#had to stop myself from writing 'CEO's back exploding. his back just did that' for the second one | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jinmukangwrites · 4 years ago

Text

@damianwayneweek Day 4 (6-16): Reverse batfamily | Hugs | Soulmate

Warnings: Canon typical violence, major injuries, background character death, ✨angst✨

Note: this one ran away from me. It got a mind of its own. If I had more time, this would be so much longer. I've always wanted to write a reverse batfam story with Damian's perspective. Please enjoy.

---

Damian has only spent a month living with his blood father, and he's felt nothing but miserable this entire time. Somehow, life has managed to become even more stressful and exhausting compared to living within the League of Assassins. He... understands why his mother felt he'd be safer here for the time being, but at least, back in Nanda Parbat he knew what he was doing and what the rules were.

He's not sure where he stands with his father. It's obvious that his father doesn't know where he stands with Damian either. Damian, his entire life, had grown up with the knowledge of Bruce Wayne being his father. Batman. Caped Crusader of Gotham. Hero. Bringer of Justice. His mother's dearest, most precious love after Damian himself. She spoke often of him. Highly. Only when alone and no one else to hear them. His father isn't exactly on high standings with his grandfather nor other high ranking members of the League.

Yet, his father knew nothing of him until the day they met. His mother brought him to the streets of Gotham, lured Batman to their location, and introduced them there. His father seemed visibly shocked under that cowl at the information of having a son, yet he didn't question it.

Damian didn't know what to expect after his mother left him for his own safety. He didn't know all too much about culture outside of the League. He was, of course, taught the basics to blend in with American society—as well as other countries—if the need so came, but other than that... He didn't know what to do with himself when he first stepped in the manor to find only one servant and a new home empty of anything to fill his time. The cave where his father operates was locked to him from the get-go.

His father doesn't seem to trust him. He explained the situation to the servant, and then sent Damian off with the servant to find a room with the warning that if Damian "did anything", he'd regret it.

Damian's hardly seen his father since. When he's not working as a CEO, he's out as Batman, and Damian sits in the manor all day and night running out of ways to keep himself entertained.

Sometimes he sees his father at supper, but he doesn't ever start any conversation. Damian doesn't start any either, thinking it's purposeful. He doesn't ask about Damian's stay, or if he's comfortable here, or anything. He doesn't update Damian on any new information about his mother and the league. The only words he speaks to Damian are gruff good nights.

Miserable. It's miserable. He doesn't understand why his mother is so in love with such a miserable man for company.

He doesn't speak up on it, however. If his father is anything like his teachers or his grandfather, questioning him or speaking out of turn will just get him in trouble. He'd like to keep his stay at a tolerable level of misery, thank you very much.

So he doesn't say anything to his father, even though he's itching to go out with him at night to... to do whatever he does. He's seen the television, Superman has a kid fighting with him in Metropolis. Why can't Damian do the same with his father as well? He can wear a mask and change his name. He can easily defend himself, even against this country's love for guns.

He still doesn't say anything, and he spends the days miserable.

-o-o-o-o-

It's the butler, Alfred as he has insisted many times during his stay (Damian humors him by calling him by his first name, being as he's the only one to speak to Damian in this drab house), who suggests school a few months after coming here.

"School," his father says blankly, looking at Alfred like he's lost his mind.

"He's a young, growing boy," Alfred says. "It's not good for the lad to be inside all day like this."

Damian sits at the dining table, stiff like he's stepped on a landmine and is now waiting for it to explode. However, he can't help but look up at his father through his lowered eyebrows to meet his sharp gaze. School... doesn't sound like something that would be any fun, but... but anything to get out of this manor sounds almost heavenly.

His hopes fall when his father shakes his head. "No. It's too dangerous."

And something inside Damian snaps just a little. "Dangerous for who?" He demands, slamming his hands on the table. "For me? Or for the other children?"

His father looks stunned, and Damian's stomach drops as Alfred's eyes widen as well.

He's running out of the dining room before anything else can be said.

He's messed up. He's definitely, royally, messed up.

-o-o-o-o-

Punishment for yelling at his father doesn't come like he expects it to. A week goes by, and there's not a single word of his outburst.

It sets him on edge. It fries his nerves. It makes him jumpy and paranoid and frightened at every shadow.

So much so that he finally decides, one day, to pull the sword hanging above the library entrance off the wall and practice with it. It's heavier than what he's used to back in Nanda Parbat. British history is in the shape of the blade, but he still wields it and practices rusty moves on it until he's sweating in the middle of the library. Usually training makes him feel better, but the more time that passes, the more frustrated he gets.

He gets so frustrated that he imagines enemies surrounding him. He imagines the warmth of blood splattering against his skin as he swings. The taste as it touches his tongue. Their screams of death. He gets so deep in this trance that he doesn't notice he's broken something until the sound of crashing glass reaches his ears; he's swung right through a glass display case, the unprotected remains of a signed classic novel resting inside.

His heart jumps when the door opens to see what the commotion is about, and he drops the sword like it's hot when Alfred is the one to poke his head through.

"I'm sorry," he says.

Alfred gives him a long look, and then he sighs. "Come fetch the broom with me, and we can clean this up."

"Will you tell father?" Damian asks slowly. He can tell it's a loaded question when Alfred pauses and purses his lips.

"Not this time," he says finally, after a few heartbeats. "But I do think it's time I speak with him about some other things. Come along, the quicker we clean this up, the quicker I can get you a cup of tea to stop you from looking like a frightened racoon."

-o-o-o-o-

A few days pass, and his father invites him to follow after dinner. Out of everything Damian expects to come from this, being led into the batcave through a grandfather clock in the study wasn't one of them.

"You can train here," his father said, showing him a massive room in the cave filled to the brim with practice tools of all kinds. Dulled swords, throwing stars, bo-staffs, and straw dummies to name a few. There's locked cases on the far side of the training room, of which Damian suspects are full of much more sharp, dangerous, and fun tools.

No matter. He's already feeling his blood shake with excitement at the thought of finally getting some proper practices again.

"You can come down here only when myself or Alfred are here to supervise you," his father explains. "Nothing here leaves this room, and if anything breaks you tell us immediately."

"Can I start now?" Damian asks, barely managing to hold himself back from running towards the closest, one-handed blade.

His father, surprisingly, nods. "I'm going out, and Alfred will be down to help me with the computer. He will be in charge."

Damian can't stop himself from smiling. Finally there's something to do in this house. Feeling hopeful, he decides to ask one more question.

"Can I go with you? One day?"

Silence is his answer for a few heartbeats, making Damian suddenly fearful that he shouldn't have asked that. Then, his father sighs.

"We will see."

-o-o-o-o-

A few more days pass before they do see. He suspects Alfred must have had another conversation with his father, because he approaches him one night and offers to spar.

It's done in full concentration, not a single word exchanged between the two. Both are too busy studying the other's fighting patterns to say anything.

It's now that Damian realizes what his mother meant whenever she spoke about his father's advanced martial arts. It's brutal and expertly executed. It's only a matter of time before he's pinned. He's disappointed in himself, but not surprised to end up losing.

But not all is lost. He can tell his father is impressed when he releases his pin and tosses Damian a rag to wipe off his sweat.

"We need to talk to Alfred about getting you a suit."

-o-o-o-o-

The suit Alfred makes him is made of the strongest, thinnest material Damian had ever seen. It cannot only be Kevlar, because it would be heavier than this. It must have been created by his father himself, or one of his associates.

Whatever the case, he's in awe by it. Alfred is a master of every craft, it seems. He's managed to create the suit to Damian's submitted designs to the T, only making subtle changes here and there where sketches don't match up with reality.

It's mostly black, because according to his father white isn't a good color to go with in Gotham. It's understandable, as much as Damian dislikes it. He's always liked wearing whites and tans for his outfits, accenting here and there with greens and blues to bring out his eyes. Black is such a boring and dull color, but this, he supposes, he will have to deal with.

And it's not all black, at the least. Just the bits around his shoulders, cape, hood, sides, and legs. On his chest, however, is a splash of dark maroon, as well his boots and gloves. His belt is yellow, like his father's, and filled only with smoke pellets, a grappling gun, and a hanging pair of sticks that triple as escrima, a bo-staff, and nun-chucks. Not his preferred weapon, but his father doesn't seem to be very trustful with him and sharp ones yet.

He goes out into the city, out of the manor, for the first time in what feels like forever. His father keeps a sharp eye on him, reminding him every two seconds to not kill anyone, but Damian doesn't mind too much.

He's just happy to be out, and to finally get glimpses of what his father is truly like outside of the stories of his mother and the silent dinners.

He's ruthless, but not heartless. Strong, but not abusive. He prioritizes justice, above all else, and teaches Damian that even the criminals deserve it. The victims get saved, and his father leaves the criminals to be picked up by the cops to be brought to rehabilitation or wherever else they must go.

Damian's careful to remember these teachings, even though he doesn't understand them. He's been raised to think the only thing bad people deserved was punishment, but after taking down a bank robbery, his father researches the names of the robbers and finds that the bank keeper was blackmailing them to give him money on top of the loans they already had with the bank.

The bank keeper was trying to pay off the gangs to protect the bank from other gangs.

So on and so forth.

Gotham seems to be a big cycle of abuse, with no one willing to end it.

Well, no one besides his father.

It doesn't make sense to Damian why his father would try so hard to stop it, but he can at least respect it.

For now.

-o-o-o-o-

Everything goes almost fine until it doesn't.

For the first time in almost half a year, Damian finds himself separated from his father and Alfred. There's a new big bad in Gotham, a man with half of his face burned off by acid. Two-Face, he calls himself. Harvey Dent, his father informed before he left Damian behind to fight him alone.

"This is personal," he said.

And Damian didn't listen. He wanted to see what a real fight was like in Gotham. These petty bank robberies and classic muggings were getting boring and repetitive. He didn't mean to get so close.

His father was in a standoff with Two-Face, and on a stroke of bad luck one of the goons spotted him watching.

"It's Red Bird!" Shouted the goon. Red Bird is the name Gotham had started to call him by in the papers.

A group of the goons charged after him, the rest kept by Two-Face and his father, sneering as they separated his father from helping with their guns and a baby hostage.

And maybe it was seeing the child in Two-Face's arms that made him see red. Maybe it was the disappointment in himself for being spotted. Maybe it was simply all the pent up frustration that's been building without his knowledge since he's gotten here.

Whatever the case, he fought back a little harder than he meant to. What he was supposed to. He brought most of the goons down to the ground, clutching broken bones and bloodied gashes. His old training kicks in, and he goes to hit one of his opponents in a specific place that would kill them.

"RED BIRD!" His father shouts angrily over the commotion.

And Damian stumbles, stopping in his kill-path. His father sounds disappointed and upset and- and Damian almost disobeyed his orders and his father saw it immediately.

Then, before he can be fearful or horrified or confused, his own skull is hit hard enough that the world fades to black.

He wakes up with his arms tied behind his back and his entire person disarmed. His father stands at a makeshift pair of gallows, another man besides him. Both are hooded.

Two-Face flips his coin and asks Damian heads or tails. He says tails, and saves his father, but the other man hangs.

Then, Two-Face beats Damian with a bat, to the point he can't see straight, and the pain drags him back into unconsciousness. The last thought he has is that he's failed. He's disappointed his father, and he must have disappointed his mother as well if she hasn't come back for him yet.

He's failed.

-o-o-o-o-

He wakes in the batcave's med-bay, his entire body numb. He can only lay there with a tube running up his nose and needles in his arm, listening to the machine besides him voice his heartbeat. Vacantly, he can hear arguing voices outside his door, one of a woman he doesn't recognize and the other of his father.

He closes his eyes when the arguing gets too loud, but opens them sometime later when it stops and someone enters the room.

His father stands in the doorway, his face looking more raw and vulnerable than Damian's ever seen it.

"I thought I lost you," is all he says before he runs to the cot and grabs Damian's hand. The one not in a sling, he realizes. He's so numb he didn't even notice he had so many bandages and casts on him.

Not that he focuses on that for long. In fact, all he can focus on is that his father is clutching his hand like a lifeline and whispering over and over how sorry he is.

"I should have been better," his father rambles. "You're not like Jon, you don't have powers. I'm so stupid for letting you out there- I almost got you killed- your mother is going to murder me-"

Damian doesn't even know what to say. He's so flabbergasted by the actions of his father, that he just lays there as his father continues.

"I knew I wasn't cut out for this. I'm not even in my thirties, and I'm a dad. I tried my best to keep you safe, make sure you didn't get yourself into danger- and I fucked it all up. I don't know what I'm doing, Dami. I don't know- I'm sorry-"

And this continues for a little while longer until the door opens again, revealing Alfred and the woman who must have been yelling at his father before. She has gray hair, curled up like a loose afro around her head, revealing her old age. Behind her glasses, her eyes are sad. Together, Alfred and the woman approach the bed, and the woman lays her hand on his father's shoulder.

"We need to check his bandages," she says.

His father nods, wiping quickly under his eyes before he stands up. She gives Alfred a look before she leads Bruce out.

It's only Alfred and Damian for a moment, and Damian releases a breath.

"He's not going to let me out again."

Silence.

Then Alfred comes to his side and looks at the bandages. "I will talk with him. First, let's get you healed up and properly introduce you to Miss Thompkins."

-o-o-o-o-

Red Bird does go out again, once he's healed up. Alfred's talks with his father do wonders, it seems, as life at the manor has gone back to lonely and miserable—what with his father avoiding him at every chance. But he goes out again, swinging into the night with his father silently beside him having just finished retelling him every rule he must follow.

Damian intends to follow them. He doesn't want to lose this. He's come so close to losing this.

He hopes... That maybe... If he follows the rules... Things will start getting better again.

They fight crime like normal, going their normal routes and working silently by each other. By the time it's time to go home, Damian's feeling more alive than he has since Two-Face beat him with the bat.

Before they can return to the manor, however, a familiar signal is lit in the sky by the police department. His father stills and Damian watches him carefully. His father has been careful to keep him out of the business that comes with that signal, even before Two-Face.

His father sighs, then gives Damian a hard look through his cowl.

"Behave," is all he says before they're on their way to the police station.

There's a man on the roof. Commissioner Jim Gordon. He gives his father a greeting, then pauses when Damian steps out besides him.

"Decided to finally introduce us?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. "Just when I thought Red Bird was off the streets for good."

Damian bristles, but his father sighs. "What do you need, Commissioner?"

"Apparently a college teacher went insane and poisoned his students with a gas that made them see their deepest fears. Professor Jonathan Crane. It sounds like something you'd handle quicker, and I can get you the files we have on him after you explain to me why you're still letting a child run around in tights. Especially after you told me he was quote un-quote, 'alive but out of commission'."

"I don't see why it's your business," Damian hisses before he can stop himself.

"Red Bird," Batman scolds, and Damian falls quiet.

His father looks at the Commissioner with a hard look. "He's my responsibility, and I will look after him."

"There were rumors he died, Batman," Gordon argues back. "Two-Face bragged about it all the way to Arkham. He had blood on his face."

His father stiffens his jaw, then says through gritted teeth. "I will never allow something like that to happen ever again. If you want my word, I will give it in saying if anyone like Two-Face tries to hurt him like that again, I will make sure they regret the thought before it can happen. Red Bird will continue to be with me where I can watch him, and you will respect that. Trust me, it's safer for all of us this way."

He looks down at Damian, then almost smiles.

"He will sneak out himself anyways, eventually. Or I won't hear the end of it from a mutual acquaintance."

Damian finds himself smiling back. It seems getting on the good side of Alfred was a good decision on his part. And he's right in the former statement as well. Damian is sure he'd eventually get bored enough of being left behind and go out to prove himself without permission. Red Bird... It's too good to give up. He can't lose it.

It's like a staring contest between Gordon and his father for what feels like an entire minute, but eventually Gordon gives up with a sigh.

"Don't know how you do it. The wife's starting to talk about having a kid... I can't imagine a little one of mine running around doing the things I do, let alone what you do."

He brings a cigarette to his mouth, then pulls out a file with his free hand. "Take the case."

Batman steps up to do as was told, but before Gordon let's go, he gives his father a hard look.

"You better keep your word," he growls, "because if anything happens again to that kid, I'm holding you responsible and I'll bring you in for child endangerment myself."

Batman nods. "I'm counting on it."

-o-o-o-o-

Eventually, the topic of school comes up again.

Which of course brings up the topic that no one actually knows about Bruce Wayne's son. Damian's been kept a secret this entire time, unknown to the public.

"We'll tell them that your mother and I met at the end of highschool, and we have kept you a secret ever since. Due to your mother's weakening health, we decided it would be best for your future to have your custody turned over to me and the mother wishes to remain private. Then, we can-"

"Wait," Damian interrupts. "You're going to let me go to school?"

His father pauses in his verbal plans, then nods.

And suddenly, Damians jumping from his chair with joy, wrapping his arms around his father's neck without thinking about it. However, the second he realizes his action, he attempts to scramble away with horror. He's never hugged his father before. But things have been so good, civil even, to the point where they can be in the same room and have conversations about the weather or the recent sports game or even about a new cartoon Damian found on TV.

But they never hugged.

Afraid he's pressed boundaries, he pushes away, but he doesn't go far before a hand wraps around his shoulder. Damians left halfway on his father's lap where he sits, looking at him with anxiety churning in his stomach and an unreadable expression on his father's face.

Then, gently, Damian's pulled back in so now arms are wrapping around his back. His father's hugs are soft and warm, Damians learns. The opposite of how he fights. Yet he feels so safe and protected that he doesn't resist the action.

"This is really happening," his father says in a whisper. "I have a son. I'm really a dad now. I... I promise I will be better for you. From now on. I'm sorry for how I treated you... In the beginning. I was scared. It's no excuse, but I promise you, I will be better."

And he is. They get ice cream after and then watch a movie before going out as Batman and Red Bird.

Time passes so Damian starts school and makes friends. He meets Clark Kent and his son, Jon, and makes a best friend. He grows older, and happier, to the point he no longer misses the League of Assassins. To the point when his mother does finally return to see him, saying the danger has passed...

Damian tells her he wishes to stay with his father. She smiles, and hugs him, and says that she's proud of him. She promises to visit him as often as she can after they share a good cry.

She leaves, and visits, and time moves on a little more.

Until one day, years later, they notice a kid with a camera following them around and taking pictures. Then, the same kid admits to knowing about their civilian identities when confronted.

His father searches the kid up when they get back to the manor, and after some digging it's revealed his name is Tim Drake and his parents are neglectful and strict.

Damian sees the same look in his father's eyes as when he first told the public he had a son named Damian Wayne, and he gets the feeling the manor is about to get a little more crowded.

This, he thinks, is about to get interesting. It's been awhile since life threw a curve ball. He just didn't expect this one to come in the form of a little brother.

And life goes on.

#damianwayneweek2021 #damian wayne #robin #bruce wayne #batman #dc comics #reverse robins #jin writes #fanfiction #violence tw #injuries tw #death mention tw

147 notes · View notes

dis-easedfairy · 4 years ago

Text

Impulsive Decision Pt.9

Male Path | Female Path

Chapter 9 : Just A Normal Day At The Office

Warnings!: Swearing

Genre: Poly!au, angst, fluff, eventual smut, yandere!au

Pairings: BTS x Reader / Kim Taehyung x Reader / Kim Seokjin x Reader / Jung Hoseok x Reader / OC x Reader / Park Jimin x Reader / Min Yoongi x Reader

Summary: M/n is the owner of a very wealthy and successful company, Barnanby Inc. M/n attends a BTS show, since they happen to be a fan. They make a very impulsive decision to show a loophole in BTS’s security and end up kidnapping BTS and 2 girls. In a fit of panic M/n stashes BTS and the girls in a very luxurious bunker for the time being, but M/n’s world slowly starts to crumble the longer the boys are out of the public’s eye,

Word Count: 8,349 (roughly 30 minutes of average reading time)

A/N: The boys aren’t in this chapter that much purely so I can develop plot and give background info. So, filler. (the gif is basically a hint to next chapter)

Spending my morning on Jason’s couch wasn’t the plan, but the break was almost too sweet to give up. I sat up, reaching over for my turned-off phone. I could hear muffled talking coming from down the hall. I looked over, seeing Jason holding a laundry basket, his phone pressed between his face and shoulder and he came into the living room. I grabbed his laptop off the chair just in time for him to sit on the said chair. He dropped the laundry basket on the floor and got a better hold of the phone.

I reached over to get Jason’s laptop off the coffee table. I opened his laptop and began looking up a few things.

“Listen, we had a plan for the character model! I understand when you program something, something else can mess up but it’s YOUR JOB to fix it! I’ll extend the deadline but that’s it, good-bye!” Jason hung up with a groan.

“I haven’t even had my damn morning coffee yet and these people are going insane.” He grumbled, beginning to sort through his laundry.

“Yeah, sorry about that, but it needs to happen,” I muttered, still researching.

“So your plan is to what? Get Jill’s help but keep the company anyway? How will that work? I get you ARE the owner, but she now has the upper hand to destroy you…” Jason trailed off, folding a pair of pants.

I scoffed, “She THINKS she can destroy me, but if she helps me avoid punishment and makes her lawyers paint a pretty picture as truth, then she’ll HAVE to run with it. If she turns on me and says it was all a lie and I’m a criminal, then she is too, then she gets nothing either. The only one with us listening to the WHOLE conversation was my nephew and no one will take his word because he still thinks Santa Claus can come through the furnace vents in their modern home. ”

“He’s really are losing his mind oh my God.” He mumbled to himself, trying to seem interested in his laundry.

“I love my sister, I really do, but last night… She showed me that she would sacrifice everything if it meant keeping the company and her status. She doesn’t care what I want and isn’t doing this out of the kindness of her heart. She’s doing it for my spot. She’s doing it because she doesn’t want to be removed from the high pedestal my father put her on.” I argued, shutting the laptop.

“What about the guys? What if your sister gets access to the bunker?” Jason questioned.

“She won’t. It surprised me when she knew about it, but the location, locks, and layout will be foreign to her because she doesn’t have access to those. I’m assuming she only knows because our accountant slipped up. The only one who knows the location is you and I. The locks are designed by me and you barely even got the keys last month. The layout is only known by twelve people, Jin, Yoongi, Hoseok, RM, Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook, Seongmi, Linza, Jeonghun, and only you and I REALLY know the layout of the bunker. ”

“I feel as though you being there with them was a bad idea.” Jason shook his head, judgment was written on his face.

I exhaled, leaning back into the couch, “It really was. ”

“Well, If I would’ve known you had so much shit going on I wouldn't have invited you for a night out with Daisuke and me!” Jason threw an article of clothing back into the laundry basket roughly.

“If anything, it’ll get my mind off everything for a few hours,” I stated bitterly.

Jason let out a sigh, almost irritated, “We can’t be teenagers anymore, M/n.” He said, his voice was too serious for my liking.

I rolled my eyes, “Jason, I know. I get so much crap for being uptight. Maybe I should actually live like a 20-year-old CEO.” I smirked.

“Oh God, please no.” Jason made a face, going back to sorting and folding his laundry.

“Yeah, overpriced alcohol and drunk people telling me I’m attractive aren’t really for me.” I chuckled, sitting up to get the laptop again, this time to check my e-mail for work.

I started replying and even turned on my phone.

“Your sister….” Jason began, making me look up.

“…She used to wear really nice things, yes, but she would’ve never done that to her little brother. She loved you too much for that.” He stated sadly, looking at a single shirt like it was able to replay memories.

I frowned, sighing, “It happens to those who are in power enough, Jason. It happened to my brother, then to my older sister. I hope my little sister doesn’t catch that bug. Lord knows my mother is secretly becoming like that as well. I understand it a little bit. There are competitors who want our company forgotten, so we have to protect our image, but for her to ask for my place instead, just…” I trailed off.

“I just hope it’s because she has kids to think about now. My brother just wanted to be on top. Maybe my sister wants it so her kids have an assurance that they’ll have something too.” I reasoned, going back to my e-mail in hopes to end the conversation there.

Jason scoffed, “As if you would ever cast out your nephews. Lord knows you spoil them even if they aren’t yours.” I felt a twinge of pain in my heart.

“I mean what would your father say about your sister getting the company?” Jason prompted.

“…I have that decision for a reason, so let that reason play out.” I muttered, no longer interested in the work I was doing.

We fell into slightly uncomfortable silence.

“Can you take care of the boys and girls? With my dad’s party coming up and setting everything up for the future, I will be busy and my family will expect me to stay by their side. They’ll know something is up if I’m constantly leaving.” I explained, pulling out my phone and turning the screen on.

