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twstbookclub · 6 months

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Faded Away

SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7 INCLUDED; THIS IS AN AU. THIS IS SIDE A OF A TWO PART STORY. HERE IS SIDE B.

This is side A.

Inspired by Fade Away by Riley Baron Summary: Childhood friends with Malleus, you were even supposed to marry him. You'd call him your fiancé, but he'd shoot you down with a smile. One day, Maleficia would announce that you would no longer be engaged to Malleus, but you had already decided to renounce that before, so it was okay. For Malleus, after experiencing loss in his life, everything he adored before began to fade away. Pronouns: Gender Neutral POV: 2nd Admin/Writer: Kai⚔️ Tags: Malleus Draconia, Changed fate, Childhood friends to lovers, lovers to strangers, angst with a sad ending, hurt no comfort Word count: 3,961

A/N: … sigh. If someone had told me a year ago that I would write nearly 4,000 words for Malleus Draconia angst, I would've laughed in their face. Despite that, I wrote this for two days and edited it for another two. I fixated on this man for FOUR DAYS nonstop, listening to playlists about falling in love with your comfort character but then saying goodbye, and I am still not done. I am genuinely proud of this work. Out of the 7 years I have been writing fanfiction, I have never been so happy to say this is one of my best works. And I don't really like Malleus like that. Attack me all y'all want, I know book 7 spoilers, and I was his stan(not simp) until I found out the truth and had to take a step BACK. I don't know what I feel about him now, but as a Silver girlie, I need someone to take the pen away from Yana Toboso.

Regardless of my feelings, I am glad I could write this and that the story turned out amazing. As I said, I'm not done, and I have another fic posting as soon as this one drops, so don't stray too far.

On that note, thank you for waiting and reading this long, longer than I would like to admit story. Enjoy.

The horns of this child were small, but the eyes of another child were fascinated at the sight of such a mature boy. The boy’s name was Malleus Draconia, the future King of Briar Valley. You were told that you would become his fiance when you grew up. You could feel your heart instantly pound and become fond of this young royal. You had already known him prior, growing up around the same time, and your families were somewhat close. Still, you couldn’t have imagined being able to marry him later down the line. He was aloof and neutral as a child, speaking to you when you would talk to him and only if he had a response. You loved him that way, anyway.

“You’re my… fiance?”

“I am! Don’t worry; I won’t go anywhere if it’s not with you!”

“Hmm… Then I can accept that.”

Growing up as teenagers was slightly different. It took some years, but he would begin to warm up to you. He would smile occasionally and accept the way you would call him “my fiance”, but still turn you down for the time being. Witnessing him become stressed caused a pang of guilt in your heart. Still, you’d quickly dissipate the feeling by messing around and seeing him feel better with your company.

“My fiance should be calm the way he usually is. How can his kingdom stay calm if he is not?”

Malleus would usually stare at you after you said things like that, then respond with, “You’re right… Alright. I will do that, but I’m not your fiance.”

Then, like clockwork, you’d laugh at him before responding, “Okay, okay, Prince Malleus. Whatever you say.”

Now, Malleus finally returned from studying at Night Raven College and settled back into his past routine. It took some months, since now there were new things he needed to learn before he could become king. He would follow without a complaint, though.

He was standing in a throne room, checking on documents and plans for the kingdom. You would simply trot in with your hands behind your back as you would often do, admiring him as your shoes would click against the floor.

“My fiance is working so hard already?” You teased, being playful and wanting to catch his attention.

“I’m not your fiance.” Malleus would say with a concentrated tone, his gruff voice echoing through the large room as the sound of documents being flipped echoed.

“Right. King Malleus.” You stopped walking to give him a bow and then approached his side. You moved your hand to cling to his arm, but knowing your behavior, he already had an arm out for you.

“Not king either. I haven’t had my coronation yet. Queen Malecifia is planning that as we speak,” Malleus spoke again, then set down the documents and turned to you, his hair slightly swaying with his movement. His green eyes stared down at you, and then he captured a slight smile on his lips. “What is it that you need from me?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to see you and waste your time. I truly hope I am a bother,” you spoke playfully and took one of the loose documents into your hands to read through it. Malleus quickly took the paper before you could get too far into reading it. Right. Kingdom affairs.

Malleus gives you a look before sighing and pulling a chair out. “If I let you touch my horns, could you let me work?” He spoke, moving to sit down beside where you were standing. You grew excited at the opportunity to play with his horns and instantly went quiet to do so. You stood behind him and carefully adjusted his hair while examining every detail of the feature in front of you.

The atmosphere was quiet yet peaceful. Time felt like it was still, pen scratching paper occasionally sounds through the large room. Your hands gently held his horns, caressing them to remind yourself of its sharp and enticing structure.

Memories of childhood played through your mind as you watched him read these documents, soft breaths coming from him as his focus never broke. You did this exact thing all the time with him, especially during his study hours.

“Why do you like my horns so much?” Malleus spoke, suddenly breaking the silence and surprising you out of your trance. You thought about it momentarily, trying to find the right words to explain it, but you couldn't find a single word for how. Instead, you explained it the best you could.

“Hmm… I don’t know. There’s something about seeing these horns that gives me some reassurance. Relief that I can still be your future beloved.” you answered before fixing his hair again. Messing with him like this felt right. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, being his future partner was something of fate. There were others out there with royal status just like you. Queen Maleficia could’ve replaced or sent you away, but she hadn’t. You were thankful every time you saw his grandmother.

“I see… You’re an odd one,” Malleus spoke softly, a faint breath being heard from him as he felt your hands let go of him. “You let go. Is something the matter?”

Malleus noticed you stayed quiet but didn’t hear you move either. So, he turned around, his breath catching at what he saw. His eyes were met with your side profile, your lips curling into a grin. Your eyes reflected the light like glass, and your hands fell to his shoulders.

“It’s the first snow of the season,” you said, mesmerized by the view. Your quiet voice showed just how enchanted you were. Malleus had an idea of how others felt about the first snow. All he took in from when you explained the moment to him was how special it could be for lovers.

Every time the first snow would fall, he’d watch from the window of his study how you admired the snowflakes as if you’d never seen them before. He watched you do this for years as if it was routine. Hell, it would be weird if he didn’t see you out there.

Malleus took your wrist and made his way out towards the courtyard. He’s the one taking you out there this time? You could only follow and keep your excitement at bay from his behavior.

Arriving outside, Malleus fixed your winter cape, ensuring you wouldn’t feel too cold. He leaned against a wall as you played and tried to catch the snowflakes. Your smile was as bright as the white sky, and he would just stand there, watching you without a word, but more as if he was in thought.

You noticed this and took a moment to gather some snow from the ground, putting it behind your back before moving towards him. “Are you alright? You seem to be lost in thought,” you asked, making him snap out of his trance to look at you.

“I’m fine. I’m simply reminded of my time at the college from seeing all this snow. Why do you a—”

Crunch.

He sighed, keeping his eyes closed before saying one thing. “... Why?’

Malleus was cut off by the impact of a snowball hitting his face. The icy crystals caused his skin to feel colder than it already was. He wiped the snow off his face as he witnessed you begin to back away. Every step back from you was a step forward for him, and you noticed how he had a straight-faced expression. You laughed nervously and grabbed his wrists, trying to hold him back.

“I just wanted to get your attention, Malleus!” You tried to explain, yelping when he would tower over you, but you would only find it all amusing. Malleus would chuckle, grabbing and throwing snow at you, not aiming for your face like you had done to him.

This went on for a few minutes, enjoying the back-and-forth attacks, while the snow piled onto the ground through the mid-winter day. At one point, Malleus would grab you by the waist to keep you from straying too far away from him. The gesture felt nice, but also intimate as he’d only do this to stop you from being clumsy.

You held onto his arms and stepped back slowly, moving towards a stone pillar, while your eyes didn’t leave him. You glanced between his eyes, lips, and the horns you loved seeing. Even after he held you against the cold stone, there wasn’t anything to worry about, but him.

You felt nervous while giving his arms a light squeeze, and he carefully brushed his cold fingertips against your cheek, making you relax with your head leaning into his slight touch. Soon, his hand cupped your cheek to tilt your head, keeping you in place this time.

Finally, your eyes stayed on his lips. His green eyes admired your features to remember them down to the last detail. Your mingled breaths hit each other’s faces from the close proximity, then Malleus leaned close, his lips inching closer to yours.

It was cut short, though. You turned to the sound of someone clearing their throat, but your body would stop what it was doing and let go of Malleus, instantly bowing at the sight of a familiar lady.

Malleus would turn around next. His breathing was slightly uneven from getting caught in the act, but he’d still bow and greet the woman in the courtyard with them.

“Queen Maleficia, what brings you out here during this weather?” Malleus began first, slowly coming up with you to stand correctly.

“It is good to see you, Queen Maleficia.” You followed after, giving Malleus’s grandmother a warm smile.

“Not much, my dear. I’m glad to see you taking a break,” Maleficia returned the greeting and gave a smile as well. She’d soon drop that expression, though. “I need to speak to you about something important.”

Your body would tense up again, and you took that as a cue to leave them alone, so you bowed and took a step forward. “I’ll leave you be, then—”

“You aren’t going anywhere. You are part of this too.” Maleficia spoke earnestly, and she rarely had to speak in such a way to you. The last time you heard those words was when she scolded you and Malleus for disappearing to Lilia’s home.

Those words always made you nervous, especially since they usually meant something was wrong. You could only turn around and smile again.

“Right. I apologize for my assumption, Your Majesty,” you said carefully, instantly seeing Malleus turn to you with a look of curiosity.

Standing before Queen Maleficia, now in her study, you held your hands as Malleus stood near the high bookshelves. His grandmother stared out of her window briefly before taking a breath.

“Malleus.” Queen Maleficia began to speak, turning around to face you and Malleus somberly. “Your coronation is being planned, as you know, but something must be done before you can become king. You know what that is, correct?”

Malleus grew confused, but his eyes would widen slightly once he understood. “Marriage. What of it?”

As soon as Malleus answered, the woman would look towards you and smile lightly. “That’s correct. What do you plan to do about that?”

You stare at Malleus briefly before looking at Maleficia again, then smile softly. “I do want to marry the prince. That has not changed since we were children.”

Maleficia looked away from you, and then she made her way to stand in front of you. “That, my child, is what I can no longer allow. I am sorry.”

Your eyes widened, and you saw Malleus perk up at the corner of your eye. He was shocked as well. “What…?” Is that the only thing you could say?

“What are you talking about?” Malleus sounded off. You couldn’t look at him. Your eyes would stay on the Queen before you, still in disbelief.

“This is the best course of action. Forgive me, my child.”

“Queen M—No. Grandmother, what in the world are you referring to? Answer me!” Malleus began to demand, moving you back and getting ahead of Maleficia.

“Malleus, believe me, this was not easy.”

“I did not ask if it was easy. I did not ask if you’ve thought of this for weeks or months. I asked for an explanation, grandmother,” Malleus spoke sternly, going against Maleficia, which he had not done before. Maleficia was growing angry, but she remained calm regardless.

“I am doing this for you, for the kingdom of Briar Valley; to end a war before it could begin. You will do your duty as the future ruler of this kingdom.”

“You think the kingdom can decide who will be my partner in marriage for the rest of my life? You did that when I was a child! I went along with it and accepted it the first time as it was!” Malleus also grew angry at the way the events were unfolding. He had accepted everything without complaint, but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut this time. This isn’t what he wanted.

“Now, Queen Maleficia, you wish to choose someone new? Someone I haven’t known my entire life and someone I cannot trust?”

“You will understand that as the future king. You do not need them as your fiance, and that is final. You will be marrying someone from another kingdom to stop us from going to war.” Maleficia had grown strict, firm even. Anyone else wouldn’t dare argue, not even you. You could only stay quiet from the words you were hearing. Your heart began to feel heavy from guilt as if it were a burden.

“What good will that do!? I do not need someone to help me run my life or the kingdom that will be under my wing some time from now!”

“I did it for you! I do not wish to see you become like your parents! You are my only grandson, and I lost your mother to war and the son, your father, I never had just before that. I raised you! Lilia and I were the ones who kept you alive. So, as your grandmother, I want you to keep yourself safe. Do this for yourself.” Maleficia was like a pleading mother. She needed Malleus to understand.

It was all so confusing to you. Malleus was trying to fight, but was it for you or him? Was it for his freedom? Did he love you? No. That couldn’t be it. You had to do something before he would do something drastic. You had to stop him before he could argue more.

Silence.

Your hand wrapped around his own. Malleus froze from the sudden touch. “It’s okay,” you began softly, putting on a smile before looking up at Malleus.

The touch reminded you of when you snuck into his study as a teenager. You felt stressed once due to your studies and responsibilities becoming a large pile, and Malleus would hold your hand to put you at ease. He helped you with your studies by tutoring and keeping you focused, but concentrating was still difficult with your distant lover just inches away from you during that time.

That short-lived memory was enough to make you agree to this. You loved him, but it was confusing. He was distant, but sometimes not. You loved him, but it was time.

“Hey, Malleus?”

“Hmm?”

“What would it be like if I was only your friend, but never your fiance?”

A young Malleus had to think about that, but only one answer came to his mind.

“I would’ve figured out how to become your fiance again.”

Back to the decision before you, you smiled more before looking at Maleficia and squeezing Malleus’ hand lightly.

“I understand, Queen Maleficia. I apologize for no longer meeting your expectations,” you said respectfully. Malleus stared down at you with wide eyes, his hand starting to squeeze yours while it was still in his grasp.

“Don’t say that. You don’t need to do that—”

You shook your head and looked at him, clenching your free hand around his arm to cling to him. “I… wanted to talk to you, anyway. I’d call you my fiance, but you always turned me down. You said you simply accepted the necessity of my obligation as your lover. Now that we have to say our goodbyes, it worked out fine, did it not? I won’t fuss about this decision, as I have no say in the kingdom’s political matters. So, I will simply wish you happiness and good fortune in your marriage, Prince Malleus.”

“What are you talking about? You don’t know a thing.” Malleus whispered and took both of your hands into his, trying to keep himself calm in the midst of all of the mess. “I only rejected you because I wanted to properly propose to you. Only at the right moment between us and—”

“Hey… you don’t have to say any of that. You don’t need to. This is your kingdom. I am simply someone who had to be your lover.” Those words hurt for you to say, and Malleus looked… scared for once. In the time that you’d ever known him, he was the only person you loved. Malleus couldn’t let go of your hand or look away from you. You would disappear, he felt. Hearing those words come out of your mouth was painful enough as is.

You could only give him a bitter smile and force him to let go. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay,” you whisper and bow to Maleficia, then to Malleus. “Thank you. If you’ll excuse me.”

You smile once more before swiftly leaving before anything else could happen. The longer you walked, the more your legs felt like jelly. You didn’t know where you were going, but you just wanted to leave. You wanted nothing more but to go back and take back your words. To fight for Malleus. Yet, you would never go against the crown.

Malleus simply stood there in disbelief with his eyes glued to the door. Maleficia reached out to her grandson, but as soon as her hand landed on his shoulder, he slapped it off. He looked at his grandmother with a look of nothing. Agony. A heart-wrenching anguish clouded his mind and judgment once you had left the room.

He didn’t want the touch of anyone else but you. How could he lose you so easily? His whole life, he had always gotten what he wanted. Yet, the one time he asked, begged, and pleaded for something in his life, it was stripped away right before his fingertips. Malleus’ body was on auto-pilot from the harsh reality. Then, he moved out of the study, but when he looked up, his body froze at the sight of you running out of the castle.

It was all his fault. He didn’t fight hard enough. Now, he had lost you. How could the Seven betray him so? He never thought that it would be so easy to leave him. To abandon the memories just because someone else requested it.

Once you felt the harsh wind and snow, your eyes began to water. Soon, your heavy breaths turned into heaving sobs. Before you knew it, you found yourself in the forest. How did you even get here? How far did your tired legs get you? What torture could you endure in this state? Then…

Every memory with Malleus started to flash through your head.

Every dance.

Every laugh.

Every touch.

Every look.

Everything.

Your heaving sobs became screams of heartbreak. Agonized cries echoed throughout the quiet and dark forest of Briar Valley. You couldn’t feel the cold anymore. The cold didn’t matter when it felt like you left a piece of yourself in the castle.

Malleus leaned against the wall from the window that he watched you disappear from, closing his eyes when he could hear your cries despite how far you actually were. He couldn’t do anything to fix it this time, not when you were convinced.

Meeting his new fiance was unbearable for Malleus, but he tolerated it. He never remembered any interaction he had with the woman he was supposed to marry now. The wedding was memorable for everyone but him, and you weren’t there. He knew you wouldn’t be there, but he would still smile to himself when he remembered things.

But then it wasn’t too long, maybe a couple of years, until the kingdom celebrated Malleus and his coronation. Everyone with royal status and Malleus' close friends were invited to the after-party celebration. You went alone and stood on the balcony outside, listening to everyone enjoy their festivities. You hadn’t heard about Malleus since you last stepped foot here. It felt like forever ago.

“I didn’t think you would show up. Not after what happened the last time.”

The familiar voice made you perk up and turn around, seeing his tall figure standing at the curtain’s frame. You stood at the stone barricade and smiled slightly at Malleus, bowing to him.

“I didn’t think you would seek my company, King Malleus.”

“That title sounds… weird coming from you,” he admitted, making you both laugh. You look at the horizon to watch the setting sun, going quiet along with him. You had to break the silence.

“So, how are you and your queen?” You asked, causing Malleus to look at you.

“She is fine. She’s expecting, so she’s taking care of herself instead,” Malleus said, being careful with his words, but you wanted to hide behind your old, playful attitude.

“You were quite fast, weren’t you?” You responded with a laugh, but you could feel your heart breaking already.

“It’s been about two years since we last conversed. I don’t think that’s too fast,” Malleus spoke casually, but you would notice how he looked at you somberly, almost as if he didn’t like it as much as you did.

“I see. I wish the Queen and your child a safe and easy journey.” You said quietly, sounding a bit melancholic. You had to force those words out, and Malleus simply nodded to accept your wishes.

His look made you narrow your eyes towards the ground, not wanting to look at him as you knew it would only cause you more heartbreak.

“Malleus…” You called out quietly, sighing and leaning against the stone.

“Don’t say anything,” he whispered, looking out into the horizon just like you did moments ago.

After a few minutes of silence, the sun had finally set, turning the sky dark with the moon’s light shining down on you and Malleus.

“Thank you,” you broke the silence first amidst the faint clamor of festivities behind you, “for the chance to be with you for so long.”

Malleus looked at you, then you looked at him in return. These looks turned into stares. Stares felt like time froze. It was you and him again, and you wouldn’t want it any other way.

You engraved the details of his face into your head, and he was doing the same for you. When he broke the silence, the bubble around you two still hadn’t popped.

“You were a wonderful experience,” he said sincerely, giving you a smile.

You smiled back, but before you could respond, others called Malleus over. He tried to stay there, but he was forced away. He was only able to take one more look at you before he disappeared. He faded away like a light swallowed by a deep darkness, which was so strange. It was only a change.

You still kept your smile after he left. Now, you could say what you wanted.

“You were… everything.”

#twst malleus #malleus draconia #twisted wonderland malleus #malleus x reader #twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #twst wonderland #disney #writing #romance #angst #twst angst #angst with a sad ending #hurt no comfort #im hurtin #hurt #no comfort

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writingquestionsanswered · 1 year

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Hiya! Not sure if you’ve answered something like this before, but if you feel comfortable answering, I’m wondering what tips you might have for writers with ADHD/ADD.

I haven’t been able to write well for years and thought it was laziness/lack of self-discipline, but it very well could be that my brain just wants to work a certain way and I didn’t know about it.

