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moonlightpetalz6 · 1 year ago

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Kinktober Day 4 (Stygiophilia)

Character: Dio Brando x Virgin reader

Reader: Fem Reader

Warnings: NSFW, MDNI, Smut, Unprotected sex, Stygiophilia, harsh language, corruption kink, rough sex, blood, talk of religion, mentions of going to hell, degradation, dacryphilia, loss of virginity, manipulation

Stygiophilia: Arousal to the thought of hellfire and damnation.

Wc: 5,042

A/n: Yeaaaaaah I may or may not have fallen behind with my Kinktober works as this is definitely being posted on Day 5. So sorry about that! Thankfully I made sure to get both Day 4&5 written up! (I just have to edit day 5 before posting) Anyway, I tried to get all the warnings labeled and apologize if I missed anything!

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"Young miss, please slow down! A lady must not run!" You heard one of your lady-in-waiting yells after you as you happily ran through the familiar corridors of your home. You were the younger sister of Jonathan Joestar and had been sent away to an all-girls boarding school for the last three years, so you were beyond excited to see your father and older brother. As you reach the front doors to the manor, your eyes light up at the familiar sight of your older brother, a giant smile on his face as he holds his arms out to you, ready to accept your tight embrace. "Brother! I missed you!" You cried while leaping into his arms, causing the older boy to laugh as he held you securely while spinning you around. Your lady-in-waiting finally catches up, placing her hands on her knees as she tries to catch her breath while trying to scold you.

"My dear sister, are you still causing trouble for people? What's the point of sending you to such a high-class school if you refuse to listen!" Jonathan laughs while playfully ruffling your hair. You pout, pushing his hand away as you stick your tongue out playfully, earning another bright smile from the brother you admired with all your heart. "I have so much I wish to talk about! Where is father?!" You cheered, looking around, wishing to tell him your stories. Jonathan frowns as he leads you into the manor by wrapping an arm around your shoulders comfortingly. "Y/n father's condition appears to be getting worse…he is now bedridden." Your eyes go wide in horror as you quickly take off towards your father's room, ignoring your brother's calls for you to wait.

You run up the stairs, shoes slipping off due to your rush, causing you to stumble a bit, but you pay them no mind as you go and push the doors to the room open, not bothering to knock. "Father!" You called tears in your eyes as you looked at the weak figure of your father sitting peacefully in his bed. "Ah, Y/n, my dear, you've come home!" Your father greets you with a small smile before coughing. You rush to his bedside and carefully place your hands on his. "Oh, Father, why didn't you tell me your condition worsened? I would have rushed to your side to help you recover!" Your father only smiles at your words as he gently runs his hand over your hair, comforting your anxious heart.

"That is exactly why I didn't write about it to you. Your studies in becoming a proper lady are far more important than this small illness." He declares, watching as your brows knit together in annoyance. Before you can give any protest to his words, he cuts you off, his gaze averting to one of the corners of the room. "Besides, I had your brothers here to help me. Isn't that right, Dio and Jonathan?" He asks with a soft smile. Your body stiffens at the name of the boy your father had taken into your home. You hated how your father addressed Dio as your brother, for you had never seen or accepted him as anything else but a cruel, uncaring man who took advantage of your father's kind nature. Slowly, you become aware of your father's presence and the other two who stood in the room with you. "That's right, Father. I have ensured to care for him, so you don't need to fret Y/n." Your body shivered, and blood ran cold at the familiar, sickening voice of Dio.

You slowly turn towards where the voice came from, your eyes locked with those dark, cold brown eyes that still torment you years later. “I see…thank you…” You whisper, trailing off as you never knew how to properly converse with the man whose eyes always stared deep into your soul. Dio gives you a smirk as he takes a few steps towards your form. You feel your heart racing with each step, your nerves screaming for you to move or run, but you can't. Thankfully, Jonathan, who had been silently standing by the door this whole time, moves to stand protectively by your side. Dio frowns at this while pretending to look hurt at the two of you. "What is it, Jonathan? I wish to give our dear Y/n a welcoming hug like you and Father." He defends a fake smile on his face as he outstretched his arms to you, expecting your sweet embrace.

You hesitate, eyes trailing to your brother, who looks down at you; worry fills his eyes. You devise an excuse to avoid hugging the man but stop when you feel your father gently squeeze your hands, earning your full attention. "Go on, Y/n! It's rude not to greet everyone, is it not?" You cringe at your father's words, knowing it would only cause problems for his health if you continued to avoid the man, he tried calling son. With a stiff nod, you slowly stand from the side of the bed, hands placed in front of you as you nervously fidget with your fingers and slowly take a few steps toward the much bigger man who looks at you with mischievous eyes. You bite your lip as you shakily bring your arms up for a hug. Dio quickly pulls you close to his chest in an extraordinarily tight and possessive hug.

"Welcome home, Y/n. We've all missed you dearly." You cringe at the fake joy in his voice, knowing it was all an act to get on your father's good side. Dio smirks as he leans his mouth close to your ear, whispering in a tone that no one else could hear. "I don't care how long it takes…you will submit to me." He growls darkly, causing your eyes to widen as you try to pull away from him but fail due to his tight grip. Dio smirks, finding your resistance adorable before his eyes lock with Jonathan, who glared at the two of you, not trusting Dio's intentions after having stumbled upon Dio and you years ago in the manor library. You hadn't done anything as Dio was the one who had you pinned to the bookshelf, his lips pressed angrily to yours. It was a sight Jonathan would never forget as he kept his pure and innocent sister far away from the man.

"I think that's enough, don't you, Dio?" Your brother asked while pulling you away from the blonde's grasp, causing Dio's lip to twitch in annoyance. "Of course, I'm just so excited to see the Joestar's sweet angel return to the manor after so long." He apologized, though you both knew it wasn't sincere. Jonathan frowned before leading you towards the door, stating that he would take you to your room as he assumed you were tired after such a long ride back. You bid goodbye to your father, ignoring Dio, who looked at you with dark and impure eyes. When you leave the room, Dio grits his fists at his side before licking his lip with amusement.

'Still clinging to that brother of yours like he'll be there forever. I'll have my chance my dear just you wait.'

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It had been a few weeks since you came back home. Thankfully, you didn't run into Dio much besides when you visited your father, or Jonathan was around to act as your shield. However, to your dismay, your older brother went off to try and find a cure due to your father's worsening condition, leaving you alone and defenseless. "Y/n, my dear, it's getting late. You should go and get some sleep; I'll be fine!" Your father laughed, trying to rid the frown that blemished your features. "But father, how can I sleep?! Your condition is worsening, and your brother has been gone for days without a word! I worry for both of you!" You cry, gripping his hands. Your father smiles before heavily coughing, causing your heart to ache.

"You've always been such a kind and caring girl, Y/n. I know your mother would be so proud to see the pure and elegant girl you've become." His confession shocks you at the mention of your deceased mother. You and Jonathan were half-siblings, neither having met your mothers due to the accident and your mother's illness. You always remembered the staff whispering badly about her because they were so in love with Jonathan's late mother. This left you feeling alone and secluded from everyone until your brother happily reached a handout for you. Since childhood, you made it a point to be a good and obedient daughter and sister to your family, not wanting to cause any problems. Of course, you would lie if you said being a good girl was easy.

"Now, give me your perfect smile before I get some rest!" Your father cheered, snapping you from your thoughts. You let out a small sigh before putting on that bright smile everyone seemed to love so much. With an approving nod, your father bids you goodnight as you silently walk back to your corridors. 'But I don't want to smile right now, father…I want to scream and cry…I want to feel sadness and anger. I want to scream at the heavens for cursing our family with such traffic fates.' You are shocked by the last thought as you quickly shake your head and slap your cheeks as you enter your room. "Don't think like that, Y/n! It's not good to think such things." You scold yourself as you lock the door before changing into one of your nightgowns.

"Oh? Do tell what things our angel might be thinking?" Your heart sinks to the pit of your stomach at the sudden voice lurking in the corner of your room. You slowly turn to see Dio perched against your wall, his eyes shining from the moon's light. "D-Dio?! What are you doing in my room?!" You yelled, taking a step back as you glanced towards your door. Dio followed your eyes just as fast, a dark smirk coming to his lips as he let out an amused chuckle, carefully pushing himself away from the wall. "Father has been voicing concerns about you since Jonathan left. So, I thought I would do him a favor and keep you company." He excused himself as he made his way between you and the door. Your eyes narrow with his word choice as you clench your fists at your sides.

"Don't address him like that when we both know you don't see the Joestar home as a family." You declared feeling yourself growing angry at the situation. Dio looks at you with an emotion flashing past his eyes, one you don't recognize due to the room's darkness. He lets out an amused chuckle while running a hand through his hair, his face falling to one of annoyance, eyes darker than usual as he looks down at you, clicking his tongue. "I see that annoying eye of yours is still as sharp as ever, brat." He spat, finally showing his true colors like when he first arrived in your lives. "Though you must admit I've become a great actor." He joked. Before you could react, Dio's form was looming over yours. His eyes narrowed as he roughly took your wrist, holding it up towards his chest as he glared at you.

"Since we're on the topic…why don't you drop that pure angel act of yours?" Dio watched as your usually bright hues darkened all light, leaving them as you looked at him with a frown. "I do not like what you are insinuating Dio. Now, I must ask you to leave my room." You demanded your words cold as ice, holding no warmth for the man before you. Dio felt his chest puff with pride and joy as he got to see this expression for a second time. He remembers first seeing the dark look in your eyes when he stumbled upon you in the library years ago. The way you stared coldly at the books before you, not a single sight of joy to be seen. It excited him knowing that there was a darker side to the Joestars family within the girl whom everyone always spoke so purely of. He wanted to see more of it, more of the girl whose life has been dedicated to portraying a false sense of joy.

"There it is…" Dio whispered, his grip on your wrist tightening as he went and threw you onto the bed, causing a small gasp to leave your lips as you fell onto the soft surface. As you tried to get up, Dio sat on top of you, his legs trapping your smaller form as he gripped your wrists above your head, his face inches from yours as he looked at you with a sadistic grin on his face. The lack of distance allowed you to examine Dio's features closely. You couldn't deny that he was an attractive man and that you had once found yourself crushing on him, but due to his sick personality, you tried pushing the thought deep into the back of your mind.

"Tell me, does being so good to those who hate you get tiresome?" He asked, watching as your eyes widened in surprise. "What? Did you think I wouldn't notice how the staff treated you over the years? How they look at you with detest." Dio mocked his free hand, going to grab your chin, making it so you could not ignore him. You grit your teeth, anger filling your body as he mocked your hard work to be the perfect girl for your family, all the nights you spent wishing to be accepted by everyone. He would welcome you. To him, you were something to treasure and keep close to; he wanted all of it for himself.

"Dio, let me go this instant! I won't let you make a fool of me!" You yelled while trying to escape his grasp. Dio hummed, amused, as he leaned closer to your face, his lips inches away. "You're so cute; begging like anything could get you out of this." he mused before placing his lips roughly against your own. Your eyes went wide, remembering the last time this happened. How aggressive he was with you, the look in his eyes like a predator wanting to claim what's his. You whine into the kiss, your body reacting in a strange way as you feel a wave of heat rush to your skin. Dio hums, pulling away from the kiss as he watches the saliva still connecting you start to thin. "It must be so exhausting…being an angel." He confesses while carefully sliding his thumb across your bruising lips. He watches your face show surprise at his words, internally grinning as he finds your weak spot.

"Tell me…what was it you were thinking earlier, angel? Was it something impure?" He hoped his words were right as he watched your eyes shift away. You said nothing as you tried processing everything at once. Your silence annoyed Dio as he went and slid his tongue down your neck, his ears taking in your surprised gasp as you tried to squirm away, your legs pressing together. "Does the Joestars' pure and innocent child actually have a filthy mind?" He teased as he went and bit down on your soft spot, feeling himself grow excited when a moan slipped past your lips. "N-no! It's not like that! I don't think that way!" You pleaded, the feeling of his lips sucking on your skin, causing your cheeks to heat up as a strange tingling begins in your lower half. "Oh? Then tell me, if not that, then what? What could be plaguing that innocent mind of yours?" He coos his grip on your wrist tightening as his head moves towards your chest.

Your eyes widened as your heart started speeding up when you realized what he was planning. "It was only for a moment! I cursed the heavens, but I was wrong!" You confessed, hoping it would allow you to catch Dio off guard. However, your words caused something to snap inside Dio's mind as he looked down at you surprised, his heart rate rising as he felt his pants start to feel tighter as he took in your words. "Cursing the heavens? Isn't that a grave sin with you people who worship that God of yours?" He asks, unable to stop the growing smirk, his eyes glossing over with lust as he takes in how pure you looked trapped under him in that white nightgown that fit you perfectly. Your cheeks are deep red due to the unknown feelings starting up within.

"Tell me, angel…has a man ever touched you?" His question causes you to fume with embarrassment as you look away from him, not wanting to answer such a vulgar question. "H-How could you say such filthy things?!" You cried your mind spinning from the situation. Dio's eyes narrowed as he licked his lips, his hand releasing your wrists, catching you by surprise as you looked up at him with confusion. "So, this body is still pure?" He asks with a voice filled with amusement as he trails his hands from your shoulders down to your breasts, roughly massaging them over your precious nightgown. Your eyes widen as you quickly slap a hand over your mouth, muffling the moans that escape from the unknown feeling.

"Is it good when I touch you here? Or maybe here?" he muses, going and grinding against you, the bulge in his pants becoming evident as he finds himself tainting the pure body of Jonathan's most precious treasure. You bite your lip, trying to hold back the sinful sounds that tug at your throat. "N-no, stop it…AH!" Your back arches when Dio suddenly pulls the nightgown down, exposing your breasts to the cool air sending a chill throughout your body. Dio chuckles as he taunts you, clicking his tongue as he shakes his head. "This isn't good…for such a pure body; it sure is acting filthy to my touch." He sighed as he took the perked buds between his thumbs and index fingers, making sure to pinch and pull at them, watching as your body reacted innocently to his actions. "I-I's not my fault!" You tried to defend yourself, though you couldn't help but rub your legs together at his words. 'What's happening? Why am I getting so worked up?' You thought, not understanding your body at all.

"This body is untrained…safe from the fires of Satan." Dio starts before repositioning himself so that he can slide his hand under your nightgown, his fingers ghosting over the dampening fabric as he latches onto one of the perked buds, making sure to sink his teeth into the soft flesh, listening as you let out a loud cry your hands going to grip at his blonde strands. "S-stop! This is wrong!" You pleaded, though your mind couldn't help but betray you as multiple lewd thoughts started plaguing your mind, causing the spot between your thighs to spread against the thin fabric. Dio ignored you as his fingers went and started poking at your panties, chuckling when your thighs squeezed his hand.

"Careful, Y/n," Dio started as he pulled away from the mound of flesh with a pop, his tongue lapping at the hard bud with a dark smirk on his face as he looked up to see your lustful expression. He feels his bulge twitch as he presses his fingers past your panties, sliding them up and down your wet folds. "If you're too loud, everyone will know the sinful act you're committing. Do you want your father to know his angel is falling?" Dio laughed, finding his actions to be a rush as one finger pressed down on your clit, causing your eyes to roll back as you covered your lips with both hands, body shaking. Dio watches his sadistic grin, reaching his eyes that are wide with amusement as he lets out another booming laugh.

"Did you just cum Y/n? What a fucking slut." He growled as he twirled a finger around your freshly dripping hole, refusing to take his eyes away from yours as he watched you come down from your high. "I want you to listen to this, Y/n. Listen to how sinful your pussy is for me right now." He mumbled before slipping a digit inside. You whine in discomfort at the sudden intrusion, tears pricking your eyes from the feeling of Dio's thick finger roughly thrusting in and out of you. "Heh, does it hurt angel? Does having my finger inside this once untouched pussy feel strange?" His words are cruel as he watches your body, once pure and untouched, slowly form into an obedient toy just for him. "D-Dio…" Your words cut off as he slaps a hand over your face, eyes narrowed as he growls against your ear, his finger moving faster as you moan into his palm. "Shut up and listen, angel." He growls before adding another finger to stretch your tight walls further. "Do you hear that Y/n?" He questions while biting your earlobe, giving it a slight pull. You listen, your juices echoing off the walls of the dark room, filling your ears as Dio continues to invade you with his fingers.

"Listen to your sin, darling~" He sings, going to curl the tips of his fingers, causing a deep rumble in your throat as you look up at him, eyes no longer holding any innocent emotions as you allow your mind to be consumed by lust. You can't think straight as you go and stick your tongue out against his palm, the wet muscle licking against his rough skin, causing Dio to lick his lips as a low growl escapes his throat. "Filthy fucking girl. You're nothing but a sinful whore." He spat, looking down at you with disgust, but really, it drove him crazy. He was ruining you, the girl who always held such a beautiful smile, eyes shining so bright with love and joy now dimmed and corrupted, all thanks to him. No one else could ruin you like he was going to. He feels your walls spasm against his fingers, indicating you have orgasmed for the second time.

Dio pulls his fingers out, putting them inches from your face as he wiggles them around, allowing you to see how your juices coated them. "Look at them, Y/n. Your slutty juices are everywhere." He laughs before pulling down your panties as he goes and removes his clothing. You don't say anything as you lay there eyes half-lidded as you try to recover from all the pleasure flooding your mind. Dio notices your dazed-out expression, causing him to frown as he goes and smacks your cheek, causing your gaze to fall on him. "Don't you dare clock out on me now, you brat." He growls, going and spreading your legs wide enough for him to take in just how wet your pussy was. "Fuck so filthy, Y/n." He growls while giving his cock a few pumps, precum leaking from the slit.

You stare at him, trying to process what his next move is going to be. Dio smirked as he went and slid the tip between your folds, his cock becoming drenched from your messy pussy. It soon clicks what he plans on doing, and you look at him, panic written across your face. "N-No! You can't!" You cry, trying to move away from his giant figure. Dio scoffs as he roughly grabs you by the hips, pulling you back into place as his tip pokes at your entrance. He cups your cheek, eyes filled with a dark desire as he takes in your fearful expression, the tears in your eyes making him want to fuck you until they can't produce anymore. "Look at me, Y/n." He demands, watching as you obediently do as told, making him relish in his control over your once pure mind, now filled with corrupt thoughts of him. All him.

"I want to see you fall to hell with me, angel." His words were severe, eyes not leaving yours. You felt your chest tighten as his words caused your pussy to twitch. "Fall…to hell?" You whispered as if in a trance. Dio smirks, leaning his body over yours as he kisses the tears from your face. "Yes, my dear~ The two of us will be bound together for all eternity, our bodies burning from the flames of our sins~" He growled, pressing his lips to yours in a possessive and needy kiss. You whimper slowly opening your mouth to allow his tongue entry as he hungrily searched every corner of your mouth. "So, fall with me, angel…fall from the heavenly pedestal your family has placed you on and be damned to hell with just me by your side." He moaned into the kiss before pressing his cock into your virgin pussy.

Your eyes bulge from the intense pain as you grip Dio's biceps, your nails digging into his skin, drawing small amounts of blood, tears running down your cheeks as you cry into the kiss. Dio growls, eyes squeezing shut from how tight you were, his dick throbbing at the fact he was taking your virginity from you. Your pure body now destroyed by his corrupt one. He relishes that you will never be able to join your loved ones in heaven. You were all his forever. "I-it hurts!" You cry when he pulls away from the kiss. Your lips were bruised and swollen, eyes puffy and filled with tears as your cheeks flushed red and your body trembled. You were ruined, absolutely destroyed, and he loved it. "That's right, angel…feel all that pain, isn't it freeing?" Dio purred before moving his hips. You whine from the pain, wanting it to go away as you reach a handout towards him.

Dio snatched your hand, bringing it to his face as he inhaled your scent before locking eyes with you as he sunk his teeth into your flesh, watching you flinch as his thrusts became more aggressive. "Mmh~ Dio, your cock hurts! Please take it out!" You whine, though it falters when the pain turns into pleasure. "It's dirty! So dirty!" You cry, your legs wrapping around his waist and pushing him closer to you, causing his cock to go even deeper inside your impure pussy. You moan tossing your head back, mouth hanging open as drool falls from your chin. Dio watches you with an evil grin as he roughly grabs your hips, sure to leave bruises later. "That's right, angel fall with me! Join me in a world full of sin where just the two of us can rule!" He moans out, loving that he was destroying you. The girl he's had eyes on for seven years was not being roughly fucked underneath him.

You moan too fucked out to care who heard you anymore as you think of what awaits you once you are to leave this world. "I'm going to burn in hell, Dio~ my pussy is being fucked by a man I'm not married to!" You moaned out, unable to hold back your thoughts as a smile formed on your face from the idea of burning in the hot flames. Dio curses as his gaze travels down to where his cock disappeared inside you, his eyes narrowing when he sees the blood mixed with your juices leaking from his shaft down onto your once clean sheets. "He leans forwards, capturing one of your hands in his as he pounds into your abused pussy deep pants, leaving his lips as he takes you all in with his eyes. "Fall with me, angel…do you like that? The thought of being burned by hell's flames? Your pussy is sucking my dick so good, darling~" Dio coos as he kisses your neck, leaving marks wherever he can.

Your body shutters at the thought eyes in the back of your head, a giant smile on your face as you imagine your body being burned for the pleasure you were receiving in this life. Dio looks down at you, his heart racing about how you reacted to his words and actions. He loved that you were finally showing your true self to the you who worked so hard to be so suitable for everyone. Now you were good for just him. "Think about it, Y/n. You no longer have to please those worthless staff who treated you like the devil…because now you're my beautiful fallen angel…my sinful darling~" Dio growled, his cock twitching as he felt himself reaching his limit. You say nothing as you cry and moan, your stomach tightening for the third time.

'That's right… I'm no longer their angel…I can finally be free from this suffocating cage.' You thought tears formed in your eyes as they slid down the damn skin onto your messy sheets. "You'll be so beautiful screaming in agony~" Dio confesses the thought causing him to curse as his cock swelled inside you, his throat tightening as a vein popped out. "Fuck… I'm going to cum inside your filthy pussy Y/n!" He laughed, his thrusts becoming sloppy. You whined as he went and tossed your legs over his shoulders, the new position causing him to press against your womb. Your eyes went wide as you felt something inside you snap your juices spraying all over Dio's cock as a puddle stained the sheets. Your vision went white, no sound leaving your lips as your body violently shook.

