#but learning is a lot of fun and the power of these programs is close to infinite

[mins-fins]

orbit of yours !

"power couple, really?" "you have to listen to me!"

synopsis: park jisung has always admired you. hardworking, effortlessly beautiful, talented, humble— you're pretty much the personification of the word 'perfect' (you would disagree though), but your relationship has never gotten past "admirers that occasionally exchange words", so jisung has vanquished the idea of possibly being in love with you because of your lack of interactions, he's just an avid admirer of yours! so when a few accidents and mishaps force (more like drive) the two of you to be in the same room more than you ever had in the past, the idea doesn't just remain a random fantasy crafted by jisung's mind, it becomes reality.

pairing: park jisung x male!reader

genre: high school au, acquaintances to friends to lovers, photographer!reader x soccer player!jisung, fluff, kinda comedy (im not funny), mutual pining, literally no angst, fast burn lowkey, sungchan helps reader realize his feelings and it's hilarious

warnings: swearing, mentions of burnout, oblivious bitches deny their feelings for a good 10k words, this is fucking cheesy, the nightmare which is senior year

word count: 12.2k

notes: GOOD LORD IT IS FINALLY DONE! i don't wanna be overdramatic or anything but this is genuinely one of my most favorite works ever, if you couldn't tell i am VERY jisung biased and im so happy to finally be done with this because it's honestly been so fun to write 🙁 i didn't beat the xiaojun fic in terms of words but this the second longest fic i have ever written and for my jisung debut its impressive that there is absolutely NO ANGST here, i'm just very proud of myself for this and i hope people like reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it.. this is for all the park jisung lovers 👍

"WHEN WILL YOU ACTUALLY GET A PARTNER?" chenle asks the question so many times that jisung assumes the sentence has been programmed into his brain. what is it— like the 3rd time this week? he thinks chenle might be more obsessed with his love life than he is with actual important things, like college, graduation preparations, his role as a member of the student council, anything but jisung's uneventful love life, because that was probably the least interesting thing going on in his own life at the moment. "come on jisungie! i heard aejung has a crush on you!" he lets out a familiar groan, giving his friends a 'cut it out' look. "i don't really care about that kind of stuff.."

he hears all the frustrated sighs from his friends, and jisung just chuckles. he knows about the many surprisingly many— people who find themselves attracted to him. he acknowledges the fact that he has a lot of admirers, that a lot of people would perceive themselves as lucky to be in a relationship with him, he isn't new to the idea at all, he doesn't really get what makes him so attractive, such an eyeopener to his fellow students, but he mostly accepts the gifts given to him by his so called "admirers" nonetheless, not wanting to make them disappointed.

now, he says mostly because there are just times where he has no choice but to turn them down. some people get into their own heads too much, and he doesn't want to give some of them false hopes by accepting their gifts. that happened once, where a girl thought the two of them were dating because he decided to accept her gift as a sign of appreciation, that's when jisung learned that he couldn't just accept any and all gifts given to him by admirers who so greatly wanted a chance with him. jisung isn't so concerned about gifts, he wants a person who will be psychically and emotionally present for him, not someone who'll just buy him random things.

"it's gotten a little annoying.. all the confessions" jisung mutters, closing the textbook he had been jotting in. "they're nice yeah but some people just take it too far" he finally finishes, earning some confused looks from his friends. he just shrugs, shoving the textbook he had previously been jotting in into his backpack.

"but you're just so boring!" chenle whines, pressing his cheek against jisung's shoulder. jisung doesn't even try shaking him off, knowing that any of his attempts will be useless. "come on! all these people who would love to be with you and your still a lonely little loser!"

"loser? oh come on!"

"you know i'm right!"

jisung scoffs, lightly shoving chenle. while yeah, it's nice to have a lot of people admire him, everyone expects him to do this and that and act a certain way. it's like they enjoy perpetuating a false image onto him rather than actually admiring him for who he really is, and jisung doesn't think he should give people like that the time of day, they piss him off more than anything.

he's a little lost in his thought when a familiar voice sounds in his ears, a couple of giggles following the sound. "you're too funny y/n!" one of them shouted, poking a familiar figure in the shoulder, and jisung's eyes fall on you immediately, as if on instinct. you were looking as you always did, a familiar dslr camera hanging from your neck, that polite smile on your face as your friend continues poking your shoulder.

lately, you'd been quite the topic of interest among your fellow schoolmates. now that's not abnormal at all, you somehow always manage to be the talk of the town in school, you could do the smallest thing and somehow people could still make huge talk about it.

jisung would never say it, not out loud or even in mutters to himself, but he's always held a unique admiration for you, one he doesn't think he could actually put into words. there's something about you that pulls jisung in, like your a magnet and he's an oblivious piece of metal, slowly getting closer and closer to you without being able to do anything about it.

everything about you is beautiful. your eyes are a beautiful brown color, your smile is a beautiful stretch that shows off your perfect white teeth, your hair is a beautiful mix of raven and brunette. oh, and your voice is so beautiful too, it's so soft, gentle, but also deep.

you're like an angel.

at least to jisung you are.

it's pretty funny, actually, your so wrapped up in your own things that you barely notice the sheer amount of people who want to date you. you don't acknowledge romantic advances a lot, and even when you do, it always ends in rejection. you talk a lot, and your words are always pure and witty, your laughter is natural, your smile is contagious.

but.. jisung doesn't like you. he only likes you in the friend kinda way, he just wants to be friends with you. you look nice! smell nice, dress nice, speak nice..

jisung knows a lot more about you than his friends do. despite the fact that the two of you have never officially deemed yourselves "friends", he's always known little facts about you, as you him. the two of you have been going to school together for seven years, so the idea of not knowing anything about each other seems ridiculous.

you're a photographer, your favorite color is blue, specifically lighter shades, your favorite subject is history, your lucky number is 2 because of your birthdate being 02/02/02, your favorite flowers are daisies, you don't really enjoy sports, but if you were to choose one to play, it'd be baseball, and you want to go to college for journalism.

but jisung can't say that he likes you, because even if you two know all these things about each other, you've never considered yourselves "friends", all you do is admire from afar—

and when you do interact, it's just short and sweet sentences exchanged between you two, mostly because the both of you are so busy, that you can't afford to just stop and talk. sometimes, jisung wishes his life was just a little less hectic and he could stop and talk to you, because that's what he wants to do.

"what's with you?" jisung immediately yelps as chenle flicks his forehead, and he resists the urge to punch the older in the face. "gawking at y/n? really?"

"i'm not—" jisung hates that he feels his face burn. "i'm not gawking, i'm just.. i was just looking at him".

"looking at him with hearts in your eyes".

jisung scoffs at chenle's audacity, as if he wasn't doing exactly that a good few minutes ago. he would never admit it out loud before, so why should he admit it now? he'd never live it down if anybody ever found out..

"you know.." chenle begins, tapping his finger onto the desk in front of him. "you two would be a great couple" and the words are enough to make jisung roll his eyes once again. "a power couple!"

"power couple, really?" jisung raises an eyebrow, chenle never fails to say something that confuses him. he finds the words to be ridiculous, but his reaction just seems to make chenle even more giddy, because he continues;

"you have to listen to me!" chenle persists, and jisung is about to check out of the conversation completely.

"y/n is a photographer for sports journalism, you play soccer, you've known each for what.. ever? he's pretty, you clearly have the hots for him—"

"i do not!" jisung immediately yells in rebuttal, much louder than he wanted to. "yeah he's.. cute but anyone with eyes can see that, i'm not in love with him or anything".

chenle raises an eyebrow, suspicious, but jisung remains stubborn, crossing his arms as he averts his gaze from his best friend.

yes, you are cute, anybody with two functioning eyes can see that.

"i think park jisung might have a crush on you".

at the words, you look up from your camera, meeting eyes with your close friend, sungchan. you blink, as if dumbfounded, then snicker. "park jisung? are you trying to boost my ego or something?"

you know park jisung, you know about how probably half the students in this room dream of having a chance with him. so many people like park jisung, so many people want park jisung.

and if you think about it, you can't exactly blame them for that..

"don't laugh! i'm serious! he looked like he was about to devour you, did you see his eyes!?"

the words just get another laugh out of you, the words seem ridiculous in your eyes, because why would park jisung, beautiful, talented, striking park jisung have a crush on you? in your eyes, your pretty much nothing to him.

"okay.. why would park jisung ever be interested in me?" you ask, rearranging your camera as you raise an eyebrow at sungchan, who simply deadpans at you, that familiar 'are you serious?' look in his eyes.

"okay let me see, your smart, pretty, everyone likes you at this point, also— the two of you are pretty much perfect for each other! you'd be a power couple!"

you furrow your eyebrows, a power couple? you'd never heard that phrase used to talk about somebody your friends had been "shipping" you with, your not even sure if you can even consider yourself friends with jisung, because the two of you can never actually talk to each other without someone coming up and interrupting the interaction.

you'd love to just be able to talk to park jisung, just the two of you, one on one.

"power couple? that's funny.."

"you think everything is funny" ironically, you laugh at your friends words. "this could be like— your only chance at having an actual romantic connection with someone".

"i don't care that much about romance, chan" you muse, humming as you turn off your camera. your eyes wander over to jisung, who is very much distracted by something stupid chenle is saying, he's laughing about something, laughing hard too.

there is no reason for him to look so pretty as he laughs like a maniac..

he's cute, you say in your mind, he is absolutely adorable.

"WHAT DID YOU GUYS GET ON THAT STATISTICS TEST FOR SONG?" a boy from the same year and member of the soccer team along with jisung inquired. they sat on the bleachers in front of field, watching as the baton club practices. they have to practice this week, unfortunately, so jisung's schedule had become tight and packed, he barely had any free time these days, it was all exams, college tours, last minute extracurriculars, and practice, practice, practice. "i got a b plus" one of his classmates responds, the other responded; "i got a b on mine". jisung was very far removed from the current conversation, his eyes on a familiar trio of sports journalists on the other side of the field, a trio which included you, mesmerizing you. he sees you often these days, with that same dslr camera around your neck, a pretty smile stuck on your face.

"you, jisung! what score did you get?" one of his classmates asks, but jisung was occupied, so he didn't answer. a tap on his shoulder makes jisung snap out of his staring fit, and he blinks a few times, assessing where he is. "what?"

"we were asking about the marks on the recent statistics test!"

"ah" jisung presses his lips together. "i got an a plus" he says the words casually, but it causes for a cheer to be sounded by his fellow classmates, who shook him and slapped his back supportively.

"you're so smart jisungie!"

the praise from his classmates get a smile out of jisung, but he isn't focusing on that, his attention is on you. even with how your across the field, he can clearly see all of your features, the sun shining on your face makes you look majestic, like an actual angel, jisung isn't sure why he's even focusing so much on your face, but he can't focus on anything else, because his eyes just naturally always wander over to you.

"will this ever finish?" you inquire, pertaining to the baton club, who were still on the field even after they were supposed to get off. "i'm supposed to take photos of the soccer players for my editorials.." you mutter, it'd be horrible if you couldn't even deliver on the promise you made to your superiors.

"they're probably going to split the field" your fellow sports journalist, taehyun says. a small groan escapes your lips, you're annoyed, you hope this doesn't interfere with the photos you have to take, it'd be horrible if you just ended up doing the same thing all over again. "see? baton club is taking one side and the soccer team takes the main area because they need to start practicing now".

"they look so cute! i've always wanted to be apart of the soccer team!" lee sohee exclaims, and you turn towards him, a look of interest on your face. he attentively watches the boys, humming to the song that's playing. "why didn't you join them then?" you inquire, interest peaked.

sohee smiles at you, readjusting his camera and fixing his posture. "i enjoyed writing the editorial articles more" he shrugs. "wanted to try out but i missed the tryouts because eunseok hyung would have killed me if i missed anton's recital" at the words, you laugh, used to the behavior from the older boy.

"maybe next year".

"you'd fit in perfectly!" taehyun muses, and sohee brightens up, seemingly loving the words.

"really!? that's what seunghan tells me too!" he cheers at the words, looking proud of himself. "i'd look cute in that uniform though.."

you chuckle at sohee's word, finding him to be absolutely adorable. "yeah, you definitely would" you ruffle his hair, smiling at the giggle which sounds from the boy.

"i'm gonna go get a closer look at them" you say, motioning towards the soccer team. taehyun nods and watches as you get closer to the field, not super close, but close enough that your camera can capture a good view of the soccer team. you narrow your eyes, pointing your camera at the busy boys who are doing their usual routine, the viewfinder shows jisung in all his glory.

you take pictures, zooming in and out. you don't mean to put all the focus on jisung, he's just too alluring to not be the center of attention. he's such a natural, he's just so amazing, you can't not focus on him.

[click.]

and another shot, another one as jisung scores the goal. jisung's posture was perfect, his back straight, chin high as he wore an angelic smile. jisung hears the clicking of the camera, and looks to his left to see you, in the viewfinder you see jisung looking in your direction, you pause for a moment and notice a baton heading straight towards him.

"jisung watch out!" you yell, at the words, he tilts his head.

you quickly take the strap of the camera off your neck, throwing it until it landed right beside your fellow journalists, who looked as confused as jisung did. you ran as fast as you could, grabbing jisung's wrist and pulling him close to you.

the baton managed to hit the ground instead, and jisung shrieks as he loses his balance, toppling forward. he quickly grabs onto the closest thing to him.

you.

you lowered your arms to catch jisung, and you feel him hold onto the sleeves of your blazer, one of your arms on his stomach, the other on his waist. all his weight was in your arms, causing for you to lose balance too.

"shit—" you swear, falling onto your back. jisung fell on top of you, the grass tickling his skin. your back immediately hits the grass, and your head hits the ground softly, but your arms remain around jisung. jisung's hands were still on your arms, his upper body laid on top of yours, his head was buried into your shoulder, and he was sat in between your legs.

jisung takes a sharp breath, a look of worry quickly flashes in his eyes as he sees you. "holy shit y/n are you okay!?" jisung asks, pulling away from your prior position and you sit up, opening your eyes to meet his worried ones. jisung kneels, leaning closer to you as he cups your cheeks with his hands. "did you get hurt? is your head okay!?" he asks, or yells, turning your head to inspect for any signs of wounds. you just stare at him, his bangs that messily lay against his forehead, his eyes that glimmered under the sunlight, and his pink lips that you totally just want to lean over and touch with your own.

"yeah.." you whisper, your cheeks squished from the force of jisung's hands.

jisung stops turning your head and sighs. "are you sure?" he asks, still holding your face. you nod, placing one of your hands on jisung's, his are soft, yours are rough, you note. you move his hand and smile. "i'm alright don't worry" you respond, still holding jisung's hand. jisung pursues his lips, and he extends his hand out, pulling you up from the ground. you let go of his hand, dusting off your pants.