Of course, there’s no “one-fits-all” answer, but some ideas about where to start the journey of understanding what works for oneself would be nice.

Thanks!

Writing with ADHD

There are three sub-types of ADHD (inattentive/formerly ADD, hyperactive, and combined), so tips depend somewhat on which type you have. As luck would have it, I'm combined type, so I have tips for both. (And these tips can be helpful even for writers who don't have ADHD but still struggle with keeping their butts in the seat...)

Writing with Inattentive ADHD

My biggest struggle with writing is difficulty staying focused and getting sidetracked easily. Here are the things I do to work around that:

Dedicated Writing Time/Place - I'm fortunate to have a writing room with a desk, but even if you don't, just having a dedicated space for when you write can be really helpful. It also helps to make sure your chosen writing spot is tidy and free from built-in distractions, like people traffic or a distracting view. And, if you can aim for the same general writing time each day, that can help train your mind to go into writing mode when you sit down to write.

Minimize Distractions - this is a "must do" for me when I sit down to write. Phone goes on silent, no TV, no music with lyrics, no social media, and if it's a busy day outside I close the shades and put on headphones. Also, nicely ask anyone else in the house not to distract you during your writing session.

Regulating with a Timer - When I'm really struggling, I've found that timers are very helpful in keeping me on track. If I need to stop to research something along the way, I set the timer for 10-minutes. If I can't find out what I need to know in that time, I note it for later research and keep going with a placeholder. I'll also set the timer for breaks, writing sprints, or anything that might pull me off course.

Scene Lists & Timelines - Having a scene list to follow was a real game changer for me early on in novel writing endeavors. When I start to feel my mind wander, just putting my eyes on the scene list to see where I'm supposed to be and where I'm supposed to be heading can be enough to get me back on track. Checking off each scene and plot point along the way makes it more task-driven which also seems to help keep me on track. You could do this with a timeline, too. And even if you're not a planner but like to write organically, you can still keep kind of a general scene list or timeline to keep you on course.

Writing with Hyperactive ADHD

My biggest struggle with the hyperactive side of my ADHD is fighting the constant need to get up and be anywhere but in my chair typing. I've actually been working on this post for an hour because I haven't done any of my safeguards, so I've been out of this chair probably 20 times since I hit the answer button. Here's what I could have done to prevent this...

Start Writing on a Full Stomach - Nothing gets me out of my chair more often when I'm writing than feeling like I'm hungry. So, I get up, eat a small snack. Sit down and type for a few minutes. Then decide I need another small snack. Whether you write after you've eaten a meal, sit down to write with something to drink and munch on, or just make sure you've got your big water bottle there, eliminating hunger pains as a reason to get up makes all the difference.

Do Writing Sprints - Set a timer for anywhere from five minutes to an hour, and write as much as you can during that time without stopping to edit or evaluate your work. Writing sprints are a great way to focus your energy to make sure writing is getting done. Five-minute intervals work great for me, but sometimes I can do ten-minute intervals. When the timer goes off, I set it again and get up to do a few things like stretch or get something to drink. Preferably anything that won't take longer than the timer or snowball into something else. This way, if I'm only writing for an hour I still get a solid 30-minutes of writing in even if I'm up and out of my chair every five minutes.

Keep a Basket of Fidget Toys - This doesn't always work for me, but sometimes it helps to have something to fidget with during the moments when I pause to think. Thinking putty, fidget spinners, stress balls... Anything you can do for a second while you're thinking and immediately put back down. That way you don't get up out of your seat looking for something to direct that energy toward.

Speech to Text App - If you really need to be up and moving, try getting a speech to text app for your phone and writing your story verbally while you do other things.

I hope that these tips will help you be able to sit down and start writing again. If you need ideas for exactly how to outline your story or general ideas for how to get started, see my guide to How to Outline a Plot as well as my Plot & Story Structure master list of posts.

Best wishes on your ADHD writing journey! ♥

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cirilla-fiona-riannon · 1 year

Text

Francis Drake Main Story

This is a rough translation. I’ll edit this if I find the time. Expect mistakes.

Would it be a betrayal to carry on this love?

Like the shore of a calm sea, it clung to my heart and shattered my feelings like a raging storm.

(I...)

I tightly grasped the fate entrusted to my hands.

With a snap, colorful fireworks burst against the clear blue sky.

Mitsuki: "Wow! Even the fireworks in the daytime are beautiful."

Napoleon: "Yeah. The weather's good, and there's a lively crowd here again today."

Petals were dancing in the air, and everyone was smiling and having a good time as the mansion's residents visited the venue of the World Expo in Paris.

Leonardo: "Some acquaintances of mine have mentioned that there are people similar to us who have visited multiple times."

Napoleon: "Makes sense. There's so much to see that visiting only once wouldn't do it justice."

Arthur: "Mitsuki, how about coming here alone with me next time? You know, like a date?"

Mitsuki: "Hmm, I'm flattered by the invitation, but I'll think about it."

Theo: "It seems that frivolous writers only focus on flirting when they come to a place like this."

Theo: "Broer, let's take some time to admire the paintings. Hmm? Broer, where are you?"

Vincent: "Theo, over here! Let's try riding the moving walkway!"

(Hehe, it's rare for everyone to go out together. They all seem excited.)

(Hmm?)

I smiled and suddenly saw a couple wearing kimonos pass by me.

(Japan, huh?)

I felt a sense of nostalgia and remembered when I first arrived in this era.

I traveled from Japan to France for a vacation in the 21st century.

During this trip, I slipped through a mysterious door I found at the Louvre Museum and time-slipped to 19th-century Paris, where I met historical figures from different countries and eras who live as vampires at a mansion I arrived at.

Napoleon: "Hey, Mitsuki. Is something wrong?"

Mitsuki: "Sorry, I was just spacing out."

Napoleon: "Geez, you're supposed to enjoy yourself today. If you just sit there, we'll leave you behind."

Mitsuki: "Wait, Napoleon!"

I smiled and hurriedly chased after Napoleon, who laughed wickedly, leaving behind a nostalgic feeling that touched my heart.

A few days later一

Mitsuki: "I'm back! Huh?"

Charles: "Welcome back, Mitsuki! Do you want to take a bath? Eat something? Or me? It's me, right?"

Faust: "Stop being so shameless, Charles."

Among the faces that greeted me when I returned from shopping were Faust and Charles.

They live in an old castle and would occasionally visit like this.

Mitsuki: "Welcome, both of you. What brings you here today?"

Faust: "We accompanied Lord Vlad for some business. I thought I'd also give the butler some medicine."

Sebastian: "Thank you as always, Faust."

At one point, Sebastian fell ill, and Faust prescribed him a special medicine.

Since then, Faust has occasionally checked on his condition, and Sebastian no longer complains of discomfort.

(He said he was just the right test subject for the new drug, but I'm glad Sebastian is feeling better.)

Charles: "I have a souvenir for you, Dazai. The teacher at the orphanage wants you to create a children's story."

Dazai: "Oh dear, I thought you were going to give me some delicious sweets, but it's about work."

Isaac: "Shouldn't you be grateful? Even a flaky person like you can at least be somewhat useful."

Dazai and Charles seemed to run into each other often in town and had become quite friendly.

I even sometimes saw Isaac getting caught up in their shenanigans.

Jean: "I thought it was noisy, but I didn't realize you guys were here."

Mozart: "*sigh* Has this mansion become a gathering place for vampires?"

Shakespeare: "*chuckles* The number of residents and visitors has increased so much. It's completely different from when I lived here."

Jean, Mozart, and Shakespeare came to the dining room.

Mitsuki: "I didn't know you were here, too, Shakespeare. By the way, I heard you have a new play."

Shakespeare: "I'm honored that you remembered. I came here to deliver the tickets."

Shakespeare: "My business here is done. Mitsuki, Vlad, and Comte are asking for you."

Shakespeare: "They have something they want to talk about."

(Talk?)

In the dark, quiet hallway lined with paintings, sculptures, and various antiques from different countries and eras, the sound of footsteps echoed.

The man making those footsteps lightly stroked the handle of the knife hanging at his waist with his fingertips and grinned.

Mitsuki: "Phew. The night breeze feels good."

I stepped out onto the balcony and enjoyed the coolness of the air that soothed my slightly flushed skin after having some alcohol.

The impromptu dinner party that was hastily organized because everyone had gathered together ended when Faust and Charles took Vlad, who had drunk too much wine and collapsed, home.

(Another fun day, thanks to everyone being here.)

As I thought this, I remembered what Comte and Vlad had told me earlier.

------------Flashback------------

Comte: "I've been checking the status of that door, but the other side is still not stable."

Vlad: "The door at my old castle is the same."

Comte: “The hallway appears as it cycles between abnormal and normal, but sometimes the time and space beyond it are distorted. I don't think I can send you back to your original world.”

Vlad: "I'm sorry, Mitsuki. The cause of the anomaly might be us."

Mitsuki: "What do you mean?"

Vlad: "That hallway connects to various eras. The fact that the space is distorted means that distortions are occurring in history and the world."

Their love for this world drove them to revive eternal flowers and transform historical figures into vampires, contradicting the laws of the world.

They explained that this action might be influencing the proper course of history, resulting in a warping of time and space.

Mitsuki: “No, I’m grateful that you’re investigating. But isn’t there danger involved in checking the door?”

Mitsuki: “Please don’t push yourself too hard. It’d hurt me if something were to happen to the two of you.”

Vlad: “Mitsuki.”

(Also...)

Mitsuki: “As I met everyone and spent all those precious days with them, I began to feel like this 19th century is another place I belong.”

Mitsuki: “Even if I can’t return to the 21st century, I think living here might be my destiny.”

(So please don’t worry about me.)

I conveyed this, and both Comte and Vlad nodded as if they understood my feelings.

---------Flashback Ends---------

(I really mean what I said back then.)

(Staying in this world is also one way of living for me.)

I’m fortunate to have food, shelter, and clothing, all thanks to the help of everyone in the mansion. But even considering that gratitude, everyone I’ve met has become incredibly important to me.

(I love this world. It’s a precious place for me, but...)

My feet were naturally heading towards that door.

(The world I used to live in is beyond that door.)

Thoughts of family, friends, and work that had become distant crossed my mind, and a hazy mist spread across my chest.

(If the door’s anomaly doesn’t get fixed, I have no other choice but to choose to live here.)

I do feel that way, but I don’t think it’s right to choose to live here just because there’s no other choice.

(If I keep having these negative thoughts, everyone will worry again.)

I shook my head to dispel the negative thoughts and turned my back to the door.

At that moment, I heard a creaking sound from behind.

(Huh?)

I turned around, and the door, which no one had touched, slowly opened before me.

Mitsuki: “Kyaah!?”

Then something flew out of the gap.

(Was that a bird just now!?)

Although I couldn’t see it clearly, a vivid red bird crossed my field of vision.

I followed it with my eyes, but suddenly my body was forcefully pulled back, and something cold touched my neck.

It was a dull, gleaming knife.

(---!?)

???: “The woman of destiny.”

I heard a whisper up close and felt a hand grab me, along with the presence of someone behind me.

Fear swelled within me at this sudden situation, and I turned around cautiously to meet the gaze of clear aquamarine eyes.

???: “Don’t move. This thing can cut through anything.”

???: “I’m not going to take anything away from you. Where is this place, and who are you?”

Mitsuki: “This is a mansion in 19th-century Paris. I’m Mitsuki, one of the residents.”

Mitsuki: “Who are you?”

I spoke the words in a trembling voice, and the man restraining me stared at me with unreadable eyes.

Drake: "I'm Francis. Francis Drake."

(Francis?)

Even though I heard the name, I had no idea who he was, so I continued to tense up.

Suddenly, the man let out a sigh, easing the tension.

Drake: "You've been trembling this whole time. Well, given the situation, I guess that's understandable."

Drake: "I suddenly ended up in a place like this, so I'm also confused as hell."

Drake: "Don't be too scared, little fawn."

For some reason, he called me that and grinned mischievously.

【 Masterlist ╎ Next Part 】

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp drake #ikevamp francis #ikevamp jp #ikevamp #ikevamp translations #ikevamp spoilers #cybird

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e-adlirez · 1 month

Text

RNJesus is a b$%ch: A Deep Dive into the Thea Sisters' Nat1 Holder

Why does this woman have so much bad luck? :D What Feng Shui and Ba Gua violations did she make to have enough bad luck to get bent at least once per hardcover? :D (/lh /hj)

A nat1 is a natural 1, which in D&D terms usually means a colossal fail at a prompted task; therefore being a nat1 holder is not something you wanna be.

The Thea Sisters have a nat1 holder and she goes by the name Violet :'D

This is just a post about how many times she's been outrageously unlucky in a special edition book--

Spoilers for the special edition books, mainly books 2 and 4-9.

Oh and uh, group nat1s don't count, unless it's a situation where "everyone had a not-good time except for these guys" thing.

Before we get into that, we should probably set the stage a bit by establishing Violet's strengths and weaknesses, stats-wise. Violet is an intellectual, with a lot of general booksmarts, a good amount of emotional intelligence, cracked vision from art experience, sensitive ears from her training as a musician, flexibility from classical training and yoga, and a mind for tactics; and in the line of weaknesses, she's a bit touchy, can't survive without sleep, is not very athletic, often prefers to stand by while the other girls do stuff, and isn't good at doing things on the spot.

Now with that context, let's peep all the nat1s.

The first one comes during Secret of the Fairies, when the girls finds these Lake Fairies through their song. Which just so happens to somewhat work via siren rules.

So Violet's sensitive, musically attuned ears mean she rolls a nat1 94 pages (out of 310) into the book, leveraged only by Colette successfully stopping her from walking straight into the lake.

Now you may be thinking, "I mean it's not the worst thing in the world. Vi just got unlucky with this one," and to that I say

You'd be surprised just how unlucky Violet is capable of getting in these things.

The Secret of the Snow was probably the one Vi did the best in (that and Cloud Castle, imo). Maybe she fell into quicksand (with Nicky and Thea) and twisted her knee for about a couple minutes, but she did pretty good! She literally went and told a nightmare fuel kraken-esque thing to shut up, like a girlboss :D

Cloud Castle I guess isn't really a nat1 because it's a heroic sacrifice, what with the whole having her dreams yeeted and everything, but she got better it's fiiiinnneee

Woman t-posed to assert dominance, that must've given her at least two extra points /j

Treasure of the Sea is.... baffling, to say the least.

Okay so context:

There's this place in Aquamarina called the Infinite Abyss and it's thalassophobia incarnate but if the paranoid fantasies came true. You look down into it, you get yoinked into the darkness and possibly turned into a fish in the deep. This part is very unclear, but the abyss either has magic that physically tugs people enough to startle them to look down out of instinct... or it has a subconscious influence on those nearby, like a magically-induced intrusive thought that tries to convince the intrusive thinker to let the intrusive thoughts win and look down. I'm prefacing this with this statement... because I have no idea what the hell this scene is supposed to be.

Is Vi like, put under a spell? Was the physical tugging of the abyss too persistent to ignore? Were the intrusive thoughts just that goddamn loud? Did the plot police realize that things were going along too easily and they needed Vi to take an L so they can shake things up again this time? No clue! She just.... does, and she and Colette almost die because of this thing (whatever it is) that could've been easily avoided.

(Owners of the non-English books, if you're able to could you check the Infinite Abyss scene of the book so we can compare notes and try to decipher what the hell is going on here? That'd be nice /nf)

Speaking of Ls Vi just takes, Land of Flowers.

You're gonna love this one, because she takes not one, not two, but three Ls in this one book :D

First time was with this uh, this flower wall outside of the Golden Dahlia Palace that has Flowers of Forgetfulness (the opposite of forget-me-nots, it seems) where you get a whiff of the stuff and suddenly it's the total opposite of the time of day you last remember, you don't remember how you got there, and you feel like you just came out of a trip. Okay maybe that was an exaggeration but you get the idea-- Vi gets too close to one, accidentally sneef snorfs, and Colette winds up having to pull her away.

Second time was this scene where the girls had to cross this rope bridge that was hanging above a field of magic nettles, and I kid you not, this is the most Looney-Tunes-ass nat1 Vi has ever taken.

She is described as "[grabbing] the vines confidently, having watched her friends", and then she missteps and she straight-up does a Goofy-style fall into the nettles and is KOed by it so hard she had to be brought to two different places just to get her to wake up.

Then the third time was when they were going into this evil witch's tower and had to climb up some magical stairs that functioned like the trippy stairs in Harry Potter? Vi was about to step down, but just to be a dick I guess, the step decided to poof. Fortunately she didn't fall but holy crap how badly could that have easily gotten right o o

Crystal Fairies is a case where I dunno if this is worse or better than Vi's rotten luck in LoF, because while she takes only two nat1s in the book instead of three, both happen literally during the first half of the campaign. First one was her accidentally falling off a path and into a maelstrom-- don't worry, she didn't drown-- and second was... well...

"Now these crystals are very dangerous, they work by Narcissus rules so we should do our best to not look at the crysta--"

"Ooh shinyyyy......"

"VI NO"

This is more accurate than it sounds. And it is painful :D Who gave her the idiot ball for that one scene :D

After that we have Dance of the Star Fairies, where in the latter half of the book, she's riding a dragon chariot with the girls and King Astroboy over there, and when trying to land they accidentally thwump into an invisible force field, which sends Vi flying out of her seat and possibly into space had Nicky not caught her. Well hey, at least she managed to destroy this peepaw gnome at checkers, at least there's one W to balance out this L.

And last but not least, Magic of the Mirror. This one's actually not that bad, and it kinda comes full circle, surprisingly enough. Remember how Vi's first nat1 was when she fell under a song spell? Well, this last nat1 in this post is the same: the girls are put in a situation where they have no other choice but to listen to a siren's song, Vi being more vulnerable to music-based spells almost gives in, but the girls come in clutch and snap her out of it. Yippee :3

Why did this take way too long to make? I dunno :D. Why'd I make this? I dunno :D maybe I wanted an excuse to ramble about my blorbo, sue me

Anyway hope you enjoy this spectacle, and if you think that's all of them in the franchise, naaaahhhh bro we haven't even gotten into that one time in SuperSisters where Vi literally got captured on her first mission :D

#geronimo stilton #thea stilton #thea sisters #rambles #book rambles #random rambles

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dandelionsandderivatives · 8 months

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For the weird writer's ask, 1, 2, 14-16, and 24, please?

Thanks so much for the ask! 1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I'm going to be honest, I often use Times New Roman 12pt. I got into the habit when I was writing papers for school, and I think it looks really nice. I think it gets me into "writing mode" just because of the associations. I type in Pages on an Apple laptop, and the default font for the version I use is some sort of Helvetica variant. I don't like the look of this as much, but I often forget to change it. So either of those options, with a preference for the first.

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

Back in the days of my childhood, I started writing stories by hand! I don't think I ever actually finished much in longhand, but at one point I did have several chapters of my stories written in composition books. So I think I could manage, although it would really throw off my editing flow. Now I mostly type, although I will of course jot down notes if I don't have my computer handy. And I'm firmly on team pen. I take all my school notes with a fountain pen in cursive.

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

Yes, don't know, yes, and I'm afraid I'm never going to get that copy of The Princess and the Goblin back. We're still somewhat in touch, but it's been about a decade now and I'm pretty sure the friend has forgotten I lent it. 😂

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

Occasionally I'll write in the margins. No dog-earing pages or reading in the bath for me, though, although I suppose I might do the latter if I had a specific cheap paperback copy of a book that I could abuse. I try to keep my things nice; I want to read them for many happy years to come! I am annoyed by people who seem careless with their books, but I try to remember that I probably have habits that are just as infuriating to them.