Dio laughs like crazy after witnessing you squirt all over him, his voice echoing throughout the room. "Hahaha! Sorry JoJo! Looks like I've turned your precious little sister into such a sinful devil fit just for my cock~" He laughs manically before gripping your face with one hand as he looks at you with that sadistic look back on his face. He feels himself reach his limit as he cums deep inside your pussy, his cum filling you up.

"Look at me Y/n. I want to see you fall to hell with me darling~"

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo's bizarre adventure x reader #jjba x reader #jjba x y/n #jjba x female reader #dio brando #jjba dio #fanfic #fanfiction #fem reader #x reader #smut #jjba smut #dio brando x reader #dio brando x y/n #dio brando smut #kinktober 2023

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ivoryghostyy · 9 months ago

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— meet Cirius

「 image is not mine. it's sourced from pinterest. 」

「 note: look who's back after not posting for idfk how long. but hey, here's a fic, plus a new layout! haha... i have so much to edit, but anyways, i hope y'all enjoy this little idea i've pulled straight out of my ass. man, i could not get it out of my head. so, uh, have fun ig. 'til next time. buh-bye! 」

「 tw: swearing, mentions/implications of violence, threatening, obsession, manipulation, etc. 」

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human emotions are fickle, but for Cirius, they're practically a foreign concept. dull faces accompanied him wherever he went. they would bother him, talk to him, and feign interest. no mask, however, could completely cover the rotting desires humans hide.

it confuses him, really, but what can he do? if they entertain him, then playing along wouldn't hurt anyone. otherwise, he'd probably die of boredom. besides, he has a reputation to keep. lashing out would only destroy his own facade.

university wasn't doing him any good either, despite his well-maintained rank. he's perfect, and every single one of them could see that. they praise him, and they raise him onto a pedestal. it's nothing new, not interesting at all. his eyes don't spare any of them a glance.

so imagine his surprise when he comes across you. it was onky a brief moment—barely even a second—but he saw it. you weren't hidden in a shroud of grey clouds, you were the embodiment of the sun. your eyes sparkled brighter than any gem he had ever seen. and he's seen a lot of gems, so that says a lot.

you're.. different. and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued. how did he miss someone like you? he hummed, a finger tapping the fabric of his sleeve. a new student, perhaps? but why would anyone transfer so late into the year?

you scurried away before he could say anything. ah, he should have atleast gotten your name... but it's alright. his fingers weave through the soft knots of his light pink hair, a cold smile creeping onto his plush lips.

it doesn't take much to find you and your entire history. goodness, he should've found you sooner. you've been living like this for your entire life? you're barely able to keep yourselves afloat. he's exaggerating. the more he learns about you, and the more he watches you, the deeper he falls into the dark pit of obsession.

don't worry, he'll take care of everything. his darling wife deserves the best and only the best, after all. he'll talk to his parents and arrange a dinner with his future family-in-law your parents, throw in a few lies here, a few threats there, and it's smooth sailing towards your engagement.

surely, you'll agree, right? even if you don't, do you really have a choice? anything he wants, he will have. and you? you're no exception.

you pace through the bustling halls, weaving through the chattering human barricades as they march into another boring lecture. contrary to the relaxed pace of these students, however, you're scrambling to reach your own destination: the library.

since you're free for this period, you thought you'd take the time to look around the grand library. really, this is the only reason you tried so hard to get into such a prestigious school. your family wasn't well-off, but earn enough to keep a delicious meal on your plate and a sturdy roof above your head.

the polished doubledoors creak open, and without wasting another second, you're already scanning book-lined shelves. the forgotten book of herbal remedies, the book of lies, 101 ways to hide a body... wait, what?

deciding not to question it, you finally find a good novel to read. to nobody's surprise, it's dark romance because of course it is. happily, you sink into a comfy bean bag this makes me kinda jealous and lose yourself within the pages, ignorant to brown eyes watching your every move.

a shadow looms over you, and you barely have any time to react before you're pulled into a lean chest, arms wrapped securely around your waist.

"wh-"

"there you are, my precious wife!"

your brain is barely processing the situation. what is he talking about? who is he talking about? it takes a around a minute before you've pulled yourself back, landing not-so gracefully onto the bean bag that you were just sitting on a moment before.

"sorry, i think you may have the wrong person," you say, firmly.

you've never seen this man in your life, who the hell does he think he is? what did he call you? his wife? he better be joking. he's either mistaken or insane. probably the latter, hun. he's insanely in love with you.

"how could i mistake you for anyone else?"

and now he's pulling you along to his fancy car, talking about how he'll introduce you to his parents because apparantly, he's already talked to them about the wedding and-

what do you mean he's talked to your parents!? and they didn't tell you anything!? that's because he threatened them with your safety, but you don't have to know that.

the worst part? you left your book at the library!

could it be any worse? yes, it could. after dinner with your supposed parents-in-law, you pull him aside. he's happy to follow you, anticipating anything you have to say. are you excited too? he's already imagining all the fun you'll have together. cuddling with you, holding your hand, going on dates, spending the rest of his life with you-

"i'm sorry, but i'm not marrying you."

"..good joke, honey."

you're not joking? he falls silent. you've already left by the time he came back to his senses, and he's never felt emptier in his life. how do you think this man—someone who had been given everything he could ever need; who could have the whole world served on a silver platter if he asked—will face the rejection of the single person he's genuinely fallen head over heels for?

it's safe to say that his ego is absolutely bruised. don't even get me started on his heart. words cannot describe the world-shattering devestation he felt. no, he wouldn't stand for this. he's never taken no for an answer, and he certainly isn't starting now.

you will be with him, and he doesn't care if he has to shatter your legs just to make sure you never leave. let's hope it never comes to that, though. he quite likes it when you smile, but he supposedly wouldn't mind seeing you cry, either.

within the next few months, it's like the world is crumbling. your parents lose their jobs, your grades are suddenly dropping, you can barely earn enough from your part-time job to keep food on your plates—it's a mess.

you're struggling, and he knows it.

when you're at your lowest point, he'll pay you a visit. pitiful darling, you know he can make it all go away, right? he'll help you. like a demon tempting to grant your deepest, darkest desire.

"shh, don't cry, sweetheart," he'll take care of you.

don't worry, honey, he can make it all go away. it's not difficult to give you back all that he took away. everything you've lost can be placed right back onto your gorgeous little palm.

but at what cost?

your body.

your soul.

your mind.

your everything.

don't you see, honey? he would do anything for you. new clothes? he'll buy the entire mall. need a better house? how about a mansion? want the moon? he'll do his best to get it for you, no questions asked. you could have everything you could ever want and more.

it's a generous offer, lovely. all he asks for, in return, is that you give up. you were his the moment he saw you, and that might have been the biggest mistake of your life.

say yes, honey. it's the only option you have.

55 notes · View notes

1moreff-creator · 1 year ago

Text

(03) David Chiem - First Trial (DRDT - Milgram AU)

IMPORTANT: This had to be reposted due to technical issues (it wasn't showing up on tags). There were two votes on the original before I privated it to avoid confusion. Please check you've voted if this disclaimer wasn't there when you first saw the post.

Another entry in this crossover AU! This time David, with his VD Nebula, and his MV Star in the Night! Wait. David… MV? David MV? Oh God no not again I don’t wanna go back no-! (/joke)

Thumbnail:

So for the content warnings, you know what, I’ll just make an universal list of all the content warnings I think the AU will need, hopefully I don’t miss anything. So, here are the universal CWs! Not all of them apply to David, but I do this to prevent sorta spoiling things in the CWs. In no particular order:

Universal CWs: Violent murder, suicide, self-harm, stabbing, strangling, poisoning, gun violence, fire, child abuse, animal death, bullying, road accidents, betrayals, transphobia, mass death, conspiracy to harm.

By the way, important note: when I originally made the Undercover post, I fucked up with his kill-shot. The victim was supposed to have one shoe off, and I forgot to mention it, oops. I’ve edited it, but just in case you hadn’t seen the edit, keep that in mind.

Voice Drama: Nebula

(Why is David so hard to write send help. Hope he's not too ooc)

*Footsteps*

Es: Hi!

David: Hello there! My name is David Chiem. A pleasure!

E: And I’m Es! Nice to meet you, David!

D: I hope you don’t mind me asking, but you are the Warden of Milgram, right?

E: That’s right! Why do you ask?

D: Well, I wanted to know if I could bring certain… issues, to your attention. After all, you are an authority figure here, from what I understand.

E: Oh! Of course! Is there something wrong? Are any of the other prisoners causing you trouble?

D: Oh, no! Nothing like that. It’s just, well. See, you’ve claimed every person here is a murderer, right?

E: That’s right, yeah.

D: Well, it seems there’s been a mistake. But don’t worry! I won’t hold it against you!

E: A mistake? What do you mean?

D: Well, how do I put this? I… have been wrongly imprisoned, you see. I’ve never… killed anyone.

E: Huh, really? You know, it’s funny. You’re not the first to say that.

D: Oh? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other innocent people here. But it’s fine! Mistakes can be corrected. It’s not difficult to change, if you’re willing to!

E: … Is that so? You know… you seem pretty calm about all this.

D: Hm, I guess you could say that. But it’s just who I am. See, I try to be as positive as I can, since I know there's a lot of people that don't get the privilege.

E: Really now? And you don’t think a situation like this merits being at least a little bit worried?

D: Ah, I guess so. I…am worried, deep down. But being negative can only make things worse, right? When it feels like everything else is against you, the least you can do is help yourself.

E: Hm…

D: A lot of the people here are extremely distressed, understandably so. And I have to think, well, these people might have bigger issues than me, yes? I live a pretty good life, I can look forward to returning to it whenever this all blows over. So it’s my responsibility to keep morale high!

E: Alright… And what does your life look like that you are seemingly so content with it?

D: Want to count my blessings, huh? Well, let’s see. Although I’m an only child, I have a good relationship with the rest of my family, and I have good connections with people outside of it as well. I consider myself talented, there are some things I’m quite good at! I am quite wealthy thanks to my work as a professional inspirational speaker, so I don’t have any financial concerns. In fact, one of the other murderers even recognized me!

E: Oh! What a coincidence!

D: Yeah, right? I was surprised too-

E: So why did you call them a murderer?

D: *Sputter* I’m sorry?

E: You said they were “one of the other murderers.” I thought you said you believed some of the others could have been wrongfully imprisoned? I would imagine someone as positive as you would only want to assume the very best, right?

D: *Sharp breath*

E: *Slightly smug* Not to mention, “other murderers?” I thought you hadn’t killed anyone, David.

D: Yes, that’s right! I’m- I’m sorry, it was a slip of the tongue.

E: Is that really it? You seem nervous about something.

D: *Nervous chuckle* Didn’t you tell me I should feel worried about my situation? But now you’re suddenly concerned with a bit of stress over false accusations. *Fake-sounding chuckle* You’re giving me contradictory information, Warden!

E: *Cheery* Well, at that point you hadn’t revealed you knew you were a murderer!

D: Huh? What do you mean, know I’m a murderer?

E: Well, sorry! But you are a murderer.

D: … Are you- Are you serious? I make one little mistake, just misspeak once, and you immediately assume the worst?

E: …

D: You know, things like this have happened before. People like to pretend I’ve said things I haven’t said, misinterpret actions and statements… That can hurt people, you know?

E: …

D: Just jumping to conclusions… all of you are the same. You hear only what you want to hear, and then decide I’m a murderer just because I misspoke-

E: No, that’s wrong.

D: …What?

E: I don’t think you’re a murderer just because of what you said. I just never believed you from the start. Again, sorry!

D: … Excuse me?

E: You are a prisoner in Milgram. That is all the proof I need to know your actions have led to someone’s death. Because of that, when you told me you weren’t a murderer, I knew there were only three options.

D: … Do enlighten me, please.

E: One option is that you are mistaken. Maybe you don’t consider what you did murder, when in the eyes of Milgram, it could be judged as such. The second is that you were lying to yourself, in an attempt to protect yourself from your actions.

D: …

E: The third is that you were lying to me.

D: …

E: That Freudian slip of yours was enough to tell me you do consider yourself a murderer. So you’re not mistaken, and you’re not lying to yourself. Therefore, you must have been lying to me!

D: … I see.

E: So you admit to it?

D: … Admit to it? Admit to what? Your reasoning only works if you assume this accursed prison can’t get things wrong, which is just delusional.

E: Perhaps you feel that way. Except, I know you don’t, since you consider the others murderers as well.

D: Will you just-?! *Deep breath*

E: Listen, David. I’m not mad at you. I understand your murder must have been traumatic-

D: I didn’t-

E: But lying and hiding it all isn’t going to help you here. I will find out the truth anyways, so being honest is probably your best bet!

D: Being- *Mix between a chuckle and a short wheeze* Do you even know what you’re asking me to do?

E: I don’t think I’m asking too much! Just tell me what you did and-

D: You really don’t understand anything, huh?

E: … Your eyes…

D: Oh? Are the stars gone? Yeah, they do that.

E: N-Nevermind that. What do you mean I don’t understand anything?

D: … Well. How do I put this? I can’t have you- You shouldn’t be allowed to know everything about my life, right? What gives you the right to invade my privacy? Nothing!

E: That’s unfortunate for you, then! I will find the truth, whether you like it or not.

D: … *sigh, his voice is filled with poison* You really are arrogant, huh?

E: … And you aren’t really as positive as you say, right?

D: …

E: David?

D: Ah! Apologies. It seems I was losing track of myself there. I apologize if I said something hurtful.

E: *Sputter* The stars-

D: In any case, if I may, I’ll once again state. Nothing I've ever done could be considered murder, and I wholeheartedly believe that.

E: But that's a lie.

D: Perhaps. But, you see... If you do find the truth…

E: …

D: Then you might as well just kill me on the spot!

*Machinery whirs*

E: Huh? Wait, what do you mean?

D: Oh, it seems the extraction process starts now, right? That’s unfortunate.

E: Wait, I still have questions! I just need more time!

D: Ha… well, we all want what we can’t have, I guess.

E: Huh?

D: Ah! Sorry, maybe that came off a bit depressing. In any case, I want to leave you with one last message, a quote from Shakespeare’s Othello.

E: What are you-

D: “To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”

E: Huh?

D: "Holding grudges and focusing on the past will only lead to misfortune." It is better to focus on the future and-!

E: Are you serious?! Stop trying to convince me into not doing my job! It’s not going to work.

MonoTV: Well, it sorta is! Why are you taking so long? We’re on a schedule here.

D: *Chuckle*

E: Urgh…

E: Prisoner 03, David Chiem, sing your sins!

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

Trial 1 Cover: Magical Girl and Chocolate by PinnochioP

(Listen I saw the chance to play into the magical girl joke and had to do it)

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

Music Video: Star in the Night

(By the way, I reference Chinese tally marks quite a bit, so here they are for reference. Also to clarify they are used in other countries but I'm calling them that because their origin is Chinese (from what I understand I hope I'm not getting this too wrong), I don't know if there's a better term for them, sorry)

(I also call out real books by name, which I hope isn’t too immersion breaking, but I felt it was fitting considering who we’re dealing with lol. Now the song)

[The music sounds like a pretty standard “inspirational” pop song. Think Firework by Katy Perry]

[David speaks the first few lines]

Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else! It’s the start of another wonderful day! Let us make the most of it! I hope you can trust me when I say, It will all be alright

The video starts on a shot of an empty stage, the front row seats barely visible around it. In the center stands David, who looks small in comparison to the stage. Several spotlights shine on him, his arms out beside him. He’s wearing his canon outfit (pre-CH2 EP11), as well as a white domino mask with golden highlights (the one from the thumbnail) over his eyes. He also wears a pin on his right, which looks like a pink camellia. A red dot is visible on the top left of the screen, alongside the word REC.

The camera slowly zooms in, and David puts his left hand over his chest as he continues talking. He smiles wide and bright as the opener ends, and the camera glitches.

[Now he starts singing. I’m still basing this off Firework tbh]

Waking up again, Watching the sun rise, (I) Another brand new start, Another breath of air! (II)

(I) We get a shot of David sitting up on a bed with a deep blue blanket decorated with stars. The walls are grey, but there’s a window with purple curtains in the background, which lets in sunlight. His head is off frame, but he’s reaching up towards it with his left hand. There’s a nightstand off to the left. On it we see a simple lamp, a photograph frame (the photograph is obscured), and a phone with a blue case. There’s a grey circle visible in the top left of the screen.

(II) We zoom in on the phone, the grey circle at the top right still visible. The phone screen lights up with a message.

Edward W.

Good morning. Remember we signed an agreement for an advertisement with…

After that message arrives, David’s hand appears on screen and grabs the phone.

Burning ever bright, the passion for your life. (I) Don’t ever put it down, And hope will never drown! (II)

(I) We’re back at the stage, the same scene as before, but now we’re looking at David’s back. The seats for the audience are visible, and on them sit a bunch of grey figures with no discernible features. The circle at the top left is red again, and once more the REC word appears next to it.

(II) Grey circle again, as we switch to a scene with a pure white background. A hand with the following bracelet appears from the top right, holding the white domino mask.

(Please pretend that's not the shittiest image ever made)

Another, smaller hand appears from the bottom left, grabbing the mask and taking it off screen.

[Pre-chorus, the instrumental builds]

See a quasar that now spins Emitting hope, emitting dreams! (I) The center, truly irrelevant When the light is all we see! So- (II)

(I) Grey circle. Back to a front-facing shot of David, who is holding the mask with his right hand. The shot starts with the mask covering the screen, but David swiftly brings the mask closer to him. His eyes lack stars. His expression is neutral-to-dead inside, and he looks down at the mask for a few seconds.

(II) He takes a breath. Then, he brings his head down at the same time he brings the mask up, covering his face with his hand. He holds that position for a moment, and as the song says “light”, spotlights begin shining on him. At the same time, the circle turns red with REC again. When the “so” plays, David brings his hand up and we zoom in as he points to the sky.

[Chorus!]

Tally up the good things like dots in the sky! (I) You’ll find there’s always hope if you’re willing to try! (II) And even when you feel that you’re lost in the dark, (III) Then I offer my advice, allow me in your heart And then let me be your star in the night! (IV)

(I) Thumbnail image, except the tally symbols start off as yellow dots that look like stars before turning into the tally symbols we see in said image.

(II) David continues singing, but we get different angles to make the shots a bit more interesting.

(III) Front-facing shot of David again. His right hand is over his chest as he sings with a slightly less enthusiastic smile. The stars in his eyes fade out. When the song says “dark”, there’s a quick flash to another scene. The background is now black instead of blue, and while David is standing in the same position, his appearance is a bit different. Hair clips off, messy hair, tie undone, black circles around his pupils. He’s wearing a black and blue domino mask, similar to the other one he was wearing before. The pink camellia pin has disappeared, but now he’s wearing a black rose pin on his left. He looks vaguely frustrated. The circle is grey.

(IV) After only a moment, we’re back to the previous scene, and David continues singing as the camera slowly zooms out. Just as the chorus ends, the camera glitches a bit. We see this for a moment:

(Okay so there was an image here, but it gets the post shadowbanned for unknowable reasons. I'll just put the image description here:

"David stands neutrally, with his white mask outfit. He's in front of a green screen on a grey wall. It looks as if he's being recorded by a camera which shows things such as the time of recording, the camera battery, the pixel size, etcetera. Red REC circle on the top left.")

Then, the camera suddenly goes dark with a bright flash at the center, as if it had been turned off.

[More spoken words]

There will be times in your life, when you feel that (I) you don’t have anything worth living for. (II) This will always be false. (III) Let me tell you some, uh, paraphrased quotes from books I like, which help me maintain a positive attitude! (IV)

(I) We see David from a POV to his right. He’s sitting on a comfortable looking blue and yellow chair as he talks with a calm smile, wearing the white mask and pin with the red REC circle visible. He’s in a small room, with star decorations hanging from the ceiling. On the blue walls, there’s a poster of David (white mask and all) holding a book with a big smile on his face, alongside some unreadable text. The book has David's face on the cover.

(II) The screen glitches, and we’re now looking at David from the left. He’s still sitting on a similar chair, except it’s black and purple. He’s back to his bed-hair, black mask, dark circles around pupils, black rose pin costume. He’s smirking as he talks. The background is completely black, but the circle is still red with REC.

(III) Screen glitches again, and we’re back at the same scene from (I).

(IV) We’re now in a different room, with a wooden floor and blue walls decorated with stars. Red circle with REC. The back of David’s head covers most of the screen, a hand with the same bracelet as before on his shoulder. In the background, there are four blurry, white silhouettes of people.

[Back to singing]

One: (I) Being harmed by cotton wool, Happiness scares the weak (II)

(I) We see a grey background with a horizontal line glowing bright yellow in the middle. There is a small table in the foreground, which shows a book with a pink cover and a black silhouette on front. The side reads “No Longer Human.”

(II) Red REC circle. We see one of the white silhouettes, with long hair, holding up a daisy flower as David (white mask) gives a thumbs up with a wide smile. The background is completely blue.

Two: (I) Our doubts, traitorous Make us lose what we may win (II)

(I) Same grey background as before, but now the glowing symbol in the background is the Chinese tally mark for 2. “No Longer Human” is still there, but now there’s a book standing next to it. It’s orange and has a scale on the front, alongside the words “Measure for Measure.”

(II) Grey circle. The screen is split in two. On the left, David without his hairpins (post-reveal hair), but also without a mask, is staring blankly at his phone. The background has the grey walls and purple curtains from his bedroom. On the right, we see someone in a suit with a pin which looks exactly like David’s hairpins accepting money being handed to them by a white silhouette. The white silhouette has similar pins on their other hand. The background there is blue.

Three: (I) Time and the hour, Run through even rough things (II)

(I) Same scene with the books, but now the symbol is the Chinese tally mark for 3 and there’s a new addition. A book with a red cover with a skull and a crown, labeled “Macbeth.”

(II) We see a white silhouette with short hair slouched over on a desk, in a dark room. They’re looking at a computer screen showing David’s white-masked, smiling face. The circle isn’t visible in its usual spot, but it’s on the computer screen, red with REC. The desk the computer is on has discarded candy wrappings all around the keyboard, as well as a white mug with a yellow star drawn on it.