"jesus y/n" taehyun's voice sounds from behind you, and you finally glance away from jisung, eyes focused on your friend. "are you okay? your not injured are you?"

"i'm fine.." you mumble again, blinking as taehyun suddenly hands you your camera. ah, he'd picked it up for you. you take it, inspecting it to make sure it's not broken.

"is the camera okay?" jisung inquires, looking over your shoulder to stare at it.

luckily, it wasn't damaged because it had fallen on the soft grass. "it's still working" you respond, and the two boys beside you let out a sigh of relief, with taehyun placing a hand on his chest.

"jisung! come back here!" his coach quickly yells, jisung looks to you, then back to his teammates. "thanks, i owe you" he says before running back towards his group, fetching the soccer ball he'd left on the ground prior.

"wow your like a hero!" sohee exclaims, shaking your shoulder with a smile. you just let out a nervous laugh, scratching your arm. you give one last glance at jisung before you feel your face heat up excessively, so you quickly turn away, putting your camera back around your neck.

"we should go back in now" you say, you don't say any more words as you quickly make your way towards the doors. your friends blink, exchanging glances in confusion, but they quickly follow you back inside.

"y/n! wait up!"

jisung watches you three leave, feeling his heart racing against his chest.

what the hell just happened? he asks himself.

"jisung are you okay!?" a very familiar voice shrieks. jisung turns to meet his fellow teammate jooyeon, looking concerned as ever.

"i'm alright, thanks for asking" he answers, gaze lowering down to his nails, which he quickly starts picking.

"are you sure? you looked like you hit your head pretty hard" the younger boy, as always, just wants to make sure jisung isn't lying, he's genuine like that. he pokes jisung's forehead, as if he was inspecting him.

"seriously, i'm fine" jisung lowers his hand, giving him his default 'i'm okay' smile. "y/n cushioned the blow anyway.."

"you were so close to him!" jisung startles as keum donghyun comes out of nowhere. "how did it feel? was it like a dream come true?"

"i—" jisung is speechless, he closes his mouth and blinks a good seven times before even actually assessing the question.

how did it feel?

jisung doesn't know how to express it. he didn't want to think about it in that way because you'd just done such a good deed, you saved him from flying metal going straight towards his head, he shouldn't have been thinking about the lack of distance between you two, he shouldn't have been staring at your lips, and he shouldn't have been thinking about kissing you.

his face must be so unbearably red right now.

"don't ask that! it was just very abrupt.. also, i can't think of him like that! he saved me from a flying baton, i'm just grateful for him".

jooyeon hums in agreement, slapping donghyun's shoulder for him ever asking such a thing. "that's right, you should probably get him a token of appreciation or something".

jisung blinks, trying to imagine what he should ever gift you. he truly has no idea, he's not sure if he should go over and beyond, or just give you a little gift as to not intimidate you. "i can't really think of anything, i don't want to overwhelm him or something, he just wanted to do a nice thing.."

"i'm sure he'll be appreciative of anything!"

at the words, jisung just sighs, smiling.

what a hero, l/n y/n— you really are something, he thinks.

"yeah— i'll think about it".

"good! back to practice now!"

jisung doesn't think he will ever fully be able to focus on practice, though.

"YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'VE BEEN RAN OVER BY A TRAIN" the words from the older boy, yang jeongin, snap you out of your polaroid staring daze. you flinch just the slightest, eyes peeling away from the scattering pictures which litter your desk. you rub your eyes, clearing your throat as you quickly gather all of the photos on your desk, hoping the eye bags present on your face weren't completely obvious. knowing jeongin though, they were definitely obvious. "thanks for the kind words" you respond sarcastically, a small eye roll accompanying your words. the older boy snickers, situating himself beside you, a teasing smile on his face. he props his legs up, blinking at you. "seriously though, you look like you haven't slept in years, are you alright?"

"i'm as alright as someone looking to pursue journalism can be.." you mutter back, placing the photos which were previously on your desk into your backup, a small sigh escapes your lips. "all of my applications are still pending.."

"seriously? i assume you would've been accepted into any of those schools by now!"

"you know how it all goes, they get hundreds— heck, thousands of applications every day, i just have to be patient".

jeongin raises an eyebrow, then just shrugs at you, humming. "there's no need to worry, y/n, you'll get into a good school".

you chuckle at his words, he totally read your mind when it came to that. "i'm not worried about anything" you lie; "i'll be okay, i know".

but do you?

your absolutely tired the whole entire day, you tried your best to focus in your classes, but you couldn't help your head slipping down and the way you almost slipped off to dreamland whilst your teachers were asking you very much audible questions.

"did you sleep last night?" sungchan asks you in the middle of your afternoon break, poking your arm as if to wake up. "you look like a zombie.."

"i slept a few.. hours?" your tone is very much a questioning one, as if you didn't even believe your own words. "i don't know, i was too busy fighting with lin, apparently i'm not good enough at what i do to consider journalism".

paired with the lack of response to your several applications, you weren't having the best week, it was all becoming just a little too much for you.

graduation is just too far away..

"anyway! did you choose the photos you'll put in the editorial yet?"

you think, for a while. you felt as if you had stared at so many polaroids by this point, that they're probably going to start appearing in your dreams, with the lack of sleep, constant flashing of cameras and just news news news, you've really had no time to focus on other things.

"i haven't even found time to think about the editorial" you whine, a weary sigh escaping your lips as you think about how pissed off your higher up is gonna be if you almost miss the deadline once again. "is the deadline coming up?"

"well— is four days a close deadline for you?"

you gasp, loudly, almost throwing your camera across the hallway. "four days!? four days until the deadline seriously!?"

you usually aren't like this. you are usually very calm, cool, and collected, but your week has been just the definition of a shit storm, and everything just seems getting worse and worse.

"hey, it's okay!" sungchan immediately replies, hoping to reassure you. he places a hand on your shoulder, a smile coming to his face. "it's not like this is anything new, it'll all be fine, you only have to choose two pictures anyway".

you sigh, rubbing your temples. "yeah" you breath. "it'll be fine, fine" you repeat, nodding your head as you relax yourself.

the hallway is crowded, not crowded crowded, but crowded enough that you couldn't help but begin counting the heads around you.

your eyes get stuck on a familiar figure across the hall.

park jisung, smiling and laughing with his friends. you get lost in a trance of admiring him, even though you can clearly hear sungchan talking to you. all your attention is immediately on him, and a small smile spreads across your face as you observe him, being himself.

there is absolutely no reason for him to be so breathtaking while just talking with his friend!

you are so distracted, and you don't mean to get stuck in this little reverie as you stare at the boy that you totally do not have a crush on.

he hasn't really left your mind, instead of just floating around in there like he'd been before that whole prior incident, now he occupies a whole subsection of your mind in recent days. you could be with your other friends, and all of a sudden your mind would wander off to jisung, or you could be in class and he just pops into your head.

you never thought you'd be one to get distracted easily, but you've clearly been proven wrong by just the alluring aura of park jisung.

you startle when jisung turns your way, making eye contact with you. he smiles upon noticing you, his eyes practically lighting up, and he waves at you. your a little taken aback, but jisung doesn't wait to see you wave back, just turning back towards his friend and continuing his previous conversation.

"what was that?"

"what was what?"

you quickly look over at sungchan, who had just witnessed that whole entire scene. he looks at you like you just grew a second head, and your face begins to burn as the realization dawns on you.

"you and park jisung!?"

your quick to try and sputter out a response, but you shake your head, face excessively heating up, it's probably red at this very moment. "there is nothing going on between us!"

"that doesn't seem like nothing!"

you realize how guilty you look right now. with your red face and constant insistence that there is absolutely nothing going on, those are traits the guiltiest of people display, and it all just makes you look even more guilty with how your face gets even more red.

(you must look like you're dying right now).

"it's just a friendly exchange!"

"not while your looking at him with hearts in your eyes!"

he was completely calling you out, and he was right. you were staring at jisung like he was an angel that had graced your presence, you stare at him like he's a saint and everyone else doesn't matter, as if he's the only person in the room. "i— i wasn't! i was just zoned out and he just waved at me to say hi!"

sungchan narrows his eyes suspiciously at you, totally not buying it. "uh huh, sure" his voice conveys disbelief. "just know, i'm onto you y/n".

you nudge him in the shoulder, seriously wanting to change the topic. "yeah yeah whatever" you cross your arms as you mutter the words, you're sure if you take one more glance at jisung, you won't be able to look away, so you just clear your throat and walk the other way, face still red as sungchan teases you the whole entire time.

maybe if you glanced back, you'd see jisung watching as you left..

JISUNG WAS REALLY HOPING HE'D BE ABLE TO catch you before school dismissed. you two haven't genuinely had an actual talk since you saved him from the flying baton heading straight towards his head. all you two have done is give smiles, waves, and mutter small greetings to each other in the hallway. he had to admit, it upset him in just the slightest, because he really did want to just have a conversation with you (of course, he isn't exactly sure he'd be able to get through a conversation with you without blushing like a madman anyway), but your schedules just kept conflicting, so even catching a glimpse of you around the campus has become difficult for him to do.

he doesn't want to waste any opportunity he has in his hands—

"y/n!"

when jisung sees you across the hall, he realizes that he shouldn't take this chance for granted. you turn around at the call of your name, smiling as you see the others making his way towards you. jisung runs a hand through his hair, hoping he isn't making anything awkward. "jisung hi, do you need something?"

you smile politely at him, a smile so beautiful it seems like it could get rid of all the problems in the world. jisung loves your smile, he could stare at it for hours, is that creepy? he hopes it's not creepy..

"oh uh—" the words he'd been planning to say somehow get caught in his throat, but he clears his throat and proceeds. "i was wondering if i could walk you home?"

you blink, puzzled by the question. why would he want to walk you home? your mind begins to wander, trying to figure out why he'd want to do such a thing.

can't you just ask y/n? stop being an idiot..

"why?"

you don't mean for your words to come out that way, and you're almost afraid that you made jisung uncomfortable with your tone of voice, but he instead just smiles, squashing any of your bad thoughts. you love jisung's smile, you think it's underrated, so little people talk about it and the fact shocks you, you could probably compliment his smile for hours—

but that sounds just a little creepy.

"i just want to accompany you—" —and this is my only excuse to be around you— "do something nice for you after you did something nice for me".

the words make you pause. he's just.. so thoughtful huh? you've never heard of someone wanting to repay you for being nice, it's actually a little strange if you think about it.

"jisung you don't have to reward me for doing something nice.."

"it'd be great to walk with you, though, you make good company".

that's it? that's really it?

you're not sure why you're surprised about that, maybe it's just the idea that he literally searched for you just to say this, he truly just wants to walk you home, he truly just wants to spend time with you.

he thinks i make good company, just the thought alone is enough to make you giggle in your head. your inner thoughts sound ridiculous, but you can't help them.

"if you don't want me to it's totally oka—"

"no no no" you immediately cut into his sentence, hoping that didn't come off as desperate as it sounded. "i'm glad you offered to walk me home, i'd love to walk with you too".

you unsuccessfully try to mutter those last few words, a sudden shyness taking over you. jisung smiles, glad, no, elated at your agreement. he doesn't know why he's that happy, but he hopes it isn't clear and evident, he'd never live it down.

after bidding a goodbye to your friends, and telling sungchan you'd make sure to choose the photos for your editorials, you dragged jisung out of the school doors, much to your and jisung's surprise, as well as the shock of a few of your classmates, he made sure to eye the both of you suspiciously.

"what interested you in photography?"

a scene like this is something jisung thought he'd never get to, being able to talk to you, one on one. just the two of you sharing a simple conversation is what he's wanted for an uncharted amount of time, even with how straightforward it is, the two of you could never really find time to converse normally.

when jisung asks the question, you almost think you heard him wrong. he genuinely wants to know? in a way, you feel like you've always been just the slightest bit boring, yeah you wanna do journalism and love taking aesthetically pleasing photos but you've never considered what you do to be a talent by any means.

you pick at your fingers, looking down at the ground instead of at jisung. "it's an interest i picked up from my mother, i've always been shocked how she could just do that, you know? i love videography and stuff like that as well, i love how one can capture so much with just a single camera".

your words intrigue jisung, and he listened the whole entire way, not interrupting you once. he found a smile crossing his face at the clear display of passion for your creative work, he loves the way you put it into words. god if he didn't admire you before, he surely did now.

"what about you? you're pretty much good at everything, what drew you to the adrenaline rushing excitement of soccer?"

jisung pauses, allowing himself to let out a small snicker at the question. "i don't really enjoy soccer".

you raise an eyebrow. "oh?"

jisung laughs again, your tone of voice amusing him. "don't say it like that.. it's not that i hate it, i'm just not as into it like everyone expects me to be, i got onto the school team and i've been stuck there ever since" there isn't exactly distaste in jisung's tone, he just states it casually, like how it is. his voice is just simple, mundane, he doesn't dislike soccer, it's just not what he's looking forward to do.

you love his honesty.

"i'm into other things in a much more passionate sense, like dance, soccer is just a hobby" he finally finishes, pulling his sleeves over his arms as he avoids eye contact with you.

"so no professional soccer player park jisung?"

"i think i'll leave it to the other guy to be known for that".

you chuckle at his words, okay, he's funny (you knew that already, you just had to reiterate it in your head). god how can a guy be so perfect? you get why people are so into jisung, he's charming even without trying. you feel like the luckiest guy on earth knowing he asked to walk you home.

"y/n, i'm a very.." jisung pauses, as if trying to articulate the words he was about to say. "i really admire you a lot".

you almost lose it.

park jisung, beautiful, talented, hardworking park jisung admires you? he is an admirer of yours? you don't even know what to say, you try your best to sputter out a response but your brain is practically malfunctioning. your face goes red, and you go silent for a few minutes.

"i don't get it" is what you say, and jisung just cocks his head towards the side, observing you. "what's so admirable about me?"

"do you want a list?"

oh i'd love that. "i don't think you should waste your time".

"i wouldn't be wasting my time" jisung smiles, his gaze focused on you and only you, there's a way he's looking at you that keeps you still, unable to look away from him. "i never get the chance to tell you, i'd love to talk about everything i admire about you".

when did jisung get so bold? he'll never know where this random confidence came from, but he has an opportunity, he can't let it go to waste. he has to bring it up to you.

"what i do is nothing incredible—"

"i would disagree".

you should be angry that jisung interrupted you, but you found yourself smiling at his words. he's so generous, he doesn't have to tell you this, he doesn't have to compliment you like this, but he's doing it on his own accord, he wants to.

"okay then.. is it a good time to tell you that i also feel the same?"

jisung's ears go red, so red that it looks like smoke is gonna start pouring out of them. he is shocked, absolutely speechless. you admire him? does that mean he's gotten it all wrong these past few years? does that mean you return his feelings as well—

wait what?