“Uh sure, I’ll try to work and things from there. Maybe I’ll set up a tent there or something. ” I chuckled at his response.

“Why a tent?” I questioned with a smile.

Jason smiled, letting out a chuckle of his own, “So I can get cellphone service.”

I only shook my head, I was about to open my mouth to speak but the doorbell rang. Jason looked at me puzzled for a bit. I only shrugged, leaning back into the couch. Jason stood and opened the door.

“I have your truffle pizza and 20 hot wings. Your total is 66,000 won.” The delivery man stated quickly.

Jason looked over his shoulder at me with a glare. I only smirked with a shrug. Jason grumbled something under his breath and took his wallet out of his pocket. He swiped his card in the delivery man’s card reader and took the pizza and wings.

“Have a nice day!” The man said, quickly taking his leave.

Jason mumbled something along the lines of, “I won’t while he’s here.” as he closed the door.

Jason turned to look over at me, eerily calm for a few moments.

“…WHO ORDERS A 66,000 WON PIZZA!? THAT’S 50 U.S. DOLLARS! THATS….”

“6,510 yen.” I helped him out.

“EXACTLY!” He exploded.

“58 U.S. dollars to be exact. ALSO, it was actually 50 U.S. dollars, however, it was an extra 4 for 20 wings since it was on sale I figured why not?”

“…4 dollars for 20 wings? Holy shit that’s a good deal.” He muttered, moving his hands to open the container with wings.

He made a face as if to say ‘not bad’, “They are pretty meaty too, what the fuck.”

“The pizza has a lot of truffles. Never had it before.” I shrugged.

“Then why did you order it!?”

“…I feel like ordering you the most expensive pizza I could find last minute was doing someone justice? Like I personally don’t think I’ve ever said that, but I’m sure someone said they would. Figured I’d be petty for them.”

Jason looked at the pizza then at me, “You’re so fucking weird. If this tastes bad then that someone is getting coal for Christmas.”

Jason walked over to place the food down on the coffee table. I happily helped move things out the way and opened the pizza box and Jason decided to go for the wings first.

“What’s the game plan for today?” Jason asked, mouth slightly full as he spoke.

I gave him a look and shook my head as I picked up a slice of pizza, “You know I hate when you do that.”

“Why? No food is going to fly out and you understand me.” Jason said after he swallowed, shrugging like it wasn’t a big deal.

“No one wants to see your chewed up food, Jason.”

“Then look at my eyes, not my mouth.” I sighed.

“Stop talking about things that annoy you! What’s the game plan?” Jason pressed, his hand moving to get a slice as well.

I ended up at the office, but instead of working, as usual, I was only lost in my thoughts.

I thought if I was far away from my problems, it would just solve itself.

I had to deal with Daisuke.

I had to prep for my father’s party.

I‌ had to deal with nine people in my bunker.

I looked over at my sad excuse for a couch setup. A pillow and a fluffy blanket folded over the armrest. I was going to be beyond busy and I‌ need to avoid the boys for a bit to get things sorted out.

I let out a sigh, “How long will I‌ be here?”‌ I‌ asked myself as I made my way to my desk.

I sat down and tried to focus back on writing out what I could have planned for the game and if there would be more.

It suddenly hit me. I launched myself up from my desk and ran out of my office to find my sister. It might have been easier to just make her come to me but the idea suddenly coming to me clouded any other thought as I ran as fast as I could to the broadcasting department.

Once I got there I could see my sister talking to employees and making sure everything was in order for the new animation to be aired. Some who were talking a small break immediately got to work when I entered.

I proudly went next to my sister and blurted “I‌ can have the game department only.”‌ in an out of breath tone.

Her eyes grew wide, “Excuse me?”‌ She seemed more concerned than confused.

“You have broadcasting, Jae has the toys and shit, Eun will have food and drinks and I’ll have games. We’ll all just decide together!”‌ I couldn’t suppress the excitement in my voice.

Jilly took a quick look around and grabbed my arm to lead me to the hallway.

“What’s going on in that over-active brain, huh?”‌ She asked me while folding her arms.

“We won’t have to fight for the top if we’re ALL‌ at the top. Jieun isn’t old enough yet, so I’m not worried about that side of our company for at LEAST 2 years!‌ Jae has a thing for money but loves the designs we all come up with. You love the bustle of the broadcasting. You are literally our voice, and it’s good that way. I can be in charge of the game department. Any videogames are managed under me and no one will have to come to you about my bullshit because it’s MY bullshit.”

“This isn’t the four kings. This is a company.”

“A‌ company that will work as long as we all stay in our fucking lanes!‌ Jae is too stubborn to evolve with the company. You won’t take too many creative risks that we need. Jieun will crack under the pressure of handling EVERYTHING. I’m too impulsive or too stuck in my head. But if we all work together we’ll check each other. No fights for the top, no one coming to just one of us for decisions on something the other is working on. No pressure to hold the entire company on our backs. We get our zones and stay in them!”‌

Jilly seemed to look down at the floor, letting my words absorb. After a few long moments, she finally spoke.

“I remember sitting down on the living room floor during Dad’s days off. Our sister helping our mom, Jae being pissed off because Dad just wouldn’t give him a win, and you sitting at the table always learning something new.”‌ Something about her words caused a weight to form on my chest.

She let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling, “Our father was a strong man. After his will, I tried so hard to understand why he left the company to you. You were so young when he wrote the will. You were still young when he passed. Our mother got into a few fights with him before he died,”‌ She let out a scoff, “Like she was just TRYING to find a reason to be mad at him. And when you got the company, Jae was so angry at you, at Dad. I want it to stop. All the fighting. ”‌ Her eyes landed back on me.

“I‌ even went after you, and I shouldn’t have. This isn’t a competition. I was so upset that you kept it from me and that you would even find yourself in that situation. But yesterday night it finally hit me on how you might’ve felt. I‌ just know you went in with it being a joke that you thought wouldn’t be too serious, and when it was, you weren’t sure what to do. If you reached out to our brother, you would go to jail. He’s too into old-fashioned justice. If you went to mom, she would hide you, but her mouth was too big. Eunnie is still a child. And I‌ would’ve done what I did yesterday. You HAD‌ to hide it.”‌ Her voice seemed to waver as she went on.

I tried to remain completely silent. I could feel a sting behind my eyes, she was starting to understand what kind of stupid I was. Yet there was always a method to my madness.

“I‌ judged you, and thought of our image rather than thinking of you as my brother. I‌ thought of you as a reckless child rather than an adult who was afraid. Our mother wanted you to be a pushover, someone she could dump her problems on. Our brother wanted to knock you down to get to the top and I‌ made you feel like shit when I was supposed to help you.”‌ Actual tears began to run down her face, “You’re my little brother, not my child, and not a fucking punching bag. I shouldn’t have made you feel so judged for something that was an innocent mistake, I’m so sorry, M/n-ie.”‌

She bit her lip, seeming to take a moment to control her emotions before finally saying, “It’s your call. I’ll help, but please, don’t do anything stupid.”

I left a large weight lift off of me.

My sister wasn’t against me. She could never be.

My eyes watered as I waited, wanting to see if maybe she would change her mind.

Her features softened even more, “Oh, M/n-ie. I won’t take it back, I promise. Come here,” She held her arms out and I immediately went into them.

Pressing my face into her shoulder and wrapping my arms around her. As she embraced me back I could smell the comforting scent of her jasmine perfume that she’s been using since middle school. Her hand went up to pet my hair soothingly.

For a moment it was as it should be. A little brother being comforted by his big sister.

“What are you two doing in the hallway?” We heard.

Before I could pull away Jillian held me closer, “Hugging. Like family.” Her voice was almost cold.

“He’s the owner of a company, you shouldn’t be holding him like that. He’s not a child.”

It made sense who it was now.

“Jaeseok, he’s our little brother. It doesn’t matter if he owns a company or not. He felt under the weather so I’m helping.” Our sister shot back, keeping a firm hold on me.

“He’s an adult. If he has problems he needs to deal with them on his own, Jiann.”

Great now my brother and sister were bickering in the hallway. What made this worse was I couldn’t really say anything, due to my face being in her shoulder.

“Family is supposed to help!”

“Family is to help expand the name.”

My sister let out a frustrated groan. I lightly pushed on her hip and she let me go.

I was met with the sight of my brother. He looked well-kempt yet so unkempt. He had on his usual suit, wrinkle-free, and lint-free. His hair looked like he had run his fingers through it repeatedly, and the dark circles under his eyes were impossible to ignore.

“Jae, when is the last time you slept!?” I asked, genuinely concerned.

Jae scoffed, “We don’t all get day-offs whenever we want. ”

I frowned at his response, of course, he would turn this into a fight, “But you should still take breaks. Your hours should give you plenty of time to sleep.”

Our sister tsked, “Don’t snap at our brother because you’re working overtime.”

“You’re working overtime!? I told you not to!” I exclaimed.

Our brother rolled his eyes, “If I don’t do it then who would?”

I scoffed at his clear delusion. These next few days would be hell.

“Why did you come over here for?” Jiann changed the subject.

“Right, our mother wishes to reserve a large building for our father’s birthday. She also would like to invite some of his family to our childhood home.”

There was silence.

“Well tell her she’s out of her fucking mind. The party happens here. This meant everything to Dad. The party happens here and we go back home for the night. Like always. I don’t care who she invites to the party but no one follows us back to our childhood home. That’s for family only. My sons and husband don’t even join us and neither does your wife, what makes her think they’re invited? No.” Jiann was firm, crossing her arms, just waiting for someone to defy her.

“They’re even lucky to be invited to the party itself. They call us entitled pricks but want to be part of us when it comes to social events.” I muttered.

“Exactly my point. No. They don’t get to come back to our family home. They also don’t get family passes as they are here. They don’t get special treatment.”

Jae seemed to nod thinking it over, “I agree. Having them think they can do as they please won’t be good for our company’s image. Or our family’s image. I’ll let security know of their names and faces. I’ll also brief them on how to properly handle them if they cause a scene.”

Like I need more problems.

“What will they do if they DO cause a scene?” Jiann asked.

“Well, we can’t have them be loud, they would draw too much attention we’ll just–”

“CEO-nim!” I heard, making us jump a little.

A woman, looking highly professional jogged up to us, holding documents to her chest.

“Yes?”

“We have another problem. Some of the computers in the game development floor have been damaged. I attempted to get ahold of Mr.Katashi but was unable to.”

Oh great, more problems.

My favorite.

I somewhat had everything under control by lunch. Someone had corrupted a few computers. I had to emergency order new ones and help transfer the files over and had the corrupted computers stored away as evidence. I was walking around the programmers, making sure I was there if there were any signs of any glitching computers.

I was pretty sure that whoever was doing this was selecting a special set of computers, the ones with all the character designs and code that took too long to recreate at this point. I made sure to tell Jason to find the best cybersecurity team he could. I needed to guard this project with my life and I wouldn’t let my father’s dream die with me.

I was pacing back in forth between the row of game developers when I was approached.

It was a nice looking man. He seemed small. Not in height, but in the way he presented himself. He was dressed in a simple dress shirt, straightened pants, and tie. His dark hair was covering his forehead and he looked out of place. Afraid to meet my gaze, afraid to catch too much attention. He was holding files and USB drives but looked like if I said “boo” he would drop everything and run.

He must be new.

“Hello, how can I help you?” I asked in the nicest voice I could.

He played a little bit with the edges of the folders before speaking, “I’m with the cybersecurity team… They sent me to…,” He seemed to be stuck or thinking of what to say, “To set up.” His voice sounded like it could be attention-catching if he tried. Not too high-pitched and had a certain roughness to it.

“Ah! Of course! We had computers and space for your set up in the room next to the security room.” I informed, moving to borrow the post-it notes from one of the developers to write down the code to the mostly empty room, “If any of you have any questions or needs, feel free to call my personal number. It’s close to us all ordering lunch so call the front desk if you have any differences in dietary needs.” I handed him the post-it note with a warm smile.

He quickly took the note, gave me a small bow, and rushed off.

Poor dude.

I moved back to my work at hand, making a mental note to visit them later.

A little later into the afternoon I was in my office, trying my best to look over the security footage. It didn’t look like the files were corrupted manually. No one was there in person but it still gave me a strange feeling. This obviously wasn’t just some teenagers just goofing around. I let out a loud groan, knowing this would kill me until I figured out who did it.

I got up out of my seat and gathered the papers I needed to sign off on and approve. I shoved them all into a folder, grabbed a couple of pens, a few stationery items for organization reasons, and headed off to the cybersecurity room.

Upon reaching the room I began to think about how they would all react seeing their boss watch over them as they worked.

Would they feel pressure?

Would I make them uncomfortable?

I decided to just knock on the door. If I made them uncomfortable they could tell me and I would leave.

As soon as my knuckles hit the door it flung open to reveal the guy before. This time his hair was a little ruffled, pushed back to show off his forehead, and his tie pulled loose.

“Good! Saves me the trouble of having to find you, come in!” He gave me a smirk and went back into the room.

Well, that was a turn of a personality.

The room we had set up for them was all set up into cubicles. At first, I was against it but they had large whiteboards on the cubical walls and had their own privacy. The guy before led me to the end and sat down at his new desk, his screen was pulled up to a jumbled mess of codes that hurt my eyes to look at for too long.

“You were definitely about to be hacked. I’m not sure what they did that they ruined it so badly but we can try to trace him in a few moments.” He explained.

“So what's the next step I should take after this?” I questioned, putting my hand on the back of his chair to lean forward and look at the wall of code.

The man seemed to be thrown off by my question. I wasn’t going to be confident if I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing or what this all meant. He was a professional. I saw it best to ask for his opinion.

“Uh…Uhm…W-Well, the next step is to contact the authorities. This is a crime after all.”

“Isn’t tracing them a crime too though?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Eh, not really. If I was hacking into their computer for private information then it would be a crime. Like they tried to do here. But I’m just getting the general idea of their location, its pretty public despite what everyone thinks.”

There was a pause.

“…..So how much can I pay you so we aren't public?”

“Hey, dick, we need to talk.” Jason busted into the once quiet cybersecurity room.

I had taken up an empty cubical that was at the very end facing the other cubicles. I could see the door and only the sides were up. I had papers scattered around in semi-neat piles, my hand starting to cramp from all the signing and notes I’ve made.

The small cybersecurity team almost jumped out of their skin upon Jason’s entrance.

I let out a large sigh, “If it has anything to do with I.P. Addresses, VPNs, or how I’m a fucking idiot, I already got that talk, and I don’t want to hear it.”

Jihun, the man who did a fucking 180 in personality held back a laugh at my irritation.

“Do I look like I know anything about computers? It’s not about that, the police are in your office right now waiting for you. ”

“Police? I requested only one detective?” I looked up from my papers.

Jason let out a sigh, “I tried to tell them that but he insisted that he needed his partner.”

I let out a groan, “Fiiinnnne.” I stood up reluctantly and shot Jihun a quick, “I’ll be back.”

As soon as we were out the room, Jason shoved me into the wall.

“Ow! What the fuck was that!?” I asked, my voice higher pitched in shock.

“This is by far the dumbest thing you’ve ever done!” He hissed.

“That’s not true! I’ve done far more idiotic things in my life!” I defended, standing straight in protest.

“You asked for the detective working the kidnapping case to work your hacking case!”

I let out another sigh. I should’ve known he would lose his mind.

“Seung Eunsuk isn’t going to link the two. Relax.” I rolled my eyes.

“And if he does!?”

“Then it’s your fault for being so jumpy. He was pretty opinionated and since he’s newish, he’s going to be fair.” I reasoned as I pressed the elevator button.

“You think that now, but when he has cuffs on you I will be there to say I told you so.” I gave Jason a side-ways glance in judgment.

“…He’s not going to solve THAT problem. You dirty-minded jerk.”

Jason’s eyes widened as I stepped into the elevator, “…You kinky bitch.”

“Detective Seung! I’m glad you can make it.” I announced as I entered the room.

Sure enough, there were two officers in the room. The older officer was the same from last time, only this time he looked more fidgety. Like something was off.

Eunsuk was looking at a paperweight I had on my desk, completely calm. Upon seeing me a small smile lit up his face, “Mr.L/n. Glad to be here.”

I could feel Jason roll his eyes behind me at our teasing remarks, “Please, have a seat. We have a few things to talk about.”

Eunsuk put down the paperweight and patted the older officer’s arm like he was telling him silently to do so as well.

“So, we heard you had a hacking?” Eunsuk questioned, pulling out his notepad and flipping to an empty page.

I made a hum of confirmation as I began to pour them water, “It wasn’t too long ago. They somehow messed up so badly that they corrupted a few of our computers.”

“Any idea where the hack came from?”

“Not yet. Our CyberSecurity team is working on it.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a few programmers from the police department to come down and check it out as well.”

“I don’t have a problem with that. Just be sure to ask our teams leader, Jihun about it as well.”

“Jihun? May I have his full name?”

“He just goes by Jihun and doesn’t seem to fond of formal speech.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. May we take the corrupted computers in as evidence? That might help.”

“Jihun had the computers sent to their room. You should be able to get at least one or two from him.”

“Understood. Lastly, do you know anyone who would think to do this? Any enemies recently for Barnanby Inc? Piss anyone off?”

“Eunsuk.” The older detective’s voice sounded like a warning. Like I was going to rip Eunsuk’s head off for asking such a question.

“Our company is now the third biggest in South Korea. We have many people jealous, but no one has threatened us or made their hatred obvious enough for us to see.”

Eunsuk nodded as he wrote one last thing then closed his notepad, “Alright, I have a feeling the cyber people will point us in the right direction. It’ll help us narrow it down so much more. We’ll keep in touch?”

I nodded extending my hand out to shake his, “We will, Jason will give you my number as well as escort you to our CyberSecurity room. If you should need me or have any questions, don’t hesitate to call!”

Eunsuk happily shook my hand, “We’ll figure this out, M/n. I promise.”

I had worked well through the morning. When lunch had swung around I was planning on putting it off in all honesty. I hoped the lunch break time would be put to me making a serious dent in my work.

I still had several things to go through and about 3 meetings scheduled back to back. I had been neglecting my work for a little too long that it came back to bite my ass. As I was calling an investor things took a turn, however.

“You want the first-ever game my father developed? May I asked why?” I was taken aback on why this would even be asked.

Ever since my father started to company, his game developing had been long forgotten since he wanted my mother to be the spotlight. No other investor or partner has asked about his work. They were more interested in how well we would market the game and how much income would come from it.

“You said that most games would be inspired by your father’s ideas and unfinished projects. I’d like to see what he had in mind.”

“I understand. If you could, may I have a few days to get it to you? They’re all in our family home, I’m just unsure of where.”

“Of course. I’ll give you a week. That will give me enough time to look over what else you have to offer me.”

“Thank you, Sir. I’ll be sure to make sure your time is not being wasted. I hope you have a great week.”

As soon as I hung up I let out a groan.

I had to go through everything in my father’s office. That didn’t seem too hard, however, my mother just gathered almost everything my dad had and just stashed them in his office. An out of sight out of mind tactic that would be my doom.

As I cussed under my breath I reluctantly grabbed my blazer to pull on like a child who got yelled at his mom for not wearing their jacket outside and made my way to the elevator to go to the parking lot.

I didn’t even know where my father stashed all his games. I just found one of his notebooks with ideas inside of it. Even then I didn’t feel right reading it. Like it was a private thing. Now I had to look through EVERYTHING.

Out of irritation I began to press the parking lot bottom harshly and was jump scared by the doors opening at the lobby.

At the door stood Jason with a cooler bag slung over his shoulder, looking irritated and tired.

“Hey there, Loser. Got any lunch money?” I teased.

Once he looked up he seemed relieved and rushed into the elevator to push a random button to make the door closed. As soon as the door was closed he shoved the bag into my hands with a sigh.

“And this is?” I asked, not fully understanding what was in the bag.

“If it’s body parts, there are better ways to get me to dispose of a body for you,” I added.

He only gave me a tired glare, wordless.

My eyes widened, “IS it body parts!?” I quickly unzipped the bag.

No body parts. Only tupperware with food inside of it.

“It isn’t. That’s disappointing.” I mumbled.

“It’s from the guys. They were worried that you’d skip lunch.” Jason grumbled as he leaned against the wall.

“Oh. Well, that’s nice. I was about to head to grab something then go to my mom's. One less stop.” I smiled, feeling warm inside with the thought of them making my lunch.

“What? Why?”

“I have work still. But an investor asked for my dad’s earliest game, so I have to go through his office to find it. ”

Jason only nodded as the elevator doors opened.

“I’ll be sure to stop by the bunker to talk to the boys.” I promised as I began to exit.

“Good. They ask too many questions. I’ll get a few things off your desk to take to the bunker so you won’t miss work.”

“I appreciate you!” I called as I began to jog to my car.

“YOU BETTER.”

I let out an irritated sigh as my third call to my mom when unanswered. I wasn’t going to play cat and mouse all day because she never liked to be home. So I walked off the porch and to a certain bush to get the spare key.

Once I opened the door I made a b line to my father’s old office and immediately opened a window. The room was almost foggy from the dust in the air. Like an ancient tomb that was too precious to open.

I let out a cough and tried to cover my mouth and nose with the neck of my shirt as I began to search through his desk.

I let out a groan once I realized NOTHING was organized. My mom must have gone through it when he passed and didn’t even consider that anyone would come back in here. I looked around the cluttered room in horror.

Books were thrown about. Papers scattered. Boxes loaded with everything from clothes to old computer parts were placed around the room.

Knowing there was no way around this I began to clean.

Once I had almost everything in its rightful place I still hadn’t found my dad’s games. I figured I wasn’t looking hard enough and began to load everything into my car to look through at the office since I had been there for longer than needed.

I made sure to sit on my office couch as I went through box after box.

It was pretty mundane. It was starting to get really boring until I came across a book. It was a book about animation which was to be expected but a few of the pages had marks in the corner, like quickly scribbled numbers. A few pages were torn out and torn in half.

I frowned as I began to flip through, not really noticing a pattern in the numbers or even knowing what the numbers would be to.

“I HAVE MADE AN ENTRANCE!” A loud booming sound came from my office door.

Out of pure reflex, I chucked the book I was holding at the door.

A loud thud and screech rang through the room as my eyes began to focus on who came through the door.

It was my little sister, cringing away from one side of the door that the book seemingly hit. Her eyes were wide and her mouth parted open in shock.

I let out an almost snort as I held my hands out, “Jieun, my bad! Don’t do that! I get you wanted dramatic effect but holy fuck give me a warning.” I complained.

“Give YOU a warning!? You threw a book at me!” She got out of her shocked position to clench her fists at her sides.

“I thought you were a monster!”

“HOW OLD ARE YOU!?” I giggled at the question.

“Will you forgive me if I eat lunch with you?”

“…It’s 2 pm.” I rolled my eyes.

“All you had to say was ‘no’.” I pouted as I got up to look for the bag Jason gave me earlier that day.

“I dropped by to see how my amazing brother was doing,” I could practically hear the sugar drip from her lips as I began to unpack my food.

“Cut the uwu crap and tell me why you’re really here.” I sighed as I opened the larger container that had rice in it.

She let out a groan and stomped over to plop herself on the couch across from me, “Mom didn’t like that you guys cut Dad’s family out of visiting our childhood home so she’s inviting them to our apartment. One of their brats already occupied my room.”

The irritating thing about this was the fact that our childhood home was already paid for, but my mother refused to live there because it was too much of a reminder to what was. So she insisted to move into a luxury two-bedroom apartment in Gangnam.

I let out a scoff as I poked at the fried chicken that had gone soggy in a container covered in some kind of sauce. Jae was paying for that apartment, yet even HE couldn’t enforce anything, “I bet Jae would love to know that.” I smirked.

“I tried to tell her we don’t want them around us be she went on and on about how we were family and how I should be nice! Can I just please stay with you?” She whined.

I began to think it over as I chewed, “I don’t think you can.”

“Why nooooot!?” I tried not to enjoy her misery.

“I’m not staying at my apartment. So you can stay there, you’ll just be alone and then our siblings will chew me out for leaving a 17 year-old girl alone in an apartment in Gangnam.” I muttered, shoving my face with more food, and then moved to open another container.

“We can just keep a secret!”

“I doubt that.”

“C’monnn! Pleasseee!”

“How about this, you go ask Jilly and Jae about staying with them, if they both say no, then you can have the keys by tonight.” I bargained.