Four: (I) Time soothes sorrows, Be content you have known me. (II)

(I) Book shot. The symbol is now the Chinese tally mark for 4. Apart from the books which were already there, there’s now a white book off to the side, with a small, stylized drawing of a person with blond hair and green clothes standing on a grey sphere. We can barely see the words “The Little Prince.”

(II) Another white silhouette in a blue background, a book with David's face on the cover beside them. Red REC circle. The silhouette is on the floor, their hand outstretched towards (white-mask) David, who is leaning down over them and offering them a hand with a placid smile. It looks as if David is trying to help them stand up.

Five: (I) There’s relief when you know, You won’t carry burdens, see…

(I) The same scene as before, except all the books are gone. The symbol in the background is the Chinese tally mark for 5. On the table stands a book with a dark cover showing a big house, with the title “And Then There Were None.”

(II) We see David’s face (white mask, but hair undone), with a smile that doesn’t reach his (starless) eyes, as he accepts his usual hairpins being handed to him by a hand with the previously shown bracelet.

[Pre-chorus]

And there is so much, so much more (I) So many reasons to carry on (II) Even when the world’s against you You just have to find your hope! (III) So (IV)

(I) Back to the scene with the comfortable looking chair for a moment. Red REC circle again.

(II) Grey circle. We see David’s back (post-EP11 hair) as he looks out the window of his bedroom, which shows a pitch black sky, the purple curtains framing the shot.

(III) David walks off frame, but his reflection remains still on the window. It’s David with the black mask outfit, smirking.

(IV) Screen glitches, and the window disappears, but David (black mask) is still there, on a black background. The circle turns red with REC, and spotlights begin shining on him.

(I) David (still black mask, black rose pin, black circles around pupils, no hairpins and post-CH11 hair) points up, the camera zooms in on his hand. It quickly goes back to showing his full upper body, he’s still smirking. The background remains completely black, but the circle is still red with REC.

(II) We zoom in a bit. David tilts his head and rolls his eyes behind his mask.

(III) We change to the back of David’s head. We see the four white silhouettes on the black background, looking as taken aback as silhouettes can look.

(IV) Screen glitches, we see a side shot of white mask David holding his hand out with a bright smile. Screen glitches again, now black mask David is standing in the same position.

(V) We see this:

[There’s a small guitar solo, as the music suddenly switches to a very fast-paced rock style instrumental. David can be heard laughing]

Still with his black mask outfit, David sits down on the same comfortable looking purple and black chair from before. He’s laughing.

[The next lines are sung very quickly]

One: (I) I wonder, does it make me a villain… (II) Two: (III) If I choose to discard the ideal? (IV) Three: (V) Should I regret what is true now? (VI) Four: (VII) Is it my fault? Does it make me inhuman? (VIII) Ah… hahaha! … (IX) “Correct” (X)

(I) Back to the grey background with a table in the foreground. We again see a horizontal line glowing bright yellow in the background, but now there’s a withered daisy laying on top of the table.

(II) Screen is split, the circle is gone. To the left, David (black mask) has his mouth open in a smirk as he points to his head in a finger gun gesture. There is blood on his hand. To the right, we see the long haired white silhouette’s head laying on the ground with their head turned to the side, a splatter of a pink liquid under it.

(III) Grey background with Chinese tally mark for 2 glowing. The withered daisy is still there, but now there’s also a broken pin beside it which looks very similar to David’s.

(IV) Screen is split again. To the right, a side shot of David holding his now bloodied neck with both hands, again with a big smirk. To the left, another white silhouette laying on the ground, face down with their hands to their sides, and without any pink liquid visible.

(V) Chinese tally mark for three on the grey background. Alongside the withered daisy and the pin, we see the broken pieces of a white mug with a star drawn on it.

(VI) In the bottom left, a shot from David’s left, where he’s giving a thumbs down with a bloody hand, the blood still on his hands and neck. On the top right, another white silhouette laying on a pool of pink liquid on the ground, their limbs bent in unnatural positions.

(VII) Chinese tally mark for 4 in the grey background. Alongside the other objects, we see the book with David's face. It’s completely drenched in water, several pages ripped out and strewn around the table.

(VIII) To the right, a side shot of David pinching his nose, still smirking. On the left, another of the white silhouettes lays on the ground with their head tilted to the side, again without pink liquid.

(IX) We see David’s upper body as he stands up and cackles, throwing his arms out to the sides. As the laugh trails off, the screen glitches. David changes a bit. His hairstyle turns into his pre-Ch11 hairstyle, but he doesn’t have the hairpins. His eyes have neither stars nor dark circles around the pupils, though he does have eyebags. He’s not wearing a mask or a pin, and his tie is undone. He’s looking at the camera with a horrified expression. The grey circle returns. The screen fades to black as the laugh fully disappears and there’s silence for a moment.

(X) An image fades in from the black. It’s the same table from before, but lit more dimly. The grey background shows the Chinese tally symbol for five written in blood. The only thing in the table is the bracelet, stained with blood.

[Bridge, the instrumental slows down again]

Count up my mistakes, like stars in daylight. You will find “me” again, if you’re willing to try. And even when it feels it’s all lost to the dark (I) Then I beg you, I beg you… (II)

(I) Screen fades in again, and we see David standing in the stage from chorus one. Grey circle, no spotlights. The shot is zoomed out, so David’s face is impossible to see, but his arms are to his side neutrally, and his head is tilted down. His hairpins and chest pins are missing, and his tie is undone. There is a stool next to him, the white mask laying on it.

As he stands still, words appear behind him, slowly rising from the ground and scrolling to the top of the screen.

CREDITS

Main cast:

Chiem D. 正 Williams E.

Producers:

Chiem D. Williams E. MILGRAM

Script-writing:

Williams E. Chiem D.

Camera Operator:

Chiem D.

Original Idea:

Chiem D.

Special Thanks:

Background Characters:

As the credits scroll, David brings his hands to his chest and fumbles around a bit. When he moves them away, his tie is now done correctly and his pink camellia pin is back up. He then takes something out of his pocket, and brings his hands to his hair. After removing the hands, his hair pins are back up.

(II) Right as “Background Characters” appears on screen, we cut. Zoom in on the white mask on the stool, and David grabs it. Shot switches to David’s face, his eyes closed and mouth pressed in a thin line. He slaps the mask on his face, and quickly swipes his hand up. As he does, his mouth twists into a big smile, the circle turns red with REC, and the spotlights begin shining on him again.

Tally up the good things like dots in the sky! You’ll find there’s always hope if you’re willing to try! And even when you feel that you’re lost in the dark, (I) Then I offer my advice, (II) allow me in your heart (III) And then let me be your star in the night! (IV)

(I) The camera zooms out slightly to show David’s upper body, as he points up. The credits behind him now start scrolling backwards (top to bottom). He’s singing cheerily, but there are no stars in his eyes. Right as he says “lost in the dark”, the credits fully disappear from the screen.

(II) Cut to the ‘正’ symbol, written in blood, on a grey wall. Grey circle.

(III) David’s hands appear on frame, holding a mirror with a golden frame. He puts it over the ‘正’ symbol, covering it completely. In the reflection, we see white mask David frowning at the mirror with starless eyes.

(IV) Screen glitches, and we’re back to the same screen as before (white mask - no stars - spotlights - red REC circle - stage). David finishes singing, but he’s still breathing quickly.

[Instrumental begins to wind down]

The camera zooms out as David continues breathing heavily.

Let me be your star in the night!

The camera fades to static before suddenly cutting off.

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MonoTV: On the topic of inspirational speaking, do you need any encouragement?

Es: Uhm, I guess it couldn’t hurt?

M: Too bad! I’m not gonna be nice to you!

E: Who are you talking to again?

M: The only encouragement I’ll ever give you is when it comes time to cast your verdict. And speaking of that, it’s… g

VOTING TIME!!!

#drdt #david chiem #milgram #drdt milgram crossover au

26 notes · View notes

voxofthevoid · 1 year ago

Note

Hello! First, let me just — hold your hands. See, you don't need to sit on them to not ramble. I'll always welcome authors' ramblings, in fact, I crave them like a man possessed, starved. So, please don't be cruel and deny a poor soul your ramblings. With that said...

I feel as if you opened a door inside my brain when you said Gojou is holding his own leash in "every version of the story". From the snippets you've posted about the story before, I feel as if Gojou wants Yuuji to hold it, and he's desperate for that sunshine boy to do it. Sure, he's canonically very dominant, very imposing, very against people telling him what to do, but even still... Well, I think he craves just giving up some control, especially to someone he knows won't "misuse" it, even though I think he wouldn't mind if, say, Yuuji did it. An ex. of that was when he was younger and Getou was practically his moral compass.

It's sort of ironic in "every version of the story" because Gojou needs to practically tire Yuuji out by any means necessary (cough sex, isolation, questionable life experiences, etc. cough) just so he can shove said leash on Yuuji's hands so they can become "equals". After all, to have some degree of influence on the strongest is power in itself, even if the other person doesn't realise it yet. It also makes for such a compelling dynamic, which he only got glimpses of in canon.

I guess I'm the one rambling now, huh? Anyways, I just want to congratulate you on your characterization of Gojou. It's exactly on point — a delicious sort of pathetic, obsessive, sadomasochistic and unhinged —, and one of my favourites across all the Goyuu verse.

Hope you have a good weekend. <3

Ah, if you're holding my hands, then I suppose I have no choice but to type away.

Ah well!

First things first, anon, you should know that I read "From the snippets you've posted about the story before, I feel as if Gojou wants Yuuji to hold it" and went You—You Get It.

The Gojou/leash thing (in the sense of how he's the only one holding it as well as how he might want someone else to) is something that now informs my approach to him in general, though the specifics vary depending on whether I'm writing teen!Gojou, post-Toji!Gojou, or adult!Gojou. And while Gojou's strength in terms of his self-control was something I was interested in from the start, every version of the story fundamentally altered my take on the whole thing.

Characterization breakthrough: Horror edition.

(Okay, everything I've written after it has been pretty tame on the Gojou end, but you should see some of my unwritten ideas...)

Back to the point, you're right! Gojou wanting very badly for someone—someone he has the luxury of trusting with himself—to hold that leash is a pervasive undercurrent in every version of the story. He wants an equal, and Yuuji's one of the people he identified as having the potential to be one; these are canon. And I've already rambled a lot about how one of the most appealing parts of Gojou's and Yuuji's dynamics is how they humanize each other from the beginning to the end. Combine the power aspects from the former with the emotional attachment engendered by the latter, and you get a scenario rich with potential for some wildly shifting power dynamics.

You've already seen glimpses of it in the WIP Wednesday snippets, and the full fic has a lot more it. A good percentage of the storytelling happens during and through the sex, and it's a zigzagging road overall. Where we start is starkly different from where it ends, and the path there isn't kind or pretty, but I hope to god that it's interesting.

Also, I can't tell you how delighted I am by you liking Gojou's characterization in that fic, especially because "pathetic, obsessive, sadomasochistic and unhinged" encapsulate everything I was aiming for. Thank you so much 💗

And feel free to ramble in my inbox anytime; your thoughts are *chef's kiss*

Have a good day!

#anon #i love my anons #fic: every version of the story #goyuu

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melrosing · 8 months ago

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I understand u don’t want to continue this convo (bran and Arya are mean comment) that being said I also just wanted to thank you for being level headed? Like I started out a couple months ago full on AryaFan (0 social media for asoiaf before) and I followed like 5-10blogs that love her! I was excited but then they argued with ghosts in the tags “I keep seeing this awful take” and I just was like astounded they would use so much energy to argue and be like a reason to start disliking the fandom

ah I think tbh all of fandom has a tendency towards this and I won't even say I've never made that kind of 'i keep seeing this take' post before - when you know that a certain kind of take exists and you've seen it enough times, sometimes you're reminded of it and you want to explain your own opinion apropos nothing in particular, just to drown out that noise wherever it might be. like this definitely isn't unique to Arya fandom, and I'd say I've seen just about everyone I follow make one - again me included

but I do think it can get ridiculous when half ur blog is just fighting other users (or indeed invisible takes when other users aren't providing enough content to fight over), building some narrative that you're the most persecuted section of fandom and why is it that only you understand this character and that issue, and every time someone shares their opinion on your fave it's like they're stepping on your turf and you've got to come down on them like an anvil so they know who's in charge around here and it feels right and honourable when you're doing it but in reality you just look way too online.

BUT again this is a problem everywhere, I've blocked people in my own parts of fandom who I feel have too much of a tendency to constantly blog like this and I have talked to others about how we want to avoid falling into the same pit lol. it makes for a bad fandom ecosystem and like you say it discouraged you from enjoying fandom when you encountered it!

but also Arya is a great character and there are so many great Arya fans. some of the fanart and edits and meta on Arya is the best in fandom and really enrich my enjoyment for her POVs on rereads. I know the asoiaf tags can be a cesspit sometimes but I think the best thing you can do is just post the kind of stuff you want to see and you will draw others to your blog and you can encourage that kind of fandom culture amongst urselves.

#ask

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bernardellinewsagency · 3 months ago

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can i interest you all in some gallayuan in these trying times? fr tho i cranked this out because you really do gotta create the content you wanna see in this world. it is literally just 600 words of only dialogue and as with many ideas of mine i didn't feel like writing out the background for this scenario so just use your imagination and extrapolation abilities. i believe in you :)

im also tired as fuck cause it's nearly 2am when im posting this and it's barely edited so you see mistakes or if it's barely comprehensible, um, pretend you don't, those are problems for future me. i'm just trying to get people to see my vision of these two being a ship okay? the words are just a vehicle to transport my meaning with.

"Sorry, I didn't realize there was anyone else here."

"Don't sweat it, honestly. Besides, I'm just passing through, finishing up some sightseeing here. Looks like you're pretty busy, so I'll leave and get outta your hair soon."

"Nonsense! A guest on the Luofu should be able to stay for as long as they wish."

"Ha, funny, I'm used to hearing the opposite of that. It's not exactly the opposite, I guess, but it's close enough."

"Did someone on the Luofu say something to you to the contrary? While it's not too often that a guest chooses to visit Fyxestroll Garden, it is safe to do so and the guards should not restrict anyone's comings and goings any longer. Or was it elsewhere? Do I need to speak to the Cloud Knights or the Commission about the behaviors they're displaying?"

"What? No, everyone's been kind and polite and all that. I came here from Penacony, so I'm used to hearing that everyone can stay only so long as they've got the money to do so. Ain't no rest for the poor, but plenty for the wicked, you know what I mean?"

"Ah, I suppose that I do. Some people never seem to get what they deserve."

"Sounds like you're speaking from personal experience."

"Does it? You know, many tourists tend to shy away from Fyxestroll Garden for the very reason that some specifically visit. It is a place to... let go. Release the dead so that they may move on, and you may do the same."

"Thinking you've already figured out I'm not returning to Penacony any time soon?"

"Call it just a hunch of mine."

"Well it's a damn good hunch, 'cause it's true. I was uh... involved, should I say, in some of the shit that went down. Couldn't stay there any longer. Not like I'm on the run or anything, not from anything other than the memories, it just became my time to move on and leave it behind."

"Ah, I thought I had seen something similar within you. So, if you're running from the past, what is it you're running toward?"

"What is this, an interrogation?"

"Call it humoring a new friend."

"Haha, alright. I will. I'm going to the same place we all are- the imperfect tomorrow."

"How poetic of you."

"I'm known for my wit on occasion. How about you? Do I also get an answer in return, new friend?"

"Call me Jing Yuan. I suppose that makes me a traveler in the opposite direction, then. Burn your memories and reach tomorrow, or cling to them and stay in the past."

"You say you're clinging to something, yet you're hanging around a place you said was for letting go? Put it together, sounds like you're just torturing yourself. I'm Gallagher, by the way."

"Simply honoring those I've lost, but- you're not entirely wrong. Say, this may be too presumptuous of me, but would you like to walk with me?"

"Where to?"

"Any sight in the Luofu you wish to see before you leave is open to you, even those which average people cannot access so long as I am there to allow you in. We may be headed in different directions with regards to philosophy, but let's allow our physical paths to cross for a while longer, shall we?"

"I'd be a fool not to take you up on that, Mister Jing Yuan. But first, let's stay here just a little bit longer. It really is a beautiful sight, and I think it's doing both of us some good."

#honkai star rail #hsr #hsr gallagher #hsr jing yuan #gallayuan #gallagher x jing yuan #my stuff #look im just trying to get other people to see what im seeing between the two of them (a world of possibilities)#i will singlehandedly make this ship a thing if i have to

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theonceandfuturequeenoftarts · 10 months ago

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I'm so intrigued by JRPG-style from the WIP game!!! Would love to know more about it

(unrelated to the WIP game but: I really enjoyed reading both 'engrave the silhouette of you' and 'thus, friends absent speak' after seeing them linked on the WIP game post! Good epistolary tomarry fics hold my heart, and amnesia + a whole relationship with your fated nemesis that you're left to grapple with (also, losing a WHOLE decade!) is such a fantastic idea that you've really breathed life into. Thank you for writing and posting, both have gone straight to my bookmarks 👀).

Oh goodness, thank you so much @known-concepts!! I'm so glad you enjoyed those two fics ヽ(；▽；)ノ

So. JRPG-style is me mashing my love for late 90s and 00s JRPGS (especially the Tales of series) with the HP universe. I've been working on plotting it out for a couple months now and finally figured out a couple of the beats that were holding me up last week, so I'm hoping to make some progress on writing this one soon because I want to write this so badly.

Harry is the Chosen One, whose task is to reinforce the seals across the land keeping Voldemort contained. Except Dumbledore, who was involved with the last pilgrimage several decades ago, has found a way to destroy Voldemort once and for all -- by releasing him.

Featuring quirky adventures, HP plot points, more worldbuilding than I've ever done before, and a hefty dose of tomarrymort for flavour, and that's where this one is heading. Probably not the most original idea, but I'm gonna have fun with it!

Thank you for asking! ( ˘ ³˘)♥︎

Edit: Since I don't have a snippet of JRPG-style to post yet, here's a snippet from the next chapter of "engrave the silhouette of you":

Now that he’s speaking with Voldemort, and he’s seen how the man looks at him and reacts to him, it is impossible to deny how deeply Voldemort feels for him. And it’s a very Voldemort concept of love: obsessive, heavy, portentous – consuming. It should be stifling, but to Harry it feels like warmth and devotion. He’s been alone and unloved for so long, it makes a grim kind of sense that he’d gravitate towards someone whose affection for him is so undeniable. There is one thing Harry has wanted for as long as he can remember. More than food, more than comfort, Harry wished for someone to love him. Dumbledore told him that his mother’s love for him was so great he survived the killing curse, but Harry’s only memory of her is her dying moments, and being told someone loves you is rather cold comfort. The magical world’s love for him due to Voldemort’s defeat has always been more of an oppressive burden than something from which to draw strength. But Voldemort loves him. To an almost unhealthy degree, it seems.

And here's a snippet I may or may not use in the fic, but it's amusing and I want to share:

Voldemort pulls back from the kiss, and Harry's so dazed it takes a good five seconds for him to understand what's happened and try to correct it. The other man is not co-operating. “Harry, you need to tell me to stop,” he pants. “What? Why would I do that? That’s a terrible idea–” “Harry–” Voldemort’s voice is decidedly strained, breaking on Harry’s name. “Get back here,” Harry demands, trying to pull the other man’s face back to his. “We shouldn’t–” “Since when do you care about ‘shouldn’t?’” He’s so focused on getting back to kissing that his mouth runs away with him. “You’ve had a lot of awful ideas, and that’s one of them, who lets you run a country–” Voldemort drops his head to Harry’s shoulder, and he starts to shake. Harry’s suddenly concerned he broke the other man. Surely he hasn’t made Voldemort cry…? Ah, no, Voldemort is laughing. Probably at him.

#asks #wip game #tomarrymort #jrpg au

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danpuff-ao3 · 2 years ago

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10 Lines | 10 People

Thanks for the tag @yletylyf &@givereadersahug & @crazybutgood!! 🤗🤗🤗

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway

Since it says "ten of" and not "the last ten" 👀 I'll pick and choose from my first page, yeah?

Allure

Never has Harry been able to pin Severus down. Mystery is part of the allure.

Short Snarry work for Kinkuary. A/b/o, sequel to Obscene, Harry POV!

The Perfect Shade of Purple

A strange sensation. Pricks of pain, or sparks of pleasure?

Riddledore for Kinkuary, prompt cockwarming. A bit of student/teacher with Professor Dumbledore & Student Tom (age unspecified.)

Hatefuck

Loathing is the easy part.

Snarry for Kinkuary, part of the same universe as Contempt. That 'verse will just not leave me be, I swear! And I wrote this on a whim all in one morning!

Gray Eyes (Tell No Lies)

Draco’s cock is a tiny thing.

Draco/Sirius for Kinkuary prompt size kink! If the line didn't give it away 🤣 I've wanted to write a proper Drarius for soooo long! I did a drabble in Draco Drabbles, and a brief nod in Welcome to the Family, but a nice 3k fic of just them feels good to have managed! (Though I hope to manage more one day 👀) This is another one I wrote on a whim. 3k written, edited, and posted in one day! The day after a tooth extraction. 😬

Lovestruck

The whistling of wind wakes Harry.

Snarry for Kinkuary (yes, again) for the prompt "possessiveness", another one in the Contempt world! I saw a post on Tumblr once about art where Severus' Nagini scars looked like bolts of lightning. I've yet to see said art, but the idea struck me and I was glad to see a way to incorporate it into a work! The fact that it would be related to Contempt just felt...right. I have no other way to explain it, since the work itself doesn't really reference Contempt at all.

Amor Aeternus

Hermione’s the one who finds them, wrapped in an intimate embrace.

A nice lil penta-drabble written for House of Snarry on Valentine's Day! And oh yeah it's MCD.

Kiss and Control

Bee-stung lips, cherry red. Soft as silk beneath his fingers, his tongue.

Lil quadruple drabble written for House of Snarry. Just me indulging in some overly poetic descriptors and leaning into all my OTP feels.

Again (and Again)

Again and again, Severus haunts him.

