lost their quirk doesn’t mean it’s not an interesting enough concept to explore again. but more importantly, Bakugou and Mirio are not the same person. Bakugou is a completely different character than Mirio, with a completely different personality and history, and completely different relationships with the other principal characters. in other words it is absolutely not the same story at all. Bakugou won’t react the same way as Mirio. he’s not a character who can be faded into the background like Mirio unfortunately was. and most importantly, he’s a character whose own personal history with the formerly quirkless main character makes this an extremely personal and compelling character arc which would hit in a vastly different way than Mirio’s. I don’t think it’s repetitive at all, any more than “the heroes fight the villains” is a repetitive plotline. basically this argument, which is subjective to begin with, just doesn��t hold any water to me, I’m sorry.

2. it cheapens Bakugou’s character development by directly “forcing” him to learn something instead of him arriving at the conclusion on his own.

okay there are two counterarguments that I want to make here. the first is that this has always been Bakugou’s character development process since day one. he has never simply just arrived at a zenlike conclusion on his own through stern self-reflection or anything like that. his entire story has been him learning and growing from one humbling experience after another. examples:

he stops bullying Deku after Deku saves his life.

he undergoes a huge shift in attitude after Deku beats him in their training fight on the second day of school. he eats a healthy serving of humble pie and listens to the constructive criticisms that Momo, Aizawa and the rest pile onto him afterwards, and the result is that he becomes less cocky and starts taking his training much more seriously.

he wins-but-loses to Todoroki in the school festival and it serves as a reminder that simply winning isn’t everything. being the best is meaningless if it’s handed to you. as a result his determination is fueled even more.

he is LITERALLY FORCED POINT-BLANK to work together with Deku in order to pass his final exam. he is dragged kicking and screaming. I can’t stress enough how completely unwilling he was to learn this lesson otherwise lmao. it’s abundantly clear that he would never have done this on his own had the lesson not been almost literally beaten into his own head.

his experience at Kamino -- being targeted because he was perceived as villainous, and feeling responsible for All Might’s retirement afterwards -- is perhaps the best example of how Katsuki takes a terrible experience and uses it to grow leaps and bounds as a person. he develops a new awareness of how his actions can potentially be perceived by others (a vital lesson if he ever hopes to make it to the top). and he’s profoundly humbled (I keep using that word, so I just want to pause a sec to clarify that I mean it not in a “humiliated and crushed” way, but in a “freedom from pride and arrogance” way; in other words this is ultimately a positive thing, even if it comes about in an unpleasant way) by the experience, enough so that he finally lets his walls of pride crumble enough to have his weirdly violent heart-to-heart with Deku. and as a result the two of them grow closer, and All Might sets him down the path of Win To Save and Save To Win. something which I feel compelled to note that he still had ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE ABOUT beforehand. this is another thing that literally had to be spelled out for him before he could grasp it. it’s very hard for me to conceive a way of somehow spinning this particular development, which is by far the most important in his arc to date, as being something he just “learned on his own.”

and I forgot to mention it, but him failing the provisional license exam also directly contributed to the character development mentioned above! that was what finally tipped him over the edge. even though he was reeling from everything that had happened at Kamino, he still had too much pride to actually open up to anyone about it until this second “loss” of sorts finally convinced him that he really was doing something terribly wrong, and pushed him to talk to Deku about it.

and that brings us to where we’re at currently! there are a few other things I didn’t mention, like Jeanist lecturing him on the meaning behind choosing a hero name, and his internship with Endeavor teaching him... something. tbd lol. but anyways my point here is that Bakugou has always been a character who learns chiefly through his mistakes and painful experiences. it’s extremely rare for him to just arrive at some new tidbit of enlightenment all on his own, and if it does, it often still originally stems from a past -- often painful -- experience. that’s just how he is. his stubbornness is one of my favorite things about him, but it’s also always hindered his growth to some extent, and has made it harder for him to change his viewpoint all on his own, even though he is to his credit very open to change once something finally does sink in. he’s someone who’s always trying to be better. it’s just that a lot of times he needs to be nudged and pushed in the right direction, particularly on those few occasions where the thing he has to learn is something that runs counter to his current viewpoint to such a degree that he’s resistant to learning it (see, again, working together with Deku in the final exam).

and that finally brings me to my second counterargument to this point, which is that I very strongly feel that having to learn something “directly” in this very blunt manner does not make it cheap. that actually comes off as a bit insulting to all of Bakugou’s previous character development if I’m being honest. his development isn’t cheapened just because something was harder for him to learn. he’s not less of a good person just because he had a harder struggle to learn those things, and needed help and guidance, and made mistakes along the way. I feel very strongly that people shouldn’t be judged on how they grow, or their reasons for that growth. that to me feels like gatekeeping the concept of being a good person. “Bakugou isn’t as good of a character because he only started saving others and caring about people after he got kidnapped.” like, come on. people grow through their experiences! that’s literally where all growth stems from, even growth that on the surface appears to be self-fueled and motivated. every single action, every single motivation, happens because at some point or other, that person experienced something that led to them thinking and feeling that way, and deciding to do that thing. we are the sum total of our experiences, I believe is how the saying goes. and that goes double for characters in a story, because watching them go through those experiences is how we the audience discover who these characters are.

anyway so this argument is also a miss from where I stand. if it takes losing his quirk for Bakugou to have an epiphany about true strength, and what truly makes a hero on the inside, then goddammit, good for him. that’s nothing to be ashamed of. in the end that’s still his hard-earned growth, and he’s not any lesser for having learned it through adversity instead of just stumbling upon the answer somewhere along the way.

3. losing his quirk would put him on the back-burner, story-wise, and exclude him from further fights and story development.

hard disagree here as well. losing his quirk would be the single biggest thing that ever happened to Bakugou. a development like that would almost demand we focus on it. perhaps not right away (just like we didn’t immediately focus on him right after Kamino), but it would be inevitable. in fact, I’d argue that Bakugou losing his quirk is one of the only ways to guarantee that the story puts his character development back at the forefront again at some point, and doesn’t just drop the plotline entirely in an “eh, good enough” manner. it’s a development that basically makes his character development the focus of the plot, instead of us only ever getting little side anecdote scenes of “slowly becoming less of an asshole” for the rest of the series. it’s character development on hard mode, to be sure, but the fact of the matter is that Bakugou is not the main character, and so his personal character journey is only going to make it back to the forefront of the story if and when something significant enough occurs so as to make it worthy of being a focus.

as for the other half of this argument, the thing to understand here is that “Kacchan loses his quirk” is NOT the beginning, middle, and end of that storyline all in one. it absolutely won’t be “welp too bad, guess you can’t be a hero after all” and that’s that. “Kacchan loses his quirk” is only the first act of a story arc that continues with “Kacchan struggles with the aftermath of losing his quirk”, and concludes with “Kacchan regains his quirk and reemerges stronger than ever.” how that will ultimately play out, I don’t know! Vestiges; Eri; OFA; the quirk-restoring bullets which the villains also had at some point unless I’m misremembering things; whatever! the key thing here is that I have faith that it will play out. every single argument you see here is in the context of me believing that the endgame here is not a loss for him, but a win. it’s actually the win, because if all goes well, he comes back stronger than ever because he’s finally done away with the one remaining thing that was holding him back -- that lingering unnecessary fear, insecurity, and pride that’s still at the root of so many of his actions even now.

which brings me to my next point.