She lit up, “Seriously!?” I nodded, “ILLGOASK!” She nearly yelled and bolted towards the door.

“DON’T RUN TOO FAST OR JILLY WILL SUE MY ASS! I DIDN’T RAISE YOU TO BE AN IDIOT!” I yelled… with my mouth full.

“SORRY! I’LL SPEEDWALK!”

I quickly finished my work to look through old floppy disks and USB drives my father had stocked up. I had told my assistant to push everything back that day.

It was around dinner time when I found a flash drive that caught my attention.

Most of them were files for unfinished games, ideas, and a mess of coding that didn’t make sense to my idiotic brain. But this USB drive had only two folders.

Both were password protected.

Once I clicked on them the command prompt on my computer popped up asking for the password.

I let out a sigh as I entered my mom’s birthday.

Access Denied. The command prompt closed.

I opened and tried my twin sibling’s birthday.

Not it.

I let out a groan and began to enter mine, trying to get it out of the way before I entered Jieun’s birthday which I was SURE was the password if it wasn’t my mother’s.

Upon pressing enter after the last digit of my birthday year the words ‘access granted’ appeared in the command prompt, the small window closed up, and the file opened.

There were 4 documents there.

READ FIRST

LEE ANIMATIONS

GWAN BROADCASTING

AN HAEWON

My fingers itched to click on one of the other files. Two were popular in media. Lee Animations had rebranded to Lee Entertainment a few years back. They hired idols and actors. Their animations were no longer being made by them, they chose to switch to the idol and film business pretty late. Everyone thought they would go bankrupt.

Gwan Broadcasting was a thing before my father even went to America. Years and generations in the company as well as very good dramas and sub-networks under their belt.

An Haewon. The name didn’t even begin to register in my memory.

Against my impulses, I clicked on the ‘READ FIRST’ file.

M/n

You’re reading this because you snooped in my things… OR I handed you this after you finished college but let's be honest with ourselves the first option is more likely.

I hope by now you’ve grown and I’ve handed the company over to you. So just have a drink with me after this because I have a few things to get off my chest.

I didn’t get this company JUST through hard work. I hope as time goes on you begin to understand the circumstances that led me to make the decisions I made and the actions I took.

I won't ask for forgiveness.

Just understanding.

I’ve made the three other files to explain why these three people, these three companies want to see you suffer. To see us suffer.

Against my instinct to be the father you respect and admire, I tried to explain the truth and not what would make me look good.

The second password-protected folder is of the things they wanted from me. Either wanting them back or wanting to steal away.

I love you. I hope by explaining these things you can learn from them and make better decisions for the company and family.

Whatever you decide, just know I fully support it. I would never be disappointed in you. You’ve been the most hard-working out of all my children. You were quiet but your drive to achieve was always there. Even as I write this you’re at our dining room table studying. I still don’t know what the fuck twelve times nine is and to be completely honest I couldn’t care less.

Take care, Mn-ie.

Your Reckless Asshole Father,

L/N Jaeseong

I could feel tears trail down my cheeks as I quickly closed the document and raced to click on the one under it.

“M/N!” The sudden sound of my office door flying open again made me jump.

My siblings have arrived.

Jiann was now in front of my desk, arms folded in anger. She looked like my mother ready to rock my shit.

Jaeseok was holding firmly on our younger sister’s arm as she was pouting, looking at the floor.

“Why are you crying?” Jae asked, making my older sister’s face soften.

“It’s over my dick size, what do you all want?” I quickly replied.

My older sister’s face hardened again, all business, “Did you tell our sister that if we both said no to her staying with us that she could stay at your empty apartment!?”

“I did. Jae, don’t hold too tight her skin is sensitive.” I frowned.

“Exactly, she’s sensitive and you want her in an apartment by herself!?” Jae threw back in my face.

I rolled my eyes, “That apartment is more than secure. It’s not like I live in a crappy apartment give me SOME credit.”

“SHE’S SIXTEEN.”

“She’s going to be seventeen soon. I know that’s not an adult at that age but I was that age when I started taking care of her and started getting ready to take over the company. She’s not a child.”

“Yes! She is! And so were you! Don’t make this a toxic cycle, M/n!” Jiann snapped.

“Don’t be dramatic. It’s not like I have a kid and handed it to her like ‘you’re the mom now’, it’s just a few nights in a secure apartment that she wouldn’t HAVE to stay in if you two got your mother in check. ” My voice was filled with irritation that began to build.

I closed pulled the USB out and put it in my desk as Jiann began her verbal assault, “She’s OUR mother. Just because you helped raise our sister doesn't mean you stop being her son! We’re getting the situation handled.”

“Well until you do, I want my baby sister comfortably living in my apartment.” I snickered as I stood up to try to pry Jaeseok’s hand off of my little sister.

“She can put up with it for a day or two.” Jaeseok growled.

I shoved his hand off and turned Jieun towards the door to leave, “She already did put up with it for a day or two. My sister shouldn’t HAVE to put up with anything uncomfortable in her own fucking home. So I’m taking her to mine since our mother STILL isn’t a considerate enough parent to care about her child rather than fucking leeches. Now if you would excuse me, I’m going to go have dinner with my PERFECTLY CAPABLE sister and then show her where she will be staying. I want you out of my office when I get back and I want the situation handled within 48 hours.” I ordered as I guided Jieun out the office.

“They’re going to get mad at you for talking to them like that.” Jieun warned.

“They’ll have to deal with it. I’m their boss until we split the company. I give orders not sympathy.” I grumbled as I pushed the elevator button.

I had taken Jieun to my apartment. I had ordered us dinner while she unpacked.

The mood was light but had a dark undertone.

It was oddly nostalgic. My sister moving things in my closet to make space for her things because she didn’t feel safe in her own room.

Us alone in the apartment getting our own dinner because we didn’t expect our mom home until the very early hours of the morning.

“I ordered fried chicken. The app said it should be here in a few minutes. I hope that’s okay with you.” I called over as I began to clear off the coffee table.

“Is it yangnyeom?” She called back.

I couldn’t help the smile that came onto my face, “Yes. I even asked for extra sauce because you like the spice.”

“….what about beer?”

I rolled my eyes, “I have some in the fridge you delinquent.”

She let out an excited ‘yay’ and began to put her clothes in my closet in a more excited manner.

“How is school going?”

“Alright, It’s pretty boring though.”

“Boring, how?”

“Well, I only have one true friend and days just repeat themselves.”

“Then join a club.”

“I DID.” I let out a chuckle at her outburst.

She skipped out of the bedroom and bounded over to the fridge, “Who would’ve thought at 16 I would be drinking a beer with my older brother in a penthouse apartment in Gangnam that he’s going to leave me with.” I only shook my head at her.

“Please don’t filter yourself when you tell me how living with mom is REALLY going.” I began as she made her way to the living room with two beers.

“Well, mom is just like she was before. Never rhere. Sometimes she goes out with friends or she just kinda leaves and doesnt say anything.”

“…Does she at least make dinner?”

“Nope. She barely speaks to me unless we’re all gathered together.”

I knew this was going to be a mistake. One that would make my sister and brother furious. My mother would kill me. I knew if my dad were here he would understand at least.

“Okay.” I sighed as I fished in my pocket.

I pulled out the apartment keys and placed them on the table.

My sister looked at them then back at me in confusion, “You can have it. Don’t worry about rent, or money. I’ll handle it. Just please be safe and stick to studying and working hard. The last thing I want is you deciding to fuck off instead of go to school.”

“YOU’RE GIVING ME AN APARTMENT!?” Her eyes twinkled with tears and excitement.

“Yeah, everyone will kill me if they find out so move in slowly. Act like you’re just staying here for a few days. I’ll tell security that you’re staying here now. Just please don’t burn the place down.”

“I would NEVER.” Jieun gasped dramatically.

I gave her a pointed look, “Remember when you tried to be nice to me and make curry and yo–”

“OTHER THAN THAT I WOULD NEVER.”

I only shook my head and reached over for the remote.

Even when I turned on the TV I didn’t focus on it. My mind only wandered to what the following days would be.

After all I left 9 people alone in my bunker with no contact all day. I mean they could wait.

Right?

( Previous Chapter ) - ( Next Chapter : COMING SOON )

Taglist: @butterfliespoison @hermionepweasley @jikooksgirl19 @toddsgirl27 @armycandy10 @justqueerandhereforthetea @luvufoolish @bubblegummbutts @krystle1990

If you want to be added just let me know!

#bts x male reader #bts poly au #bts ot7 x reader #bts yandere au #bts fanfic #kim taehyung x reader #kim seokjin x reader #jung hoseok x reader #park jimin x reader #min yoongi x reader #bts fanfiction

81 notes · View notes

girlsgonemildblog · 4 years ago

Text

Wait, Is This Show Actually Good? - Emily in Paris, Episode 4 Recap (Spoilers!!)

Poster from IMDB

I actually liked this episode. In general, I enjoy watching this show, but it has been in an I-hate-it-so-much-I-enjoy-it type of way. This episode I actually liked. Crazy, right? But don’t worry, it still had the eye-roll moments we know and love from the show.

It begins with a French florist trying to refuse to sell Emily pretty roses and instead giving her worse ones. I don’t think she deserves pretty flowers either, nameless French women. Then a gorgeous blonde woman comes up and helps Emily out. For no explicable reason, this woman, named Camille, decides to befriend Emily.

Photo from IMDB

Camille (played by Camille Razat) invites Emily to an art exhibit that night at the gallery where she works. Emily mentions this means she will have to miss her language class, which she is in absolutely no position to skip. Only a minute earlier, she asked the florist, “I can the roses?” Whatever, I’m not her mom. Also, as they say goodbye, Emily and Camille kiss on the lips, which I guess isn’t that unusual in French culture. Still, this was made for an American audience, and Mindy later hints that perhaps Camille was hitting on Emily, and this all felt very queerbait-y to me.

Emily then returns to her apartment and has a bunch of packages to pick up, and who comes in to help her but Gabriel? Does literally any other person live in this six-story building? We have never seen a single other neighbor, but Gabriel always seems to be around. Emily opens her package to discover that her peanut butter has exploded and is now smeared all over her belongings, which is not how peanut butter works in my experience, but whatever. Gabriel decides he must make her an omelet right then because apparently Emily did not have any food in her apartment and was really relying on her peanut butter showing up soon, or else she was going to die of starvation.

Gabriel, who had noticed the lingerie that Antoine had gifted Emily at the end of the previous episode, asks why a client giving her lingerie is an issue for her. It’s crazy to me that that needs to be explained. Emily responds with three reasons, in the following order:

Antoine is married.

Antoine is having an affair with Emily’s boss.

The gift is wildly inappropriate.

I cannot be alone in thinking that this is in no way the correct order of importance. His marital status is not even a fraction of the problem compared to the level of inappropriateness.

When Emily arrives at work (she must show up at that office at like, noon, right?), Antoine and Sylvie are in the middle of a fight, and Emily decides to insert herself. To calm Antoine down, she tells him a half baked plan to pitch a line of perfumes from his company to a hotel chain owner from Chicago who she knows will be at Camille’s gallery that night. She implies that the hotel company has already expressed interest in this idea, despite having just come up with it. While this may stop his anger temporarily, it could make the situation a lot worse farther down the road. If her plan doesn’t work out, and he finds out she lied, there is no salvaging that relationship.

When Sylvie asks Emily who sent her the lingerie, for some inexplicable reason, Emily says Gabriel. I can’t imagine how that could possibly backfire. Then, Luc and Julien swoop in to take her out to lunch. They sit her down and explain to her why she needs to be careful with Antoine, as he is her client and her boss’s boyfriend. Again, absolutely wild that this needs to be explained. Also, Emily seems shocked at the suggestion that Antoine wants to sleep with her. How are you surprised, baby? He sent you lingerie! What did you think that meant?

In the next scene, Emily and Mindy are walking into the art gallery, discussing if Emily should give Antoine the lingerie back, and I have to wonder if her company has an HR department. It sure seems like they don’t. Mindy, for some reason, encourages Emily to sleep with Antoine. She is clearly not a good friend, or at least not a good friend to ask for advice. When they get to the party, Emily sees Camille speaking to the hotel owner, Randy Zimmer, who looks a lot like Antoine. (Sidenote, Randy is played by Elon Bailey, who I know from playing Pinocchio on Once Upon a Time, which was very distracting for me).

Camille introduces Emily to Randy, and the whole time Emily is making googly eyes at Camille, which again felt very...suggestive?

Emily then tries to court Randy as a client by reciting his own quotes from interviews to him and telling him he needs to “tease the smell” of his hotels, whatever the fuck that means. There is no way that this would work in the real world, but in the Emily in Paris universe, it does, because here up is down, and Emily is good at her job.

The next day, Randy comes to Emily’s office, and Antoine gives him a demonstration of their products because obviously, the CEOs of each of these companies would be hands-on with this project. They decide to have dinner together, prompting Randy to state, “I’m up for anything with a Michelin star,” which is quite possibly the worst sentence I have ever heard in my entire life.

While Emily is on the phone trying to make a reservation, Antoine sneaks up behind her in the creepiest way possible. He tells her he didn’t buy the lingerie for himself, but for her. I don’t care who he bought it for; it is still inappropriate and creepy. He also says, “I understand you have different boundaries,” while stepping towards her and invading her personal space. So, while he may understand she has different boundaries, he definitely does not respect them.

When they get to the restaurant, Emily discovers that because Europeans write the date day before month, as opposed to the American month before day, she made the reservation for November 8th rather than August 11th. As opposed to Emily’s usual stupid mistakes, this blunder, I found funny and relatable. I could see myself doing this. She then calls Gabriel, because a professional chef can definitely take a phone call in the middle of service, and asks him to stay open late for her group. He says yes, and then his wait staff apparently doesn’t murder him, which they would’ve been 100% justified in doing.

Why would she take them to Gabriel’s restaurant? She told Sylvie that Gabriel was the one who sent her the lingerie. I felt like I could see where this was going from a mile away. But then, it doesn’t go there. Like, yes, Sylvie does tell Gabriel that he has exquisite taste in lingerie, which Gabriel questions, but Emily pushes Sylvie out of the restaurant, and everyone just moves on? I feel like they’ll circle back in a later episode, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t based on how this show has gone so far.

Outside the restaurant, Sylvie, who now feels confident she is not competing with Emily for Antoine, is actually nice(ish) to Emily. She tells her she did a good job and encourages her to go after Gabriel. I loved this because I desperately want Sylvie and Emily to be friends. Television is always better when women are working together instead of against each other. Women competing for men’s attention is a tired, dated trope, and we, as a society, need to move on. (Unrelated, but did you guys see my Bachelor recap?)

Emily takes Sylvie’s advice, goes back into the restaurant, and has a steamy makeout with Gabriel. Fuck yes, Emily! After this, Emily exits the restaurant and runs into Camille, who is revealed to be Gabriel’s girlfriend, and holy shit, is that a good plot twist! The episode ends on this note, and I was so eager to continue, I almost watched the next episode without writing the blog first. Expect the next recap imminently.

6 notes · View notes

riceccakes · 4 years ago

Text

Earth, Wind, and Coffee: Chapter Three Analysis

chapter one analysis | chapter two analysis

back again for another chapter analysis. i think ive been looking forward to this chapter the most, it’s where some big decisions were made!!! this analysis is a long one, i hope that’s all right! i kinda got carried away. so, let’s dive right in, shall we?

some fun stuff before we start!

chapter three was supposed to be the last chapter of the fic

idk if any of you were there when i first started writing this fic, but it was only going to be three chapters with a possible epilogue. however, everything changed when i finished the end of chapter two. (lil atla reference there for ya) (sorry i know that was bad, moving on). like i said in my last analysis, i had an idea of what i wanted to happen (the separation of korrasami) so that they could come back together. it was just a matter of what separates them. so, i’m not sure where i got the panic attack idea but once i did, the rest of the story changed. i realized i couldn’t quite possibly finish the story in one chapter so i split the ideas i had and decided on it being four chapters

now, this being said, maaaaajor changes were made in my story outline. most notably: korrasami was going to be a couple in this chapter

this was originally going to be a full fledged “they meet, they get to know each other, they fall in love, happily every after” but the thing was, i planned on treating their romance as korra’s recovery; that being with asami is what made korra better, that all she needed was a partner, someone to love, and that is not what i wanted to portray with this story. i’ve never been a fan of stories that give a character a love interest and all of sudden their problems are fixed and they’re completely happy, and here i was about to do just that. i knew i’d never respect myself if i continued down this narrative, and when chapter two ended with korra’s panic attack, i realized her growth needed better love and attention. so, i changed what happened and gave her some therapy

this change in the storyline also let me explore more of kuvopal !!! (is that their ship name?)

so, back to LOVE WITCH for a second (because that glorious fic really did steal my heart) not only did it make me love kuvira’s character more, it also got me into the kuvopal relationship! and yet again, i wanted my own go at it. with the original timeline, there was just no space for me to include the lil bread crumbs of their relationship. however, however, however; by splitting the ending between two chapters (and adding some stuff in between) i was able to lay some foundation for them, which im very happy about :)

into the chapter we go:

let’s talk about the meeting! the whole reason this fic came to be! i’ll start by saying i always knew the project was going to get pulled out from under asami. 1) because thats some angsty/hurt shit right there and im a sucker for writing angst 2) i didn’t feel like creating a whole ass presentation because knowing my ass i would’ve made a powerpoint about it so i had every detail down to the font asami used and 3) getting the presentation taken away from asami was a pivotal point in her character arc.

i actually started the chapter in two different ways. at first, i’d written her whole entire morning with there always being one thing that was off. like, instead of a perfect omelette, it was going to split and asami would’ve had a scramble, still good, but not her favorite. instead of going through all green lights on her way to work, asami was gonna meet every. single. red. light. i would’ve gone through with this if it hadn’t felt strange; i wanted to give the impression that something bad was going to happen but i felt like having something go wrong with every thing in her morning was gonna be a dead give away that some even bigger big bad was about to happen, if that makes sense. so instead, i went with the picture perfect scenario, almost too perfect, if you ask me. and indeed, it was too perfect, because hiroshi was too much of a coward to tell his daughter any sooner that his board agreed to get a new presenter

im just gonna cite a bunch of my favorite lines/bits from this chapter because i really enjoyed writing it xD

Iroh has already begun but Asami hears no words, only a blaring ring in her ears. Her face feels hot and she wonders how red she is. She stares at the black binder, notes the natural grooves and curves of the material, the plastic covering over top of it, the metal spine peaking out at the bottom. She’s only brought out of it’s dark trance when she feels a hand be placed on her arm; Kuvira.

when you’re upset, do you ever just, hyper focus on one thing and its like you’re analyzing it under a microscope for the first time? yes? no? well, i do that, and personally, i do because if i focus on my anger/hurt emotions any more, im going to explode and i dont want to explode. so, this instance about looking at the grooves in the binder and each of the components of it just hits with me, idk if does with you too, but like bruuh.

Asami has her hand over her mouth, silently sobbing, feeling as if she’ll throw up. She leans her head on her wheel, her mind wanders to what could’ve been, what should’ve been. She feels as if her car is closing in on her, that the metal is compacting. The seatbelt keeps her locked down to the driver’s seat and she can’t leave if she wants to. The Satomobile holds her hostage and she lets it. Even while it’s hurting her, even while it’s harshly molding itself onto her, she stays at her father’s heel because, what else is she to do?

this is one of my favorite things ive ever done with asami’s character, is using future industries/satomobiles as a sort of vehicle (heh) for her relationship with her dad. this paragraph just kind of hurts, but the good hurt? but also not good hurt? it’s just, (and not me over here boasting about my writing or anything) it’s so poetic that she has this breakdown and she’s so upset with her dad, i mean “what should’ve been” like, asami KNOWS that the shit that’s just happened is more than wrong, yet asami is still somehow wondering how she can please her dad and it’s in the literal legacy hiroshi built for himself. “she stays at her father’s heel because, what else is she to do?” i remember writing that and being like “shit, am i really gonna do this? yeah” ugh, i could go on forever about how i love this section, but i’ll stop here for now.

Asami begins yelling, screaming at the top of her lungs, letting all the thoughts, all the insecurities her father gave her finally be released into the world. Kuvira lets her, simply nodding and following along on the couch while Asami paces her living room. She spews out word after word, about the work, about the presentation, about Iroh, his position, her position, the company, the CEO, and she only stops when she feels the weight of her father rest on her shoulders.

back with more diction; i really love this paragraph because of how we circle back to hiroshi. note how i first say “the CEO” and then a few words later say “her father” because, in a way, this is asami’s confession that hiroshi is CEO first and father second, if i haven’t already explicitly said so. it’s so heart wrenching and sad but my favorite thing about it is this isn’t even about korra. like THIS right here is a prime example about how i realized this fic became more than just a love story. in the planning stages of this fic, asami was going to go through getting the presentation taken away from her, but what was she going to focus more on? the fact that korra wasn’t around anymore. and yes, asami still does think about korra after this, but so much more happens for her. asami gets to know kuvira more, asami gets to know her lab partners more, (and my personal hc is that they’ve all been lab partners for two years and only NOW asami is getting to be friends with them in their senior year, but hey, better late than never!) and to me, what’s even better, is that a bunch of realizations come to asami w/o korra being there. asami is growing and the idea of being able to grow without needing to have a partner in order to grow is so important to me, not only for the fact that growth should be endless and something you do all the time for yourself, but asami literally wants to share it with korra. not boast about changing and growing and becoming better, but just be better with korra. sdlfakds i swear, im fangirling over my own writing, oops

okay, moving on from The Meeting and onto the rest of the chapter

this dock scene was also another part i wrote beforehand and it had a completely different ending in that asami was going to ask korra out on a date. of course, korra would’ve said yes, and then yay yay happy ending. this didn’t happen and i’m glad it didn’t. in one version of this dock scene, asami was actually going to be upset with korra for disappearing, and even worse, mad that korra wasn’t there to comfort her after the presentation. oof, i know. so so glad i didn’t continue down that line, cause it is toxic, and my girls aren’t like that at all.

Once Korra’s eyes meet hers, Asami says, “That doesn’t mean you always have to be on your own.” She smiles at Korra, at the girl who’s turned her world upside down. Her hand remains on Korra’s cheek and she feels the girl sink into her palm. “I’ll be here for you, and it seems like Tenzin will be too, what with saying he was calling you more. And you have his family, and your own family, even though they’re away, they’re here to support you, we all are. You can still be strong and turn to other people for help. It takes great strength to ask for help and I know for a fact you’re strong enough, those bags of coffee beans were nothing for you.”

i like this line of dialogue here for a few reasons, mostly because asami is so soft and so right and the joke at the really helped lighten the mood but didn’t take away from what she’d just said before. i don’t have too much else about the Reunions section, though if you guys have any questions or anything you wanna point out, please do so! i think what i will say is that i tried to be as real and gentle with korra’s progression. i was so nitpicky about everything i wrote because i didn’t want to get any of it wrong or over dramatized or fake. recovery from anything is so important and it takes time and it’s not a straight line so i hope i did a good job with it the rest of the fic.

moving on, i love the found family trope and this leads me into the next section, New Friends

when i think about this section, i like how soft it is, and i really enjoy the ending bits: korra recounting memories from the south, asami meeting tenzin. i think what i like about the end of this chapter is that, it kind of leaves the question: what’s next?

asami has grown, she’s changed, she sees the errors of her father’s ways but she’s not excusing them. korra has grown, she’s changing, she’s taken the first step in recovery. now it’s just a matter of, what happens with this growth now. and i really loved how i wrapped up the fic in the next and last chapter, so i hope you enjoy it too :))

honorable mentions:

there were a lot of changes in this chapter and one of them got changed twice! korra was gonna get a therapist but then i was like, we gotta get the krew together, and then i was like supppppoorttttt grouuuppppp, because lets be honest, all the krew has stuff they need to work through, and i know therapy isn’t for everyone, but mental health is so vital and important. asami is an advocate for therapy in the chapter but there are also other means to take care of yourself and your mental health and while i’ve never been to a support group, i understand finding comfort in knowing you’re not alone.

i guess what i’m trying to say is please take care of yourself and dont be afraid to lean on others. i know not everyone has the means to get a therapist/psychiatrist and i know that your friends aren’t made to only be your therapist. buuuut, don’t be afraid to reach out, there’s nothing wrong with needing help and support :)

anything i would’ve wanted to change?

honestly, i think the only thing i would’ve wanted to change was mako’s speech during the support group meeting. for me, it was a lil bit too poetically out of character. not to say i want to change the content, but rather the manner in which it’s presented. other than that though, i really loved writing this chapter :)

so this analysis was reeeaaaalllly long, i understand if not everyone made it to end. anyways, thanks so much for reading this analysis and the fic! once again, i’m very much open to questions and any comments, i love them very much! i’ll see you guys in the next analysis of the final chapter :)

#ricewrites #earth wind and coffee #coffee shop au #chapter analysis #writing analysis #korrasami #korrasami fic #korra #asami sato #lok

7 notes · View notes

thefangirlslair · 5 years ago

Text

Free At Last (A Sasusaku One-Shot Fanfiction) x Purple Love VI

Note: Okay, okay. I know it’s been a while. I’ve been busy not being completely mental because of some stuff, and then this corona virus comes up and just messes up with my head furthermore. Ugh! Well, I hope you’re all safe and doing well. And of course, enjoy Sakura Day! It is our queen’s birthday, and I know i’ll never forgive myself if i don’t participate on her special day. So i hope you appreciate this one because i took a break from angst and tried a light and fluffy one. I am sO NERVOUS OMG thanks so much to everyone who keeps on reading these fics i have. Thank u thank u!!!