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Oh goodness, I'm not sure. . . I know I have used a smaller book as a bookmark when reading textbooks (e.g. I needed to skip back to an earlier section but wanted to keep my place and had a smaller textbook handy). I've used plenty of receipts and clothing tags, and there's always scrap yarn around to be used. I love proper bookmarks but am very bad at keeping them handy.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

Ooh, this depends on the story! If I'm writing fanfic, I'll often rewatch/reread the thing I'm inspired by, and I'll often have the book/movie/TV episode open while I'm writing, so I can check to make sure I'm not misquoting anything. For original fiction, I'll do something similar; I'll have a page in my document full of notes on the setting for consistency. I have a hard time writing outlines, but I'll often write a one-paragraph summary of the story and then write down the bits I know I want to include, interspersed with very sketchy summaries of what happens in between. Then I go back and rearrange/fill in until it feels cohesive. So I mostly research as I go; I find that the questions I have about the story aren't always the ones I expect. I do really enjoy this; it's making the leap to "finished work" that can be frustrating.

#ask games #writing

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sukirichi · 4 years

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Hello! Can you write one about Nanami where the reader is oblivious and they're really close to Gojo so he gets jealous often. Sometimes Gojo does things purposely to annoy him and one day he just lost his composure and accidentally admitted his feelings for you.

I hope u accept if you're not too busy. Thank you!!!

— a little push

— sometimes all nanami needs is a little push.

nanami kento x fem! reader

thank you for the request anon! i’m not sure if reader is oblivious enough but i hope you like it! there’s some thick pining here hur hur, i hope you like it! i never knew i needed an easily flustered and awkward nanami in my life also this is unedited as usual

check my bio for masterlist and my milestone event! (◕ᴗ◕✿)

“Do you mind?”

Nanami sighs, silently praying to the heavens you wouldn’t hear the way his heart is absolutely panicking and beating wildly right now. You’d randomly pushed him inside the teachers’ office the moment he got back to the institute at work, and now he’s doomed to hide his feelings while you look up at him with wide, innocent eyes, a shaky yet excited grin painted on your face.

“Sorry, sorry,” you wave your hands in front of you, although he can tell you’re not apologetic at all. Nanami clears his throat when you step backwards to give him space, unsure if he’s happy or sad about the distance. “I was just really excited to see you back.”

Your carefree, lighthearted voice, along with that little jump in your toes combined with your statement – you’re basically asking Nanami to shrivel up already.

The stoic man remains composed, though, only shifting to adjust his tie while he stares down at you. You’re still somewhat bouncing on your feet, teeth biting your lip – a habit you had when you want to say something but contemplating whether you should. Tilting away to hide the slight flush in his cheeks, Nanami sighs again, pretending to be tired.

The last thing he wants to admit that even though he is exhausted from work, is that you’d never bother him. In fact, having you bombard him like this makes him feel like he didn’t deal with special grade curse by himself all alone just an hour ago.

“If there’s something you want to say, I suggest you get it over with. I don’t want to stay overtime and wait until the blindfolded creep comes around.”

You giggle at his insult, hiding behind your cupped palms. Crap, Nanami looks away and focuses on the birds outside instead, suddenly finding them so interesting despite never paying attention to them before. Maybe that was the curse of crushes – it had people acting differently and in complete contrast with their behavior.

“About that,” you begin almost shyly now, and Nanami practically bursts when he sees you tapping both of your pointer fingers together, gaze tilted away from him.

It makes him wonder you’re nearly on the same skill to Gojo, yet still somehow look like a small, innocent being that makes him want to protect you from everything – even if you were more than capable of handling things yourself. Well, Nanami concludes to himself, maybe you’re really just that paradoxical that it makes sense why he can never think straight around you. Maybe he’s really not supposed to understand the complexity of his feelings when you were a phenomena to begin with already.

“You see…Satoru asked me out.”

Nanami stiffens at your statement for a split second before his head whips to you so fast. You’re observant – of course you are, you’re a jujutsu sorcerer – and you easily pick up in his sudden change of demeanor. Your brow raises at his abrupt reaction, to which Nanami conceals by flexing his neck and rolling his shoulders back.

“I am simply tired from work,” he haf-lies, “So, Satoru asked you out? Will you say yes?”

His words and tone are monotonous, almost bored even, but deep inside he’s so close to beating the crap out of his co-worker. Well, not really, Nanami isn’t a man of violence, but he’s jealous. Of course he is – he’s liked you ever since Principal Yaga hired you.

He’s never told Satoru about his little crush on you. He would be stupid to do such; Satoru would tease him to no end and maybe even be as childish to go as far as pushing him to you. Typical elementary shit, Nanami cringes to himself, watching as you look down at your feet with a pout. Now that confused him. He isn’t sure what your body language means at all, but patient as ever, Nanami only waits.

“Well,” you scratch your forehead, “I’m really flattered. I want to say yes because Satoru is a nice guy—”

“He is not. I do not respect him.”

You roll your eyes at the way his eyes darkens, “—but also I’m not sure if I should. I mean, Satoru doesn’t really date, you know? He’ll be with like one girl and be with another the next week. I just don’t want to…like, fall for that, I guess. Not that I won’t, because he’s totally not my type—”

“It’s just a yes or no,” Nanami cuts you off, his words coming out a lot harsher than he intends it to be. It’s not that he’s annoyed at your rambling, he actually finds it so adorable when you get so lost in your train of thoughts that your mind just travels from one place to another, and seeing how your eyes just leave farther from reality is something he’s always find such an attractive quirk, but not now – not when his infuriating co-worker is intending to mess with your feelings. “Do you want to go or not? Yes or no? It’s as simple as that.”

You blink back at him in surprise, mouth opening and closing like a fish. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Nanami was a no-bullshit man who hit things right on the head, a huge contrast to your happy-go-lucky self, but he’s right.

It is that simple – and you’re complicating things all over again.

When you give him an answer, Nanami has to muster all his energy to not deflate. He’s tired – but now his exhaustion and even the heartbreak comes crashing down all over him that he’s immediately weighed down and overwhelmed – so much so that all he wants is to go home.

“Yes, I want to go.”

It’s his day off.

Like everything else in his life, Nanami plans everything down to the last minute of his day. His day off consisted of him having the privilege to sleep in until 8am, then breakfast with coffee from that great café a five minute walk away from his apartment, then he’ll be reading books in his study for two hours. Comes after that is lunch, and he’ll brows through some TV shows, pick up his clothes from the dry cleaning, get that special limited edition dinner of his favorite sushi, read books again and call it a day.

Simple, peaceful, no hassle – it’s the perfect day to relax.

Except it isn’t.

Because it’s your day off too, and you’re out on a date with Satoru. He still remembers how happy you looked then upon accepting the white haired man’s invitation, your nimble fingers wrapped around his sleeve as you shyly asked him to come with you.

He doesn’t know why you had to bring him, but he doesn’t question it, nonetheless. Nanami wants to see how Satoru would react, if there could be any indication from the man behind his blindfold that he had ill intentions. Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be any. Satoru only beamed and deflated into a chibi, enthusiastically nodding along with you while you planned your date together.

Nanami took it upon himself to leave.

With a silent scoff, Nanami placed his dinner down on the counter. Because it’s his day off – and mostly because he doesn’t feel like himself – Nanami went out to buy the limited edition sushi wearing a white shirt and some gray sweatpants, too forlorn and a little jealous to even bother dressing up.

It’s stupid, really. He’s been looking forward for this sushi for a long, long time, but now that he’s had it, he can’t even enjoy the taste. His mind keeps going back to you.

Were you having fun with Satoru? Were you enjoying your time? Was Satoru treating you well? What was Satoru’s intentions when it came with you? The last time Nanami checked, you and him got along really well and you’re mostly the one who whacks the taller man in the head upside down when he’s being stupid, almost like two peas in a pod, except you were the smarter one. He’d been so sure you’re nothing but friends and yet…it all lead to this.

Nanami pushes his sushi away. They no longer taste like anything, the texture like dried paper on his mouth. He wipes his lips with a napkin, staring longingly at well…nothing. His walls were plain and empty, and suddenly, Nanami can’t help but compare himself to Gojo.

You both planned to go to the local carnival. There’d be lots of foods and even parlor shops, ferris wheel rides and photo booths to create memories. Of course you and Satoru would go there; both of you enjoyed loud, bustling crowds, claiming there was something amazing about basking in the “lives of humans when ignorant of curses” while Nanami prefers his peace and silence.

Had you gone out on a date with him instead, Nanami can’t guarantee he’ll be any fun. He most definitely wouldn’t ask you to go to a carnival with him either. It was loud, cramped, crowded, and it’s too chaotic for him to ever enjoy your presence and enjoy it alone.

Nanami closes the sushi box, turns on the TV and lets is play on the background, a wet towel above his eyes to relax his tired eyes.

He hopes you’re having fun. He hopes Satoru is treating you well. Nanami just ignores the slight pain in his chest when he thinks of you, laughing and touching anyone but him, and he could picture it already. You’ve always been so open and welcoming to everyone, he knows you’ll have fun today, too.

That’s one of the things he finds most endearing about you – that your smile never fades and you never forget about the simple, little things in life to focus on to keep your sanity after facing curse after curse.

He’s fine, he tells himself. Satoru may be annoying, but he knows you could have fun with him, and you deserved to be happy more than anyone else.

Nanami is about to fall asleep on his couch when his phone vibrates on the coffee tables. Groaning, he flicks off the towel to his shoulders, grumbling about how Principal Yaga better be respecting his day off, but the last thing he expects to see is your contact name flashing on the screen. In the contact photo, you’re winking with a peace sign held above your head.

You look so utterly adorable Nanami just wants to kiss you. He remembers this photo was taken when Yuuji got bored and asked to play games on his phone. Upon finding that there was none – of course there was none – the strawberry-haired student opted for taking pictures of everyone instead. There’s one with Nobara growling, Megumi sipping his boba-tea with dead eyes as if he’s so done with the world, more than twenty pictures of Satoru flexing his muscles and posing like an idiot, and then there’s yours.

Nanami remembers staring at his phone for a solid minute, his gallery actually blessed with your face in it. The sun shines behind you on that photo and you’re absolutely shining. He thinks that’s when he truly fell in love.

And it just so happened the love of his life is calling, making his heart skip a beat because shouldn’t you be with Gojo? Why were you calling him? Did something wrong happen?

Nanami doesn’t waste another second before swiping the green icon, already standing up from the couch as he grabs his jacket. He had this weird inkling something is wrong, why else would you call him?

His theories are proven true when your voice comes out shaky. “H-hello?”

“Good evening,” he greets stiffly, brows furrowed as he listens in on the way you seem to be shuffling around. “Is there something wrong?”

“I, uhm,” he hears you sniffle through the other line, “Yeah, I guess there is…Satoru just texted he can’t come because Principal Yaga suddenly sent him to a mission overseas…and then I just realized that Satoru’s been summoned by the elders and he’s just refusing to show up, so now they cornered him, I guess… anyways, I’m talking too much and I don’t want to be a bother, but would you maybe…like to hang out with me?”

Nanami’s hand freezes on the doorknob. “Hang out…professionally?”

He immediately wants to smack himself in the forehead for that. Out of all things he could’ve said, he just had to utter something unintelligent. He hears you snicker in the background and Nanami’s ears redden.

He quickly regains his composure with a clear of his throat, suddenly remembering that Satoru’s ditched you, so now you’re asking him instead. It kind of feels like he’s just a replacement, but Nanami buries this feeling down before it consumes him, wondering if he’s already regretting changing into better clothes because he actually agreed to go to a carnival with you.

Upon hearing your happy, “Okay! I’ll wait for you then!”, Nanami realizes that he doesn’t actually mind. Especially not with you.

The carnival is loud.

Nanami dreads the moment he steps out of his car, his body swallowed by the bustling crowd and defeaning music of banging drums and clashing instruments. There’s a hundred scents everywhere – smoke, fish, glazed apples – he doesn’t know where to begin or how to focus.

He nearly turns back to his hair, about to shoot you a text that maybe this is beyond him after all. His head begins to spin when he’s only pushed deeper into the crowd, people bumping into him with every single second and it’s so suffocating. It doesn’t make sense to him how anyone could possibly go on a date like this and enjoy it. He knows for sure this chaos won’t let him enjoy his date’s presence because he’s too busy trying to get away from it all.

Nanami staggers for a bit when a strong hand tugs him to the side. Soon, he finds himself pressed flush against you in a tight corner, your hips warm on his. “Hi,” you breathe out airily, lashes fanning and fluttering in that same manner that always made his heart do complete flips.

“Hello,” he greets back with a small bow out of faux respect, but really, he’s just keeping his head down because you look so beautiful in that moment he doesn’t even know where to look. You’re warm and soft next to his hard and stiff muscles, the scent of roses and vanilla mixing in with the street smoke and Nanami’s head grows dizzy, his hand around yours tightening for comfort. “Y/N…I do not prefer this crowd. Can I take you back home instead? You must be tired – I’ll prepare dinner for you.”

Nanami blinks back in surprise when he sees you nod, a slight grimace on your face, and you practically bury your face in his bicep as you groan, “It’s too noisy for me too. Let’s just hang out at your place.”

So you end up in his immaculately clean apartment, admiring and staring at the boring furniture. Nanami changes into more comfortable clothes and whips out something to cook, not wanting to feed you measly take out when you’re probably famished. He watches with side glances as you pick up a photo of him with his parents when he was younger, cooing and giggling at the baby version of him.

“Nanamin, you’re so cute!”

Nanami scoffs and turns back to the heated water in the bowl, arms hard as they cross against his chest covered with an apron. “Please do not call me cute. I am anything but.”

“No, you’re really cute,” you insist, but after seeing Nanami’s flustered frown, you eventually give up and give the poor man a break. Later, you wobble next to him, watching with curious eyes and a small smile as he adds the vegetables into the soup, moving expertly as he diced up the onions to the side. The sheer focus and attention on his daily tasks makes him falter, and he suddenly finds it so hard to function now.

“Why are you staring at me? Is there something so interesting about slicing up onions?”

“No, not really,” you say absentmindedly, the slight plop of the ingredients echoing. “It’s just – I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this way. Domestic, I mean, but it looks good on you,” you nod to yourself, and Nanami finds himself struggling to act as if your presence wasn’t making him go crazy while he proceeds to cook. “In fact, everything looks good on you, and I find you really interesting!”

“Y-you do?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” you shrug, assisting him silently with mixing the bowl even when he didn’t ask you to. Unaware that he’s now focused on you, watching you cook with him with you pressed up against his side, almost as if it’s right where you belong, Nanami feels the same with you. You also look good being this domestic with him, and he suddenly blurts out, “Would you like to stay with me? Like this?”

Your eyes slide over his in a slow fashion, slow enough that his brain hotwires at the fear maybe he’s said something wrong. But Nanami immediately swallows it down, huffing and turning away from you with that stoic expression again. “Forgive me. That was weird—”

“Why would it be weird?” you laughed to yourself before bumping your hips with his, “You’re the one who invited me here. Of course I want to stay.”

That’s…that’s not what he means.

Nanami is left staring openly at you while you help him set the table and you proceed to talk about how you didn’t really want to go to the carnival but Satoru insisted you’d have fun, so you went anyway even if you’d much prefer to be somewhere else. He’s barely listening, too distracted by the way your lips move and how you swing the house slippers on your big toe, your legs crossed on top of another and your figure slightly hunched across from him.

You look so comfortable and welcomed in his home that it puts him at ease too, not worried that he has to impress you anything because it’s you, and Nanami could actually be vulnerable enough to laugh with you over a bowl of vegetable soup.

It’s fine, he lies to himself again, it’s fine that you don’t know he likes you even if he tends to slip and be obvious sometimes. Because at least you’re with him in that moment, and he lies to himself again that it’s fine, that maybe next time he’ll tell you, but he doesn’t worry about. How could he worry about it when you’re snorting so loud over a lame joke he said that rice nearly came out your nose, and he’s so drunk over the sound of your bubbly laughter that something flutters deep within his belly?

When you help him wash the dishes and bask in the silence instead, comfortable over the lack of words and nothing but the sound of his faucet running and the slight rubbing of towels against dishes heard in the background, Nanami is unsure whether he’s glad that Satoru ditched you on your first date.

It doesn’t stop there.

Nanami only keeps falling in love with you more. He’s been doing a good job of keeping his feelings to himself because the last thing he wants is to have you stay away from him, but Satoru was really getting on his nerves.

He’s just come back from exorcising a curse when he sees you and Satoru play-wrestling in the field with the other students. Megumi is grumbling to himself in the corner, Yuuji is laughing and cheering on you to tackle down his sensei who’s currently going down in high-pitched laughter, Toge pumping his fists and screaming, “Salmon, salmon!”

It’s a chaotic sight – one that he usually doesn’t mind – until you finally pin Satoru down on the ground, your ass above his crotch. Satoru’s hands then come up to squeeze your ass and hips under the false pretense he’s struggling to push you off him, but Nanami knows better.

“Give up already!” you tease the other sorcerer who’s still wriggling underneath you, and Nanami sees it before it happens.

Satoru’s legs bend beneath you and he tries to pin you under him in quick movements, but Nanami is faster, his reflexes taking over. Before he realizes what he’s doing, Nanami tugs you and pulls you forward until you collide on his chest. He’s breathing hard, eyes narrowed at the arrogant smirk painted on Satoru’s features. Meanwhile, you’ve softened in Nanami’s grip, hands fisting his shirt that has him hardening up out of sheer protectiveness.

“Oh, Nanamin!” Satoru beams while wiping the dirt on his hands across his uniform, “Glad to see you here. You wanna join training too?”

“This is hardly training,” he retorts with a clenched jaw, “You’re harassing and disrespecting your fellow sorcerer because you can never keep your dirty hands to yourself,” before Satoru could defend himself, he’s already all over you, his hand tilting your chin side to side to check for any injuries. “Are you hurt anywhere? Did this bastard do anything else?”

“No, not really—”

“Why do you care so much, Nanamin?” Satoru teases, and the students all huddle to watch the commotion. Everyone can feel the tension rising, and Nanami only stiffens up further when he feels you lean closer to his warmth almost absentmindedly. “She and I were just playing around, no hard feelings, no foul play. We’re just having fun, right, Y/N?”

“She is not someone you can just have fun with, Satoru. You’ve already crossed the line when you ditched her on your first date, and you didn’t even bother texting or calling back when I drove her home. It’s disrespectful, and she deserves better than that.”

“Nanami—”

“I was busy,” Satoru sighs dramatically, “And if she deserves better than me, then who would it be? I can take care her of her, you know, she and I have been besties for like what, a year now? I’ll be good to her,” he smirks, and Nanami wants nothing more than to punch him square in the jaw. “Besides, it’s not like she’s dating anyone else. She’s single and ready to mingle—”

“Maybe she is, but I’m not,” Nanami deadpans, his harsh tone shocking everyone.

“Wh-what do you mean?” you squeak under him, and Nanami falls silent. He’s never thought of confessing to you, especially not this way, and Nobara is biting Yuuji’s jacket behind them to muffle her squeals. Panda is clapping his hands and whispers oh, here we go, followed by Toge’s salmon salmon.

It dawns on him now that everyone knows he likes you after all, and now that he’s confronted with the situation, he can’t run away from it. Not that Nanami plans on running away, for he is a man and his pride doesn’t allow him to evade situations like this.

He just wishes it could’ve gone out better.

“Forgive me if this makes you uncomfortable,” Nanami releases his grip on you, loosening his tie that makes him feel like he’s choking both on air and his words. Through his cool stature, he’s actually sweating inside his clothes, and it doesn’t help you’re patient with him too, head tilted to the side curiously and so horribly cutely he might combust. “But I have always been, and I still am, utterly in love with you.”

Nobara and Yuuji no longer hold back as they scream to themselves, the former slapping the latter in his back while Megumi only shakes his head, muttering “about time,” under his breath. Maki snickers to herself and Satoru is stunned, but it’s nothing compared to the way you shrink under his gaze for a moment.