"oh really?"

the prior confidence jisung had when telling you about his admiration has now all fizzled away, his voice almost cracks as he tries to register your words, and thank god it doesn't.

"it's kind of like what you said, you're amazing, a very admirable person, i know you don't really think of yourself like that but i do, and it's nice to be able to tell you up front".

jisung remains silent, but you don't mind, you just give him a smile and continue walking forward, allowing for him to catch up to you.

"is that actually true?"

"why would i lie to you?" you turn around, your whole body facing him. you begin walking backwards and wait for jisung's reply to your question. "don't give me that look".

jisung frowns, a playful one, he sends you a cute little glare that makes you giggle. he's absolutely adorable, you think in your head, he's the cutest person ever right now.

"you admire me?"

"yep".

"more than i admire you?"

"definitely, and don't even try to argue with me".

jisung opens his mouth to do exactly that, but you stop, turning around as you make it to the front of your house. "okay well, thank you for walking me home, ji".

jisung raises an eyebrow, noting down the nickname in his head. it's a common nickname, but he loves the way it sounds coming from you, he loves that you didn't just drop his full name.

"it's no problem.."

"i—"

you're cut off by the sound of the door opening, and your met with the face of your mother, whose face immediately brightens at the sight of you. you smile at her, and jisung just kinda stands there awkwardly.

"hi honey" she wraps her arms around you, and you let her, leaning your head onto her shoulder. "i thought you were staying late today?"

you shake your head. "not today, it's friday remember?"

"ohhh, yeah".

jisung glances down at the ground, playing with his feet. he doesn't know what to say, he doesn't want to interrupt the conversation you're having with your mother—

but he doesn't have to say anything, because your mother pipes up.

"oh! and who might this be?" she narrows her eyes at jisung, cogs in her brain seem to turn but then she snaps his fingers and gasps, seemingly getting it. "oh my god! park jisung?"

jisung smiles, a little laugh escaping his lips. "that is me".

"holy, you've changed so much? the last time i saw you you were barely up to my knees!"

at the sound of your mothers words, you give jisung a teasing stare, one which he quickly turns away from. "you and y/n are finally friends? i was wondering when it'd happen.."

your face goes bright red at the words, and an awkward chuckle escapes your lips. "seems he was too, he always talked about it—"

"haha! what!? that's hilarious mom!" you quickly cut in, not wanting her to talk about your former ramblings about park jisung, park jisung who was right beside you. "yeah okay, jisung i'll see you monday?"

jisung nods, a little too desperately for his liking, luckily you don't notice. "yeah, monday, have a good weekend, y/n".

you smile, blood rushing through your cheeks. "be safe".

he gives a small wave and turns around, beginning the walk back towards his home.

"he's such a nice kid, you sure you're just friends?"

your jaw pretty much drops, and you give your mother a look you don't think you've ever shared with her before. "yes! just friends!"

"hmm, sure".

"WHO ARE THOSE FOR?" CHENLE asks as he immediately notices the goodies in jisung's hands. he raises an eyebrow suspiciously at his best friend, examining the bouquet of flowers and box jisung held. jisung ignores him for a couple of minutes, placing the box in his locker and closing it behind him. "for someone" he just replies, hoping he could just remain vague instead of telling chenle about his true plans. the older narrows his eyes, clearly curious about this 'someone'. he flicks jisung in the forehead, resulting in a yelp from the other, who glares. "ow! what was that for?" he asks, furrowing his eyebrows and rubbing his forehead, a frown now coming to his face.

"what you're hiding stuff from me now?" chenle rolls his eyes at jisung's frown. "who are those flowers for? you got a boyfriend or something?"

chenle was right in assuming it was a boy that was making him go crazy, but you aren't his boyfriend (not yet at least, he's trying, really). he doesn't want to exactly divulge his plans to his nosy best friend yet, just because he'd go around telling everybody he could about what jisung was doing, he didn't want anything to be spoiled.

"they're for.. y/n".

jisung winces the moment he says those words, because chenle goes absolutely crazy.

"FOR WHO!?"

jisung is quick to slap a hand over chenle's mouth, glaring at him for how loud he said those words. "could you be any more obvious?" he asks, gritting his teeth as he continues to glare at his shorter best friend, whose eyes just widen even more. "yes they're for y/n—"

"what are you two dating now?" chenle doesn't care about anything jisung has to say, he slaps his hand away and stares in interest, wanting to know more.

"no! were not dating! it's just—" jisung pauses, how is he even gonna explain this without looking super guilty? blood rushes through his cheeks as he thinks about it, about how these are your favorite flowers, about how you might react. "i wanted to get him something nice! he did a good thing and.."

and i am just so in love with him, i think i might be going insane.

"i just want to do something nice!"

"okay but are you doing something nice or are you getting ready to ask him out?"

jisung's face goes a dangerously red color, and he immediately shakes his head, denial coursing through his veins. "i'm not going to ask him out, i mean— i get why you think that but it's not what it looks like!"

chenle raises an eyebrow, staring at his totally lovestruck best friend. "it sure does seem to be what it looks like".

"chenle—"

"look, jisung, there's no need to deny that you have such an obvious crush on y/n" chenle states like it's a matter of a fact, because it is, they both know it very well, he's better at assessing jisung's feelings than jisung himself is. "he thinks your cute, you think he's cute, you two just need to ask each other out".

"um.." jisung presses his lips together, the two falling into a weird silence. he clutches the daisies in his hands, thinking about you, but he shuts off his thoughts to respond to chenle's little analysis of him.

"i just don't know where we stand, i mean we're barely even friends".

"you two are pretty much already more than friends considering he can't talk to you without looking like he's about to devour you whole".

jisung's face must be an astonishing shade of red right now. "it's not—! i don't know how to explain it okay!?"

"yeah and how are you gonna explain the flowers?" chenle points at the daisies jisung is practically squeezing to death. "other people are probably gonna get another idea".

"well i'll let them think what they want" jisung responds, his only focus is you, who cares what other people think? your his main priority. "y/n is my main focus, i don't care about what other people are saying".

chenle chuckles at his response, oh park jisung is so down bad, he's so in love with you, a kind of love chenle has never seen him have for another person. yes park jisung, love avoiding extraordinaire, is head over heels in love with a boy, chenle cannot believe it.

"okay jisung, go ahead with your wooing y/n mission or something".

at least chenle is supportive.

jisung has to go through so many interrogations to explain to your fellow photographers why he's giving you flowers, while a few of them just shrug and get it, the rest of them make sure to eye him suspiciously while he goes on with his explanation and bright red ears.

he knows most of them probably won't keep their mouths shut, and jisung knows that you told him he shouldn't get you anything for preventing him from getting any future brain damage, but jisung disagrees, he thinks you deserve gifts.

"who are those for?"

your brain doesn't register the flowers, or the connection that they have with your not-so-secret admirer, you just stare at them puzzled. "they're for you!" sohee yells from somewhere else in the room, focused on another important thing.

your eyebrows furrow, and you blink as you stare at the daisies on the table. daisies are your favorite flowers, but everyone knows that! these could be from anyone! you're no stranger to getting random gifts from people, so these could really be from anyone.

but you only have a certain person in mind..

"from who?" you ask, but you really already know who, considering the knowing look sohee sends to you.

"jisung".

of course, you say in your head, your fingers trace the packaging of the bouquet, admiring the pretty flowers before you (the pretty flowers given to you by a pretty boy), a small smile comes to your face as you think about it. you told jisung not to get you anything, but he obviously wasn't going to listen to you, he's made that very clear.

"did he tell you anything?"

sohee doesn't spare you another glance, but you can just tell he's grinning like a madman with the way he's clearly trying to hold in his laughter. "he just told me to make sure to get them to you, he was very insistent".

the teasing tone of your friends voice doesn't go unnoticed by you, and your barely able to stifle your laugh, not at sohee exactly, but at jisung's actions.

of course he didn't listen when you said for him to not get you anything, he remembered what your favorite flowers are, did he spend his weekend thinking about it? you wonder what kind of florists we must've went to.. your mind races with just jisung thoughts, and you're just so lost in them that you don't realize your zoning out.

oh park jisung, why do you have to be so sweet?

"DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO?" YOU immediately ask the moment you come across park jisung in the hallway. the boy blinks, smiling at the sight of you, his face practically brightens at the sight of you. "what do you mean?" he inquired innocently, a small tilt of his head adding to his question. you send him a glare, not a serious one, but it's still a glare. you can't even believe his audacity, for him to look at you with such beautiful eyes, make your knees feel weak without even having to do anything? park jisung is just such a crazy man, you don't know if you can stare at him any longer, you might end up passing out from heat exhaustion (the heat from your face, of course, something that's become so normal for you when around park jisung).

"don't 'what do you mean?' me, i told you not to get me anything!" you complain, lightly shoving jisung's shoulder. "seriously, i said it was fine.." you mumble those words, but jisung just smiles.

"i wanted to get you something anyway, i needed to show you my appreciation somehow".

but just your admiration is enough appreciation for me, just you being around is enough, just you is enough.

your own thoughts weird you out on occasions.

"i told you not to—"

"but i wanted to, it's fine y/n, seriously, just accept my gesture".

you bite your inner cheek, he just always has to be nice, doesn't he? your cheeks flare up and you swear your face goes a shade of red you've never seen before, how does one boy even affect you like this? you don't think you've ever acted like this around any of your other admirers ever..

"ah" a small smile comes to your face. "thank you" you whisper, you're not sure why you get so shy all of a sudden.

"it's no problem" jisung responds, a smile coming to his face. he closes the door to his locker, and then leans onto it. "walk with me?"

you blink, jisung really likes walking with you, huh? is this gonna become your thing? you wouldn't really mind when you think about it.. you enjoy walking with jisung, you just enjoy any time you can spend with jisung.

"what's with you and asking to walk with me?"

"walking with you is just.. nice".

"do i ease your stresses or something?"

your tone is meant to come off as teasing, and your question is mostly unserious, you don't register how you sound like your flirting with jisung, probably because everything just feels so natural with jisung, you love how you feel around him, it's confusing to explain.

"i guess you could say that" jisung's response snaps you out of your jisung focused thoughts, thoughts which are difficult to not get stuck in considering park jisung is constantly occupying your mind these days. "anyway, can you walk with me?"

you pause, tongue pressing against the inside of your cheek. you have class in twenty minutes, and you don't really want to walk back all the way with only five minutes left to make it to class. "i don't know.. chen might kill me".

"please?"

that catches you off guard, you seemingly forget how to think for a second. jisung really wants to walk with you so bad, he's reverting to that easily convincing voice of his? you'd be an idiot to say no, you'd be an idiot to deny anything given to you by park jisung, you sigh in your head.

"okay, fine".

a smile of victory places itself on jisung's face, and he takes your hand, to your own surprise, as the two of you begin making your way down the hall. you wanna bring it up, but you don't want him to let go of you, so you don't. your face goes a bright shade of red, jisung doesn't seem to mind, or maybe he's always wanted to hold your hand, you aren't sure.

you focus way too much on it, on the way it feels, how jisung's soft hands contrast your rough ones, how warm his hands are, you don't want to let go, you don't want him to let go. god, you feel like such a loser, freaking out over a boy holding your hand.

but it's not just a boy, it's park jisung, park jisung makes you feel things you thought you'd never feel before..

"why do you seem so worried?" jisung chuckles, his hand holding yours. he nudges your shoulder lightly, raising an eyebrow.

"because, i don't wanna be late".

jisung snickers, not making fun of you, though, he hopes you don't think that. "have you never skipped a class before?"

your eyes widen as large as saucers, model student park jisung has skipped classes? a small chuckle escaped your lips. "no, i could never bring myself to, it always made me feel strange.."

now it's jisung's turn to look surprised, you laugh again, why does he assume you skip classes? or have even attempted to skip? you wonder what goes through his mind. "are you serious? you've never tried to skip before?"

you scoff, pinching his arm. "i tried to once in the sixth grade because of a dare from friends, but i literally couldn't do it, they called me a wimp for the rest of the year".

"aww sad".

"don't give me your fake pity, also— you've skipped class before!?"

jisung chuckles at your surprise, giving a small smile. "it was a few times as a sophomore, some classes are just so boring i can't resist".

"wow, model student park jisung skips his classes? i cannot believe the information that has been bestowed upon me".

the words, paired with your sarcastic tone made jisung let out yet another snicker, he hopes he's not overdoing it in your eyes, you're genuinely just a very funny person. "oh no! don't use this secret to tarnish my pristine reputation!"

"you're such an idiot".

a cute idiot.

"be quiet, you still love me" jisung rebuts, adding a small nudge to your shoulder along with his words.

it's weird to say, but you like this. even with your totally non-romantic feelings for jisung, you find this nice. is this what dating him would be like? you get to hold hands and joke around in the halls without a care in the world? you think you'd enjoy that, you'd enjoy dating park jisung.

wait what?

you snap out of your thoughts when jisung stops, so you stop too. he lets go of your hand, and you resist the urge to frown, because you don't want to come off as desperate. (but you are desperate, you're so desperate, having park jisung hold your hand was so nice, you want him to hold it again).

"this is my stop, thank you for my walking with me".

the words are simple, basic, but you find your face heating up at them anyway. you clear your throat, not wanting to stay silent any longer. "it was no problem, i couldn't disagree anyway".

jisung laughs, he is so pretty, so pretty without even having to do anything significant. "of course you couldn't" he looks down at his feet. "anyway! have a good day y/n, don't be late to your next class!"

you blink as you watch jisung walk into the auditorium for his next class, you watch as he walks away, standing there for what seems like forever. how could a guy, just a guy affect you so much? what is it with park jisung and making you stop in your tracks? he's mesmerizing, just so easily draws you in.

your eyes widen as you realize the time, you're going to be late for your next class, mr. chen is going to kill you!

and as you totally sprint down the hallway to get to your next class, your mind is racing with thoughts of park jisung the entire time.

"AM I NOT YOUR BEST FRIEND?" YOU CAN practically hear the pout in sungchan's voice as he said those words. you place the extra polaroids on your desk, then glance up at your friend, who stares at you with an expression of defeat on his face. you raise an eyebrow, puzzled at what the actual hell he's talking about, he's always just bringing stuff up so randomly, you can't even keep up with what he's referring to now. sungchan just frowns, letting out a groan of frustration as plops down beside you, a small huff adding to his words. you chuckle at the way he decides to present himself, and he groans once again, very frustrated. "where is this coming from?"

"why didn't you tell me about you and jisung".

you pause, an expression of surprise comes to your face, your face which heats up astonishingly quickly. "me and jisung? me and jisung what? we aren't—"

"y/n there's no point in denying it, everyone already knows".

"everyone already knows what?"