PS. This is also up on my ffnet! Let me know your thoughts! Again, Happy Birthday Uchiha Sakura!!!!!!!!!! MY QUEEN I LOB U

Excerpt: This might be her second birthday since he knew her, first as her boyfriend, but he feels like he’s known her for a long time. He wants to be there on her birthday every year, forever, as long as she’ll have him.

SasuSaku Pairing (2,578 words)

A Poor Attempt at Writing Fics

Sasusaku Edition XXV

Free At Last

Not even grainy resolutions of webcam cameras and shitty internet connections can ever hide her wide-blown grin. May it be over a monitor, your smartphone or in person, Haruno Sakura’s smile will always be as beautiful as its owner. And it’s even much brighter now that her team is singing her happy birthday through her computer screen.

Boisterous laughter followed after all the singing because was that Lee-san who croaked that last note?

“That was awful, Eyebrows!”, laughed Naruto, some dramatic tears leaking from the corners of his happy blue eyes and his tongue slipping the familiar nickname outside work. “Was that you or you have a pet frog?” The addressed man cannot be seen beyond his webcam because he was busy lying under his desk because Sakura-san! I have failed to sing the best happy birthday song! Shame on me!

Almost choking on her drink, Tenten interrupted, “Hey Naruto, we’re still technically at work even though we’re working from home. Stop with the nicknames until later!”

“C’mon, buns! It’s not as if Boss is here to murder us with his glare! And it’s just another 10 minutes before our shift ends; we need to celebrate Sakura-chan's birthday at least!”, the blond whined as an answer.

“Aww, thanks so much guys!”, Sakura smiled. “Naruto, stop teasing Lee-san. And listen to Tenten, we still need to be professional while we’re still at work. I wish we are together at the office though! I would’ve loved to celebrate with you all, too.”

Another blue-eyed, blonde person answered. “Ugh, tell me about it. I’d rather be at the office right now and listen to Naruto’s obnoxious voice than be with a lazy ass and be bored out of my mind like someone over here..” Ino’s annoyed face and an even more annoyed voice rang through their earphones and speakers, noting the emphasis on some words about her boyfriend who rolled his eyes. In the background, you can hear Tenten’s Language!

They can all see Shikamaru, the boyfriend, who simply smirked, looked sideways at his workmate/girlfriend and lazily drawled, “You love this lazy ass.”

Series of ‘OHHHHHH’ can be heard from Kiba, Tenten and Naruto while Lee choked some more and laid again under his desk. Sakura just laughed at her best friend’s face because Ino was trying so hard not to blush that she covered her almost-red face and slapped Shikamaru’s arm at reach. Sakura even heard the man chuckled under his breath.

“Shika, you smooth fucker,” Kiba teased. “Teach us your ways!”

Tenten growled, “Inuzuka, if you don’t shut the fuck u-”

“Weren’t you the one who said to remain professional and mind our language while at work, Tenten-san?”, Lee’s head came up to peek onto the camera and asked his innocent question. He ducked again when the brunette’s eyes flashed for a second and escaped before she unleashes her rage on him.

Sakura’s laughter was light and happy, her green eyes sparkling with mirth. These people’s faces on her screen belong to not just her team at work but her friends. Her second family. Or maybe third? she thought.

They spend more than 40 hours a week together whether it be stressing over clients at work, drinking coffee at the pantry, pizza parlor visits after shift, and ice creams every payday. And now that she realized that it has been two long months since they worked from home, now at their last day of quarantine, let alone on her birthday, she misses them. Terribly so.

“I miss you guys. Really,” she said, her voice a bit lower than usual, which means she’s serious. Her friends saw it and immediately stopped their bickering. “I didn't have anyone before until Naruto and Ino came along. Then came Tenten, then Shikamaru... until Kiba and then lastly, Lee-san. It’s been 10 years since my first celebration with the blonds, but I feel like I’ve been celebrating it with all 7 of you ever since.” She smiled again, “Thank you for always being with me on my day.”

A few moments passed and finally, a chorus of incomprehensible words were heard through Sakura’s speakers because they all reacted at the same time:

“Sakura-chaaan! Don’t be sad! I’ll be sad too!”

“Cut... hik... cut the drama f-forehead! I d-.. I don’t want it!... hik...”

“Ah... now you want me to fall for you now, huh? Stop, damn it Sakura..”

“Girl, don’t touch my fucking heart like that. You already know we got you always.”

“SAKURA-SAAAAAAAAAN!!!”

Sakura watched it all with glowing eyes and a full heart. She looked one by one on their blurry little faces and she felt love just seep through her pores. She’s finally seeing them next week since the quarantine is finally over and there will be no need to hide from the pandemic that affected the rest of the world.

They’re still busy reeling over Sakura’s mini birthday speech and the rosette is overwhelmed with emotions when they heard Shikamaru asked, “Seven?”

“Huh?”, Sakura confusedly asked back.

“We’re only six here, excluding you, but you said ‘all 7 of you’ earlier.”

All eyes turned to her and she felt nervous. Crap, I slipped!

“Oh,” she started, nervously added an awkward laugh. “I meant six! I might be more tired than usual then. We had to talk to a lot of clients today anyway, right?”

She knew she didn’t convince Shikamaru and the rest of her friends, so she thanked all the deities she knew when her phone rang and Kakashi’s name flashed on her screen. She took it as an opportunity to escape more questions from them and so she said, “I gotta take this call, it’s my old high school teacher.”

She muted their audio of their conference call and opened the window of her emails instead to hide her screen and chat box. Sakura went to the balcony to answer the call.

Little did she know that she forgot to turn off her camera.

“Did you notice she was acting weird?”

“She absolutely did, right? She looked nervous earlier. Do you know something about this, Naruto?”

“No! She tells us everything but for the past few months, she’s been a little secretive, I think. It also doesn’t help that we’ve been in quarantine for 2 months! Is she still my best friend, Ino-chan?”

“First of all, I am her best friend and not you. And second, I agree. Ugh, this Forehead is making my head hurt!”

“Don’t judge Sakura-san! She’s a good friend! If she wants to tell us something, she will!”

“I don’t care about her secret or whatever, all I want to know where her house is because look at her room. So fucking huge!”

“That’s not her house, Kiba. Forehead said she’s staying at her mom’s friend because she’s alone at her apartment.”

“Yeah, Sakura-chan's room is much brighter and full of flowers! The room they gave her now is so boring, look! It’s either black or gray!”

“I wouldn’t mind. The size of that room is almost as big as my entire apartment. That bed looks something I want to break with Neji.”

“Tenten-san!! Control yourself!!!”

“Y’all are so noisy even in chat.”

“Shut up, ponytail!”

A movement from Sakura’s camera caught everyone’s attention. Her computer is located at the corner of the room so they could see a part of the queen size bed and has a direct view of the bedroom door. The knob turned and someone entered the room.

“WHO’S THAT?!!!”

“SOMEONE ENTERED SAKURA-SAN'S ROOM!!”

“Is that her mom’s friend?”

“Stop panicking idiots!”

“THEY BETTER LEAVE SAKURA-CHAN ALONE!!!”

“Wait...”

“Is that....?”

“OHMYFGOFDD”

“IS THAT BOSS TEME???!”

“Holy shit..”

“Damn he’s so fucking hot in sweatpants...”

“Why is he there??????”

“UCHIHA-SAN IS IN SAKURA-SAN'S ROOM!!!!!”

“I see... this could be why Sakura said 7.”

“NOOOO! THIS CAN’T BE! SAKURA-CHAN WON’T DATE THAT ASSHOLE! SHE CAN’T!!”

Stood inside the room is no other than their young CEO, Uchiha Sasuke, dressed in casual gray sweatpants and thin white t-shirt. If not because of his wild black hair and intimidating aura, they wouldn’t even know it’s him. They have always seen him in crisp suits and perfect posture, maybe once in a bomber jacket and ripped jeans, but this is the first time they’ve seen him in comfortable clothes with his usual stiff shoulders a bit relaxed and his hands casually tucked in his pockets.

Another movement from the other corner of the room, and Sakura came into view. They didn’t know she was only wearing a big shirt that barely covered her thighs, and the chat room exploded again.

“Sakura’s so hot, damn..”

“HOY DOG-BREATH, LOOK AWAY!!! STOP HOUNDING SAKURA-CHAN!!”

“YAAAS GET THAT ASS GIRL!!”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! FOREHEAD IS BANGING OUR BOSS! THAT’S SO HOT”

They watched in awe when the two met in the middle of the room and Sakura tiptoed and wrapped her arms around Sasuke’s neck. Their boss leaned down and held her hips, his face hidden within her pink locks.

The scene didn’t have any audio for their mini audience but even without it, they know the two are speaking in whispers, with Sakura’s head nodding and Sasuke’s hands running over her waist and back as indications. They felt like intruders and most of them almost blushed because of the affection and intimacy, excluding one who definitely passed out under his desk, so they decided to leave the two.

“Let’s leave them alone now, things might get pretty hot. I don’t wanna see my best friend shagging my boss, no matter how proud I am of her.”

“INO-CHAN! WE GOTTA HELP SAKURA-CHAN ESCAPE! WHAT IF HE’S HOLDING HER HOSTAGE???”

“Idiot..”

“Sakura can take me hostage any time though..”

“Wait, I just want to see Boss Uchiha topless before we go!”

Sasuke pulled away for a bit to look at Sakura, his birthday girl, and poked her forehead with his two fingers. His two arms wrapped around her waist again after the gesture, “Are you done for today?”

She nodded in affirmative as her hands roam around his shoulders and looped around his neck, “I almost slipped earlier though. They almost knew I have a b-..boyf-”

He smirked. They have been secretly dating for almost 4 months now but she still blushes more than usual when she tries to address him as her boyfriend. He remembered the time he introduced her to his parents as his girlfriend and she was redder than his favorite fruit the entire dinner. That was fun.

She’s his employee, he knows. Sakura’s been working for his company for more than a year now and ever since he laid his eyes on her and saw her potential, wit and charm—he knows she’s his endgame.

It’s been a long pursuit for him, being her boss and all, and her righteous perspective about everything. So when she finally gave in to her own feelings and decided to say yes to being his, he decided to never let Haruno Sakura go. Even if she decides to fight tooth and nail for her freedom from him, he will do the same to keep her. Maybe not as an employee, because that would mean he will be free to take her on lunch dates, but as his lover.

I like that, he thought. Lover.

Sasuke peered at her blushing face, her emerald eyes downcast because of embarassment, her enticing full pink lips on display that she keeps on licking and biting. Sasuke’s eyes twitched because of the sight.

“Annoying,” he almost growled under his breath. Is she aware of her effect on him?

Before she could even ask, Sasuke ducked his head down to press his mouth on hers. His hand went to the back of her head to tilt it a little upwards so he could taste deeper and he was rewarded by the opening of her mouth and the quiet moan that he drank greedily from her.

As much as he wants to call it a night and just bury himself with her and in her, she hasn’t eaten yet because his hard-headed and annoying employee still worked at home on her birthday. He baked a strawberry cake downstairs while she thought he’s busy working with investors on his office. He spent the entire day in his kitchen Facetiming with his mother to guide his baking. He’s never seen his mother so ecstatic because of him.

He came back to his senses when he felt slightly cold hands under his shirt and he fought the urge to throw her onto the bed they have been occupying for the past 2 months of quarantine and just ravish her all night. Sasuke moved both his hands and held her face as he savored more of her lips by a few flicks of his tongue before he gently pulled away.

This might be her second birthday since he knew her, first as her boyfriend, but he feels like he’s known her for a long time. He wants to be there on her birthday every year, forever, as long as she’ll have him. “Happy birthday,” he simply said, tenderly looking at her gorgeous face.

Her smile was blinding and her green irises glimmer against the setting sun. “Thank you, Sasuke-kun,” Sakura softly answered. “I love you so much.”

He pecked her lips again, lingering a bit more, and murmured against her mouth. “Love you.” He felt her smile, and he smiled back.

A small blink from the corner of his eyes got his attention and he noticed the tops of her laptop’s screen with a little light, indicating that the camera is on. Sasuke turned to Sakura, “Go downstairs and wait for me. Let’s eat dinner. I’ll just take a shower.”

Sakura nodded and happily skipped across the room and slipped outside the bedroom to wait for him downstairs. Sasuke stood for a moment looking at the door and slowly walked toward his, their, dresser. He took off his t-shirt and tossed it carelessly on the floor. He took a deep breath and finally approached Sakura’s computer on the side.

He clicked the program that runs the conference call and was greeted by her team’s shocked faces. He saw one window where Rock Lee was supposed to be but he didn’t see anyone aside from the crooked angle of the camera and are those his feet under the table? He scoffed inwardly. Guess you’ll give up pursuing her now. She’s mine.

He did a lazy sweep of his dark eyes one by one on their faces and remembered them in the future if they decide to blame Sakura for not telling this secret. Of course, they both wanted to show the world that they’re together but they still need to be a little cautious. Yes, they’re her friends and her team, but he’s not gonna be lenient especially when it comes to Sakura.

Sasuke thought the look in his eyes were effective because they all sat a little straighter. His job is now done, and now it’s time to shower so he could celebrate the entire night with Sakura. His spine tingled in anticipation.

He looked directly at the little camera above and gave his signature smirk before he logged out her account and closed Sakura’s laptop. He stretched like a feline and his grin went wider as he stripped for his shower.

Let’s just say it was an interesting first day back at the office the following Monday.

~fin~

73 notes · View notes

dragonnan · 4 years ago

Photo

Everyone is encouraged to join!

FYI - yeah I know it’s actually Saturday... Didn’t feel like changing it though, lol!

Share links to fic, artwork, WIPs, whatever you want!

My works:

Link to my AO3

Link to my portfolio (which includes some fanart)

The work I thought it would be fun to share is an in-progress unpublished work that will likely take a while to put together. I was incredibly inspired by the brilliant writing of both @hanuko and silentsaebyeok who both have stories about Wilson Fisk. Here is my take on that character in an Avengers fic!

Untitled Fic

Setting: near the end of Homecoming and just prior to Tony reconciling with Pepper

AU of Daredevil season 2-3 (Karen didn't murder Wesley as Fisk's mother didn't remember her visit. She only remembered Ben)

Late afternoon sunlight had turned every pane of glass into a pool of gold. The patio doors of the tall office building had been left open – allowing the haze of late day warmth to coil upwards; carried on drafts of air heated from the concrete below. Rubber soles squeaked softly against marble that knew mainly Italian leather and the rare alligator hide. Two-hundred dollar sneakers were incongruous to the wealth of the man sporting them, but then, Tony Stark had never been a fan of the expected.

“So what wrong side of the bed did I wake up on this morning to earn this clandestine meeting before my Kai Jiew has had time to settle?” One hip resting on the edge of the railing, Tony managed to shudder back a yawn before it became embarrassing. Behind him, the familiar snap of a briefcase lock barely drew a glance as “Dilbert” pushed up his glasses and withdrew a thick file from the depths.

Further in the shadows, the larger man, silent, stood with his head at an oddly subdued angle. Often reticent in the blessedly few interactions Tony had ever had with the man, it was little surprise that it was his assistant who spoke.

“Apologies, Mr. Stark. I assure you this won't take long.”

The unstated request, of course, was that Tony sit at the table positioned within the large room. Tony raised an eyebrow. “You didn't say please.”

A smooth, tight lipped smile, followed his quip. Meanwhile, the still silent other member of their trifecta finally stepped forward – grasping one of the stuffed leather office chairs and rolling it back before seating himself. Wilson Fisk wove his hands together above propped elbows. “I appreciate your willingness to meet me so early, Anthony. I felt it best to speak with you privately given the... delicacy... of the issue at hand.” He gestured towards the single remaining chair.

Well that wasn't at all circumspect.

Returning the tight lipped smile in kind, Tony grabbed the chair facing the head of the table and sat; leaning back and settling his arms on the padded rests. “You know, usually I let Pepper handle SI business. Not sure if you got the memo but I'm not actually CEO any longer. How was prison, by the way? I heard the kitchen got a new chef.”

Ignoring the comment, Fisk tapped his thumbs together and kept a close study of the polished inlay before him. “That is something we share in common,” he looked up, then, finally, “I, too, find that most business affairs tend to be... tedious.” Fisk grinned, a flash of small, even, teeth, before he nodded towards his assistant... Wilbur? Weston? “Mr. Wesley, if you would please?” He turned back to Tony – also leaning back and resting his thick hands over his thicker waist. “I can assure you, however, that what we're here to discuss is a matter that falls somewhat outside the purview of Stark Industries.”

While his employer spoke, Wesley neatly stacked the pages of the file before sliding the bundle across the polished tabletop to Tony. Eager to just get everything done with, Tony pressed his hand flat on the cover to slide it close, flipped it back... and froze.

Across from him, Fisk continued speaking. “I have found that I have an over-abundance of pressure on me as I attempt to rebuild was was lost during my incarceration. Aside from the judgement of the good people of this city I also have faced an ongoing assault from a number of vigilantes. This city, for all of its potential, has the unfortunate side effect of breeding these... vermin... faster than the rats that inhabit the sewers. As it is they are beneath the notice of those who claim to protect the people of this city.” His hands stilled – lying one on top of the other as Tony silently turned to the next page. “Too busy protecting the rest of the world, perhaps.”

Tony made himself turn to the next page; his eyes blinking rapidly.

“Of course it isn't in my nature to harm innocents. I find it distasteful to involve women and children in such matters. And, yet, I find that it is, in fact, a child at the center of my current dilemma. Of greater irony is that this child has both power and connections that would, under normal circumstances, place him outside the reach of those who would wish him harm.”

The forth page was a photo – clipped from a newspaper and a duplicate to the framed image that sat on the worktable in Tony's lab. In the grainy image he stood, one arm slung around a young man's shoulders, as the kid received his certification for completing the “Stark Internship”. Tony licked his tongue across his teeth before closing the file once more.

Fisk let out a soft hum. “As it is, prison has a way of creating strange bedfellows. I met someone – a man you may know. Adrian Toomes. After some persuasion he had something very interesting to share with me. Something that, I can only imagine, you would wish to keep out of the hands of certain individuals.”

Tony wanted to clench his hands – his fingertips twitching before he pushed them flat against the wood beneath them. “Just to clarify you're threatening my intern?”

Fisk leaned forward; hands folding tight before him on the table. “I was hoping we wouldn't have to play any games but given your refusal to read the rest of the documents Mr. Wesley provided, I will summarize them for you.” Here he stood; walking to the open doors facing the patio. “I know who Peter Parker really is. I know about his aunt. I know the names of his friends, where he goes to school, and where he buys his favorite sandwich every afternoon.” He rested his hands behind his back; squinting in the sunlight. “If he continues to disrupt my affairs in Hell's Kitchen, the consequences could be... unpleasant.” He glanced back at Tony; his face serene. “You realize I'm asking for very little. Keep your new pet leashed and allow me to conduct my business in peace. The child will never have to know my name. Other than what he may learn from news reports; of course.” Tugging his cuffs, Fisk turned to more fully face into the room. “I never wanted to involve you. This is the sort of attention I have spent a fortune to avoid. As it is I find myself in a position where reticence could cost me even more.”

Pushing to his feet, Tony could no longer stop his hands from fisting at his sides – though he managed to control the tremor as he joined Fisk. Side by side, the other man practically loomed over him.

“So you aren't just threatening a kid – you're threatening everyone he cares about. Little bit budget TV villain but you do you I guess.” Pulling off his tinted glasses, he stared up at the other man. “The thing is this little weekly drama you're playing?” he waggled his fingers back and forth, “way above your pay grade. Maybe stick to collecting on gambling debts and playing whack-a-mole with the other lowlifes in your contacts list.”

The smallest of smiles twitched at the corner of Fisk's lips. “I know you're someone who prefers visual aids,” his voice became guttural – losing the soft quality, “perhaps a demonstration would help to convince you.”

A glance to the side, the barest nod to Wesley, and the other man typed into his phone.

There was a moment – silence this far above the city.

And then an apartment complex, three blocks away, exploded into flame.

Horrified, Tony gave Fisk a single look, seeing the purpose in that cold gaze, before twisting the dial on his watch and backing up just enough to turn and take a running leap. One foot caught on the railing and with a surge of his muscles, he launched himself out into open space.

Terrifying free fall – the ground racing towards him at breakneck speed.

And then smooth metal wrapped his body and he shot towards the blaze.

:Cutting things a little bit tight, aren't we, Boss?:

“No time to chat, Fri. Emergency response status?” He twisted his body into an angle as the building grew large in his visor – too few residents stumbling free out onto the pavement.

:Fire and Rescue are three minutes away:

“Shit.” Aiming for a top floor window that had been blasted out with the explosion, Tony shot through the opening and made a quick scan of the room. He winced at the sudden burst of heat that briefly enveloped his suit. “Anyone on this level?”

He almost swore he could hear his AI sighing. :Apologies, Boss. I am unable to differentiate life signs from the ambient temperature. Also the heat is steadily rising and will soon be at levels exceeding this suit's tolerances.:

Ignoring the warning, Tony finished his check of the room and moved on to the next apartment. “Yeah, let's put a pin in that. Adjust audio input and scan for human voices.”

In the second apartment he found a single person – deceased. Same for the next two. In the forth apartment there were two dead but he also found a child – burned and terrified but alive – buried beneath the blankets in her parent's closet. Tony kept her wrapped to protect against the flames and rushed her to the sidewalk and into the arms of one of the firemen who had just arrived on scene.

“Explosion – multiple charges – there's still people...” He coughed at the black smoke boiling from the ruined building and dropped his visor back into place before returning inside.

Even with the protection of his suit the heat was breathtaking. There were no more survivors on the top floor so Tony proceeded to the next level down.

:I'm detecting instability in the surrounding structure.:

“We got three apartments left on this floor. Stop listening to the walls and keep listening for voices!”

The next sign of life he found, however wasn't a human but a howling dog still locked in its kennel. Tucking the kennel under one arm, Tony finished his search of that floor – finding three additional people and four more pets. With everyone holding their respective creatures he didn't risk another flight but, instead, soaked several blankets in a shower and guided them to a stairwell FRIDAY had located that was still relatively flame free. Then, turning back to his task he set out to locate more survivors.

Another five minutes in – fire and rescue now dousing the building as fireman began going door to door on the bottom two floors, Tony took the last one remaining.

It was then that disaster struck.

He'd just entered the first apartment – already racing towards the elderly man collapsed on the floor when there was a sudden burst of flames across the ceiling above – overlaid by a warning from FRIDAY.

:Boss, there is a weakening of the...:

“Shit!” His heartbeat was a drum in his ears as hooked a thick blanket from the ratty chair in the living room – slow motion tornados of smoke lifting up from the surrounding dry surfaces. Propulsion would actually take longer – factoring in the time to slow his speed before reaching the man. It was a fast paced eternity bolting across the ancient carpet. The blanket billowed out ahead of him and cloaked the man just moments before he wrapped arms around him – knowing that even inside the blanket he was burning the old man with the super heated surface of his suit.

He managed two steps to the window.

And then the world shattered in a concussive blast.

#fanfic #Self Promotion

4 notes · View notes

themummersfolly · 4 years ago

Text

New story!