He believes you’re going to run away from him because of his blatant confession; it wasn’t romantic at all, and the kids are still screaming too loudly for him to form coherent thoughts.

Nanami begins to form a deep bow, ready to apologize wholeheartedly and to politely ask you to forget this if you wish – he would respect your decision. But just as his gaze met the ground, he’s thrown off balance as you jump on him, soft glossy lips crashing into his.

The screams and cheers of everyone are suddenly drowned out when he feels your lips molding onto his, and he can feel you smiling happily, giggling while his hands tentatively run down your hips to hold you close. It’s unprofessional, displeasing, and downright horrendous to be kissing someone during work hours while the students are watching, especially because his clothes are crumpled from your eager touch and you’re on top of his chest, but Nanami absolutely doesn’t give a single fuck because he’s kissing you back fervently.

It’s what he’s always wanted – you’re the one he’s always wanted, and now that he has you in his hold, he’s not easily letting you go.

“See? I told you guys,” Satoru proudly puffs his chest up in the background, “All Nanamin needs is a little push.”

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interlunium-opus · 3 years

Text

Enhypen as your Best Friend: Jake edition

Is so kind, caring and selfless that he makes you feel like the spawn of evil or something.

“Jake, what the hell? You have all these cards, you could have won instead!” You shriek when you flip his cards over and discovered that he had enough +4 UNO card to flip the game over.

“Yeah, but you’d have to pick up like 20 extra cards,” he shrugs, picking up the cards to reorganize them.

“So?”

“Well, I don’t want to do that,” he mumbles before shooting you his signature megawatt smile, “Not to you at least. 10/10 would do it to Ni-Ki though.”

Always keep you at the forefront of his mind.

When he’s at the coffee shop: “Oh, I bet she hasn’t had her coffee yet,” and then he goes on to order you your usual.

When he’s at the bakery: “Oh, I bet she hasn’t had her lunch yet — gotta get her something,” and then he goes on to buy a selection of your favorite pastries.

When he’s shopping, “Oh, she really loves clothes like this — I’ll just get it for her.”

When he passes by a bookstore, “Oh, that’s the kind of book she likes,” then he quickly disappears into the bookstore to get it for you.

“What are you? Her mum?” Sunghoon would often complain as he is always the one being made to wait while Jake is busy getting you stuffs.

Quality time with him would consist of activities like baking nights; picnics; volunteer sessions and so on. Being the selfless lad he is though, he’d always take it upon himself to do the majority of the hard work (though he’ll slot in a chance to brag about himself in between especially if it concerns his strength or skills).

“Oh gosh, this is why restaurants and bakeries exists,” you complain as you rolled the dough for the umpteenth time.

“Let me,” he set down the cream he was mixing, offering to take over.

“Dude, no — you’re more exhausted than I am from your soccer practice, I have absolutely no right to compl-“

“Aww don’t worry about it. You’ve been studying all night too,” he assures, pulling a chair and beckoning you to sit down instead, “besides, I have the strength of like a hundred men so yknow things like these are peanuts for me,” he snickers.

Boi is flirty as heck though. Thank God, you have ice in your veins. Otherwise, you’d be catching feelings quicker than you can spell out his name.

“Do you want anything?” He asks as you guys stand in line at Starbucks.

You shook your head, “Nah, not a fan. I like Coffee Bean better.”

"Oh we can stop by later then," he suggests.

"It's fine Jake, we've already passed it by earlier."

Then suddenly after disappearing for some 15 minutes to allegedly take a call outside, Jake returned, oddly out of breath, with a Coffee Bean paper bag, filled with your usual coffee order.

“Dude! Coffee Bean is like what almost 8 minutes away by walk?! That's like a 16 minute return-trip or something...”

“Less if you run," he winks, “Come on, for you — anything."

Then as per his habits, he’d bite his lips as he grins.

Or that other time, during one of your baking nights:

“You know if you’re tired you can always cancel our baking night right?” You suggest as you unlock the door to your apartment.

“No way — it’s like our weekly ritual. Also it’s like therapeutic for me, a respite from all those rowdy boys at home; rowdy boys at practice and my hectic lifestyle,” he posits, placing the groceries, which he had insisted to carry, up onto your kitchen counter, “unless of course you’re tired? Then of course we can-“

“Never as tired as you’re supposed to be though — if you say so, then sure.”

“Aww,” he coos, “Seriously, if you’re tired, I’ll take over tonight.”

“No way, you’re always taking up my share of work, I feel like a freeloader.”

“Oh come on, freeloading is when it’s one-sided. We aren’t like that.”

“You must really like baking huh?”

“I mean yeah but actually, it’s not the baking per se that I love the most from our baking nights,” Jake murmurs as he help you unpack the groceries, “it’s being with you that I love the most. That’s the therapeutic part, you; making things together with you; making things for you; —“

You stopped unpacking and stare up at him, wondering what have you done so far to even deserve Jake. He stares back at you, beaming widely, “basically you.” ((Yeah he bit his lips after that))

As if there’s gravity, his hands are somewhat always on you whether it is an arm over your shoulders; his hand holding yours whenever you guys cross the road; his hand reaching yours whenever you just put a hand up to wave at him in the hallway; all the tackle hugs he does whenever he sees you; resting his head against your shoulders; and the list goes on (nothing you’re uncomfortable with though). No wonder the girls are always shooting glares at you — he’s always acting as if you guys are dating.

“Gosh, get a room!” Jay would always scream whenever he's around you two and Jake starts to get all clingy and handsy.

A good exemplary student but for you, just for you, he can make some sort of light concession. For instance, if you doze off in class, he’d cover your back.

“Oh crap, I dozed off didnt I?”

“A bit,” Jake whispers back, “Go back to sleep, I’ll wake you up once he starts moving around the hall,” he winks.

“Nah I shouldn’t, I’ve already missed out a whole page of notes,” you sigh when suddenly Jake pushes his book towards you, “Got you covered girl, don’t worry. Just get another 5 minutes of shut-eye alright? I know you pulled up an all-nighter last night.”

“I wish you’re as lenient to me as you to her,” Ni-Ki grumbles beside him.

Jake scoffs, “Nah not you bruh — you deserve being found out when you’re napping when all you do at night is playing games with Heeseung.”

Would excitedly wave at you, or send a flying kiss at you if he feels daring, during his soccer matches whenever he spots you in the crowd.

Playfully competitive in a very annoying way. “Hey, bet you can’t run faster than I can..." / “Hey, bet you can’t finish the homework within an hour..." / "Hey, bet you can’t squat more than I do...” — it’s ok though, you thought, ‘cus no human is perfect, he has to have a flaw especially when his selflessness is inhumanely off the charts.

Your study buddy! You guys are always either in the library, the class or at each other’s places — mostly to study (if you guys aren’t having your non-study-related quality time, that is). Of course, he’d get competitive eventually, “hey, bet you can’t solve question 12! I got it in just what 3 minutes?”

Boi is a coward but he would brave through anything for you (at least *try* to). That's how everyone knows you're his soft spot.

"Jake, you hate horror movies.”

“But you love the Conjuring series”

“Yeah, but I can just watch it alone. You don’t need to accompany me to the theatre for this.”

“Nah, why would I do that to you? Come on have some faith in me — horror movies are nothing.”

and then you found out from a trusted informant (Jungwon) that Jake couldnt sleep without the lights on for 1 week straight after that.

#enhypen #enhypen imagines #enhypen jake #enhypen jake imagines #enhypen scenarios #kpop scenarios #enhypen fluff #jake sim #enhypen drabbles #enhypen jake scenarios

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letterboxd · 4 years

Photo

In Focus: The Mummy

Dominic Corry responds on behalf of Letterboxd to an impassioned plea to bump up the average rating of the 1999 version of The Mummy—and asks: where is the next great action adventure coming from?

We recently received the following email regarding the Stephen Sommers blockbuster The Mummy:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the nation, if not the entire globe, who frankly deserve better than this after months of suffering with the Covid pandemic.

I was recently made aware that the rating of The Mummy on your platform only stands at 3.3 stars out of five. … This, as I’m sure you’re aware, is simply unacceptable. The Mummy is, as a statement of fact, the greatest film ever made. It is simply fallacious that anyone should claim otherwise, or that the rating should fail to reflect this. This oversight cannot be allowed to stand.

I have my suspicions that this rating has been falsely allocated due to people with personal axes to grind against The Mummy, most likely other directors who are simply jealous that their own artistic oeuvres will never attain the zenith of perfection, nor indeed come close to approaching the quality or the cultural influence of The Mummy. There is, quite frankly, no other explanation. The Mummy is, objectively speaking, a five-star film (… I would argue that it in fact transcends the rating sytem used by us mere mortals). It would only be proper, as a matter of urgency, to remove all fake ratings (i.e. any ratings [below] five stars) and allow The Mummy’s rating to stand, as it should, at five stars, or perhaps to replace the rating altogether with a simple banner which reads “the greatest film of all time, objectively speaking”. I look forward to this grievous error being remedied.

Best, Anwen

Which of course: no, we would never do that. But the vigor Anwen expresses in her letter impressed us (we checked: she’s real, though is mostly a Letterboxd lurker due to a busy day-job in television production, “so finding time to watch anything that isn’t The Mummy is, frankly, impossible… not that there’s ever any need to watch anything else, of course.”).

So Letterboxd put me, Stephen Sommers fan, on the job of paying homage to the last great old-school action-adventure blockbuster, a film that straddles the end of one cinematic era and the beginning of the next one. And also to ask: where’s the next great action adventure coming from?

Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah in ‘The Mummy’ (1999).

When you delve into the Letterboxd reviews of The Mummy, it quickly becomes clear how widely beloved the film is, 3.3 average notwithstanding. Of more concern to the less youthful among us is how quaintly it is perceived, as if it harkens back to the dawn of cinema or something. “God, I miss good old-fashioned adventure movies,” bemoans Holly-Beth. “I have so many fond memories of watching this on TV with my family countless times growing up,” recalls Jess. “A childhood classic,” notes Simon.

As alarming as it is to see such wistful nostalgia for what was a cutting-edge, special-effects-laden contemporary popcorn hit, it has been twenty-one years since the film was released, so anyone currently in their early 30s would’ve encountered the film at just the right age for it to imprint deeply in their hearts. This has helped make it a Raiders of the Lost Ark for a specific Letterboxd demographic.

Sommers took plenty of inspiration from the Indiana Jones series for his take on The Mummy (the original 1932 film, also with a 3.3 average, is famously sedate), but for ten-year-olds in 1999, it may have been their only exposure to such pulpy derring-do. And when you consider that popcorn cinema would soon be taken over by interconnected on-screen universes populated by spandex-clad superheroes, the idea that The Mummy is an old-fashioned movie is easier to comprehend.

However, for all its throwbackiness, beholding The Mummy from the perspective of 2020 reveals it to have more to say about the future of cinema than the past. 1999 was a big year for movies, often considered one of the all-time best, but the legacy of The Mummy ties it most directly to two of that year’s other biggest hits: Star Wars: Episode One—The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. These three blockbusters represented a turning point for the biggest technological advancement to hit the cinematic art-form since the introduction of sound: computer-generated imagery, aka CGI. The technique had been widely used from 1989’s The Abyss onwards, and took significant leaps forward with movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997), but the three 1999 films mentioned above signified a move into the era when blockbusters began to be defined by their CGI.

A year before The Mummy, Sommers had creatively utilised CGI in his criminally underrated sci-fi action thriller Deep Rising (another film that deserves a higher average Letterboxd rating, just sayin’), and he took this approach to the next level with The Mummy. While some of the CGI in The Mummy doesn’t hold up as well as the technopunk visuals presented in The Matrix, The Mummy showed how effective the technique could be in an historical setting—the expansiveness of ancient Egypt depicted in the movie is magnificent, and the iconic rendering of Imhotep’s face in the sand storm proved to be an enduringly creepy image. Not to mention those scuttling scarab beetles.

George Lucas wanted to test the boundaries of the technique with his insanely anticipated new Star Wars film after dipping his toe in the digital water with the special editions of the original trilogy. Beyond set expansions and environments, a bunch of big creatures and cool spaceships, his biggest gambit was Jar Jar Binks, a major character rendered entirely through CGI. And we all know how that turned out.

A CGI-enhanced Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

Sommers arguably presented a much more effective CGI character in the slowly regenerating resurrected Imhotep. Jar Jar’s design was “bigger” than the actor playing him on set, Ahmed Best. Which is to say, Jar Jar took up more space on screen than Best. But with the zombie-ish Imhotep, Sommers (ably assisted by Industrial Light & Magic, who also worked on the Star Wars films) used CGI to create negative space, an effect impossible to achieve with practical make-up—large parts of the character were missing. It was an indelible visual concept that has been recreated many times since, but Sommers pioneered its usage here, and it contributed greatly to the popcorn horror threat posed by the character.

Sommers, generally an unfairly overlooked master of fun popcorn spectacle (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is good, guys), deserves more credit for how he creatively utilized CGI to elevate the storytelling in The Mummy. But CGI isn’t the main reason the film works—it’s a spry, light-on-its-feet adventure that presents an iconic horror property in an entertaining and adventurous new light. And it happens to feature a ridiculously attractive cast all captured just as their pulchritudinous powers were peaking.

Meme-worthy: “My sexual orientation is the cast of ‘The Mummy’ (1999).”

A rising star at the time, Brendan Fraser was mostly known for comedic performances, and although he’d proven himself very capable with his shirt off in George of the Jungle (1997), he wasn’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list for action-hero roles. But he is superlatively charming as dashing American adventurer Rick O’Connell. His fizzy chemistry with Weisz, playing the brilliant-but-clumsy Egyptologist Evie Carnahan, makes the film a legitimate romantic caper. The role proved to be a breakout for Weisz, then perhaps best known for playing opposite Keanu Reeves in the trouble-plagued action flop Chain Reaction, or for her supporting role in the Liv Tyler vehicle Stealing Beauty.

“90s Brendan Fraser is what Chris Pratt wishes he was,” argues Holly-Beth. “Please come back to us, Brendaddy. We need you.” begs Joshhh. “I’d like to thank Rachel Weisz for playing an integral role in my sexual awakening,” offers Sree.

Then there’s Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bey, a member of the Medjai, a sect dedicated to preventing Imhotep’s tomb from being discovered, and Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun, Imhotep’s cursed lover. Both stupidly good-looking. Heck, Imhotep himself (South African Arnold Vosloo, coming across as Billy Zane’s more rugged brother), is one of the hottest horror villains in the history of cinema.

“Remember when studio movies were sexy?” laments Colin McLaughlin. We do Colin, we do.

Sommers directed a somewhat bloated sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001, which featured the cinematic debut of one Dwayne Johnson. His character got a spin-off movie the following year (The Scorpion King), which generated a bunch of DTV sequels of its own, and is now the subject of a Johnson-produced reboot. Brendan Fraser came back for a third film in 2008, the Rob Cohen-directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Weisz declined to participate, and was replaced by Maria Bello.

Despite all the follow-ups, and the enduring love for the first Sommers film, there has been a sadly significant dearth of movies along these lines in the two decades since it was released. The less said about 2017 reboot The Mummy (which was supposed to kick-off a new Universal Monster shared cinematic universe, and took a contemporary, action-heavy approach to the property), the better.

The Rock in ‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001).

For a long time, adventure films were Hollywood’s bread and butter, but they’re surprisingly thin on the ground these days. So it makes a certain amount of sense that nostalgia for the 1999 The Mummy continues to grow. You could argue that many of the superhero films that dominate multiplexes count as adventure movies, but nobody really sees them that way—they are their own genre.

There are, however, a couple of films on the horizon that could help bring back old-school cinematic adventure. One is the long-planned—and finally actually shot—adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise, starring Tom Holland. The games borrow a lot from the Indiana Jones films, and it’ll be interesting to see how much that manifests in the adaptation.

Then there’s Letterboxd favorite David Lowery’s forever-upcoming medieval adventure drama The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander (who herself recently rebooted another video-game icon, Lara Croft). Plus they are still threatening to make another Indiana Jones movie, even if it no longer looks like Steven Spielberg will direct it.

While these are all exciting projects—and notwithstanding the current crisis in the multiplexes—it can’t help but feel like we may never again get a movie quite like The Mummy, with its unlikely combination of eye-popping CGI, old-fashioned adventure tropes and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of overflowing hotness. Long may love for it reign on Letterboxd—let’s see if we can’t get that average rating up, the old fashioned way. For Anwen.

Related content

How I Letterboxd with The Mummy fan Eve (“The first film I went out and bought memorabilia for… it was a Mummy action figure that included canopic jars”)

The Mummy (Universal) Collection

Every film featuring the Mummy (not mummies in general)

Follow Dom on Letterboxd

#the mummy #brendan fraser #stephen sommers #action adventure #fantasy adventure #action adventure film #the green knight #david lowery #dominic corry #letterboxd

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wizkiddx · 4 years

Note

heyheyhey idk if u do req but love your dad tom stuff! PLZ PLZ do tom helping his kids with homework but cant do it and reader has to help and its all fluffy 😩💕

ye im down to do req and this had me going completely ott cos its v cute (and a lot less angsty than what ive written recently aha) so apologies for my ramblings:

Summary: tom has the kids for a day and maths homework throws a spanner in the works - tomhollandxreader

implied smut + v slight reference to porn but basically just fluff I promise xox

\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////

Tom had dealt with a lot of whining today. Nova and Leo were the absolute joys of his life, there was no doubt about it. Of course, he also loved you a hell of a lot too - sometimes to his detriment though, hence the position he was in now.

You’d had a busy week at work and he had been away for the first half of it - leaving you as an almost single mother to a 5 and a 7 year old. So completely fairly, you’d asked if he wouldn’t mind watching the kids for a the day on Sunday, allowing you to go to a friends baby shower. There was no answer but to agree, Tom loved quality time with the kids and he wanted you to kick back and relax with you friends too.

However the afternoon had not been nearly as idealistic as it were supposed to be in his head. You had left him only one real job (apart from the unavoidable essentials of keeping the kids alive with food and water, something you’d hope he need not be reminded about now). Really it shouldn’t of been that hard, it was just each kid had two pieces of homework. After convincing and cajoling the kids into sitting at the table which he’d already set up with Nova’s ‘Liverpool FC’ and Leo’s ‘captain marvels’ pencil case, the English was easy.

In fact 5 year old Leo took great joy out of writing a poem with his Dad, which basically involved trying to rhyme any word with another - especially when he tried to convince Tom that all his completely fictitious words were real and worked together. A personal favourite had been ‘snakes’ and ‘palakes’ which Leo was convinced meant pancakes - arguing so vehemently Tom almost started to doubt himself on basic English.

Thankfully though his eldest and most sensibly child eventually took him out his misery. If anyone had any control over the Holland boys, Leo and Tom - it was the Holland girls. You and Nova had both boys completely under you spell, often taking advantage of the fact too. It was only when Nova got bored of hearing Tom and Leo mock arguing, interspersed with the little boys giggles that Tom tried his absolute hardest to keep a straight face at, that she swooped in.

“Stop being silly Leo, mummy told you he’s not good at school!” She looked oh so innocent, eyes immediately flicking down to continue the little short story she was happily going on with. In response Tom scowled, knowing your highly curious and intelligent daughter had asked you (for one reason or another) why he was not so academic. Yet instead of Leo bursting out laughing, instead he just nodded and accepted it too - making Tom scowl even more. Not even Leo thought it was a joke.

So apart from his children apparently taking pity on his simple mind, it was all going smoothly. Perhaps, due to the thankful fact your children had inherited their brains from their mother - something Tom was forever thankful for, until he was shamed for his substandard intellect in the family. Then again though, he was Spiderman. So take that.