Lil Snarry ficlet inspired by some A_Loveunlaced art (which can be seen in the fic!)

Blue Velvet

“There are rules, you understand.”

***

“Scorpius Malfoy wants me to fuck him.”

3k words of me indulging in some excellent age gap filth and also my love of both Snarry and Scarry. Written for Kinktober 2021, for the prompt "dp - 2 holes" 😏

Red All Over

The thrill of victory pumps through her veins. The roaring of the crowd still rings in her ears. “Har-pies, Har-pies!”

Ah yes, finally wrote some Ginny/Gwenog!! ALSO: finally wrote lady smut! It's not much, but it's there! Also hilarious that what would inspire me would be the prompt "menophilia" of all things, for Kinktober 🤣 Then again...messy is right up my alley 😏

Tagging: @perverse-idyll, @writcraft, @lizzy0305, @cindle-writes, @tackytigerfic, @fleetingdesires, @bluesundaycake, @broomsticks, @teacup-tai, @thistlecatfics - but no pressure, and apologies if you've already been tagged and/or played!

#tag game #first lines #snarry #drarius #riddledore #gwenevera #snarryus #drabbles & ficlets mostly #more than half of this is from kinktober and kinkuary HAH #i am a kinky lady what can i say

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amazing-spiderling · 2 years ago

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🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change? 🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with? 🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

I'm not sure if this means the style of the act of writing or the finished product, but I have a hard time identifying aspect of my own style (in writing or art) so I guess I'll answer it for the former.

I'm one of those people who "hears" voices when they are reading and writing. (At times, I would use the voices of VAs etc that I was familiar with and would sort of make my brain "narrate" them in my head as I read stories.) I didn't really think much of it until I started talking to other writers about their process and learned that dialogue didn't come easily to everyone. It usually does for me because that's how my brain organizes information, just an ongoing internal monologue- so when I think about how to create a scene, often the first thing I'm thinking about is either a conversation happening in the scene, or what a person might say out loud about it if they were alone. (This is part of why I struggle with the prose/describing settings and am often blown away by the visual imagery other people incorporate into their stories.)

I think this mindset of mine makes me approach writing a bit like a script writer? Not that I've ever written a script (except for comics), but my brain thinks of scenes in a story like I'm setting up a scene for a screen. So I'm certainly thinking about the way the characters sound, the flow of their dialogue, the beats between their words, the pauses, but I'm also very concerned with the way the prose sounds. When I'm editing, I often say things like "this line makes my brain hiccup" which just means, something about the way it sounds is bumpy and doesn't flow. It could be an awkward word choice, or phrasing, even a choppy sentence that could be better integrated elsewhere.

I don't know if this is evident in the finished product though. To my knowledge, nobody has ever mentioned it.

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

Ah, yeah. What a question. Even I overlooked the story I'm about to mention because other ones stuck out in my mind until I actually went to look.

Some years ago, I organized a Metal Gear anthology called "Lost Years" that paired artists and writers to create stories about the moments that happened between games. Stories that had been hinted at and alluded to in the game canon, but whose events we never see. It was a great project with SO much talent coming together and the stories that people produced were incredible.

For my part, I got to work on a topic dealing with the very difficult topic of CSA, an event that often gets played for laughs in some sides of the fandom (namely people who aren't doing the math and realizing the horror of the situation). It was for that reason that I wanted to do my due diligence and write the best story I could handling this topic, as well as creating a sense of underlying dread.

One of the things I did was write in present tense, which I hardly ever do- in order to make it seem like the events were unfolding in real time, with the main character unable to do anything about it. Everything is just happening to him and he's almost a spectator in his own life.

Also, I tried to take a page from Kojima's book- as a game creator, he is very influenced by movies, so I tried to think about what movies might have inspired this character dynamic, and some of the themes and visuals we do get in the game, and came away with "The Graduate", which I'd seen some years ago. It was an unsettling movie for me to see randomly on television one night (knowing nothing other than it was a "famous classic movie") but a lot of it stuck with me. I revisited the movie when I started writing this story, watching it as more of a study and singling out elements that I thought I could use to inform my own story and characterization.

The result was "Surface Tension" which comes in at a mere 3.7k and garnered a scant few comments, but it's a story I probably did the most "artistic research" for and I'm proud to have written.

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

This is the one that's easiest for me to answer because it's something I consciously think about. XD After I post something (whether it's fic or art) I often make a joke like, "Never ask me for anything ever again." And while I am being silly, and of course I'm not done creating, it's also kind of a message to myself that it's okay for me to take a break and not worry about cranking out more stuff, and allowing myself to bask in the feeling of completing something for a few days. It's certainly a luxury since writing is my hobby and not my job, but I think it's easy to get wrapped up in the idea of being a "bad person" if you're not constantly making stuff every day.

I think this goes double for event fics where I've probably been stressing out about a deadline and doing something for another person. Basically just telling myself it's okay to take some time off to watch movies and read comics and enjoy "input" rather than "output" for a little while. :3

#thanks for the ask #my fic #metal gear solid #mgs fanfic #writer asks

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rosellerivers19 · 3 months ago

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Animal: Its weird but at least its self aware

So I heard about Animal being well . . . kinda insane when it first came out I also heard people who liked it though later on.

I saw a few scenes of the movie and seeing the violence I thought it was probably a really bad movie since so many people thought that.

but I've been watching a bit of it recently and well I don't think its that bad. Now if you've seen my last post you'd ask how I can dislike Pushpa but like Animal and I'm not saying I like Animal per se I also don't absolutely hate pushpa the movie I just didn't find it entertaining. Animal for me however was really entertaining for me because it's really crazy the protagonist of the movie isn't someone we're supposed to like or agree with he's being blatantly pointed out as crazy by the movie and thats why its fun.

it's so nonsensical and ridiculous that i can't help but cringe and smile while with pushpa I could just hope the song would at least be good.

My previous reaction was that the father in the movie was the 'bad guy' because of a few scenes I saw without actually watching the movie but after watching some of it I'm actually insanely impressed that he was able to deal with ranbeer's character at all.

He has flaws yeah and he admits them he doesn't believe that he's some superior being. I don't love the father character because all of the characters I think aren't really supposed to be liked.

And the movie showing that just makes me happy inside because of how self aware it is.

The violence is still. . . . icky but its not like this movie was going to be my all time favorite.

None of these characters are perfect but its fun to see how they're affected by Ranbir's craziness.

But a scene I found funny was when gita anjali's family was scolding her for falling in love with Ranvijay she just kissed him infront of them

It was really just a "I don't give a damn about you anyway" to her family and they were covering the kids eyes as the bgm starts playing. In the telugu version it actually has a comedical bgm as well

I want every scene to start like that for real

I'm also a bit biased because Gita anjali's brother asked her to say something while her family was scolding her in telugu but what ever.

And its not like their relationship was seen as something good or to take example of since well he cheated on her because he's a crazy bastard.

I also like the mood swings he has from sensible to mental it makes the movie more funny because you don't know when he'll detonate he's actually a time bomb. *haha got the reference?*

he hates his father one second saying he can't handle being in the same country as him and then tells Gita Anjali that his father is the best in the world?!?!?

I just wish the movie in the trailers advertised itself more like this nonsensical film that they show in the story itself instead of the action drama movie but it makes sense more people would like to see that.

I will edit this when I finish watching the movie

Edit: Also another thing

I saw on tiktok a scene about the film where Ranvijay was telling Geetanjali to

"think like a man gita anjali! think like you have biceps like me, even down there you've got something like I've got"

And oh god I almost doubled over laughing

Ah yes like think like the man who says 'Papa' in 50 different accents and acts like a madman in 2 seconds flat.

Do not get me started on that alpha scene-

#Bollywood #Animal hindi movie #ranbir kapoor #rashmika mandanna

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humanuser0613 · 1 year ago

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THOUGHT EXPERIMENT:

Rant Edition

🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑

We don't pay attention to jikook? 👁️👄👁️ That's what you're saying on a jikook page anon????????

I'm gonna post up some examples because "maybe because it actually wasn't anything intimate as ppl take it" is...

I can hear the music playing now. Here. Join me.

Ok👏 so here's the thing I've noticed, I'm sure others have too, these two act very similarly in certain situations. Not to each other for the purposes of this post. But they have habits they engage in regularly in front of the fandom.

1) WHAT DOES JIMIN DO?

2) WHAT DOES JUNGKOOK DO?

💬 💬 💬❔

Ok we'll start at the beginning if you didn't already guess.

I'll start with a clip that leaves a bad taste in many mouths, rubs our brains the wrong way, and shatters many hearts and souls, because context matters:

I think back to clips I've seen and wonder if there was more behind the scenes. What was the worry? It wasn't about his talent for Bang PD and it couldn't have been about his work ethic, so what was it? I then think back to my first reactions to some of the earlier BTS content....and how my thoughts often took the form of, "Yeah, these young 'uns had zero media training. 🤔 Was the agency too poor to get them teachers for how to behave on camera?" What was I seeing? Jungkook and Jimin playing Tom and Jerry. If that's what happened on camera, what happened off camera? Thankfully we were often told what happened off camera: Jungkook and Jimin sleeping in the living room together, Jungkook and Jimin having long convos together, Jimin providing the most comfort (and food) for Jungkook. So what wasn't clicking about their interactions on camera?

Jimin explained it himself many times: he liked Jungkook. And here we've reached my first question: what does Jimin do? He explains himself.

He's always known how things look, but he was a bit raw in front of the cameras concerning Jungkook. Why was Jimin always asking for kisses and dates? Why would Jimin say Jungkook is so cute, but that it also must be weird for him to say it? The kid was going through SOME THINGS. 🫨😵‍💫🙃Jungshook I'd say!

So now I'll establish more of this pattern.

WHAT WAS THE REASON!?

(y'all.😑 Why are Tumblr gifs so shitty? Why is this the closest one to the iconic one I wanted that would have been perfect for this next section? Why don't they have even a replacement for the one I wanted? Tumblr ain't shit in these moments.😤)

A) Namjoon outs Jungkook for sleeping in Jimin's bed and Jimin 👈😯👉 and can't get a word out. He didn't even know why he was pointing. But he opened his mouth to offer an explanation until Jin or Hobi 🤔 said Jimin slept outside. B) Jikook enter a bedroom and find a surprise camera just inside the door and Jimin 😲 and looks side to side and says "ah the bedrooms look the same. Come visit me when you're bored." And Jungkook just...😍🍫. Man didn't answer back. Why? What plans did they abort to move a camera and for Jimin to leave the room? Especially after they were told all the rooms but 1 were the same? They knew who got the different room so what was the reason? C) Why do we see Jimin kick at a camera (barefoot) in an empty hallway just after he tries to open the hotel room door only for him to turn around and enter Hobi's room again where he's doing a vlive for his birthday and where Jungkook hasn't left yet? Dude doesn't even say "hey come open my hotel room please because you've got the key" because how would that look? he's the king of explanations so it's just, "hey let Hobi finish his vlive." *grabs at an arm and pulls JK out* D) Or why do we have Jimin sitting on JK's bed and saying Jin is old and too tired to join us as he explains why it's just the two of them in JK's room as Jin comes running into the room throwing out apology apple jokes thus proving that Jimin felt that the situation needed an "explanation?" But think about it. 🧐 Why does it even need an explanation? It's just two bros hanging out which he was just doing in Jin's room. Not like we haven't seen the members doing vlives together before and visiting each other's rooms. *Cough* Oh, that's right. It's because Jimin never intended to be on camera. Why would that be the case if they're just BROS? 🤨 ok, I'll take you further down the path of logic if you're still skeptical: let's just say Jimin thought he was on camera too much already and that's why he didn't want to be on camera at first. Then why didn't he leave the room the first time he indicated that's what he and Jin should do? If he was too tired then why was he even in JK's room and not his own after the eat Jin vlive? WHY DIDN'T HE JUST LEAVE FIRST INSTEAD OF TALKING ABOUT IT 18 TIMES TO GET TAEJIN TO LEAVE WITH HIM????????

The suspicious was off the charts on that vlive. 💯

E) This one I have a post about already but THAT BIRTHDAY CAKE! MY PARK FILTER in JK's handwriting and Jimin saying the staff prepared the cake ✨AFTER✨ he read it. Mind you most of the cakes had the same/similar clean handwriting and rather impersonal words on them. But Jimin's cake was a statement: MINE! Not ARMY's, not ours, MINE! WHO THE FUCK ON STAFF WOULD DARE? 🤺 Then along comes JK saying he had prepared the cake and then Jimin apologized. I should just link my post: Here (wait for the link) F) Why is he making up an explanation for the hickey on JK's neck in the first place? Especially one where we've seen him in bridal carry mode with JK and know just how far he'd have to bend his neck, just how close he'd have to bring his lips and how long and hard he'd have to chomp to get a bite mark lasting ALL NIGHT to remain all day as well?

Why does it need an explanation? Why didn't they just cover it? Why does Jin look fondly exasperated? Why is Tae just grinning hugely at them?

Which brings me to my second question, what does Jungkook do? 75 points if you guessed HE SHOWS OFF!

The man used to be Jerry in the equation. He's explained himself too though (🤏a little bit). He was too shy. So shy that it appears he felt the need to make up for the misconception many ARMYs had (and still have 🙄) about whether he liked/likes Jimin. He went from not wanting to date any member in Feb of 2015 to saying he'd date Jimin if he was a girl in June 2015. No one asked that time dude. 💀

A) The cake: and I'm back to the cake 😩

This part of Hobi reading it and Jungkook saying "yeah, it's Jimin's song" and Hobi immediately cluing in and asking "you prepared it?" And Jungkook saying "yep!" Yeah. He wasn't hiding anything. 🤠

B) His tattoos and how he wanted to bring Bam to ITS. He likes being open with us. Showing us parts of his life when he feels safe to do so. C) How he spent two straight hours in 2023 watching videos on YouTube featuring Jimin and kept telling the fandom to pipe down on welive 😩. He wasn't even paying attention to us. He was firmly fixated on showing us how much he loves Jimin. All 🤩😍🫠😂 at his TV. D) How he showed up in the backing vocals of Letter and played a snippet of the song on guitar on welive for us, but also to show us how connected he is to Jimin. He didn't say a word about it! We had to figure it out for ourselves! 😤 E) Threatening to post a damn hickey selca to keep Jimin in a room during a vlive. And then posting it later anyway. 🤠 But ask yourself what about THAT is a threat to Jimin and not Jin who didn't even know what Jungkook was talking about? Speaking of hickeys...Showing up to work with a hickey on his neck unbothered and posting on Twitter AND weverse after hours of hickey and kiss mark trending on Twitter. Just to say...yeah, alotta nuttin 😒. Jimin posted a single, damn, 💜 with his selcas😒😒. Still asking WTF jikook?🤠

But okay anon, let's say JK said don't take it wrong and bh didn't translate it. Why not? What does the agency get out of it? A whole hate hashtag (freejungkook) and negative publicity. They lost money as people canceled orders. And taekookers, solos, idiots, etc now don't order anything until after they're sure it's "safe" for them and jikook hijinks free. Which nothing ever is 🙃 so those are future orders bh won't make money on. Or do you even know what JK meant when he said don't take it the wrong way? Does that mean he's contradicting the explanation Jimin gave? The completely "bros-not-sus-everything-is-het-over-here" explanation? Or that he means the bite wasn't malicious? Or too hard? Or that he hated it? 😏Or that he liked it? Or they weren't too drunk? Or was he reassuring staff that they weren't fighting? Or that he didn't want it covered? Or that there was no reason for staff to panic and cut the scene? So why do you attribute only one reason, that no one should accept that it was a sexual hickey, when no one on tape discussed it as a hickey, when there were so many things he could mean and people he could be talking to, not just ARMY? It's because you see it as a hickey too anon. You see what we see. You understand that others could reasonably conclude it's a hickey too. "Don't take it the wrong way?" 😐 Are you sure you're the one that hasn't taken it the wrong way anon? Especially when no one, not even bh has translated what you brought to op? 🙄 And then jikook were so bothered by the trends that they had to post selcas for us. Yep....🤡🔊🎵🎶

F) And why did Jungkook go up a mountain to collect snow just to give it to Jimin? He didn't say a word, didn't take a crew, didn't tell anyone, didn't bring the dog back 🙃...just brought back a chunk of snow and waited outside with it until he could give it to Jimin. No random wood for Joon or flower for Jin. Just snow. For Jimin. 🤠 G) And everytime we have an instance to refer to Jungkook as jiminpedia? Yeah, he's showing everyone just how much he knows about AND pays attention to Jimin. 😎 I know he's being verbal in these moments, but it's still showing off to us because he's talking to others. IT'S ONLY A COMPETITION IN YOUR HEAD JK! You're winning anyway.🧍‍♀️

Now let me clunkily pull together My conclusion:

Jimin makes explanations that don't always make the most sense in the moment (if you haven't caught on yet). And Jungkook entered his idgaf phase and never left. So while you're apparently worried about jikookers and our interpretive abilities anon, jikook keep jikooking.

All along they have shown and told us how close they are. Jimin said explicitly he'd be comforted enlisting with Jungkook and Jungkook simply showed us that he enlisted with Jimin. Jimin could have enlisted sooner. Jungkook could have enlisted much (much) later. Vmin could have gone the buddy route, but it was jikook that chose it together.

Jikook chose to do a travel show together too. Again gonna remind everyone that a jikook travel show isn't going to be a huge money maker in the fandom because taekookers, Jk solos, Tae solos, some "OT7", and some pjm solos aren't even going to buy it. It means it was content they made because they wanted to make it and share it with us.

This isn't about romanticizing anything. They did nothing but laugh talking about this travel show so I know it's gonna be hilarious. And then enlisting together shows the amount of trust and emotional connectivity they have together. I'm just glad at least two of our members could be together after they've all been apart for so long.

Anon saying we're the ones that don't pay attention to jikook or listen to their words really didn't sit right with me. 🤷‍♀️ Eh, what else can I say?

"we don't know why jungkook didn't cover his hickey/neckbite" Maybe Beacuse it actually wasn't anything intimate as ppl take it? Yes it's sus kinda thing to give a mark to your close friend but i do remember jungkook saying "don't take it wrong" in one of the clips of that bite but his sentence wasn't translated because the voices were colliding. Like cone on you think if it was something sexual or intimate he would have not tried to hide it??? I get jungkook answered how he goy that mark because staff asked him but why do you think jm would be telling it to everyone what is his personal business? When no one asked.

Doesn't JK saying "DON'T TAKE IT WRONG" debunk the whole thing ? He clearly.. 100% clearly.. said don't think this hickey was caused by something intimate happened yesterday. He just bit me to put him down. Ik Jikookers here haven't paid attention to him saying that because either none of your K-jkkrs translated that or you ignored because it debunked everything.

In my opinion people who aren’t blind know very well why.

Here ↓

Next time give a hickey to your friend and then let me know how it went 🥹

#Spotify

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writingmysanity · 3 years ago

Text

(Un)Requited

Prompt: "She's crying because of you!" said by a Witcher when Jaskier is being dense. {I changed it slightly, lovely. I do hope you enjoy it anyway} (Requested by @seidenbros)

Pairing: Jaskier x reader

Word count: 2148

TW: blood, sickness, pain, some cursing I think. If I missed one, please let me know

trope used?? Hanahaki Disease: An illness born from one-sided love, the victim coughs up petals and flowers. It may be removed by surgery, but the feelings go away with the petals. It can also be cured when love is requited.

A/N: As always, this is unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own since no one else has stepped up to take blame for my mistakes *sigh* As always, please be patient with me. I am playing catch up- I will post a list of requests I have received. If you sent one and do not see it on the list, please, message me again. much love. I appreciate all of your patience and understanding.

Also, thank you @deans-ch-ch-cherrypie for the idea of making some sort of edit.

“You just have to keep going,” you whisper to yourself, splashing water on your face before draining the tinted liquid as Geralt walks through the door without knocking.

“Ah, yes,” you hum, shaking the last of the water from the bucket, not looking at him. He doesn't need to see your face to know your lips are stained red, crimson smeared petals littering the floor you hadn't gotten to clean up yet. “The mighty witcher- how may I assist you today?” your voice is taught, high with stress.

He knows what's happening.

“How long are you going to keep this up?” ignoring the burning in your throat, you thump your chest lightly with a whimper, not fighting the cough that wracks your body, crumbling in on yourself. He is at your side before your knees can fully give out, kneeling beside you, the frown on his face reading with more concern you've seen him show anyone else.

Groaning, you lean against him slightly, taking a deep slow breath in a futile attempt to ease the fit, crimson petals littering your arms, a full bloom resting in your palm- the brilliant white petals marred by the blood dripping from it.

“Until my dying breath,” you muse, lips twisting into a smile that reads more like a snarl. You can hear him, his voice wafting from below your feet- singing. The silky sound reverberates throughout the Inn, echoing from the tavern below where he is practicing for tonight's show. Your smile softens, the sound bringing some peace to your pain.

“At this rate, that won't be very long,” he grumbles, helping you to your feet, one hand on your elbow to help steady you. Sighing, you twist the bloom in your hand, its stem crushing as your fingers curl around it, squeezing. Sniffling you fight the way your eyes burn, throat tight.

“I know,” you whisper, moving to start cleaning up again, sweeping the petals away before scrubbing at your hands once more. Geralt just stands there, watching you, the same frown burning into your back.

“You disapprove.” glancing over your shoulder, you pause in your scrubbing. He sighs, taking a deep breath before nodding.

“Yes,” he breathes. “Your secret isn't worth your death.” he grinds out as the bard's voice drifts ever closer, his footsteps echoing in the hall as he nears your room.

“Dear heart,” he sings, swinging in with a twirl and a flourish making you laugh softly, forgetting about the bloody rags lying at your feet. He spots them immediately, his steps quick as he crosses the room to you, taking your hands in his as he twists you, crystal eyes raking over every piece of skin he can see.

“You’re injured?” your voice catches in your throat, the words fumbling to your lips before dying, the concern in his voice making your lungs seize. Fighting another fit, you shake your head quickly.

“No, no, my dear bard,” you hum, voice rough. “Nothing more than my monthly visit,” you assure him, hoping he’ll buy it. He pauses, frowning before nodding slowly, stepping back.