4. Bakugou doesn’t need to learn anything more/there isn’t anything important Bakugou could learn by losing his quirk that he couldn’t learn in some other manner.

you’ve no doubt guessed it, but I once again disagree here lol. he definitely still has more to learn. Bakugou’s character development thus far has been extraordinary, but all the same, I still want more for him. I don’t think this is the best he’s capable of. his ceiling is much, much higher, and to say that this is as good as he gets is to underestimate him imo.

here’s an incomplete list of things that Bakugou, at present, is still clearly struggling with, numbered alphabetically so that I can explain afterwards how losing his quirk would address each one.

a.) he still obsessively compares his progress to Deku’s at every turn. we got a little bit of insight into his thought processes just recently in chapter 275, and it was extremely revealing. his rivalry with Deku has been a good thing thus far, but this is primarily because up until this point he has been able to keep pace with Deku. so much of his confidence and self-worth seems to hinge on this one specific thing which is notably outside his control, and that’s troubling to me. but more on that further down in a bit.

b.) he’s still incapable of admitting that he cares about people (which is endearing to be fair, but nonetheless indicates that he still views caring as a weakness, and is uncomfortable acknowledging or expressing it).

c.) he has not yet sorted out the problem of coming off as hostile, vulgar, and aggressive even when a situation necessitates him to be more cooperative. to put it plainly, he’s incapable of dialing back his personality even the slightest degree and as a result gets edited out of interviews and has his friends constantly scrambling to apologize and/or interpret for him. I know that a lot of people -- myself included -- actually adore this feral side of him and even consider it one of his most endearing traits, but still, the fact of the matter is that it’s not a good thing that he’s entirely incapable of even the slightest bit of emotional regulation. at some point he’s going to have to sort his shit out at least a little bit; even Endeavor and Mirko are capable of reining it in when it comes to dealing with the public at large and with the press. if he wants to reach the top ranks he still has a lot of growing to do here.

d.) he still thinks of his own worth purely in terms of physical strength. this is a big one. Katsuki has always defined his own world in terms of strength and weakness. “strong” is good; “weak” is bad. people who win are strong. people with quirks are strong. he has a good quirk so he’s strong. Deku doesn’t have a quirk so he shouldn’t be strong (which becomes a paradox and a source of great fear and confusion to him when he realizes on a deep subconscious level that Deku somehow is strong in spite of lacking a quirk). All Might is the best hero because he’s strong and never loses. he’s going to be even better than All Might, and he’ll do it by being strong and never losing.

except that these ideas are all limited, and limiting. physical strength is not the only kind of strength. All Might wasn’t the number one hero and the Symbol of Peace only because he was strong. Katsuki isn’t strong only because he has a good quirk. but he’s still stuck on this idea regardless, and everything he does, everything he is is defined by this idea. even now, with everything he’s learned, he’s still stuck in this limited perspective. and the very obvious problem with that is that it places him in a precarious emotional position where if he ever actually loses, or something happens to strip that physical strength of his away, his entire core of self-worth stands to fall apart as a result. he’s put all his eggs in that basket. and it’s the source of all of his insecurity, and it’s a weakness that’s just waiting to be exploited, and which is holding him back from discovering and acknowledging so many other good things about himself.

e.) and last but not least we’ve got what is by far his biggest current failing (and I say not to put him down, but rather in that same spirit of “learning to acknowledge your own weaknesses” which he himself has so readily embraced), which is that he is still only focused on himself. mind you, I’m not saying that he’s a bad person, or that he doesn’t care about other people! but I am saying that he is self-centered, and that’s just a fact, and I would defy anyone to try and argue otherwise tbh. he is constantly and completely focused only on his own goals. and on top of that he also has great difficulty seeing things from any perspective other than his own, which has been the cause of numerous clashes and misunderstandings with other people, some more disastrous than others (see: that one time he thought Deku must be looking down on him because he couldn’t conceive of a situation where anyone would actually want to accept help from someone else, rather than being self-sufficient, and thus assumed that Deku’s attempt to help him was in fact an insult). he casts himself in the role of the main character, and dismisses most everyone else as “extras.” and it took him an extraordinarily long time to learn the importance of learning from and helping other people (and again, this was something which had to be explicitly spelled out for him. I’ll say it again and again if I have to, because it’s so important in understanding where Bakugou is coming from and what his mindset is in all of this. he had to have it spelled out, because it was genuinely something which wouldn’t have occurred to him otherwise, because it’s so alien to everything he grew up believing up till that point, and because he has so much difficulty seeing other perspectives).

and again, I’m not saying this to dump on him or imply that he doesn’t care! because he does; we’ve seen that demonstrated on multiple occasions. he has compassion for others. he wants to do the right thing and he wants to be a good person, and he tries very hard in his own way. but he is nonetheless still stuck in his own perspective. he struggles with empathy and being able to see from other people’s points of view. and that is a huge barrier to his becoming the greatest hero of all time, and it’s probably the most difficult barrier to overcome. the behavior is something he can and has been chipping away at little by little, but the root causes of the behavior are still there.

anyway. so now that I’ve said all of that, which probably could have been its own essay in and of itself, how would losing his quirk do anything to address these issues? so let’s now break that down point by point as well, using the same alphabetical numbering system as before. I’m skipping the first one because I’ll address it further down, so we’ll start with b.

b.) it makes him more vulnerable in that it’s a huge blow to his pride. how is that a good thing you ask? because pride is always a double-edged sword. the downside is that losing it hurts his self-esteem (but more on that in a sec), but the upside is it opens him up more to accepting kindness from other people, and allowing himself to express kindness and caring himself in return. pride is almost always the biggest obstacle in doing that. so the short of this is that it could lead to us seeing a more open, willingly vulnerable side to him that would strengthen his relationships and serve him well in the long run.