Until Nova brought out her maths sheet. Then the afternoon quickly descended into chaos. It was fractions, something she hadn’t quite grasped from school yet - a concept that still hurt her head somewhat. Normally though it’d be fine, she’d bring the sheet to you and the two of you used ‘ girl power’ to figure it out… you prior experience as a tutor while in uni helping you know how to break through to her.

Unfortunately Tom didn’t share this same experience. Nor did Tom share a maths qualification… something that had evaded him completely during his schooling career. Of course, it had never been a particular issue, acting didn’t require the use of maths and algebra and Tom was in a very lucky position of being able to pay someone to manage his finances from a very young age. So no, dividing 2/3 and 3/7 didn’t come the most naturally to him. Or at all to be quite honest.

“I CANT DO IT AND GRACE IN MY CLASS COULD!” For context, Grace was one of her school friends, who forever liked to compare herself to the young Holland - especially because she was normally ahead. Nova had gone from quiet frustration, staring at the questions with her tongue sticking out slightly, to one of pure rage - yelling at her dad with tears in her eyes. Nova was normally incredibly intuitive, she always found it difficult when she couldn’t do something. Now, with a ‘teacher’ who was more useless than her - the frustrations inevitably bubbled over.

“Hey, we can work it out, just calm-“

“YOU CANT DO IT EITHER YOUR STUPID “ She was just young and frustrated, Tom tried not to take it personally but … it wasn’t always easy. Chiefly because this was the height of offensive statement Nova knew - this was her version of adult explicit language.

“Nova you can’t be rude.” He used his stern voice, something Tom very rarely used with his little girl. Though he never wanted to upset her, neither did he want her to think it was ever okay to be so rude to anyone like that- no matter how crappy at maths they were. It hurt him to do so but it was necessary - life lessons about the importance of being kind needed to be learnt. And it worked… if what Tom was aiming for was his beautiful baby girl’s eyes to brim with sparkling tears, her bottom lip quivering slightly.

Instantly Tom’s eyebrows drooped, trying to fight his natural reaction to scoop her onto his knee and reassure her everything was okay. But as you had lectured him many a time before, he had to put his foot down once in a while. So instead, the father and daughter were locked in a silence and intense eye contact, until Nova hesitantly began to speak.

“I’m sorry Daddy.” During which, Nova shoved her chair back, making it screech against the tiled floors uglily before running off up the stairs. Tom knew she was crying a lot. Knew this was going to take a bit of fixing.

With a sigh of his daughters name, Tom popped his head into the living to check on Leo who had already finished all his stuff. Seeing him completely zombified in front of ‘paw patrol’ on TV, Tom trudged up the stairs. He knew where she was, when Nova was upset she always hid in the corner of her wardrobe and cried in the darkness. So after steadying himself with a little internal monologue of how to approach the situation Tom walked in and sat down beside the wardrobe - knocking on the door slightly.

“Nova… can we talk please?” All he heard was sniffing echoing from the wooden chamber until she tried to shout through the door.

“Go-go… go away daddy.” It broke his heart, the way her voice wavered, making Tom pout - gently letting his head fall against the wardrobe doors.

“I don’t want you to be upset beautiful…. And you did apologise which I appreciate. You know why Daddy got angry right?” Her sniffles heightened before she muttered a quiet ‘yes’. “And you are sorry? Because that might’ve made me really sad too.”

“I’m s-s-sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“Then that’s good and we don’t need to cry. You want a cuddle little one?” Before Tom could even properly get up the door was being pushed open by her little hands, revealing a tear stained face and big glassy eyes looking up at her Dad. Swiftly Tom scooped her up and out of the cupboard, whispering to her while she buried her face in his chest.

“Oh come here my little bean.”

//////////////////////

When you came home late that evening, only mildly exhausted from spending the whole day gossiping with your girls, it was weirdly quiet. All the lights were out in the front room, which made you close the door gently, thinking Tom had managed to exhaust the kids - and himself in the process. With a relieved sigh at the peace you pattered into the kitchen to get yourself a drink (it had been a little concern that Tom would’ve worked the kids into a hyperactive and delerious state that kept them up long past bedtime - which ultimately you’d have to deal with). The house was remarkably silent and though it was clear from the littered toys everywhere that it had indeed been Tom alone in charge, everything seemed pretty okay.

It was only as you were about to head upstairs to join your hubby in bed that you realised the study light was still on, streaming through the small crack in the doorframe. Assuming Tom had just neglected to turn it off, in otherwords Tom being Tom, you nudged it open with your hand. Surprisingly though, there was your husband, hunched over the desk, looking almost angrily focused - between the computer screen and a piece of paper below him. Normally you would’ve just assumed it was another script sent over or an edit Harry had sent of another screenplay they were writing together.

But no, the blatant red flag was the screen that you could see. A screen on YouTube, of a man pointing at a whiteboard of fractions.

So with a soft wrist you wrapped your knuckled on the side of the door, even if you had technically already entered the room. The reaction had you stifling a laugh, it was as if you’d caught him watching something *less PG* the way he jumped out his seat, closing the browser immediately.

“Love!! I -er … didn’t know you’d got back?”

“I just did.” You smiled gently, while walking into stand behind his chair, wrapping your arms round his neck and pressing a kiss to his jaw. “Soooo…. what’ca doingggg” The glee in your voice was evident, making Tom groan and shut his eyes.

“I hate you, you know that right?”

“No you don’t… but you were watching a primary school video on fractions, if I’m not so mistaken?” He sighed deeply, making a point of turning the paper with his scribbles over to obscure it.

“Nova’s homework.. she couldn’t do it and neither could I, so then she basically screamed at me for being thick and udseless and then had a breakdown.”

Now you felt guilty. This was a bit of a sore spot with Tom, he always for some reason felt inferior because of his academic ability. Which was stupid- mainly because he was the most clever and talented man you’d ever met. Just…. Just not at fraction.

“Oh T… you could’ve just left it for me to do with her, I don’t mind.”

“That’s not the point Y/n.” He snapped a little, shrugging your arms off him and spinning in the chair so he could face you. “She’s my daughter and I should be able to help her! It’s not like it’s that hard, it’s just I’m unbelievable thick.”

“Tom stop. Look - you can do this I assure you, it’s just been a long old time ‘kay? Your rusty and that’s only natural.”

“I really don’t think I could ev-“

“Can I teach you? It’s just the method and then I promise you’ll get it.”

It took a bit of persuasion but eventually Tom agreed, letting you pull the corner chair forward to beside his desk so you could demonstrate it to him. To be fair, he really could do it- just a bit of familiarising on the ‘stick-change-flip’ method. The way the lightbulb moment literally caused his face to light up; scurrying to do the question for himself, tongue sticking out in the process; then presenting it to you proudly - well it had you melting in your seat.

“See! That took all of 5 minutes and you got it.” You elbowed his side by leaning forward in the chair, which instead of letting go, Tom reached and caught, before pulling you up and round. You landed with you bum perched on the edge of the mahogany desk, Tom now stood up- his legs in-between your parted thighs - your feet hooking round the back of knees.

“It’s all down to my incredibly talented teacher.”

“No…. No I really don’t think it is” You mused with a soft voice, fingers instinctively going to the nape of his neck - twirling the little curls round your fingertips.

“Well even so… I think I could teach you a thing or two too.” Never one to mull on anything, Tom’s tone had immediately switched to something a lot more… mischievous.

“Not even going to ask about my day? Wheres the chat mr smooth?” He had to repress the grin at your smirk because as much as you infuriated the hell out of him - you also had this weird ability of making him feel so entranced and helpless. He relented with a sarcastic chime.

“Fine, how was your day love.”

“Good…. but I have a feeling you’re about to make it a whole lot better.”

That was all the signals he needed to lean forward, in doing so forcing you back until your back landed completely on the cool wood. His lips feathered yours, both hands pinned either side of your head.

“Oh darling… you have no idea.”

#tom holland #tomholland #tom holland fluff #tom holland x reader #dad!tom #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x you #fluff #Tom Holland angst

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absolutebl · 2 years

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This week has been kind of an unplannedly thoughtful week, but there's one more and might be the one most worth to share.

These two OOP little hardcover blocks arrived in my mailbox Monday this week:

You have exactly one guess about due to whose ominous latent salesmen powers these are here now. =P

... is what this should have been all about and nothing more. Until I actually had them in my hands and things just became a bit contemplative.

I didn't seek them out specifically, I just coincidentally saw a manga bundle auction listing including them, but the moment I saw it I was suddenly kind of quite invested about wanting to win it. Which is because while I had all sorts of reservations about watching the drama adaption (which still remains entirely unrewatchable for me due to the bad hair) I made a peculiar observation: I had really wanted to like it. So I checked the manga out instead, as the opportunity unfolded by chance.

And also had just happened to have just started watching I Told the Sunset About You.

Taking a little detour to your posts on that one: I'm entirely with you. All those suffering sob stories (as I call them) are exhausting. For the same reasons. For me, just less so because they depress me, but rather that they just annoy me.

I also vastly prefer the HEAs now, but that took a long, long detour from viciously hating them first. Because with having been every bit textbook aroace as you possibly could be (had there been a textbook) the message those narratives put out was just about always:

"See, this is happiness and you being an oxymoron to it has nothing to do with the world, society or anything but you being too dumb to solve an equation as basic as 1+1."

And then I spent my teens and most of the decade after as a somewhat disgruntled cumulonimbus.

Looking back now, Seven Days actually kind of marked the end of the first half of those two decades. The German paperback release was very hotly anticipated at the time, quite the notorious best seller it also got a hardcover re-edition 5 years later. (Although the license appears to have expired by now, so everything is OOP.) Its hype reached way beyond the infamous fujoshi-niche crowds and garnered attention from quite a spectrum of other audiences. Critiques were across the board positive, and even the reserved ones sounded more like desperately trying to find fault in it just because it was hyped (or because it was BL).

What I however found there was a bundle of utter incomprehensibility. What do you mean 7 days are enough, because the first only took 1? That's not even enough to judge a person's compatibility for a deeper friendship, much less something that's supposed to last you a lifetime?? Whyever Seiryo are you praising this list of notorious traits about the other Yuzuru, when, clearly, you were just pretty hurt by it? And why the hell do you believe that Yuzuru, where did any sense of plausibility go to? And what's this weird box full of sentimentalism to begin with? The critiques weren't any bit less bewildering. It's apparently awesome for being a very singular BL that isn't about porn, rape/dubcon or teary ukes and all I thought was "What, that's the barometer to judge things? What sort of asinine genre is that??" (ahahahaha…), others were saying they didn't think it was bad, but also went on to argue, that this was only hyped and famed because it was BL, you could replace any of the dudes with a girl and get a super bland average typical romance plot nobody would ever throw a fuss about. Which got back argued as to how sheer outrageously novel a healthy relationship depiction like this was even across all romance, because it was characters on equal eye level, and I was just frowning again. It's not that diamond levels rare with male+female? It just more often happens in these mostly obscure narratives where the female isn't a completely brain-damaged dumb moron whose only worth seems to be obnoxiously produce bubbles, flowers and sparkles fawning over that cool guy? And which titles are across the board are struggling to survive due to bad sales here? Why is hardly anyone paying attention to those? But most of all: You almost make it sound like unhealthiness is the norm. If so, WHY ARE YOU ALL DOING THIS TO YOURSELVES? Are you all masochists or what? Oh wait, Seiyo realized he probably was one and was very happy being that. Is that what this is about??

After that I just figured, hey some people just hopelessly suck in math and will therefore dislike the poor subject and rant about it no matter what, failing to see its beauty. I just happen suck ass the same way in biochemistry. Fine. Whatever. I'll keep my hands off you. There are better things to do than this headache or annoying you any further with my silly questions whose answers never make enough sense to sink in. So I ditched the volumes and shelved the entire topic, was in peace with myself, and that was that. Or should have been. The next decade soon came over and was like: "What, you thought you could just ignore us? We're more omnipotent and unavoidable than the tax office, with an even higher sacred degree of existential self-justification of necessity. And no, unlike taxes, you can't just hire a consultant to do the obnoxious job for you." Before I knew it, I was struck with some sort of cheese allergy and exposure to most of all HEAs just inspired a "Can I have a voodoo and a hammer please?" mood. Took a while to notice and undo again. (Not that I liked the suffering sob stories any bit better all the while, but at least I usually didn't feel quite so intellectually insulted by them...)

When watching ITTSAY at first, curiously enough, the most descriptive thing that popped into my mind about the experience I was having was your "ho boy am I finding it rough going". Which was quaint, because even with cognitive empathy, and the show's mastery in the craft of inducing it, this shouldn't be so strong. The series has absolutely nothing that hits home. Not even remotely close. Until I noticed that your "the opposite of nostalgia" hit my notes perfectly, too. Just flipped over another axis: With it being about the experiences I never had and never are going to have like that. But even then that also seemed just bizarre, why would you ever miss an experience of such unhealthy suffering? Until I had this Oh-moment when I stared at the covers of the books. Because then you can also overcome it. (This makes as much sense as Pipi Longstocking's "You have to go to school/work before you can have vacation.")

But that's kind of the enjoyment I got from reading Seven Days again after over a decade. It's all still very much not me. (Probably.) But it's not incomprehensible anymore. Same for all the critiques. And I'm not having any cheese allergy over it. I can stomach it not only just fine, I even actually quite like it. ITTSAY is like a fresh pineapple fruit that is arranged and served in all sorts of artful, intricate ways to please the eye. Its taste is a juicy, well-rounded blend of sourness and sweetness on a clear texture, but you really can't eat it too much and often. Not because it ceases to taste, but because of its tongue burn properties. Seven Days is like a handful of raisins. Very simple sweetness. Strong, but still organic. Not with too much complex flavor substance to it, so you can't eat too much of it without it starting to go bland. But this handful of it is exactly something you can down at almost any time of any day as a comfortable little snack in between that's always going to feel a lot more healthy than any candy or chocolate bar or fatty chips.

... erm. TL;DR, What I mean to say is just

Thanks for reintroducing Seven Days into my life. I wouldn't go as far as to say I needed it as a marker to tell I've moved on, since I already knew that. But getting to have such a bookend epilogue to the last decade again with the same thing is surprisingly nice to have. (And just such a wild unexpected coincidence timewise since my cheese allergy was just freshly bested for good end of last year.)

And fingers crossed that you'll reach that headspace to safely watch ITTSAY one day.

Meanwhile, I'm rather seriously wondering if there will be a third Seven Days bookend. Which will be all about: Will I ever get over the bad hair? (It's freaky how fast and resolutely any sort of bugged feeling I had about ITTSAY was entirely drowned the moment I finished it and started Last Twilight in Phuket and saw the hair therein. Mercifully, it didn't stay as terrible/plot irrelevantly terrible in I Promised You The Moon. But Ouch.)

Here is me, having exchanged the Cheese Training regiment for Hair Training. An upgrade, I guess?

What a fascinating read -- the interweaving of media and life and understanding both of the pieces of pop culture and your relationship to it.

It made me think of those other pieces of media, the ones we consume when young and then rewatch but actually hold up under later examination, maybe because of the nostalgia, maybe because of actual persistent quality.

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twistedtummies2 · 2 years

Text

Artists in Wonderland - Number 4

Welcome to Artists in Wonderland! Running till the 4th of July, I’m counting down My Top 10 Favorite Illustrators for “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland!” The Lewis Carroll stories of Alice are as immortal as they are odd, and many great artists have handled them in different ways. This countdown will pay homage to just a few of them. Our 4th Place illustrator will definitely get some attention. Today’s artist is none other than Lewis Carroll himself!

Now, some of you are probably confused by this: Lewis Carroll was the writer of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” not the illustrator, after all. Well, to explain this one, I need do a bit of history-diving, because this is a special sort of deal.

Here’s the short version of things: Lewis Carroll’s real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He worked as a mathematics instructor at Christ Church College, and was ordained as a reverend. For a time, Dodgson was friends with the Dean of the college, Henry Liddell, and became a frequent playmate of three of his daughters: Edith, Lorina…and Alice. On July 4th, 1862, Carroll brought the girls on a boating trip - alongside a friend of his, Robinson Duckworth - and, to keep them entertained, told them a story he called “Alice’s Adventures Underground,” about a little girl called Alice who followed a White Rabbit into a magical land of madness and mischief. Alice was enamored with the story of “her” adventures, and begged Dodgson to write them down. So, Dodgson - with as much of the memory as he could muster - decided to do just that. This is where the illustrations come in: Dodgson decided to give Alice a Christmas gift in the form of a fully bound and illustrated hand-crafted manuscript for “Alice’s Adventures Underground.” However, Carroll didn’t consider himself much of an artist, so he did extensive research on various subjects before beginning work on his hand-drawn sketches for the story. He managed to complete work on the manuscript in time, presented it to Alice Liddell…and that was where history REALLY began to change. It should be noted that I was actually hesitant to include Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures Underground” because I was not sure if it would go against my own rules. You see, the manuscript - which was eventually found and then published itself in a couple of editions - differs from the final text in several ways. The chapters “Pig and Pepper” and “A Mad Tea Party” are nonexistent, and the characters present in them, therefore, never pop up at all. (So no Cheshire Cat and no Mad Hatter, for instance.) The poems are slightly different, and a few details are a little different, too. For instance, instead of carrying a fan and gloves in the Hall of Doors, the Rabbit is shown carrying a nosegay; it’s by smelling the flowers that Alice shrinks down. (I guess this means the Rabbit had a thing for the Queen in the original manuscript? That’s…not pleasant to think about…) However, I decided that a.) this was too historically significant to completely ignore, and b.) it’s the author’s own work, writing-wise, so I guess it might as well be included. Carroll may not have considered himself much of an artist, and truth be told, his drawings are somewhat crude compared to later interpretations. However, they are fascinating because they give us a look into the mind of the creator, and his own imaginings for what these characters were supposed to look and behave like. There’s a sense of chaos and irreverent wildness to Carroll’s original drawings, rather than the more detailed and grotesque imagery Tenniel would conjure up in the final print. Carroll’s imaginings are always bizarre, and at times a bit scary, but they’re also highly inventive. Optical illusions and a sense of real motion litter these illustrations, as the characters so often seem to bounce off the walls. I will confess that I’m not sure how successful “Alice” would have been if this was the rendition we got, but it’s still worth checking out if you’re a fan, and his interpretations are just as strong as those of many other artists. As I said, “Alice’s Adventures Underground” HAS been reprinted and published in years since, and while it’s not as easy to get hold of as the actual “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” it’s not TOO hard to find, either. If you’re curious about how Alice began, it’s worth looking up. Fun fact, these illustrations have actually been given life onscreen a couple times! Most notably, for the 1960s TV Play version of “Alice in Wonderland,” directed by Jonathan Miller, Carroll’s illustrations for “Underground” were used to create an elaborate end credits sequence. So if you ever want to see them, but don’t want to buy the book, you can find a lot of them there. :P

Come back down the rabbit hole tomorrow as we move into the Top 3! Don’t be late! ;)

#countdown #list #favorites #best #top 10 #number 4 #artists in wonderland #4th of july specials #alice in wonderland #alice's adventures in wonderland #alice's adventures underground #lewis carroll #charles dodgson #literature #art #artists #illustration #illustrators

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gaymershigh · 4 years

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hulloh! I've only been on tumblr for a few hours, and me and my friend already love your work! Is it ok if I request some TWST parent scenarios with Riddle,Lilia,Sebek,Vil and Floyd? If so, thanks! Also once again, me and my freind love ur works alot!

Of course! Since there's no s/o really mentioned in here but people might still want to be included, s/o will be mentioned just a tiny bit (the kids being biological or adopted is up to you since I want to make the s/o gender neutral.) Also, thanks a lot! I'm still and probably be forever an amateur writer so this means a lot to me 🥺💞💞

Triggers: None

Parents au: Riddle, Lilia, Sebek, Vil and Floyd edition!

From what we've seen, his parents are not the best role models like, at all. They were too strict, pressuring him and treating him like a trophy child. However, he will definitely not treat his child like that at all after Ace slapped him with reality.

He will be a bit strict, having some rules and will scold them if they did something wrong but not as scold them the way his mother does. He won't raise his voice at them, showing them the right path after he scolded them. He will give them freedom and try his best to not make his children suffer the same thing he did, especially when he's the source of the pain.

Though, he might accidentally adapt some things from his mother and project her ways to his children, being completely not self aware. If you're his s/o, please teach him the baby steps to avoid this from this occurring too often.

Unfortunately, having a good life and children won't make his short temper extend. This is the only reason why he doesn't spoil them too much, they might act entitled and may be too late to change them back to the innocent infant they were back then. He tries very hard to control his temper if his children unintentionally knock furniture over or damage something. He just needs a few minutes alone, everything will be back to normal later.

There was one time where his child's birthday was near and decided to bake a cake from scratch, without any assistance from Trey nor his s/o. Thinking he could do it and don't want anyone to underestimate him. He was planning to make a burnt strawberry cheesecake and did the mistake of leaving the oven on for an hour for 400 degrees fahrenheit. The cake went on fire but it tasted very good when he for some reason tasted it. Nobody knew about the incident and the cake was actually used for its purpose. Yay for him, I guess.

He was already pretty outdated in trends when he was in his teens so do expect him to be like a middle aged soccer mom on Facebook every time his children send him memes or something like that. If he does even use any sort of social media and stumbled upon a 'funny' minion meme or something, he will definitely send it to the family group chat. He will make those 5th grade types of edits with one of the family pictures with a "I love my family". It's funny but still wholesome so don't laugh at him.

There is no alternate universe where Lilia isn't a good dad. Silver and his other wards are already an amazing example of how amazing of a parent he is! He has gained a bunch of experience so he got this in the bag.

Though, his way of taking care of children might be different from how it is now. Times have changed, there are probably some new and uncomplicated objects or toys to entertain the baby or child. He would love to go on a shopping trip to buy some fascinating kids toys he found in the toy store. Please stop him from buying everything in there because it looks "intriguing".

If you're his s/o, you're very lucky since if you have a baby who always cries at three in the morning or a kid who really have trouble sleeping, Lilia will sing a lullaby and they'll doze off in any second. He can wake up easily or he'll just always stay up playing his games so you don't even need to break a sweat in this situation.

His kids or any kid in general loves him lots. He will always tell his tales anywhere, anytime. If the kids ask him for a story to tell, he will always have a new one ready to tell. They also make amazing bedtime stories! It can be funny little innocent stories like his funny experiences taking care of his three wards to actual battles he went through. Any story is a good story.

He really got along with his child when they're young and innocent but when they get into their teenage years, oh boy. He will unintentionally embarrasses them but their friends won't mind. If anything, they will love him being around as he's always keeping up with the games and trends, not being a fat, shirtless creepy dad. One of the positive parts about his child growing up is that he can play video games with him just like he did with Silver! Reliving the nice memories.

He would always try to cook something in any opportunity he gets and of course, he gets stopped by either s/o or his own children. Yes, they have to go through the hard way to realize their father is garbage at cooking. He would always try to cook some food everytime something good has happen in order to celebrate but most of the times, he just wants to cook something for them to show how much he loves them. They really made him happy, he finally have a biological/adopted offspring to watch growing up (again).

Sebek unfortunately doesn't have that much time to spend time with his children due to being Malleus' trusted escort. Of course, when he does have free time and is not exhausted he will use the opportunity to spend it with his adorable younglings.

Knowing him, he still loves and worships Malleus but he's no longer his only priority in life when he finally has a life of his own other than just being Malleus' bodyguard. He will ramble and tell so many stories about his young master to his kids. They will be infatuated but will later complain about how everything is just "Malleus this, Malleus that". He will get a bit upset about that comment, so he will only talk about Malleus stories for 3 days a week.

He only has focused his life on guarding Malleus and advancing himself on magic and education. Now that he's now an actual father, this is a new chapter in his life and he's not prepared at all. He will seek Lilia for guidance and of course, Lilia being Lilia will rope him to doing something absolutely ridiculous and he would of course, woefully fall for it. Pretty surprising that no matter how much he has fallen for his teacher's trap, he still seeks him for advice.

His kids will definitely learn how to read fast. He loves reading and he really wants his kids to appreciate it too. He was about to immediately give them the books that have old and poetic language without even knowing what the alphabet was. Lilia put a stop to this and you couldn't even bear seeing how sad he looked because he needs to wait for a few years for him to have little reading buddies. Oh well, it doesn't matter now. He will teach them how to read and appreciate the art of reading no matter how long it takes.

He has exposed his children to a bunch of Malleus propaganda so there's no surprise if the children become just like him. Loud screaming, Malleus worshipping, smart but naive and other things Sebek has. If you're his s/o, please keep the children in check as they might cause problems to the neighbors. As this might be troublesome, it's at least entertaining experience I suppose.

Just like Sebek, he has even less time to spend with his kids as he always has modeling, acting and other businesses to attend. He's probably going to be exhausted when he comes back as well. Though, of course he's going to try to use all his energy to talk to his children till he can no longer open his eyes anymore. He prefers an s/o that is a stay-in mom/dad so the children won't feel lonely while he's gone.

They're definitely gonna grow up just like him. A model, actor, media influencer, or the combination of the three and it's not a bad thing. If they're going on the same route as him, he will teach them in a strict but still in a somewhat caring manner as he has learned a lot from his experience of the VDC boot camp and the overblot incident. He will only show his threatening side if they start to misbehave like those ADeuce rats.

Just because they are his children, doesn't mean they get a free pass if they intentionally neglect or not doing their best at all times, especially when it comes to appearance. He's known to be a neat-freak and a very hard worker to the point it's concerning. He will scold them if more than two pimples pop up on their face but he knows when to cross the line. He learned this easier if their child is rather sensitive and just emotionally fragile in general but they still need to take care of themselves.

He expects his children to follow his footsteps when it comes to where they're schooling. He wants them to enter a prestigious school like he did for his reputation and for the sake of his children's future. This is optional (not really) but he also hopes his children to enter Pomefiore as well and take the dorm head title at least the second week they enroll in this school. If they were sorted to a different dorm, they still want them to have a role in their dorm or in the school at all.

He begs to the Great Seven that paparazzi or desperate losers obsessing over him don't intrude into his personal life, especially if it's about his family. The last thing he wants to witness is his family in pain or being uncomfortable for their whole life. He usually avoids or straight up tells the interviewer that he's not comfortable answering questions when they're going too personal when it's about questions of his family.

You cannot feel anymore blessed when you see his smiling face when he received news about having a vacation. He can finally spend more time with his wonderful kids he's raising with all his heart. He will tell them about some funny incidents in the studio while he was involved in some modeling gig or he will bring them to a private island with gorgeous scenery for both of them to enjoy. Of course, his children's happy faces are more beautiful than the island.

Floyd is seen to be very warm and sweet despite having a very intimidating height. Naturally, he's not going to be ruthless and act the same when it's with his children because it's his children of course, family is precious to him. He has a lot of energy even after a long shift at Mostro Lounge, so he will always spend a lot of time with his kids.

He's physically affectionate so expect him to be always close and wrapping his arms around his children at almost all times. He'll usually let them sit on his lap when they watch TV or sleep with them if they can't go back to sleep because of a nightmare. Headpats are needed, especially if the kids did something good or got good news. Not saying he won't give any headpats if something bad happens, maybe headpats of sympathy perhaps.

He's very patient when it's with his children because he doesn't want his children to fear him when they grow up. If anything, the s/o have to do the scolding to avoid him snapping or anything like the sort. They rarely do anything bad though, since they're aware of how their dad acts from how he treats a dirty burglar who once tried to break in.

Since he's usually very active and hates just standing around, he expects his children to be just like him. It's never boring if your dad is Floyd as he always has something really entertaining to do at most times. If you're his s/o, you have the free entrance to see an eel man dancing around with his kids or playing some basketball either inside or preferably in the backyard. He tried showing the art of parkour but is stopped due to it being very risky. He sulked about this but oh well, once they're ten, they have no choice but to learn it!

Floyd is an amazing cook and he sometimes lets his children be involved like chopping some vegetables or stirring the macaroni. He sometimes teaches them the perfect way of doing it or let's them try doing their own meal with his assistance. There was one time they decided to make one of the weirdest food combinations and try to eat it, he won and ate it all as it was too gross for the kids to eat it. It's not gonna be a surprise if everyone in this household is an expert cook when Floyd is here.

If possible, he really wants to bring his kids at work no matter how troublesome they could get. If Azul has a "bring your kids to work" day (which I doubt of him doing), he's going to bring all his children no matter how many he has. If there's no day like that, who cares! He's bringing his kids anyway and nobody's stopping him. Sure, he will get scolded by Azul but if that's the only thing stopping him then he'll take his chances.

I don't if it's still Christmas or not since I don't celebrate it but if it's still is, Merry Christmas! 🎉 I'll just say this is a Christmas gift for you and your friend, Mouaietaru! Especially for that Jamil and Silver fanfic that you made. It's very good, keep up the fantastic work! ✨✨✨

-𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖎

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thoughts-on-bangtan · 3 years

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Since I didn’t want to keep on adding asks and answers to the original post on fan service, seeing as that post is already so long, I thought I’d make a second post since we got two more asks. I intended for the answers to be relatively short, but well, that didn’t quite turn out that way, lol.

From anon: Since you were talking about fanservice. In performances, no doubt those were somewhat fanservice. But do you think those vmin moments we get after BTS was called on stage during award season was also fanservice. Like the moment in your header and others in MMA 2019 Or the hug and lift in MGA 2018 or in SMA 2019?

I don’t think whatever the members do after the announcement is made that they won an award is fan service. That would mean their excitement and happiness is also just a staged thing for our entertainment, which sounds and is quite dehumanizing when you think about it. I think in those moments we simply see their raw reactions and natural interactions, like the times when Tae and Jimin would hug before turning and joining the group hug before they would go on stage together to pick up whichever award they’ve just won.

Some of it is silly, like Jimin trying and failing to pick up Tae, but saying that’s fan service would imply that they decided in advance that they would do that but I doubt Tae would agree to it if he knew Jimin would drop him, lol. It’s simply a glimpse at their happiness and relief, at the members being excited together. Do they still guard their emotions and interactions to some extent? Of course since they are not only on camera but also surrounded by thousands of people in the audience watching them. But their smiles and hugs when going to pick up an award are still all real.

From anon: I saw the shipping war yesterday. So I would like to ask you for a post about the influence of BTS members on how they stand during the interview or who sits next to whom during the video shoot? Who decides who will be paired with whom during the photo session. That's why I ask, because I don't believe that the members choose their partners and common accessories for their clothing themselves. Thank you in advance because it's so annoying.

All that “drama” was sparked by part 2 of Lee Hyun’s YT video in which he takes on the role of being one of the BTS managers and accompanies them to the filming of the Dynamite and Butter performances for SeriusXM. There we see him check out the set, much the way any of the Bangtan managers and security would, and at one point he sits down on the sofa where we see name cards placed around marking who will sit where. Meaning that this isn’t something the members decide on the spot but is something that is decided by someone else.

Why is it like this? I’ve never worked at a set like this but I would say chances are it’s because the filming crew rehearses the performance before the members even arrive on set. I could imagine that random crew members either sit on those spots holding up the name cards, or maybe the name cards themselves are enough, while the music is playing and they plan out how each member will be filmed, what the order is in which they sing, and which members might sing together and be worth showing together. This makes the actual filming easier and quicker, especially for the members themselves. And we still saw that they filmed several takes out of which the final posted performance is edited together.

What does this mean? Not much, really. Just that ship theories based on x and y sitting together in performances often or insecure asks about why x and y don’t sit together often are both pointless. I wouldn’t quite call this fan service, but surely there are some deciding factors that go into those choices though it means that, since the members don’t care, and they don’t decide this since it doesn’t matter, we shouldn’t really care or make a big deal out of it either. It also means that whoever does decide the seat placement knows that everyone in Bangtan has so much chemistry together that regardless of who will sit next to who, it’ll be great either way.

Besides this isn’t high school where besties want to always sit next to each other and everyone is avoiding the nerds or losers. It’s seven guys who love and respect each other equally, so really, what does it matter if Namjoon sits next to Hobi or Jimin or Yoongi? And sure, am I happy when vmin or namjin sit next to each other during a performance? Obviously. Do I see any kind of indication of the state of their bond in them not sitting together? Obviously not, and now even less.

It’s also similar in photoshoots with someone from the crew deciding who will stand where and more or less what general poses will work best for whichever atmosphere is supposed to be created. We’ve seen it with the jacket sh*oting of MOTS7 for the subunit photos where Jimin talks with JK about how they’ve been in photoshoot subunits for a while now and JK says it’d be nice to shake things up a bit, so it’s a preplanned thing they have no say in really, or in the jacket sh*oting for BTS, THE BEST where a crew member placed Tae between JK and Seokjin. After all BTS are seven members, and just like I said with performances and concerts, if all of them were to just do whatever they want, everything would take an incredibly long time and be needlessly chaotic.

As for accessories, it’s the same case, as in a team of stylists decides who will wear what for whichever performance. Like during the NTV The Music Butter performance where most of the members wore the same bracelets, rings and earrings from Cartier.

Most likely the stylists, along with the set designers, decide on a theme for an upcoming performance and using that as guide, the stylists buy seven sets of outfits and jewelry that would fit it. Otherwise, if each members stylist would just buy whatever they feel like it, we’d end up with a mess, as in for instance Tae wearing only bright colors, Hobi looking like he’s a goth vampire, Namjoon went back to the 80s and Jimin emerged in something straight out of a dystopian movie.

Edit: As someone rightfully mentioned in the comments, I should’ve mentioned that the members surely have some freedom of input in the outfit choices and the possibility of saying no to certain things if they decidedly don’t like them. Same as with their make up where we know Jimin is very particular about how he wants his to look like.

Are there sometimes exceptions where some members share some kind of accessories? Sure, like with vmin and the ear muffs during one of the photoshoots for Winter Package, as example. Or now in the preview for the Permission to Dance performance and Butterful Gateaway on NOW where they were those yeehaw cowboy outfits and vmin are the only ones with a single feather earring. Or in 2020 during the Grammys for their Old Town Road performance where Tae and Jimin shared brown and blue contact lenses, which I’ve never seen any of them do before.

#BTS #more talk about fanservice #and accessoires #vmin

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hot-wiings · 4 years

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The One Where It's Notoriously Known To The Pro Hero Community That All Might's Daughter, [Y/N] Yagi Is Unofficially Dating Rising Pro Hero!Deku, Except He Doesn’t Think It’s Wise To Settle Down. Alternatively, The One That’s 10.5K Words, That I came Up With In The Shower

Edited: 2-6-2021

His hands were on your hips. His fingers easing into your skin, pulling and grasping all he could get. His face was in your neck. His voice gasping out little moans, his lips placing hot kisses over your skin, his teeth ever so gracefully grazing your ear in a way that made you shiver and groan.

Your hands were on his back. Your fingernails digging into his back and easing up to his shoulder where you grabbed onto him for support, the feeling of your nails on his skin only more cause for him to drive himself into you quicker. Quicker, and needier. Your legs were around him. Your legs were tightly wrapped around his waist, legs hooked together pulling him in closer with every pound in and out.

You both were inches from each other, fornicating in such a forbidden way, a way Izuku swore he would never touch you. You both could've told each other no, the wine in your system wasn't that strong. You were both practically sober, and there would be no one to blame but yourselves in the following morning. Even as you clenched around him, even as he felt himself cum into the condom, he was trying to justify his actions. It's just one night. Just one night. One night you both tended to repeat on different nights.

'It's just one night,' he told himself as he pulled out of you and walked over to the bathroom attached to your bedroom. 'It's just one night, it doesn't mean anything,' he told himself as he pulled the condom wrapper off of himself. 'It's just one night, it doesn't mean anything, she's your best friend,' he told himself as he turned the water on and grabbed a washcloth to clean himself up.

They were all justifications. Justifications to every thought he had that gravitated towards you. Justifications to every moment he wanted you to be his. Justifications for everything he was putting you through. Justifications for every push and excuse he gave to keep you at arms' lengths away.

You laid on your bed, thoughts of a different manner running wild through your head. 'It feels different this time,' you told yourself as you pushed yourself up against your headboard. 'It feels different this time, he's not going to push me away this time,' you tell yourself as you pull your sheets tight against your naked chest. 'It feels different this time, he's not going to push me away this time, he's gonna make it official, he's gonna make us official,' you tell yourself as you reach for the water bottle on the table beside your bed to rehydrate yourself.

Izuku walked back into your bedroom, pants on his body, tying his belt around his waist as he looked around for his shirt. He was positive he had left it strewn on the floor by the left side of your bed. You tried not to let a frown slide on your face, you left a smile present, an unwavering smile. Izuku hated himself as he saw you sitting there staring at him. You smiled like your father, Toshinori, a smile so full of hope. Full of hope in him, full of hope in him and you.

"Are you leaving?"

'I want to stay.'

"I, um, yeah... I have early patrol tomorrow. You know how it is."

"Yeah! Stay safe, text me when you get home."

'I want to stay. I want to cuddle you. I want to caress you as you fall asleep. Care for you like a lady should be.' They were the words he wanted to say. The words that got stuck in his throat as he watched you, happy and unwavering, happy and dignified, happy and hopeful.

"I will."

Those are the words that actually come out of Izuku's lips, but they're just another lie. He places a kiss against your forehead, a sweet and bitter goodbye. 'I shouldn't see you anymore, not after tonight', it is a bitter reality he thinks he needs to follow. He had let himself have too much freedom with you. He slips his t-shirt on and then proceeds to go to the front of your apartment to find his phone and jacket. There are missed texts on his screen, missed texts from the girl he gave no thought to during his moment of ecstasy with you.

'She's a civilian, she means nothing to me,' he thinks to himself as he swipes the text off the screen, yet it doesn't stop the guilty nagging feeling in his chest. 'Just a distraction, a failed distraction from [Y/N]', more words he tells himself as he grabs his keys off of your coffee table. 'She'll hate me when she finds out. She'll never want to talk to me again,' more words he tells himself as he opened your apartment door and walks out, locking the door behind himself. 'It's perfect. She'll be far and safe from me,' more words he tells himself as he pulls his jacket tight around his head, hoping not to be seen exiting his mentor's daughter's apartment at two in the morning. Hoping not to be seen leaving your house, looking like sex the day before he plans to officially announce the civilian girl, Haruka, as his girlfriend to the public.

'It's safer this way,' he thinks to himself. It'll push you away from him. It'll keep you safer. It's just like in high school, when he rejected you. It took weeks of coaxing from your father to get you to talk to Izuku again. He didn't want you to have a target on your back. He vowed to himself never to put you in harm's way, for the sake of you and his mentor. There would be no coaxing from your father this time, it wasn't high school, it was adult life. You would surely hate him, no forgiveness on the table.

Izuku pays no mind to you up in your bedroom. No mind to how he's about to hurt you, he only thinks about pushing you away, thinks about protecting you. He doesn't realize all the hopes you have of him finally making you both official, he doesn't realize how you've been hanging on to every longing look and lingering touch. He doesn't realize your father has been encouraging your feelings for him, wanting his protege and daughter to be together. He doesn't realize how after he left you almost cried yourself to sleep, but didn't due to hope that you would talk about your passionate night when you came over to his office tomorrow to go over costume designs. He doesn't realize how announcing he's dating someone girl, the night after he's slept with you is going to affect everything. He just thinks it's going to protect you, protect you from inevitable harm, and protect him from a broken heart.

When you wake up the next day the following night has not left your head. You still think of the way Izuku touched you, the way he grabbed and kissed you. As you shower and got ready for the day, as you bathed yourself and looked in the mirror, every mark he left behind and the memory of how he gave them to you ran wild.

Izuku was in your mind all day. You think of Izuku from the walk out of your apartment to the subway. You think of him from the subway ride to your office at Shield Technological Enterprises. You think of him every time you check your phone that morning, hoping to see a text despite him not texting you that night. You think of him in your meeting with your boss, Melissa Shield, thankful that it was a group meeting, or else you might not have made it out without being called out for being else where mentally.

At lunch, your mind derives elsewhere, to a place of more substance, food. You were quick to pack up your work bag full of designs and a few pieces of tester equipment before you grabbed your phone and checked for a text from him once again. 'He'll text soon,' you kept telling yourself. He had to be thinking of you the way you were thinking of him. While you were somewhat privately on and off again without ever really saying you were in a relationship, you don't just sleep with someone, tell them you love them, and ghost them. You had a meeting with him for his new costume design anyway, he would have to face you whether he wanted to or not.

You slid your phone in your pocket and made your way down to the subway station. You had an appointment with Izuku regarding a new wrist brace, after that, you had an appointment with Uravity regarding a new costume that wasn't so skin tight. You were hoping to slip lunch in between your appointments. You knew your father was in the city today, maybe he could join you.

You walked into Izuku's hero agency and made your way into the elevator to go up to his office. You could feel your chest bubble with nerves. He was going to give you a chance, a man doesn't just sleep with a girl and say he loves her for nothing. A man doesn't just sleep with his best friend only to throw her away. Deku wouldn't do that. He had more respect for you.

"Wait, hold the door!"

You quickly tossed your arm out to activate the new heat sensory motion activators to make the doors stay open, it was a product created by you, it looked like they were working well. You didn't create or design products that weren't for hero costumes often, but you hated the old elevator sensors. A woman stepped into the elevator, panting a bit as she made it in and hit the button to close the doors. She hadn't hit a button beside the one you already pressed, she must be going up to the same floor as you.

"Those sensors are so neat. They work so much better than the one you usually see."

"Thanks, I made them."

Pride swelled in your chest as the elevator went up. It was always a burst of pride whenever someone complimented your designs. You eyed the woman slightly. She didn't look like a hero, and you were positive she didn't work in the agency. With Izuku as your best friend, you came here often, you also kept a file of every hero in the city so you could have a reference to their quirks and costumes.

The door opened and the woman stepped out, you soon following behind her. You supposed it was your curiosity, but you wanted to know who she was. Maybe she was from another support agency, you didn't like people stealing your clients. She kept walking until she reached Izuku's office. You hoped to god she wasn't from another support agency, you would not be letting her poach Izuku. Momentarily, you worried you had gotten your meeting time mixed up, but you were positive you had the right time.

The woman patted down her clothes and checked herself in the reflection of a window before walking into the office. That was rude and unprofessional. You should always knock, especially if you don't have a scheduled meeting. You follow behind her into the office and Izuku looks up in surprise as he stands up. The woman makes her way around his desk and he hugs her before she follows it with a kiss. It wasn't just a kiss, it was a lip kiss. You couldn't deny they were romantically involved and it hurt. It hurt so bad. You didn't want to believe it.

"What are you doing here? You were supposed to come at one."

She was supposed to come at one. An hour after you would be meeting with him. Missing you entirely, like two ships in the night. Your heart stung, why would he do this? It wasn't like you were together, not officially, but it hurt. He didn't just use you, he used you to cheat on someone.

"Izuku?"

"[Y/N]? I- shoot. Haruka, can you step out for a minute, I have an important meeting with this woman."

"Of course!"

She chirps her words out at him and kisses him again before spinning in her heels and walking out of the room. Each passing encounter and each shared touch just put a new bullet in your heart. You were just some woman, he didn't even call you his best friend.

"We're dating, me and her."

"Since when?"

"A month, she ran into me when her abusive ex was following her. Couldn't do anything without proof so I took her out for coffee, and it just escalated."

You looked up at the ceiling, it was better than looking at him. If you looked at him you would cry, and you really needed to not cry. Not when she was just outside his office, not when you'd have to pass her on your way out.

"And that wasn't something you could've told me before last night?"

"[Y/N], I'm sorry, but you knew before hand that we can't be together."

"No! Don't try pulling that shit. We could be together if you wanted to, you're just a coward. You won't give us a chance because you're scared it'll look bad that I'm your mentors daughter."

You look at him as your eyes tear up and point your finger at him. Screw the woman outside, screw what she thought of your tears. She deserved to see them, deserved to know what Izuku did to her, what a supposed hero he was.

"We can't be together because it'll put an immediate target on your back! You're quirkless and defenseless, it'll be so easy to kill you."

"Fuck you! We both know that there's already a target on my back for being a Yagi, for working for the most prominent support agency. I deliver weapons to you, to Katsuki, to Hawks, the best of the best. You're just scared people will look further into your relationship with my dad."

"And what if they did? You've always been under a microscope, it would be even bigger if we dated."

You wiped your tears as a few of them slid down your face. You weren't going to let him see you cry. You weren't going to let him see how hurt you were.

"After everything we've been through, this is how you've repaid me? Denied me and betrayed me. I've always loved you Izuku, but you always take that for granted."

You quickly unzipped your work bag and dug around for the 'Midoriya' work file you knew you had in there. It contained his costume and the blueprints on his new equipment. You threw it on his desk, not caring if any of the papers fell out and flew around.

"There's your files, I wasn't sure if you'd like the design, we both know how you like to look at other things when you've already got something else in mind. When your ready, contact us with your answer, you know my assistant's number."

You stormed out of Izuku's office, slamming the door behind you. The woman, his girlfriend, eyed you casually, unsure if he was upset and whether or not she should come back later. You tried to compose yourself and gave her a gracious smile as you stuck out your hand.

"I'm [Y/N]. [Y/N] Yagi, Izuku's bestfriend."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you! Izuku talks about you, a lot. I'm Haruka."

"Izuku is busy looking at some files I gave him. Walk with me, I'll treat you to lunch. There are some things we should talk about."

Izuku sat on a wooden barstool as he waited for the bartender to get him a shot. It was moments like these that he liked his rising fame, there were at least a dozen other citizens waiting for their own liquor, but the bartender would bump him up on the priority list due to his rising status. It wasn't like Izuku specifically asked for this to happen, he would never take advantage of his name like that, it just so happened that two out of every three times, a grateful citizen would appreciate his heroism, or they would like leave a good impression so he would use his newfound fame to advance their business.

Heroes also tended to tip well.

Izuku kept checking his phone for anything and everything. He wanted to see a text from you, but then he had to remind himself that he didn't. He did this whole thing to push you away. He hurt you to push you away. He'd sent you several apology texts, hoping to get you to understand he did it for your safety, but you had ignored them, and rightly so.

He supposed it didn't really seem like he cared for you and your safety, not when he began dating some other girl, and a girl with no experience dating a hero. He claimed to want to protect you by not dating you, yet here he was willing to date some other girl and willing to risk some other girl's life. Not that, that tiny tidbit mattered, she had broken up with him hours after he had that argument with you in his office. It seemed you had told her about him cheating, so she sent the break up text.

It was the first time Izuku had been broken up with by text, it was the first time he had been broken up with at all in fact, but he knew he deserved it. He toyed with both you and her. He had callously endangered her life when he was trying to protect yours, and he cheated. He knew how you felt about him, every one did, and everyone constantly said that one day he'd buckle down and settle with you. He knew he was toying with your feelings, and while hurting you so roughly was unintentional, he shouldn't have.

It was so hard to stay away from you when he felt the exact same way for you as you did him. He truly was scared of hurting you, and he'd just wrecked any chance he'd ever have with you. But that was what he was trying to do in the first place, wasn't it?

Katsuki Bakugo roughly pushed his way through the people in the bar and slammed his shot glass down on the bar next to Izuku. He supposed he should've been lighter, more careful as to not break the glass, but he was already feeling buzzed. He was buzzed and happy, he had no early patrol tomorrow and he just advanced in the hero ranks, not to mention he came here with a beautiful woman. He had great cause for celebration.

"Another shot and a daiquiri moonrise."

The bartender warily eyed him before filling the glass. Most people were wary of Katsuki, his entire persona screamed destruction. While he was a hero, bartenders were always worried he'd be the one to get into a bar fight with another hero. Ultimately, the tip would always be far to great to turn down service to a hero like Katsuki.

Katsuki took the glass, raised it to his lips, and slammed it back down on the counter before he recognized the green head beside him and realized it was Izuku next to him. A scowl crossed Katsuki's face as his eyes went over to you, who sat across the bar. You, who invited Katsuki out in the first place, demanding he needed to get out somewhere besides patrol and the gym. You, who sat with Izuku's now ex-girlfriend, a fling if you would. You, who spent a majority of the night tipsily chatting and bagging on Izuku, before you became to buzzed to care about him.

"Dumb-Deku. You're a dumbass, you know that don't you?"

"Kacchan, I'm not in the mood tonight."

"You think [Y/N] was in the right mood when you hurt her?"

Izuku's eyes went over to where you were sat across the bar. Izuku had seen you come in, followed by Katsuki, and his ex. He could just imagine the media tomorrow: Rising Hero Deku's Bestfriend Spotted Drinking With Rival And Ex. To see you so cozy and friendly with her stung, but he deserved that one. You looked happy laughing with his ex, he was glad to see you had some kind of joy and happiness amongst the hurt he served you.

"I know, I hurt her okay? I know that. I know I hurt her, and that hurts. She's not answering my texts, and I know she hates my guts and it hurts."

"Good."

"You think if I went over there she'd listen to me apologize?"

Katsuki rolled his eyes at his old friend and rival. He wasn't going to sympathize or feel remorse for him. He knew what he was doing, he knew how he was toying with you, he'd been doing it to you ever since your days at UA. If Izuku never meant to hurt you then he wouldn't have strung you along in highschool with the false hope that maybe 'one day' you could really be together. It started with a rejected confession with the promise of friends forever, but the glances, the lingering touches, and shitty flirting strung you along. Deku couldn't handle the jealousy of seeing you with other guys, but he wouldn't man up and date you himself. Katsuki hated Izuku for stringing you along even in your prime years, and he hated everyone else for feeding into your crush on him by saying one-day he'd want to make it official.

"No, you fucked up."

"Right."

"You've been hurting her with false hope since fucking highschool. But me? I'm taking this drink over to her because she invited me here and she trusts me. We'll leave together too because I've always given it to her straight. And you? You're going to be here, pathetic and alone because you've always taken her for granted and led her on."

Katsuki took the daiquiri with him to the table you had across the bar. He slid down into the seat next to you and placed the cup in front of you. You looked over at Katsuki with a smile, completely oblivious to his conversation with your now-former friend.

"Than-"

You never got the chance to take a sip, before you even had the chance to thank him he cupped your cheeks. With his warm palms holding your face up to his, he leaned in really quick and placed his lips upon yours. They were soft yet rough at the same time, you had never imagined ever sharing a kiss with Katsuki, but you couldn't deny you had thought about it at least twice in high school.

"I know you and Deku. He's so fucking bad for you, but he's all you ever want. I don't know if you're gonna go back to him, if you can even call it that when you've never technically dated, but I can treat you better and I needed to do that before anything happened."

His hands fall from your face and stuff into his pockets as he resumes the conversation as if he never kissed you. It wasn't his intention to pretend the kiss never happened, it was far from that. In fact, it would probably be brought up tomorrow when you stopped by his office with a new costume design. He wanted you but he needed you to truly think about his words. To truly think about how toxic Deku was for you, how bad he was, how he'd never want to settle down for you, not with his savior complex of needing to keep everyone safe.

The fact was, a hero couldn't have a relationship without having uncertainty for the safety of his significant other. Unfortunately for Izuku, that was a bet Katsuki was willing to take. He was willing to bet with your life, because he was not only sure in you, the woman who made hero support items, but he was confident he would always be there to save you.

You closed the door to Katsuki's office and took a seat in the chair across from his desk. His office was decorated well. The wall colors looked good in contrast with the chairs and sofa he had pushed against the wall. Part of you wondered if he let his mom decorate his office or whether he picked up habits from his parents.

Your stomach churned as you gave the blonde hero a brief, halfhearted greeting. Your head swirled as you began to pull out papers from your briefcase to show him the newest designs on his latest costume. You had a major hangover going on, the drinks you had last night were much to potent, and they only began to progress after Katsuki had kissed you. It wasn't exactly the most logical solution to your problems, but it was a great temporary one.

You were lucky and thankful that your meeting with Katsuki hadn't been scheduled until later into the afternoon to accommodate his busy schedule. Unluckily you had an early business meeting with your boss, Melissa. Most fortunately, Melissa believed you when you said you got a flat tire on your way into work and would have to postpone your meeting.

"These are the new designs for your hero costume. I have some blueprints for a better grenade gauntlet somewhere in my briefcase."

Katsuki reached across his desk and grabbed the costume designs from your hands, his fingers lingering on your wrists just a few seconds too long. You weren't sure what to make of his kiss to you from the previous night. You weren't sure if he was being genuine, or if he just drunkenly wanted to try to obtain what his former friend failed to. Regardless, the action doesn't fail to make your cheeks heat up. You quickly draw your hand back and begin to scramble around in your briefcase for the gauntlet blueprints. You shouldn't be acting like this, you should be more formal and professional.

"I'm gonna look really badass. You draw them yourself?"

"I draw all my costumes myself. I'm sure all my assistants hate me, I'm such a micromanager. I try not to be so controlling, but it never works like that."

"I know, there were times in highschool that I was sure googels... Uhm- Hutsame? Hatsume was going to kill you. It looks great. You did a fuckin' fantastic job."

You let out a light laugh despite your pounding head. Katsuki was never good at remembering his peer's names, it was only as of recently he was making more of an effort after the media called him out for using harsh and cruel nicknames. A blush adorns your cheeks deeply. Crimson red sprouting up from your neck and above. Most people say the way to a woman's heart is gifts, jewelry and flowers, for you it was your designs.

"Here are the gauntlet blueprints, I think you'll like them too. It sprays a non-toxic formula on your wrists to make you sweat more while you wear them, creating a bigger blast in half the time it usually takes to collect it."

Katsuki takes the papers from you and looks over the blueprints, his eyes briefly going over the ingredient list. He didn't really care what you were putting in it or on his skin. He trusted you, if you said it was safe and nontoxic, then it was safe and nontoxic. He handed them back to you hesitantly, he didn't want you to leave his office, not just yet.

"They look great, can't wait to use them."

"I'll move them to the top of my list of priorities. If you didn't mind me asking... Why did you decide on a new costume? Not that I don't love the business, but you've had the same costume design since you graduated UA."

"Like you, I'm controlling, I hate when things change, I like constants. My costume was a perfect constant. The designers always take what I say I want and change it up. With you, it's not like that."

You smiled over at Katsuki and straightened out your shirt. You took such pride in your designs and projects. When someone complimented it and your efforts, you found yourself shrivling away into a blushing, bashful mess.

"With you, it's not like that at all. I don't care if it's changed and messed with."

He wasn't referring to the costume, and you both knew that. He was referring to life in general. Katsuki liked having a constant, unchanging schedule. Ever since high school, he woke up at a certain time, trained at a certain time, ate at a certain time. He had a schedule and a life that depended on a constant. The only reason he decided to get a new costume change was to have an excuse for you to come over to his office, to have you talk to him, even if just for fifteen minutes out of his day.

Katsuki didn't care how he disrupted his schedule when you were around. He didn't care what was getting changed. You could change his sleep schedule, you could disrupt his workout times, and even add the wackiest and stupidest detail to his costume, he would let you do that, his perfect constants be damned.

You muffled out a yawn and began to slowly collect the papers back up and push them into your briefcase. You wanted to mention the kiss, mention how it made you feel, ask if he was too drunk last night. The words kept getting jumbled and stuck in your throat.

"You kissed me last night."

Your words just tumbled out, so bluntly and honestly. Stating a fact you both knew had happened. Katsuki nods at you, a coy smile coming over his face.

"Y'know, I meant what I said. I could treat you better."

"Katsuki..."

"I know you're not over Deku. You've been pining over that block head since high school."

Katsuki stood up and made his way from his side of his desk to your side, he leaned against the edge of the desk and grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers into his warm ones, the way a couple would. You hadn't realized how his feelings for you had just slipped by you over the years. How had you not seen his feeling for you earlier on? Were you that preoccupied with Izuku?

"I know you're not over him, but I'm not over you. I've wanted you just as long as you've wanted him. I wasn't good enough then. I didn't think I was good enough, especially after your dad's retirement. I thought it would be better to not intervene and let him have you, but fuck!"

Katsuki crouched down to the chairs level, to your level, to talk to you more equally. You could just see the anguish in his eyes. He'd had feelings for you all this time, and he just pushed them aside, thinking Deku would be better, thinking Deku would be more worthy.

"All Might picked Deku, so I thought he'd be good for you too, but he treats you like shit. He uses you and then pushes you aside. He refuses to claim you as his, but I would! I would make you mine! I would make you feel so fucking wanted, I would treat you good!"

Before you knew what you were doing., before you could even process your actions. You leaned forward and gripped Katsuki's cheeks before pressing your lips against his. They were soft, like the night before, and they tasted like cinnamon, but they felt warm. His hands came up and wrapped around your torso, holding you like delicate glass as your mouths pressed together.

"Ask me out. You say you want me, you say you can treat me better, so ask me out. Take me on a date, ask me out."

You say the words breathlessly. You couldn't hear the pounding in your head anymore, but you could feel the pounding in your chest, your heart beating hard against your skin with excitement.

"Are you available tonight?"

Katsuki's voice came out raspy, and just as breathless as you. It was just above a murmur, relishing in your surprising actions, excited at the reality of being able to grasp his long awaited shot. Your hands were still on his cheeks, fingers delicately holding him as your lips curved into a smile.

"For you, my schedule is wide open."

Slowly your dinner with Katsuki transitioned into more and Izuku became a thing of the past. Your dinner dates progressed and grew longer and longer each time. As time dragged on your dinners turned into nightcaps, a quick bite of dessert you just so happened to conveniently have bought or baked earlier that day. Slowly those nightcaps turned into the daring question: "Want to stay the night?"

As the months raged on, you began randomly popping into his agency for lunch because you happened to be in the area. Katsuki's patrol route suddenly changed and went right by your company on days he knew you'd be in.

It wasn't long before you and Katsuki went public and put a label on yourselves, boyfriend and girlfriend. With him being seen leaving your apartment early in the morning wearing fresh clothes, you having lunch with him more than weekly but less than daily, and more than often evenings spent together, it was obvious to the media what was going on between you both, and the media was completely eating it up out of the palm of your hands.

"Can you fix my gauntlet?"

His voice was rough, his mouth stuffed with food. You grabbed a napkin as you laughed at him, his job wore him out too much. He always stuffed his face during lunch, he needed the energy and it seemed mannerisms left his mind in private. You reached across the sofa that resides inside his office, meant for him to take naps in between patrols, and wiped food of the side of his face.

"Is it malfunctioning? My assistants know how to fix it if you broke it in battle."

"Your dumb assistants forward me paperwork every time I have to send in gear to get fixed when I break it."

"You're such a baby. They give you paperwork for legal purposes. If you broke it, we're going to charge you. You're lucky I have my tool bag on hand, I'll look at it when I'm done eating."

Katsuki grinned over at you before pressing a hard kiss against your cheek. He already did enough paperwork whenever he took down a villain, he didn't need to fill out more just because your company didn't want to pay for something he broke on his own. Katsuki grabbed his gauntlet from a box hidden in a corner behind his desk, he wanted to be sure to keep all the parts together for you. This wasn't the first time he asked you to fix something, and you always grumbled about how if he was going to be destructive he could keep all the parts together.

Katsuki brought the box over to you and set it on the coffee table before he began to clear away all of the empty takeout containers from the table to make some more workspace for you. You wiped your mouth clean with a napkin, tossed it in the trash, then reached for your work bag and pulled out some tools. Katsuki heard you get the gauntlet from the box and heard you let out a ragged sigh. He didn't have to see the box to know you were upset.

"You are so destructive. I don't even know if I can fix this, how did you do this?"

"It was an accident! I was falling and Eijirou caught me, but he had his quirk activated."

"Accident? You killed him!"

Katsuki snickered at you quietly as he took a seat on the couch next to you. He watched you tinker around with the parts and your tools, you were so in your element and focused, he could go on watching you like this for hours.

"Him?"

"Yes. My assistants named this one Gary. Gary the grenade. I would take him back to my office to fix him, let you fill out paperwork, and learn your lesson, but I bet twenty bucks Gary would last at least two months before you broke him."

Katsuki drummed his fingers against his leg as he watched you mess around with your screwdriver. His heart was pounding in his chest as he watched you. He had an ulterior motive for inviting you over for lunch. There was a question he needed to ask you, one he thought you were both ready for. He didn't want to ask you in public where the media would be prying in with a camera, and he didn't want to ask you when you were having dinner in your apartment. He didn't want you to feel trapped, he wanted you to be in a comfortable setting where you could feel free to say no.

"You're such a dork, I'll try not to kill Gary again."

Your laughter resounded out in Katsuki's office. You both knew he would kill Gary. Katsuki was constantly breaking his gauntlets. Although you had to suppose that breaking his equipment would happen with his job, he broke his equipment more than any other hero you knew. Katsuki took a breath before he blurted out the question he'd been holding in.

"Will you move in with me?"

Your laughter died out and you dropped your screwdriver on the ground. With a shaky hand, you reached down and grabbed the screwdriver. You fumbled with it in your hands, unsure of how to answer his question.

"I'm over at yours or your at mine all the time anyway, I just thought it would be nice and convenient."

"I don't know... Katsuki, we haven't even told my dad about us."

He could sense your hesitance. The way you were bouncing your leg and the way you squeezed your screwdriver was evidence enough. He didn't want to pressure you into this, he wanted you to take your time and think it out. This was a big decision for both of you.

"I don't want you to feel like you have to say yes to me. It's okay to say no if you're not ready. I just thought it'd be nice to wake up to you every day."

You bit down on your lip as you packed your tools up into your bag and placed the gauntlet back in the box. On second thought, bet be damned, maybe you should take Gary back to the office. The ambiance in the office was suffocating and throwing off your aura.

"It's just kind of soon, I need to think about it."

Katsuki wrapped your jacket around your shoulders and helped you zip it up as you shrugged it on your arms. You needed to get out of his office, this question was beginning to suffocate you. It'd only been a few months, it was moving really fast. You loved Katsuki, you knew that much, but this was important. Katsuki tightly wrapped your scarf around your neck to keep you warm from the cold February air and pulled you in for a brisk kiss.

"I love you, but it's really soon, I'm gonna think about it okay?"

"I love you too, take as long as you need to think, this is important. Whatever you decide on is not gonna change us."

You grabbed your work bag and the box before you made your way out of Katsuki's office. You were going to think about it, you'd give him a decision by the end of the week. You made your way down the hall and hit the button on the elevator. After a minute of waiting the doors slid open, a man stepped out and you barely gave yourself time to register the face as you stepped on.

With wild green hair and deep green eyes, Izuku Midoriya watched as you walked past him onto the elevator as he had just gotten off. You clicked on a button, but Izuku was quick to call out your name and stick his hand in the elevator door. They slid back open, damn those heat-sensitive elevator bars you designed. Bad creation, bad creation! They really took off after you designed them, now you wished you hadn't.

"[Y/N]."

"Izuku."

You were over him, over what had happened, at least mostly. That deep petty part of you wanted to ignore him, pretend you hadn't seen or heard him despite being in front of you. He was still your father's protege, it would be rude and upset your father should he hear about it. After all, it wasn't like you clued your dad in about the drama that happened between you and Izuku.

Izuku was feeling the complete opposite of you. He missed you. He wished he hadn't played with your feelings like that, he wished he had manned up and just dated you. He went from talking to you practically every day, to not hearing from you in months. He was reeling, suffocating in his own loneliness. It was his own damn fault, and if he could change it he would.

"I haven't seen you in so long."

Your heart clenched at his words. Maybe some part of you was still holding on to him, it wasn't like you could blame yourself, you had been in love with Izuku for so long. He was your first real friend and your best friend, someone who didn't see just as All Might's daughter. He was your first lover, albeit unofficially, and your first heartbreak.

"It's been a while."

After the incident in his office, you cut complete ties to him, and you were extremely gracious about it. You didn't spill to the press about why ended your friendship, the media assumed it had to do with dating his rival. You didn't go spilling your guts to your father, his mentor about how he slept with you while he was dating a civilian either.

"I- I want to apologize. I shouldn't have treated you how I did, it was shitty, and I was a coward."

You didn't want to have this conversation, it hurt. You hated those heat-sensitive bars. Maybe you should push to have them stop being produced.

"You were right, I didn't want to admit my feelings because your dad is All Might. But I really did do it to protect you, I mean that. Twisted as it was, I thought pushing you away would protect you."

"What you did was shitty, but I'm over it Izuku. It's been months, consider yourself forgiven."

You weren't sure you truly had forgiven him, but you were sure some part of him did push you away for your safety. In high school, the league had originally targeted you instead of Katsuki, although they failed to obtain you and took him instead, it tore Izuku up. That was when he began leading you on with empty promises of a relationship. It was to protect you sure, but you wished he could've gotten over it after nearly ten years.

"[Y/N], I don't just want your forgiveness. I want you, I miss you, I want my best friend back. Do you think we could get some coffee sometime? Have a fresh start?"

Izuku pushed your hair behind your ear and you wanted to throw up. The whole situation made you sick and you wished the elevator door would open up already. Maybe Izuku cared about you, maybe he wanted you, but he didn't love you, not really. It was obvious you were with Katsuki, it was obvious you were happy. You had his gauntlets in your arms, you had his jacket on your body and there were dozens of news articles about your loving relationship.

He knew you were with Katsuki, he should've known how happy you were. Why couldn't he leave it at that? You would've let him happily be with that civilian girl had he not cheated on her with you, she had to know the truth for that one. Katsuki flashed to your head and you felt nauseous. Katsuki held back his feelings for you for years. Years. He held back for years because he wanted you to be happy.

Katsuki really did love you, in the end, he wanted whatever would be best for you, whatever made you happiest. Your whole relationship he'd been attentive and sweet. Caring and loving. The perfect boyfriend. It made you laugh, Izuku of all people put this into perspective for you. Katsuki completely loved you, and talking with Izuku cleared any doubts. Moving in with Katsuki shouldn't be a question at all, it felt right now.

"Izuku, we can be friends, but nothing more. I'm with Katsuki, and I am happy."

"Right, sorry! I... I shouldn't have overstepped that."

Izuku backed up and gave you space just as the elevator doors slid open. You walked out of the building, a new dignified feeling in your chest. Once you were in your car you put Gary in the passenger seat and buckled him up for a safe ride to your office, then you pulled out your phone to shoot a quick text.

[Y/N] Yagi: Thought about it, you make me really happy so let's do it. My dad's coming over for dinner, be there 2nite we can tell him together <3 love you [Sent: 12:38]

You began to prep the garlic, peeling each piece before you crunched it up in a metal mincer. You didn't even own a mincer before you began dating Katsuki. He had complained that your cooking utensils weren't good, slowly you began to notice that new utensils and spices would show at your apartment. Not that you were complaining, Katsuki was a great cook and he was right, fresh garlic was better than that pre-prepped refrigerated garlic.

Your father, Toshinori, stood beside you as he cut up the onions and vegetables for your Yakitori. You were nervously watching the clock, unbeknownst to your father. You were waiting for Katsuki to get here, but your father didn't even know you were expecting another guest. Every Wednesday your father had dinner with you, yet you never mentioned being in a relationship.

You never mentioned your relationship with Katsuki, and your father didn't watch the tabloids for things like that. Truthfully, you were scared of his reaction. He always hoped you would end up with Izuku. Naturally, as his mentor and your father, he wanted you with someone who he knew. Someone he thought would protect you. You never introduced your father to any boyfriends before Izuku, and you didn't want to break his heart. You would be lying if you said you were putting off your father finding out about you and Katsuki.

"Dad, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you."

"What's that?"

You kept your hands focused on the task at hand, harshly crushing the garlic as you tried to find the best way to phrase your words.

"I've been seeing someone, and I invited him over for dinner."

Your father kept slicing the onions before he moved onto the vegetables. Admittedly, he began to cut more meticulously and harder, nearly cutting his finger.

"Is it Izuku?"

"No."

You bit down on your lip as you walked over to the stove and shoveled the garlic into the pan with the meats before you reached over and grabbed the bowls of vegetables that your father was cutting up and poured them into the pan as well. You knew you were upsetting your father. He wanted you to date Izuku, ever since you met Izuku, all he did was encourage your crush on the green boy.

"Good."

"What? I thought you wanted me to be with Izuku."

"God, no. I love Izuku like a son, and I might've said that when you were in high school, but that was because I knew you would never progress more than best friends."

Your father brought over more chopped vegetables and poured them in the pan before taking a wooden spoon and stirring the contents around in the pan.

"I didn't want you dating in high school. I thought it'd be better to encourage you to chase after someone who didn't know how to talk to girls rather than having to deal with you dating a guy like Kaminari or Bakugo. That would've been a horrible nightmare."

To hear that your father didn't actually want you with Izuku was a relief, your worst fear was disappointing your father, hearing him say it would've been a nightmare had you been dating Bakugo was heart-clenching, There was a rough knock at the door, and it couldn't have been timed worse.

Your father took long stride-full steps and walked over to your door. He unhooked the latch and opened the oak door up, there before him stood Katsuki. You wondered if he was as nervous as you were feeling. This was his old school teacher, and the hero he looked up to growing up. It took a lot to say 'hey, I'm dating your daughter' more so it was ballsy to say 'we're moving in together' on the same night.

"Bakugo, my boy!"

Your father greeted Bakugo kindly with open arms as if he hadn't just said you being with Bakugo would be a nightmare. If Katsuki was nervous he didn't show it. His body wasn't too stiff, and he had worn nice clothes. He smiled at your father, a genuine real smile as he held out a wine bottle. Katsuki had evolved so much since high school, you hoped he showed that to your father this evening.

"Good evening sir, I brought some wine."

"Joseph Phelps red, that quite expensive. Personally, I'm more of a white wine guy."

Your father turned it around in his hands before smiling back at your boyfriend lightly.

"It's not white, but we'll make do."

Katsuki shot you a helpless look as your father carried the bottle into the kitchen to look for your wine glasses and pop open the bottle. This evening was already off to a bad start.

"I thought you said he liked red wine."

"I thought he did. He drinks it a lot."

Katsuki ran his fingers through his hair stressfully. He wanted this dinner to go well, he wanted your father to like him as your boyfriend. Katsuki wanted a life with you, and the key to that was your father's approval.

"Just sit down and relax. It's not like your a total stranger to him, he knows you."

"I should say the same to you. You look like your gonna pass out."

You placed a chaste kiss against Katsuki's lips before you took off to the kitchen to help serve dinner and Katsuki made his way to your table. It was the fact that your father knew him that worried him. Katsuki knew he could come off as aggressive and mean. Compared to high school, Katsuki was a lot tamer but he was worried your father wouldn't see that. Katsuki knew how much your father and his opinion mean to you.

You carried plates of food out to the table and placed them so Katsuki was at one end of the table and your father at the other, with you in the middle. out came your father from the kitchen, forks in one hand, wine cups in the other. You took your seats and began to eat, all while your father gave Katsuki a very intense stare.

"So Katsuki, [Y/N] tells me you've been dating her."

"Yup! Best damn six months of my life."

Katsuki cringed as the swear word tumbled out of his mouth. That could've been worded better. Toshinori raises his eyebrows as he takes a bite of his food.

"So, it's been six months, and you're just now telling her father?"

"We were waiting to see how serious this was going to be, testing out the waters of a new relationship first."

"You weren't serious about her in the beginning?"

You took a big gulp of your wine as your father began to accost your boyfriend. It was great for your nerves, you weren't sure if you should intervene or let Katsuki handle himself. To put it plainly, when it came to your father you were a chicken.

"I've always been serious about [Y/N], but she can be very... Hesitant and indecisive."

It was a nice way of saying distrustful and wary, hesitant to be in a relationship after Izuku callously used you and tossed you aside constantly. Toshinori took a sip of his wine and tried his best to make it look distasteful, truthfully it was good wine and Katsuki was being really smooth and cool with his replies.

"What makes you think you deserve my daughter?"

"Dad, stop it."

"I deserve her because I know I can make her happy. I know I can keep her safe, and we love each other, so fuckin' much."

A blush dusts your cheeks as Katsuki slides his hand into yours on the table. You weren't used to showing such a display of affection, physically or verbally, to a guy in front of your father, and you still felt nervous. Ultimately, Katsuki was right. He made you happy, he made you feel safe.

"I will admit, you've come a long way since high school. Truthfully, I love the wine, I just wanted to mess with you both."

You let out a small breath of relief. He liked Katsuki, he really liked him.

"If you're going to try and hide something from your father, you probably shouldn't tell your boss, who is also my goddaughter."

"Melissa is such a snitch."

"You also didn't hide it very well. Your bathroom reeks like male cologne, I found some boxers in your bedroom, and you're all over the Facebook."

"I thought you didn't use social media, you barely know how to text."

Your father laughed at you as you crossed your arms. He really had you worried when he said it would've been a nightmare for you to be dating Bakugo. Your anxiety went through the roof, and you drank a lot of wine glasses to soothe your nerves.

"Melissa has been teaching me how to do it. It's rather, what's that word, it's lit. She's gonna set up a TokTik with me tomorrow."

"So you like him?"

"I taught him in high school, I know he's going to respect you and treat you right. If not... Well, I've got Snipes number and he owes me a favor."

You smiled and squeezed Katsuki's hand. You let out a nervous chuckle then took a gulp out of your wine again. It was now or never. It was no big deal. It's not like you were getting married. You squeezed Katsuki's hand harder as your words came out.

"I and Katsuki have decided we want to move in with each other."

"I think that's a big step, but if you're happy then that's all that matters."

"Thanks, dad. He does make me happy, he makes me really happy."

Your father smiled at you and grabbed your hand. It was the closest thing to a hug that he could give you while you were eating dinner. Your father liked him, he approved of the relationship and that was a heavyweight lifted off your chest. You were happy with Katsuki, completely and irrevocably happy.

"While we're on this subject, I think we should talk about what I found in your bathroom trash can last week."

"Dad! I'm an adult. I gave you a key so you could get in for emergencies, not to snoop around my apartment."

You were laid down on your new couch, your head in Katsuki's lap as he ran his fingers through your hair carefully and gently. The news played on the TV, going over and displaying the highlights of Katsuki, or rather DynaMight's fight from earlier that day. Each new scene was more explosive than the last, but it painted Katsuki as a hero.

"They always get my destructive side on highlight. It would be nice if they could get more footage of me post-explosion."

"I like it, makes you look all badass and hot. Besides, I get a good view of you using Gary without seeing him all broken up."

"I'm starting to wonder whether your my number one fan or Gary's."

You let out a short chuckle as the scene cuts to an end and they start showing footage of a new hero. Katsuki reaches forward, grabs the remote, and flips through the channels until he finds the cooking channel. Ever since you moved in together 'Master Chef' had been playing on your TV a lot.

The move went great. It took some time for you to find an apartment you both liked. You had decided it was best to find a new apartment altogether rather than moving into one of your own. It was something the both of you could have together, to decorate and make a home out of.

"I'm always your number one fan. You light up my world like DynaMight!"

"That was a cringy joke. I'm not letting Denki and Mina in our apartment again, they're gonna drain your brain cells."

There's a hard knock on the door, and you pull your head up off of Katsuki's lap, bringing yourself into a sitting position. You stretch your back out before standing up and unwrinkling your clothes.

"It's probably the pizza, I'll get it. You can find a movie for us."

"Do you mean find, or look at the movies you added to our Netflix list?"

"Hey, you make me sound like a dictator. I'm giving you the opportunity to choose between the three movies I picked out."

Your voice yells out to Katsuki from across the apartment as you make your way over to the door. You didn't bother checking through the hole before opening the door, it wasn't like anyone was going to try something at DynaMight's home. They should know they'd be blown to bits.

"Hell- Oh."

You were expecting the pizza delivery boy with your pizza, instead you were greeted by green eyes and a soaking wet green bed of hair. It must be raining out, you felt bad for the delivery boy and your pizza.

Deku stared at you, unsure of why he came here. One minute he was drinking, the next he was typing your new address into his GPS, and his feet started walking on their own accord.

"Hi."

"Hello. Why are you here?"

You get out a displeased sigh as you heard your words come out. You were just terribly hungry. Seeing Deku wasn't what you wanted, seeing Deku and no pizza was especially not what you wanted.

"I'm sorry, that was rude. I mean it's kind of late, are you alright?"

He wasn't sure what to say, all he knew was that he missed you terribly bad. He missed you so much, he yearned just to see you. He knew it wasn't right showing up at your house, but he needed to just see you in person. Not through old Instagram photos and Snapchat stories, he needed to see you in person.

"I'm sorry for showing up unannounced like this, I just needed- I needed to see you."

Upon hearing the sound of his voice Katsuki scowled. Even deep within his new apartment, Katsuki could hear Deku, it was a nuisance to him. He placed the remote on the coffee table and made his way over to the front door while calling out to you, feigning ignorance of Deku's presence.

"Was it the pizza princess?"

Katsuki slinked his arms around you from behind, letting his chin rest on your shoulder as a small coy smile made way to his face, he kissed your cheek before looking at Izuku, rubbing it in his face.

"Deku."

Katsuki's voice holds an unpleasant disdain as he says Izuku's name and it's a slap to his face. It was wrong of him to show up at your apartment. Your shared apartment with Katsuki. It was so wrong. He knew you were with Katsuki, he knew you were happy. Why did he show up here? Why couldn't he stay away from you?

"Can we help you?"

It's now that it hits Izuku. He didn't love you, not really, not deeply enough. Not the way Katsuki loved you. Katsuki stayed back, stayed silent. He suffered for years, all for the purpose of letting you be happy. He wanted what would make you happiest, and now that he had you, he treated you perfectly, like a queen.

Izuku himself was falling apart without you. He took you for granted. He pushed you away to protect you, and his heart. He hurt you. He never tried to give you what would make you happiest, never tried to do what was best for you.

He understood now. If he truly loved you, then he was going to have to be the one to step back. He needed to go away, to suffer silently. He needed to do what was best for you now, and that was to let Katsuki take care of you. His old friend always did say he was going to be the best, better than him. While he was talking about being a hero, now he was the best, at least for you.

"No, sorry. I've been drinking. Just got a little turned around is all. Have a good night, both of you."

"Do you want me to call you a cab?"

Izuku pauses slightly and looks at you. He gives you a smile, the one he gives to citizens. The one he gives in a fight when he feels completely hopeless but needs to keep fighting. This was the right thing to do, the real right thing.

"No, I think I'm sober enough to get home. Goodbye [Y/N]."

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