“Do you have what you need? Do you need anything for the pain?” the softness in his voice makes you nearly gasping for breath, your heart fluttering against your will. Your heart's yearning for him constricts your lungs. The wheeze leaves your throat before you can contain it, concern etching itself into his angelic features.

“Are you sure that's it? Must I fetch a healer?” you shake your head, squeezing his hand.

“No,” you smile leaning up to peck his cheek to set his mind at ease. You nearly cry when crimson smudges against the paleness of his skin. Quickly, in a motion of affection, you bring your hand to his cheek, running your thumb along his cheek to wipe it away. You try to ignore the way he melts into your hold, his hand coming to rest over yours, face softening.

“If you’re sure.” you just nod, pulling back.

He’s like this with all women you tell yourself, swallowing the pain, like thorns tearing into your throat, dragging down with force every time you breathe. I am nothing special to him.

The next month is agonizing. The blooms get bigger, the thorns get longer, and the blood… the blood spills at nauseum.

Somehow you are able to keep the worst of it from Jaskier’s prying eyes. It helps that he's never directly watching you, or so you think. As your pain increases, your awareness quickly depletes. You miss the way he's constantly looking over at you- taking how pale you're becoming, how you talk less and less, even if you nod along to what he says.

He's a moron, but he's not an idiot- or so Geralt tells him.

Eventually, Geralt makes you ride with him, your steps starting to drag along the forest floor, marking a clear path of where they've been. Though neither of them is concerned with that fact at the moment, as Geralt looks down at you in his arms, his golden eyes hardening with pain. You're too small, curled up, body shaking with suppressed coughs, blood trickling past your lips in spite of your stubbornness against the fit. He looks back at Jaskier, calculating. His eyes are glazed over, eyebrows furrowed with concern, focused on your body in his arms.

Sighing heavily, Geralt huffs back at the bard to get his attention, cursing himself for getting involved.

“You need to tell her,” his voice is soft, careful to keep from disturbing your restless sleep. Jaskier frowns.

“Tell her what?” Geralt all but snorts.

“Your feelings for her.”

Jaskier stops, taking in your form lying in Geralt's arms, how comfortable you are with him. You always seem to find yourself at Geralt’s side. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he shakes his head, huffing at the man hovering above him- roach never pausing in her strides.

“She doesn't feel the same.” groaning, Geralt bites back his comment when you stir. Instead, he shoots the bard a nasty look, screaming just fucking do it.

He, of course, doesn't. He can't get the courage to do so.

They stop that night at an Inn. Though Jaskier is thankful to not have to sleep on the ground, he can't sleep, watching you sleep in the bed feeling as if he is wrenching his heart out of his chest. You’re too pale, too small. You’ve lost a lot of weight the last weeks, barely eating. Leaning over you, he moves to brush the hair from your face, wiping the sweat from your forehead.

“You need to tell her.” Geralt’s voice snaps him out of his stupor. Groaning, he leans back in his seat, eyes falling on the witcher leaning against the door frame. Geralt’s eyes are locked on her.

“She doesn't feel the same.” he insists, again. Geralt growls this time.

“Get your head out of your ass, Bard. This is happening because of you.” before Jaskier could ask what he could possibly mean by that, Geralt is gone, nothing left behind but empty space and silence. Slowly, he turns back to you, watching your chest rise and fall as he sighs, head flopping into the bed beside you.

“How is this my fault? Tell me, dear heart… how can I make it better?”

“I don't travel,” a voice hisses, darkness swallowing both bodies whole. The man before the old healer grunts.

“You’ll be paid, witch” Geralt snarls, lifting a pouch, metal sliding against metal pressed so far against each other it doesn't jingle. The elderly woman shifts from foot to foot for a moment before sighing.

“Who could possibly be this important to a witcher?”

“My friend.”

“What’s wrong?” she was rightfully expecting a grave wound- slash from a sword, poisoning. Anything that happens to come from exposure to his line of work.

“The flower disease,” he gripes, stashing the pouch away once more. She barks a laugh.

“Hanahaki disease? There is no cure.” her words are harsh, but he doesn't falter.

“There must be something.”

“Well, yes. Requited love, of course.” she hums, eyeing him. “It isn't you, is it?” he shakes his head with a snort.

“My bard,” he answers plainly. “He is with her.”

“You’re certain shell make it.” it wasn't a question, an observation.

“He loves her back, he's just a moron.” he quips, helping the woman along as she hobbles beside him. She snorts a laugh.

“Aren't all men?”

Jaskier watched the elderly woman fret of you, how your hand slaps limply against the blanket after being lifted, how she wipes the sweat from your forehead like he had been. It seems shes whispering to you.

You haven't been awake in two days, and he hasn't slept in three.

Slowly, she shuffles back over to the two of them, her face grave as she addresses Geralt.

“She's almost gone,” she announces.”The vines are crawling from her throat.” Jaskier sputters, his eyes landing on you.

“Vines?” his voice is weak. He knows of the disease. The petals, the flowers… the blood. He's a poet, but he was sure it was nothing more than a myth. A clever analogy for lovers suffocating on their own unrequited love.

“The flow-”

“Hanahaki Disease, yes” she starts, eyeing the bard up and down. “I'm afraid it's almost too late. Something needs to be said, and quickly.” without a thought, Jaskier spins on his heel to face Geralt.

“Go tell her,” he begs “Don't let her die.” the sob that tears from his chest hurts even Geralt.

“She doesn't love me,” Geralt begins, Jaskier cutting him off immediately.

“Of course she does, Geralt! I see you both together. Now, go save her” he all but snarls at the taller man, shoving his hand into the witcher’s chest plate. Groaning, Geralt smacks him upside the head.

“Jaskier I've told you before. This is your fault.”

With that, both Geralt and the witch leave him there, standing in a stupor.

Him.

You loved him.

Sliding back to your side, he sits beside you on the bed, his hand resting over yours, tears welling up in his eyes.

“I've caused this,” had you been awake, you would have teased him about the way his voice cracked. Slowly, he curls his hand into yours, locking your fingers together, leaning down to rest his forehead on yours. Your breathing is shallower than only moments ago.

“How do I fix this, love?” he asks as if waiting for a response. “Do I just confess?” at this, he gives a wet chuckle, his other hand going up to stroke your cheek. “I've been an idiot,” his voice is thick, barely pushing past his throat, passed the welling of emotion. “I missed it, I missed how you felt and i- you're paying the price..”

He pauses for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts, make them coherent. They had to be coherent to fix this, right? Could he just babble and hope his love is known?

“I've been struggling to find the words,” he admits, his voice little more than a whisper. “I've meant to tell you for months.” he pauses, swallowing hard.

“I love you, Y/N” he whispers, tears finally spilling over, dropping to your cheek. “I wanted it to be poetic, to be big and as perfect as you are, show you how much you truly mean to me. I have a list, you know.” he all but gasps, his breath picking up as he forces back his own sobs. Now isn't the time. “Of all of the ways I love you, every single thing that I love about you.”

He doesn't notice how your breathing begins to get deeper. He keeps going, ranting.

“How long have I known?” he muses aloud, he hums, running his hand from your cheek to your hair, gently scratching there. “Much too long,” he admits.

“Gods above, Y/N- I love you... I love you, I love you. If you'll wake up, open your beautiful eyes you'll never have to wonder. I'll sing it from the mountain tops, it'll be in every song- every tune. Just please,” he begs, pausing to take a deep steadying breath, eyes closed. “Please… don't leave me.”

There is silence for a minute as he wonders if his declaration was enough until he feels your hand flex in his.

“You're crushing me, Jask” you all but gasp, the strangled laugh that escapes his chest as he lunges forwards, crushing you to his chest.

“You're awake,” he sobs, cradling you to his chest, his shoulders shaking against yours. Silently, your arms wrap around him, squeezing his waist as best you can. You're still quite weak, but you can breathe for the first time in what feels like forever. It takes a minute for you to realize the meaning behind the lightness in your chest.

“You… You love me?”

Tag list: @errruvande @thesleepy1 @deans-ch-ch-cherrypie @queenxxxsupreme @screechingdreamercollectorsblog @open--till--midnight @one-eyed-captain-kinky

@seidenbros

If you would like to be added to the tag list, please send me a message or ask or something.

#jaskier fanfiction #the witcher #jaskier #jaskier x reader #the witcher imagine #jaskier imagine #jaskier the bard #jaskier x y/n #netflix!jaskier #witcher jaskier #jaskier the witcher #unrequited love #hanahaki disease

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dragonwysper · 2 years ago

Text

LONG POST AHEAD!!!

I honestly think there are just so many threads that go by so fast, and those who sign up for GASP get pinged so often (I would know, I'm on the pinglist), that lots of skins/accents just go unnoticed. I do think nice looking and thought out posts is part of it though! My recommendations, as someone who's done art, made a skincent, and generally just been around for a while:

Keep your post title quick and to the point. Include the pose, the price, if it's a skin, accent or skincent, and whether it's a pre-order, limited/custom, AH listing, or auction. If you have room after, you can also add the name or a 1-3 word descriptor of your skin/accent, or the name of your shop if you have one (shop names typically go before). There are shorthand versions of a lot of these! For poses, F is Female and M is Male, and the gender marker goes after the breed marker. Breed markers are as follows:

Bogsneak - Bog

Guardian - Guar / Guard

Imperial - Imp

Mirror - Mir

Nocturne - Noc

Obelisk - Ob / Obe

Pearlcatcher - PC

Ridgeback - Ridge / RB

Skydancer - SD

Snapper - Snap

Tundra - Tun

Wildclaw - WC

Aberration - Aber / AB

Aether - Aet

Banescale - Bane

Gaoler - Gao

Undertide - UT

Veilspun - Veil / VS

There are none for Coatls, Faes, or Spirals afaik.

For auctions and sales of other people's skins/accents, there are tons of shorthand. I'll keep this list to two main ones to put at the very front of your post though, for simplicity. Use these when dealing with other people's skins/accents, or customs/retired ones you've made in the past. They're mainly for rare, retired, or custom skins/accents that have already been printed! You can of course use them for typical personal listings, but I would advise not doing that, because while there are no hard and fast rules, there are commonly accepted contexts.

Auction - [A] - tons of other terms, shorthand, and etiquette for this, but I'll leave those out of this post. I might make another post with all of that, if you want it!

Sales - [S] - use for flat sales. Typically you'll want to have a link to a listing on the AH for ease of use.

Put your skin/accent and sales info (price + link to any AH listings or pre-order sales list) at the very top of your post, so that if someone clicks on the thread, they will immediately see what it is. Keep anything extra below that. The format I see most successful/pretty posts use has the preview image centered at the top, and then has everything else directly below, formatted as desired.

ALWAYS ping GASP. Don't be anxious about pinging people (just in case you're worried about that), because we are always bombarded with them haha. We sign up specifically to be pinged! But!! Only ping GASP after you have a title that reflects what you're selling. When I see "wip - don't post!!" I don't know what kind of skin/accent it is, so a lot of times I'm less likely to take a look. Of course there are times I'm up for a wildcard and look specifically because of it, but I think most GASP users don't think like that. If you have to make a post and come back later to edit, make sure you finish your edits (plus title) first, and then make another edit to add GASP pings. After you add them, edit once again to snip those pings! Keep the GASP pinglist info they provide for you, but get rid of the wall of pings haha.

I was gonna suggest putting GASP info at the very bottom of your post under any personal pinglists, but honestly, I've seen people put it in all sorts of places. It's most commonly either at the bottom of the post or right under the skin/accent preview/info (to say at a glance what categories you tagged), which are the best options. It makes it easier to check the 'tags'!

Previews!! There's a site you can use for this!

Make an account, upload your skin/accent file, and it'll even tell you coverage and if there's any pixels outside your selected pose! At the end of the post creation, you get two links. One is an edit link (for if you DON'T make an account), and one is a share link.

Use this site for pre-orders so potential buyers can see how the skin looks on their dragons! It's an extra bit of effort to post in the thread asking for manual previews, and it can be a little anxiety inducing to ask for one and then have to tell the creator it doesn't fit how they wanted or they actually don't have the funds for it or whatever. Some people may want to and are able to buy it, but won't because they can't admire it on their dragons or check for any possible 'flaws'.

Beyond that, design and formatting choices are up to you! I know you're unsure about that though. If you want, I'm up for giving BBcode formatting suggestions based on what you want to do! I'll format your whole post for you if you want tbh haha. I find it fun! And I know just about all the codes off the top of my head. I will provide a couple image/icon codes you might find useful though!

Gem and Treasure icons! These are good to put in front of prices to catch the eye of your viewer! Alternatively, you can use emojis, but they tend to be formatted weird in posts. These images line up with your text better!

[Img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/icon_gems.png[/img]

[Img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/icon_treasure.png[/img]

And bonus Male/Female icons, for fancy pose indicators! There are also icons for different breeds, but I didn't feel like listing them all lmao. You can find the pngs for all of these in dragon bios!

[img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/lair/icons/male.png[/img]

[img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/lair/icons/female.png[/img]

Purchase button that links directly to your listing on the AH (or to a pre-order pinglist in a Google Sheets document, or wherever else you can buy/sign up to buy the skin/accent. Code (using listings for the Woodland Turkey skin as an example):

[url=https://www1.flightrising.com/auction-house/buy/realm/skins?itemname=Skin%3A+Woodland+Turkey&collapse=1][img]http://flightrising.com/images/layout/button_buyauction.png[/img][/url]

Basically, once your skin is on the AH, search for it directly in the AH search bar, then copy the URL for that page. Alternatively, directly copy the BBcode I added above and replace the purple text with the item name of your skin/accent! Replace the colon with %3A and replace spaces with +

Quotes! Good for a nicely formatted, eye-catching ping or pre-order list! This is best used in a [columns] setup!

[quote name=Slots]your text here!![/quote]

Put whatever you want your quote box title to be in the quote name section, put your text (nothing including additional BBcode) in between, and close it out!

If your skin has already been printed, include the item icon in your post! You can do this by going to the database page for your skin/accent and copy-pasting the code for the icon (found under the share button)! Or, use this code (code for Woodland Turkey used as an example):

[skin=11121]

This is a skin/accent specific code! The typical code for item icons is this:

[item=Skin: Woodland Turkey]

The skin/accent specific one is meant to solve the problem of multiple different skins and accents using the same name, because those do exist!! Typing those in this way just picks one of them and rolls with it. If your's has a unique name, you can get away with it! But if not, or just to be safe, you should use the skin/accent specific version.

At the end, a very basic layout would look something like this (using my old listing for the skin I made for this example):

I didn't snip GASP pings here like I should've done, but I did add a couple layers of [size=0] to them haha (which, by the way, you can do!). I have a simple [columns] layout, a layer of info clarifying how/when to buy, a personal pinglist (taken from people who expressed interest in a Discord server), and then the GASP info/pinglist.

I have used this specific formatting for other sales posts before, and it's served me well! I'll add the BBcode for it as a template for you to use if you want it!

[Center][columns][img]https://i.ibb.co/wCRXVQv/preview.png[/img][nextcol][br][center][item=skin blueprint][br][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/icon_gems.png[/img]750[br][url=https://frtools.nensec.com/skintester/preview/GIyZa]Previews[/url][br][quote name=Slots][left]

1. Me

10.

[/left][/quote][/columns][/center]

Put a 350x350 version of the preview image (on a dragon!! Don't post the transparent skin/accent in there!!) in the image portion, and edit the length of the pre-order list depending on how many slots there are, how many copies you're keeping, etc!

Additional alternate version for printed skins/accents:

[center][columns][img]https://i.ibb.co/wCRXVQv/preview.png[/img][nextcol][center][br][br][br][skin=40543][br][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/lair/icons/male.png[/img] S K Y D A N C E R [br]------

------[br][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/static/layout/icon_gems.png[/img][b][size=5][size=2]750[/size][/size][/b][br][br][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/auction-house/buy/realm/skins?itemname=Skin%3A+You+Thought+it+was+Butter&collapse=1][img]http://flightrising.com/images/layout/button_buyauction.png[/img][/url][br][/center][/columns]

A note on stacking [size]:

Basically, just put a bunch of the size codes together. It should look something like this depending on the exact size:

[size=0][size=0][size=0][size=0][size=0]Your text here![/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]

Make sure you remember to do the end code for every size code you added!!! If you only do one, or otherwise not enough, any text that comes after will be set to a different size based on that.

You can layer [size] codes to make text bigger, or to find in-between sizes too btw! I've used them to make large title text! The numbers you can use for the code have to be whole numbers between and including 0 and 7.

Bonus advice: always keep 1 or 2 copies of your skin/accent for yourself! I don't quite have the words to articulate the significance, but it's nice to have a personal copy of your work! And some people do sell their old personal copies, especially if they're customs or limited/retired and highly sought after.

That's about it for my knowledge of skin and accent sales. I hope this was helpful!! If not, I can always personally help you with your posts! That goes out to anyone btw, not just OP!

So I’ve been selling my accent I made on the AH since not many people looked at the thread- and it’s actually selling! Most of em are gone! and I was wondering, is that normal for accents/skins, or is it just because it’s an Aether skin?

Basically, if I just put a skin/accent on the AH, will it sell eventually even if it takes longer then threads? I’ve always avoided skin-making because I thought it was basically guaranteed never to sell unless the thread/shop did well, and I struggle with those kinda things.

#flight rising #fr #long post #flight rising skins #flight rising guide #bbcode #flight rising accents #flight rising sales

6 notes · View notes

bbugyu · 4 years ago

Text

if you wanted to go to the moon, he would take you there.

plot twist | crash zoom | happy ending

16.1k (lol) | joshua x afab enby!reader, fluff, humor, suggestive, reader is ace lol, youtuber au, chef au, swearing, drinking, detailed descriptions of meals, mentions of past trauma including sexual assault, i swear it's not that deep, lots of implied sex but none on screen (yet), watching movies and playing video games, yes i am trying to set up all my friends, would anyone get it if i said r&r

welcome to part two of classic!! please enjoy this tooth rotting relationship garbo in which i basically announce to the world that i have a disgusting crush on joshua. posting this later than intended but i started working five tens so i'm 😅 a little tired lol. but joshua makes it ok <3

when you mentioned offhandedly that you had never had bibimbap in jeonju, joshua practically dropped the groceries he was helping you bring up the elevator.

"how long have you been in korea?" he asked.

you looked at him, wide eyed. "four years?"

he squinted at you, jutting his jaw out. "and you've never gone to jeonju? it's, like, the food hub of korea. how the hell?"

"i…" you laughed, exiting the elevator when the doors opened. "i don't know? it's never been top priority, i guess?"

"okay, well it is now," he stated plainly, following you to your door while you adjusted your bags in your hands to punch in the code. as soon as the groceries were safely on your counter, he pulled out his phone. "friday to sunday?"

you looked up from the vegetables in your hands. "what?"

he looked at you. "we're going. this weekend? i need to reserve the ktx tickets."

you laughed. "this weekend? joshua, it's wednesday."

"okay, next weekend?"

you stared at him a second, purely because you were in disbelief. "no, i have a demonstration next saturday."

he exhaled, looking at the calendar on his phone. "okay, and jamie's birthday party is the weekend after, so," he paused, looking at you through his lashes. "this weekend?"

you pushed your hands onto the counter and sighed heavily. "when would we leave?"

he grinned, knowing that meant he had won you over. "after i get off work? i can be here by 3:30."

"how long is the train?"

"uhh," he quickly searched for the tickets. "two hours. less than. we can buy snacks for the ride and have dinner when we get there."

you chewed your lip. "i have to edit on sunday, so we can't stay all day."

he nodded, inspecting the time table for tickets. "stay two nights, leave after breakfast?"

you considered that for a second. "i could bring my laptop and export footage on the train."

a smile crept across his face when you puffed out your cheeks in thought. "is that a yes?"

your cheeks deflated as you exhaled. "fine."

"yeah?" joshua grinned at you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders and tugging you into his chest. "jeonju this weekend?"

you exhaled again, your arms reluctantly winding around his torso. "yeah. jeonju this weekend."

"you're gonna love it," he said, pressing his lips against your temple. "i helped on an article about hole in the wall finds there years ago, so i know all the good spots."

you giggled, pulling away to look at him with a quirked eyebrow. "you used to write for the magazine?"

he shook his head at you. "when i was interning."

"aw," you poked at his cheek. "intern joshie?"

he rolled his eyes, separating himself from you as you giggled, and he looked at you slyly from the corner of his eye. "joshie?"

you grinned, reaching out to pinch his cheeks. "joshie!"

he laughed and batted away your hands. "joshie?"

you: i think i'm finally packed

joshie: i don't understand why it was so difficult when we're going for Two Days.

you: 😡

joshie: 😘

as promised, he arrived at your apartment in a cab and stubbornly took your roller suitcase despite your insistence that you could handle it. joshua was always doing things like this - for you, you imagined, he would probably even lay down his jacket in a puddle so you wouldn't have to walk through it. but at the same time, he wouldn't fault you for kicking his jacket aside and purposefully jumping in it instead. he would probably join you, even.

he had joked with you that this would be like a work trip for you, but only because he was the one that suggested you film - plus, he reminded you, filming a full video this weekend meant that you didn't have to film next week. and to be perfectly frank, you wanted the break. if you could have a weekend getaway with joshua and then a week long break to have a normal routine without a camera, it was a win-win.

equipped with coffee and cafe sandwiches, you casually kicked your feet and happily sipped at your americano as you edited a picture of it for your instagram story. joshua sat beside you, also doing something on his phone, and you watched him with no intention as he pulled his airpods out of his coat jacket and offered one to you. you looked at him, smiling when he gestured with the open case again.

"i made a playlist," he said quietly as you put the airpod into your ear. he took the one you left and did the same, tapping on his phone.

the thought of joshua hearing a song and thinking of you making your chest flutter to life, the heat rising through you until you were left in a comfortable glow, smiling softly at him as a melody started in your ear. he looked back at you, double taking slightly when he realized you were looking at him.

"what's that look for?" he asked, a sideways grin breaking his face in half.

you shook your head, unable to change your face. "that's, just... really nice."

"making a playlist?" he hummed, settling back in his seat as you stuck your straw between your lips. "i didn't consciously do it. i just started a list of songs to show you because i thought you would like them, and this ended up being a good time to share it."

you sighed dramatically, falling back against the window of the train. "that's even nicer, you dickhead!" he laughed, shushing you and looking around, worried someone might have understood your slightly-above-inside-voice exclamation. "i know for a fact i didn't do anything to deserve the sweetest, handsomest, loveliest boyfriend on the planet, so what's the catch, mr. hong?"

his eyes went to the ceiling as he thought, kneading his lips once before saying, "i think you forgot funniest, too."

"ah," you said, a dry chuckle following the realization. "that's the catch."

"hey!" he laughed, eyes big as he pretended to be offended. "i know i'm funny!"

you giggled with him, mentally noting that you liked the song that he was playing. that he must have somehow picked up on why you liked the music you did. you thought about how you had the same thought, sometimes, when you were listening to music alone in your room and a song popped up on your discovery that sounded like something he would listen to. how you would immediately text them to him, knowing you would forget if you didn't send it right away, and he would react with some assortment of positive emojis. how he must have been doing the same thing, but wanted to be there when you heard them, and didn't have the same flighty memory as you. you brought your straw to your lips again, staring after him as he adjusted something in his bag, taking too long to refocus your attention to story you had been trying to post.

he later nudged you, getting your attention as you responded to an email on your phone, gesturing his finger with the melody, and you gave him a childlike look of awe, as if to tell him that yes, you agreed, this was exactly the kind of run you really enjoyed. he pounded a fist against his knee at the beats, pointing up at the key change, and you exploded into a stifled laugh, your palm covering your mouth. he laughed with you before he showed you the now playing page on his phone, holding it open dutifully as you quickly searched for it to add to your own library.

as promised, joshua provided great insight for the food tour the two of you set out on. travel day, he had told you, meant that you would have something easy - bibimbap and makgeolli at two of the best places he knew, apparently. by the time you made it back to the hotel room you had checked into before headed to the bar, you just about collapsed onto the queen bed.

"i'm so full," you exhaled, eyes dancing across the ceiling. "i'm never gonna move again."

joshua just laughed at you, toeing both of your shoes aside at the door before shuffling into slippers. "we have a full day of eating tomorrow, so you better move."

you let our a breathy laugh, rolling your head to watch as he flopped onto the bed beside you. "i'm glad you also plan trips around the meals."

he gave you a puzzled look. "is there another way to plan a trip?"

you rolled onto your side, tucking your arm under your head to look at him. "some people like sightseeing. or activities."

his brows were still ruffled in confusion as he looked away from you. "i like looking at food. and the activity of eating food."

you giggled, and his face finally broke to reveal the bewilderment had been a bit all along, his smiling laugh meeting yours.

you walked a lot the next day, and you were grateful for the light exercise to help your digestion a bit between meals. the local famous kalguksu for breakfast, a visit to a cafe for coffee before walking down a historical street together. you filmed with a smile on your face, shaking your americano for camera with a colorful background, just for you to pull down the drink and let the beautiful buildings and trees take the focus.

joshua could watch you forever, he was pretty sure. watching you conceptualise what you wanted this out of the ordinary video to look like, seeing the way you managed to be present with him, joking and giggling on your scenic walk, but squeezed his hand in warning before letting go, telling him quietly you wanted to get a shot. he had seen the way you filmed food, and how you filmed your kitchen, which was incredible in its own right, but this was the first time he got to see your process on the fly. when you went to work, as it were, taking in your scenery and deciding the way you wanted to portray it - more thought went into this than filming at the same barbeque restaurant for the fifth time, but joshua saw the similarities in the way your eyes twinkled when you saw something through your camera lens for the first time, even if only the first time that day. the way you would review the footage quickly, smiling at the way it turned out, but announcing that you were taking a second shot for safety.

then, he took you to another restaurant.

you barely noticed the passage of time, but when he conveniently "happened" upon the next stop on your food tour, you were pretty sure your stomach growled at the thought of eating an insane amount of dumplings, and you smiled at him in a way that made him want to cause it constantly.

if having your pick at dumplings was enough to make you giddy like a child, the night market was life altering. the food stalls were set up like they always were friday and saturday nights, joshua told you, and that meant you got to experience korean street food in a way you hadn't yet. you found the best pad thai you had ever eaten, succumbed to the tempting smell of grilled squid when passing a busy stall, and you even got served alcohol practically in passing, the specialty liquor being offered in a way that was hard for either of you to say no to. after a few too many, you had to stop joshua before he dragged you to a choco pie stall.

"we should eat more first," you said, gesturing to a woman making hashbrowns on a griddle. "while we have free hands. loop back around for dessert and buy some for the road."

joshua tapped his nose, then wagged his finger at you. "smart and hot."

you laughed, pulling him towards the hashbrown stall.

that night, you laid in bed beside each other, talking like you hadn't just spent literally the entire day together. recalling highlights of the day, sharing related anecdotes with assorted friends and family. you didn't even want to sleep - your body did, sure, clearly, by the way it kept interrupting your conversation with yawns. joshua would laugh, then yawn in response, and tell you that you should sleep. you would shake your head, a pout on your lips, and he would just smile and keep talking about whatever the yawn had interrupted.

being in bed with joshua wasn't demanding, nor was it uncomfortable, and you were pretty sure that meant something good.

you were making curry. he had mentioned that it looked good while you were watching some show the week prior and you couldn't get it out of your head. so, even though it was midsummer and far too warm for something as hearty as japanese curry, you decided you needed to make it anyway, if only for your own peace of mind. you invited joshua over to cook dinner for him, and he asked where your camera was when he arrived with your requested potatoes (you had some, except they were older than you thought and started sprouting), but you told him you weren't filming tonight.

"this ones for us," you said matter of factly, giggling when he looked shocked. "i don't film every meal, y'know. sometimes i cook things just for me."

he watched you dump the potatoes into the sink to wash. "what if it ends up being really pretty?"

"josh," you said, looking at him. "i don't make things that aren't pretty."

he asked if you needed help with anything, but you just shook your head and told him to relax. that you had made this a million times, and that you could do it with your eyes closed. he asked again if you were sure, and you laughed, scrubbing potatoes and using your shoulder to get your hair out of your face.

"actually," you said, raising the wrist on which you kept a hair tie. "do you know how? my hands are wet."

joshua smiled and nodded, coming over and pulling the tie off your wrist, careful to not get it too wet on your hand. "how high?"

"ariana," you said, making him laugh as you giggled. "as high as you can manage, but i don't really care."

he just smiled, taking your hair in his hands as you washed the potatoes one by one, and you tried to ignore the way you heart skipped a beat when you felt his touch drift across the back of your neck. he gently gathered it all in one palm at the crown of your skull, brushing through it with his fingers. "here?"

"perfect," you said, chewing your cheek and smiling. he pulled the band over your hair, tying it off tightly and pulled at the hair gently to keep it in place.

his hands glided over your waist, leading his arms to wrap around you as his chin landed on your shoulder. "not too tight?"

you shook your head, smiling. "you're multi talented."

"i have a sister," he reminded you, then put a kiss on your cheek.

you managed to convince him to sit at the counter, and he smiled and laughed with you as you conversed about anything that came to mind. he talked about his latest work antics, and you told him about a café you found the day before that you really enjoyed. he watched you skillfully chop vegetables and prepare chicken, flitting around your kitchen with a familiarity that could only be fostered by time. he glanced at the time on his phone, then looked at the door behind him that led to a bedroom.

"is karol here?" he asked. she normally would have emerged to say hi by now.

you looked at him before going back to pan frying the chicken. "no, she's in busan this weekend with some friends. she'll be back sunday night."

an alarm went off in joshua's head, and he tried not to think too deeply about the fact that you had invited him over while your roommate was away. sex hadn't even been a discussion on the table yet, but not because joshua didn't want it - because, frankly, he wanted it - he was just more concerned about you and your wants. for most things, he felt as though he had learned your thoughts and opinions naturally over the last few months, but outside of a few passing jokes, you hadn't ever mentioned how you felt about sex in general, much less sex with him.

so he stared at you, suddenly unable to ignore the fact that you were wearing shorts because of the weather, but they were hidden under the hem of the neutral toned apron he saw in your videos every week. or the way you smiled at him as you talked, your eyes glinting with mischief when you made a joke at his expense, but only made him laugh and want you more. he stood and came around the island, standing with his hip against the counter as the two of you continued conversing and you added the roux cubes to the pot.

his eyes never left you or your actions, and you noticed the way he inched towards you as your cooking became less involved and began to wrap up. you didn't argue when he put his arms around you again, watching you stir the curry with his cheek against your ear. he wasn't in your way, not even when you reached over to pull a spoon out of a drawer to give it a taste and make sure the seasonings were right, so you instead just enjoyed his presence.

you hummed, licking your lips briefly as you appraised the flavor. "not bad," you said, using the ladle you had been cooking with to pour more into the spoon you had just used to taste. you blew on it, then displayed it for joshua, who looked at you in his peripherals before accepting the bite.

"oh, wow," he said, making you giggle as you put the spoon aside. "that's better than a restaurant."

"thanks," you said, tapping the ladle on the side of pot to get the excess back in the pot, a spot of sauce landing on the back of your hand. you put it on the spoon rest next to your stovetop and replaced the lid on the pot of curry, quickly turning the burner to low. "now we just wait for the rice to pop," you said, spinning in his grip and licking the spot off the back of your hand.

joshua stared at you, desperately wishing in that moment that he wasn't such a damn man, because it was clear in your eyes that it was a completely innocent action. you got some of the delicious sauce on your hand, so why would you wipe it off when a towel wouldn't appreciate it like your tongue would? you wouldn't, obviously. he wouldn't have, either, if it had been his hand. but here he was, gaze fixed on your mouth as you pulled your hand away from it, and one of your eyebrows raised when you noticed.

"can i help you?" you asked, glancing down at his lips when he involuntarily leaned into you.

"i-" he swallowed. "sorry, i'm just-"

in that moment, you registered what his gaze meant. and while you were fairly oblivious to most things, you were far from innocent, so you put your arms over his shoulders and knit your fingers in his hair. "you're just?" you prompted.

there was a chuckle on his lips as he backed you against the counter, and he shook his head lightly. "i just think it's insane how into you i am."

joshua had this way of kissing you that made you think his life depended on it. he kissed you like you were in the final scene of an apocalyptic movie and he had come to terms with the fact that this was the end. like he knew that if your lips left his, he would magically disappear before he could tell you how much you meant to him. like he could stop time as long as he had you pressed against him with his hand on your jaw, but the sun was setting and he wasn’t ready to say good night.

when he finally pulled away from you, you were trying to catch your breath as his hands ran down your waist, and you stared into his eyes. his lips were parted, and his fingers gripped at your hips in a way that you knew meant he wished there were less layers between your skin.

your mind raced, thinking quickly back to how long the two of you had been seeing each other. how long you had known that you were interested in keeping joshua around for the long term. you wracked your brain, thinking about when people normally took the next step at your age, finding a discrepancy in the timing. you had made him wait for so long, but this was the first time you had noticed him trying to bed you - though, this was hardly subtle, so perhaps you had missed signs earlier? hell, the two of you had even shared a bed at this point, but you were pretty sure he hadn't tried anything then, either. you considered the fact that this relationship had gone for over two months without so much as a hint to take the next logical step, and you decided that joshua was definitely the only guy you had met in years that you would be willing to allow under your covers.

"the curry can sit for," you started, blinking rapidly as your mouth caught up to your mind. you swallowed once. "well, until tomorrow, technically, but-"

joshua's lip quirked upward. "did you invite me over to have me stay the night?"

"not-" you exhaled. his tone was slightly accusatory, but only playfully, and you found yourself more flustered by the question than you would have liked. "not consciously, but…" your eyes studied his face. "do you want to?"

"are you kidding?" he asked, making you breathe out a laugh, his forehead landing on yours. "did you not hear me when i said i was insanely into you?"

the rice cooker beeped, drawing both of your attention as it sang out a small tune to alert you it was finished. you looked at joshua. "are you hungry?"

he looked back at you, a smile sneaking on his lips. "i mean, working up an appetite wouldn't hurt, right?"

he let you lead him to your bedroom, which he had only been in once, briefly, when he had helped you put some lights away. the two of you admittedly spent most of your time in kitchens or restaurants, the remainder of your alone time being split between joshua's car and a couch to watch a movie, but joshua thought your taste suited his as he glanced around again, and that he would happily lose time in bedrooms with you. you kissed him again, and he was quick to pull you against his body, leaning into you, making you giggle as you bent backwards at the hips. "josh."

"what?" he asked, giving you a half lidded smile as his hand found your jaw, pulling you back into him. "stop leaning back and i'll stop chasing you."

"i'm-" you giggled into the kiss he interrupted you with. "i'm not leaning back, you're pushing me."

joshua made you feel like you were out of your depth, but in a way that was more exciting than scary. it had been ages since someone had been able to surprise you, or had helped you surprise yourself, but today he was doing both. the last time you had let a man into your heart, it had been less than perfect, especially towards the end, but joshua felt like home. cozy. he made you feel safe. like he wouldn't let you fall backwards unless your mattress was waiting for you.

and when you fell, he crawled over you, connecting your lips again with a hand against your jaw, the other holding himself above you, and you tried to restrain a whine.

"josh," you said suddenly, pushing on his chest lightly, processing fully what was about to happen and a shot of anxiety running through your chest. "c-can i tell you something first?"

joshua paused his motions, studying your eyes, his expression skewing scared. "oh, shit, are you a virgin?"

"what?" your eyebrows creased, a laugh on your lips. "no, what the fuck, josh? i'm in my mid-twenties."

he blinked at you. "there would be nothing wrong with you if you were a virgin in your mid-twenties."

"i'm not a virgin, joshua."

"right," he shook his head slightly. "sorry, i don't know. what were you saying?"

you chewed at your cheek nervously. "i just. i haven't… been with a guy in a really long time."

his eyes examined your face, looking for a hint at what you meant, because if it was only what you were saying, he didn't understand why you were so worried. "okay?"

"like, really long," you reiterated.

"baby, i promise," he said, forehead against yours. "i promise you, i don't care."

you exhaled sharply, wishing you could just enjoy things normal people did. that you knew what people wanted out of these encounters innately, instead of having to overthink them. "like, i don't want to… i don't know. disappoint you."

"disappoint me?" his head bobbed backwards in shock. "how the hell could i ever be disappointed when you're you?"

your eyes shut, grateful that he could still make you smile when you felt so out of your league. "i just mean that i-" you paused, trying to figure out how much you were willing to say, and how much you could without ruining whatever mood had been fostered here. "i just don't really do this. like, i feel like i don't know how."

"baby," he said, pressing his lips to yours briefly. "honey, sweetie, darling," he continued, punctuating each name with quick pecks. "you could starfish and i would have the time of my life."

you laughed, a hand landing on his shoulder sharply as he smiled at you. "okay, i'm not that bad, jesus."

"i'm telling you," he assured. "i don't care. i don't care if it's been months or years or forever, i don't care." he paused, appraising your expression. "we don't have to do anything. i'd be happy to just kiss you for an hour and a half if you're not ready."

"no," you whined, crinkling your nose. "it's not that, i just…" you took a breath. "i might just need you to take it a little slow."

"well, baby, you're in luck," he said, giving you a teasing smirk as his lips closed in on yours again. "slow and steady is exactly how i want you."

karol had said you hated men. she hadn't been wrong. you hated a lot of men, and how they made you feel like a prisoner in your own body. you hated the men you had encountered in your past, who made you feel small and weak. ugly and only wanted for one purpose, disrespecting your boundaries, your presentation, and your being. you hated those men, and nothing would ever redeem them for you.

joshua was different, though. he wasn't like them, because even though you didn't say explicitly why you needed a little extra care, he was more than prepared to give it to you. without even needing specific direction, he paid special attention to your reactions. to your body. he waited until you were ready, and asking him for more. and even when he sheepishly admitted that he'd started carrying a condom in his wallet the month prior, you could only giggle and silently be overwhelmingly thankful that he was truly nothing like any man you had ever been with before.

you swore you had made the same recipe you always did, but your curry tasted sweeter than you remembered. maybe it was just that you were eating it in your underwear with a man that made you feel comfortable in your skin for the first time in forever, a home improvement show remaining unwatched on your tv as the two of you joked together.

joshua woke the next morning in your empty bed, and was only confused for a second as he looked around your white walls. he stretched once, then sat up, eyes meandering over your orange patterned rug (one he remembered describing as "groovy" when he had first seen it, which had made you laugh in that way he adored), then noticed your laptop had been turned on. it was saturday, he realized, and you were likely going to edit today so you wouldn't have to tomorrow. he decidedly did not peek, though he wanted to, and peeked out your bedroom door instead.

you were easy to find, standing in your kitchen with an oversized shirt on and your hair pulled out of your face as you formed rice balls. you looked up from your work, smiling when you saw him, placing the triangle of rice you had just made on the cutting board. "good morning!"

it was, he thought. it was a really good morning.

you teased him for hugging you in your kitchen while he was only wearing underwear, saying that he seemed to have made himself comfortable quickly. he just playfully ran his hands under your shirt, saying, well, what about you, then? making breakfast with no pants on?

"i live here," you said, giggling and using your hip to bump him away. "i pay rent. what do you do?"

his eyes darted away from yours as he thought. "sit still, look pretty?"

that made you laugh. "you are very pretty."

he grinned, taking the opportunity to pull you into his chest again. "you, too."

he looked at what you had made, noticing the pot on the stove for the first time.

"soybean paste soup," you said, reacting to his gaze, then pointed at the neat triangles of brown tinted rice in front of you. "mushroom riceballs, and i'm making tamagoyaki next."

joshua blinked at you after processing everything. "do you do this every morning?"

"not every morning," you giggled. "but i wanted to today."

weeks later, you were biting your pinky nail to oblivion as you scrolled through comments on the video you had posted earlier that morning. you were sitting on the couch in joshua's living room, your laptop perched on the arm and your boyfriend fixing something to eat before the two of you sat to watch a movie. you had made a risky move in your video - one you thought would have been fine, but clearly people read more into it than you expected. joshua came over for dinner earlier in the week, when you had made pasta with all the delicious fresh seafood the two of you had found at a market the day before, accompanied by a simple salad and white wine. karol was working late, so you had set some aside for her, but that meant it was just you and joshua in frame when you filmed your usual table setting shot.

people were speculating.

you knew it was inevitable, and a few comments had pointed out the man that had eaten sushi with you in the vlog that included your first date, but at this point, the comments were flooded with questions and hypotheses on who the mystery man could be. most assumed boyfriend - which, while true, made you feel slightly annoyed - and a few wondered if he was your brother, or close friend, but they all noticed that his hands and voice had become regular guest stars on your channel. that, while you still got meals with krys and karol, this nameless, faceless man sat opposite you more often than anyone else.

the jeonju vlog is what sparked the most comments. people suspected some amount of intimacy when they realized this guy was travelling with you, too, and you probably would have thought the same if it had been someone you watched regularly. you had been careful with the editing, only including clips with food and the scenery shots that didn't star him (while you had filmed a lot that did, those were just for your own personal record), but you supposed it was in peoples' nature to try and find a romantic plotline in your slice of life.

"josh?" you said suddenly, pulling your pinky from between your teeth. you heard his vague noise of acknowledgment and spun around on the couch to watch as he cocked his head at you from the kitchen. "should we go public?"

"uh," he paused, looking at the scallion pancake he was cooking, quickly grabbing the panhandle to flip it. "give me, like, two minutes and we can discuss? i'm almost done in here."

you puffed your cheeks out and nodded, turning back towards your computer. "okay, baby."

when joshua came into the living room, the spread he had quickly put together across a tray you had bought for him (because you wanted it, mostly, but karol would kill you if you brought more home), he put it on the coffee table and sat next to you, quickly addressing the subject again.

"people keep," you paused. his eyebrows raised, prompting you, but he only chewed on his bottom lip to let you take your time as you hugged your knees to your chest. "people keep assuming you're my boyfriend anyways, so i'm just thinking-" you exhaled sharply. "should we just say fuck it? just confirm that we're a couple?"

joshua studied you. "you've always been pretty private."

you chewed your cheek, putting your lips against your knees. "that's on purpose."

"you don't have to say anything you don't want to," he reminded you, rubbing a hand against your back. you put your chin on your knees and gave him your biggest doe eyes, making him smile. "they can speculate all they want, but you don't owe them an explanation."

you nodded lightly as you hugged your legs and looked around, briefly studying the tray joshua had brought over. he had quickly stirfried some vegetables, grilled the frozen pork belly slices he always kept on hand, and even cooked your favorite premade scallion pancakes, the spread complete with several side dishes you had made together earlier in the week and two bowls of rice. your brows knit together, fingers itching to film how neatly he had put together a light meal for the two of you because you had said you wanted to show him your favorite movie without interruption, and he knew you would be hungry soon.

"would you-" you cleared your throat, looking up from the food and finding his eyes. "what do you think i should do?"

he let out a breathy laugh. "does it matter? you'll do what you want anyways."

you whined, pushing his shoulder as your feet dropped from the couch. "i'm serious, your opinion matters here. would you be okay with being public?"

"you're joking, right?" he laughed, adjusting his posture, and grabbing your hand to folding it between his. "baby, you know i care about you, right?"

your lips pursed as you nodded, looking between his eyes shyly.

"and you know i would never try to say that i, like, own you, right? like, i don't claim ownership over you as a person."

you let out a short laugh. "right."

he held your hand tighter. "i want to tell every viewer of every single one of your videos that you are mine."

your cheek puffed out as you smiled. "really?"

"especially the reply guys, oh my gosh," he rolled his eyes, making you laugh. "there's a place i think you'd like! i could take you, smiley face. yeah, get lost, creep. move along."

your palm landed on your cheek as you laughed. "shut up, are you serious?"

"you don't see those?" his eyes wide when you shook your head. "baby, there's so many people trying to take you out in the comments. so many."

you giggled, pressing your lips together. "well, there's only one guy that gets to."

"that's right," joshua said, a proud look on his face. "the ultimate reply guy fanboy."

you pushed his chest, laughing again. "shut up."

you decided an faq would do, but in the style of your regular videos. you definitely didn't want to just sit down in front of your camera and talk through questions and answers - that wasn't your style, and would feel wrong uploading. so instead, you spent a few hours compiling questions you had been asked often and organized them in a way that made sense, planning on showing your daily life. questions like what camera you used, what your go-to quick breakfast is, where you bought the clothes you liked - it was easy to plan them out to create a vague storyline of your standard day. you woke up on a wednesday (a day you went to the studio, because many of your questions were about what goes on there), excited to film but slightly nervous. as you set up your camera for breakfast, your phone buzzed on the counter.

joshie: good morning, baby! you got this! can't wait to see you tonight 🥰

you: 🥺🥺🥺 thank you!

the day went well, filming your planned clips on the subway and at the studio, and when your coworker asked what all the questions you were filming for were, you sighed.

"normal stuff," you said quickly, taking off your apron after several hours of cooking and shooting. "favorite recipes, what equipment i use… y'know."

yunhyeong nodded at you, his eyes squinting slightly. "is that all?"

he knew you. he knew how you reacted when you were nervous. how you could practically hide it from anyone, but that certain subjects would always make your eyes look slightly panicked and your speech speed up. the worst part is that you knew he knew, and your facade was almost immediately broken.

"and if i have a boyfriend."

he stared at you for a second before he laughed in disbelief. it took him over a week of bugging you about the guy in your videos before you admitted you were seeing someone, and even then, you only did because joshua had started picking you up from the studio and - against your wishes - introduced himself to your coworkers. yunhyeong thought about how protective you were of your privacy, and how you had never revealed something as personal as a relationship online before - partly because none of the people you had gone on two or three dates with had been serious enough to reveal, but he mostly thought about how you barely even showed your own face. that you stayed mostly silent when you filmed, and if you had to speak, it was a voice that was only adjacent to your usual cadence, as if you were trying to create another barrier between you and your online persona. how you had mourned your grandfather's passing and uploaded your vlog like normal two days later, but called out of work for the week following.

"and you're telling the truth?"

you exhaled, wiping down the stove top now that it had cooled. "yeah, shua and i discussed it. people are speculating, anyways, and it's not like he's going anywhere any time soon."

yunhyeong nodded again, organizing the spices as he put them away. "i'm happy for you."

you looked at him. "what do you mean?"

"it's a big step," he said, purposefully keeping his eyes from you so you didn't get self conscious. "you haven't been this serious about someone the entire time i've known you. i think it's really great that you found someone you care about."

you watched him spin bottles to be label out as you considered his words. "thanks."

he peeked at you, smiling. "of course."

yunhyeong's words rattled in your mind as you walked to the restaurant joshua had agreed to meet you at, filming your feet as you went with the intention of answering a few random questions with on-screen text in the edit. someone you care about.

you thought about how joshua had said the same thing about you when you had asked if going public was something he would be comfortable with. the way it has made your heart flutter. you wondered, briefly, if perhaps this was something more than just caring.

when you were editing the video that saturday, you procrastinated on the last question as long as you could, and when it was the only thing left to do, you escaped to the kitchen to make lunch in favor of finishing the part that was haunting you. your bagel sandwich was delicious, but you could barely enjoy it, mind clouded by the task that made your anxiety peak for seemingly no good reason.

it took you too long to finish it.

when you showed it to joshua, wanting his blessing before you uploaded, he couldn't hide his giddy reaction.

"it's okay?" you confirmed, studying his face.

he nodded at you, lips pushed together into a lopsided smile. "it's really cute."

"cute?" you asked, clicking through the video. "that's good, right?"

"yes," he laughed, squeezing your shoulder to put a kiss on your head. "it's great. post it."

so you did. and while you had gotten a tiny bump when krys excitedly dragged the two of you onto her stream that afternoon, you had no way of predicting the way the rest of the internet picked it up a few weeks later.

"r/relationshipgoals," jeonghan read off his phone, leaning against your kitchen island along with several of your friends that had come over when they saw the two of you on their newsfeeds unprompted. "'cross post from r/cutecouples, the most heartwarming boyfriend reveal you'll see this year.'"

"twitter, too," karol announced looking up from her own phone, seated in a barstool beside him. "you're a twitter moment. people found the clip from krys' stream, even."

you were on the counter opposite them, kicking your feet nervously to the beat in your head as you chewed your lip. you sighed and covered your face. "how long is this gonna last?"

"a while, hopefully," krys said, turning your laptop screen towards you. "your subcounts are insane right now."

you whined into your hands, making joshua appear at your side to put a hand on your spine. you took a breath at the touch, relaxing your tensed thighs on the counter. "it's okay to be nervous," he muttered at you. "but it's also kinda exciting, right?"

you exhaled deeply, letting your hands fall and your eyes trail to his before a smile broke on your face. "kinda."

so after you calmed yourself down, you managed to go through some of the posts about you, and you surprised yourself by letting them put a smile on your face. even the idea of having a public relationship had scared you shitless less than a month prior, but this… this wasn't so bad. seeing twitter repost the same video of you filming your feet as you walked into a restaurant, panning the camera up to reveal joshua sitting at a table and waving excitedly at you. the cuts you made to show clips that had landed on the cutting room floor of past videos - the footage you had taken of him pointing out the new wok you had started using a few weeks prior in a kitchen specialty store, and the goofy face he revealed after holding it in front of himself as he brought it back to you. the video of joshua grasping your hand, panning up to his playfully serious face as he dragged you down a boardwalk in jeonju, gesturing to the sunset. the unedited audio from your first date, when you had said something about it looking really good, and he had said something along the lines of how it would have been a waste if you hadn't recorded, and the two of you giggled together in a way that nervous new couples did. short bits of you swinging your camera around to reveal a laughing joshua as you tried to film quiet shots. a clip of him wearing a triangular menu on his head like a hat, acting as though it was completely normal.

you had a hard time believing anything you ever did would be viral-worthy, but even you had to admit, this was a pretty understandable thing for you to go viral for.

besides, it felt like it made sense for this to be the one thing about your personal life that ended up getting attention. it felt like he was an innate part of you at this point, and that you wouldn't be honest if you hid him.

it was august when he broke your heart.

"how could you?" you asked him, staring in disbelief. "you haven't seen lord of the rings?"

"okay, i lied," joshua said, still washing the dishes. "i saw them when i was a kid, but i don't remember them really."

"well, we're fixing that."

he looked at where you were sitting on his kitchen island - a well known habit of yours at this point. "today?"

"not today," you said, poking your toe at his hip. "this weekend, maybe? if we start now, we'll be watching til you go to work tomorrow morning."

he shut off the faucet and gingerly placed the pan he had just washed on the drying rack. "how many movies is it? i thought it was just three."

"it is," you said, laughing at his shocked look. "the extended editions are around four hours each."

joshua exhaled, leaning against the counter as he used a cloth to dry his hands. "you're lucky i like wasting hours with you."

you grinned, hopping down from your seat. "you're lucky i let you."

and that weekend, the two of you did just that - waste time, ordering delivery food for two meals as you camped out on the couch in various positions as the two of you got comfortable repeatedly. you couldn't help but recite specific lines, mouthing along with every word gandalf said like you had thought of the words yourself. you pointed out behind the scenes facts along the way, even, excitedly saying viggo broke two toes when he kicked that helmet, or how faramir's flames were a mirror trick. joshua watched you, because while he knew it was your favorite movie and he really should pay attention, he couldn't help but get distracted by his own favorite movie, and it starred you getting excited about something you loved.

you slept later than joshua that sunday, and when you emerged from the bedroom, you spotted krys sitting at the island with a plate of waffles in front of her, then found joshua leaned against the counter with a cup of coffee. he smiled when he saw you.

"i made breakfast," he said, gesturing to the counter.

you looked around at the spread as you walked over to him. waffles, fruit, bacon, and the promise of a fried egg upon request - a spread worthy of your own brunching standards. "what about second breakfast?" you asked quietly, in accented english.

joshua laughed, his arm wrapping around your midsection as you came over to kiss him good morning. "elevensies?" he shot back, in the same vague accent.

you broke your serious face to giggle. "luncheon?"

"alright," krys said, voice raised in annoyance when the two of you looked over at her. "i get it, y'all are in love or whatever, but can you have some respect for those of us who are lonely?"

you rolled your eyes, laughing at the fact that she had absolutely brought this upon herself by forcing the two of you together every chance she got, but joshua went cold when he heard her say the thing he had been thinking for a while, but was too scared to say out loud. the thing he felt when you grabbed his arm and told him that if he wouldn't let you carry the ring, then you could at least carry him with all the same dramatics as one samwise gamgee did. when you cried as frodo and bilbo sailed into the sunset for good, even though you had seen it a million times over. the sneaking thought that he was in love with you, but didn't know how to say so. he swallowed down the thought, shaking his head when you raised a questioning brow at him as you dished up a plate of waffles and fruit.

it didn't take you long to trust joshua enough to give him your door code so he could let himself in, but it took him a while to actually use it. he said something about not wanting to intrude, but you told him it was more intrusive to make you come to the door when you could possibly be doing important things and he was completely capable of getting in on his own.

"babe?"

you hissed. you had the thought right before you started this boss battle, that he would arrive before you finished and you would be trapped at your computer. you were right. "in here! gimme like two minutes!"

you heard him enter your room, and his bubbly laugh when he spotted your back at your desk desperately clicking your mouse and striking your keyboard. "wow, is this what you meant by important things?"

"please, please, please," you whined, intermittently squealing as you reacted to the enemy attacks. "i'll get off in a second i just need one more cleansing heart to ascend xin- fuck! not the stupid birds!"

he laughed again, his hand finding the back of your shoulder, thumbs pressing into the constantly sore flesh. you winced as he kneaded his fingers into your shoulder but exhaled, making him laugh lightly when you got knocked over by a boar. "hey, there's a boar there."

"yes, thank you, joshua." you quickly cracked a knuckle as soon as you had down time, sticking your neck out as he continued to massage your shoulders. "i think i have two more waves."

"waves? because it's a water level?"

you groaned into a reluctant laugh. "no shitty jokes right now, i'm trying to focus. normally krys and i co-op this one but she was busy."

he hummed, moving to stand next to you with his hand resting at the base of your neck. "wonder what she was doing."

"don't you live with her?" you teasingly asked, glancing up at him for the first time while sprinting across the platform, your game camera spinning uncontrollably when you suddenly pulled both hands to your mouth and gasped. "what the fuck, joshua?"

he stifled a grin, but it was completely obvious in his eyes as you stared up at him, blonde hair curled lightly to stay out of his face. "what's up?"

you stood from your chair, inspecting his head. "what the fuck?"

he laughed, wrapping his arms around you when you ran your fingers through his bleached locks hesitantly. "do you hate it?"

"i-" you blinked at him repeatedly. "what? no, i don't hate- what the fuck, joshua?"

"what?" he whined, eyebrows tenting at you even though his lips were still smiling. "does it not suit me?"

you held his head and squinted at him. "josh, you're hot. you look hot. but what the fuck?"

he laughed, finally planting his hello kiss on your lips. he watched the gears turn behind your eyes, puckered lips becoming a pout.

"did you go to a salon?"

he grinned. "krys did it."

you made a fist at him, scrunching your face for a second as you exhaled, looking down at the screen right as your last team member died, respawning at a statue. "that's why she used so many smiley faces when she said she was busy."

he put his lips to your cheek, smiling into your skin. "not bad though, right? you got a pretty handsome boyfriend."

and while you would have loved to roll your eyes and tease him, you were overtaken by a giggle as you turned your head towards him again, the tip of his nose gliding across your cheek. "yeah, i do."

his eyebrows went up. "wow, wasn't expecting you to admit it so readily."

you laughed, a light, carefree laugh, your palms on his jaw as you kissed him. "i have eyes, joshua." he just smiled against your lips, lacing his fingers together behind your tailbone, and you pulled away slightly to look up at his hair again. your hands went to his nape, fingertips against his scalp. "how long did it take? you have thick hair."

"we did three sessions," he said. "enjoy it while you can, it might fall out."

you laughed with him, brushing your fingers gently in his bangs again. "it feels fine, though?"

"yeah, i made this incredible discovery that i'm almost positive i'm the first to hear about it. it's called a hair treatment."

you batted at his chest, giggling. "shut up."

"make me," he said, the sweet smile on his lips making the phrase more playful than suggestive.

"i can't believe you surprised me with bleached hair," you said, plopping into your seat and exiting the game. "you know i hate surprises, right?"

"that's too bad," he said, his hand returning to rub against your neck. "i like surprises a lot. get used to them."

you puffed out your cheeks, sighing slowly. "usually people compromise."

"not on this," he stated. "i'm a gift giver."

"yeah, i figured that out when you got flowers sent to the studio on our one month anniversary, then again on our second, then here on our third…"

he was just smiling smugly at you when you stood again, maneuvering around him. "and you love getting them?"

you rolled your eyes, not even commenting when he playfully patted your butt as you went by. "they're always tasteful and it's nice to have some seasonal flowers for the counter."

"so you love them," he repeated. "because it sounds to me like you love them."

you laughed, reaching out to catch his hand in yours and pull him along with you as you exited to the main living area. "and what if i do? so what, joshua hong, if it makes my heart beat a little fast when we suddenly get flowers delivered and i realize it's the fourteenth? are you gonna call me a hypocrite because i vocally advocate that traditional chivalry is bullshit?"

he just listened to your playful accusation, more proving that you were self aware rather than egging him on. "no way," he said plainly. "you can still think traditional chivalry is bullshit, it won't stop me from trying to make you smile."

you felt your face heating up, your jaw dropping slightly to let out an annoyed huff. "cheesy, joshua. i'm offended."

"want me to make it worse?" he asked, wrapping his arms around your waist.

your hands landed on his chest as you squinted at his grin. "i'm scared."

he gave you a crooked grin. "happy one hundred days. i brought sushi."

your head whipped over to the counter, spotting the paper bag with a familiar logo. "from nori table?"

"of course, from nori table."

joshua had promised jeonghan that you would make an appearance as a couple at a party he was throwing the next day, and you found yourself almost nervous. you got on with jeonghan famously - almost enough to drive joshua insane - and you even warmed up to seokmin pretty quickly, but from what you had been told, jeonghan enjoyed partying, and you didn't really like getting drunk.

"you made it!" seokmin grinned big, spreading his arms to signal for you to let him wrap you in a hug. you laughed and greeted him, enjoying the friendly comfort, then watching him hug joshua after he let you go. "and you're blonde! life's good?"

"yeah," joshua said, making eye contact with you briefly as his fingers tangled with yours. "life's good. you?"

seokmin blinked before he said "yeah, good!" and your brow knit slightly before you consciously adjusted your face to hide the analysis of his hesitation happening behind your eyes. "this is your first time here, right?"

you nodded, smiling and following him as he led you into the crowded apartment. "yeah, it's been busy lately. but i finally made it to one!"

"well, you need to meet my friends," he said, continuously looking back at you even as he walked ahead, towards a corner of the living room. "you're gonna love them."

"aye, josh!"

you looked to the source of the call, spotting the guy pulling himself to his feet from his seat on the couch, arms wide in greeting to your boyfriend.

"hey, hosh," joshua said, a sideways grin on and his brows tented as he gave him a quick handshake into a hug. quickly, he put a hand on your opposite shoulder, pulling you towards him and quickly introducing you.

soonyoung initially went in for a hug after your introduction, but immediately noticed the way your eyes widened slightly and instantly pulled his arms down, leaving a hand extended for you to shake. you laughed, taking it, and apologized for not being a hugger.

"no worries," soonyoung laughed, and you wondered if he was always this pink in the face or if he had already started drinking. "seokmin will hug me, right?"

"everyone!" seokmin ignored him, pulling you towards the people gathered on and around the couch. he announced you to his friends then quickly went down the line - soonyoung, seungkwan, jihoon, dongmin, yugyeom - you repeated the names back to him like you would remember all of them, even though you knew you wouldn't unless they became regulars in your life, too.

jeonghan flitted by and expressed his greetings to you both some time later, intending to abscond with joshua for drinks and conversation elsewhere, but he stopped jeonghan from pulling him away before he put a hand on your elbow, looking at you meaningfully.

"i'll be okay," you told him, smiling. "go ahead."

he squinted at you. "you sure?"

"seokmin's here," you reminded him, nodding your head at the boy you had practically adopted as your own brother. "real quick, about soonyoung-"

he quirked an eyebrow at you. "what about him?"

you chewed your lip, smiling. "karol's been a little too focused on work lately, right?"

his eyes widened, thinking about your roommate. his eyes went to the man you had referenced, who was currently chanting something into seungkwan's face as he rolled his eyes. "karol?"

"what do you think?" you asked, looking back at soonyoung.

he blinked. "i think he'll drive her insane."

your eyes shone at him. "i think she'll love it."

he laughed incredulously, registering that you had asked his opinion instead of just doing whatever pleased you, and he wondered if that meant you trusted him. "you're right," he said finally. "try it."

"of course i'm right," you said, giggling against the quick peck he put on your lips. "remove him, jeonghan."

"finally," an impatient host shot back, rolling his eyes in a way that landed in a sly smile at you. "for what it's worth, i think your plan will work."

"didn't need your approval, but i'll take it," you said, smiling smugly at him. "i'll update you later."

the update you gave the next time you saw him, weeks later, was that karol had left the apartment every week since to go be with soonyoung somewhere fun and exciting, and you waved her off with a shiteating grin every week, culminating in the two of them arriving to krys' birthday party hand in hand.

jeonghan laughed, stealing a carrot stick from your cutting board as you arranged them into a rainbow themed charcuterie platter. "knew it. soonyoung loves women stronger than him."

you looked at him as he took a bite. "and karol loves someone she can take care of."

"look at us," he said, waving the half eaten carrot between the two of you with a lopsided grin on his face. "what a duo. we should hang out more. fuck joshua."

you laughed at him, then at the offended look on your boyfriend's face as he walked past. "now?" you asked eyebrows raised as you looked at him expectantly, and he laughed when he realized what the last words out of jeonghan's mouth were seconds before.

"please, this is a child's birthday party," he reminded you, and you laughed at the overexaggerated look he gave you to sell the joke.

you looked over to where krys was laughing with seokmin, soonyoung, and karol, then back down to your work as you nudged around quartered figs with a vague smile on. "seems like the kids are having a nice time."

jeonghan sighed, falling dramatically against the counter. "oh, to be young and in love."

joshua laughed. "karol's our age."

his cheek was planted in his palm, elbow on the counter as he gazed after the group. "i'm talking about seokmin and krys."

"what?" joshua asked, voice nearly cracking, and you let out an explosive laugh. "seokmin and who?"

"stop acting stupid," jeonghan waved ahand at him, then popping his eyes up to catch your look of solidarity. he pointed at you. "see? we're on the same page, which means we're right."

joshua looked at you and you raised your hands in surrender. "are you serious?" he asked. "my sister and-"

you landed a hand on his face, effectively shutting him up as you giggled. "shush, josh. just leave it, okay?"

"good idea," jeonghan sighed, straightening and picking up the platter you had finished. "dining table?"

"please," you responded, looking back and giggling when joshua looked just as dumbfounded as he had before you looked away. "she's an adult. seokmin's a good guy. let it happen."

he closed his mouth, stealing a glance at his sister. "he is a kindergarten teacher."

"and both your best friend and your partner love him," you reminded him. "she could do worse."

he gave you a look. "she has done worse."

"shut up," you said, pushing his shoulder in your friend's defense. "you've done pretty bad, too."

his eyes went to the ceiling, remembering the accidental altercation you had been forced to have with one of his more regrettable exes. "how many times do i have to apologize-"

"you don't," you laughed, putting your hands on his cheeks and focusing his eyes on yours. "but krys is an adult. she's allowed to judge her own partners, and even if she ends up being wrong, she's old enough to make her own mistakes."

joshua huffed, knowing you were right but not wanting to admit it. "sorry i'm trying to protect my one and only baby sister."

"yes, and you're adorable," you assured him. "best big brother ever. but it's her birthday, and if you don't start getting drunk soon, she'll be very upset."

drinking with joshua was fun. because he wasn't much different than yourself - he didn't get crazy, he didn't get loud. he just got loose. he let stupider jokes out, and he was more willing to join in on krys' performative comedy bits throughout the night. you found yourself falling onto a couch with him, giggling as he caught his breath after a particularly involved musical number.

the most fun you had drinking with joshua was in itaewon, long past midnight but still what you considered halloween. you had been dragging karol with you for years, but now you had a boyfriend, and she had a boyfriend, and you both had a new joint best friend, so it only made sense for you to get them all take the train ride out to your favorite part of seoul.

ratatouille. that was the only way you could get joshua to go with you. he wanted a couples costume and he wanted you to be the rat.

"this feels backhanded," you told him.

"do you want to be linguine?" he asked. "i can be sexy remy. i can find grey hot pants, but you have to be the one to attach the the tail because i have no idea what my butt looks like."

you laughed, resigning to your fate and buying the outfit online, then looked at him suddenly. "liar. i know you check yourself out at the gym."

"okay," he said, eyes on the ceiling as he herded a giggling you into his arms. "then… i want it to be accurate, so you need to attach it directly at my tailbone." he cocked his head at you after you settled into the hug. "i have to be wearing them, obviously."

"obviously," you said. "but unfortunately, i already ordered the body suit."

josh pressed his lips together and made a quick fist in victory. "awesome. i-i mean! aww, well, that's fine, i suppose." he sighed dramatically, convincing absolutely no one that he hadn't wanted this outcome all along. "i'll be linguine."

"i don't feel like fighting a bunch of gays in itaewon for your affection anyways," you said, making him laugh and kiss your cheek quickly before pulling away.

"grilled cheese?"

"is that even a question?"

it wasn't a question when you were weaving through throngs of bunnies and angels, either, holding hands with both him and his sister to not lose them in the crowd, karol and soonyoung trailing behind krys, all five of you on a mission to get carbs in you after starting the night off nearly too strong.

halloween in itaewon was different. it was special, you thought. you usually didn't like crowds, but this one felt good. halloween wasn't a celebrated holiday in korea, but with internet, influencers, and immigrants, the culture found its way into the new age scene. you loved an excuse to celebrate your favorite characters by paying them homage, and joshua had thought that was a noble enough reason for him to justify staying up too late and drinking too much.

you had just left the diner themed bar that you devoured griddle top sandwiches from, as well as another drink, and you spotted a familiar angel making a beeline for you.

well, not you.

"how many times have i tried to get you to come to itaewon with me?" jeonghan asked, pushing joshua's shoulder as soon as he could reach it.

joshua laughed, looking shocked by the sudden appearance of his friend. "you never agreed to be remy!"

jeonghan looked at you, and burst into laughter, making your jaw drop in indignance and whacking your fist against both their arms. "at least we're original. way to put in the effort, han."

he shrugged bringing a straw to his mouth, and you eyed the pink liquid that had clearly been funnelled into a water bottle. "i look better than all these clowns and you know it."

"there you are!"

jeonghan spun, the straw still in his mouth. "shit, i haven't lost you?"

seokmin gave him a sarcastic laugh, adjusting the shoulder of his soccer jersey as he walked up behind him, quickly adding to your small circle as he greeted you and joshua. you stepped aside suddenly, revealing the members of your party that had been lagging behind. "o-oh! it's all of you!"

you made brief eye contact with joshua, who was trying to not laugh at your less than subtle attempt. "you match!" you said quickly, pointing out that krys was dressed as a baseball player. "baseball, soccer," you trailed off, looking around for help.

"sports couple," jeonghan said loudly, slipping you a quick look. "cute."

soonyoung had to put his entire palm over his mouth to stop himself from exploding into giggles when seokmin went red in the ears and krys tried to change the subject as kindly as she could manage.

when you finally made it back into joshua's room, it was far too late (early? you could think about it more, but you preferred resigning to the fact that the passage of time was beyond you and moving on), the sun already starting to light the sky as it prepared to break the horizon. when you stole his toque of his head, he put his hand on your waist, backing you up against the closet door and gently working his lips onto yours.

you giggled, your arms landing on his shoulders. "aren't you tired?

"yeah, but," his eyes fluttering over your face. "i just really like you."

you were smiling when he pressed his lips to yours again. "i really like you, too, but we've been at a sweaty block party all night and we need to shower."

"together?" he asked, a spot of childish hope in his voice. "singular shower?"

you sighed on his lips, playfully threading your fingers against his nape. "if you want?"

the hot water felt especially good after trekking home in the cold without a jacket. and even though it was just meant to be a shower, he kept kissing you like it was something more, pressing you against the tiled wall and running his hands all over your shape. you couldn't stop giggling. pushing his hands away, saying you need to wash up, but giving him looks like you wanted him to keep going. you were running your hands over his chest, rinsing away suds, when joshua couldn't help but put a hand at the base of your neck, tipping your head slightly to deepen an already heated kiss.

"cut it out," you muttered against his lips, feeling them curve despite your eyes staying shut.

"cut what out?"

you looked at him, barely processing anything other than how incredibly handsome he was, even with his lashes stuck together with moisture and his hair slicked back against his head. "trying to fuck me in a shower stall."

he laughed teasingly, leaning into you again. "then why'd you agree to come in here with me?"

your back hit the tile again, and you giggled. "to save water."

and then he's kissing you again, a hand steady on your nape as he worked you open, tongue lapping against yours with a desperation that could only mean one thing. you whimpered dumbly, the squeaky whine escaping you with no difficulty as your hands ran up his chest, your grip longing for any amount of him you could get.

his lips leave you abruptly, asking if this was too much. if you wanted to stop. but you shook your head at him, hands eager to feel more of his shoulders, his neck, his scalp, despite your legs starting to give out. steam drifted between you when you told him your legs felt like jello from your full shift of partying, and if he didn't want to hold you up, you should probably take this to bed.

you were giggling as you frantically dried each other off, stealing kisses that were far too deep to be so short and longing touches that could have been interpreted as purposeful drying if you squinted hard enough, but felt much more like careful teasing. his hands felt right running up your body, and your hair was still damp, but that didn't bother either of you when you fell into bed together.

"i cant believe you want to fuck me when i was dressed like a literal rat," you teased.

he laughed, tugging your thigh up on his hip as his nose nuzzled against yours. "a sexy rat."

you giggled, lips parting when he kissed you. "a rat from a pixar movie."

he didn't miss a beat. "a sexy rat from a pixar movie."

you roll your damn eyes at him, and he just laughs, knowing that it mattered very little what you were wearing before, because now you were bare, clean, and safe in his bed, which was exactly where he wanted you for the rest of forever.

the sun was past its peak when you woke, stretching your sore spine and legs with joshua's arm draped over you. his hand seemed to wake before he did, finding your hip and squeezing gently as he took in his signature first breath of the day.

"g'morning." you smiled at his soft voice as he squinted at you, and you rolled into him to plant a kiss on his lips.

"it's almost two," you said finally.

he groaned, burying his face in the pillow. "too early." his grip around you tightened, making you giggle. "nap time."

you whined. "i wanna make coffee before it gets too late."

"i said nap time," he muttered, face still against the pillow.

"baby, i have a headache."

his head popped up, squinting at the bedside. "there's water."

you laughed incredulously. "i need caffeine."

he just pulled you tighter. "i need you here."

"wow," you said, wrapping your arms around him as he snuggled into your chest. "would rather i suffer from a caffeine headache for your own selfish need to cuddle than let me escape for two minutes to make a coffee and come back?"

he smiled, rubbing his cheek against your sternum. "mhmm."

you giggled, carding your fingers through his hair and resigning to a few more precious moments of uninterrupted snuggling before you could relieve the vague aching in your temples.

he did eventually let you slip out of his grasp, and you asked if he wanted a coffee, too, to which he just blearily blinked at you and nodded once. you laughed, finding a shirt in a drawer and pulling it over your head before exiting to the kitchen.

you hit the kettle first, having a craving for a hot cup of coffee rather than the usual iced, grabbing a mug and glass from a cabinet. the espresso machine sat on the long counter against the windowed outer wall, and your eyes danced across the outside world as you made the two coffees. when you returned to the bedroom, joshua was on his phone, and when you cleared your throat, he dropped his phone on the pillow and pretended to be asleep, complete with a loud snore.

you giggled, sitting on the edge of the bed and nudging him carefully. "get up or i'll put the glass on your neck."

he winced at the idea. "evil," he stated plainly, flopping around to comfortably sit up and taking the iced coffee from you.

you sipped your coffee and put it on the bedside table to swing your feet back under the covers. you shoved at the pillows to support your back as you sat, grabbing your coffee and phone to begin your weekend morning routine of checking the news as you sipped at an americano. "i brought you coffee in bed at two pm. i think i'm pretty saintly."

he gave you a fake laugh, making you giggle and push your foot against his leg under the covers in a half hearted kick. "is that why you said 'oh, god' so much last night?"

you groaned. "gross, joshua. and for the record," you said, eyeing him slyly as a smile broke out on your lips. "that was this morning."

"time is an illusion," he declared, taking a gulp from his coffee and setting it down to get more comfortable beside you as you began to read an article. "are we doing anything today?"

you shook your head, eyes still focused on your screen. "nada."

"nothin'?" joshua fished.

"zilch," you concluded.

"rad," he decided, a light tone in his voice as he grabbed his phone to resume whatever he had been doing before you returned. "do you wanna order breakfast?"

you let out a breath, your head falling back as you looked at him. "yes, oh my god."

he laughed, and his eyes ran over your face in a way you recognized well at this point. to you, it was him just smiling back at you, and you liked that it reached his eyes. but to him, it was the way he looked at you when he was memorizing all the little reasons he adored you, and it was getting harder for him to pretend it wasn't more than just simple adoration.

"question," he started, eyes darting away from yours as he licked his suddenly dry lips and swallowed quickly.

"pasta," you said immediately, pulling your phone to your chest as you gave him your biggest, most convincing eyes before a finger came up to demonstrate a point. "and before you say that's not a breakfast food, i would like to remind you that it is 2pm and i had to sit through a hundred of your italian food puns yesterday despite ratatouille being set in france."

he laughed, and you gave him a confused look. "we can get pasta, but that wasn't the question."

your eyebrow quirked. "what other question could you possibly ask me right now?"

unknowingly, joshua let his face settle into the same look he was giving you less than a minute earlier. "would you want to move in?"

your eyes ran over his face repeatedly, trying to register how serious he was as you considered the idea of staying in this comforting bed and presence for the indefinite future, and even you couldn't hide how nice that sounded. the only thing stopping you was that you couldn't bear to leave karol alone. you had been living together for over four years now, she had been your first roommate in korea, your best friend for years, and an inexplicable source of quiet but understanding comfort for you.

"i understand," joshua assured you, placing his hand over yours after you expressed your hesitation. "i don't know what i'll do with myself when krys decides to move out."

you nodded, studying his face but mind wandering to other things. "krys," you hummed, and he eyed you.

"what genius plan is that brain brewing?"

you shook your head, brushing the thought out of your mind - the thought that krys had said something about needing to find a new place soon. the thought that she had said she was never gonna properly grow up when josh was taking care of her, whether she wanted him to or not. "nothing."

but it wasn't nothing. it was a compromise - you and krys would swap leases.

"are you sure?" you asked her, elbows on the island as krys ate the donuts you had anxiously made that morning. you had brought up the idea to her days before, and she excitedly agreed, but something about it felt too easy to you.

"yes," she assured you, wiping her bottom lip clear of powdered sugar. "i swear, i'm sure. how many times do i have to say it?"

you chewed your cheek. "i don't want you to feel like i'm kicking you out."

"you're not kicking me out," she said matter of factly. "i'm moving out. it just happens to be the same day as you're moving in."

you pouted. "and you're moving into my apartment."

"yeah," she said, nodding. "i get to pay lower rent and have south facing windows in my room. i should feel bad about kicking you out."

it took almost a month to organize everything, but by early december you were just waiting for the date. you purposefully scheduled for a weekend, in order to not disrupt krys' streaming schedule and your video uploads, since you had planned to do a separate moving vlog about safely packing tableware. the weekend before, krys came over to her soon-to-be home for your usual monthly brunch.

flipping pancakes that day felt a little somber, knowing it was the last time you'd be cooking brunch while living with karol. you had been with her for four years, and it felt surreal that you were finally parting ways like this. not only that, but you were moving in with a guy. the idea itself scared the shit out of you - cohabitating with someone other than karol. you'd be sharing a room. sharing a kitchen. sharing all of your space - normally, that would scare you away from agreeing, but something about joshua made you feel safe. he made you feel like you would never try to get back the distance you generally held so dear.

months ago, the idea of sharing space like that while trying to decompress would be unimaginable, but recently, you found alone time with joshua just as healing as alone time with yourself, so the idea of being able to snuggle into his side every night actually put a warm feeling in your stomach. you looked at your friends, who were laughing and drinking bloody marys as you tried to keep up with their conversation. your brain swirled, and you looked back down at the strawberries you were cutting, suddenly realizing you had never felt that way about a boy before.

"woah, you okay, babe?" krys bobbed her head downwards to check your face. "are you crying? i thought only onions did that to you."

you threw your head back, sniffling noisily trying to force the tears back under your ducts. karol stood. "oh, my god, what's wrong?" she frantically put down her drink and rushed around the counter to your side.

"wait, yeah-" krys shook her head rapidly, then reached over to take the knife out of your hand, her face creasing into a worried pout. "what's going on?"

you gathered yourself, embarrassed at how quickly you had cried so hard over such a stupid realization. you almost laughed, realizing what a scene you were making. you never cried. you weren't even sure either of them had seen it before now, yet you were ugly sobbing over something that they all probably already knew.

you swallowed harshly, clearing your throat. "i think i'm in love with josh."

krys and karol always knew you didn't truly care about the gender of your hypothetical partner, but that you had avoided men for a reason other than your attraction to them. they knew you gravitated towards women for practically your entire friendships with either of them, they knew that you never liked to get genuinely drunk and instead took care of the rest of them, and they knew you had never been very interested in sex. these were all known facts about you, and your friends understood that you kept the reasons for these facts close to your chest. they respected that.

but you finally wanted to share why. and the why was your ex.

when you had imagined telling your closest friends about your trauma, this certainly wasn't the situation you expected - crowded around the kitchen counter as your pancakes went cold, and only because you had burst into tears. it wasn't the right place, you thought, for you to talk about how he got you drunk. how you were practically asleep. how you tried to push him away but your body was weak with intoxication and you were powerless against him. someone you trusted. someone you loved.

you had always been the type to fight your own battles. you could stand up for yourself without difficulty, yet he made you scared of men. of what they could do to you. he reminded you that despite your effort to air on the androgynous, you had a body that some people might enjoy against your will. he made you want to hide everything about you and your body, wearing baggy shirts and oversized hoodies every chance you got, avoiding the unwanted gaze of men.

but recently, you've been wearing shorts more. you cropped some old shirts you never got use out of anymore to wear to your weekly yoga class. you had even bought a schoolgirl outfit for exactly one purpose, which had been entirely out of your comfort zone until roughly two months prior, but you had happily worn to please a man.

but in your defense, joshua hong was not like most men.

his appreciation of your body never felt predatory, and it always felt like it was bested by his appreciation of your mind. he didn't treat you like a prize, or like you were his for the taking. he appreciated your body as yours. while you may have found yourself the subject of his desire, you were never an object, and it had been a long time since you had felt comfortable wearing the clothes you liked in favor of opting for whatever would hide the most skin.

krys was crying. karol was too, but she was more focused on hugging you tight as you wiped off the tears that had trailed down your face. krys rounded the counter, loudly vocalising how much she loved you and everything about you, and you laughed out loud as she let out an exaggerated wail.

"actually, though," she said, pulling away slightly and sniffling. "drop the address. we're rolling up on this guy tomorrow."

you laughed again, wiping at your face when your arms were free. "wouldn't even know where to find him now."

"good!" karol declared. "fuck that guy! cut him out! you're a bad bitch!"

krys pouted. "i'm really happy josh helped you heal."

you stared at her for a second, registering that she must have been right. you eyes swam over the counter, thinking about all the times he had helped you feel more comfortable with yourself. with everything. enough to let someone in. enough to love. "i guess that's what this is, huh?"

karol cleared her throat. "so, you love him."

a grin broke out on krys' face, and your eyes immediately rolled. "you love him."

"you love him so bad."

"you wanna marry him and make adorable little hong babies."

"oh my god," you said, pressing the backs of your hands into your eye sockets, annoyed laughter on your lips as they bounced off each other. "you guys suck."

joshua started acting… odd. that was the only way you could describe it. there was nothing specific you could name - maybe the way his eyes were moving slightly too quickly from side to side? or maybe it was the way he inhaled a little extra when you asked him what was up, only for him to push his lips into an exaggerated pout and insist that nothing was. whatever it was, it made you watch him a little bit longer, your eyes squinting slightly more than usual.

you called him the day before, asking if you could bring some stuff over in hopes of making the next day as easy as possible, but his response was quick and surprising.

"what do you mean, no?" you laughed, putting down the wooden tray you were deciding the fate of. "do you have a girl over?"

you could hear him faltering on the other end. "and what if i did?"

"good luck getting her to make you breakfast."

he laughed. "i'm kidding. i have a guy over."

"oh?" you asked. "jeonghan?"

"shut up," he chuckled out. "i'm having something installed, but it was supposed to be a surprise."

"joshua," you reminded him, thinking of what the hell he could have meant by something. "i don't do surprises."

"you do now."

you groaned, a palm landing on your counter. "what is it?"

"a sex swing," he said plainly, as though that were the most obvious fact that you could have questioned, and you practically choked on your laughter, not even letting him confirm that he was joking before you were folded over your counter. and quite frankly, you could not wait another day to let him make you laugh like that as a routine.

you finally seceded, but you were glad when joshua arrived - the suv he rented loaded with krys' things - because it was a signifier that the distance between you and said surprise was shrinking quickly. soonyoung had become a surprisingly helpful voice of reason as you went through your piles of tablewares, telling you which ones to leave behind and which ones to take with you. seokmin had even arrived not long after the suv in his own car, a few brightly colored belongings in his backseat. you and karol exchanged a look when you realized he had volunteered to help krys move, but said nothing out loud, knowing she would do nothing but deny the obvious.

after yours and krys' affects were swapped in the car, you looked around one last time before telling josh you thought that was it.

"wait!" krys faltered, realizing she didn't have a good reason to stop you. "i- uh,"

"they know there's a surprise waiting for them," he said, digging the rental keys out of his jacket pocket.

karol looked to you. "do you know what it is?"

"of course not," joshua stated proudly before you could respond. "i'm like a steel trap."

you laughed. "that's definitely not how that phrase is meant to be used."

he raised a brow at you. "that doesn't change the fact that you could never get that info out of me."

"they absolutely could," karol said.

"for sure," krys agreed.

"i just wanted to let you have this," you admitted.

joshua looked between the three of you with his jaw slightly dropped, and seokmin put a hand over his mouth while crossing his arms to disguise the almost laugh on his lips.

"well, i want to see your reaction," krys decided. "so i'm coming."

"wait," soonyoung asked, putting down the retro boombox he had been investigating, among the other things that had been brought from the loft. "like, the surprise?"

"does everyone know about this but me?" you asked, hands hitting your sides in exasperation.

seokmin looked at you with wide, confused eyes. "i don't."

you lifted your hands in a vague prayer towards him. "thank you for your solidarity."

"i wanna see your face, too!" soonyoung said, ignoring you both. "you're gonna freak."

"joshua," you started, turning to him with a look of dread on your face. "what the fuck did you get?"

"i told you!" he exclaimed. "a sex swing!"

there was an excruciatingly long second of silence, making your palm land directly on your face - just above your eye - before seokmin let out a surprised, "a what?"

"he's kidding," you announced, much to the teacher's relief. "and if he's not we're breaking up."

it was decided that the entire party would move to the loft for the surprise reveal, and you watched your friends pile into seokmin's car with your palms sweating slightly and your molars gently gnawing at the fleshy party of your cheek. because, truly, you didn't handle receiving gifts well when you knew what they were, but you didn't have a single clue as to what could be waiting for you in your new home, and that made you a little nervous to have an audience for your possibly piss poor reaction.

joshua's hand found yours on the drive to the apartment. "you okay?"

you blinked and looked over at him, his eyes catching yours between glances at the road. "i don't do surprises."

"so you've said," he nodded. his fingers squeezed at yours lightly and you exhaled. "do you want to know before we go in? you can just act surprised."

your felt your face soften, registering what he was offering you. "joshua, you don't have to do that-"

"i know," he said. "but if it makes you more comfortable, then…"

"no way," you said. "i'll just stop being a baby. you set up a surprise, the least i can do is participate the way you want me to."

he eyed you, then the way you laced your fingers with his. "but you are a baby."

you rolled your eyes. "shut up, no i'm not."

"my baby," he clarified, and you let out an involuntary giggle.

he was guiding you into the kitchen, his large hands placed over your eyes and covering most of your face by proxy, and you didn't quit your playful complaints for the crowd of your closest friends that had gathered around, their presence obvious despite your vision being impaired.

"ready?" joshua asked.

"josh, i literally hate surprises, do we have to do all this?"

"yes," he said frankly. "because i'm doing something nice for us and you're going to love it so can you shut up and let me do this the way i want to like you told me you wanted me to?"

you paused, hearing the way your friends stifled their laughter as you took in a deep breath.

"ready?" he repeated.

"yeah, i guess," you sighed.

the light was harsh when his hands left your face, and you blinked repeatedly at the kitchen that you spent countless hours in, registering what was different. then, it suddenly clicked, the stovetop joshua had always had was replaced by the blue vintage styled range of your dreams.

"joshua!" you gasped, hands going to your face as you spun to look at him, then back at the range. "you bought me a lacanche?!"

he grinned, hands snaking around your waist from behind as you stood frozen in place. "i bought us a lacanche."

seokmin leaned over to krys. "what's a le conch?"

she reached up and put a finger over his mouth, eyes fixed on you. "shh, they're communicating."

you rushed over to the range, joshua following behind you as you ran your hands over the polished chrome handles that you had stared at on the website for years. "and it's all hooked up?"

he nodded, eyes on you with a smile on his face. "tested it last night."

"without me?" you asked, incredulous.

he laughed. "i didn't want to ruin the surprise by burning the loft down directly after."

your finger fidgeted on the handle, looking over to joshua. he gestured for you to go ahead, and you pushed and spun the knob, lighting a burner and squealing. you shut it off again before launching yourself into a hug.

"joshua!" you wailed, arms wrapped around his neck as he laughed, putting his around your waist. "i love it so much ican'tbelieveyouboughtusafucking lacanche range in portuguese blue for no goddamn reason!"

"there was a reason!" he laughed, letting you pull away slightly to study his face. "it's a housewarming gift. i want you to know this place is yours, too, now."

you did your best to suck the tears back into the ducts they belonged in, trying to not show just how much the gesture meant to you in that way, but you were sure one escaped down your cheek when your hands went to the base of his skull, pulling him into a kiss. you forgot the context of the move. you forgot about your friends that had been excitedly crowded in your new kitchen, anticipating your over the top reaction to what they saw as just a new stove. you, however, were overwhelmed by the specifics - the fact that he had picked the color you chose most often when building your hypothetical dream stove on the website you frequented more often than you would ever admit. the fact that it matched the details on the tile of his kitchen backsplash, a detail you hadn't even noticed when you were looking at them online. the chrome vintage knobs, the layout of the burners - everything was exact to what he had seen you dream about, and you couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the love and care that expressed, hoping you could tell him just how much it meant by working your lips against his.

"ok, gross," krys announced, looking away when the two of you didn't pull apart. "i'm saying goodbye to my wallpaper and we're leaving. would anyone else like to pay their respects?"

seokmin raised his hand, his eyes on the ceiling, and krys grabbed his arm and retreated towards the hall, karol telling them to hurry as soonyoung put up a hand to obstruct his view of you and joshua. when you finally pulled away, it wasn't for their reprieve, though they reacted as though it was. it was so you could look into joshua's eyes, creased with the grin on his face as you gave him a similar one, and you couldn't wait to cook with him, on your, plural, portuguese blue lacanche range, with chrome classique handles, four gas burners, a griddle, and a warming drawer. and it would be your best brunch yet.

#caratwritersclub #svtredroom #this part hits lol #seventeen fluff #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #joshua hong imagines #joshua hong fluff #joshua hong scenarios #joshua imagines #joshua scenarios #joshua fluff #fluff #i wrote dis #yes all the banners are based off movie posters #is this actually funny or am i just stupid #josh

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