c.) in a similar vein, the ego check would probably help to address some of his emotional instability as well. a not-insignificant chunk of his tactless exterior is basically just a projection; a tough guy persona he’s constructed over the years as part of his neverending quest to be strong. there’s also a fair amount of insecurity (interpreting everything other people say in the worst way possible and reacting with defensive hostility), arrogance/boastfulness, and fear of vulnerability (aka weakness) mixed in as well. so I could see the whole experience leading to a softening of his personality. in my ideal world this would mostly be just temporary, with his usual Bakuattitude gradually being restored piece by piece as his soul searching adventures wear on and he starts acting like his old self more and more. but I do think that in the end, the loss of that insecurity in particular would go a long way towards helping him gain the ability to chill out just a little bit more when the situation calls for it.

d.) it strips him of that physical strength he’s depended on and defined himself by his whole life. sometimes we need to lose something in order to see and appreciate the other things we take for granted or don’t even realize that we have. Katsuki has so many other qualities that make him a good person and a great hero. he’s intelligent, perceptive, brave, resourceful, and extraordinarily determined. he’s strategic and analytical and quick-thinking. he inspires devotion in others and is a natural leader. and he is honest and sticks to his principles and stands up for his beliefs. there is so much more to admire about him than just strength. so many other kinds of strength that he has. and stripping his quirk away would force him to see that at long last. he’s not just a nobody without his power. the things that make him a worthy hero at his core have very little to do with his quirk.

e.) and then the big one -- learning to see past himself. the truth is that Bakugou has always led a relatively privileged life. he was good at everything, the things he wanted came very easily to him, and he’s basically been at the top of the food chain since he was very young. but the downside of this is that it led to a deep-seeded fear of losing all of that, or failing to live up to it. and because he feared weakness so much, he’s spent his entire life looking down on weaker people. his fear of weakness led to him despising anyone with those “weak” qualities that he secretly feared, rather than having compassion for them. add to that the fact that he just has a hard time seeing outside of his own perspective, and we’ve got a situation in which perhaps the only way for him to really gain that kind of compassion and empathy is to experience some of these things for himself.

becoming quirkless is a way of presenting new challenges to him that he would have never faced otherwise. it forces him to answer questions he’s always been too afraid to ask. it forces him to look at himself in a way he never has before, to take a good long look at his own fears and desires. what if you can’t become the number one hero? do you just give up? do you stop trying? do you stubbornly push back against the inevitable? what happens if you do become weak? do you just accept that for the rest of your life? just sit back and watch as everyone else moves on without you? how can you fight without a quirk? what can you do without a quirk? why did you want to become a hero in the first place? why did you seek out strength? what was it for? why do you struggle with everything you have to reach the very top??

and I’d like to think that some of the answers to those questions are, yes, I am still strong. and, no, I can’t give up. and, no, I won’t accept defeat, no matter what. and, I’m not sure, but no matter what happens I’ll keep on fighting. and, because the person I admired taught me to never, ever give up. and, because I wanted to surpass my limits. and, because I want to be the best version of myself.

and that is growth. and it’s precisely the kind of growth you can’t achieve until you’ve searched deep within yourself and laid your soul out bare. and it will make him a better character, and a better hero in the end. and that’s what we’re all here for isn’t it? that’s literally what this story is about. the journey of these kids growing up to become spectacular heroes. so, just, I don’t know. is it really such a great surprise that I want to see it?

anyways, this was by far the longest of these answers and this post is really starting to wear on, so let’s just get to the last one and wrap this up.

5. losing his quirk would mean him falling hopelessly behind Deku, and playing second fiddle to him when he should be Deku’s equal. it would render his whole story and all of his development meaningless.

okay, listen. first of all, this argument often comes bundled with a whole host of other arguments about Bakugou’s relationship with Deku, and how the narrative has already given him numerous other “losses” to Deku, and how this would just be the latest and greatest loss of all. and I’m just going to say it straight up: this argument is ridiculous to me. actually, what it reminds me of is the very same flawed mindset that Bakugou himself has which I mentioned earlier (the forgotten point 4.a), where he is obsessed with comparing his progress to Deku’s at all times, and only considers himself a success if he beats out Deku. the idea here is basically that Bakugou and Deku are running along parallel tracks with the same end goal/finish line of becoming a hero. and so if Deku gets too far ahead and starts lapping Bakugou or something, then it’s like a slap in the face with regard to all of Bakugou’s hard work, and it makes Bakugou’s whole journey pointless because no matter what, he’ll never be able to catch up, especially if he loses his quirk, which is like the metaphorical equivalent of him spraining his ankle.

the thing is, this entire analogy is flawed. first of all, if Bakugou doesn’t sprain his ankle at some point, he'll miss out on discovering and healing a separate underlying injury that’s been unknowingly hampering his progress this entire time. and second, the race isn’t timed. it’s more like an infinite series of races where the finish line is never actually set in stone, because the finish line isn’t actually “beat the other person”; the finish line is “run as fast and as far as you possibly can, and do it in a better way than anyone has ever done before, and while you’re at it maybe stop and save a few million people, because being the best runner isn’t actually about being faster than each other, even though that admittedly makes this a pretty crappy analogy.” anyways though, so what this means is that the sheer magnitude and scale of this race is such that little victories and losses here and there are ultimately meaningless in the big picture. maybe Bakugou sprains his ankle. maybe Deku breaks an arm or two or three or four. maybe someone shows up at some point and starts uprooting the entire track all around them and they have to put the whole race aside for the time being, because what the fuck. and maybe after spraining his ankle, Bakugou eventually comes zooming back ahead on a segway. and maybe Deku stops running for a while without Bakugou there, because he loses sight of his goal without his rival there to keep him on pace.

but anyway! the point is that declaring a winner and loser in this race before we reach the end is kind of absurd in that it ignores the whole nature of the race and how long-term it is. you see the beauty of the race is that it’s actually the opposite of footraces in real life. in this race, the longer the two of them run, the faster and stronger they become. and this same logic applies to any hurdles which are placed in their lanes along the way. the goal of these hurdles isn’t to trick or punish or humiliate them; it’s to help them get even faster and stronger and ultimately closer to their goal. and also, tbh? it’s a long, long race you guys. and so sometimes, as a fan, you almost start to want to see those hurdles. because otherwise it’s just a lot of endless running and running and running. so yeah, go ahead and throw in a damn hurdle or two and some traffic cones and maybe even a long jump here and there. because that’s part of what makes the thing great to watch in the first place.