Behold! A ridiculous anachronistic rabbit hole of a tale, written while I was supposed to be working on Actual Serious Stuff, now with the bare minimum of proofreading! Featuring Constable D’Albret as a 20th century Air Force general, Marie de Sully as a kickass lady boss, and John of Burgundy before he was a sociopathic asshole. I hope it’s as much fun to read as it was to write!

“Thirty-five million livres. What is it made of, pure gold?”

“Mm-hm.”

“And we’re to purchase a minimum of twenty! We didn’t spend so much in all of World War Two.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I declare, I’ve never seen this country so criminally fleeced – General, are you listening to me?”

“Of course I am.” General Charles Delabreth didn’t need to look up from his magazine to know that Berry, the Minister of Finance, was glaring down at him.

“And? Your thoughts?”

Delabreth plucked a card from the pages. “I think I’m going to renew my subscription to Popular Mechanics. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it.”

If the intake of breath was any indication, Berry probably looked ready to explode. If there was one thing that could move the old man, it was proposed spending.

To Delabreth’s left, John Bourgogne heaved a sigh. “We’re authorized to one billion.”

“And that woman is going to take every denier of it!”

“We need the planes, Minister.” Delabreth finally looked up from his page. “The Armée de l’Air is in desperate need of an upgrade, especially with England’s saber-rattling.”

“What’s wrong with the ones we already have?”

“They’re obsolete –”

“Well, why can’t we just install new equipment?”

“For all the reasons I outlined at the budget meeting.”

Berry started to say something, but Bourgogne cut him off. “Minister, of those present in the room, which have flown sorties in the past thirty years?” Berry’s mouth snapped shut. “We need between twenty and thirty planes; we’re authorized to one billion livres. Please do the math again.”

Delabreth hid his snort of laughter in a polite cough. Bourgogne had earned the moniker “Fearless John” in the Mediterranean campaigns, and had lived up to it throughout his political career. Berry turned on his heel and stalked off to antagonize his staffers.

Bourgogne sat back, fishing in his pocket, and took out a vial of aspirin. “It’s too early for this.”

“You know Berry.” Delabreth closed his magazine. “If he weren’t here in person, he’d only be bawling at President Valois. And Valois doesn’t need that, not so soon out of the hospital.”

Bourgogne checked his watch. “It’s six past. I wonder what’s keeping them.”

“There were emergency vehicles around one of the hangars as we were coming in. There may have been some kind of accident.”

Bourgogne raised his eyebrows. “That requires the CEO’s attention?”

Delabreth was spared having to answer by the sound of footsteps in the hall. He led the others in rising to their feet as the representatives of Craon Industries entered the conference room. At their head was a tall woman in an elegant grey suit, her hair swept into a smooth, auburn knot: Marie Sully, current CEO and daughter of the late founder.

“Good morning, gentlemen, my apologies for the delay. We had an incident in one of the research labs; fortunately no one was injured.”

“An ‘incident’?” Berry seized on the phrase. “Indeed. It must have been severe to delay such an important meeting. Do these sorts of things happen often?”

Delabreth resisted the urge to put his face in his hand. He could almost hear Bourgogne’s blood pressure rising. Sully seemed unfazed.

“The risk is ever-present,” she replied, “which is why we maintain such stringent safeguards. Today, I’m proud to say that everything worked as it was supposed to, and we suffered neither injuries nor losses.”

Berry seemed to deflate slightly. He hadn’t anticipated the answer or the poise with which it was given.

“Well said,” Delabreth offered. “It’s good to know we’re working with someone who places such a high value on safety and security.”

“Thank you, General.” She nodded politely to him. “Now, to business. You’re here to discuss the newest generation of Mirage fighter jets…”

“We’d like to offer Craon Industries a renewed contract for thirty of the new jets.” As usual, Bourgogne went straight to the matter at hand. “Fifteen to be delivered in the next two years, and the rest to follow in five.”

“Minister Bourgogne, you are aware that the manufacturing cost per unit is nearly twenty million livres. And that’s besides the cost for research and development –”

“And I assume you’re aware, Miss Sully, that the Ministry of Defense has several other bidders for this contract?” Berry puffed, back on the attack. “Bidders who are offering a significantly more competitive price?”

Bourgogne’s face took on a blank look of restrained temper. Sully’s smile turned icy.

“Bidders that can produce a competitive replacement for the Mirage III?”

“Yes, and who are patriotic enough to put the needs of the country ahead of their own profits!”

Bourgogne sat down and put his face in his hand. Sully stared at the old minister for a moment, then closed her folder with a snap.

“Well then, I apologize for wasting your time with this meeting. You gentlemen have a lovely rest of your day.” And with that she turned and swept out of the room, her stunned entourage following.

“She’ll be back,” said Berry, into the silence. “You see, that’s what happens when you put a woman in charge. You can’t deal with them like you can with a man, you have to be firm.”

Bourgogne raised his head to glare at him. “Berry, when we get back to Paris, I swear to God…”

“Not in public.” Delabreth cut him off. He turned to Berry. “Shut up and stay here.”

“Where are you going?”

He paused at the double doors. “I’m going to try to undo some of the damage you just did.”

Sully and her team hadn’t gone far; the hall still echoed with their footsteps. The murmur of conversation drifted back, voices fast and sharp.

“Madame! Madame Sully.” He caught up to them at the elevators. “Wait. We didn’t intend to cut the meeting short.”

“Oh? Did you have more insults to heap on my employees and our product?” Sully’s eyes flashed. Several of the engineers shuffled nervously; others glared at Delabreth in a mirror of their CEO’s anger. “Did you think you were going to get a discount that way?”

“Madame, the nation needs these planes, and I’m sure Craon Industries needs the contract –”

“Not that badly. Go talk to your other bidders. Our price just doubled.”

Ding. The elevator doors began to slide open. Sully turned on her heel and stopped short. The elevator was already occupied. Two men, one in a business suit and the other in a janitor’s jumpsuit; they had apparently been talking, and looked up with wide eyes at the interruption.

“Shit,” they said at the same time.

Before Delabreth could wonder what that was supposed to mean, both men leapt from the elevator.

“Everybody back! Everybody get back!”

Where the hell had the guns come from? The janitor seized Sully by the arm – her mouth hung open in indignation – while his comrade swept the crowd with a machine pistol.

“Come on –”

“What are you doing – let go of me –”

“Get on the ground! I’m serious!”

“What’s going on out there?” Bourgogne and Berry were in the hall, staring at the scene.

“Stay back!” the businessman screamed and grabbed Delabreth’s sleeve. He had a split second to contemplate fighting back before the cold muzzle of a gun behind his ear put that notion to rest. “I’ll do it! I’ll blow his head off!”

“Everyone stay calm.” Delabreth held out his hands. He was already running the odds, sealing his panic away at the bottom of his mind. “Why don’t you gentlemen let the lady go, and I’ll go with you instead?”

“Shut up!” The muzzle jabbed against his skull and he winced.

“General…” Bourgogne glanced from Berry to the engineers to the gunmen, sizing up relative positions, lines of fire, behavior. Doing the math.

“Easy –”

“Yeah, listen to him.” The businessman yanked him by the arm, dragging him towards the elevator. His cohort had blocked the doors open. “Stay back, stay way back, or they both die! You want that? No? Then stay back!”

Delabreth allowed himself to be pulled past the doors. He made eye contact with Bourgogne and nodded. Trust me. You do your part, I’ll do mine. The doors slid shut and sealed them in.

“You bastard, I know you!” Sully had recovered her voice. “You’re that new transfer in finance. I had to sign off on your clearance myself!” She glared at the businessman. The janitor, who stood a full head shorter than her, leveled a pistol at her.

“You want to die, lady?”

“Zip it, Jacques,” the businessman snarled. “And you – both of you – stay calm and don’t give us any trouble, and you get to live through this.”

Delabreth raised his hands. The businessman had an accent – English? Faint, but it was there. “Alright, no trouble.” He glanced at Sully, willing her to play along, but she was still glaring at their captors. “I’m impressed at how far you gentlemen have come. You must be serving a noble cause to have accomplished so much.”

Ding. Both captors jumped. From the corner of his eye, Delabreth caught the floor number as the elevator stopped: Basement.

“No trouble,” the businessman repeated. He seized Delabreth by the collar, jammed the machine pistol between his shoulder blades, and marched him into the corridor.

Through the elevator lobby, down a hall, through a side door that led to a service corridor and a downward flight of stairs. They encountered no one, which Delabreth considered fortunate. As they made their way into the bowels of the building, Sully kept up her tirade.

“It was your friend we caught in the labs, wasn’t it? I knew there was something suspicious, the way you’ve been prowling around here after hours. I should have put security on your tail the first time! How long has your little spy ring been planning this? You didn’t plan well enough. He never made it to the first clean room! Francois – is that even your real name?”

They reached the bottom of the stairwell and passed into the empty corridor beyond it. The businessman – Francois – stopped and turned to face her.

“We have two hostages right now, lady. Keep it up and we’ll make do with one.”

Sully glowered at him. Delabreth managed to catch her eye and shook his head.

“Yeah, listen to the big shot, here.” Francois, his hand still twisted in the back of Delabreth’s collar, opened the nearest door and shoved him inside. Jacques and Sully followed. It was an access room for the building’s fire control and air conditioning systems. Delabreth tried to surreptitiously scan for anything they could use to their benefit, while Sully snarled at their captors over the machine noise.

“If you think this is going to bring down Craon Industries, think again.”

“If that were at all compatible with what I’m getting paid for,” Francois snapped back, “I’d do it in a heartbeat.” He motioned with his gun, and the two men dragged their captives into the far corner of the room. “Sit.”

“If you gentlemen would let me make a call – intercede for you – I’m sure we could work something out –”

“I said sit.”

Delabreth found himself forcibly sat down on an overturned crate. Francois produced a set of handcuffs, which he passed behind a pipe running floor to ceiling along the wall. One cuff he clapped around Sully’s wrist, the other around Delabreth’s.

“Stay here. Jacques, watch the door.” Francois peered out of the door, then slipped back into the corridor.

Delabreth tugged experimentally at the restraint. With the bulk and noise of the water chiller between them and their captors, Sully turned her wrath on her fellow captive.

“I’m sure we can work something out, you must serve a noble cause,” she said in a nasal mockery of his words. “Why don’t you ask for his hand in marriage?”

“I’m trying to keep us alive,” Delabreth snapped. “Stop making that so difficult!” Sully’s nostrils flared, but she didn’t answer. “If we can get them talking and establish a rapport, we might get some useful information. They might even let their guard down for a moment.”

“And then what? We make a run for it? While handcuffed to the sprinkler feed?”

“I’ll think of something.”

Sully huffed. “I’d have thought a general would show more backbone. But it figures you’d be willing to play along with them – you can always go to whoever they sell the plans to. You’ll probably get your planes cheap from them.”

Delabreth’s anger at the personal jab fizzled out. “You think this is corporate espionage?”

“What else would it be? Our competitors are ruthless bastards.”

“This isn’t corporate. Whatever’s going on here – it’s international. That man – Francois? He isn’t French.”

“Of course not, he’s Belgian.”

“He’s not Belgian, either. He’s English. He’s done a lot of work, hiding his accent, but it’s still there. And the way they’re panicking – they’re desperate. They’re not looking at breaking and entering charges, they’re looking at treason.”

Sully gaped at him.

“My God,” she finally managed.

Delabreth glanced toward the door, to where their captor stood. The chiller nearly concealed him, but enough was visible to tell he was turned toward the exit, more intent on his comrade’s return than on his prisoners.

“How good is your security team?”

“You should know. Most of them are veterans of your military.” The truth had been a shock, but it hadn’t dulled Sully’s sharpness. Delabreth nodded.

��And police should be nearby, if not still on site. Bourgogne will have the sense to link them up with our own detail. From there it should be a simple matter of locating and extracting us.”

“You call this simple?”

“As opposed to safe or easy. But he’s got the necessary experience.”

Sully twisted her hand in the cuff. “And us?”

“We stay alive. And glean as much information from them as we can. If they die in a shootout, they take what they know to the grave, and we have no idea how deep this operation goes.”

At that moment, Jacques peered around the edge of the chiller.

“No more chit-chat!” He came toward them. “Either of you get smart and try something, I’ll put a bullet in your skull.”

Sully had apparently taken Delabreth seriously. She swallowed and settled for glaring daggers at the floor.

“We understand,” Delabreth said.

“Better hope you do.” Jacques gestured with his pistol. “You know, bringing you two along wasn’t part of the plan, but I’m glad we did. Especially you.” He jabbed his muzzle at Delabreth, who blinked.

“Do I know you?”

The little man flushed. “You fucker – you’d better!” His voice was rising. “You ended my career! Croci Airbase, five years ago! Ring any bells?”

“Were you… you’re not that fellow they caught stealing ammunition to sell, were you?”

Jacques loomed over him, his face inches away. “I spent a year in that hellhole of a prison! You ruined my life!” He raised the butt of the pistol as if to strike. Delabreth stiffened; Sully must have flinched, because the cuff at his wrist bit painfully into his skin. For a long moment their captor held the weapon upraised. Then he seemed to think better of it. “When Francois says we’re done with you, you’re mine,” he snarled, before stalking back to his post.

The general let out a breath. Sully stared, wide-eyed.

“What, did you have him cashiered out or something?”

“Nobody got cashiered,” Delabreth muttered. “I wouldn’t have remembered it at all except for how angry his commanding officer was when he reported it to me.”

“He obviously remembers.”

“Apparently not well enough, since he’s still at it.”

Sully stared at the ground, tucked her feet close to her crate, smoothed her skirt. Through the handcuff chain, Delabreth felt her shiver.

“Alright, General.” Her voice was tense, but steady. “Tell me what you need me to do. If you have a plan, I’ll follow your lead.”

“Right now all we can do is wait. I don’t think we’ll have much luck talking to Jacques, there; Francois seems to be the voice of reason. It’s just a question of whether he’ll come back before Bourgogne finds us.”

“What happens if he does?”

“Duck and cover, and pray the bullets miss us.”

“Great.” Sully hugged her knees with her free arm.

“Damn, why can’t I remember that fellow’s name?”

“Who, Jacques?”

“Yes – his real name. I should know it.”

“Why does it matter?”

“It just bothers me when I can’t remember a soldier’s name, even an ex-soldier. I can all but see his papers in front of me, why can’t I… Tobin.” He nodded. “It was Tobin, Corporal Tobin. Can think of his first name, but it wasn’t Jacques.”

“Figures. Well, this is lovely: handcuffed together in a basement by two ex-employees who hate us. Delightful.”

Delabreth’s chuckle died on his lips as their captor took a step back, away from the cover of the machine. The general looked down, careful to avoid his gaze. The situation didn’t seem so humorous anymore.

When “Jacques” had moved out of sight again, Delabreth chanced a look at his fellow captive. Sully stared off into space, a crease between her brows, her mouth pulled down and tight. He felt a pang of remorse.

“I’m sorry you got pulled into this.”

“It was pretty much inevitable once things got started. But you shouldn’t have to be here.”

“If it keeps you from being alone with these two, I can deal with it.”

Sully glanced at him, managed a half-smile. “I appreciate it.”

Delabreth cast about for something else to say, anything to keep the rising dread at bay. “Do you have any family?”

“A son, Georges. By my first marriage.”

“I didn’t know you were married.”

“I was, to Guy Tremoille.”

“I knew Tremoille. A good officer.”

“Well… we didn’t work out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It happens, I suppose. What about you? Are you married?”

“No. Thought about it once or twice, but it was never meant to be. Besides, I spent the last few decades chasing after my career. Wouldn’t have made me a good family man.”

“But you’re mostly in France, now, aren’t you?”

“Yes, well…”

“It’s not so bad, you know, being married. It just takes work. Any two people can be married, if they’re willing to put in the effort. It’s a bit like a long-term business deal. You have to be willing to hold up your end of the bargain.”

“Well, given my most recent experience with business deals, I don’t think I’d be good at marriage, either.”

Sully pursed her lips, thinking. “It wasn’t your fault, you know. And if you hadn’t tried to make things right, I’d be stuck down here alone.”

Delabreth shifted so he was more or less facing her. “We really do need those planes. If we make it through this – if you’re willing – I’d like to start over.”

“Yes, ‘if.’ We can say I owe you.”

“Berry doesn’t have to be in the room.”

“Berry can be in the room, you just have to keep him under control.”

“Indeed. I’ll find a reason for him to send a representative.”

Their captor shuffled half into sight and they fell silent.

Minutes dragged by. The giant chillers, responsible for cooling the rest of the building, did nothing for the utility room, and Delabreth began to feel the weight of his dress uniform. He thought longingly of water, then of the bottle of armagnac in his office.

“When this is over,” he muttered to Sully, “drinks are on me –”

Rat. Tat. The shots were barely audible over the machine roar. Tat, tat-tat. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat. Delabreth froze. Their captor ducked out of sight, checking the door.

“God,” muttered Sully. Her hand nudged his; they both glanced down at the cuffs, then Sully slipped her hand into his. “It's childish, I know.”

“When the bullets start flying, we all turn into scared children.” Delabreth gave her hand a squeeze. He focused on his breathing, willed his racing heart to pace itself. They couldn't run, couldn't fight, couldn't do anything – yet. He could feel Sully shaking from the nerves.

RAT-TAT TATTATTAT TAT-TAT-TAT RATTATTATTAT TAT. Gunfire – close. In the stairwell? Someone clattered and scuffled at the door, and Francois stumbled into sight, clutching his abdomen – bleeding. He collapsed just past the chiller.

“Put down your weapons. Send out the hostages, and then come out with your hands up.” Delabreth didn't recognize the voice, but he knew Bourgogne's tactics when he heard them.

“Almost there,” he muttered to Sully.

Francois lay where he had fallen. “Jacques” stepped over him, backing away from the door. He caught sight of the captives and his face twisted. He threw a last glance at the body of his comrade and started their way.

“Not going down like this – this isn't over –”

Sully let out an “eep” of fear.

“Shut up, bitch!” He swept her with the gun barrel before bringing it to bear on Delabreth. “I'm taking you with me!”

Delabreth stared up the barrel, faintly surprised that he hadn't felt the bullet yet. His mind entered the surreal focus of battle.

“Put the gun down, Corporal Tobin. You don't want to do this.”

At the sound of his real name, the man faltered and almost complied. A second later he doubled down.

“The fuck I don't! I owe you a fucking bullet!”

“You pull the trigger and your life is over. Put the weapon down, surrender, and tell them what you know. I can guarantee you a plea deal – I'm a man of my word.” He felt no more fear than he had discussing the aircraft budget. He had let go of Sully's hand at some point. All the world shrank to Delabreth, Tobin, and the gun held shaking in the latter's hands.

“You were in a non-combat post most of your career, weren't you, Tobin? You've never killed before.” There was no censure in the statement, no mockery. “I don't recommend the experience.”

“I'm not a coward.” Tobin mouthed the words, then screamed: “I'm not a coward!” His eyes bulged. He shoved the barrel at Delabreth's face –

Something lashed out from the corner of his vision –

Tobin fell to his knees with a howl, dropping the gun. Sully let go of her shoe – she had struck him with the heel, hard enough to leave a ruddy stain up the side of his knee – and grabbed the weapon.

“Die in a fire, bastard!” she yelled, struggling to get a proper grip without sweeping Delabreth. He seized the opportunity and kicked out, catching Tobin in the head, dropping him.

“Is he dead?” Sully panted. She had finally gotten the pistol grip into her hand.

“Hell, I don't know. If he moves, shoot him.” Delabreth grabbed the front of Tobin's jumpsuit and tried to pull him closer. “He must have a handcuff key – Bourgogne, hold your fire! We're alright!”

“I'll get us loose.” Sully pulled the handcuff chain taught, put the barrel to the links.

“No, that's not a good idea –”

BANG. Delabreth jerked back and toppled off his crate, one half of the cuffs still on his wrist. The bullet had taken a chunk out of the wall. He ran his hands over his body, feeling for shrapnel wounds: nothing. Sully sat dazed, blinking at the weapon in her hand.

“Are you hurt?” he shouted over the ringing in his ears.

“What?” She shouted back.

Bourgogne – he'll have heard the shot.

“Watch him,” he gestured to Sully. She nodded, kicked off her remaining shoe, and trained the gun on the unconscious man. Delabreth ran forward and seized the machine pistol Francois had dropped.

“This is Delabreth! The scene is secured. I'm opening the door.” Without taking his eyes off Francois, he pushed open one half of the double doors. Almost immediately an armored security agent filled the gap. Delabreth backed away while others entered the room, sweeping it for threats.

“Sully's there.” He jerked his head. “She's not hurt. She's got the other subject.”

“You took your time,” Sully called, still louder than was necessary.

“Madame, if you please.” One of the officers held out a hand warily, beckoning for her gun. Everyone was still jumpy.

“What? Oh – of course.” She turned the weapon and handed it off.

“Are you injured?”

“Oh, no, no. Although my shoes have seen better days.” An officer stooped to retrieve them and she waived him off. “I suspect you'll want those as evidence.”

Ignoring their confused looks, she stepped around Tobin's prone form and joined Delabreth. He had just handed off his own weapon when Bourgogne entered the room.

“Charles – thank God! I thought you were a goner for sure.” He glanced between the two, taking in the broken handcuffs, the confiscated weapons, the fallen attackers. “But it looks like you had things sorted out on your own.”

“You came just in time, Bourgogne.” Delabreth noticed Sully was shivering. He took off his jacket and settled it around her shoulders. “I'm ready to give my statement as soon as there's an investigator ready to take it. You should do the same,” he added to Sully.

“Certainly. And we need to schedule a time to complete the negotiations.”

“The –” Delabreth and Bourgogne stared at her.

“Regarding the planes,” she prompted.

“Ah. Well...” Bourgogne glanced between the two again. Delabreth shook his head.

“There's no hurry, madame. You been through a lot today.”

“Oh pish, I won't give these wretches the satisfaction. We can meet tomorrow if you're still in town. Or tonight, if you don't mind settling things over drinks.” Her smile was warm, almost cheeky.

“Well, I think we should hold off signing anything until we're all a little less rattled, but I don't see why you two can't conduct your own, er, private negotiations.” Bourgogne's smile absolutely was cheeky. Sully was gracious enough to overlook it.

“I do owe you drinks,” Delabreth admitted.

“Bourgogne, you're welcome to join us.”

“Oh, I might stop by for a bit, but I'd hate to be a third wheel.”

“I'll see you at eight, then, shall I?” Sully reached out and took his hand, his free one this time. To his own surprise, he raised it to his lips.

“Until then, Madame Sully.”

“Marie.” She smiled. “Between us, it's Marie.” She handed him back his jacket and turned to the door. “Inspector – it is inspector, isn't it? Good, I need to reassure my people. Shall I do that before or after I give my statement? Oh, and there's a pair of flats in my office, if you'll be so kind as to send someone to get them...”

Delabreth stared after her. Bourgogne circled behind him, chuckling.

“Nothing like a little hand-to-hand combat to smooth things over, eh?”

“You can tell Valois not to worry. I think we're going to get those planes after all.”

“I think you're going to get a lot more than planes.” Bourgogne smirked and shook his head. “You know, most men usually stick to flowers and chocolates when they want to impress a woman. Valois was right about you; you always were a little over the top.”

4 notes · View notes

dolphin-enthusiast · 4 years ago

Text

Part 11. Is long, my dudes. ALSO MY POOL IS FILLING UP!! But another warning, a weed Joke.

“WHAT DO WE DO,DAMMIT!! What should I do?!” ”Chill, Okuyasu quit watching and get over here we can’t leave them alone at a time like this.” “Wait, why are you so calm?! YOU’D BE THE FIRST TO PANICK AND SHE’S TARGETING YOU TOO!!!” “Oh, I look calm, I’m just keeping the anxiety attack on the inside.” “You know, at first I was happy, no other girls liked me before.” “I feel you, I feel you deeply and my feelings I can feel deeply.” Then Koichi just plans to tell her off “Koichi, are you braindead? From someone that’s been confessed like 7 times each day, it won’t end well.” “She’s right, she won’t stop easily! She’s the kind of person that can weave 2 sweaters in a single night, that’ll make her more determined!” “Hey, did you guys know Sky’s Puertorican-Mexican?” “Huh? A combination like that exists?” “Why does she look Korean?” “To be honest myself, I don’t know. The real question is how did SHE know I’m Puertorican-Mexican.” “Can you speak Puertorican?” “Okuyasu, you fucking dumbass, México and Puerto Rico speak Spanish- WE’RE GETTING OFF TOPIC!!” “Right!- Wait, is that right? I can’t tell her off?” “Right, don’t try to convince her now. Don’t make her use her hair stand. You need to make her hate you too, make you seem like the most boring and bad people in the school.” “Guys, as a psychic,I don’t recommend that-” then they formulate a plan “Wait, how do we make a girl like Sky, the most boring person ever? I mean, her entire life could be made into a drama. And she gave Yukako her own phone number.” “What if we don’t and I ignore her like I do with everyone else-” Then they continue “How about we tell her a giant lie about Sky too, like, She’s completely straight! Or if she’s a slob-” “I give up.” Then they continue and Koichi shows them his English test “-This is the english text we just took. I can’t study like this!” “16... That’s really low. Even I can do better than this. Mine’s 32.” “Really? I got a 96. If it weren’t for the fact that I ran out of time I would’ve gotten 100. I think I’ll also ruin my life as well. I got a 69.420 in Japanese. I can’t afford to ruin what I spent raising so much.” “Listen Koichi!Do what we tell you! Sky, I love you, survive.” “Well damn, if you put it that way, I guess I will.”

Yukako was making her way down the streets . “HEY, THAT KOICHI HIROSE IS VERY DIRTY!!” “HE LOOKS NORMAL!! I CAN’T BELIEVE HE DOES THINGS LIKE THAT!!” “AND THAT SKY-CHANYEOL GUADALUPE!!” “I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE COMES FROM A PLACE LIKE THAT!! SHE MUST BE SECRETLY A THUG!!” “Hey, is she looking that way? And why is there a trashcan here ?” “No, but I’m sure she can hear us, let’s continue. And I don’t know. Go with it I guess.” “THAT KOICHI REALLY STEALS?!” “YEAH!! HE TOLD ME HIMSELF!!” “NO DIGNITY!” “AND DOES SKY REALLY LIKE BLOWING THINGS UP?!” “YEAH!! WHERE SHE COMES FROM SHE DID IT A LOT, SHE CAN MAKE A BOMB OUT OF THIN AIR!!” Then they continue with Koichi’s insults. Then, Okuyasu says “I HEARD THAT SKY DOESN’T DATE BECAUSE ALL OF HER PSYCHOPATHIC EXES WERE BLOWN UP!!” “REALLY? DID SHE HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THAT?!?” “SHE DENIES IT, BUT SHE LOOKED PROUD!!” “WE SHOULD CUT TIES WITH THEM!! SHE’S INSANE AND HE HAS NO FUTURE!” She leaves. *Pop*

I come out of the trashcan. “Wait, you were here all along?” “Yes, and the part about insane hurt a little. You didn’t have to go there. I mean, you’re not wrong, but still, you didn’t have to go there.” “Can you predict that our plan work.” I do the thing. “It didn’t work, she’s gonna kidnap us.” “Maybe your vision was wrong.” “I SURE HOPE SO.”

At my boi Koichi’s.

“Josuke and Okuyasu made it sound so easy... I’m so tired. Maybe I was too nervous. Let’s hope tomorrow she’ll forget about us.” He was talking, I was shaking. He falls asleep and has a nightmare. “Wake up, Koichi. Wake the fuck up,Koichi!!” “W-What’s wrong?” Yukako is outside the window “Y-Your friends are saying bad things about you!! But don’t worry I’m here to perfect you. I’m taking you with me.” She sees our English tests, my Japanese quiz and a bottle of nitroglycerin. “One more centimetre.” “Huh, what’s wrong, love?” “One more centimetre and that bottle would’ve fallen off the table.” Koichi just goes: “What would’ve happened if it fell off?” “That bottle of nitroglycerin would’ve fallen, gotten shocked from impact and exploded. There’s enough in that bottle to obliterate the entire room.” “That’s why I’m here, to fix you!” And she kidnaps us.

In a house, near the edge of Duwang.

There we were tied up to a chair. My stand, was close to hatching, and I was sending an SOS to Jotaro.

... And building a bomb with my feet just in case. You never know wjen

“You must be hungry guys!”

‘Koichi, act natural.’ ‘Wait, did you just send me a message with your mind?!’ ‘Yes, don’t question it. Just play along with it.’

“Hey, Shawty? We wanted to ask you something.” “What?” “Last night, about the hair, what was that about?” “You guys saw it for the first time so you just be a little scared..” she explains about how it was Keicho, an arrow and so on. “Do you mayhaps know someone else with that ability?” “Not sure, now come sit here, you need to have a balanced diet to become perfect people!”

‘Koichi, I made a bomb while she was cooking, I hid the detonator of the bomb in a safe box, push it back so she doesn’t notice.’ ‘How? Your psychic abilities helped you see that it would work?’ ‘No, I quite literally make stuff in my sleep. It just happened to be bomb this time.’ ‘Ok!’ He slides the bomb back. “Can we eat? I need to take my pills after eating.” “Can we??!” “NOT NOW,GUYS!! Koichi, 16 on your English test? And Sky, really? 69.420?” “Listen, I may not be that person to do jokes that I don’t fully understand. But it said 420. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a weed joke and I needed to use it.” “So you smoke?!!” “No, I see the people who get high do stupid things everyday I leave my apartment with my do- WHERE’S IGGY?!” “BARK!” “Thank God...” “Anyways, I said it last night, those scores are too low in my standards, Koichi, even if you’re not that smart, that score is too low, and Sky-” *click* *Dorime, Interimo Adapare,Dorime-* “I know that Japanese is not even close to your native language but you have a manga, it’s not even finished yet! How are you so bad at it?” “First, How did you know I was writing another part? And second, YOU KNOW I’M BOTH DYSLEXIC AND DYSGRAPHIC!! I TRY BUT I SUCK!” “I think we should study while we eat.” She pulls out the boxes and asks Koichi. “Prince often sings about 'funky music', but what is the definition of 'funk'? A) Crazy music B) Groovy music or C) Smooth music?” “B!” “Correct! Now for Sky! How many strokes takes to write the word 湖 (Lake)? A) 15 B) 12 or C) 10?” “B.” “Great!You guys got boiled eggs!” ‘Dammit, I hate those.’ ‘How did you know the answer of yours? You don’t even know how to write your name correctly.’ ‘ I didn’t. I knew that if you were correct with your answer, she wouldn’t expect for me to guess it was in the same place. I do every character with as many strokes I need. I write everything kinda connected, Spanish and Japanese are far from similar.’ “ I’ll take the shell off. Do you guys want salt or soy sauce?” ‘She seems happy! We need to escape as soon as we get the chance!’ “If you guessed A, you’d have to eat erasers!” ‘Fuck, it’s real.’ “C is soap.” ‘Oh hell naw.’ Then she goes to the next one. Koichi bout to get it. “And for Sky, the strokes for, ( 愛 )love. A) 11 ,B) 9, or C) 13. Koichi guesses from her face, I think about it. “C!” “ Koichi, did you guess by looking at my face?” “What about Sky?!” “Did YOU guess by my face,Guadalupe?” “NO, I GUESSED BECAUSE IT LOOKED LIKE IT HAD THE SAME NUMBER OF STROKES LIKE LAKE BUT I NOTICED ONE MORE STROKE!!” “She thought about it! “ And she gives him the choice from bamboo or corn syrup. And tries to force feed him. “GET THE BOMB!!” And we try to get it to run.

(What I hear every time I run after I make my mum mad.)

“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!” “FINE!!! I ACCEPT THAT FOR NOW, BUT MY BOMB!!” “WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH A BOMB!!” “I BUILT IT IN MY SLEEP OK?!? I DON’T REMEMBER HOW I BUILT THIS ONE!! THAT’S WHY I NEED IT!!” Yadayadaya , we try to escape Yukako reveals that the house is owned by a CEO in Tokyo and since no one will know until summer, we’ll have plenty of time to 'make progress'. Yayadaya, we get to the door, in what year did Columbus discovered the new world?’ “Do you know the answer?” “No, I forgot, she yoinked my head real hard.”

Part 12. Soon

#fuckin tokyo ceo then mf columbus #submission

4 notes · View notes

karlenasuperluthor · 5 years ago

Text

Not Very Okay At All

Hey there, this is my first Supergirl one shot, so I hope it’s good. It’s also the first time I wrote a dialogue-heavy thing, I usually don’t have much dialogue in what I write so this was a nice thing to do, not sure it’s my style, but it was fun to try.

Anyway, this is a little 2k words 5x19 fix-it/ what I think happened after the end of the episode.

Anyway, I’m gonna shut up. Enjoy. I would love to know what you think.

Oh! Also! Here’s an AO3 link, in case you prefer to read it there.

~~~~~

When the day ended, after Leviathan was defeated with the help of Brainy and everyone decided to come back tomorrow, fresh and well rested, to figure out how to take down Lex.

Kara offered Lena to come back to her place, order some take out and talk. They started while they were in Lena's lab, but they kept getting interrupted and Kara felt like she needs to talk this through with Lena if they ever want to move on and try to become friends again.

So here they were, in Kara's living room, with three pizza boxes on the table. One plain, mostly for Lena, one with pepperoni and another one with pineapples. They were all half eaten, with Kara take a slice from a different box every time and Lena only eating three slices before she was full.

They were silent all this time, neither knowing what to say to start the conversation in fear of saying the wrong thing while also not really knowing what they want to say. Eventually, though, Kara got tired of the silence and spoke up.

“You know what? Yes, I hurt you. I didn’t mean to, but I did. But you never listened to me, you used me, and you intentionally looked for ways to hurt me. And, yes, I probably could have done this differently, but I didn’t hurt you intentionally. I tried to do the right thing, tell you the truth. But you also forgot that I never owed it to you, no matter how much you mean to me, how much I meant to you.

"My truth was mine to share when I was ready. Because it's more than just a secret identity, it's also about my past, my planet, my family. The trauma of seeing my plant literally explode right in front of my eyes, knowing that my entire family and friends are there and there's nothing I can do to keep them alive. It's about being trapped in the Phantom Zone for 24 years, without time passing, the only thing keeping me occupied are the images of losing my plant playing over, and over, and over in my mind, in an endless loop, and being only 13 and not knowing if I'll ever get to earth, or if I'll spend the rest of eternity in this pace where time doesn't pass, where I would be forever stuck as a 13 year old. I was supposed to take care of my baby cousin, at 13 I was given the responsibility of taking care of him. And there I was, stuck in this place, absolute silence and darkness surrounding me, and I didn't know what would happen to me, what would happen to Kal-El, where he was.

"And don't– don't tell me that you're sorry, that you didn't know, because you not knowing that was a result of your actions, of you using me, leading me on for weeks, and then refusing to listen to me, to talk to me, no matter how hard I tried to have this conversation with you. You refused to talk to me, so you not knowing is a result of your actions and your decisions, because I tried, at every single turn, to give you a chance, give you the benefit of the doubt. I fought for you at the DEO, telling my sister and my friends that you were just confused, that you were just processing and that you needed time. But instead, you proved them all right. You went and used me, stole from me, used kryptonite against me, even after I told you why it scares me so much.

"I only made one single mistake, and that is not telling you the truth as soon as I was ready, letting Alex decide for me that it's not a good time, no matter when I wanted to do it. But you let that dictate your actions this entire year, you decided that your anger and hurt is more important to you than our friendship. And I know– I know that you didn't mean to let it get this far, but I gave you so many options to stop, to get out of the path you were on, and then you went and worked with Lex of all people, after everything he did to you. After all the times he betrayed you, tried to get you killed, gained your trust just so that he could manipulate you. You went to him, instead of me, when you knew I would listen to you, and talk to you, if you just gave me the chance."

Kara poured out every single thought she ever had over the last year, since she told Lena the truth, and Lena was stunned into silence.

"I… uh… I'm sorry." Lena said quietly. Kara could see the tears in her eyes, could hear the way she was holding them back. Lena took a deep breath and continued.

"I'm sorry I never listened to you, you were right, I let my anger and hurt lead the way. I thought I knew everything about you, and then you revealed this huge piece of information, and I felt so stupid. I just thought to myself 'wow, if it was this easy for her to hide something as big as this, what else could she be hiding from me?' and instead of coming to you, I just stewed in my anger, let it build and consume me. And then… then then the crisis happened, and suddenly Lex was part of the good guys, supposedly, and he came to me, and told me he'll work with me, used a truth seeker on himself to prove to me he was telling the truth, and I just followed him blindly, because he accepted me, this version of him never lied to me. And it was just so much easier to trust him so blindly than try and repair our relationship.

"But you're right, it was your truth to tell when you were ready. I just never thought about everything else that came with you being Supergirl, being an alien, because it was so much easier to be mad at you when I don't let my mind validate your actions. When I let myself be angry from having to find out from my dying brother. He used his dying breath to tell me this, knowing that this is when he did with it, while you had three years of friendship to come to me with this, it was so easy to justify my actions to myself and everyone around me. To push everyone I love away."

Kara opened her arms to Lena after she saw she was finished, indicating that she wanted a hug.

"You know, you need to stop assuming every time someone hurts you it was intentional and because you're a Luthor. Because as far as I'm concerned, as well as our friends, you're just Lena. You need to understand that once people get to know who you are, under the CEO persona with the killer heels and designer clothes and the looks that could kill, we see our friend Lena who likes to wear t-shirts with bad science puns on them and loves red wine and is crazy good at Monopoly even thought it's supposed to be pure luck, and cries and cried during every single movie we watch. We love you for you, and we keep you around because we like the person you are when you're around us, not because we want to keep an eye on the crazy Luthor that might go over the edge at any second. And know that you can always come to us for help, because we're never going to judge you for needing help"

"I promise I'm gonna try." Lena smiled a soft smile at her best friend.

"That's all I could ever ask for"

Kara tightened her arms around her best friend, happy that she finally got everything she ever wanted to say off her chest.

"Hey Kara?" Lena whispered

"Yeah?"

"Can we try and go back to being friends? I know it'll never be the same as before, or what it could have been, but I want to try, because I never had a friend like you, and I don't want to lose you"

"Yeah, I'd like that."

After a little while, Kara spoke up again.

"You know, another reason I never told you was because being friends with you was always so easy. You never expected me to always be okay, always be strong. My friends, and Alex, no matter how hard they try, they always see Supergirl when they look at me, even if they don't mean to. They always see that beacon of hope and love and compassion, and they always expect me to be strong, and happy, and provide comfort, that they sometimes forget that I need that comfort every now and then. That sometimes I need to be taken care of.

"They forget that sometimes I have bad days, because it isn't always easy to be happy after everything that happened to me. I have days when I need my mom more than anything, to hug her and feel her arms around me, smell her hair that I swear smelled like sunshine, or hear her voice telling me that everything is going to be okay. And I miss the way my dad would sneak me into his lab, and teach me everything he knows, and let me do my own science experiments, blowing stuff up, and accidentally setting equipment on fire, or how he would call me his sunshine, his piece of Rao. And I miss prying with my parents for Rao. I miss the red hue everything had from the light of Rao, and the way His color would change when the sun was setting, and everything would get this deep, dark red color and how beautiful it was. I miss knowing exactly where my life was going, knowing that once I finish my education, I'm going to be in the Science Guild with my father. I was so excited to get to spend every single day with him, he was my best friend. And I know they aren't doing it on purpose, trying to make me feel bad for not being okay, but they still do it, even Alex.

"But I never had that with you, you never expected Kara to be okay all the time, because just Kara was only human. I was only human to you, and you accepted me on my bad days just like you did on my good days, because part of being human was getting hurt, and not being okay. And sometimes I have days where I don't feel okay for no apparent reason, I just do, and it was okay. You never judged me. Never expected me to be this beacon of hope because you didn’t know that was me, and I wasn't ready to risk that, to possibly let that go."

"Hey, here's the thing. There are two things that you need to know. The first thing is that even those people, who seem to have got everything in life all sorted out... they probably haven't. Actually, everyone has days when they feel Not Very Okay At All. Some people are just better at hiding it than others. And the second thing you need to know... is that it's okay to feel Not Very Okay At All. It can be quite normal, in fact. And all you need to do, on those days when you feel Not Very Okay At All, is come and find me, and tell me. Don't ever feel like you have to hide the fact you're feeling Not Very Okay At All. Always come and tell me. Because I will always be there."

"Did you just quote Winnie the Pooh at me?" Kara giggled

"Yes, yes I did" Lena smiled as she said that.

"I never pegged you for a Winnie the Pooh kinda gal"

"Kara Danvers, there is a lot you still don't know about me"

"Well, I can't wait to find out"

~~~~~

For anyone wondering, this is the full Winnie the Pooh quote, it’s one of my favorites.

#supergirl #supercorp #supergirl fanfiction #supergirl fanfic #supercorp fanfiction #supercorp fanfic #lena luthor #kara danvers #my work #personal #text

3 notes · View notes

shazyloren · 7 years ago

Text

The Dragon Club: Chapter 33 - Speech and Spotlight

Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12018519/chapters/28066608

--------

Daenerys was applying her nude Tom Ford lipstick in the Rolls Royce at a very slow rate, careful not to poke the stick into her eye as the car went over bumps. Jorah was driving quickly, not breaking the limit but not being cautious either. There was a nervous tension in the air. Jon was ready, but he was holding his head in his hands with worry while Daenerys closed the cap of her lipstick and went over her speech lines again.

Jon kept muttering to himself whereas Daenerys could hardly speak. It was usually the other way around, usually he was stay silent for hours while Daenerys never shut up. She felt numb in her throat and her fingers felt like they were pulsating really quickly. "I've got tingles"

"You'll be fine, it's me who should be having kittens!" Jon sighed with anxiety, it was their first public outing together and there was going to be cameras everywhere. "I'm worried about the flashing cameras, my wrinkles that are starting to show, have I got any lettuce from lunch in my teeth?" Daenerys just cackled. It was unlike Jon to be this nervous over anything. "What? Sansa said these are the kind of things they laugh at you about in the papers!"

"You look handsome as always" She assured him. Very handsome indeed. "No wrinkles, no lettuce" Jorah pulled up to the drop off zone and even though the paps could not see in, they all seemed to know it was the two of them in the car. "Ready?"

"Ready" Jon sighed. He climbed out of his side while Jorah opened the door for Dany on her side. Holy fuck, she thought as an intense flashing started and she was momentarily blinded. She climbed out and if it wasn't for Jon holding his arm out she was sure she wasn't going to see where she was going. Muttering a small, fuck, they began to walk to the big Valyrian walkway with Daenerys and Missandei's face on. She clung onto him for life and saw the flashes going off in every corner of her eye, she couldn't exactly see very well. They posed for several photos, people shouting their names, asking questions over their relationship, he'd whisper in her ears words of comfort and the press lady would lead them to their first interview.

Patricia Bright from E! News, of course she'd be the first one to interview them. She'd been tweeting about how much she 'shipped' the two of them on social media and had romanticized this hate to love story they seemed to have going on. Daenerys felt her blood boil a bit as they approached her and she saw Patricia looking like she was about to lay eggs. Calm Dany, don't give them reason to report your tenacious side, she repeated in her head as a mantra. Daenerys dress was a peachy-tan sequined Atelier Versace strapless dress and even though they were now in spring she was almost regretting the choice as the air turned cool. She felt herself slightly shiver, even though her blood usually ran hot.

"Evening guys" Patricia said excitedly.

"Good evening, Patricia" Daenerys almost said through gritted teeth.

"That dress is stunning might I say!" Patricia exclaimed.

"Thank you very much, it's Versace" Daenerys smiled, although inside she felt like slapping the woman and telling her to calm down.

"Oooh lovely, and who are you wearing this evening, Mr. Snow?" She snooped.

"I'm wearing a tuxedo" He stated deadpan into the camera. Daenerys had to cover her mouth from snickering. The cameraman was laughing too and Patricia herself started giggling like a schoolgirl. Jon apologised before properly answering. "It's Gucci, I think"

He did look amazing in the tuxedo, his bowtie with his curly hair did something to Daenerys, it stirred something in her loins, but she wasn't about to ogle him while there was fifty odd cameras flashing and pointing at them. Patricia asked them how the collaboration came about firstly, but Dany knew she was waiting to get to the meaty stuff. The stuff of their relationship. Incorrigible reporters.

"Well, it's common knowledge now that he slandered me on his blog, The Wolf Online" Daenerys giggled as Jon rolled his eyes. She did like to tease him."But I invited him to dinner with my friends as an apology"

"The Dragon Club?" Patricia interrupted excitedly.

"Don't encourage her, I hate that name!" Jon moaned.

"One, it's a great name. Two, yes The Dragon Club weekly dinner, that's what I invited him to and since then he has professed he was wrong about me" Daenerys stated.

"I said you wasn't vindictive or irresponsible, you're still hot headed" He chortled.

"I'm not really, he's just very sensitive" Daenerys snickered. "In all seriousness, I needed a photographer for the front cover and asked if he knew anyone. He said he only knew himself and after showing me some of the photos from his blog I asked him to do it. Then he asked who was writing the piece and usually it's me who writes it the main editorial or head sometimes the head writer. He said he wanted to do it and that this time, I wasn't to hold back information, he wanted to know everything. The article is... incredible. While there is some brutally honest stuff in there about me and how I run my business and the controversies that have occurred, it doesn't defame me. Which is a big credit to his writing"

"Stop, you're making me blush" Jon was starting to feel awkward.

"And what about the two of you?" Patricia asked.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask, Patricia" Daenerys raised an eyebrow. Patricia went redder than a tomato. "I'm happier than I've ever been"

"Because of Jon?" Patricia looked like she was about to explode.

"She wishes" Jon chortled.

Daenerys walked off then and took Jon with her. There was a few more questions from different news outlets but they were pretty much all just askin the same thing. It wasn't long after that they were inside the main building and out of the spotlight. She breathed easier and found herself kissing Jon on the cheek in support. No one noticed thankfully but it wasn't long until the seats filled up and Jon and Dany were taking their places with Missandei, Tyrion, Varys, Jorah and Daario.

"How are you feeling?" Missandei asked.

"Nervous, very tense" Daenerys was honest, she hadn't given a speech to this number of people in awhile, not since before the Doreah ordeal. Proceedings began and it was not long until a slideshow of the new photos from the magazine of the different articles celebrating the magazine were being shown. And then, it was her time to speak.

"Please welcome, CEO and editor-in-chief, Daenerys Targaryen" She got out of her seat with her speech in her hands, and walked to the stage, managing to not fall over as she had so worriedly thought about. When she arrived, the lights were really bright, they did turn down a little in intensity when she stood at the podium,

"Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Launch of Valyrian magazine's 12th issue. Today, we are celebrating one year as a printed magazine. It's been a whirlwind since I started Valyrian over three years ago. I was broke, had no money and so I used to sit in the Little Gems Cafe over on 29th street with their free wi-fi and would do a months load of research before compiling it all into an editorial magazine piece online. I would speak with the regulars about it, collect donations and get adsense money on my site for each hit. I would get subscriptions for my site at a monthly rate of $5 all to help me from not living in my car anymore. Within just seven months, I hit one million dollars"

There was a gasp in the room, some knew this story, others didn't. Daenerys felt heat flush her face.

"Seven months after that, I'd hit ten million and another five months after that, I had a financial backer to turn Valyrian online into a fully published magazine. in nineteen months I'd gone from living in my car, to being a millionaire. But that's not the point of this magazine, or of this story. Hard work, determination and self sacrifice has got me to this state. Many issues have occurred along the way, but I never gave up. And as we celebrate a year since that very first printed issue, i say this to you all. Never give up on your hopes and aspirations, you can achieve anything!"

There was a respectful clap and mutterings of agreeance.

"I would not be standing here without my wonderful team. Missandei Naarth, you are my inspiration, my best friend and the best heir to my company I could ever ask for. You share the same passions and fire as me, the same love of fashion and the same tenacity burns inside you. Thank you. Tyrion Lannister, my financial backer. I would still be only online if it was not for your encouragement and wisdom. Thank you. Varys Lys, Your enthusiasm for expanding this business in the best way possible has led to a wonderful online subscription increase in the last year, your talent and enthusiasm for good business has rubbed off on me. Thank you. To all my heads of departments, Barry Selmy, head writer, Ellaria Sand, Head of Photography, Yara Greyjoy, Human Resources, all of you have made this experience the best three years of my life"

"And now to this issue in particular, as some of you know, at the beginning of the year I had an independent writer come into my office to interview me" There was snickering amongst everyone including a few whoops. "I, being my father's daughter, may have got a teensy bit defence and had him thrown out of the interview. He was a wake up call. His words in the press, while harmful and a little upsetting, were truthful. It made me look at myself and how I had presented my exterior to others on first meeting. I ran into him again and asked for a chance to redeem myself, noting that while I did not think I was vindictive or irresponsible, I was indeed easy to anger"

Again, laughter.