"that you and jisung have a thing, it's fine if you don't wanna tell everyone but excluding me? your best friend in the whole entire world from the news?"

"jisung and i aren't dating!" you say immediately, clasping your hands together as you try to calm your rapidly beating heart. why do people even think that? yeah you like park jisung but how did people even reach the conclusion that you were dating? you're not even sure if jisung returns your feelings. "i don't even know where people got that idea.."

"so your constant yearning stares and pitched up giggles are all not apart of that?"

"i don't—" you are definitely showcasing all guilty characteristics, your red face, your shrill voice, and your very obvious lying, sungchan sees right through you, anyone would be able to. "yearning stares are stupid i don't do that!"

"yeah, sure y/n" sungchan sighs, and you groan, screaming into your pillow. "i'm not trying to be mean or anything, but it's disgustingly obvious that you're into jisung, and i mean in a cringy way".

you gasp in offense, turning away from your best friend. you want to remain stubborn, but you can't, of course you can't, how can you even deny your feelings for jisung anymore if other people can now tell that you like him? your face heats up in embarrassment, and you cover your face with your hands. "is it really that obvious?" you mutter, hoping the answer isn't what you think it is.

"yeah, very, i wouldn't even be surprised if the two of you were actually dating and this was a little trick of yours".

sungchan points at you, an accusatory look in his eyes, but he immediately lets it go, because he knows you, and he can tell that you are telling the truth. you don't even have the courage to look at him, still covering your face with your hands. "have you not told jisung how you feel yet?"

your silence tells sungchan everything he needs to know, and the look he gives you is absolutely criminal.

"YOU HAVEN'T!?"

"i haven't found any time too!"

"how much time have you been spending around jisung these days!? you haven't even tried to bring it up to him!"

you let yourself fall to the side, half your body hanging off your bed. "i don't know how to" you whine, mind immediately rushing to thoughts of park jisung, thoughts you probably shouldn't be having. "it's awkward!"

"well i'm sure jisung feels the same with the way he always has to resist the urge to kiss you in the hallway".

"with the way he WHAT!?"

the words are enough to make you rise from your formerly fallen state, a look of astonishment on your face. did jisung really return your feelings? or was sungchan just trying to start something that would end up absolute humiliation?

"y/n, not trying to be rude or anything, but it's so obvious that jisung wants to date you, he doesn't even have to say it for everyone to know!"

you feel like you just discovered the secrets of the universe with those words, park jisung likes you? like likes you likes you? once the realization dawns on you, you gasp loudly.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!? OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I WAS SUCH AN IDIOT UGH!"

sungchan watches you freak out, he truly can't believe that he had to tell you for all of it to finally set in.

it's actually pretty funny, and he snickers as he watches you go absolutely ballistic.

"HAVE YOU SEEN Y/N?" JISUNG ASKS the first recognizable person he sees in the hallway. he hasn't seen any seniors anywhere for a while, but that's because the days keep getting warmer, meaning graduation keeps getting closer, most of the seniors only take two classes and then go on to do their extracurriculars, so they don't really have to spend the whole entire day at school, but it's weird today because he usually always sees you, even when he isn't purposefully looking for you (which has become a common thing for him to do, he's just loves the time he can spend with you). he hopes you aren't absent, because today is friday, and if he doesn't tell you his important news now he's going have to wait an extra two days.

"y/n? uh..." the unfamiliar boy pauses for a moment, as if thinking, and jisung is hoping that it isn't the worst, because he really needs you to be here today. "well i'm not sure where he is actually! probably with his other photographers".

"but he's here right?" jisung doesn't care if he comes off as desperate, his only focus is you, you are his main priority, he doesn't care about the impression he's making on others, he can truly only think about you at the moment.

"yeah! i'm just not sure where exactly!"

"okay thank you!"

the guy gives him a strange look, a mix of teasing and giddy, but jisung walks off too fast to see it, he's set on finding you. he doesn't exactly know where he's supposed to go, he's just hoping to somehow spot you and be able to get you alone.

"what are you rushing for?" chenle comes out of nowhere, noticing jisung's urgency and the way he's clearly focused on something specific strikes him as odd, but he already has an idea of what's making jisung so fidgety. "you're gonna confess your love to y/n or something?"

"yes, actually i am chenle, it'd be great if i could find him, though".

maybe it's jisung's surprising honesty, or the way his main priority is you. chenle finds it amusing how quick the switch flipped, but it's also kind of cute. the usual pessimist, mr 'i don't really care about love' park jisung is down bad for a boy, it's adorable. "have you tried the photography room?"

"where do you think i'm heading?"

chenle chuckles at jisung's attitude, simply smiling and pulling his cheek. "alright then! don't forget to tell me how it goes!"

jisung doesn't spare chenle another glance, just turns back around and focuses on the task at hand, finding you and telling you how he feels.

jisung wonders how you'll react, based on what he's seen, it's not completely guaranteed that you'll reject him, it's probably more likely that you return his feelings rather than don't. does that make him horrible? thinking because you've exhibited the traits of someone who has a crush that you have a crush on him?

maybe you don't like him and he's letting it all get to his head, it all just seems too good to be true.

jisung doesn't even have to go all the way to the photography room, because he bumps right into you whilst on his way there, and a small yelp escapes your lips. "oh my god.. sorry!"

jisung cannot contain his excitement, and his nervousness. there is absolutely nothing to be nervous about, this is y/n. kind, understanding, charming y/n, it's not like he's going to scream at you for telling him you like him. it’ll all be fine.

"it's alright" you whisper, shaking your head for a moment. "i was looking for you" you immediately say, not allowing for jisung to speak before you.

jisung's eyes widen. you were looking for him? it makes his brain go haywire, figurative cogs in his head turning. "that's ironic, i was looking for you too".

jisung swears he can see the red coloring on your cheeks, but he doesn't say anything about it.

"i have to tell you something".

the two of you say that sentence in unison, the same amount of anxiety coursing through your veins, the same red hue on your cheeks, the same look of surprise in your eyes. "you can go first" you whisper, picking at your fingers, you aren't exactly sure if you want to hear what he's about to say.

"are you sure? it seems you have something more important to say.."

"it's fine! really, i can just say it after yo—"

"i'm in love with you".

the words strike you like a punch to the gut, a slap to the face. your stomach drops, your face is burning horribly, and your legs feel like they're about to give in. you cannot believe it, you hope you don't pass out, you hope you don't just die right here, that'd be so embarrassing.

park jisung is in love with you. beautiful, talented, model student park jisung who you've never truly known how you felt about is in love with you. you are so happy, giddy, and it disgusts you, but the disgust is quickly replaced by the feeling of joyousness. park jisung is in love with you, he feels the same way.

"jisung, i'm—"

"it's okay if you don't return my feelings i just wanted to tell you!" is that really what he thinks? that you don't love him back? he must be crazy, you've only ever exhibited reciprocal feelings. "i'll be off now!"

"no! don't go!" you grab jisung's wrist before he can walk away. smart move y/n, you're acting so natural right now. "i just, i return your feelings! i just don't know how to explain it, also my hands are very sweaty right now and i feel gross.."

you let go of jisung's wrist and feel your face get unbearably hotter. it's embarrassing, you feel so embarrassed, but it's park jisung, and jisung just stares at you lovingly. you're so cute, how did it take him this long to tell you how he felt?

"you're so cute".

jisung doesn’t even realize he says the words until you give him that look, and your red face just makes him giggle more. "this isn't— that is not fair! i was supposed to confess first!"

"you're the one who told me to go first!"

"i didn't know you were going to tell me you liked me! i prepared a whole sentence for you and everything!"

you whine, covering your red face with your hands. jisung removes your hands from your face, and a small smile graces his pretty features. he's absolutely gorgeous, he has such a pretty smile, you have the sudden urge to tell him about it. "your smile is beautiful".

now it's jisung's turn to become the red faced lovesick fool. "ah, really?" he responds, voice shaky, hands even more shaky, but they're so soft, your mind always reminds you to note that.

you hum in agreement. "it's very pretty, i can't believe more people don't talk about it".

"well you can talk about it, aren't we technically dating now?"

the question makes you pause. you feel like your about to go insane, you're dating park jisung? park jisung is your boyfriend? this is like a dream come true, a dream you thought would stay a dream and only a dream. "dating? dating! yeah yeah!"

your natural act is not natural at all, you are very nervous, so nervous you feel like your about to collapse onto the floor. "there's no need to be so nervous.."

you groan. "says you!"

"alright y/n" jisung lets go of your hands, much to your dismay, because you frown. he takes note, and reaches over to grab your own once again, intertwining your fingers. "we’re dating, you don't have to go red faced every time i compliment you now".

"but it's you, how do i not?"

jisung sighs, leaning forward and pressing a small peck on your lips. oh he is such a stupid little—

"why would you do that!?"

"i'm sorry!" jisung giggles, he was definitely not sorry. "it was an instinct, i had to!"

"you— ugh!"

park jisung can't just not make you nervous, he's such a crazy man.

one that you love, of course.

"I THINK I LIKE THIS ONE THE MOST.." JISUNG states, admiring the polaroid photos which litter the desk. you hum at his words, rummaging through the box on the counter, you are very much focused on finding that estranged camera taehyun had pointed for you to find. your boyfriend glances up, looking over your shoulder, silently watching as you get frustrated about this stupid camera you couldn't find. "which one?" you inquire, glancing over at him. jisung holds up the polaroid, a picture you'd taken of you and sungchan at the beach when you were nine. a pretty photo, you aren't even sure how you pulled it off. "ah, that is a pretty one" you whisper, and you smile the moment jisung smiles. his smile is so pretty, a cute stretch which is enough to make you smile, even if you feel down.

"what’s with your face?"

"searching for this old camera is pissing me off" you remark, knowing that you have to search for this is just making you even more mad, why do you have to pack the photography room right before graduation? you hate it. "who even left it in here?"

"a former student maybe?"

you close your eyes, sighing. "i need this to be over so much more quickly" you complain, and jisung just laughs at your misery.

"we graduate in a week, y/n, just be patient" the younger pokes your cheek, then he cups your face, trying to make your frown disappear. "an old camera is not the end of the world".

you glance down at jisung's lips, then narrow your eyes. "are you trying to seduce me?" you question, raising an eyebrow.

"no?" jisung responds, adding a small tilt of his head to his words. "do i sound believable?"

"not at all" you say, pushing jisung's hands away and looking back to the box in front of you so you can continue to scour for this camera you have to get for your friend. you continue to search through the box, trying to find this old dslr camera for your friend. "so don't distract me".

"i'm not!" jisung whines, wrapping his arms around your waist and placing his chin onto your shoulder, watching you try to succeed at your mission of finding a camera. "you don't want to give me, your lovely, amazing boyfriend attention?"

you merely roll your eyes at jisung, he's so annoying (in a cute way), you're about to call chenle to drag him away from you, but you also don't want him to let go of you, his arms around your waist make you feel safe, loved, park jisung makes you feel so loved.

"i found it!" you shriek, victory soaring in your voice. "fucking finally".

"okay so can you give me a kiss now?" jisung asks, puckering his lips and leaning closer to you.

he's so desperate, and you are too, it's adorable, park jisung is adorable. "hmm" you pretend to think about it, an inquisitive look making it's way to your face. "nah".

"y/n! that's not fair!" jisung whines, shaking you with his arms that are still around your waist. he frowns, trying to give you his best puppy dog eyes.

you almost give in, but you push him away, taking the camera you'd been searching for. "later, babe".

"you said that this morning!"

you sigh, turning around to stare at the pouting park. the cute pout remains on his face, how can you ever resist him? you lean forward and press a kiss to his lips, ruffling his hair. "there, are you happy you big baby?"

"you could do better".

"uh huh, and you could be patient".

jisung frowns once again, but it's not a serious one, just the cute one he likes to do when he pretends to be mad at you. "don't be mad, you know i love you".

jisung does know, he knows that very well. he smiles at you, he's so in love with you, and not even in an embarrassing way, there's nothing embarrassing about this, he feels joyful, a sense of euphoria overtakes him whenever he’s with you.

"i know, i love you too".

and he isn't lying when he says that.

because he truly does.

[itsrainingbubbles]

Law and luffys devil fruits are malfunctioning after being hit with a devil fruit power that makes it so they can't get too far away from each other

If they step outside of the radius that is considered too far either laws room will activate and bring them close together or Luffy arms will stretch to pull him closer to law

They know a devil fruit is at fault but they can't do anything about it because the person got away so begrudgingly law has to accept he's stuck with Luffy for the time being

Eventually Luffy convinces law to go explore and they end up having a lot of fun even if las fought against it every step of the way

At first the devil fruit thing was annoying but they got used to it and learned to stay close, at some point they'd even ended up holding hands to make staying close easier

Sometimes they couldn't decide where to go next or they were arguing about where they were gonna go so they'd separate into different directions and let that decide where they would go

Eventually it does get all figured out but law and Luffy get really close in that time it takes to get everything fixed

They gravitate to each other and are always in that non existent radius that just got programmed into their brains, they hold hands all the time too after that

Their crews refer to the new development as a 'side effect' of the devil fruit and this will still be pre relationship and they like to tease law with it

"so how are the side effects treating you? When are you gonna do something about it?"

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Got tagged by @chaotic-neutral-knitter to share my favorite fics I've written and I feel a little bad not putting any of my 3 OFMD fics on the list. But in my defense it was very hard to choose between my 116 slutty slutty children, and while I like my OFMD fics a lot (especially Learning and Remembering) I decided to limit myself to five fics across all the fandoms I have written for over the past nine (!!) years, and there are some that stand above the rest.

Maybe I'll Show You the Way (Dune, Paul/Chani). Maybe my recency bias is showing but I really think this is one of the best things I've written. Paul and Chani's whole "falling in love while fighting side by side in an anti-colonial armed resistance movement" romance in Dune Part Two felt like it was designed in a lab to appeal to me specifically, and I just wanted more of it! What started with a simple "5 times they fucked in between fighting the Harkonnens" premise has become a novella-length character study about war, politics, solidarity and resistance to oppression in all its forms, interlaced with a very sweet, youthful first-love romance that always has a bittersweet edge because we the audience know these characters are living in a tragedy. This fic is one chapter from completion and I've been stalling because I really wanna stick the landing on this one, but it will get finished!

a narrow door, swiftly closing (Dune, Paul/Duncan) Different ship, different era (post-Dune Part One) and a very different vibe. The fun of this ship is the multiple power imbalances running in different directions (younger/older, student/teacher, lord/vassal, end product of a 90-generation eugenics program with a mind that can bridge time and space/Just Some Guy). It's also got that chewy age gap thing where the older character has watched the younger character grow from a child to an adult and has to wrestle with the realization that they find them sexually attractive now. Peak forbidden romance and mutual pining in this one and not just one but two of my favorite finally-crossing-the-line kisses I have ever written.