and I don’t care whether or not Deku is ahead right now, because I also love Deku too by the way, and because I’m not invested in prematurely declaring a winner. and if Bakugou himself gets upset that Deku is ahead? if Deku pulling ahead of him is enough to send him spiraling into despair, and questioning everything about his life, and losing hope and purpose? well then honestly I would say that’s all the more reason for him to go on and get that new character development, because I don’t want him to always be hindered by those kind of toxic thoughts his entire life. their rivalry should serve to make each other better, not bring each other down. so if Bakugou’s ego is still so fragile that he can’t handle a loss to Deku -- a loss, mind you, not the loss, because ultimately these are all just little battles, and not the actual war -- then I want him to grow the fuck up and get the fuck over that, goddammit. he’s a bigger person than that. I want him to grow beyond that. I want him to develop the real, actual confidence that allows him to bounce back from something like that, and to move on better and wiser and stronger, instead of getting dragged down by the pettiness of it all.

in short, if losing to Deku would really be enough to render his story meaningless, then maybe it’s time for Bakugou to find some meaning in his story that’s not dependent on him winning or losing to Deku. because I for one am not actually in this thing just to see which character “wins.” I couldn’t care less who actually wins. I just want to see my boy grow up big and strong and self-actualized, the better to kick ass without anything holding him back. that’s it.

so this brings me at last to the end of this seemingly neverending post. I have no doubt this won’t be the last of my quirkless!Bakugou debate posts in spite of me trying to comprehensively address every single point I could think of lol. but for now it’s my best attempt. and by the way, if it doesn’t actually happen, that’s fine! I love the idea, but I’m not gonna go full on “oh happy dagger” with it if it doesn’t actually pan out lol. the downside is it will mean that I’ve posted this entire 5600-word dissertation for nothing, but you know what, sometimes that’s just how fandom goes.

[soundsof71]

Hey! Album: 'Fleetwood Mac' (1975) - Fleetwood Mac

Hey! Great to hear from you! You (and your previous blog) were my original inspiration for trying to raise my tumblr game to something intentionally curated, and more than that, personally creative. Sorry to have let you down. LOL

What a pleasure to talk about this one, though, an album I think is -- strangely enough -- one of the most underrated albums in the classic rock pantheon!

What’s that you say? An album with “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” underrated?!?! Well it’s true, seriously underrated, at least partly because those two stellar, nay, legendary songs are the first ones that most people think of. There's so much more! It's definitely my favorite Fleetwood Mac album!

My perspective is a little different than the standard rap that Fleetwood Mac didn't properly begin until those two California kids joined the band in 1975, because to me, they started taking off when their first American joined the band, Bob Welch in 1971 for Future Games, which I wrote about at some length here. 

(For the record, Future Games is my second favorite Fleetwood Mac album. Anyone who hasn't checked it out really needs to.)

I’ll leave it at that for now, except to observe that to most of my music nerd friends at the time, I was a latecomer to Fleetwood Mac the band, having completely missed their earlier, bluesier lineups. Indeed, the 1971 lineup was their 8th! And they'd come to #9 in 1972, before landing on lineup #10 in 1975.

They had a bunch of hits on the five albums in this 71-74 range (”Hypnotized” is one that still slays me) that I think hold up as among their best ever. While the album before Fleetwood Mac, Heroes Are Hard to Find didn’t have a hit single, it rose to #34 on the US charts, and got plenty of attention. 

My point is that Fleetwood Mac didn’t spring into existence out of nowhere in 1975. Nor was 1975 necessarily ground zero for the millions of people who bought the album Fleetwood Mac. It came out in the summer of ‘75, but took 15 months to hit #1 in the US! (It peaked at #11 in the UK.) This was a far bigger album in 1976 when all the singles came out, and the band was touring like crazy to support it.

They basically dragged the album to the top of the charts kicking and screaming by the end of THAT year with relentless touring, setting the stage for their true commercial breakthrough with Rumours in 1977, but artistically? I prefer everything about 1975′s Fleetwood Mac.

btw, the music nerds know that Fleetwood Mac was recorded at Sound City Studios, which makes all the difference in the telling of the tale. In 1974, the band had located to Los Angeles, and following the departure of Bob Welch in December, Mick Fleetwood went looking for both a recording studio and a guitarist. 

While getting to know producer Keith Olsen at Sound City (a studio legendary for its drum sound, among other things), Keith played Mick some tracks from an album he’d recorded here a couple of years earlier with a local guitarist and his girlfriend singer, both of whom were also songwriters.

Mick said, I’ll book the studio to record my next album, I’ll book you to produce, and I’ll hire the guitarist....who famously informed Mick that he and his girlfriend were a package deal. All of this happened because of Sound City Studios.

(Here's Mick recording this very album in this very studio.)

Your friend and mine Dave Grohl directed a FANTASTIC documentary about Sound City Studios, a kind of a dump to be honest, but where tons of phenomenal records were made, from After The Gold Rush to Caribou, Damn The Torpedoes, Nevermind, Rage Against The Machine, and most recently, Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher. Lots and lots of stories about the making of Fleetwood Mac in this movie, and much more. 

Here’s the trailer. The whole movie is available on YT, too! And Amazon Prime, and a bunch of other places. HIGHLY recommended!

So here we go taking directly about Fleetwood Mac.....

the first song from the album i heard: "Over My Head". This was the first single released in the US, remarkably, four months after the album was released! I dunno, did the label not want to sell any albums? Or did they just not get how catchy these tunes were? I have no idea.

And ironically, the band didn't like the choice of "Over My Head" at all, ranking it dead-last in their own considerations of likely singles! I think that this is evidence that they were using heavy drugs much earlier than we thought. LOL

"Over My Head" peaked at #20 in the US, their highest to date by far, although, in some defense of the band's reservations, didn't chart at all in the UK. Saying that it rose to "only" 20 in the charts doesn't begin to describe how heavily it was played, though. A LOT.

do i own the album: Did then, Spotify now. The answer for most of the albums in this round of Asks. :-)

my favorite song: "Over My Head". Look, I admit that this is insane when Fleetwood Mac also includes "Landslide" and "Rhiannon." "Landslide" in particular is maybe one of the greatest songs anyone has ever written, and every single person reading this knows somebody named Rhiannon because of that song. (I've met two.) And hey, "Say You Love Me" was a MUCH bigger hit at the time too... but I'm tellin' ya, "Over My Head" fucks. 

It's the single version that fucks hardest, though, no doubt about it. I was disappointed when I finally bought the album that the version there fades in (NO! THIS IS WRONG) and has a wide mix that diffuses the impact. The radio version is so tight that it's practically mono, and it punches you right upside the head. 

One of my favorite things about listening to "Over My Head" in the past couple of weeks for this Ask is that it's Old School Fleetwood Mac. Chris on piano, Mick on drums, and John McVie with what might be the best bassline that anyone stroked out in 1975. My god, it's a fucking monster, and it just gets hotter as the song progresses. By the end, it's on fire, and you hear it so much better in this tight single mix.

The new guy adds a nice little solo on top of a nice rhythm lick, and he and Stevie add background vocals, but they're not front and center. "Over My Head" is really Christine McVie's showcase, although Fleetwood and Mac really shine too. This would have been a monster hit without the new kids, as indeed it pretty much was. You could say the same thing about "Say You Love Me", which is also all about Christine's songcraft, and a voice like no other, then or now.

Here's my edit of a lovely Mick Putland photo of Christine McVie from a couple of years earlier.

I guarantee that it's been way too long since you heard the in-your-face single version of "Over My Head". On Spotify, you can find it on the couple of Deluxe Editions of Fleetwood Mac (here's one), and it's also on the anthology, The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, which I've embedded here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-lIt1ILzk

least favorite song: "I'm So Afraid." I'm so afraid not. LOL

a song I didn’t like at first, but now do: Hmm, I might put "Sugar Daddy" in that category, but honestly, the main thing I don't like about this song is the title. LOL But it's the 4th best Christine McVie song on an album where the best three of hers were all released as singles, so I guess it all works out.

a song I used to like, but now don’t: Anything by the new guy. I'm not going to go into detail here because what I love about this album, I still love. At the time, I dug two of his songs here (you can guess which two, surely), but I started to really despise this guy a few years later. Now, I can't listen to anything where he's prominent at all, on any Fleetwood Mac records.

Fortunately there are more than enough Christine and Stevie songs, and Mick and John's playing, plus all those earlier albums like Future Games, to keep Fleetwood Mac in the rock good pantheon. I'd have fired the new guy 30 years earlier than he was. 

favorite lyric:

Mirror in the sky

What is love?

Can the child within my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changin'

'Cause I've built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I'm getting older too

Like I said, the two Stevie Nicks tracks on Fleetwood Mac deserve every bit of the love they've gotten over the years. You can also see with just a quick glance around my blog that she's one of my most-posted artists. Please don't take me repping Christine as any disrespect for Stevie!

Do I like "Landslide" a little more than I otherwise might because it's specifically about outgrowing the aforementioned new guy? Maybe.  Or do I like it a little less than I otherwise might because I can't hear it without thinking of him? Maybe that too.

overall rating out of 10: Then: 9.4. Now: 9. The new guy went 2-for-4 for my money at the time, and the two that he whiffed on are genuinely terrible...but as bad as those two clunkers were, the rest of the album seemed perfect to me. Certainly among my most-played mainstream rock records into the early 80s. I was perfectly fine skipping one song on each side.

Even though nowadays I can't stand any of the songs he sings lead on, you take those off, and you STILL have "Landslide", "Rhiannon", "Say You Love Me", "Over My Head", and "Warm Ways". No album with ALL THOSE on them gets less than an 8.5, right?

I'm adding a few tenths each for how tightly Fleetwood and Mac are locked into each other and these songs on rythm (easily the most underrated duo of the era, sez me), and Keith Olsen's immaculate production. The score of 9 is therefore objectively correct and mathematically unassailable. LOL

I'm going to end where I began, by talking about Christine McVie. Instead of listening to this first and foremost as an album with a couple of giant Stevie Nicks songs, listen again to Fleetwood Mac as Christine McVie really lighting things up. She deserves so much more credit for the band's success than she gets, and seriously, "Over My Head" fucks. 

Now looky here, @aluacrescente . I know that YOU have strong feelings about this record, so spill! And the rest of you, too! I don't intend to have the last word on the albums in any of these Asks! Just the first one. :-) So lemme know what YOU think!

PS. Apologies for any formatting weirdness! I started this on desktop, where I do all my writing, saved the first few paragraphs to come back to later, only to be told by tumblr that I'd stated this on the app (DID NOT) and could only edit there. Grrr. Not cool, @staff. I've spent another day just tweaking to make it somewhat readable and wondering how these people can be so bad at their jobs. LOL

My crackpot opinions and wobbly writing are my own of course, and I'm aware that they have a larger negative impact on readability than tumblr's incompetence by far. LOL

[supop]

I dont like to waste my time sending vent anons to people. I like to think that I've grown from that, but when I see someone trying to tear another person down by making fun of their insecurities and rubbing it in their face, it triggers the hell out of me. And you are one of the worst I've seen. I hope you can heal from whatever anger you have towards BTS, because these "exposés" are truly a waste of your time and everyone else's timeline.

Talking is one of my specialities, if you haven’t already noticed. It takes little to no time for me to respond to my asks. Every post I’ve made has been a response. You don’t see me going out of my way to make actual posts do you? Conjuring up new ideas and discussions? Thought so. The people ask and I answer. Simple. Don’t complicate it. I could do this shit in my sleep. It’s why we have functioning brains.

“Tear another person down by making fun of their insecurities and rubbing it in their face.” Lol thanks for admitting Jimin is truly a vile and insecure human being. There’d be nothing tearing him down if everything stacked against him wasn’t straight facts. He should be ashamed to call himself a member of BTS, much less a diplomat. “South Korea’s Pride”? An ironic title given that he’s such a shameless person.

You know what’s even funnier? If you go to my earlier posts you’ll notice how all the idiot jimin fans went from cursing at me and blabbing on and on about how I’m posting lies, to going “post an exposé no one cares.” They’re always so fucking loud for no reason. Then once presented with evidence it’s suddenly mute and “leave jimin alone”. Make up your minds bastards. “Waste of time”. Yet here you are. On my blog. Reading my posts. Clearly you find them somewhat entertaining, and if not, YOU’RE wasting your time sweetheart.

Do you know what’s truly a waste of time? The millions of ARMYs that keep up with every single thing BTS does and treat it like like their side jobs. I mean it’s not like they’re getting paid for it. It’s not like HYBE is sending all fans personal thank you notes. All these 7 men have to do is get on Weverse for 5 seconds and post “I love you ARMY” next thing you know everyone is in a frenzy talking about how much BTS loves them. Now that’s a waste. I wish BTS could just focus on making music like the artists they are instead of BigHit treating their careers like one big reality show strewn up across screens for ARMYs to feast their eyes on. And then we wonder why the fandom has suddenly become about ships and accomplishments that have absolutely nothing to do with music.

I couldn’t even begin to fathom dedicating a large chunk of my time every day to human beings who have no idea I even exists. Then again, that’s the whole point of a parasocial relationship. HYBE and BTS take your hearts, minds, souls, and money. And in return all they have to do is give you heartfelt words, subpar music, and OH RIGHT, LOTS AND LOTS of “ships” and “we are a family” content. If BTS disbands ARMYs are going to be so devastated. The dependency is strange. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to talk about how most BTS fans get more excited about the members holding hands than they do about the members releasing music. Whatever. Whatever keeps the whole fan economy running, I guess. From a purely economic standpoint, if worked at HYBE, I’d keep releasing shitty content too with the knowledge that fans eat it all up like starved children.

“Heal.” If I had some sort of trauma that would probably make my whole “villian origin” story more interesting right? Like I already explained. The truth is, I simply have to much time on my hands, and stupid bitchass dumbass useless worthless jimin idiot cunt stans happened to trigger some of that time in his direction. Whoops, sorry for all the curse words. Perhaps I am a bit still angry about that.

Like I’ve said before:

If I could say all this shit to Jimin’s face I would. Seriously, I’d love to pick his brain and find out how he could be so disgusting behind the scenes. Yet smile and giggle at the camera like he’s the sweetest person you’d ever come across. It’s scary. He’s scary and so are his delusional fans.

[leavaloo]

Applin To Give and to Kick Ass

Hi guys! As most of you know, I’ve been extremely busy lately and also dealing with some shit on the side, so I wasn’t able to write anything for Valentines Day! I know, such a crime that an imagines blog didn’t post on V-Day. It’s okay! I’ll make it up to you here~

As a further notice, I will be deleting most of my inbox requests, as a lot of them have been sitting for a while. I apologize to those who are left, but this is needed.

Anyways, have some Raihan V-Day fluff!

Raihan knew a lot about dragons. Like, a lot. Dragon expert to the core, so much so that he ended up taking on some of their draconic qualities. Like protectiveness, jealousy, and every once in a while, a growl. Raihan also knew a lot about the Applin tales, as per his title as dragon expert and the vault keeper. Yet for some reason, he didn’t think that they would play a part in his life, until now.

Applins were fairly common in Galar as a declaration of love, and because of his titles, he had been asked so many times of where to find them, how to breed the right one, yadda yadda. Even some gym leaders like Nessa had asked his advice on this topic. And now, with Valentines day coming up, it was all the rage.

You had been champion for some time now, and already you were proving to be both formidable, dependable, and breathtaking. You didn’t use the typical cape that Leon wore, and instead, made your own outfit that made it look like you were dancing whenever a particularly powerful move whipped your dress around. Honestly, you treated a lot of your matches like a contest, and it had garnered you a lot of attention, and possible suitors.

That’s why Raihan never felt like he had a chance. You were beautiful! Even a lot of the other gym leaders had been talking about you, some of them wondering if you were single. That was when Raihan figured out how jealous he was. He all but snapped at Milo when directed a question about it at him, but he played it off that he was just stressed recently and apologized.

A day before Valentines day, you waltzed into his gym. He wasn’t expecting it, and he was honestly caught off guard. Even in your casual attire, you were striking. You were asking for some documents, and so Raihan lead you back to his office, and all the while, he had a difficult time even looking in your direction.

“Working right before Valentines day? I would’ve thought you’d wanna lay low.” He finally sent one of his signature smiles your way, trying to lighten the heaviness in his heart.

You chuckled and smiled back. “Honestly, me moving about makes it harder for the fanboys to track me. I don’t need anymore applin in my boxes, which might be entirely your fault.”

Raihan sheepishly laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeaaah... sorry about that.” He remembered the onslaught of guys who had sought him out in the previous weeks, all asking for applin advice.

“Though, I guess it gave me some good applins to get my own ideal one.”

Raihan’s eyes snapped over to you, looking over your figure. You were looking straight ahead, small grin on your face and a tiny blush on your cheeks. You had someone in mind for this applin. He figured he might as well test the waters, if not only to quell his own internal panic.

“‘Ideal applin’, huh? Does this applin have an intended recipient?”

You laughed, following the dragon up the stairs to his office. “It does, yes. Do you have an applin for someone, Raihan?”

I did, he thought to himself, but shook his head. “No. The person I would give it to has probably already been taken.”

You feigned a surprised gasp. “The infamous Raihan, with so many thousands of fangirls, somehow doesn’t get his feelings reciprocated?! How cruel!”

Finally, he was able to laugh. He hadn’t been able to do that in a while, what with him stressing, but you always managed to make his mood lighter. Though the dread of him not being your chosen recipient shot through him again when he opened the door to his office. “After you,” he purred. If there was one thing Raihan was good at, it was acting.

As he searched for the required documents, you wandered around his office, looking at all of the different dragon type memorabilia. It took longer than expected, because every time he looked up, you were happily smiling at another picture on his walls. Some were from Lance’s time, another was a championship match from Unova with Iris, and some legendary dragons were sprinkled in there.

After searching all of the file cabinets, his desk and some other places, he got everything together and handed it to you. They were all about how the power plant fared after the recent events with the Darkest Day, and as he approached you, he noticed that your demeanor became... fidgety. Your blush was more prominent, and you wouldn’t look him in the eyes. You just smiled, took the documents, said goodbye and rushed out the door before Raihan could say anything.

With a frown on his face, he sighed and went to sit as his desk. He leaned back in the chair, a huge sigh coursing through his body. It was then that he noticed a new addition to his desk. He furrowed his eyes and leaned forward to look at it closer. A loveball pokeball, sitting there and facing him. His heart rose in his chest, almost scared to touch it. His hands didn’t even meet the pokeball when the familiar blue light popped out, situating itself firmly on his lap.

An applin. Not just any applin. A shiny, bright green applin, already fast asleep on his lap. He couldn’t even make any sound, he was so shocked. His heart was racing a million miles an hour, he could barely process that it was holding two things. A sweet apple, and a note.

Dear Raihan,

I’m not very good at this love stuff, and I know this is really cliche, but this is the easiest way to get my feelings across. This applin is specifically bred to not only be shiny, but also have everything you need to make a badass competitive mon. I figured you already had someone special, so I just wanted to make this quick and easy. I didn’t want to hold it in anymore.

P.S. I’d like to grab some coffee with you sometime.

[Y/N]

Raihan read over the note several times, a smile brimming on his face. Then he took out his phone, held the sleeping applin up to his chest in a warm embrace, and snapped a selfie. He pulled up your text chain with him and sent the picture.

Raihan, 12:59pm

you know you could’ve stayed right

A couple seconds later, he got a ding, and wondered if you had expected something along these lines.

Cutie Bean, 1:00pm

I’M SORRY OKAY I GET NERVOUS

Cutie Bean, 1:00pm

I wanted to stay but I was... to scared.

Raihan, 1:01pm

did u really need those documents? lol

Cutie Bean, 1:01pm

...Yes, but I figured I’d leave that there too...

Raihan, 1:01pm

well, i think i’ll name her Cutie Pie after what I have you in my phone

Raihan, 1:02pm

besides, i think a coffee date tomorrow would be absolutely perfect, my cute little dragon <3

Raihan, 1:02pm

unless u have other plans? :(

Cutie Bean, 1:03pm

You’re my plan now <3

Cutie Bean, 1:03pm

Shit I have to find something to wear.

For the rest of the day, you and Raihan were texting back and forth. Everyone was wondering why he suddenly looked so happy after sulking for almost two weeks straight, but then they noticed the applin sleeping happily in the hood of his hoodie. The more that Raihan looked at Cutie Pie, he realized just how terrifying of a mon this could be. Amazing IV’s, right nature, hidden ability. He vowed to not only kiss you till the sun rose, but also someday kick your ass with this girl. If she were to ever wake up.

[youngbugandtonystank]

If you can, do some more of the facial and body language analysis posts because they're soooo good, I love them and your blog 💕

Hi, I’m sorry for the long wait!

This must be the hardest analysis yet. I cried three times writing this, so I’m sharing my pain with you.

1. Peter is a kid.

2. Tony and Peter are a team.

3. He’s traumatized.

Ok, the first thing you gotta understand about Peter Parker in these movies: he is a kid. 

No matter how much you want him to act all grown up and capable, he’s a kid. A very brave kid. Throughout the movie, Peter remains calm and collected because he really wants to help and he understands the gravity of the situation. Bear in my mind this kid is not acting because someone gave him orders but because they informed him what’s going on. He knows that they need to take the gauntlet off, he knows Thanos is dangerous and this could be the complete demise of not only his neighboorhood but the entire earth. We all know that at the end of the movie, Peter shows just how scared he was all the time.

‘You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man...if there's no neighborhood.’

The minute he realizes that there’s trouble, he goes and helps.

It’s been two years since Homecoming (it was confirmed that the time gap between HOCO and IW was two years even if Peter says he’s 16 in FFH. This could possibly be a mistake since not many people knew much about IW and Endgame back then. Also, in HOCO there was a similar mistake with the timeline. "Eight years later") Peter’s been spiderman for almost three years and he knows how to control and work his powers better. He probably trained with Tony and he has now more experience with all the superhero thing. 

Now, Peter is his very own independent hero, he has his story but some people think that everything about him revolves around Tony and I’ve said it before, in my HOCO analysis that the reason people think this is because Tony Stark is a very big presence in the MCU and it’s easy to overlook the other details about Peter’s life when someone that big is also there too. But, any fan who really loves Spiderman knows that Peter’s journey is about growth. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about responsibility. It’s about him finding his way into this world and surviving it. It’s about him protecting the little guy because he is the little kid in a big world like his. His attachment to Tony has more to do with the fact that he wants a male figure in his life, one that is alive. He wants the comfort, the safety and the support that comes with it. A teenage wanting those things is not out of the ordinary. He’s allowed to have more than one paternal figure in his life. Don’t constraint Peter just because you don’t like Tony Stark.

And Peter himself confirms this: 

‘Peter knew he should feel all these things -help other people, being responsible inthe hero business- without Tony’s approval. But, right now, Peter wanted Mr. Stark to approve of him more than anything.’ 

‘Mr. Stark made him feel normal and okay. Something he thought he’d never feel again.’

Something very interesting to me was how both Tony and Peter reacted the same way when the aliens came. Tony was internally panicking and said to Bruce: ‘This is it.’ And in the IW novelization, the moment Peter saw the space ship he said to himself: ‘This was it. He had to do something.’ 

Something that I just love about this is how much they know each other too well. Tony knows Peter is stubborn and he won’t give up easily. Tony told him that Strange ‘The wizard’ was in trouble and Peter went after Maw and didn’t let go even if he was getting dragged up to space, so he did what he usually did when Peter was being difficult. Force him back to earth. And Peter? He cooperates with him so well, he calculates his mentor’s next moves and goes along with it. They’re a team. They have worked together before. Two years of working together. Look at the coordination, how they flawlessly work together. They’ve done this before. How Tony just informs Peter what’s going on instead of yelling and panicking. He understands Peter is pretty capable of defending himself. 

Later, they demonstrate this again with this:

Peter is capable of thinking of a solution because this kid, no matter how many pop culture references, is a genius and will be a great strategist in the future and Tony knows this. He left EDITH to Peter for these reasons.

This is routine for them. Tony makes this a teachable lesson. lol. ‘Come on. We got a situation. See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan?’

He’s a dad, forgive him.

I love how they just bicker while Strange is getting tortured down there lmao. 

This part only solidifies their relationship. Look at Peter looks so done and disappointed because this is the same argument Tony gives him when he’s in danger. Tony may trust Peter but his safety always comes first and Peter knows this. Look at him: 

He takes in the situation and even if he can come back to earth and fight the other aliens there, he won’t leave Tony. I want to clarify that the reason Peter is in space is because 1. He wants to fight. He wants to help. He’s said it before, if he has the chance to help, he'll do it. He’s spiderman and is his responsibility to help if he can. This is the essence of Spiderman. 

‘When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.’

2. Tony. He’s a loyal kid and he loves his mentor. People regularly point out Tony’s fear of losing Peter but Peter is just equally scared of losing Tony.

‘speaking of loyalty...’  ‘I just thought about you on the way...and kinda stuck to the side of the ship.’

So he fights Tony on this. He won’t let him not participate. He already lost Ben, he won’t lose Tony. He knows this is a dangerous situation, he wants to protect his people. He feels responsible for them and he’ll fight to do the right thing.

Another thing is how much Peter trusts Tony. He knows and is so sure that Tony will keep him safe, no matter what. This is because Tony has proved this before. Multiple times. He knows he’s Tony’s priority even if the world is practically ending. 

‘He wanted him away from all of Tony’s complicated feelings around caring about this kid way too much to focus on the task at hand.’

‘Tony had to keep himself calm and not think back to mere seconds ago when that terror had been his own, directly connected to the possibility of losing Peter Parker.’

‘Tony had only continued onto the ship because he felt certain that he’d gotten Peter safely out of harm’s way. With Peter here, very much IN harm’s way, would he be able to fully concentrate on the task at hand?’

‘They were about to take on the greatest enemy they’d ever faced. This was an enemy that had haunted Tony for six years. An enemy that threatened to wipe out half of the universe, untold trillions of beings with the snap of his fingers. He had a wide-eyed kid he had to protect’

‘Is this… oh, no… is this how it feels? To be on the other end of this? He owed Pepper an apology. He owed Pepper a lot of apologies.’

I love how Tony is comparing Pepper’s love for him with his own love for Peter. This not only tells you Peter is part of his family but just as Endgame confirms it, Peter is one of the few people he loves the most in the world.

Later, when the guardians attack, look at how Peter stays put, he could easily get himself out of Quill’s grip but he doesn’t, he lets Tony handle the situation. 

Makes me wonder how many times they’ve been in this situation. Homecoming!Peter would’ve done something very reckless. He would’ve risked his life or someone else's but this is a 17-year-old kid who’s had Tony as his mentor, he’s had May to think about and he won’t let Ben down. 

Also,  the non-verbal communication between them is very telling. How the glances, the trust and the way they fight tells us how much they mean to each other. How he always looks at Tony for his reaction and how both of them are in synch with everything. 

Now, let’s talk about this kid’s bravery in this film. Look at him, this is peak bravery. This kid is kicking one of the most terrifying and powerful titans on the universe. 

Even if I loved FFH, I think they shouldn’t have skipped the part where Peter dwells with the repercussions of his trauma. They should’ve focused on Peter’s traumas and experiences after passing through all of this.

Look at this, you do really believe this kid wouldn’t have nightmares of this monster? He probably sees his face in every nightmare. This titan killed Tony. This titan killed him and half of the universe. He threw him around like a rag doll, chocked him and slammed him against the ground. 

One of the most heartbreaking things is that Mysterio is right about what he said to Peter. ‘Maybe if you were good enough, Tony would still be alive’ Peter feels responsible. He does. Remember how Peter was a big part in securing the gauntlet? He took the gauntlet off Thanos. He actually did it. He took it off. For Peter, there were pretty close. That was it. He doesn’t know what Strange knows, Strange must’ve seen in all of the millions of possibilities he saw that even if Peter took the gauntlet off, Thanos would still win. But Peter doesn’t know this. He thinks he almost got it. 

When he came back, he was one of the people who went after the gauntlet to protect it. He took it because he felt like this was his responsibility before waking up and now he’s trying to amend that by taking care of it. Thanos started blowing people off with lasers and Peter still held the gauntlet like it was his lifeline. 

He feels like he failed. The person who used the gauntlet, later on, is his mentor.

Of course he feels like he failed. He feels responsible for Tony’s death even if he’s not. 

‘I don't think Tony would have done what he did, if he didn't know you were going to be here after he was gone.’

He knows that Tony practically did it for him. Tony is a hero and he would’ve done that regardless but the motivation behind all of it, it was Peter. Always Peter.

‘Tony second-guessed everything he did. But the one thing he didn't second guess was picking you.’

It’s natural that Peter feels responsible. Look at the catatonic way he behaves after the horrible experience. He’s still in shock.

Peter is the kind of kid that stands tall and bounces back up when the situation demands it but he’s also the kind of kid that wants to introduce himself to a magical cape and walk ladies across the street.

Look at him: This kid is scared but his bravery doesn’t let him hesitate. He knows what’s right and he knows in his heart, what he needs to do.

This is the kind of kid that would go to war with his mentor, stay on the space ship to save one person, come back from being dead and fight all over again.

Now, this is the most painful part and I almost wanted to skip it because... I’m still not over it and I never will. I still think Tony deserved a different ending.

So first Tony witness one of his biggest nightmares. Peter dying. Peter, for the first time in this film, shows us just how scared he truly is. He sees how the others start fading and he feels his demise coming. It’s inevitable. So he thinks in the one thing he always thinks about when he’s in a place where he can’t save himself. He goes to Tony. He thinks Tony can save him. Tony always saved him so why would this time be different, right? He desperately clings to Tony and begs him to save him. He doesn’t want to die. 

When he knows that there’s no other way, he gives up. This 17-year-old kid just gave up on his life and apologized for it. This just tells you how selfless Peter is. He’s dying and he’s concerned Tony is going to blame himself for his death. 

Then, when he comes back, from Peter’s perspective, it’s only been a couple of hours or minutes but he doesn’t know he lost 5 years of his life. Imagine how traumatic it was for him when he realized he’s been dead for years. 

He lets Tony hug him. He’s probably done this before. I refuse to believe this is their second hug after two years. Just because this hug is more emotionally charged doesn’t mean Peter didn’t get any affection from Tony before. 

Then the terrible thing happens. He realizes his mentor is dying and tells him the thing no one else told him: ‘We won and you did it, sir.’ 

Tony did it and Peter is aware of this. He tells him it’s him, it’s Peter. It’s someone he trusts and knows. ‘Can you hear me?’ He clings to him and by the look on his face, Peter’s in pain. He passed through this once and now he’s doing it again. For Peter, this is history repeating and he feels like is his fault all over again. 

He’s begging Tony to come back now. He’s watching his father figure die. This kid must be pretty messed up. I thought that after this he wouldn’t be capable of trusting people again but maybe FFH took another direction and showed us that nothing can corrupt Peter’s pure heart. Tony would’ve wanted him to stay pure. It’s just who he is, he always put others before himself. 

In my perspective, I think Peter is not over Tony’s death. He’s not even halfway there. He’s still in denial, he’s still assimilating, he’s still going through it and it’s going to take some time.

Peter is one of the bravest kids out there and that alone should be a big reason to have mad respect for him. He has been through hell and back and he still comes out on top in every situation.

Tony is a big part of his life, and he is always going to be. Peter has Tony in his heart and his presence will still be on him the rest of life. He loves Tony and will always love him, whether you like it or not and if you want to be mad about this, stay mad. This is a fact and no matter how much whining you do, there’s nothing you can do to change that.