"I managed to convince him that I wasn't a total control-freak, that I did have redeeming qualities and so he agreed to do this photoshoot for us. He also agreed to write the piece and believe me, once you read it. It might be the best piece of writing you've read all year. Since he's become, a very close friend, let's say" There was a large burst of laughter, everyone knew, she didn't care. She looked directly at him in his seat, looking sheepish and flushed with embarrassment. "Thank you, Jon. for giving me a second chance and for allowing yourself to see me as I now see you"

There was raucous applause to this, and even Missandei was standing up and whooping. daenerys wondered if she'd already started drinking.

"And thank you to everyone in this room for coming out in your full support for Valyrian Magazine. It's so nice to see such a diverse group of men and women supporting this wonderful company. To you, I thank you for your continued support throughout the years, and I hope for many more years to come"

Daenerys didn't talk much after that, just a few thank yous to her family for kick starting Valyrian magazine and for giving her the love of Fashion in the first place. She thanked Jorah and Daario for their companionship and then she bid her goodbye. Everyone applauded her like it was the greatest speech anyone had ever given and when she sat back down in her seat, Jon grabbed her face and kissed her passionately to a raucous of applause.

Daenerys felt faint, did he really just do that? Yes he had. Feeling on cloud nine, they left the party a little while later to return to her apartment.

What she didn't know was she left behind a man, who's angry face showed he was not happy with any of this. He wanted her and he was going to get her.

And that was Daario Naharis.

#jon snow #daenerys targaryen #jon x daenerys #jon x dany #jon x dany fanfic #jonerys #jonerys fanfic #jonerysfanfic #au #got #game of thrones #the dragon club #modern au #modern setting

6 notes · View notes

low-budget-korra · 8 years ago

Text

The Legend Of Korra: Book 5_ Legacy

Hi guys Sorry for the delay but yesterday I had a commitment and could not post a new chapter. But now here it is ^^

Chapter 6_ The Red Dinner

Korra

-Dont rush, babes. - I say sarcastically when realizing Asami is not ready yet. The night of dinner with Mako finally arrived, and as if my anxiety that started when I woke up this morning was not enough, I still had to wait for Asami get ready. I swear I dont understand how it can take more than an hour to get ready for a simple dinner

- I'm sorry, baby. I did not know where I was ... I found! Just a minute. - She said, staring at the mirror as she put the finishing touches to her make-up.

-I got a letter from Tenzin earlier today. - I say.

-And what did he say?-She asks, turning to me.

-He said that Lin is in Zaofu on vacation ...- she interrupts me.

- Lin on vacation? How cool and ... weird.

- Forced holidays.- Asami looks at me confused. -She seems to have been getting reports from some Republic City residents about some night noises, and when she decided to complain, she was forced to go on vacation.

-Night noises?What kind of noises? - she ask to me and sits in front of me - Ready! I finished. Will Mako take too long?

- Dont know. - I say.

-Dont you know about the noises or about Mako? - she smile.

- Both. Tenzin said that Lin did not explain the situation very well. You think I should talk to her?

-I think you should let it go.It should not be a big deal ... -She gets up and walks to the bedroom door. - What about the building? Too scandalous?

-No. Actually, it seems the biggest scandal in the city is our relationship. -Before Asami could say anything about it, we heard the knock on the door.

- Hello, Asami! Hello, Korra! are you guys ready?- Mako says when Asami opens the door.

- Yes we are. - I say.

- Asami, you're ... Beautiful!

- Thanks! - She smiles. -Where's your friend?Korra said it would be a couples' date.

- Ruby? She can not come ... - he says, leading us out of the hotel. =The restaurant is close by, I think you'll like it there.

We walked in silence. The weather was a little strange. I guess just like me, Asami had not imagined that Mako's friend would not come to dinner.

We arrive at the restaurant where a friendly waiter guides us to a table already reserved by Mako. Before we even get to her, I see Wu sitting in one of the chairs.

-Did you invite him?" - i whisper to Mako who looks at Wu as perplexed as I am.

-I'm as surprised as you are, Korra. - He whispers, confirming my impression.

- Hi guys! I knew you were coming over for dinner and decided to make a surprise. -Wu nods as he notices our presence.

Mako thanks the waiter and the three of us sit in the vacant chairs.

-How good it is to get the squad together again, isnt it?" - Wu starts - I've been missing our moments of relaxation ... - I exchange looks with Asami, and then with Mako. It seems I'm not the only one I'm trying to remember from those moments ...

A good conversation ensues and then goes on for the next few minutes. Wu seems more mature. At last he managed to make a conversation without making any kind of stupid joke.

Something diverts my attention near the bathroom. I know I should ignore and stay talking to my friends and stuff , but thanks to my curiosity, I decide to go check it out.

- I'm going to the bathroom. - I speak.

- You want me to join you? - Asks Asami.

-No need honey. Continue the conversation and finish your plate. I'll just take a look in the mirror. - Mako and Wu look at me in surprise, after all I've never been very vain - Well, boys ... Result of living with Mrs. Sato - Asami laughs - I ended up getting some of her habits. I'll be right back! - I say getting up and start to walking I walk to the bathroom and again, I see that figure, this time following in the left of the restaurant . I follow him to a dark alley where I find a letter with the following words: "What is already dead may never die!". I lose sight of the shape and then shake my head to forget it and go back to the table when I feel something pulling me from behind.

- You have to get out of here! - Said a man, pushing me against the wall, without much force, just to make me pay attention to him.

- What are you talking about? Who are you?- I ask confused, holding the guy's arm.

- Listen, girl. You need to get out of here! - He looks worried. Are he confusing me with someone? Or do you know who I am? Before I can ask anything else, I hear a great noise coming from the restaurant. An explosion. My heart races. "Asami," I think.

I push the man and run towards the restaurant looking not only for Asami, but also for Mako and Wu. I find everything messy and countless people injured, but I dont see any of the three. I despair even more and see myself running through the wreckage.

-You're Avatar, right?- I hear a female voice. -Can you help my brother? - I feel something holding my ankle and when I look down, I see a woman next to a boy wrapped in a large pool of blood. It takes me a few seconds to realize that the boy is without one of his arms. Oh, spirits!

-Sorry, I ...- I try to say something that might help the woman and the brother, but nothing comes to mind immediately. I find myself completely shocked by that situation. People screaming, crying, bleeding ... I dont know where my friends are ... I dont know what to do. Suddenly I hear a familiar voice in the midst of chaos. It's Asami, but I cant see her.

I look frantically at the sides screaming her name, but all I see is destruction. I think about ignoring the woman and running for her, but I cant. I cant do that.

-Look, ma'am ...-I quickly take off my coat when an idea occurs to me. -Use this to stop the bleeding. Wrap your brother's arm, okay? I'm going look for help.-The woman takes the garment and obeys it.

- Korra! - I hear Asami's voice again and I see her running towards me. -Korra, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? - She asks worriedly, hugging me. Relief takes over. She is fine!

- I am fine! How are you? Where are Mako and Wu?- I ask, moving away from the hug.

- We are all fine. Mako hurt his leg, but he's fine. Let's go! - She says pulling me towards the table where Mako and Wu are.

I hear the sirens of an ambulance and I feel even more relieved to see that the paramedics begin quickly to attend the wounded people.

-Korra, how good that Asami found you.-Says Mako.

-We need to remove that from your leg.- I say when I see a piece of iron in his leg.

-I was waiting for you to say that.- He grinned. -But I think other people need you more than I do.

-The paramedics are taking care of them. You are my friend and I will help you first. Wu, can I get you some water?- Wu waves positively and walks away.

With the metal bend, I remove the object and all traces of it from his leg. Then I use my knowledge of healing and in a few minutes Mako can stand foot

***

After we talked to the police chief, we all decided to spend the night in Wu's new home. He moved in a short time, so we assumed this was the safest place in town. The suspicions are that the event was an attempt on one of us, after all I am the Avatar, Mako is a government advisor and Asami are the CEO of a great company

The three of them came telling me on the way how things happened. It looks like the three of them were at the table talking when a car stopped in front of the restaurant. Then a man got out of the car and did not come back. Then everyone heard a sound coming from the car that seconds later exploded. It seems that they used the table - which is platinum - as a shield.

As for the incident, those who suffered more serious injuries were taken to hospital, while those who suffered only scratches or minor injuries, such as Mako, were cured by me.

Although I insist to help with the investigations, I have been obliged to come with them, but I will go to the police station early in the morning. I will not let the person responsible for such an act get away with it.

We are taken in a police car to Wu's house. He had just moved in and practically nobody knew, so we assumed it was the safest place.

But tomorrow I'll go back and find out who did it and why. I will not leave the person responsible for such an unpunished act.

Game of thrones inspired me to write this chapter XD Things are going to get really interesting now.

#the legend of korra #korrasami #asami sato #korra #mako #reference #game of thrones

3 notes · View notes

top1course · 5 years ago

Text

Why School Sucks! Why School Kills Creativity – An Entrepreneur’s Perspective – Dan Lok

youtube

Art welcome everyone we’re here with Dan Lok who is a business, iceman investor entrepreneur, and business coach and we’re here today talking to him about, education, what possible for education and what he thinks could be included in education, the help kids, achieve more and become the best they can be, so thanks for being with me today then, alright so my first question for you is, what was, your education like and where did you go to school well I came to Canada when I was 14 years, the time because, my mom and dad had some, issues, unfortunate a time my dad had an affair, so my mom decided that she didn’t want to stay in a relationship, and that’s why we immigrated to, canada, i was born in Hong Kong, so when I first came here I went to a course ESL School, english as a second language, I went to those schools for a while and then I went to high school and I went to school in Surrey, call Gifford Park, and at the time I was one of the only three Chinese, high School, and unfortunately, predict the kids at the school day were, they were very nice to be made fun of my accent, leaf bug, beam me up a couple times, people talk about bullying issues in school well it is true, happy happens, so at a time going through high school so I was alone all the way through High School, did have a lot of friends, growing up I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence, growing up I didn’t have, i’m not high self-esteem have very low self-esteem, and, didn’t like School. Much, because of the experience, i would skip classes and, i would barely pass all my courses become a CEO, She might a student but because of my mom so, i had to kind of stay through the school then to a point where that I went to college, that went to Douglas College, the different courses General business, by the time I was already starting my own business and my own companies, soldan, i thought to myself, well I’m going to school learning business all I’m doing business, i still remember there was a, instructor professor, in the business class, i would challenge him all the time, because he was talking about stuff from textbook, another challenge him well how do you know this stuff works how do you know, this is how business works, why does it matter do you study the book you pass the grades, but from my point of view will have you started the business do you know what it’s like to run a business, Which of course he hasn’t and it’s a big problem for me.

So we always have this conflict of course he didn’t like me so much, nFL, and then finally I just thought well you know what this is not for me, maybe for other people not for me so I just dropped out of college, i think, give me like what, is important about that is experienced, the education that the professor was trying to give you was not from his experience correct right and I think that that’s that’s one, one thing I feel education, improve the school system what they teach is out of date, right okay did teaching stuff from 5-10 years ago, it’s not stuff from The Real World, aftera, billy been in business for so many years, in fact I believe if you actually study, dad to stop drop stuff from school, On business or marketing, when you go out to the real world, just dude opposite, and you do very well, is a reverse blueprint, do you mind giving us an example if I can’t imagine what that, you know getting, example, financing a business, getting loans from the banks getting money in and raising money well if you don’t, order if you ever try to raise money, with no background no experience nothing but try to go to the bank how the bank system works is this, don’t get money when you don’t need money, grace, yeah I didn’t give you the umbrella umbrella umbrella, so it’s the same thing when I was getting started young guy and I went to the bank I said I want to start my own business can you loan me some, money, i say you crazy of course no way in hell I’m going to be any money, But when you have money, guess what did I do now today calling me as a painting, dan do you need to make a lot of credit, do you need a new mortgage do you get all that when you don’t need them, school system, it doesn’t teach you that it doesn’t teach you how to deal the distress you going to have, did the pressure you going to have to deal with, the headaches, the hassle the inconvenience, the setback do we jection you get experience as a businessman, as an entrepreneur, yeah when deaths, the most, important, things, most important things, we have to, master, as an entrepreneur, how to face obstacles Musical, while my business mentor, we were having a conversation, but he asked me the question, he said Dan what do you think, is the number one, characteristics, of an entrepreneur, the most important tourist characteristics, And I said well I guess, intelligence, it could be, experience, expertise, contacts, whatever I said a whole bunch of answers, please set where all those, high Point, play set the number one, characteristic of a successful entrepreneur, is there is the ability, to endure pain, a long period of time, the ability to endure pain for a long period of time, i thought to myself wow, how true is that, dad, most entrepreneurs we, people look at me is all I’m the overnight success, will keep in mind I started my first company when I was in high school, and I feel the 13th businesses have my first success so if you say, is an overnight success was more like a ten-year, overnight success, nobody talks about your failure everybody talks about your success, the only talk about your success, so I think the school system I mean think, YouVersion.

In school, if we are, taking exam, you sitting next to me, and I’m writing it down and I’m taking my exam I don’t know the answers, show me the answer, in the in the business world that coffee work, okay so in the business world, we are with learn from my mistakes, but in school, punished, student for making mistakes, but in business all about hate, let’s fail fast, let’s test it out, if it doesn’t work, let’s not waste our time let’s move forward, is Isabel failing fast, so guess what when they go to the real world, i don’t want to make mistakes I don’t want to screw this up, stop, please stop, bacchus new stop, learning new things, would you say that that is, kind of characteristic of what you might consider like the employee mentality, the history of the school system, Which holiday or started, basically a group of, wealthy individuals, and you know that’s why they donate to all these library and all that if you actually study school history, call the horses in King LaBelle it, august, industrialist, 40 Tycoon spray, wanted to make workers, that’s correct, they want to a little guys we need some workers man, let’s go make some school that’s that’s produced, like a like a sound that’s produced some workers let’s make sure we educate them, not to be like that we don’t want to and encourage entrepreneurship, it wasn’t you, programming condition have to save secure job after safety net, that let’s sell them on the idea of the 40-year plan the 45-year plan, dad there 165 and then they retire and then we give them to retirement and they’re so we have, steady workers laborers working for us, that’s how it came about as a very very simple it’s a group of guys, Wealthy individual saying hey, let’s do this, that’s why would the school system encourage you to take risk, why would the school system encourages think outside the box, that’s not intention, nolo, i like that that’s a pretty, i has a pretty truthful message, free big message for some people, alright so, i guess my next question that I had year was what do you see as the purpose of education then, i think that the purpose of Education because I believe, all types of knowledge, ultimately leads to self knowledge, is to understand yourself, what are your strengths what are your weaknesses, what is your purpose, what what kind of value are you here to contribute to the world, not just make a living, not just make a living, i think the education system, teach, students are individuals, realize he would have well gifts how can we, Make the world a better place how can we deliver more value to the marketplace, how can we be the best that we could be, not just academically, does right not going to school system if you are not, good with memorizing things you have not good at math, old annual pass student, but now there’s so many research out there people can Google internet is so many, different forms of intelligence, not everybody is meant to do just, be an accountant to be a lawyer, what if the person has towns to be a dancer, to be an athlete to be a singer to be an inventor to be, whatever, but now we just think of against do the school system is still okay, one form of challenges when we know for fact, there’s so many forms of intelligence but how can we do, How come we don’t.

Encourage students to develop their skills and talents, i can goes back to, the original idea on a school system, people recognize that, and people I believe they’re changing that on the YouTube now you have to, dekang University of course yeah okay it’s that’s why it’s like exploding people say you know what is a better way to learn, that’s a faster way to learn, the most effective way to learn, and people recognizing that also more people now doing homeschooling, because I don’t want the kids to be, poison by the whole school system, they want you to what I’m going to take care of my own kids education, i’m going to teach them, yet look how to write learn how to speak learn the basics, but the important education Ogden educate, what day did Hitler die, to survive and prosper that we were, I love I like that, so, getting back I guess a little bit to to your experience in the school system, how do you think that the school system helped you and how do you think it hindered you, nothing to hinder be more than help me, is, even back when I was in school how to calculate 1 + 1 +, it’s all good, but quite frankly lost unless you want to be a scientist anything, chemistry classes calculus classes, i don’t use those things 95%, so, from my own experience I actually learned, develop my skills and acquired knowledge, to all the forms, reading books, attending, educational workshops and seminars, bloating from, just talking to people, talking to successful people, alerting from my personal mentors, i found those are better ways to learn, i’m not a guy that likes to see the classroom and, and this professor lectures for 2 hours and, I’m trying to stay awake and I’m jumping falling asleep but I can’t learn that way, and that’s also why you’ve been to in my workshops and I’d like to be directing, i’d like to make it fun, i like people to be engaged I like people to, think of the old answers might like to participate, so, speaker, a trainer you can say, that’s what I like to do cuz I believe people learn better, participation to Activity 2 games through interaction, well that’s a perfect lead-in to my next question which is, it schools today usually use a lecture style approach yes how do you think, that students need to be taught, i think it’s through, instead of just giving them the answers, hey you know you should do this and you do this name m a b c and d, but now we have so many possibilities, What do you think, let them interact let them come up with things, what are the different things we can salt what different ways can solve his problem, and help them, discuss, just have them brainstorm, fM, play games have them, engage with different activities so instead of, example, okay well he’s how you build a company, he’s how you build a business, text back okay number one if you do, what was the time to accompany, let’s visit a company how do they do it, talk to senior manager what are the day-to-day challenges, how do you say the company grow, what works what does the word what are the biggest mistakes you’ve made, i think they look infinitely more, two observations to interaction, to questioning versus just, kia pasiva Cinder, yep yep yep, don’t get anything, yeah, no fun, no it’s not, we do it for a long time the correct, So if you could design a high school.

What subjects would you include, so many so I would include way more than communication skill, because I didn’t we are not taught, at the end of the day it’s about connecting with people interacting with people, so I can people skills, i would add on the communication classes, public speaking classes, because I was a very example where I was a very shy kind of kid other stuff Emagine today, united High School, 323 friends I was very shy because my English wasn’t that good, and, and I was very isolated, but through the late on I join Toastmasters I learn how to speak to groups and, empty find my confidence, then I could, meet more people, i could enjoy the conversations more, so public speaking, that has helped, all areas of my life, so any Show how kids are nowadays of course more social media digital age and we all, Almost, addicted to technology, buttwhistle Institute of Technology, that we don’t connect with people anymore, and I think, kids, teenagers nowadays DMV losing that, basic people skills, you like it’s funny sometimes I see people in, anna Cafe, two two friends, like this, defacing book to Facebook each other, other, what the hell is this I can’t even have a normal conversation anymore, i don’t know how to have a normal conversation, i think that’s not helping, communication public speaking, i would definitely add some more, things on if I’m running on money, how money works, because I think is a huge stuffed, and it’s almost, money in our society it’s, label as a, it’s like sexy is not something to talk about, that you are you don’t talk about money, well guess what most people spend on tile lies, Working for money, no clue how to manage it, how to save it with no clue how to invest in, so how do we get information, money, what Moseley’s from the media, which is guess what, funny voice control, nnn, gap Visa control, by all these companies, credit card companies, any of these companies, spend money, get into debt, yeah everytime that you hear on the news like that we need to boost your car and it’s always about going out spending more and I, but don’t talk about well, how do you create wealth, how do you invest money how do you manage your money properly, and that’s why we have all these now even Estates Canada saying, critical problems in, leaving the government, it’s have kept that issue is because the attitude, right, so I think money, how the world Works business but also some creativity, Just like that’s why I love, tED Talk, a lot of cat talk, it gives you a different perspective, hear from this great thought leaders and thinkers and, and leaders and genius, how did they view the world, i need to be on any subject isn’t it fascinating subject, but just on human potential, any of these things, i think we need to be exposed to more of those, do you know what there’s way more knowledge than just, what is singing a textbook, yeah this is so this is such a big word, yeah that’s what I bought at some travel schedule that kids would go out there and, in trouble more and see more things than me different, cultures of people being, isolated and in debt, little city and they don’t know what the world is about, i just want to add one thing to your point about money and people being a debt is that I think, Did it create a huge burden.

Yes for all these people right and then and then there’s more stress in their lives, and we’re not quite sure how to get out of our debts, and so I think a lot of people struggle with that for years, and and they don’t even know how to get out yeah but guess, who did Lonnie from, most people there, what are the habits they have, the money management habits, they got it from the school, they got it from their parents, the parents by city kids a kids, make sure you, it’s just like my mom example, my mom has something to say to me, bill when I was a kid, dan finishing plate, you know the kids are starving in China and India Africa, finishing plate, you think money grows on trees, Your money is the root of all evil, all all these negative associations, well when I found out, after I grew up, that’s not true, so just what if, the data, that’s being, bing Bing, does feeding to you by your parents, what if it’s not true, what is a real data, leaving money is not the root of all evil, maybe, lack of money is the root of all evil, maybe maybe this money does grow on trees, maybe money is good and not evil, maybe it is, not just thinking of, well clean your plate while. Doesn’t help nobody, but how can maybe actually do something to help the kids in Africa, how to help the kids in China, not help the kids in India, it’s a different type of money, so it says around the topic of money, would you tell us a little bit about what you think we should teach in a class of money more specifically, I think it’s first earning it, best first step, and in many many ways to burn it other than just getting a job, the many many went to Arkansas running in his key, and then also then once you earn it how do you keep it, wanting to make money is a whole different things to just to keep the safe at the manager, then once you learn how to save not save money, your money properly, meaning gif, every dollar that comes in, maybe you put $10 towards your investment account, investing your future, you put 10%, paying off your debt, the 10%, development education however you however you manage your money, after that then how to invest money because I think I don’t care what you do I just an employee as an entrepreneur, whatever I think we all need nowadays we all need to be, Investors, we all need to have, acai investment business, how do you make your money work for us so we not working for money, quantile life funny thing is people who put down money, people have negative association with money, people who, damn, the rich, the wealthy, those are the ones, who are slaves to money, people who Master money, they don’t think money is evil funny just neutral, piece of paper, stop bad it’s like, if I hold up $100 bill if I crumpled it, put on the porch step on it I pick it up it’s $200 bill, just piece of paper nothing more than an idea if you think about it, yeah whatever you can think of it as a tool, you can use it to do evil things, you can use it to do great things, used to her people, What can you say to.

Protect people, got nothing to do with nothing, to do with, the money people get so emotionally charged topic, we can all crazy about, yeah religion money politics, okay, i’m curious now because you mentioned before that about 95% of, what you learn in school you feel you don’t use correct, so would you then, in your opinion get rid of, a lot of what we’re teaching in terms of chemistry math, no, but I think we need more, we need scientists, we we need doctors we need lawyers, but we also need to nurture our talents, how come there isn’t a class on, how to be a rockstar, how come there isn’t a class on, how to be, a, swimming teacher, i don’t know, what do you many many talents many hobbies many how to be a professional piano list, why is it not in the school system, Why is it we just so Focus are just academic intelligence, are we completely, ignore, and that’s very very ignorant, ignore all these are the talents, that’s what I’m talking about, keep those people who like science we need those people that Society, great do that, but what about of no interest being a scientist why am I spending all my time learning things that I don’t like, that I hate, i’m not even going to use, people spend 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 years, off the life, larry stop you’ll never juice, want to spend it for use living stuff that I love, i’m passionate about, i would love to, to build a career yet, why don’t do that but with so restricted to know, 101, you got to take these courses requirements, right mandatory, it says who, you know I talk to teacher friend of mine and I kind of discuss, Something like this and we, he thinks it it it’s a lot of, can insecurity, yes right because if we don’t do that, the academic stuff, i think we’re not sure if we can make it, you know without, like if we want to do art, you know or we want to be a dance teacher later this how we going to do that like that how we going to make money right now I think that, as people, if we have a hard time connecting the dots, about how to get there and I think that stops a lot of us, but if you look at the fact, desk security is an illusion, because if it, if there is, such a thing as a security, then why so many University graduates can’t get a job, why so many mbas, desperate for work, what phds can even, Work in the lab, you tell me, so that doesn’t work, especially now things are changing so fast, it doesn’t work, somebody asked me the question if you don’t do business with me, benjamin NBA, and I said well I, i have an MBA but that’s not the type of MV you think about, i have a massive bank account account, so, marketplace pays for value, and what determines your values your skills, if you have skill sets, can you can deliver value to the marketplace she can produce, result for people against off, problem for them, the marketplace, will always pay you for that, versus now all the students they have, they think I’ve dis certificate of this diploma this degree, and this paper would piece of paper would get me jobs, not true, that’s a really good point illusion, it’s not true, that’s it that’s it and that’s almost starting point, My friend.

The school starts, after you graduate, but funny thing off a couple what the numbers was for, it’s like 80% of adults after they graduate from University don’t read another book, crazy numbers, okay so if you think about that most people stop learning, i’m done, i graduated, don’t lie to myself, and that’s the problem so wrong mentality, you know what, in my opinion that because of, we’re teaching them stuff that they’re not interested in, correct and I think that if, if we do have some things you were saying we, excite them, get them involved in stuff they enjoy I don’t see why kids wouldn’t love it that’s it, and what do you take the time a simple s, when it get into the system this is before you go to university, instead of, parent, hey did you should take this all should take that why not, Do a survey do a test, find out what are the natural talents off what are the personality types, what they should focus on, what did they would naturally excel in, it’s a simple as that, but nobody does it, how to split them into this box, sosupersam now this is so many strengths, strength Finders, different personality test, if the person is naturally outgoing and love to talk to people, why do you just because your parents then you should be a doctor, you should do this, no they should know I want to do something, all these other things, but the system doesn’t allow you to do that, a simple as that, finding out how much is having a simple conversation for god sakes, what what’s your vision, what is fire what excites you, freedom, right, i think you’ll be amazed, i think a lot of students they do know what they want but it’s oppressive, Because the the normal because Society pressure, because, parents, just started way up you should do this you shouldn’t do that, kevin same thing, you never asked, what do you want to do when you grow up, what my expectation for years but, what do you truly want, that’s a good question to ask, i want to get into a little bit about the actual kind of planning an education though, because, like I’m doing with you today I’m talking with a businessman, yes and I don’t think education has done that, in a big way, i think for the most part it sort of, you know it’s the teachers becoming administrators and then, going in, trying to redirect the creek on right, and, i’m wondering just from your experience do you think we should kind of include, In the discussion about where education should go professionals, professor from all types of Industries, ., they can contribute, example of entrepreneur, that we can coach Bill to to the system of how can we make this better, how to remove make more efficient, is now the whole school system as you know, that, vista public school system, it’s not, we wouldn’t respect the teachers, i’m a teacher myself, what different type of teacher, but the system is not, rewarding, teleperformance, it’s not rewarding creativity, the teacher is also teachers I do a lot of stuff that it’s nothing too late, i bought down by Aldis, details, when their job is to inspire and nurture the kids, but they only spent a small amount of time because they got to do all this, so, i would say, the width, the existing system, different professionals, from all types of Industries, this imagine having a mastermind having a, A.

A brainstorm of that, that what what could, why is it so fascinating because it’s all types of people all kinds of topics, it’s not what you is, you don’t know what they’re going to talk about, yeah you don’t know what the speaker is going to say, and it’s it’s, putting together the, the best the most brilliant people, on the planet together on a platform, and in 20 minutes 18 minutes 60 Minutes they share their best ideas and strategies and resources expire, that’s why I need the school system needs to do more of that, beautiful, alright so, if there was one thing you think the school system needs to change, right now, what would you say that is, the one thing that needs to change, let me think, i think just be as simple as taking the first step and being, little bit more flexible, Looking, at the fact, that our system and I know a lot of teachers they already try, trying to change that, yeah because of so much, democracy this so much, which systems did they getting, if you want to do something is very difficult for them to do the resistance, be more flexible, looking at, and you know what, 5 years ago, no there is not a metaphor using social media, what movie did should be a class one, how to use social media to deal with Facebook how do you how do we manage our time, how do we deal with even cyberbullying, these issues that we didn’t experience many years ago now if you are experiencing everyday, but it doesn’t talk about that, so I think just being open and flexible enough, let’s, i’m not asking the school system to change like overnight, how much is ticket, Little step, let’s do that, let’s look at the fact that, you know what we’re teaching guys, can we energy at this piece, sleepy Hollow, and maybe change a few things here, maybe just that, and I think if we can do that and think of that builds momentum, and people can, the parents, the students they would see a different result, a different perspective, get the ball rolling, okay, so, i’ve observed just by my parent’s I’ve done a little bit of on furniture myself, but my attitude has changed towards wealth, and it’s, and I think that it can be learned and I’m just wondering, what you, think about whether or not kids can be taught, about how to be wealthy or can everyone like to be wealthy, hundred percent absolutely, it’s not, i think it when you are born, at the hospital when we when you were just a baby, Nobody appoints okay this baby’s going to be wealthy, is it is available skill, it’s a lot of us it’s like swimming, least-liked ask me can everyone learn how to swim, yeah I think so, almost everyone, can you learn how to ride a bike, yeah GIF enough time with the proper training yes, so it’s the same thing with money now not everyone can be an entrepreneur, because not everyone is suitable to be an entrepreneur, but everyone can be wealthy, i goes back to if you manage your money properly invest your money properly, everybody can accumulate a pretty good that states when they retire, and we tied come from, yes absolutely, i don’t think we should all learn, how money works, we’re getting pretty close to the end here so is there, is there anything else that’s kind of on your mind that maybe I haven’t brought up that you, Things people need to know about.

I just want to say I think it’s very nice to see a, in a, officious smart young man like you like you. Just doing a project like this, and getting out to do to the world, cuz I think people need to hear this message, an hour, it’s time, it’s time that we do something about it, maybe who knows maybe we cannot change the school system, it’s your typical, but maybe we can get in spine of people, we can get them to, maybe make some changes, into thinking, baby to take more responsibility, afford the only education, education, maybe as a parent we can be leaving more open-minded, if we have done that, with this interview, i think this project gets as what, thank you very much, you’re welcome, okay well I think that’s about it I just want to say, Dan thank you very much for being here today, i found it fascinating and I hoping that everyone, watching as well as well thank you very much.

from WordPress https://top1course.com/why-school-sucks-why-school-kills-creativity-an-entrepreneurs-perspective-dan-lok/

#People & Blogs #Bugatti Beez #creativity #dan lok #Do schools kill creativity #does school kill crea

0 notes

inbonobo · 8 years ago

Photo

awesome article that really hits close - I spent all of my millions. This is what I learned

I have written about how I became a multi-millionaire at 27, and what that taught me. I was at a meditation retreat recently, when it became clear to me that I had to write this story about how I spent nearly all of that money, and what I learned in the process. I felt somewhat scared of writing this story. It felt like a kind of confession: I’m not as rich as you think I am, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes.

At age 33, I was working from home in the U.K. I lived in Brighton, a beautiful town on the South Coast, by the English Channel. I had never visited the U.K. office of my employer. I could have travelled and worked anywhere in the world. I was being paid around $200,000 per year ($220,000 to $240,000 in today’s money). I owned a five bedroom house outright, a house in a sought-after area. I was continually getting lucrative stock-option grants that supplemented my annual income by tens or hundreds of thousands per year.

I tracked my work hours carefully, and I found that I was working around twenty hours per week. In spite of this, my performance continually and consistently led to me being ranked and rated by management in the top five percent of the employees at the company. However, I still felt guilty, and thought that I was not working enough.

I was highly regarded by my peers; I was told that my engineering prowess was legendary at the company HQ in California. Earlier in my career there, I had been walking along a corridor when I heard one of the co-founders of the company say to someone from HR, “Duncan is a god!” I stopped in my tracks and quickly turned to walk away, hoping that I could avoid him the presumed embarrassment of knowing that I had heard what he said.

I also had additional cash and investments that amounted to somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million dollars. I’m telling you all this not to brag, but to let you know how blessed my life appeared to be from an outside perspective.

By this point, I had just finalized a painful divorce, a divorce that was not by my choosing. I had settled my alimony and other obligations with my ex-wife by leaving her with over one million dollars in cash and other assets. I felt at the time that this was unfair, because I had generated most of our wealth single-handedly before our son had been conceived, our son who was four at the time.

I had become disheartened with my work. After having spent years becoming a world-class computer architect, I wasn’t finding my work challenging enough. I wasn’t learning enough new things. For years, I had supplemented my learning at work by getting a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in my spare time. That was now completed. I also wanted to have a greater influence in the world. As a manager, I had already realized that the hardest problems at work were not technical, but emotional and relational. People struggled with their personal lives, with motivation, and with finding meaning. I wanted to motivate people.

I felt that my life course needed to change, but I didn’t know how. I wrote an email to the CEO of the S&P500 company that I worked for, the same company that I had worked for since it was as struggling start-up, “You seem to know what you’re doing, and I’m wondering if you can help me to get clarity.” His assistant scheduled a meeting with me.

I knew that it was a privilege to get a meeting with this man, who I consider a friend, so I started preparing. I created lots of lists with titles like, “what I’m good at,” “what I’m interested in,” “what I definitely don’t want to spend my time doing,” and “what is meaningful to me.”

A day or so before meeting with the CEO, I was taking a shower when I realized that I wanted to be a motivational speaker, lead workshops, and write books. I thought that I needed to get a PhD in psychology to do this.

When I met with the CEO, I told him that I had already figured out what I wanted to do. I wanted to quit my job and get a PhD in Clinical Psychology. He told me that I should follow my heart, and that the money would take care of itself. He said that I would never have a problem getting a job in Silicon Valley, and he said that I could come back and work there full time or part time anytime I wanted. I really appreciated him saying that, and I have carried those words with me over the past decade.

I enrolled in a PhD program at a small professional psychology school in Palo Alto, California, and I started my journey of getting a PhD. At the time the school was called The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. That was in the fall of 2007, almost ten years ago. In those ten years, I have also spent or lost most of the financial wealth I had. I lost a large chunk in the 2008 market crash, and the rest was spent in living for ten years without any income. It’s been a long decade, and I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot partly because of the mistakes I have made since I quit my job, and I have also learned a lot by reflecting on my life before I quit my job.

Before I really get started, part of me wants you to know how busy I’ve been in those ten years. I want you to know that I haven’t been lazing around. Here are some of the things I’ve been up to:

Three years of full time psychology classes

Two years of clinical practicum (giving people therapy for free)

Two years of pre-doctoral internship (giving more people therapy for free)

Preparing and filing a US patent application

Self-representing in a UK patent dispute

Several legal battles related to maintaining and increasing contact with my son

Building a mobile app business (2.5 years)

Traveling and living around the world

Executing a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled research study for my PhD

Getting lots of therapy and coaching, and attending many self-development workshops and retreats.

I remember saying to my mother on the phone, “I’m going to finish this PhD, and I’ll do it even if I have to use up all the equity in my house.” Well, here I am. I built the research devices and the web app to collect data. I have done the statistical analysis and the thematic analysis. I have a dissertation ready to be reviewed by my committee. As I am writing this my money is running out, and here are some of the things I have learned.

We’re always taking the best choices on our menus

I have found myself looking back at choices I made that I now see as being non-optimal. I have a tendency to beat myself up for making what seemed like a bad decision. It is very hard to put ourselves into the shoes of another — or even into the shoes of our past self — and understand why we made the choices we did. What we can know is that everyone is continually making the best choices they have on their inner menus.

As you read the following, it’s sometimes going to look like I’m beating myself up. I’m mostly trying to be aware of what could have been, and attempting to learn from it. I hope that I can learn, and I hope you can learn as well.

Put yourself in the path of money

The amount of money you make is not related to how hard you work, or even how much value you add. Money is flowing all around us. You make money in proportion to how much you place yourself in the flow of value transfer.

Position yourself where there is a flow of money, and facilitate it. You might also find a place where there is a potential flow of money, and create or increase the flow.

Surf big waves

Making a lot of money is like surfing. You sit in the ocean and look out to sea, looking for waves to form. You watch as waves rise up and then break. You start to anticipate how and where waves will form, and you start to paddle in that direction. As a wave approaches, you align yourself with the direction that the wave is moving, and then you begin paddling really intensely. As you feel the mighty push from behind, you jump up onto the board, and ride it for as long as possible.

You’re going to wipe-out, fall off, and face plant. This is part of the process of surfing, and particularly learning to surf. When you come off, you paddle back out to catch another wave. You don’t try to catch the wave you just fell from; that one’s done. You are learning the skill of surfing. The swell continues to come in, and the contours of sand on the bottom of the ocean will continue to throw up big waves.

“Wiping out is an underappreciated skill.” — Laird Hamilton

I made a lot of money riding on the PC wave, even while my friends were making much more on the Internet wave. Which wave I rode was an arbitrary and unconscious choice. I could just as easily have been on the Internet wave. A while back, I read a book called Bold by Peter Diamandis, which lists the current exponential technologies. These are technologies that are growing exponentially. Their growth may be almost invisible now, but they will suddenly explode, as did the PC, the Internet, and social media. I decided that I would consciously get on one of the waves he listed. As a problem solver, I chose artificial intelligence because when we solve the problem of super-intelligence—intelligence that is far greater than that of humans—all the other problems will be solved by it.

It’s never too late to learn to surf. It’s never too late to get better at surfing. It’s never too late to catch a big wave.

Consider all your options

I quit my job to get a PhD in psychology because I thought that this would enable me to lead workshops, do talks, and write books. I now understand that I could have done all of those things without a PhD. In any case, I didn’t need to quit my job to get a PhD. I had enough spare time, and freedom, to have studied and continued to work.

I also could have taken a more gentle transition. Instead of making a 100% switch from engineering to psychology, I could have got a master’s degree in counseling psychology in the evenings. Then I could have learned more about the field, and about how I fitted into it. I could have taken small, experimental steps.

I also now see how much freedom I had. I could have travelled around the world and worked remotely from exotic locations.

Ask yourself what you would like

Often the thing that you need in each moment is very simple. Perhaps you need to hear that your partner loves you. Perhaps you need to spend an hour with an old friend. Perhaps you need a walk around the block. I have had a tendency to think that when something was wrong, something really massive was wrong. I have a tendency to catastrophize. Perhaps you don’t really need to quit your job and head for a totally new career.

I have many more resources than I did ten years ago, including a much greater capacity for discomfort and uncertainty. I recommend developing equanimity through daily vipassana meditation, and getting the facilitation of a skilled coach to get clarity about what you actually need right now.

Obtain and preserve assets

People from old money learn to “never spend the principal.” This is an approach to retaining wealth, even if it means living with temporary lack. I spent ten years without any real income, and I spent the principal.

Some people spend their entire lives paying off mortgages in order to own just one home. There was a time when I owned three houses on two different continents, at least two of them mortgage-free. Now I don’t own any real estate.

I look back and realize that if I had kept my capital and invested it in index funds, and continued to work, I would now have so much wealth that I would never have to work again. I could live by taking such a small piece of the gains in the assets that the principal would continue to grow at a faster pace than inflation. I also recently realized that if I had left all of my wealth in the original company that it came from, I would now have around $35 million.

Instead, I have to work again. I have to generate income using my time and energy. It has been hard for me to accept this, but I have to remember that I made the best choices I could at the time.

Buy things you love and will use

For most of my adult life, I have been able to buy whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I have bought a lot of stuff. I have tended to buy many things that I never use.

Recently, we have been purging our things by following the Konmari method, as described in the book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I enjoy selling things on eBay, or via Craigslist. I enjoy providing really high quality customer service with fast shipping. We have converted much of our stored junk into thousands of dollars in cash. I also love to see things going to people who will use them, rather than putting more stuff into the landfill. This process has made me much more aware of my purchasing habits, and much less likely to make impulse purchases.

Over the past few years, because of a general sense of not wanting to waste resources, I have become much more discerning about buying things. When I think I need something, I spend a lot of time reading reviews on Amazon, and looking for the best quality item. I also see if I can get by without it. I have various wish-lists where I record things. Those items rarely turn into purchases.

The things I do buy now tend to get well used, and treasured. As I write this, I’m wearing a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones, which I have used the crap out of. At home, I have a sit/stand desk with an oak top that I took from a dining table. I made that desk, and I’ve used it most days for the past 13 years. Objects that we buy are tools that we use to live our lives.

Buy things you can trash

If you cannot trash it, then you shouldn’t have it. Things you buy are just tools. I once bought a car that cost me $80,000. The base price was $40,000, and I added $40,000 of options. I ended up selling it two years later for $40,000. During those two years, I worried all the time about it getting dented or scratched. One day, I might have a car that costs me over $100,000, but I won’t do that until my net worth is at least 1,000 times that: $100 million.

A car is a tool

Cars depreciate. They are not investments. It doesn’t matter if you finance or lease. It’s going to work out roughly the same either way. A reasonably functional car costs about the same every year, when averaged out over a few years. Some people regularly buy new cars because then they don’t have to pay for expensive repairs, but a new car depreciates rapidly. Sometimes when I take my old car in for a service, it needs some expensive work. I remember that the cost of those repairs and services over the year average out to the cost of owning a car.

Get unstuck

I used to get stuck and not know what to do. I didn’t even realize that I was stuck. I’ve now had enough therapy and coaching, and breakthroughs from meditation, that I know that being stuck is good. Embrace being stuck. Enjoy being confused. Find a really good coach and let them support you in getting clarity. All the time you resist being stuck, or pretend to yourself that you’re not stuck, or think that you can “do it myself,” you will stay stuck.

Be okay with not knowing

There’s a lot of value in being confused and in not knowing the answers. When I went to meet with the CEO of my company, I automatically tried to figure out the answers in advance. I now realize that I missed a massive opportunity. I could have gone into that meeting and told him, “I’m really confused. I’ve just been through a massively painful divorce, and I feel like my life has lost its meaning. All I know is that I want to do something with my life that’s more meaningful, and I want to influence more people.” That conversation could have led anywhere, and I could have got the real benefit of working with my friend, and letting him help me. That conversation could have blossomed into a powerful collaboration. Instead, I made sure I had all the answers before I spoke with him.

You don’t need qualifications

I now have two master’s degrees, and I’m about to get a PhD. Many times during my PhD process, I wanted to start a business, and I held myself back until I finished my PhD. At one point, I wanted to get an MBA, and I talked with a friend about it. The answer I got was that I didn’t need an MBA to start a business. I still proceeded with my PhD. I did take a break from my PhD, while still paying tuition, to work on an app business, but that didn’t work out.

Very early on in my PhD process, I was tired of researching and writing long and complex papers that I would not be paid for, and which often would barely be read. Yet I persisted with my PhD. This was partly because I tend to persist with things I start. Once I commit to something, I tend to find it very hard to change direction.

I suspect that part of me places formal qualifications in the way of my success. I feel that I have to get some external validation that I am qualified or capable to do something. In fact, I can coach people effectively without a PhD in psychology. I can do all the things I originally set out to do without qualifications. I can deliver talks, write books, and lead workshops right now, and I could before I even started on my PhD program.

Lifelong learning is now free

Maybe I had to get three graduate degrees to realize this. Most days I study now, and I do it outside of the framework of any externally-defined study plan. I’m getting (another) world-class education, on my terms, for free.

One example is my process of becoming a world-class expert in AI. This is one of my goals, and the way I’m currently approaching it is to take all the Stanford graduate-level classes in AI. Having gotten a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (and CS) from Stanford, I know exactly what it’s like to go through those classes, when enrolled.

Even now I’m not enrolled at Stanford, I can watch the videos of the class I’m taking right now on YouTube. I can read the syllabus and download the slides to follow along. I can read all the documents, including the assignments. One of the most effective ways that I learn is by doing. Working through these assignments on my own is just as effective as doing them while enrolled in a degree program.

Beyond the massive amounts of free classes from top universities, many sites like Udemy and Coursera offer free and almost free classes in every subject. With an investment of only your time, attention, and curiosity, you can become an expert in anything you choose.

Get good at pivoting

Within a year or two of starting my PhD in Clinical Psychology I knew that I didn’t want to become a licensed Clinical Psychologist. I had many business ideas, and I also found myself becoming interested in organizational psychology, law, and business. I thought about getting a JD or an MBA, or starting a business, but I kept persisting with my PhD. One of my weaknesses is sticking with things that aren’t right for me. Being aware of this tendency enables me to watch out for it, and to consciously and bravely pivot when necessary.

Bite off small projects

My PhD was a massive project that took ten years. I made it way more complex and challenging than it needed to be. Instead of doing the bare minimum to get a PhD, I create a gold-standard clinical trial, along with two adjunct engineering projects. My PhD project was at a scale that would cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars when properly funded.

I am now determined to commit to much smaller projects, and to break larger projects down into easily completable pieces. It feels great to complete something. Once a piece is complete, and I have run the experiment associated with it, I can re-evaluate if I want to proceed with the larger project.

This is very much in the vein of the lean startup approach. I believe that it makes sense to run your whole life on the lean startup model. Always be figuring out simple experiments that you can run and get data from. Always be ready to pivot.

Avoid litigation

Even if you win a lawsuit, the cost in time and stress is usually not worth it. I have spent years going through court to try to get “justice,” or trying to get what’s best for everyone. Now that I’ve done this a few times, I understand the true cost of it. I understand that winning often looks like walking away. When you’re in a lawsuit, it’s with you all day, every day. It wears you down. It takes a lot more to get me involved in a lawsuit than it used to.

Even then when technically and legally you should win, there can be forces acting behind the scenes that lead to you losing. In my patent litigation, since the judge’s decision did not match the evidence or arguments, I suspect that some lord at the head of the patent office spoke with some lord at the head of my undergraduate university, and strings were pulled to protect the university.

Also, a court of law is not a place to resolve family issues. In law, there is a winner and a loser. In a family, that paradigm does not apply. What most people want for their family is health, wealth, harmony, and happiness. If you can’t get this outside of a court, you will certainly not get it inside a court.

Mindfulness is primary

A couple of summers back, my wife and I were staying in Biarritz in the South of France. While there, I was working on my app business. I had estimated that the business would produce around $1.4 million per year for me, once we got our subscription model working. Having burned through a lot of my wealth, and having worked for free for around 2.5 years, I was looking forward to turning my cashflow around.

During this time, I realized that we were never going to make it, and that I needed to focus my energy on getting my PhD complete. I needed to stop investing in this business that was not going anywhere. I quit the business. Even though I was in a beautiful place, with great weather, and I had a surfboard, I went into a deep depression.

My wife, Cindy, signed me up for a 10-day Vipassana retreat for when we got back to the U.S. This was to be my second 10-day retreat. During that retreat, I came out of my depression, and I realized that I needed to keep practicing every day. I became free of depression and anxiety, and I have meditated between 30 and 120 minutes per day for years now. I have been on a third 10-day retreat since then, and will go on a fourth later this year.

Vipassana meditation, which is an industrial-strength form of mindfulness meditation, is foundational for me. It’s one of the most important things I do every day. It changes my relationship with reality. It enables me to see the world, and my place in it, clearly. I recommend signing up for a free 10-day retreat near you.

Money isn’t everything

Sometimes I look at my contemporaries who stayed on the same path, and I feel envy. Some are CEOs, venture capital partners, and distinguished engineers. Most of them are wealthy, with multiple homes. If I had stayed working, I would be wealthy and distinguished. Instead, financially, I am almost back at square-one.

Then I remember how I felt when I quit my job, and I realize that it would not have been a happy path. I can’t know for certain how my contemporaries feel, but I understand how warped I would have grown. Instead, I spent these ten years investing in myself, deepening my relationship with myself, and learning to live a balanced life.

My wife believes that I have intentionally used up the money from the first phase of my life, and flushed out that energy, in order to make space for a fresh start. This resonates with me. I have immense goals for my life, and I feel that I have created a solid foundation for them inside myself, in my intimate relationship with my wife, and with my solid tribe.

Going forward, I will thrive in life at a level that would not have been possible if I had not gone through this process of purging and recalibration.

Summary

I hope that all of this experience will fuel and support the next phase of my life. I believe that my experience with this relatively small amount of money has positioned me to handle the much larger amounts of money coming my way. I hope that you too have been able to learn something from, and benefit from, my experience.

Call to action

Click on the heart 💚 so that this article will be seen by more people on Medium. Thank you.

Follow me on Medium, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Share this story on Facebook and Twitter.

Write a response.

I use a system for developing adaptive lifestyle habits. Download a free lifestyle grid template and instructions.

(via I spent all of my millions. This is what I learned – Hacker Noon)

#lifestyle #zen #litigation #happiness

0 notes