Three Times Is a Habit (Trust, Primo/The Other Paul) Ah yes, my "which doomed curly-haired teenage twink heir to a powerful dynasty named Paul are we talking about?" era. For a hot second (most of 2021) I was really into this hidden gem FX limited series Trust, based (with many creative liberties taken) on the real kidnapping of John Paul Getty III in Italy in the 1970s. The fun of this fandom is that every ship is an absolute garbage fire of bad decisions, and writing the trainwreck emotional logic that leads to a traumatized teenager repeatedly hooking up with his kidnapper was an adventure. There's also a fun meta layer at play in the relationship between our reality, the fictionalized "true" version of the kidnapping that happens in the show, the lies the characters tell about the fictionalized version of the kidnapping in the show, and the version of the characters I'm writing, some of whom are based on real people and some of whom are made up. (Is this RPF? You decide.) This fic will make zero sense if you haven't watched the show. But you should! It's a wild ride with a great cast (Donald Sutherland presente!)

Salvage & Scrap (Mad Max: Fury Road, Gen) Two minor characters who have a combined total of maybe five minutes of screen time produced what was until recently my longest fic on AO3. This fic was based on a fantastic prompt: what if Ace (the older war boy who seems to be Furiosa's second in command on the War Rig) and Valkyrie (Furiosa's Green Place gal pal) both survived their violent vehicular encounters and met each other? The idea was immediately appealing to me because they both care about Furiosa but have known such different versions of her, and the way their worldviews would clash seemed like great story fodder. I still love the imagery of them meeting at the place where their worlds have literally collided--the wreck of the War Rig in the Rock Riders' canyon. Also I recently reread this and I forgot how devastating the tiny glimpse we get of Furiosa is in this fic.

Fightplay (Mad Max: Fury Road, Max/Furiosa) You know this list wouldn't be complete without a smutty Maxiosa fic. It was really hard to pick one piece of the 127k smut novel I wrote about them in non-chronological order over the course of about 3 years (2015-2018). But Fightplay was definitely the start of writing uhhh a certain kind of dynamic for them. The prose is very spare and exacting in a way that I still find hot 9 years later.

Tagging @thebyrchentwigges, @thetardigrape, @nandamai, @bethagain, @demolitionwoman-blog and anyone else who wants to do this!

[egginfroggin]

Imagine...

Emmet is transported to Hisui.

He became five or six years old.

When he comes back, Ingo learns that he will now become a father.

Extremely late answer, sorry, Anon.

I feel that Arceus would get punched by a very irate Subway Boss in that scenario, I love it.

This has spawned many words in the master document, as my brain has decided to positively gnaw on this idea, and alas, nothing is finished yet, so have a bit of worldbuilding and some drawings in the meantime.

Worldbuilding and close-ups under the cut, and please click on the images for better quality.

And again, thank you so much for the ask, Anon, this was really fun! ^^

Pencil sketches:

first doodle of the Little Guy

height comparisons to further emphasize the "Little" part of the Little Guy

a) Akari and Rei making the mistake of turning their backs on Emmet for 0.5 seconds as he notices something off-camera b) the twins continuing to talk, oblivious to Emmet's act of absconding c) the twins turning around to talk to their teeny charge d) swift baseball bat of Realization at the Emmet-shaped absence in their immediate vicinity

Pen sketches (part of a page of sketches that were otherwise unrelated, hence the numbering):

3. a very happy lil man, despite the oversized hat 4. he skrungle scribble 5. who's he looking at? who knows

Digital art:

Emmet craves violence. Akari and Rei are used to this (featuring: probably the best expressions I've ever drawn)

he's a bit older now, but still smaller than his evolved starter; Typhlosion can tell his soul is older, but he is physically small, so she abuses his lack of height to shower him in affection

an internal mess of conflicting instincts, thoughts, and emotional maturity, but Arceus's plan is set in motion, and there's nothing Emmet can do about it

Worldbuilding:

Emmet got shrunk on his way to Hisui, due to the Rift's distorted power affecting him on the way out; he lands on Prelude Beach, drowning in his Depot Agent uniform now that he is teeny tiny

Arceus, panicking a little bit, communicates more directly with Emmet, urging him along on his mission

Emmet's memories are messed up, and his conduct is an odd combination of a child and an adult. By which I mean he can be disconcertingly clever and mature, but also the poutiest little guy with a habit of crying

Young age plus being overwhelmed plus stress equals one mute boi; this does not change his penchant for causing Problems

Jubilife is a lot more lenient with him because of how young he is, but Laventon, Cyllene, and Kamado suspect that he isn't supposed to be like this due to how he was found

Emmet is in an awkward position as far as finding living conditions go, being too odd for most parents to want to take in but also much too young to live on his own

Akari and Rei are assigned babysitters. Let the stressing and development of gray hairs commence

Emmet is Perfectly Behaved and causes no Problems at all, of course, why would he? Why would he?

(He bolts for the gates the moment Akari opens the door in the morning) (Ress caught him)

After sending Emmet home, Arceus shortly feels a distinct feeling of being in danger

After finding out that his brother has been shrunk and not fixed, Ingo fixes metaphorical (and perhaps literal) crosshairs on the back of Arceus's head

Arceus may be in danger

Close-ups of the digital art:

(Program used for the digital sketches: Krita; time taken: about 90 minutes)

Thank you for reading all of this! I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day. :>

[creature-wizard]

https://youtu.be/U8NNHmV3QPw?si=6aInyR5QVTAT3z0R Watch if you're bored but you might be surprised 🤷🏻‍♀️.

It's about spirit science

GHJKSD when you said this video was about Spirit Science, I thought you were gonna like, link to a video talking about how the Spirit Science guy Jordan Duchnycz is a rapist or his weird obsession with Emma Watson or his antisemitic claim that Jews come from another planet. I didn't expect you were going to link to like, an actual Spirit Science video.

In brief, what Jordan's putting out here is straight-up baloney. A lot of it's pretty bog-standard New Age pseudohistory based on unsubstantiated conjecture, misinterpretation of various mythological traditions, and shit somebody just pulled straight from their ass. Not only is there no actual evidence to support any of the stuff he's putting out there, the actual evidence we do have inevitably precludes it.

Here are some links that explain why and how we know that people like Jordan are just wrong:

The Sirius Mystery: did the Dogon know about Sirius B?

The Truth About Atlantis

Atlantis @ Bad Archaeology

The Weird Case of Atlantis-Mu in the Madrid Codex

Lemuria, the weirdest continent that never existed

Naacal @ Wikipedia

Close encounters of the racist kind

The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis Is Racist And Harmful

Zechariah Sitchin @ Bad Archaeology

"The Emerald Tablets of Thoth": A Lovecraftian Plagiarism

Left- vs. Right-Brained: Why the Brain Laterality Myth Persists

Are the Egyptian pyramids aligned with the stars?

Criticisms of Drunvalo Melchizedek @ Wikipedia

Detailed deconstruction of the "face" and pyramids on Mars claims

"Christ" @ Wiktionary

"Allah" @ Wiktionary

Charles Hapgood @ Wikipedia

It’s better light, not worse behaviour, that explains crimes on a full Moon

Sphinx water erosion hypothesis @ Wikipedia

Egyptian Hieroglyphs @ World History Encyclopedia

Predynastic Period in Egypt @ World History Encyclopedia

Sumer @ World History Encyclopedia

Debunking the Myth: The Council of Nicaea and the Formation of the Biblical Canon

First Council of Nicaea @ Encyclopedia Britannica

Did Jesus Go to India? A Modern Gospel Forgery

Also, the fact that Jordan appeals to channeled information is a massive red flag. Channeling is fun and sometimes produces some interesting things, but a source of reliable information it is not.

He also claims that a pole reversal makes the planet start spinning the other way, which is literally not how pole reversals work at all.

And of course, Jason's claim that thirteen powerful families are controlling the world is that general conspiracy theory shit derived from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, early modern witch panic, and blood libel. The whole thirteen families thing in particular comes from Fritz Springmeier, a far right conspiracy theorist who proudly cites other hateful kooks like Edith Starr Miller and Alexander Hislop and basically claims anything that isn't good wholesome Christian entertainment is actually Satanic programming.

Basically, Jordan Duchnycz is just another New Age conspiracy theorist pushing the same old garbage as loads of others like him.

[ummick]

Mick Schumacher At the Crossroads Between WEC and F1: "I Still Don't Know Where I'm Going"

Interview with the young 25-year-old German, who is finishing his endurance season because he is unable to compete in the final 2024 F1 GPs.

He could have been with Williams in F1 this weekend in Baku. More than one believed that he was going to replace Logan Sargeant at Grove from Monza. Instead, Mick Schumacher is at Fuji to continue his hypercar program. In Japan, we felt the young German was somewhat bitter at not being in Azerbaijan. It is clear that he has unfinished business with Formula 1, he who still wants to prove what he's worth in a better context than the one he experienced in 2021 and 2022. In the meantime, he takes stock of this year, where the Alpine program in WEC was a bone to gnaw for him. "When I started my career on circuits, I never imagined one day doing endurance," Mick told us in the Fuji paddock. "It was a year of firsts for everyone. My first time in WEC, but also the first year of the Alpine LMDh. Nevertheless, we've done good things while being in the learning phase. We must keep in mind that we're beginners. There's still a lot of work to do for all of us."

The transition to long-term races was also not easy for the 25-year-old, who nevertheless established himself as a valuable element of the Alpine team throughout the races. "I had to learn to drive with cars of different categories on the track, something I had never experienced in the single-seater era," continues the ex-Haas driver. "Fortunately, my teammates Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière helped me a lot and still help me today. In addition, the Alpine is heavier while having less power and downforce than an F1 car, so it's less exhilarating to drive. But it's comparing apples and pears since they are two completely different categories of cars." Having already tamed old F1 cars that marked the career of his illustrious father Michael, the former Formula 2 champion did not remain indifferent to a Silver Arrow which was synonymous with a springboard in the Kaiser's career. Ironically, the prototypes served as a fallback for both Michael and Mick at a time when their careers were at a crossroads. "Of course, I love driving the cars that my father once raced with. Not long ago I was able to try the Sauber-Mercedes that he raced in Group C in the early 90s. It was really nice." If the doors of F1 were to definitively close for Schumi Jr, it's not excluded to see him try legendary races in the future. "I haven't yet put myself in a position to know if I can freelance elsewhere. Of course, I'm keeping an eye on the Indianapolis 500 or even the Dakar. But I haven't yet thought about whether it was doable for me in the near future, but it's true that it would be fun to participate in the Dakar one day, even if this event requires a lot of preparation."

Or, racing at Le Mans with Uncle Ralf and cousin David? The latter recently hit the headlines by successfully racing in LMP3 and dreams of eventually being in Sarthe. "Unless David and Ralf choose to do hypercar, it would be complicated to organize that. I still don't know where I'm going in my career. At the moment, I'm not saying yes or no because I don't know where I'll be in a few years." While waiting to know what the future holds for him, Mick will try to achieve a good result at the foot of Mount Fuji. "The two Alpines performed very well in Austin. We can be proud of what we've done. We of course hope that this will be confirmed, even if it's a very different track. We remain cautious, but we hope that it'll go well. If everything falls into place in the race we can fight for the podium, but out of respect for the youth of the program, we avoid thinking about it too much." And to decide if it will stop or still for him in the WEC next year.

[n7cloacadestroyer]

Mass Effect's overall plot is a lot of fun, but any fan will tell you straight up that it isn't the tightest run ship. Major sections of the trilogy's overall plot are moved forward by contrivance, and established lore has a reputation for being tossed out the airlock because the dev team thought of something cool. That said, one (1) of the things that irks me the most is something I don't often see talked about--the Citadel Relay.

So here's the reaper's plan, in paraphrase:

Leave one (1) guy behind and fuck off to dark space to get that good sleep.

Oneguy turns on power saver mode and keeps an eye on the meatbags.

Fleshies find mass relays and citadel; use them.

Open murder hole to let the squad through.

Make meatbag soup

Return to step one

Now if something were to go wrong with step four, you'd have quite the pain in the ass in your future if you're a reaper.

Thought experiment: You're leaving your house for the day. You don't want anyone to just wander in, but you obviously need to get back inside later. Do you… A. Lock the door and take the key with you? B. Have someone house sit? C. Leave one of the back windows unlocked and hope no one notices? D. Train your cat to unlock the door when it hears you whistle?

Admittedly that last option would be cool, albeit contrived and prone to failure. For some reason though, the reapers went with that one. And surprisingly enough, someone eventually broke in and retrained their cats. The reapers don't have a single dialogue exchange in the entire series that doesn't include a small diatribe about their intellectual superiority, yet they have no contingency in place for this.

So it's already pretty silly at this point, but it actually gets a little sillier when you realize what the game takes care to avoid explicitly stating--the reapers obviously have a mass relay with them in dark space. One that links to the hub of the relay network but is for some reason isolated from it. They don't even have a backup that just like… links to the Serpent Nebula relay.

I know what some of you are probably thinking. That the closed circuit with the Citadel relay is meant to ensure that the reapers aren't stumbled upon while they're schleepin™. As Vigil states, "In this state, they are vulnerable." So turn it off. We've already established that relays can be deactivated, and that a capital ship like Sovereign can manually open them as it attempted to do with the Citadel. Link that bad boy to the whole network, turn it on when you get the signal, killallhumans.exe ggnore.

Now we turn our attention to Mass Effect 2, which establishes that there is an active relay beyond from which no one has ever returned. So the galactic community put their heads together and came up with a plan--stick some warning signs near it and let the problem take care of itself. Literally just throw hands up and move on. So if the reapers just killed everyone who came through their super secret clubhouse relay? Maybe put some of those weird Collector Laser Probes to take out the stragglers? They'd probably be fine.

Eventually we learn that the relay leads into the galactic core, and that it checks for a reaper IFF system to engage more accurate protocols to avoid throwing friendly vessels into a supermassive black hole or the hundreds of stars it's throwing around at nearly light speed. So now we've established that at least one relay has an Identify Friend Foe system. Mass Effect 3 further establishes that the IFF system is only usable by the Normandy because of EDI, who explains that the IFF is more of a thinking intelligence than a simple program. So if you aren't an AI, or don't have the help of one, you're kind of screwed.

Shame they couldn't use that technology for anything else. Barring access to certain relays, for example.

Recall the Arrival DLC. Commander Shepard vaporizes ~300,000 colonists because the Viper Nebula/Alpha relay is, and I quote, "their shortcut to the rest of the galaxy." If the reapers had even a single one of these contingencies in place, humanity would've likely arrived to an empty Citadel in a new cycle. They would've had their shortcut already, and there wouldn't be anything to be done about it.

Given that their plan is actually quite flawed, there are only a few explanations that I can think of:

The reapers are actually kind of stupid.

The Catalyst intentionally designed the "reaper solution" to be imperfect. To give the meatbags a chance, I guess?

The biomechanical nature of reaper construction has caused them to inherit more traits from the organics that facilitated their construction than any of them seem to freely admit. Namely arrogance, in this case. You'll notice that Harbinger does talk with the same aloof superiority that the Leviathan use when talking to Shepard in ME3, whereas Sovereign's dialogue reads as something more akin to disgust or hatred.

Development was rushed and somewhat troubled for every Mass Effect game to date, and many of the gaps we see are a result of content being cut to get the game out the door on time.

In all honesty, it's most likely some combination of 3 and 4, but it's kind of frustrating. It's not surprising that so many people write no reaper AUs and/or headcanon a Destroy ending that doesn't kill the geth and EDI simply to fit the framing as the Renegade option. Mass Effect, in the minds of most fans, is a character driven narrative. The reapers aren't really characters. There are only two of them that have names, and only three who actually speak. They're mostly just an excuse to make the plot happen.

If the intention was to imply that the reapers are literal mechanical mass graves haunted by the metaphorical ghosts of the civilizations harvested in their creation? I'm on board. The problem is that we're never told that, and we aren't given enough interaction with different reapers to come to that conclusion definitively ourselves. May as well just call 'em Harby and the Boys, cause it's clear from the outset that Harbinger is the only one that the narrative intends to give even the tiniest amount of weight after Sovereign is destroyed.

The reapers are a constant presence during the trilogy, and yet we only meaningfully interact with four, and that's if you're counting Sovereign's half brother Sluggard.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s4 ep7: Scientific Method

An 'aliens experimenting on the crew' episode, this one was different enough from the one Next Gen did that it didn't feel like a rip off of that one, even though it was basically the same plot. This one was much less creepy than that one, and actually had a lot of fun and comedic elements.

In the opening scene, B'Elanna finds Seven rerouting power from engineering to the astrometrics lab without permission, and gets angry because it prevented engineering from finishing their warp core diagnostic. She scolds Seven, who doesn't seem to think it's a big deal, and B'Elanna gives Seven the same lecture about needing to follow rules that Janeway gave her when she started out. B'Elanna realizes the irony of that, just like someone realizing that they've finally turned into their parents, and she tells Seven a little more kindly that if she could learn to follow Starfleet rules, so can Seven. Seven seems to accept what B'Elanna says, and apologizes. It's a nice little moment illustrating Seven and the crew making efforts to understand and accept working together.

From there, we go to Tom trying to slip out of his shift in sickbay, because he wants to bring B'Elanna flowers to apologize for having to miss their last date- and to make out with her in the jeffries tube. While Tom and B'Elanna are kissing and being insanely cute, we see thay they're being observed by someone or something as yet unknown.

Janeway is tired and having headaches in this episode, for which the the Doctor prescribes massage therapy, leading to a flat out comedy scene of Janeway enduring the Doctor's not very relaxing looking message regimen, from which she almost walks out to bridge in a sheet before the Doctor points out she may want a uniform.

Back in engineering, Tuvok catches Tom and B'Elanna comically making out on a console, and they fret over whether he'll tell the captain. The captain apparently already knows, because the crew is one big gossip mill, and she uncharacteristcally yells at Tom and B'Elanna to behave more professionally after the briefing.

Janeway has been very on edge and short fused this whole time, and Tuvok gently points out how extreme her behavior has been after she barks at him to 'whip the crew into shape'. It snaps her back to her senses for a moment, and she resolves to take a vacation on the holodeck soon. Tuvok sits next to her and kindly replies that he will join her there for a drink. It's a very sweet gesture on his part, and Janeway's gratitude for his support and understanding in that moment is obvious, as she takes his hand and tries not to cry. It's such a lovely moment that speaks volumes about the depth of their affection for each other.

More crew members soon begin to exhibit odd symptoms that vary from person to person- Chakotay starts aging rapidly, Neelix starts turning into another species, and other crew members soon pour into sickbay with more problems. The Doctor and B'Elanna find an odd marker with alien writing on the patients dna when they analyze it in the science lab, but someone tries to kill B'Elanna and delete the Doctor's program when they get close to figuring it out.

Eventually the Doctor modifies Seven's ocular implant to match the phase variant on the alien dna tag, and Seven is able to observe aliens all over the ship, monitering the crew, and the medical devices they've fitted them with, unbeknownst to them. (And we learn the trivia tidbit that Voyager has 257 rooms!)

Seven manages to capture one of the aliens and make her visible to the crew, and the alien admits to being part of a science team using Voyager for medical research. When Janeway refuses to let her continue her experiments, the alien threatens to kill all the test subjects. But when a crewperson dies on the bridge due to one of the experiments, Janeway, who's had needles put into her skull and her agression levels turned up by the aliens, basically says 'fuck it, we ball' and decides to fly the ship in between a binary pulsar in the hopes that the prospect of the ship being torn apart will scare off the aliens once and for all. The aliens apparently hadn't been observing Janeway long enough to know that she'll happily blow up the ship to prevent enemies from harming her crew on a regular day, and are somehow surprised to find that an addled Janeway will literally not hesitate. Janeway plays chicken with them until they back down and leave, but Voyager is already too far in to turn back, and against the odds, Janeway powers the ship though the pulsar without exploding it. Was it statistically probable for that to happen? No. Is Kathryn Janeway above the mere laws of science? Hell yes. We stan a legend!!

After the aliens are gone and their medical devices removed, things are back to normal. Tom and B'Elanna have cute little dinner date in Tom's quarters, which keeps getting interrupted, mostly by Harry, who either doesn't realize what a date is, or doesn't realize he's not part of their thruple, and tries to invite himself to hang with them, until Tom shuts the door in his face. Tom and B'Elanna wonder whether they really were going overboard in their pda, or if it was just the aliens messing with them. They don't know, and neither do we, but this time, at least, they wait till they're alone before they start kissing. An adorable ending to a fun episode.

Tl;dr: A very fun and somewhat silly episode that has a solid a-plot with lots of good comedy scenes, as well as a few rather sweet, genuine character moments. Good stuff.

[slocumjoe]

Peer-Reviewing “The Synthetic Truth.”

And a long rant about irresponsible journalism

This will be a long read. As mentioned before, I was going into careers for this thing. But I’m not anymore, it’s been a while, and I’m doing this for fun in my free time. So, if you notice something I don’t, feel free to point it out. The coolest thing about my Piper rants are the other writers nodding furiously. But at the same time, disagreement is a source of learning, so don’t be shy if you have a counter-point to anything.

The point of this is to pick apart Piper’s reporting and figure out everything wrong with it. Why? Because people agree with me when I say she’s bad at her job, but I don’t think they understand just how bad. The articles themselves are long, boring slogs to read through, full of filler paragraphs and unimaginative ways of making a point. They’re forgettable. Pair that with the fact that many likely haven’t read them, and it’s easy to buy into Piper’s shtick of being a sharp, charismatic field journalist. 

Consider this post a refund. 

Noodles. We all eat them. We all love them. And Diamond City's Power Noodles has supplied this sustenance for the past fifteen years. From the stilted mechanical cadence of Takahashi's programmed Japanese, to the fragrant steam that wafts from each bowl, to the scalding tang of each delicious mouthful - the ordering and eating of noodles is but one of many shared human experiences. Or is it?

October, 2287

The Synthetic Truth

By

Piper Wright

This opening is weak and poorly connects to the next paragraph. The thesis of this article seems to be that Diamond City has a synth issue; we’ll get to that later. Noodles have nothing to do with the overall idea of the article, and she’s wasting a lot of ink on it. Remember, this is a post-apocalypses newspaper. You’d think she’d want to make things easy on her printing press and not waste her resources.

Now, the closing line here is awful. I’ve seen classmates ripped to shreds for hypothetical questions. Do not ask hypothetical questions, especially if you’re not going to outright respond to them. It’s a lazy way of getting to your point. I can just see my writing workshop teacher’s red ink on this one. 

Also, I have two nitpicks. Firstly, the description of the ‘noodle experience’ doesn’t work. It described Takahashi, but then the noodles. If it was Takahashi’s Japanese, then something else, then noodles, it would work better. When doing a three-point description, you want 1-1-1 or 3 of one thing. This is 1-2. Doing 1-1-1-1, or four points, is on shaky grounds. 3 is a magic number; not too little, not too much.

Secondly, the line “And Diamond City’s Power Noodles has supplied this sustenance for the past fifteen years” is awkward. With the first three sentences, this paragraph opens with “Noodles. We eat noodles. We Love noodles. Power Noodles makes noodles.” It’s clunky. I won’t suggest fixes because the entire paragraph needs to be thrown away.

I was struck by this very question as I sat at the counter of Power Noodles last Wednesday night, just after 5:00 pm, enjoying a dinner I had so many times before. That's when I noticed our very own Mayor McDonough sidle up to a stool, and engage in the very same ritual. Right hand extending. Mouth opening. Teeth chewing. Yes, eating noodles. The shared experience of almost every Diamond City resident.

This paragraph also needs cutting. Really look at the content of it. It describes the act of eating food. This paragraph wastes ink and paper, time, and most importantly, reader attention. The average person is not going to sit down and read through this, Piper. Aside from the creepy, stalker-like tone of this paragraph, it’s also counter-intuitive to her point.

Piper is trying to convince everyone McDonough is a synth. Here, she describes him doing something that would be very odd for an Institute agent; he goes and gets dinner at the same place she does, while she’s there. Knowing he’d be scrutinized for it. This paints the rest of the article in an unflattering light, as Piper is accusing McDonough of being a synth, while not providing proof, at the same time she’s describing ordinary behavior. 

This paragraph also fails to connect to her hypothetical question. Piper asks the question, and describes when she herself asked it. She doesn’t properly acknowledge it. This is a journalism crime. Hypothetical questions are bad, and using one, then shuffling past it, is even worse. So much red ink needed here.

So it must have also seemed to the residents of Diamond City nearly sixty years ago, on an uncharacteristically warm May evening in 2229, as they sat around this very same counter. But that was before the days of Takahashi and his noodles, when the bar served not noodles, but ice cold Nuka-Colas, frothy beers, and stiff shots of whiskey. The barman's name was Henry, and that night, he facilitated the shared human experiences of drinking, smoking, talking and laughing. That is, until tragedy struck.

The focus has shifted from an odd, pointless note about McDonough eating dinner, to the Broken Mask incident. The first paragraph is about noodles, the second is about McDonough eating noodles, and this third paragraph is about how this noodle stand used to be a bar. If Piper was writing about the noodle stand itself, this would be acceptable with some changes. But this isn’t about noodles, it’s about synths in Diamond City, but we’re still talking about the damn noodle stand.

Some nitpicks: ‘uncharacteristically’ can be cut; ‘facilitated’ is an odd word choice; 1-1-1-1 description use, ‘talking’ and ‘laughing’ could be lumped in together under ‘merriment’, ‘partying’, or some such. 

This is a matter of personal taste, but I would have left out the final line. That way, it would be of some shock when the tragedy actually strikes. It would better fit the tone Piper is going for. If this article were more objective and historical, prefacing that there is tragedy would be appropriate. 

There aren't many among us who are even old enough to remember that evening - although some of the city's Ghoul residents certainly could have, had they not been forcibly removed, thanks to Mayor McDonough's anti-Ghoul decree of 2282. But there is one person among us who does remember, distinctly, the events of that evening: respected matriarch Eustace Hawthorne, who recounted her story in a Publick Occurrences exclusive interview.

Unless Piper wants to make a point about the ghoul exile, half of this paragraph is unwarranted. Simply take the last part about Eustace and put it on the end of the last paragraph. “Eustace Hawthorne remembers the evening well.” That’s all you have to do. Saves ink, time, and reader attention. 

"Oh, I was there all right. Sitting right at the bar, sure as you're sitting in front of me now. Twenty-two years old or so, and just looking to have a good time. I was safe behind the Wall - we all were - so what was the harm? And let me tell you, that Mr. Carter made it easy. He came into town earlier that day, said he was from out west somewhere. It didn't really matter. What did matter was his smile, and his laugh, and the way he'd make everyone feel at ease. That night, at the bar, we all just sort of crowded around him. Everyone wanted to exchange a word, or hear about the state of the Commonwealth. And Mr. Carter, he was all too happy to oblige. It was just so wonderful. Until it wasn't."

What Eustace is describing is, of course, is the infamous event known as the "Broken Mask," when the people of the Commonwealth learned for the first time that the Institute, the shadowy scientific organization responsible for the creation of combat androids, had actually succeeded in creating a model so advanced, it could effortlessly infiltrate human society. Unbeknownst to the people of Diamond City, the Institute had somehow evolved their androids into true synthetic humans. Synths.

Eustace continued her account of that evening, and the moment when things turned sinister, and the truth about Mr. Carter was revealed.

"We'd been drinking, and carrying on, must have been three hours. Mr. Carter had four or five drinks in that time. He seemed a bit drunk, I guess, like the rest of us. Then something just sort of happened. He was smiling, but the smile sort of went from his face, all in an instant. And then his cheek started twitching, kind of funny. And I remember watching him, clear as if it happened just yesterday. He reached inside his coat, took out a revolver, and then 'Blam!' - He shot Henry, the barman, right in the head. Didn't hesitate, didn't show any emotion - Mr. Carter killed Henry as casually as if he were paying him for a drink. But his cheek never did stop twitching. Let me tell you, all Hell broke loose after that."

"After he shot Henry, that Mr. Carter shot three or four other people, too. Like I said, all Hell broke loose. The guards came running, they opened fire, and Mr. Carter he kept shooting, and throwing people around left and right. Finally, those guards put him down. Seemed like they had killed a man who had flipped his lid. Gone crazy. And he lay there like a dead crazy man, sure enough. God, it was horrible. But then we saw the plastic and the metal - this was one of them early synths, you see - and we realized it wasn't a man at all. It was then we all knew. The Institute wasn't just 'out there.' The Institute was everywhere now. Among us."

Oh, Piper. Sweetheart, god bless. 

Never, ever, ever use a full quote like this. Ever! A cursory Google search will tell you to use quotes sparingly. Any middle-school teacher will tell you to not just drop them in and leave, like you’ve written a paragraph. Every writing resource out there will tell you to do something with a quote, and give it a point. This paragraph fails on all metrics.

When using large blocks of quotations like Piper is doing, for the love of god, paraphrase. Piper, in this section, has two paragraphs; one is saying that Eustace’s quote isn’t done yet, and the other is describing what Eustace is already describing. If I put anything like this in front of any of my teachers, they’d call in for a welfare check, asking if I’d lost my mind over night.. Piper writes nothing of her own substance here. You cannot use a quote like this. Sure, this is an interview, and maybe interview articles have different rules, but surely this is a massive amount of ink, spent recounting Eustace’s winding manner of speech.

I’m doing the same thing here, but the difference is that I am directly examining each paragraph; Piper is just dropping in her quotes and continuing on. This is a rookie mistake. I know Piper wasn’t properly taught these things, but it still is a sign of weak, purposeless writing. If you have a point, and you care about it, and, crucially, it has the legs, you don’t need to prop it up with a quote dump like this. 

It was never determined precisely why the synth known as Mr. Carter went on his killing spree. Some suggested he had somehow been remotely controlled by the Institute, who wanted to test his combat effectiveness. Still others felt he had simply malfunctioned (a hypothesis supported by the twitching cheek), and was never meant to kill anyone. But at that time, the "why" hardly seemed important. What mattered was that the humans of the Commonwealth had been truly infiltrated by an organization whose intentions and motives were, and still are, a complete mystery - using a model of synth even less advanced than the ones the Institute has in service today.

I can’t tell if this paragraph looks alright to me because of the horror of the quotation section, or it’s genuinely inoffensive. It’s boring, sure, but it has a point. It lays out the theories behind Mr. Carter’s attack, and then pushes the point that it doesn’t matter; there are now synths among them, hiding in plain sight. The last sentence is a bit of a run-on, though. It could have been broken up into two sentences. 

This paragraph gets a solid B. Unimaginative, a bit too long, but it has a purpose and fulfills it competently. It uses too many adverbs, though, but that’s a common issue throughout the article. Precisely, remotely, simply, hardly, truly - it’s a small thing, but once you get an eye for it, you’ll never stop noticing it. 

Which brings us to noodles. Specifically, the noodles consumed by Mayor McDonough last Wednesday night, in the same spot that Mr. Carter the synth went haywire, and mercilessly killed several people - after spending hours sharing an experience the people of Diamond City assumed was reserved for members of the human race. They were wrong.

This paragraph attempts to connect McDonough to Mr. Carter through this stand, citing it as a common denominator of Institute meddling, the heart of Diamond City now invaded. But she does this through the fact that Mr. Carter went haywire here, and the fact that McDonough eats here. This is false correlation. Piper herself eats here, but in her eyes, McDonough taking an action that Mr. Carter also took is proof that the Institute is pulling the strings. To her, this noodle stand is a symbol of a lost security. But objectively, she’s still just talking about McDonough getting dinner.

This is not how you do set up and pay-off. I’ll give a demonstration of tying the ending back to your opening at, obviously, the end of this post.

Are we?

You ended. On a two-word hypothetical question. 

If my teacher received anything, no matter how well the rest of it was, with a two-word hypothetical question for a closing paragraph, she would have stood up on her desk, pointed at it with her red pen, and gone into exhaustive detail for the remainder of class why you don’t do this.

But for all the bad writing decisions in this article, they aren’t the worst thing.

Let’s talk about journalism, and the responsibilities of it.

Accountability 

A keen eye will have noticed the inflammatory nature of this article.

This article is somewhat insidious, as the wording and topic choice leads to a subtle hint towards paranoia. “They were wrong...Are we?” wants the reader to wonder if they, themselves, are in danger of a synth going haywire, or a synth walking past them like anybody else. Piper wants her reader to keep this in mind, every single day. She wants them to never not think about the Institute infiltrating their home. 

Piper writes about nothing, but the subtext is everything. She encourages a reader to view everyone with suspicion; after all, if a synth can eat noodles and drink and make merry with anyone, how do you trust anyone? It’s a valid point, yes. But it’s a shortsighted one. How do you trust anyone in the wasteland, synth or not? Someone could be trying to rob you, sell you into slavery, kill you. Piper singles out the Institute as the only real threat in her articles. Need I remind you, Piper is unaware of Quincy’s recent siege and take over by the Gunners? 

Quincy was a large, thriving city, and was a major trading hub. There’s a reason Piper picked Quincy as your fake origin. The wealth and resources are why the Gunners attacked in the first place. It was a massacre. On a trading hub. Think of what that would do for the weak economy. Think of how many people would know the traveling traders, or had friends and family living in Quincy. Piper doesn’t go to the Quincy survivors for their account, or Preston for his side of the story as the failed protector. To Piper, the Institute is the most urgent threat to the Commonwealth. She fixates on it. The Institute is a threat, yes. Remember University Point? But Piper doesn’t write about that, either, and there’s been time for the news of U.P to reach Diamond City. For Quincy, I’m willing to forgive her. It was a recent attack. But as a reporter, Piper should be keeping her ear to ground for these sorts of things. 

A quick list of things Piper should be writing about, for the good of her community.

The Ghoul exodus, and the pointlessness of racism in a time where you need every friendly hand you can get.

The Gunners and their encroaching presence in the Commonwealth

Quincy being commandeered. 

The Brotherhood rolling into the Commonwealth.

News about crops and economy from other settlements.

Homesteading information that would be useful for a post-apocalypse home, such as preserving, tailoring, and the like. 

The Railroad.

Goodneighbor, and the difference of leadership between Hancock and his brother. 

Dangerous areas in the Commonwealth, safe routes you can take to other locations.

Merchant routes.

Bunker Hill.

The rebuilding of the Minutemen. 

Institute top-side activity, such as in University Point, the Mayoral Bunker in the west, and more.

The destruction of the Commonwealth Provisional Government, and why the Institute wouldn’t want the Commonwealth to be united.

But that isn’t what she writes about. Piper writes about synths in Diamond City. Diamond City is already paranoid about the Institute after the Broken Mask Incident. Piper can write about the Institute; she just doesn’t do it in meaningful ways. Her paper literally has an advice column; this isn’t a reputable source of information, it’s her own think-pieces.

If I was a journalist in the wasteland, I would be trying to unify my community. I would be looking for important news, useful information and survival tips, and trying to find answers where there are questions. I would not be rallying my community against each other, telling them that our leader is a fraud, that any of them could be frauds. And then I wouldn’t insist to anyone willing to listen, that no one is believing me, despite the town being in a constant state of dread. 

That’s the real problem I have with Piper; she can’t take no for an answer, even when she’s getting ‘yes’. Piper’s articles are working, but because they can’t just throw McDonough out, she blames the residents of Diamond City. She calls them cowards, sheep, brown-nosing. The guards are talking about synths, the residents are talking about synths, people want Nick thrown out after all his good deeds because they just can’t trust him anymore. If you walk around Diamond City, people will tell you they broke up with their girlfriend because she did something weird, so she must be a synth. Cathy at the barber thinks the mayor’s secretary is a synth, because her hair is too nice. The general store owner, Myrna, who has to interact with more people than most, can barely run her business because she’s so terrified that she isn’t interacting with who she thinks she is. 

And Kyle, a DC resident, thinks something killed his brother, Riley, and stole his face. Angry, grieving, deluded, he tries to put down the mockery, only for guards to execute him. There were no synths, but someone still died because of the fear that there might have been. 

And where does this happen?

In front of the noodle stand. 

(See? That’s how you bring things back around.)

Piper writes that the Institute first invaded Diamond City at this stand, the heart of town, and now, a synth leads Diamond City while eating here. But the Institute isn’t what is hurting Diamond City. It’s fear. Everyone turns on everyone else, for fear they’re a synth. There is still violence, for fear of history repeating itself. 

Fear that Piper will not stop perpetuating.

[ironfey-42]

You Broke into My House Drunk AF, But My Cats Like You. Date Me, Please.

@ironstrangehaven

IronStrange Week 2022 Day 4

Prompt: Meet Ugly AU

Modern AU

No Powers AU

Tony is CEO of Stark Tech and Records

When he was younger, he had an excellent idea to start a tech company and a music label.

The company is doing well

Like making money 

Also, in this AU, let’s make the music labels different from the music labels in real life.

This means the artists get to keep the money, including the other people that work to help the artist succeed.

The company pays the amount needed to make the albums and stuff

Tony lives alone and has three cats

Friday

Butterfingers 

Jarvis

Tony’s cats are picky about who they choose to be nice to

The cats are adorable and cuddly with Tony’s friends and family

When it comes to Tony’s potential partners, they get hissy

Tony always ends it with his partners the day after meeting his cats

His cats are good at knowing who will treat Tony right or wrong

He trusts them a lot because the last time he ignored his cats, he got stuck in a horrible relationship

Anyways he’s in his office late into the night working and doesn’t get back till the following day 

During the time that Tony is at the office, Stephen finally has fun because he’s been busy with work

He’s a professor for the pre-med program, and he likes making sure his student understand what they’re learning and he wants them to succeed 

He’s been very stressed for the past couple of weeks

Christine, Wong, and Agatha help him let loose because, yeah, stress is terrible for you

Christine, Wong, and Agatha are in different departments or departments adjacent 

Anyways Stephen gets incredibly drunk and decides to walk to Agatha and Tao’s place while Wong drives Christine and Agatha to continue just to relax and recover from their inebriated state

Wong pulled the short stick of being the designated driver before all of the drinkings happened

Usually, Stephen is the DD, but Stephen needed just to have fun and not focus on work

Stephen thinking that Tony’s home is Agatha’s, just breaks into Tony’s house

Agatha and Tao live in the same neighborhood as Tony

Stephen is confused when Agatha, Christine, Wong, and Tao aren’t there, but he supposes he got there early

(JUST PRETEND THAT THE BAR IS VERY CLOSE TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD, OKAY)

Stephen meets Tony’s cats, and the cats know that despite Stephen being drunk that’s he’s a good person

Stephen melts at the sight of the cats. 

He plays with them and ends up sleeping on the couch, cuddling them

When Tony gets home, he’s a bit confused to find the door to his house open

He’s cautious when he walks in, but then he gets even more complicated when his cats aren’t there to greet him 

He hears a cat purring; it is loud like an engine

It was Butterfingers who was purring. She always sounded like an engine running.

He walks into the living room to find Stephen asleep and the cats cuddled against a body part.

He also finds a few bottles of his cheap wine from the fridge on the table and an empty wine glass.

Confused, he just gets into his comfy clothes and gets breakfast ready for him and his surprise guest.

Stephen wakes up to the sound of food cooking and the light from the window.

He then gets up, walks to where the food is and finds a stranger in his friend’s house.

Tony turns around and is like:

“Uh, hi, you broke into my home last night, and I would have kicked you out, but seeing the wine bottles and the videos from last night, you were already drunk, and my cats have been very cuddly with you, and so do you wanna go out with me?”

Stephen, still drunk, is like:

“You’re not Agatha or Tao.

Tony does the whole explanation about Agather and Tao being his neighbors, and he once again asks, “Wanna go out with me?

Stephen: “When I’m not drunk anymore, yes.”

[nfumbewalk]

Dead Flowers & Tom 💀

Rodolfo's shrine. Last night, Rodolfo said he liked Santa Muerte's dead red roses and he wanted them on his shrine. Tried to give him live flowers before and he hated it! Plus they were yellow. He's not a fan of that color. Anyway, he got his wish. Sorry his table looks dirty. Its just fuzzies and other things that got stuck because that altar cloth is velvet.

Then I got The Rolling Stones song, "Dead Flowers," in my head at his shrine because he started singing it! One of my top favorite Stones songs! Lol.

I've noticed something - just started happening. I got that voice that ppl talk about. The one that warns you not to do or say something. I haven't had that voice...um..ever??! Since I reclaimed my gifts and true power, I got the voice. Think it may help negate fights between Tom and I. I keep forgetting that he had a serious brain injury at 3 years old.

He fell out of a third story window because his mom wasn't watching him. It still affects him. He accuses me of fucking with his mind and very well could be but do not remember. I realize now that I gotta fuckin stop it. Hopefully the voice reminds me. It did last night, of some other stuff. I'm gonna do my best.

Tom is my twin flame. Just about everything you read about twin flame characteristics is true for us. We do the same things at the same time! Like yawning or reaching for the pack of cigarettes. Saying the same thing at the same time, same emotions, simpatico sex drives, so much turbulence - bicker bicker, but it ends well. He feels like an extension of me, just male with typical guy thoughts. But we share the same likes, dislikes, kinks and thrills. Same poisons too.

We have been extremely close since 2019. Before that, I did my own thing. After jail, I changed. I got interested in Tom's video games. I didn't want to be alone anymore. So I stayed. Now, I'm back in my room but always with him still. I don't watch television. I watch Elder Scrolls Online. Forever Cyrodiil. 💖 I love PVP! Our toons kick ass.

Belial, Astarte, and Rosier brought Tom to me. It was SO fast and once we met, we both fell hard. So hard that we cried, holding each other. I didn't want to go back to Portland. The day we met, it was rainy. I planned on just spending the night. Guess those Demons had other ideas. When I awoke the next morning, everything was covered in white. Deep snow! We had not planned on this - I didn't bring my meds!! Oregon gets some snow in the central part of the state, but it doesn't always go to Portland. Everything was blanketed.

I had no choice but to stay a bit until the snow melted enough to use tire cables. I was in Eugene about 3 days. We had a lot of fun, like bunnies. I got so addicted to him. Love came fast for us. Going back sucked but Tom encouraged me to hit another trade school. College of Legal Arts had medical transcription. It was a 9 month program. I entered, got a 4.0 GPA and perfect attendance the whole time. Same day as graduation, I moved to Eugene. Sweet! Never moved back to Portland again!

My dad seemed to like Tom okay but my mom didn't care for him. Why? Tom is a stoner and she hated ppl who smoke weed. She thought that pot smokers were all lazy good-for-nothings. Not Tom! He is very intelligent. He was an electrical engineer and worked in the wood/mill industry (and others, like satellites), not to mention that he can fix almost anything. The head injury affected his learning but he still beat the odds and excelled. Unlike what his mom thought he'd do. Be a criminal and go to jail! She said that she gave up on him right at the Thanksgiving dinner table, after too much wine!! She wanted an abortion when she found out that she was pregnant with him.

So she ran away after Roe vs. Wade was enacted. She was going to Oregon for her wonderful plan to rid of her 2nd child. What happened? Tom's father, a Roman Catholic man, chased her up to Oregon with his buddy Gooch. They put a stop to it. That was 1973. Tom was born February of 1974.

It really is odd to meet your twin flame and be with them and stay with them. We never had any break ups like I read about in articles about twin flames.

I read a so called medical article about twin flames saying that those relationships are abusive, codependent, toxic, and should be discouraged. Bullshit. For Tom and I, being twin flames is spiritual. Brings us closer, giving us an intense loving connection and a deep respect for each other and our roles in our marriage. The medical article was utter bull-fucking-hockey. While not perfect all the time, Tom and I are happy. We aren't typical though. Definitely have mirror souls. And Tom agrees, too. He's not overly spiritual, but does believe in twin flames.

Well...done for now!

M.M. 💖💀💖

[ladyloveandjustice]

Blue Beetle was a fun movie with a great cast! You should go see it if superheroes are your thing, Jaime deserves it! It does stick close to the superhero origin formula in a lot of ways, but the chemistry between the cast, the focus on some heavier themes, and the fact Jaime's family was extremely involved throughout the entire movie kept it really entertaining.

Quick rundown of things I really liked and some not so liked things:

Liked:

-Jaime's family, but especially Nana the revolutionary. I loved that each of them got a moment to shine

-Harvey Guillen's De La Cruz-verse

-The Scarab learning Spanish was so adorable!

-Jaime's Mom getting a 'kick their asses' moment like in the comics and also talking directly to the scarab.

-When Kord cops went after Jaime's family it was really well done. You could feel the terror there.

-The heart to heart moments were also all well done

-Just Jaime in general as a character. They kept him sweet and relatable.

-It had a solid character arc and focus on characters, which is a miracle in the modern superhero landscape

-Honestly tragic villain backstory flashbacks usually don't get to me, but they handled this one really well. It hit hard.

-A movie that truly understand 'don't trust the cops' and 'there's no jobs in this economy, especially for minorities." The reference to the fact there were undocumented people in Jaime's family was also well done, and contrasted the original comic never really taking a stance on that.

-the fact that Jaime was so against killing people but his family absolutely wasn't and racked up a massive body count was lowkey very funny.

-Victoria was definitely hateable, glad she died.

Some stuff I'm like 'hm that wasn't a great change':

-I don't understand why they put cliche superhero beats that aren't even in the source material in this. Jaime's dad didn't have to die. He doesn't in the comics and that's what made his comic different. He didn't have a tragic classic superhero origin. Why give him one and make him MORE like everyone else?

-Also the fact the villain amounts to 'Blue Beetle and...Antagonist Blue Beetle' like 99% of Marvel villains. I think this was used a lot more meaningfully than most examples of the trope, but it's still overdone. They could have had a similar character but given him different powers than Blue Beetle that he was experimented on to have, something that would be difficult for him to go up against and give contrast. Or picked a villain from the comics. There were a ton of options.

-the girlfriend/Ted's daughter character was very bleh, which is a shame, because the original comic had really fun female characters outside Jaime's family as well as inside. The movie is still better than male superhero origins in the female character department overall because the women inside Jaime's family are so cool, it just sucks they couldn't have a love interest with a vibrant personality too. Her sad rich girl schtick just wasn't compelling.

-There was barely any conflict between Jaime and the scarab, compared to the comic, where it was like...the main thing. Jaime was just like "hey don't kill people' and the khaji da was like 'okay' pretty easily. I don't get why they didn't explore that a lot more, because 'trying to bond with something programmed to kill and deprogram it' is so meaningful and could lead to some really fun comedy too? The lack of struggle also made the reversal they pulled at the end less meaningful.

-Honestly I personally didn't need so much about Ted, let Jaime stand on his own for the first movie with Ted being mentioned a few times and leave the discoveries about Ted for later movies. I'm probs in the minority there!!! I like Ted, but this is about Jaime. It also kinda sucks they made Ted a bad dad with a fridged wife.

-I also think they shouldn't have made Victoria a victim of sexism, i guess they were trying to give her a sympathetic quality or something, but it didn't work. "She was passed over for the company because of sexism but that turned out to be a good thing" is kind of like...idk why is that there.

-Harvey Guillen died :(

But overall, solid movie, and I hope they get to do more.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC intro: George Baxter

I think I'll start doing SOTL intros next time. But let's do one more for TSP!

Basics

Cis man he/him

At the start of the series, George is 18

George has thick brown hair that's relatively short at his chin but has decent volume. He has honey-toned skin with blue eyes and is about 5'11. He has a lean build though his shoulders are broad.

I'm not sure what his sexual orientation is

George is an average-level speedster, though he's worked very hard to increase his speed

For all intents and purposes, George is human, since Alii are essentially humans from another dimension. He was born and raised in Sector 9.

Character/Personality

George comes across as a chill, happy dude. He's very laid back and doesn't care about getting things done since he can literally do things last minute. He probably won't strike up a conversation with you, but if you ask him to explain something he will light up and not stop talking for a while.

George's main passion is technology, though all science and math are at least somewhat interesting to him. He loves learning and figuring out how things work. In his free time, he does enjoy researching things that interest him, exploring the forest near his house, and gaming for hours on in.

Speaking of technology, George's job is home tech repairs. Alium has very advanced technology where they can program a computer with a vocal interface into their home to open doors, turn off lights, ask questions, etc (kinda like a more powerful, active Alexa), and they have a lot of holographic screens. He doesn't love dealing with the customers all the time, but telling them what's going on and what they're doing wrong is fun.

George isn't exactly good with people. He is friendly and nice, but he usually forgets what people know or don't know and may talk way above their head or over explain something they already understand. He sometimes tunes the world out and doesn't participate in conversations, especially if he finds the subject matter boring.

Other Notable Things

George usually wears a mix of pastel colors. Usually he'll wear a fringed jacket and leggings made out of a specific material to not catch on fire when he's moving super fast.

Due to being a speedster, George has to be constantly eating speedster-specific food to keep up with his metabolism.

George has a sister named Carla whom he loves alone with. When the house starts to fill up, George forms a close relationship with Liam.

Tag Games for More George

OC in three

Questionnaire One

Questionnaire Two

Questionnaire Three

Fun facts

Picrew

Cuddleability

Deep dive

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy @honeybewrites @the-golden-comet

[tobiasdrake]

Before going to look for the team, I have a handful of FTEs saved up that I want to pop. So I'm going to warp time and space to go hang out with everyone instead of hunting for them.

Let's see, I have two for Halara and one for Desuhiko.

WDO is the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters confirmed. People already have superpowers; the Master Detective program teaches them to hone them. Postcognition is an advanced form of psychometry.

Psychometry's a fun superpower. It's the psychic ability to view and experience the history of an object. Doesn't get talked about a lot in telekinesis/telepathy stuff, but it's an underrated gem of an ability.

Yuma needs to stop bringing this topic up. He keeps whining about not having a Forte but. Like.

Okay. So. His contract with Shinigami strictly forbids him from ever telling anyone about her or the contract. I guess people getting dragged in with him to Mystery Labyrinth doesn't count because those memories don't return with them to their body, so they never truly learn about any of this.

But he keeps raising this topic and. Like. The natural response of anyone who hears, "Why don't I have a Forte?" is going to be "You have Coalescence. Isn't that your Forte?"

And for all intents and purposes, he needs to shut up and let it be. Because there is no way to explain why that doesn't count as a real Forte. Every time he starts in on, "But I want a REEEEEEEAL Forte and not my Shinigami Contract Powers," he's verging dangerously close to violating the terms of his agreement. But he can't stop himself from talking about the things he must not speak of.

It's not unlike the way he constantly, endlessly expects fair play and good faith from crooked cops - like, he cannot comprehend corruption. It does not enter his brain as a thing that could ever exist. No one wouldn't fairly and earnestly seek truth, of course not, that kind of person doesn't exist!

Yuma is so honest that it manages to wrap around and become a character flaw.

I have absolutely no idea what the ability to fry people with electrokinesis has to do with investigating crimes, but this is only further confirmation that the WDO is the Xavier School.

Being super honest to the point of being overly trusting and gullible is Yuma's main talent. So... it would follow that his Forte is... the ability to disseminate a large amount of information freely to everyone around him?

...that sounds weak but no, the power to widely broadcast knowledge would be a killer ability for trying to unravel a corporate conspiracy. It might even offer an alternative for mystery-cracking to the Mystery Labyrinth. Try and aim for that, Yuma.

Oh, no. No no no no no. That's not true. Not at all.

Every time you capitulate to Shinigami and resort to the Mystery Labyrinth to solve a case, that's an act of giving up. It's a tacit admission of the futility of trying to crack the case yourself. You still put a lot of work into the Labyrinth, don't get me wrong; But someone who never gives up wouldn't grab Shinigami's hand out of desperation - Especially given how much you loathe to do it.

Whenever you're backed into a corner by Amaterasu security, you panic. Then you sell the lives of the culprits to Shinigami in exchange for a supernatural handicap. That's giving up, Yuma.

This feels like powerful foreshadowing, especially given the double meaning of "death" and the parasitic horror floating over Yuma's shoulder.

But even if that winds up being the writer's interpretation, I stand by what I said. If Yuma had an iron will to never give up, then every case wouldn't end in him going, "OH NO IT'S HOPELESS! Help me, Shinigami! I accept the lethal consequences that I despise as a cost of letting your evil powers help!"

Maybe the first time, sure. But after that, every time he resorts to the Mystery Labyrinth, it's an act of surrender.

[eldoria-radio]

FILE 1

[Welcome, dear listeners, to another night of 'Whispers in the Aether.' Tonight, we journey into the murky depths of Eldoria's past, where echoes of betrayal still reverberate in the ethereal realm.]

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[Listen closely, for the whispers of the betrayed weave a tapestry of deception that transcends time itself.]

[Going out late at night is never that good of an idea. Especially the streets of Eldoria tend to host beings far beyond is at these times. You're much safer inside the trusty walls of your home or whatever nightclub you choose to call your own for the night. Anything but the streets.]

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[Rumor has it that one alleyway in particular tends to attract a certain crowd. You've probably been there. Pollux Corner, right around where old Cathy has her flower shop. Allegedly, figures in dark robes have been spotted disappearing into the dark cover of night right around there quite a lot. A secret society promising arcane revelations, responsible for at least some of the many disappearances. According to witnesses, that may or may not be real, they use the back of Pollux Corner as a sort of gateway to a realm beyond our mutual imagination. A forbidden one, you could call it. Quite something, isn't it?]

[Oh! On that note, I've read that not so long ago an insider betrayed the trust of these individuals! This so called traitor, now trapped in a dimension far outside our understanding, now haunts the streets of Eldoria. Luring innocent wanderers to the same fate and leaving only eerie remnants of their magical aspirations behind.]

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[Golly that was a fun one, wasn't it? So what did we learn today, my little roaches? Don't wander off at night, and don't let yourself get tempted by mystical promises of greatness and all powerful magic! Ah yes, that's what I call a good story. Whether any of it is true or not is all up to you. Shoutout to @Worm_3aterX4 for supporting the program. My name is Isadora Nightshade and this was Whispers in the Aether. You're listening to Eldoria Radio.]

[glapplebloom]

I do wonder how I would write a Death Battle script. (No images in this one)

Wiz: Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These were the ingredients to create the perfect little girl.

Boomstick: But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction... A can of Whoopass!

Wiz: No, it’s called Chemical X.

Boomstick: It might as well be whoopass! Anyone who takes a swig of the stuff gains superpowers.

Wiz: And it was no different here, as after his Monkey Assistant knocked the Professor into the Chemical X...

<Explosion>

Wiz: The Powerpuff Girls were born!

Boomstick: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. Despite being a bunch of ankle biter they really live up to their original names: The Whoopass Girls!

Wiz: Indeed, for they’re the sole reason Townsville maintains a crime rate percentage ratio of point zero-zero-three over zero. That’s a ridiculous number.

Boomstick: And it's not just your run of the mill bank robbers or muggers. They deal with Giant Monsters, Evil Monkey Geniuses, my second cousin twice removed, and even the Devil himself!

Wiz: But it wasn’t always easy for them. Like any child, they were still learning about the world they were living in and the social norms to follow.

Boomstick: And like every newborn, they cause a lot of trouble for you and the people around you.

Wiz: Not to this extreme. In a simple game of tag, they basically destroyed Townsville easier than any criminal before it.

Boomstick: They eventually figured out that kicking major butt is the solution to help them fit in and now whenever the Mayor needs anything from saving the city to opening a jar of pickles, he just gives the girls a ring and they’ll be on their way.

Wiz: They accomplish this by using their various super powers. Like early Superman they have your usual Super Powers like flight, super strength and speed and even laser eyes...

Boomstick: But they also have some freaky one shot powers like setting themselves on fire, creating shadow clones, or turning themselves into a puddle of water. Heck, when they got older they got Green Lantern Powers!

Wiz: While they are virtually identical in stats, they each have their uniqueness. Blossom, for example, has superior intelligence compared to her sisters as well as an exclusive Ice Breath.

Boomstick: Buttercup is a lot more butt kicking than her sisters, but her exclusive power is curling her tongue. I can do that. Look.

<Boomstick makes sounds like he’s trying to do that>

Wiz: That’s not even close.

<Cut to Lab with Bubbles on screen>

Boomstick: Bubbles is definitely the sweetest of the girls, but if pushed too far she would go into Hardcore mode. And she’s definitely scary when that happens.

Wiz: What I find impressive about her unique power is her ability to understand language. Originally, it was just Spanish but as she got better she could understand any language. This includes squirrels and even computer language. She was a programming wizard by the time she was in grade school.

Boomstick: How long were you in college to do all that?

Wiz: Don’t remind me.

<Cut back to Analysis>

Wiz: Despite these differences, and occasional squabbles, the Powerpuff Girls show why they’re one of the greatest heroes in Townsville.

Boomstick: Together, they can create the Furious Fiery Feline, the Razzle Dazzle, the Cherry Bomb, and even with their 4th Sister create a Giant Fusion of them all.

Wiz: Fun fact, the original concept for Dynamo was the three girls fusing into one.

Boomstick: And these girls are fast. In a race, Bubbles was facing this Quicksilver knock off and he can circle the world in seven seconds. Not knowing what the goal was, she was keeping pace easily. But when she found out she had to beat him, she reached the finish line two seconds ahead of him. Imagine how fast she would have gone if she actually tried.

Wiz: No need to. They can travel from the Earth to the Sun in a short amount of time and from an Asteroid Belt in space to earth within a second. The shortest distance between Earth and the closest edge of an Asteroid Belt is said to be 1.2 AUs, or 179.5 million km. To travel that fast in such a short time would be almost 600 times the speed of light. 

{NOTE: I specifically got 598.74755 c, so a second look at the math would be required if I did something wrong}

Boomstick: Wow! No wonder they can move so fast they can travel through time. 

Wiz: They also have strength to match. They’re strong enough to destroy asteroids, nullify a solar flare... 

Boomstick: And even lift a really muscular man, while he’s lifting a mountain!

Wiz: They’re also comparable to the likes of HIM, who is capable of casually stopping the planet from heading towards the sun with ease and caused the solar system to go out of whack.

Boomstick: Perfect Little Girls? More like Miniature Supermen! What can stop these little bugged eyed freaks?

Wiz: Few things. Antidote X will negate their powers, but not destroy them despite being made of Chemical X. Fly Paper for some odd reason. And surprisingly they can still get sunburned. 

Boomstick: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Wiz: Regardless, as long as the three work together, Townsville can rest knowing that the city will be saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls.