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mishy-mashy · 6 months ago

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Kudo is actually such a kind, soft-hearted guy that had to toughen up because he cared too much

He looked at AFO's rule, and even though he was weak, he had that glint in his eye that has been referred to as the "will of a hero" to oppose him. A hopeful glint shared with Midoriya, Bakugo, and Hawks

He even parallels Hawks when they talk about that particular look in their eye

From a glimmer in the eye, to which eye is shown, how much of the face, a similar angle of the face, and placement of text questioning the existence of that light,

He stormed to kill Yoichi with Bruce, but couldn't, once he saw the state Yoichi was in. Even knowing he was the enemy, he still reached out his hand and never let go, even when they were running

When Yoichi died, even though they'd only been together for two months, Kudo still cried and froze up.

This is a reaction from a man who repeatedly used lives as a stepping stone for his own goal.

Kudo said himself, that victory was life, and defeat was death. He had killed and seen his friends killed over and over, but still cries when it happens again. And to someone he only knew for two months, at that.

Kudo gathered allies under his cause, and they were loyal enough to die for him. Bruce cries (still smiling tho) facing AFO, tried protecting Kudo when he froze up at Yoichi's death, and we see all Kudo's comrades dead in the end. Maybe Bruce was suicidal when he went to face AFO, knowing he'd die, but most of his comrades (and Kudo) were already gone. Their cause was snuffed out, but the will persisted.

Kudo is a bit like Aizawa.

A bit crass and blunt, doesn't like beating around the bush, but he can clearly see what kind of person you are. He's not openly kind, but you know he cares so much, but has also lost too much once. He's seen his friend(s) die, and shouldn't it have been him in that spot? Shouldn't he have died instead, but was forced to continue living for that dead person's sake?

His speech about why we call Abilities "Quirks", recognizing people's intent over raw power is the real power. (Ch 369)

He's blunt and goes straight to the results rather than beat around the bush, but it doesn't mean his heart is frozen and he doesn't care about you. (Ch 408)

He cares so much, and that's why he has to do so much. (His whole Resistance thing, figuring out how Yoichi's Factor works to make sure Yoichi and his will can live on in some way)

He recognizes that Midoriya isn't driven by duty, but that he genuinely adores Quirks too much. (Ch 414) He could look at Midoriya, read that immediately, and even though he looked through his memories, Midoriya's character was his takeaway. Not that Midoriya is an idiot for letting himself be stepped on, or that this kid was bullied, but that Midoriya could see the goodness in others.

Like how Aizawa saw that Midoriya was relying on the reason [It can't be helped] whenever OFA broke his bones and told him he can't always break himself just because he could be fixed (Midoriya's recklessness that showed itself on the first day of school). He called out something that was an underlying, innate belief to Midoriya, that was so normal to the teen, and no one else had brought up as wrong to him.

The first thing they perceive is a person's character.

When Aizawa tied up Midoriya on the first day of school, he wasn't telling him off over his Quirk destroying him being a PR thing or too gruesome for the public. It was out of the fact that his Quirk shouldn't destroy him, because it's dangerous for Midoriya.

Aizawa came off antagonistic, but he was looking out for Midoriya. He didn't want him to keep breaking his whole arm, he didn't want him to get stuck in the mindset that he had to get hurt to use his Quirk, he was looking out for his wellbeing from the start. A kid he didn't know personally until that day.

Kudo did a similar thing. He turned his back, and refused to help, because they were putting their hopes in a delusional boy who would go too far. When the vestiges realized their gathered Abilities and Quirks were letting Midoriya have the freedom to do as he wished, Kudo already knew, only saying "His path is the right one". He could relate to having to run full-sprint to see your goal realized, even if everything opposed him, but didn't want Midoriya to go through that same path alone.

If he were alone, he'd be like Nagant. He had to have comrades to be like Kudo, able to continue and stand for their beliefs, but having comrades to fall back on, or pull him back when it's too much. That's why he follows up in that moment with, "But, if there's something Midoriya does need..."

Kudo and Aizawa could see themselves or their comrades in others, and knew how to approach those character flaws that were normalized to others and said person.

Kudo could see others for who they were, and I think it's this, and his caring nature, that he gathered so many allies with him. He knew when to be blunt, when to show kindness, that the truth hurts but needs to be seen, was actually very logical and witty, and when to step aside and let people do their thing, even if it wasn't the best move (like saving All Might). Because that was what was best for that person.

It's not like people would join someone so wholeheartedly without conviction and being left unseen by that person. So many people were willing to die with and for Kudo, and Bruce believes in him so much.

When All Might's vestige was fading and becoming more solid, Kudo had to look away. They knew it meant All Might was dying in the real world.

Kudo was telling Midoriya not to intervene with Gearshift there. But once he saw All Might genuinely dying out, he couldn't look at him, and kept quiet. He stopped hanging onto battlefield logic of necessity, shut up, let Midoriya do his thing, and it saved All Might. It saved Midoriya from seeing his idol die in front of him, and Kudo didn't have to see another ally die beside him.

The chapter is literally called [We Love You All Might!!]. Even if it's just meant to focus in Bakugo and Midoriya, and only has 2 exclamation marks, it can't discount the world is watching. The vestiges care about All Might too.

When the vestiges come up with the plan to forcibly transfer themselves to deal damage, Kudo volunteers himself as the test dummy. Sure, he backs it with a lot of reason too, but he didn't want anyone else to go first as a test drive

He, with a Gearshift Ability that resembled a manual car, was the test drive. Ha ha pun- *gets shot*

En tried going first. Kudo rejected him, saying he would go first.

"Part ways with Gearshift [me], and you'll be free of the crippling recoil too."

Too. TOO.

KUDO JUST WANTED TO GO AND BE DESTROYED FIRST. HE PUT THE FREEDOM OF RECOIL DOWN AS AN EXTRA BONUS SO THEY'D AGREE WITH HIS CHOICE.

I'd cut the image so it looks better, and I can use Bruce's words elsewhere, but this is an image limit, so,

- Kudo refused to let anyone else go first. This was before giving reasons to convince them he should leave first

- En gives reason to why it can't be Kudo. Kudo just says, "Listen." and reminds them of now.

- Look at Kudo's face when he says that. The guy knows what he's doing when he cuts off En, and would probably be a horrible liar. He might as well be pulling this out of his ass.

He's said "The world will end" "You have to or else" "Five minutes" "You're going to die" a few times in this fight already. DUDE STOPPP

(Terrible liar and a guy who purposely eggs you to torment? What a great friend he would be [yknow, when u make ur friends freak out by being ominous or reminding them of stuff. Like Toast to Lilypichu in a game of Observation Duty])

- "Too."

- Bruce's trust in him, but knowing when to pull Kudo back from going too far

Also, when he's transferred, he smiles to Midoriya. He knows he's about to die again, but the last thing he does for Midoriya is

1) Take away the recoil of his existence as a Factor on the boy

2) Reassure him that it's okay, so it doesn't weigh on his conscience

Even if only in thought, STILL!

KUDO LOOKED SO PROUD OF MIDORIYA!

I bet Kudo is suuuch a sentimental fool

> [Be me and watch your new friend die]

> [I have Yoichi's Factor]

> [It's like I carry his will now]

> [Have a glint of opposition in my eye that drives the Demon Lord and my comrades (Bruce) crazy]

> [Hey Bruce, let's figure out how it transfers]

> [Bruce's common sense VS my rabid ideas]

> [I win]

> [Bruce was unwilling the whole time and still ends up with the Factor]

> [The Factor is named One For All, after something in Yoichi's favorite comic book series]

> [We pass it on to the future to carry forward]

> [Even as everyone else and me dies, I make sure Yoichi and his will are safe from his Demon Lord brother that locked him up]

> [Decades later, my sweet vaulted friend reminds me of when we met]

> [I turn around and give my whole-hearted support to believe in some 15-year old boy because Yoichi believes in him too]

SEN - TIM - ENT - AL!

When Shinomori was stolen by AFO, Shinomori pushed everyone away before they could really notice the invader. Kudo called out for him.

Everyone is in shock, but I don't think it's a mistake that the text bubble calling out for Shinomori is pointing from Kudo.

All For One made it through and is ready to steal them, but the first thing Kudo did was call out for the one at the very front.

[On the post I made that mentions Shinomori pushing everyone away] What if Kudo wasn't pushed away? What if this was him at the front, realizing the danger and turning around, but being unable to do anything for Shinomori when he saw?

Like Bruce, Kudo communicates. He doesn't expect you to just follow or understand him. He actually lays it out and makes sure you keep up.

He explains

- the transfer of vestiges, and why he should go first

- his Quirk

- why Quirks are Quirks

- reports to Midoriya what's happening and what's next

- to Yoichi why they couldn't trust in a delusional boy. In a way that wasn't Bruce's roundabout "we lived in a terrible era and a leader gathered us"

When En panics, he barks at En to keep up. By barking at him, rather than any other way he could've used his tone, it shuts up En in his frantic babbling. Kudo also lets Vestige Might put in his thoughts to understand better, and uses it.

Eye reflection. Kudo can really see people for who they are, and understands others, and himself.

I can't repeat the pics cuz image limit, but look at previous panels here. For example, Kudo saying Yoichi's will lives in him, and when AFO reflected in his eyes

It's something I learned from Re:Zero. When a person in reflected in one's eye, something something that person can see the true core of you, of what you really are underneath everything. The eyes are the window and mirror [glass] of the soul. I finally see the true you.

AFO never reflected anyone.

But Kudo reflected AFO when the man accidentally killed Yoichi. He saw that AFO wasn't seeing anything, so later, Kudo smiled and mocked AFO at his own death.

"Yoichi?"

"He's gone."

"You killed him, Demon Lord."

And AFO hated that reminder.

Kudo was reminding him of what the truth was. Kudo saw it himself, and AFO blocked it out from the get-go. Kudo already knew what AFO was, what he was seeing, what he was doing to himself by blaming Kudo instead of himself.

And then, Kudo's eyes reflected his own hand when he realized Yoichi's Factor was in him.

Kudo clearly saw himself, and in himself, Yoichi. Nothing distorted it. It really was a clear mirror.

He really perceived Yoichi's will was living on, and was right. Otherwise, his eyes wouldn't have shown it.

Kudo was right about AFO. It's even implied back when he and Bruce had their backs turned; Kudo knew what AFO's real goal was. That was back when AFO preached unity and division under him.

Kudo could always see right through AFO. He really understood people from the start. And he never tried making up truths to justify what he was seeing, facing it head-on.

Kudo's lying about the world being black and white.

Kudo and Bruce saw the world as black and white. This was mentioned in the void.

Kudo also says, "Victory meant life. Defeat meant death."

But it's the Resistance. It's when Japan and the world was at their lowest. The world wasn't black and white; there's lots of gray.

Kudo and Bruce would've seen this. Kudo even admits that there's gray, just not directly.

Kudo says Yoichi knows, how he killed and trampled so many lives, to get back at AFO. He knows it wasn't right, or an amazing choice. Later, he says that when your back is against the wall, you have to make callous judgements. These hint at gray moments.

Kudo and Bruce have faced and been in the gray. But it's too hard to make the right choices, and there are times there is no right answer.

Historically, soldiers would convince themselves the enemy were monsters. They wouldn't be able to fight and kill them otherwise. They wouldn't be able to live with themselves without believing in this so badly.

Kudo and Bruce had to have been the same way. They were Meta Humans [Monsters] in a time they were viewed as diseased humans. The monsters were real. And they had a Demon Lord. Kudo and Bruce literally dressed up as soldiers.

Even if they were monsters to society, being Meta, Kudo and Bruce were still human. They knew this. The ones who tried believing in only black and white were inhabitants of the gray itself.

But they have to protect themselves. Kudo is so adamant that the world is only black and white, because he can't stand the gray. What it makes him do, what it means, that he's too weak to do anything.

Yoichi is an example of that gray area. The mortal enemy's younger brother, was actually locked up and sickly. He's just a comic book nerd. And it humanized the other side Kudo opposed so vehemently.

Kudo says victory is life and defeat is death. And Yoichi asked why he reached out to him then. He reminded Kudo of that gray area, and Kudo opened up.

Kudo might avoid the gray area because it's a matter of the heart and a moral dilemma, but it's what makes him human. When there's no right answer in the battlefield, he decides on his feelings instead.

He wishes the world was black and white, because it'd be so easy. But it's not.

Yoichi reminded him of how entering that gray area led to OFA ("when you reached out your hand to me"), and it had been the best choice in the end. The gray area is real, and Kudo's left a bare man with only his emotions when he's there.

Kudo is actually really kind and understanding. He's too soft for his own good. Thanks if you made it this far, I hope it makes sense (tag and image limit)

#KUDO IS UNDERRATED NEEDS MORE CONTENT RECOGNITION HES THE KINDEST WITTLE BOY EVER #my thoughts #i think ppl who write resistance stuff should also consider that not everything was black and white #there will be moral arguments where you cant decide. and the resistance has faced those sorts of things where There Is No Right Answer.#kudo is really kind tho. exactly because he cares so much he does all these things and tries to harden himself #but like exoskeletons work - its only an armor to protect the soft squishy insides and keep them from drying out #i woke up and had to put this stuff down #me: *picks up a sentence note in my fic notes* *puts it down here and elaborates*#the line was in relation to putting down stuff about the vestiges to remember dynamics #[Kudo is the kindest despite appearances]#kudo seems like he would be fiercely protective over ppl he cares about. exactly because hes seen so many of his comrades die over and over #kudo #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #spoilers #ofa #one for all #bruce #bruce is the meme of “*chuckles* I'm in danger” and its just. Kudo w/ his new crazy idea chasing him down with Gearshift and Yoichis Factor #hikage shinomori #en tayutai #yoichi shigaraki #ive been thinking he was kind for a long time but never elaborated why. if u look at his actions words and thoughts it all makes sense #theres underlying kindness in there. he wants to be kind but the world would scorch him if he didnt have a stick up his ass #also adding on to the prev tag of kudo and fiercely protective- because in their times comrades were everything. otherwise you were alone #the world sucks resources are limited and youre a diseased human [Meta]. but you have someone willing to walk with you.#also about the [Kudo is the kindest] note among the vestiges- i dont think any of the other vestiges would do what kudo did #calmly volunteering himself rather than it being in panic. extending a hand and saving what shouldve been his mortal enemy. yknow

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thedeviltohisangel · 7 months ago

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All The Things I Did (7): I Thought About Thinking It Through

a/n: ok so the first blurb of the sleep talking interlude has been somewhat negated so I apologize but promise it is worth it. heavy shit this chapter as we get the full story on sidney landry. but john might say the L word...

warnings: mentions of domestic violence, mentions of character just wanting it all to stop

When John walked into the pub that night, the sounds of an angel laughing reached his ears but the cause was making his fists curl. Cass was seated at a table in the back corner with a man, who he presumed was Mr. Foster, sitting across from her. Her chin was in her hand the way it was whenever he told her a funny story. Her smile was as soft as candlelight as she nodded along to whatever he was telling her. Swears he felt his blood boil when her hand brushed against his across the table.

“Hey, baby, I didn’t think I was going to see you here tonight.” His annoyance was washed away as she turned to greet him with a smile. She said his name and brought him in for a kiss, John using her proximity to press a few more to her lips.

“John, this is Captain Will Foster. We went to spook school in Maryland together.” John kept one arm around the back of her chair as he shook the man’s hand.

“Major Egan, it’s an honor, sir.”

“Hear that, Cass, some people think it’s an honor to meet me.” She rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her soda. “You’re the one who’s going to keep an eye on my girl in Berlin?”

“I’ll do my best, sir, but this is Cass’ operation. I’m just here to do what she tells me.” Cass blushed and ducked her head. “Lieutenant Cooper graduated top of our class. Highest marks the entire year.”

“It’s not that impressive,” she began. “Not like I can fly a plane.”

“None of that,” John stated as he gripped her chin between his fingers. “You are the smartest, most gorgeous, most impressive woman that has ever walked this earth.” She smiled in spite of the ridiculousness and let him pull her in for another kiss.

“Careful, John, or all this is going to go to my head. Then I’ll be truly insufferable.”

“I have never once complained about your company.” As it always did, the rest of the world sealed itself off from the space between them. As soon as they had their eyes on each other there was nothing else that mattered. “Can I get you a refill?”

“Yes, please.” John kissed her forehead and was off in the direction of the bar.

“You and the Major, huh?”

“He is…a welcome surprise. I saw him get off a plane one day and couldn’t shake the look in his eyes.”

“Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back,” Will replied with a swig of his beer. “You always were good at learning everything about your target without giving up even a hint of yourself.”

“John’s not my target. He’s my-” She stopped. What was he? Was there a word to describe their relationship status? Partner seemed too severe and official. Boyfriend seemed too trivial. “Mine. He’s just mine. And I’m his.”

“Simple. That works.” Oh, if he only knew. The feelings they had for each other, ability to express them agnostic, were simple. They were pure. They were real. They were warm and comforting and made her nerves tingle. But the world around them was so complicated. The lives they led as individuals were complicated, how were they supposed to twine them together? “And to think you were a runaway bride when I first met you.”

“Runaway bride?” John chose the perfect time to return. Catching the one part of that comment that Cass felt in her chest. “You?”

“It’s an exaggeration of the circumstances.” Cass transitioned to damage control. The topic of why she had left South Carolina in the first place hadn’t come up between her and John. And she had wanted to keep it that way. There was no use pouring salt in her old wounds.

“Oh, come on, Cass. Engaged to marry the big time banker’s son and fleeing the engagement party to enlist in the OSS? It’s an incredible story.” For the second time that day, John found himself furious with the tone someone was using to speak to her. She had fully retreated into herself, focused on the condensation rolling down the side of the bottle, her hands shaking in her lap at the reminder of that night.

“Doesn’t seem like she wants to talk about it, Captain.” There was authority in his tone. It was protective. Purposeful. No room to misinterpret his words. “You okay?” It looked like she was having trouble breathing. As if the amount of trauma trapped in her chest was suffocating her.

“No. I just need some air. Alone.” She doesn’t think she could look John in the eye. Not when he now knew the awful truth. Not when she was now nothing but damaged and spoiled goods. John watched her walk away with a clenched jaw.

“Major-”

“I don’t know what the fuck happened in South Carolina, Foster, but if I ever hear you mention it again it will be the last thing you ever do.” John drained the rest of his whiskey and slammed it on the table. He didn’t wait for a response. He meant the words he said. And Will knew it.

----

“There’s more than one of them,” John mocked as he sat across from the RAF officers. “I can see more than one of you, too. I could knock all of you out.” Cass hadn’t come back into the pub and John had just drowned his anger and worry in amber liquid. Buck and Veal helped settle him down as he yelled he could do it in only one punch.

“You want to get Major excited? Baseball. Specifically the Yankees,” Curt offered.

“Really? I would have thought it was the little poppet who left close to tears.” No one tried to stop him when he stood this time.

“Say that again,” he threatened.

“Why don’t we make a bit of sport out of it, Major?”

“I’ve got him, John, let me take care of him,” Curt reasoned. Really, they were all afraid John might kill him. A better man would know when to step aside. Let a more level head prevail. But John wasn’t in any particular mood to take the high ground.

“Not this time. People in this goddamn pub need to stop talking about her.” They all milled outside and John tossed his blazer into the grass. He wondered if Cass would appreciate the gesture or be repulsed by it. If she ever believed violence was the answer or always chose to think her way out of everything. He ducked the weak hand of the Brit as he thought about the way she looked earlier. The way she had hid herself from his gaze and his touch and requested she be alone. He didn’t like the hole in his chest that she left whenever she wasn’t near.

His fist landed square on his target’s face and the sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed throughout the night air. He pictured Harding’s lovesick eyes when his Cass entered the room. Pictured Foster and his words quelling the fire inside of his Cass in an instant. Pictured this pompous asshole watching his Cass walk from the pub with a shake to her shoulders. Cass was a deity that mere men were not meant to get too close to. John didn’t even believe he deserved the way she looked at him. The way she touched him and comforted him and made him feel at home in a faraway land.

“You good, Bucky?” The others were cheering and laughing and slapping him on the shoulder but Buck looked concerned more than anything.

“I gotta protect her, Buck. I can’t let this place take her from me.” He couldn’t even feel the wounds to his knuckles or the blood of another man trickling down his fingers. “I’ll find you guys later.” John ignored their groans and pleas and grabbed his jacket from the ground before heading off in her direction. His north star. He would always follow her home.

----

He knocked softly against her door, Mary not hiding her eye roll at his disheveled uniform and bloodied knuckles when she had begrudgingly let him in, his forehead landing against the wood as he waited for her to answer.

“You found me,” she whispered softly as she cracked the door open an inch.

“Always will,” he replied sincerely. “Can I come in?” She nodded and opened the door wider, John closing it behind him as she sat on the edge of her bed. He looked around and noticed a packed bag on the floor and a stack of envelopes on her desk. The one on top looked like it was addressed to her parents.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back after…” John shook his head.

“You were upset. He shouldn’t have said what he said.” Cass chuckled drily and looked at the ceiling.

“You have my back, just like that? Without even knowing what it was he was talking about?” He sat down in her chair, elbows landing on the top of his thighs. “What happened to your hand?” She surged forward and held his hand in hers with a delicacy that made him shudder.

“I was having your back.” Not asking any further, she opened a drawer and pulled out a first aid kit. “And to answer your question, yes. It doesn’t matter what he was talking about. If it made you uncomfortable, it needed to stop.” He didn’t wince as she cleaned the blood from his hand, kissing each knuckle for extra measure, and wrapping a bandage to seal in her love.

“I appreciate that, John, but what he said was true.” He winced now.

“About being another man’s bride?” The thought made him sick. The thought that Cass was already someone else’s. That she hadn’t told him and let him fall in love with her and share in those sacred moments together. That maybe that was why she so rigidly didn’t want him to say so.

“I was supposed to be. Before I left for training, I was engaged.” She paused and waited for his reaction. Waited for him to be angry or upset and tell her she wasn’t worth the trouble.

“And I’m sure you left for a reason, Cass.” His desire to understand her almost hurt her chest. It reminded her exactly why she had left. Why Sidney Landry was most certainly not the man she was meant to marry. “You don’t have to tell me. I don’t want to drudge something up if you’ve already gotten over it.”

“No, if…if me and you are going to be me and you, you need to know. You deserve to know.” John leaned forward to hold her hands, kissing the back of them with all the love he could muster. “His name is Sidney Landry. His father is the biggest banker in the state and they’ve been looking to get their claws into my family’s business for decades.” Her hands shook slightly and he squeezed them tight.

“I’m here,” he whispered. “I’m not leaving.”

“By all accounts it was an advantageous match. They were wealthy and powerful and Sidney could have any girl in Charleston that he wanted but for some god awful reason he wanted me. My mother was so delighted. She had found a man who was willing to try to tame me.” A tear rolled down her cheek and John’s thumb wiped it away.

“Cass…”

“I had no choice but to say yes and let him parade me around like some blue ribbon. I was so miserable every second I was with him. He would grab my arms so tight they bruised everytime we went somewhere. He would say the crudest things about me having his children. I spent months just wanting it all to stop.” The tears were coming in full force. Her hands grasping John’s like he was her anchor in the storm. His own eyes were swimming with emotion as he watched her exorcize these demons from within her. “One night he had been drinking so much I couldn’t understand what he was saying. But he was so angry I wouldn’t let him touch me. So angry that he…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” he repeated, “I know all I need to, Cass.” John already knew he was going to kill Sidney Landry. Didn’t know when but he knew it would be slow.

“His hands were around my neck and I thought he was going to kill me. I hit him as hard as I could over and over before he stopped. I ran and I ran and I ran until I couldn’t breathe.”

“You ran all the way to London, huh?” he said in the hopes of getting a smile to crack across her face. It worked.

“I thought I ended up here because I was running away from him but maybe I was really just running to you.”

“That sounds about right,” he murmured as he stroked the top of her cheeks. “What you went through…You are so fucking strong, Cass. You deserve to be happy and to feel loved and protected.”

“I’m so damaged, John. I’m not meant for a life of teacups and doilies and standing there silently. No one is going to want this version of me.” Now that he knew the truth, she expected him to run too. To find a simple girl who could be the wife he deserved and the mother to his children he deserved.

“That’s not true, Cass, because I,” he swallowed and held her face between his hands, steady and strong, “because I love you. I am so fucking in love with you, Cassandra Cooper. I love every last bit of you and I love this version of you and know I’ll love every version that comes after.” She kissed him ferociously, not able to get enough of him even with no distance between them. “Come home with me when this is all over. Do me the honor and make me the happiest man alive.”

“I will, John, I will.” He kissed her with a groan, eager to lock this promise between them. “John, you need to know that I leave for Berlin in the morning. The operation it’s…it’s…others have tried and they haven’t come back.”

“I’m not letting you say goodbye,” he reasoned. “Not when you got me thinking about an after.” Oh it was so cruel and dangerous for the universe to do this to him. Give him the one thing he’d been wanting only to have her live her life on the same edge he did.

“If something happens to me, I need you to know I feel the same way you do.” She just needed to get through this. If she could survive Berlin, she could survive this whole thing. She could love John Egan wholeheartedly and unabashedly. She could find the courage to go back home if he was with her. “When I went to see Harding this morning, I went to turn down Berlin.”

“Turn it down?”

“I would have rather been here with you than anywhere else. No matter what those consequences were. But then I saw Buck’s letter and I was so angry.”

“I know. I deserve that.” She shook her head.

“No, you don’t because here I am doing the exact same thing.”

“Hey, you’re not going to need those farewell letters on your desk, okay? You’re going to go to Berlin, kick someone’s ass or steal state secrets to end the war and you’re going to come right back home to me. Just like how I am always going to come right back home to you.”

“Forever and ever?” she asked.

“Forever and ever,” he promised. “You going to let me hold you while we try and get some sleep tonight?”

And that was how Mary found them before the sun rose the following morning. John protectively wrapped around Cass from behind, their fingers interlocked at her middle. And they both studied each other for a few more minutes until Mary said it was really, really time for Cass to go. John not wanting to forget a single thing about this very moment. Cass not wanting to forget a single detail about the face of the man she loved. The face of the man she was fighting to keep safe.

“Don’t get distracted by thoughts of your love for me while you’re flying,” she teased as he pecked her lips a few times.

“I am going to fly so much faster with that admission off my chest.” She giggled and fell back into him easily, her plane whirring to life behind them.

“If you do, I might let you show me how much you love me when I get back.” That twinkle of mischief was there that he loved so dearly.

“Is that so? You better hurry then. I’m a patient man, Spook, but not when it comes to loving on you.”

“Cass! We got to go! Weather’s moving in!” Her heart dropped along with her smile as she turned back to John. The part she was dreading.

“I’ll see you when I get back,” she said, her fingers tracing the contours of his face one last time. His knuckles brushed her cheek and he kissed her one last time.

“I love you. You come back to me in one piece. That’s an order, Lieutenant.”

“I’ll do my best, Major.” She pulled him by the front of his jacket for her own last kiss. To tell him she loved him without saying the words. Those would be for after.

She walked backwards until she couldn’t anymore. Her hand pressing to her lips before she released it into the wind, John catching the sentiment with ease. He had never felt such torment watching a plane take off as he did in that moment. It was carrying everything he held dear off to a faraway place.

“Please come back to me, Cass.”

#masters of the air #john egan #callum turner #mota #masters of the air fanfiction #john egan fanfiction #callum turner fanfiction #mota fanfiction #masters of the air fanfic #john egan fanfic #mota fanfic #callum turner fanfic #john egan x oc #john egan x reader #cass and bucky

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mymoodwriting · 2 months ago

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Request for Anon (yandere co-stars Younghoon&Hyunjae) 6.6k, yandere, idol/actor!reader, period drama, inappropriate behavior, power imbalance, harassment, sexual harassment, alcohol consumption, non-con, dub-con, secret recording, blackmail, tag-team, handjob, fingering, breast play, penetration, double penetration, possessive behavior (@starillusion13)

“And cut!”

The smile faded from your lips and you tried to move the hand around your waist, only to be pulled closer by the owner of said hand. You were leaning away from your co-star, but that just encouraged them to move closer, holding you up so you wouldn’t fall.

“The scene’s over, you can let go now.”

“Why don’t we rehearse it again, just you and me.”

“I’m good.”

You made sure you had steady footing before shoving Hyunjae off of you, and this time he got the message. You gave him a content smile and rushed off to your dressing room. Once inside you could take a breath and relax. Being around guys was always an issue since you were an idol, but this was something new entirely. Your fans would understand this was work, but if your co-stars kept being so weird it would become a problem. This show was your first leading role, and your chance to really break into the industry. You wanted this to be a success but the two male actors working alongside you, Younghoon and Hyunjae, weren’t making it easy.

This was a historical drama where you played a princess who had recently lost her family, leaving her as the sole heir to inherit the throne. The problem of course was the fact that the kingdom still needed a king, which meant your character had to be wed. Many princes wanted to take on the role, but two in particular seemed the most promising. Besides competing with each other, they were both trying to win the princess’ heart.

You didn’t mind playing a damsel in distress and having two men fight for your affections. You had portrayed such feelings while filming MVs before. The real problem was Younghoon and Hyunjae in real life. They were practically method acting, and doing all kinds of off-script and off-screen things to get your attention. It was very uncomfortable at times, but the director never called them out on their behavior. You had mentioned it before to them and the producer, but they said it all fit the characters and would only heighten the performance. It seemed like there really was no difference between the script and real life.

No one listened to you and just told you what to do. You were still too new in the field to be taken seriously. As much as you wanted this all to stop, you were determined to bite your tongue and see this through. You might not get a chance like this again, and you certainly weren’t gonna let two men ruin your career. Besides rehearsals and script reading, you avoided them. You always declined their invitations to go out after hours, or let yourself be alone with either of them. They really hadn’t gotten the hint yet, or maybe they just thought they were all that. You knew that Younghoon was rather popular, having appeared in other dramas before, and Hyunjae was also known, even if he was seen as more of a pretty face than an actual actor.

Outside of their rather inappropriate and rude behavior, they were good co-stars, and good actors. When the cameras were rolling you all played your parts and could do a good job. It’s just when they stopped that things became weird. They were so professional around everyone, like they were completely different people, but when it came to you, it was a whole other story. You could tell there was something in their eyes whenever they caught your gaze. While they stared it seemed like there was no one else but the two of you, but you’d quickly look away before someone noticed.

“Are you excited for tomorrow?”

“Why would I be excited?”

“Cause it’s our first kiss scene.”

“What!? We’re supposed to be filming-”

“I know, but I talked to the director.” Younghoon explained. “Since in the scene our characters would be kissing for the first time, I thought it’d be good to film it earlier as we’re both still a bit awkward with each other, and that reality can help further sell where our characters are at.”

“I… I guess…”

“I’m so glad you agree. I really wish we could practice the scene, but we can practice the other scenes down the line. Although Hyunjae might get a bit jealous, which is good.”

“Is it?”

“The chemistry between all of us will play well this way. We really should do our own private rehearsals, you know.”

“But it wouldn’t make sense for our characters.” You quickly retorted. “As the princess I can’t just be left alone with one of the princes. You’re supposed to be fighting each other above all.”

“Hm, true, although me and Hyunjae are good friends. Don’t worry though, we can make our rivalry look real. The news might even write about how we actually hate each other.”

“Cool, you two do that. I’m gonna go get out of make-up.”

“Ah, shall I come with? We are done for the day after all.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure you have-”

“Come on now. It’ll be good for our bonding. We have to get to know each other better anyway, we have a press tour once we’re done filming to promote the show.”

“Right…”

Younghoon pushed you along over to hair and make-up. To your unfortunate surprise Hyunjae was already in a chair. He had been reading the script when he saw you two walk in and immediately perked up.

“Hello, y/n, what brings you here?”

“Gosh you can be stupidly handsome sometimes, can’t you?” Younghoon teased. “We’re here to get our make-up off like you.”

“I wanted to hear y/n say it.” Hyunjae remarked. “But I appreciate the compliment. Do you think I’m handsome too, y/n?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Come on, you can be honest. Tell me, would you fuck me?”

You choked on air and immediately turned away from Hyunjae. You wound up coughing a bit, trying to steady your breathing. You could hear the two others, and staff, chuckling to themselves, but this wasn’t funny to you at all. Once you were alright you turned back around.

“That’s not an appropriate thing to say.”

“And you didn’t answer no.” Hyunjae smiled. “It’s alright, I know what you’re really thinking anyway. Sit down, the sooner you get out of make-up the sooner we can leave.”

“We?”

“The director wants us all to go out for dinner.” Younghoon stated. “To celebrate the end of pre-production and the beginning of the actual filming. Which means we can’t have a lot of alcohol, but it’ll still be fun.”

“Oh.”

Today had been the last day of dress rehearsal, giving everyone a chance to get used to the make-up and costumes before the real filming began tomorrow. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to celebrate just yet, but everyone could use a positive boost before the production work began. Once out of make-up you went to your dressing room to get out of costume and change into normal clothes. It wasn’t all that shocking to find Younghoon and Hyunjae waiting for you since they wanted the three of you to go together. You didn’t have much choice in the matter so you just followed along.

The car ride to the restaurant felt awkward to you. They filled in the silence talking and would occasionally try to bring you into the conversation but you only answered in short sentences. They didn’t push anything which you were grateful for. As soon as you arrived at the restaurant you got out of the car and went off to find your manager and friends. You wouldn’t be able to avoid the two of them the whole night since the main cast was seated together. The boys made a point to sit on either side of you to keep you sandwiched between them. It was gonna be a long night, but at least you had plenty of practice on how to put on a smile.

The other two boys were more popular than you, so they easily got caught up in other conversations with staff, along with the director and producer. You made some small talk with those around you, still very new to a big production and all the people around. Everyone was still friendly, and excited to work with you for the next few months. The night went well, although you felt rather shy when Younghoon wanted to make a toast, and had you and Hyunjae stand up to give it alongside him. You were poured a shot, and it was only right to take it. Then Hyunjae insisted you take another as he hadn’t poured you the first one. You didn’t really drink, and you weren’t planning on doing so tonight, yet here you were taking two shots.

Since you didn’t drink, you were very much a lightweight and two shots could do some damage. Of course this dinner wasn’t meant to last long but by then you were a little gone and needed help. In your haze you couldn’t make out much but you could recall Younghoon and Hyunjae volunteering to take you back to your room. After that things were blurry, but you did wake up in your own bed, so that was a good sign. You had a bit of a headache but apparently the boys had left you plenty of remedies to help. Once you felt a bit better you made your way to set, getting into hair and make-up, looking over the script. Then you suddenly remembered what you were filming today. A kissing scene.

“Fuck…”

It wasn’t something to really be upset about. You were going to wind up kissing them eventually, and multiple times at that. This was work, and none of it was real, at least for you. Once you were all set you joined your co-stars, taking in the scenery you’d be filming in. Younghoon happily approached you, coming up from behind and hugging you. A yelp escaped your lips, but he just kept smiling.

“Good morning, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“I… I guess… uh… thanks for last night.”

“Ah, do you remember?”

“Not much, but I got back safely, and my manager said you left me a lot of hangover remedies.”

“We did. You’re such a cute drunk you know that.”

“I wasn’t drunk.”

“Tipsy then, either way, let’s do a good job today.”

“Yeah.”

🖤

Since this was such a big project you couldn’t do any other activities. You’d leave messages for your fans on SNS and with approval showed some pictures of you on set. You avoided sharing any of you with your co-stars, not wanting to stir up drama. There had already been some backlash about you partaking in this production, but everyone was on your side to defend you. Being an idol was great, but you knew that was a short lived career compared to acting, and you wanted to be able to do both for as long as possible. At the beginning of filming the boys actually seemed to behave themselves, making things much easier for you, but of course that was only ever gonna be short lived.

“Princess-”

“Stop, please, just stop.” You took a breath and looked to the heavens. “This isn’t about what I want, it never has been, and it never will. I have to do what’s best for the kingdom.”

“What you want does matter. If you can’t do what’s best for yourself, how can you look after your kingdom? Even if I were to become king, this place is your home.”

“Which is why I must do the right thing.”

“You can do the right thing and still have what you want.”

You were suddenly turned around and kissed, deeply. Your eyes went wide and you immediately shoved Hyunjae away from you, followed by a swift slap across the face.

“What the fuck, Hyunjae!”

“Cut! Cut!”

The cameras stopped rolling and you wiped away the taste left on your lips. You could tell everyone was whispering to themselves. The director came over.

“What happened?”

“That wasn’t part of the script.” You remarked. “He just-”

“I’m sorry, I’m very sorry.” Hyunjae apologized while bowing. “I was so caught up in the moment it just felt like my character would do that. I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, don’t apologize.” The director said. “I felt that as well. Even your reaction was on point y/n.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“This is an important moment, you’re bearing your heart but also hiding it, knowing where your responsibilities lie, yet the prince cannot hold back hearing such things. He acts in the moment to show his passion and you respond accordingly. Even in this situation, you put your kingdom first. I liked this, we should keep this in and rework the scene a bit. Good job you two.”

“Ah, thank you, sir.” Hyunjae bowed. “Thank you.”

You were left speechless, not only did Hyunjae get away with this, but he’d get to do it again. You had time so you went off to your green room, needing a moment to settle your feelings and focus on the job. You felt so dirty for the unexpected kiss. Not to mention the potential scandals that could come out of this. If anything you were lucky the director wanted to add all that in, or else any pictures getting leaked would screw you over completely. You wanted to cry, but that would only make matters worse. When there was a knock at your door you took a deep breath and went to answer. You thought Hyunjae would be there to apologize, but instead you found Younghoon.

“Are you okay?”

“Just go away.”

“I’m serious. Did he hurt you?”

“Please leave.”

“Come on, let’s talk.” Younghoon pushed his way in. “I know you feel awful, and I’m sure he does too. That was something he shouldn’t have done.”

“Well, it worked out for him.”

“And you.”

“Really?”

“Well, you get to hit him again, and everyone thinks you guys were in the heat of the moment. I know this is your first big gig, but this isn’t something you should let ruin yourself. It’s gonna be alright.”

“You’re not really helping.”

“We’re more than halfway done here. You’ve done an amazing job so far, things are gonna work out just fine.”

“Whatever.”

Another knock was at your door, except it was just a staff telling you to be back in five. You got up and checked yourself in the mirror, Younghoon adjusting your costume a bit and giving you a thumbs up. He really didn’t help, but at least his positive demeanor could get you in a better mood. When you got back on set you felt some eyes on you, but you ignored them, just wanting to focus. You were handed a revised script, looking things over when Hyunjae approached.

“Look, I didn’t mean to upset you. It really was in the moment and just… I’m really, really, sorry. The last thing I want to do is make you hate me.”

“… let’s just keep things professional.”

“Of course.”

You couldn’t let your own feelings get in the way, so you just focused on work. After that incident both boys seemed to be on their best behavior. They were a lot friendlier with you than before, but still staying within professional boundaries. You supposed they just both really wanted to make it up to you for that whole mess. Even though Hyunjae was at fault, Younghoon also seemed to claim responsibility. Despite a rough start you began to get along with them. You’d even have them join you on some SNS posts where you’d make funny videos or do dance challenges. Along that save vein you let them post about you on their own socials. Some of the pictures they took were a bit sneaky, but they got really good angles.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?”

“It’s gonna be hell.”

“Is it?”

“We’re filming the wedding. Do you have any idea how much clothes and accessories the bride wears? Not to mention the make-up.”

“But it’s gonna be a lot of fun.” Hyunjae chuckled. “I want to be the first to see you.”

“Aren’t you gonna fight Younghoon for it?”

“It would be very in character. I wonder which of us will be the most popular among the viewers.”

“You’ve both done a great job.”

“But I really want to know which will be the popular ship.”

“We’ll find out during the press tour.”

“I’m really looking forward to that. Although I don’t know if I can just let you go.”

“Huh?”

“You got a whole other industry waiting for you when you’re done here. When would we ever get the chance to cross paths again?”

“I’m sure we will someday.”

“You promise?”

“I can’t make that promise.”

“Ouch. You don’t like me?”

“Hyunjae, like you said, we’re from different industries. I don’t always get to pick my schedules, and you have your own things to do.”

“I’d happily make time for you.”

“We’ll see.”

A leading role was definitely a lot more work than previous jobs, but you didn’t mind. It was all the more fun, and when you had some down time you loved to watch what else was being filmed. Towards the end of filming,everyone was looking forward to the big fight scene between Younghoon and Hyunjae, which was also the end for one of them. They had been rehearsing for a long time, and when the big day came everyone was on set. You were in costume and having the stylist working on you while you watched the scene play out. A roaring applause filled the air when the director yelled ‘cut’ and you were so excited to see this on screen in the coming weeks. Younghoon and Hyunjae noticed you nearby and rushed over, still covered in fake blood and real sweat. Their staff members rushed over with them, trying to clean them up and cool them off.

“Did you like it?” Hyunjae asked. “I looked so cool, didn’t I?”

“Says the loser.” Younghoon commented. “Did you see the whole thing?”

“Yes, I did. You both did a great job. I can’t wait to see the final edit of it.”

“Gosh, I wish I could hug you right now.”

“I’m in costume, so no.”

“I’d ask if you’re gonna miss me.” Hyunjae said. “But I’m still gonna be around. I have a few scenes left to shoot, and we haven’t done our final scene.”

“I know. I can’t get rid of you that easily.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ya, nothing, let’s go.” Younghoon interrupted. “We have to clean up, come on.”

Younghoon grabbed Hyunjae and the two went off to their changing rooms. After such a scene everyone seemed in high spirits and the rest of the filming went well. Your scenes were all with other characters, so you didn’t see much of them until early the next morning. Despite going off to clean up, the boys still had some scenes in their bloody outfits, some specifically with you.

“… princess… why… why are you crying…?”

“You… you… why would you do this… you didn’t have to… why…”

“Sh, sh… it’s okay… don’t cry… this… this makes it easier… for you…”

“Liar… it just hurts…”

“You have to be strong… for your kingdom… for me… you’ll be a great Queen…”

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

“… you have nothing… to apologize for… be happy… my love… for me…”

Hyunjae smiled up at you, bloody teeth and all. Your tears blurred your visions and fell onto his face. Despite your pain he had a smile on his face til the very end. You held him tightly, weeping into his chest.

“Cut! Good job, everyone!”

“… y/n… y/n, darling, you can stop crying now.”

Hyunjae carefully moved to sit up, lifting up your face. You were still sobbing, and now you couldn’t help but choke out a laugh.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay, you did good.”

Hyunjae wrapped his arms around you and gently rubbed your back, chuckling a bit. He knew what it was like to be overwhelmed by your emotions in the moment. He held you until you calmed down, going with you back to your green room. Younghoon had heard the news and came over to see you. Your puffy red eyes made his heart melt.

“Aigoo, my poor girl, are you okay?”

Younghoon pulled you into his arms, assuring you that everything was fine. The two boys went into your dressing room with you, sitting on either side of you on the couch. You weren’t outright sobbing anymore, but you still had some tears.

“It’s okay if you just want to cry.” Younghoon assured. “You must have things bottled up inside.”

“Everyone will love the scene.” Hyunjae added. “You did amazing.”

You honestly felt so embarrassed about the fact you couldn’t stop crying. There was always a lot you had to hold back on as an idol, and the chance to shed some tears just opened the floodgates. At least that was your last scene for the day, so you could just cry until the tears dried up. The boys stayed with you until you were alright, not saying a word but letting yourself get some relief. Once you were alright, and they were sure, they let your staff in to help you clean up and get back to your room. It had been a long day for you, so you needed lots of rest.

The next day everyone was giving you words of encouragement and telling you that you did a great job. Even though you felt like that day was a misstep you got through the rest of filming just fine. Hyunjae still hung around the set, although he wasn’t always in costume. Since he didn’t have much else going on he’d always be around for your scenes, watching you and encouraging you. He was definitely there for your last scene with Younghoon, teasing the other, but also glad to be there to see things close out.

“It’s a beautiful morning.”

“It is.”

It was always hard to film with the light of a sunrise, so this scene had to be done right. You had a lot of expectations, but all these days of filming gave you confidence, and you wanted to end things on a good note. You wanted to be proud of your work.

“You’ll be a wonderful Queen.”

“I don’t think that title suits me. Neither did that of princess.”

“Yet you took care of the kingdom and its people. The title could not be held by another.”

“And what of you? Do you promise me that you’ll be a good King?”

“This is your kingdom, my love. I will care for it as I care for you.”

“I’ll keep you to that.”

Younghoon leaned down to place a soft kiss against your lips, letting it slowly turn to something with more passion. That is until the director yelled ‘cut’ but you two took your time to end things. Younghoon pressed his head against yours, the two of you catching your breath.

“I’d really like to do that again.”

“Maybe if we work together in the future.”

“No, not work, for real.”

“Younghoon, are you-”

“Yes. I am, and I mean it. I want us-”

“No. Don’t say anything, you know what the answer is, so don’t ask.”

You could only offer a smile before disappearing. There was one more day of filming, but you were done with the boys. They still watched, and you could feel Younghoon’s deep stare following you. There wasn’t much avoiding it, especially at the wrap-up party. Just like before you were sat with your co-stars. And like last time the two boys spent most of the night chatting with others. You also didn’t feel as awkward this time around, having gotten to know the people you were working with. The only problem now was the alcohol.

Since this party was to celebrate the end of filming everyone was drinking, and a lot. You still weren’t much for drinks, and it wouldn’t do well with your image. Although at one point in the night Younghoon and Hyunjae insisted they pour you a shot and it was hard to say no given that they had done this before. You took a shot with each of them, getting cheers from everyone around. At least that was done with, but later into the night they insisted on another, saying they didn’t remember the first time. No one took your side in the matter, probably too drunk to remember too, so you took another two shots.

After those you definitely didn’t feel like yourself, but you tried to act normal. It wasn’t long after those second shots that the party started to wind down and people were going home. You were more than ready to leave and go up to find your manager, asking them to bring the car around. They obviously couldn’t drink at all since they had to be the ones to drive you back. You waited outside the restaurant, thankfully the night wasn’t so cold. The car pulled up and you reached to slide the door open when another came over and did it for you.

“Heading back already?”

“Uh… yeah, gotta rest up. I’ll be going back to my usual schedules soon.”

“So you were just gonna leave without saying goodbye?”

“You were busy…”

“I’m never too busy for you.”

Younghoon leaned in for a kiss but you placed your hand at his mouth to stop him. You had been worried about something like this happening all night given how much he drank. There probably wasn’t even much point in saying anything since he probably wouldn’t remember.

“You should get back to the others, I’m sure Hyunjae-”

“Where are you going?”Hyunjae asked, approaching the two of you. “You’re not gonna say goodbye?”

“It’s late and I have to get going.”

“Then we’ll go with you.”

“That’s not-”

“Come on. We got you back to your place last time, let’s do it again.”

Before you could protest, Hyunjae got into the car. Next thing you knew Younghoon was pushing you inside as well and getting in after you. He told your manager to just drive you back to your room, and that they’d be coming along like the previous time. You couldn’t really argue so you just nodded to your manager. They were likely both drunk and not thinking straight. The car ride was quiet and you were dreading when it came to a stop. The boys hopped out first, each holding a hand out to you in order to help. You put on a shy smile and stepped out. You were going to tell your manager to wait in order for the two boys to get a ride back but the quickly said they’d call for their own rides later.

They weren’t leaving much room for argument, so your manager left, and you were stuck with the two. They led you up to your room as they knew where it was, one of them getting the key from your bag and opening the door. If you had the chance to go in first you could have potentially locked them out, but instead Hyunjae walked in and Younghoon dragged you along. When the door shut behind you a chill went down your spine. Being alone with these two wasn’t a good idea. Hyunjae immediately laid down on your bed, making himself comfortable whereas Younghoon had yet to release your arm.

“Uh… you two should head back… I appreciate you bringing me here but-”

“We’re here cause you wanted us.” Younghoon commented. “So why would we leave?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Awe, you really don’t remember? We thought you were playing dumb out of embarrassment but two shots of liquor really messed with your memory, huh?”

“I… I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“I’m not sure if I should be upset or giddy.” Hyunjae said. “But I can jog your memory.”

“What?”

The two boys shared a knowing look and then Hyunjae pulled out his phone. He seemed to be looking for something, and before you could ask you heard a voice.

“Please…”

“Please, what? You wanna cum? You gotta use your words, babygirl.”

It was your voice. You were begging and whimpering, sounding like a complete mess. You didn’t want to believe it, but it was hard to deny. Hearing your voice also sobered you up.

“I… I wanna… both… both of you…”

“Ah, you think you can take us both? When was the last time someone attended to your needs?”

“What the fuck is that!?”

“What do you think?” Hyunjae chuckled. “The last time we played.”

“You recorded me!?”

“How could we not?” Younghoon added. “You were so adorable.”

“Are… are you trying to blackmail me?”

“Why would we do that? No one else deserves to see and hear such beautiful things.”

“Then… then why-”

“We’re here to keep our promise, remember, well, I guess you don’t.” Hyunjae mentioned. “We only played a little bit, we didn’t get to feel you from the inside cause we had work tomorrow. But we promised to do it right once we were done filming. It’s over now, babygirl, we’re here to take care of you.”

“No, no… I was tipsy… and not thinking-”

“We had more drinks than you.” Younghoon reminded. “Perhaps you took advantage of us. Your two wonderful co-stars that were just trying to get you home after a night of drinks and celebration. We took some selfies and I accidentally hit record before you came onto me.”

“I… what are you insinuating…?”

“The life of an idol. You have to be so careful with any boy you interact with. I’m sure some of your fans weren’t happy about your role. You might get more backlash once the show airs. I know you can overcome all that with our help of course, but if we’re not on good terms… I can’t imagine how my fans will act. We wouldn’t want anyone digging around and finding our… secrets.”

“No, you guys-”

“You asked us to take care of you.” Hyunjae countered. “I have it all on video. You were whining about how you rarely get a good fucking since you’re so busy with schedules and can’t really make any guy friends. We offered our services, and you begged us to be here once we had the time. The press tour doesn’t start for another few days. Plenty of time for us to keep our word.”

“I… uh… no… no this-”

“It’s just between us. There’s no shame. I can’t imagine how difficult the life of an idol is. When you want to step away we could certainly help you get into your industry. You’d get some of your life back, as well as some freedom. When was the last time you were loved? Actually loved, and not just by adoring fans, hm?”

“I don’t know…”

“The answer was when you were with us, but I know you don’t remember right now. How about we help you with that?”

“This isn’t right, it isn’t-”

“Fair?” Younghoon questioned. “What’s not fair is you playing hard to get. Having you is the greatest gift. So many fans love you, but I’d get to love you for real.”

“What…?”

“Come on, don’t tell me you don’t feel anything? We’ve spent the last several weeks falling in love. You can’t tell me there’s nothing.”

“I-”

“That heat of the moment kiss was wonderful.” Hyunjae added. “I know I certainly felt something. Still do, gosh I’ve been waiting to be done with the show. It’s not fair I didn’t end up with you.”

“Next time don’t be the second lead.” Younghoon teased. “But we both can have her now. So what do you say?”

“This… this isn’t right…”

“Then let’s do all the wrong things.”

You were still trying to wrap your head around everything when Younghoon came over and kissed you. His lips tasted like alcohol and you could feel your own sobriety starting to leave you. Although after a moment you pushed him away, taking a breath.

“No… no, I already told you-”

“This will be our secret. Just the three of us.”

You didn’t get a chance to answer before Hyunjae yanked you onto the bed, climbing on top of you and pressing his lips to yours. He kissed you roughly, clearly desperate and no longer holding back. You didn’t kiss back, trying to get him off, but he wasn’t giving you much room to move. He only pulled away for air, staring at you with lust filled eyes.

“Stop… we’re all… intoxicated…”

“Just a few drinks.” Younghoon commented. “To get us started.”

Hyunjae slid his hands up your shirt, feeling your skin. His sudden touch made you jump, but he kept you under him. Before you had the chance to try and stop him Younghoon grabbed your hands and pinned them above your head. A devilish grin adorned his face.

“Let’s create all those off-screen scenes, shall we?”

His words made you very shy, but you were still at their mercy. Your shirt was pulled up past your bra, then that was moved to expose your breasts. Hyunjae immediately took one into his mouth, his tongue swirling around your sensitive skin and giving your nipple a playful tug. Younghoon kept your arms pinned with one hand while the other massaged your lonely breast, getting a moan out of you. Next thing you knew there were fingers traveling down between your legs. A frustrated groan escaped Hyunjae’s lips as he had to pull away from your breast to get you out of your pants.

His movements clearly let you know he was getting impatient. He was quick to get your legs free, his face diving between your legs this time. You let out a yelp when you felt his nose running up along your panties. Hyunjae took in a deep breath, pushing your legs further apart. You felt his fingers start rubbing you through your panties, the fabric quickly getting wet as it was pushed against your folds. You couldn’t meet his eyes, but that meant your gaze would find Younghoon. That same smile was still on his face.

He made sure you couldn’t escape as he got on top of you, straddling you between his legs and blocking your view of Hyunjae. Now you could only feel what the other boy was doing, leaving the visuals to your imagination. Although Younghoon drew your attention to something else. Despite being fully clothed and atop you, he still had enough room to unzip his pants and pull his dick out. He already had a bit of a hard-on and didn’t feel shy about stroking himself in front of you. He maintained heavy eye contact as he twitched and moaned, trying to keep some control. You shut your eyes, but he didn’t seem to like that.

“No, no, none of that.”

You felt a light slap on your cheek, Younghoon encouraging you to open your eyes. As you did so you were met with his smiling face. Then you felt Hyunjae push your panties aside, running his cold fingers against your core. Another yelp escaped your lips.

“She’s wet and ready, hyung.”

“Prep her properly, no need to rush a good thing.”

You could hear Hyunjae whining but he didn’t do anything rash. Instead you felt a finger go into your core, a moan escaping you. Both boys chuckled, but continued with their actions.

“Can I cum on your pretty tits?” Younghoon asked between moans. “I’ll try not to aim for your lips.”

As you thought to give an answer you felt a second finger enter you, Younghoon taking your moan as approval. He started stroking himself faster, throwing his head back in ecstasy and bucking his hips forward. He didn’t last long after that, spilling his seed onto your chest, your breasts, and keeping to his word. You felt the warmth and stickiness on your skin, the sensation adding onto what you were already feeling. By now you were certainly getting overwhelmed.

“I can’t hold back anymore.”

Hyunjae removed his fingers then shoved Younghoon off of you. He climbed on to the bed, spreading your legs apart. He quickly undid his pants, stroking himself to get hard and then you felt him stretch you open. A loud moan escaped your lips and you arched your back, desperately grasping at the bedsheets.

“Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh fuck.”

“I’m that good, baby girl?”

You couldn’t really talk anymore, just feeling everything. It really had been a long time since you were last taken care of in such a manner. You slowly began to move with Hyunjae’s thrust, only focusing on your own pleasure. You didn’t even bother holding back your moans, just letting everything go and being in the moment. Perhaps it was also the alcohol keeping your mind off the reality of your situation. Hyunjae kept a steady rhythm, his own groans and moans dancing alongside yours. You could tell he was close, as were you, but before either of you could reach climax everything stopped.

Younghoon had pulled the other boy away from you, leaving you suddenly empty. You whimpered, more upset over the loss of friction and ignoring what the other two were yelling about. It wasn’t until you felt two dibs in the bed that you realized their attention had returned to you. Hyunjae pulled you up, meeting your lips with his own. You kissed back, desperate to return to where you were. Once he pulled away he was giggling, keeping an arm wrapped around your waist, the other guiding his cock back into you.

A satisfied moan escaped your lips, and you leaned against Hyunjae. You didn’t notice Younghoon coming up from behind at first, not until you felt his hand down between your legs. His fingers massaged your clit, getting you to that edge again but he stopped short. You whimpered, wanting them to stop teasing you. Although soon enough you realized this was prep for something more. You felt something else pressing against your back, and then dipping between your legs. You had little time to process before you felt Hyunjae moving again, soon followed by another joining the party.

You grabbed onto Hyunjae, throwing your head back and resting against Younghoon’s shoulder. They both moved together, overwhelming you with pleasure. You were seeing white, hands exploring your body and smearing around the fluids on your chest. You were completely at their mercy now, letting them do as they pleased with your body. You didn’t last long in their embrace, being pushed over the edge so viciously, given no moment to breathe. Your body shook with pleasure as they kept moving inside you, taking advantage of your current state and loving the way you squeezed them tightly.

You weren’t given a break. Both boys continuing in their own desire for orgasm and using your body to do so. You were partially conscious, but well aware of the warmth between your legs. At some point you were laying down again, sandwiched between your co-stars, snuggling against one of them. You felt a hand on your head, petting you gently, but you were too worn out to care. The morning would be a very different story though.

“I hope you’ll stay with us.” Hyunjae mumbled. “We’d take such good care of you.”

“Hm…”

“I guess that’s a yes.”

“Either way.” Younghoon added. “She’s ours now.”

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gghostwriter · 2 months ago

Text

Entangled Strings of Fate

Chapter 8. Time heals (almost) all wounds

Spencer Reid x Fem!Original Character

Summary: Caltech, Pasadena - Cleo considers herself a woman of logic. With an IQ of 158 and an eidetic memory, how could she not. But meeting Spencer, the boy genius to hers, had her believing in intangible theories like the invisible string and the fates. Now, if only he would notice the depth of her feelings. Set in Caltech, pre-season 1 and will progress from there. w.c: 1.9k a/n: ngl i had a hard time taking this fic off of hiatus. There were some instances where I just wanted to drop it all together but i persevered so here we are, slowly back in the game. The updates would be irregular since I’m also working on other ideas behind the scenes but hope you all still enjoy and support. Comments & reblogs are greatly appreciated! previous chapter || series masterlist || next chapter

”If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” - Frederick Douglass

Change was a peculiar thing.

If Spencer Reid was to describe it from his own experience dealing with his fight with Dilaudid, he’d liken it to the well-known ‘five stages of grief’—denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance. His progress was never a linear thing, there were days his emotion would swig back and forth within stages like some sort of pendulum. He resented it. It made him feel weak, resentful, and angry. At the world, at the people around him, and most of all at himself.

The first and second stages were denial and anger. Two emotions he regrets to know too well and deflect to others poorly.

“Reid,” Morgan’s tone coming off harsh from restrained anger. “What was that? I just saw Cleo—” he pointed behind him towards the door. “—rush out and crying.”

He scoffed. “Nothing. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Yeah, well let’s talk about the elephant in the room then. Since when had you had those?” Morgan nodded his head in the direction of the medicine bottles left haphazardly on the coffee table.

“Since Tobias,” he shrugged nonchalantly, opting to go with a half truth and a half lie to try and throw his fellow profiler off his trail. Not that it would ever work with how tenacious Morgan was. “He must have slipped it in my pockets before his murder—”

“Murder?” Morgan picked up on his specific choice of wording.

“—and its not like I used it.”

A lie.

“Kid, we both know that was self defense and Cleo told me the truth, don’t like to me.”

Spencer averted his eyes, finding all the scuffles on his floor suddenly interesting. It was indeed self defense, he knew that, but Tobias didn’t deserve to be killed—not really. He wasn’t like the rest of the unsubs that they have hunted down. He was just a victim of bad fate and his own fractured mind. Inside, the real Tobias still saved him and for that he felt grateful and regretful that his way of repayment was made through by a bullet.

“Reid, I thought you were getting better. What you went through was traumatic but this isn’t the right way to cope—drugs and pushing away probably the person who cares for you the most. This isn’t you, Reid.”

“Yeah well, maybe this is the new me, have you thought about that?” He glared at Morgan. “I don’t even know why you’re here lecturing me about keeping secrets and coping, we all their own demons locked up, don’t we? The members of the BAU aren’t really known to be the most trusting and forthcoming with our pasts. We brush the trauma all under the rug and hope it doesn’t catch up to us.”

Morgan sighed as his shoulder dropped, all the fight in him leaving. “Come talk to me when your anger has passed—” he stepped back until he was almost by the door. “—and Reid, let’s hope this isn’t the new you ‘cause if it is—” he trailed off, shaking his head.

As the soft closing of the door echoed through the apartment, Spencer felt relief. Relief in being free to do what he wanted without judgement and relief to unknowingly hit rock bottom as his trembling fingers reached for the sealed bottle of Dilaudid.

———

The third stage was bargaining.

Spencer didn’t know how he got here. Here being the present without the two strongest pillars in his life, Cleo and Gideon. One he pushed away and the other, leaving him behind with just a letter to his name.

The team felt incomplete. He felt incomplete.

As a man of science, he didn’t believe in higher power or the cosmos but one late night, he found himself on the rooftop of his apartment complex, cursing the stars and bargaining for the past to come back to the present.

If the star placements that night were different, maybe the present would be too. If he had worn a different combination of socks, maybe Cleo would still be by his side. And if he had not separated from JJ, maybe he would be here—at rock bottom.

It was a place he never thought he’d be in. Did he really have 187 IQ for nothing? Was all those knowledge in his expansive brain useless in recognizing wrong decisions made?

He sighed as he watched the sun break the horizon.

Another day powered with no sleep.

Another day of wishing things had been different.

And another day of missing the one he pushed away.

———

The fourth stage, depression, hit when he least expected it and with it, came an immense regret that threatened to pull him under it’s ravaging tides.

By definition, depression was a general emotional dejection and regret was the act of feeling sorrow. Easy to understand in wording but difficult to explain when both were cruising through his body.

If Spencer was to explain what both were beyond it’s dictionary definition, he would liken regret to a bone injury that was never reset right and depression to deep, self inflicted wound that had been picked on numerous times that caused it to scar permanently. He felt himself riddled with both—fresh and old, reminders of his inactions and wrongful judgement. The optimists would wade through it and wear their progress with pride. These so called life battle scars that lead them to a better future but he wasn’t one of them.

No, he carried his with such shame causing his shoulders to hunch further forward from the accumulated weight of his whole life’s misfortunes. The heavy, heavy weight of sorrow from not being good enough for his father to stay. Remorse from not being strong enough to carry his ailing mother’s load and having her admitted in a facility. Disappointment from choosing the easy way out of his drug addiction—lashing out and using behind closed doors. Heartache from pushing away the only person in his life that cared enough to be angry and concerned, Cleo—his constant, his number one supporter.

A rhythmic knock on his door pulled him out from under the waves. Blanket draped over his body, Spencer sluggishly made his way to it—ignoring the hunger pains in his empty stomach. It was nothing compared to what his heart was going through.

“Spencer,” Garcia uttered as she took in the boy genius’ form in worry.

He cleared his throat, rough from the lack of use. “Garcia, what—what are you doing here?”

“Taking care of you since it’s obvious you’re not going to,” the tech analyst maneuvered her way through with a Tupperware on hand. She headed straight to the kitchen regardless his small protests.

Garcia worked fast in plating him soup and a slice of bread. If this were a normal evening, he’d feel grateful and enticed by the smell but this wasn’t so all he felt was an urge to retch.

“I don’t want it,” he mumbled, shuffling further away from the source of the stench.

She sighed. “Reid, what day is it today?”

The question threw him off a loop. What does that have to do with forcing him to eat?

“Friday. It’s just Friday.”

“It’s Sunday,” she walked closer until he was reaching distance. “I’ve been calling you and you haven’t been picking up so I took it upon myself to visit you instead. Now—” dragging him to the dining table. “—I need you to eat. Even a little bit ‘cause I know you haven’t eaten at all.”

He brought a trickle to his drying lips. It was chicken soup and if he didn’t know any better, it tasted familiar. Homemade, even.

“How is it?” Garcia asked.

“Did you make this?”

Her eyes widened before her hand waved in front of her face in jest. “What? No—no, I got it from the restaurant near my apartment.”

That was a lie.

A lie that Spencer didn’t question. He had lied about worse things and he had no right to question where the soup really came from when he knew the answer.

From Cleo.

Or at least it was Cleo’s recipe.

The thought of her still being part of his life, no matter how inconsequential, warmed his insides more than the chicken soup had.

“Do you think I’m bad for taking those drugs?”

She gave a brief pause, enough to have Spencer worry. “No. I don’t have the right to judge you on your actions but—”

“But?”

“—it’s sad that other people bore brunt of your anger, which wasn’t your fault but wasn’t your greatest moment either.”

“Do you think—” he downed the last few spoonfuls. “—she’d forgive me?”

It was what kept him awake most nights. The thought of never being part of Cleo’s world any more than a passerby was a living nightmare he hoped to escape from. Losing her felt like he lost his own limb. It threw him off balance. It broke Earth’s gravitational pull to his self. And when he does sleep, he wakes with this fog that he never pushed her away—never hurt her like a phantom limb before he drops back down to reality.

She reached into her glittered purse, rummaging through before she found what she was looking for. “I’ve been keeping this with me since that night and I think it’s time I give it to you.”

The single piece of paper looked worn at the edges and its folds. It looked non-descriptive. It was the contents that mattered. That truly mattered.

Law Enforcement: Narcotics Anonymous

(555) 657-02149

All hastily written in Cleo’s loopy handwriting

“Oh.”

———

The final stage, acceptance, came with a physical change in the team. A new old member was stepping up to the plate in Gideon’s place.

David Rossi.

He had been feeling like his past self for a while now. All in thanks to the support each member has extended to him. As he started his climb up from the abyss of addiction, he had realized that his team—Hotch, Morgan, JJ, Garcia, and Emily, were there to cushion his fall should be falter and as the warmth of daylight hit his face on the way up, he wondered why he decided to stay in the darkness for so long.

Why he had to lose two pillars before realizing that this is where he belonged? That this is who Spencer Reid is—a paradox of good and bad, a person who chooses the good no matter his demons.

And although adjusting to a new BAU member would take a while, he felt optimistic that everything would turn out just right. That it was time to finally let go of self loathing and make amends to those he can, no matter what the outcome.

That was how he found himself penning a letter to the one person he hadn’t seen in months.

To the one person who mattered after his mother.

To Cleo.

Comments & reblogs are greatly appreciated!

#spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fic #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid x fem!oc #spencer reid x oc #spencer reid #dr spencer reid #spencer reid series #spencer reid angst

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janetsboys · 1 year ago

Text

How did you know?

✿ characters: carl grimes x peletier!reader (6 years after his death)

✿ A/N: haven’t been there in a while !

✿summary: you’re carol’s daughter, sophia’s twin sister, you grew up with carl and got together before he died. now your adoptive little brother doesn’t know what his feelings are towards the whisperer girl and you usually give good advice soooooo

✿warnings: mention of death

english is not my first language, i make mistakes <3

————————————————————————————

✿ ✿ ✿

You were both at the Hilltop, this is where you lived. You had just hit 21 and had already been through 6 years without Carl.

Your mom and your step father that was just like the father you never had brought you guys here for a while, especially Henry, you were kinda just there to look after him.

“Hey (Y/N), you got a second?” “Hi, yeah what’s going on?” your adoptive brother walks to you all nervous.

You knew about the whisperer girl that Daryl interrogated, you didn’t know the whole story about her but you knew Henry got close to her and to be honest, you felt like this was none of your business, still worried about your little brother.

Then her mother went to get her back and she left, you knew it hurt Henry but you couldn’t really do anything about it.

You step out of the nursery you were reorganizing and you guys sit down together,

“Are you okay? You look pale Hen” you said worried he’d be sick. You kinda developed a phobia of sick people, seeing Carl after the bite kinda stayed in your mind.

“I’m alright don’t worry. I just- you know the girl that just left, i really think we, i don’t know.” he tried to find the words desperately.

“Did you fall for her?” you said smiling. “I don’t know that’s why I’m here. Do you think she’s worth it?”

“Worth what? Risking your life for her? I don’t think a lot of people are worth your life Henry.” he was exactly the age Carl was when he died. You’re very overprotective of your little brother.

“If i love her then she is, yeah?” he stared into your eyes agitating his hands. “Do you love her?” you suddenly lost your smile.

“How did you know you were in love?” that one hit you right in the face. Your brother knew about the boy you loved, he also knew you never found love again afterwards, at least you didn’t allow yourself to.

But you didn’t talk about it much, you immediately shut yourself up when someone tried to talk about it. I think the only one you allowed to ask about Carl was Henry, cause he reminded you of him sometimes, he had a kind heart like Carl did.

When he asked you this, you gulped and you thought about it, you slowly fell in love with Carl while you were growing up together, the real day you realized was the day you arrived to Alexandria.

You had big trust issues because of the terminus and all the crazy shit that happened to you in the past years.

You and everyone else were sleeping in the living room of one of the houses Deana gave y’all. You were laying in a sleeping bag on the floor right next to Carl.

Everyone was settling their “bed” in the room and you guys were already laying next to each other, “Do you think you’ll manage to sleep tonight?” he asked you nervously playing with the bag’s zipper.

“I think so, i feel safe with everyone here and i know my mom or Daryl are certainly not gonna sleep so we’re alright i guess.” he nodded but didn’t seem convinced.

You wanted him to relax and finally get to sleep under a roof, sort of safe. Your instinct told you to put your hand on his and you immediately did, he stopped fidgeting the zipper and looked at you.

“You finally get a real night sleep, at least tonight, it’s been so long. Look at this house, we talked about this remember? How we missed our old houses? This one kinda looks like mine, maybe it’s not safe here but at least this one night, people are doing the job for us.“ you looked at the adults of the room saying this, Carl followed your look.

He seemed more relaxed at that moment, when you guys stared at each other and when he started soothing your hand with his thumb, it was just the two of you and you finally put words on your feelings, you were very much in love.

✿ ✿

“I don’t think i could’ve done this without you, (Y/N), i couldn’t have been the only kid. Without anyone to talk to, someone who understands.” he looked so tired.

“I’m glad i’ve got you too.” you smile turning to look at him while he was facing the ceiling. You looked at him closely, he was like, the most beautiful boy you had ever seen.

You kept looking at him for a while, everyone treated you like adults and you had to behave like ones but when it was just the two of you you could finally be your age.

You could laugh and talk like actual 14 then 15 year olds.

✿ ✿

When everyone headed to sleep, at least for some of you, Carl decided to get his sleeping bag closer to yours when the lights were down so he could hold you in his arms the whole night.

At first you thought he did this to reassure you but rethinking about this, Carl did this to reassure himself. To know someone was there.

When you fell asleep that night, you knew you were going to love him for the rest of your life. And you’re convinced he realized he was in love with you right at the same moment.

✿ ✿

When you get back to Henry after this split second of reflection, he’s desperately waiting for an answer.

“Well, when i realized i felt safe around him, i could lay my head on his shoulder to fall asleep as if i was in the safest home in the world. That he was the one who understood me and that i understood too. When i realized i could calm him down with my words because he truly cared about what i had to say. Because he cared and i cared. Because he looked after me and i looked after him.”

Henry was paying so much attention to your words.

“He wrote me on his death letter, you quote him, “I knew that wherever i would go, i would find my way back to your arms, back to the house we built for each other. I know that someday, i’ll walk in our little house again and i’ll find you waiting in a sleeping bag.” if she feels like a safe home to you. You’re in love.” your eyes were watering of course.

“I don’t know if she loves me as much as you love Carl but, i think i love her. And if i’m right, i’m losing her right now.” he had glowing eyes, you had a feeling he was in love with her.

You pulled him into a comforting hug; “Please, Henry, do what you gotta do but i beg you to stay safe and think before you do something sweetheart.”

You held him so tight into your arms “Promise me, Hen.” you told him a tear rolling down your cheek. “Promise me.” you said again.

“I promise you, (Y/N)” you let go of your strong hold and kiss his forehead, hands holding his face.

“I love you, and i have a feeling you’ll really see him again one day.” he smiles down at you.

“I love you too, i love you so much.” you let go of his face and watch him walking away, not knowing what he would do.

✿ ✿

————————————————————————————

sorry for the long absence i’ve been through some serious shit omg

hope you guys enjoyed that tell me what you think love y’all <3333

#carl grimes #carl grimes x reader #carl grimes x y/n #carl grimes x you #reader insert #fanfic #x reader #twd carl #carl grimes fluff #carl come back please

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a-lonely-dunedain · 2 months ago

Note

29 and/or 59 for celeair?

#29 "Electrocution/Shock" and #59 "Storms/Weather"

oh hehehe yaay yippee I get to make Celeair Suffer through improbable circumstances! my favorite! I get too giddy about this sorta thing which is why I'm certain my characters would hate me if they were real

(also I didn't manage on working 59 in here all that much but when I do the followup to this it'll probably be present) (ALSO also, I couldn't help myself and had to work in #26 "Helpless/Motionless/Paralyzed" and #100 "Chase/Hunted". yeaaaaah Celeair's really Going Through It huh.)

Well this was certainly a fine predicament Celeair had gotten himself into. Alone in the now-abandoned herd lands in southern Trum Dreng, cornered by a small group of Dragon Clan raiders.

These alone might not have been such a deadly threat, for while he does not fight he still has a number of useful tricks up his sleeve. It is an unusually dark night, it smells like a storm is brewing and thick clouds veil the moon and stars, so a flash of blinding light and the sound of footsteps running in the other direction while he hid behind a rock should normally be enough to stun and distract his pursuers, allowing him a quick escape.

But, it is not mere raiders he must contend with here, and the massive Worm they brought with them will not be so easily tricked. There is an evil sort of cunning in its eyes, and there is something else wrong about it too.

It is of a breed he has never seen before, instead of the rusty umber and gold scales these beasts usually have, it is pure jet black, and the only reason it does not blend entirely into the night is because its entire body is streaked with bright jagged lines of cyan and cobalt, he could swear they emit a light of their own. It is also missing the distinct red warpaint the Dragon-Clan typically adorn their beasts with, and the only marking it bears is a large imprint of a white hand at the base of its tail.

“Well well, what do we have here?” their leader steps forward, casually brandishing her blade “a lone trespasser on our rightfully won lands? We were here to hunt Stags to become thralls of Isengard, but it looks like we’ve found a different kind of sport!”

“Sport? oh I think you will find little of that, as you can see I am unarmed” he calmly holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender, though what they cannot see is that hidden between his fingers is a small amount of fine grey powder. All he need do is snap his fingers at the right moment and it will cause a loud ‘bang!’ and a bright flash of light. “If it is a fight you are looking for I’m afraid you will be disappointed.”

“We’re not picky,” she shrugs “if we can’t find a fight, slaughter will do.”

He internally curses himself for insisting to come here alone, but it seemed a reasonable choice at the time. There is a rare herb called Cloudwort that grows only by the banks of this river, and it is needed for an antidote to a new kind of poison the Dragon Clan had been coating their weapons in. Already many people of the Stag Clan were suffering from its effects, and would likely succumb to it soon if nothing was done. They knew that the Dragon Clan still lurked around the ruined farmsteads, and he thought that, rather than risking any of their few remaining warriors in open battle, it would be better to slip in and out undetected. It was a calculated risk, but none of them had accounted for this new gift from Saruman the raiders had with them.

But it’s not hopeless, Margim knows he’s here. She was staunchly opposed to the idea of him coming alone, and as a compromise they agreed that she would remain hidden nearby in the event that something went wrong. She will come for him if she senses anything is amiss. If he can just stall for long enough...

“If it is prisoners you are after, I will go quietly.” He doubts they will entertain that idea, he gets the distinct impression they are out for blood, but it’s the best gambit he has to play at the moment. Anything that might stay their weapons for a little longer.

“I’m afraid you are out of luck, Duvoidaid,” Their leader shakes her head with a cruel smirk “The Wizard asked us to bring him those of the Caru-Lûth, he never said anything about lost southerners, so you’re starting to look an awful lot like Worm food... isn’t that right, my pet?” she looks at the black Worm beside her, but it shows no reaction to her words, its eyes remaining fixed on Celeair with an unsettling sharpness. He realizes it hasn’t blinked once. What did the Wizard do to this poor creature?

“But I might as well make this interesting,” she continues “I’ll give you a five second head start.”

“What?”

“Four,” well so much for stalling.

He’s barely made it a few yards down the winding paths of the once-farmsteads before he hears a rumbling hiss and lumbering footsteps close behind him. She definitely did not give him the full four seconds. As he sprints he holds his hand out behind him and snaps. There is a BANG! and a flash of violently dazzling light. He casts the briefest glance behind him, and is both unsurprised and disheartened to see that the Worm was totally unaffected by it, and it swiftly lumbers after him mouth agape, driven by instinct rather than sight.

But the more important thing is that sound surely alerted Margim to his peril, he just needs to hold out until she makes it to him. Easier said than done of course, something with proportions like that has absolutely no right to move so swiftly, and yet-

Celeair notices he can see his shadow in front of him, quite clearly despite the darkness. There is a bright, blue-tinted light growing behind him, and a strange crackling sound. He barely has the time to process this information before something in the back of his mind screams get out of the way.

Immediately he throws himself to the side and into the cover of a ruined farm building. In that same moment there is a crack of thunder and a flash of light shoots past, missing Celeair only by a slim margin. Something explodes where the blast landed, but he cannot see where. He doesn’t have time to wonder what on earth that was.

Just as he staggers to his feet the Worm’s head rounds the doorway, and Celeair realizes that he is cornered. He frantically looks for a means of escape, but then sees that the Worm’s mouth has begun to glow again as little arcs of lightning fizzle between its teeth.

Of course it can breathe lightning. Why wouldn’t it breathe lightning.

He knows that it is possible for those learned in the lore of nature to channel the power of lightning, he had read about some methods for it in his studies, but it is not something he ever practiced himself. There was never a need for it before, he never wished to harm anyone with such powers, and he never expected to encounter something that could use it against him.

But here he is, staring down the maw of this great Worm as it crackles with lightning. It was by sheer dumb luck that it missed its first strike, but it will not do so again. He has but a split moment before its attack is fully charged, and in that time all he can do is grab a nearby burnt wooden rake -it will have to do as a staff for now- plant it into the ground with both hands, call upon what fragments of the technique he remembers, and brace himself. If he can, he must channel as much of it into the ground as possible, and maybe, just maybe it will be enough to save him.

A flash of light, a crack of thunder, and then the very core of his being in engulfed in searing agony. There is some small mercy in the fact that he is almost immediately rendered unconscious, but it is only a brief respite.

He awakes mere seconds later, collapsed on the ground with the remnants of his makeshift staff scattered around him in splinters and the smell of burnt flesh in the air.

His plan worked, he’s still alive. Barely.

He feels as if he is burning from the inside out, his hands and arms feel like they are being shredded by white-hot razors, he can barely remember where he is over the pounding in his head, and is completely paralyzed. He feels as though he should be more worried about that last part, as through the pain he dimly recalls that he was being chased by something. There is a shuffling sound drawing near him.

With some effort he manages to get his eyes to focus, and the great Worm crawling towards him comes into view. He tries to move, to cry out, to do anything at all, but his body heeds none of his commands. He can do nothing but watch helplessly as the Worm calmly approaches its next meal, seeming to be in no particular hurry as he can no longer run from it.

The thought enters his mind that, in a few minutes or so, Margim will have to discover him half-eaten by this thing. Of all the ways he could die this is a particularly grisly end, and he wishes that she would not have to see it. He wishes he could apologise to her for it. And for getting himself killed.

It is difficult for him to follow what happens next. Just as the Worm prepares to bite down on him, he thinks he hears the sound of footsteps running up behind it. There is a blur of movement, the sound of a mace cracking bone, a pained hiss, another blow, and a spray of hot blood.

Soon after, he feels himself being gently lifted by strong hands and hears a familiar voice calling out to him. He can’t really make out any words, and his eyes already drifted shut without him noticing, but the voice makes him feel safe, so instinctively he knows it’s Margim.

Her tone sounds uncharacteristically frantic. He tries to say something, to tell her that he’s alright -even though he’s not sure it’s true- but all he manages is a pained wheeze.

Soon he feels movement again as Margim stands with him still held securely in her arms. Consciousness slips away from him and he knows nothing more.

Celeair is Fine and Ok don't worry. or at least he will be later lol (also I feel like the very last ask I got should be able to tie into this rather well so expect a short followup at some point wherein Celeair has a slightly less bad time)

#Taz's foray into writing #lotro fic #lotro oc #Celeair #Margim #Celeair might have almost died horribly but the important thing is *Almost*#it sure is a good thing he has a strong and protective girlfriend huh #everyone give Margim a round of applause for being so cool #lotro

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oskea93 · 8 months ago

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✦ It Had to be You: Prequel ✦

John "Bucky" Egan x OC Gale "Buck Cleven x OC

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and not associated with the real people mentioned from the show. This is simply based on the portrayals of the actors playing these characters. Warning: Mentions of war, cursing, sexual contact, depressive episodes, verbal and emotional abuse, drinking, etc. This fic will deal with heavy situations about war, grief, and everything in between. Please be advised when reading.

● Taglist available ●

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

“I promised him that I would watch over you – take fucking care of you – love you.”

Tears were streaming down both of our faces as night’s warm wind swirled around our angry bodies. The summer heat wasn’t the only thing on the verge of tipping past the point of return. Our animosity towards one another had been building long before the devastating news. He was my husband’s best friend – his partner in crime when it came to flying those God forsaken planes. They had met during training – an instant connection forming between the two as soon as they met. He would write to me, telling of his new friend, and all the mischievous adventures they had while learning to fly.

We had first met one another at one of the gatherings the school was putting on for the families. I could understand why my husband enjoyed his company so much – he was funny, charming, and the look in his blue eyes told me he was nothing but trouble. He spent most of the night at our table, his family leaving early in the evening. I would watch as the two spoke like they had known each other their whole lives – laughing and cracking jokes. If he was a woman, I think Gale would’ve left me and ran off with him.

John “Bucky” Egan was a thorn in my side after that initial meeting. I loved Gale dearly – giving myself to only him and vowing to stay by his side for eternity. There was just something about John that caused an unsettling pit in my stomach. His subtle actions or the way his blue eyes would just stare right through you made my stomach erupt like Mount Vesuvius. He was the best man at our wedding – standing tall by Gale’s side as we committed ourselves to one another.

Gale and I both knew that his time would come when the call to action would ring it’s awful sound, but John was the one who pressed Gale to leave earlier than expected. John would make it sound like it was just a big game – bringing down the enemy and having those around the US cheer for your brave and talented action. He didn’t mention the fact that at any second you would become a telegraph being hand delivered by the War Department – No, Bucky never uttered those words.

#masters of the air #gale cleven #bucky egan #john egan #buck cleven #mota #austin butler #callum turner #austin butler fanfiction #austin butler major gale buck cleven #austin butler imagine #austin butler smut #callum turner major john bucky egan #fanfiction #callum turner imagine #callum turner smut #bucky egan x oc #bucky egan fanfiction #buck cleven x oc

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lavenoon · 2 years ago

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AU Glamrocks, here we go! Close-ups, lines, and character descriptions under the cut <3

Freddy: Code Name: Gold (jokingly called “Golden Boy” by his team members)

The oldest of the Glamrocks, and an import. He’s been with Fez from the start, and has come a long way from “Friedrich Fassbär” (changed to a civilian Freddy Fazbear - bear being a literal translation, and “Faz” sounding similar enough - what a harmless suggestion by the Fez higher ups). Originally programmed in German, sometimes he still slips up even after all the updates and upgrades he went through. Of the Glamrocks, past and present, he’s the only one who wasn’t commissioned by Fez for the purpose of agent work. He was young when he met the late head of Fez, and promptly scouted - young enough to leave behind his previous life and move.

He’s proud to be such a cornerstone of Abra Fez, but it also comes with a burden. From the start, he’s watched people not return from missions, taking on more missions himself as if he could protect everyone if he just did all the work. But in the end, his friends - because they are friends, thanks to Fez’ policy of agents being allowed to share their identity with other agents if they so choose - pulled him back from that brink, and reminded him that it’s not his responsibility, that all agents chose this work, and are aware of the risks. Things happen, but he can only do so much.

Then Foxy “died”, and only a few short months later, Bonnie “disappeared” - it broke him. Freddy grew into a workaholic, and his anxiety skyrocketed about losing more friends. He doesn’t take it out on Roxy or Monty, and doesn’t fault them for the roles they fill. He’s grown to befriend both, though Roxy and Monty themselves keep a bit of a distance for their own reasons. Freddy would like to be greedy, he would like to have it all - his old friends, well and alive, and new friends joining them. The reality that that’s impossible hurts him, and so he drowns himself in work. He remains close to Chica, though often their conversations take a dive in the direction of nostalgia and grief, so they don’t seek each other out exclusively a lot, and besides, he barely has the time nowadays, anyway…

An all-rounder in terms of stealth and intelligence collection

Roxy: Code Name: Gaze (or Glare, when she’s angry - but only where she can’t hear)

Foxy’s direct replacement, and while she wasn’t told in as many words, she’s smart enough to figure that out. Many, many inadequacy issues about it - how is she supposed to live up to someone she never even knew? How is she supposed to feel like she earned her spot when she was instantly promoted into the Glamrock rank after completing training? Is she even any good? Overcompensates by putting on a show and acting aloof and at times even seemingly arrogant, very proud of her sight and the advantages it gives her. That part is real - and she knows she's good, with very real talents and tricks up her sleeve. But her "competition" is long dead, and the knowledge that if he hadn't died she would have just become a normal agent eats at her.

When she joined she barely got to know Bonnie before he disappeared, too, and while his loss hit her as well, she wasn’t as affected as Freddy or even Chica. Meaning she watched in detail how her new coworkers were crushed by the news, acting like barely a shell of their former selves for a long while. For a long while she thought about if that was their reaction to losing Foxy, too - not that she'd ever know.

Felt very awkward for the short while it took for Monty to be promoted into the ranks, as the only one not still mourning, wondering if perhaps she’s not affected enough, and if that makes her an even worse person in Freddy’s and Chica’s eyes, because she’s already replacing their friend.

Assumes many things about Freddy’s and Chica’s views on her in general, doing none of them a favor. A few times she tried asking about Foxy, but felt too bad about the sadness it caused, and so he now haunts her. Sometimes she wonders if the voice telling her she’s a failure is his, because she has no image of him to compare against. She pushes all of that away and still befriends the two, with just those lingering anxieties she’s too scared to bring up, because what if they confirm? With Monty she’s a bit more relaxed, though he has his own issues to work through, so it’s not like they’re closer to each other than anyone else.

Highly driven to prove herself and her merit, doing her best to prove (to Fez, to Freddy and Chica, to herself) that she is the best, and to leave the shadow of Foxy she was thrust in behind.

An all-rounder in terms of stealth and intelligence collection

Chica: Code Name: Pepperoni (usually shortened to Pepper, or the occasional Pep)

Oh, she tries so hard. Has always done her best to be fun and energetic, and felt comfortable with her spot in the world. Then half her friends died in a very short time, Fez started pushing for upgrades and changes, and nowadays she looks in the mirror and barely recognizes herself. She barely recognizes Freddy, either, and it’s almost scarier - she knows she’s still the same person, still feels like herself, even if that peppy energy feels harder and harder to keep up. But for Freddy, the only old friend she has left, she doesn’t even know if he’s still the person she knew underneath all that grief.

Her little family has changed irrevocably, and she tries to make it a new one, even with all of them resisting in their own ways. She huffs and puffs fake complaints, she teases and jokes, and she’s loud enough to cover the awkward silence that so often settles around them all.

She feels just a little abandoned, and isn't quite sure by whom. By Foxy, or Bonnie? For dying? By Freddy? For grieving? By Roxy and Monty, for not even trying to get as close as she hoped? By Fez itself, for reminding her that everything is temporary, and that their work is dangerous, and not doing more to protect them all? But no, that last thought is dangerous - the seed of doubt is there, after Foxy and Bonnie both started doubting, and look at what happened… She’s smart, smarter than people may think, and she’s terrified of the thought that the agency she has dedicated most of her life to would kill her or her friends so quickly just for being inconvenient.

Most of the time, she’s glad to have “one of those faces”, and a chipper attitude that makes people want to talk to her, underestimate her, and give her aaallll the information she wants. But when she starts feeling isolated by circumstances, with Freddy’s mind too clouded by grief and guilt, and the newbies remaining distant, there are suddenly many scary realizations just waiting to be had, and she can feel them creep closer with a dreadful finality. All she ever wanted was for her family to be okay, and happy, but it seems so unattainable when she struggles to stop everything from tearing at the seams. She pretends she’s fine just to act as the glue keeping them all together, too scared of losing them, too, even if it’s not the happiness she had before.

Her disposition makes her more inclined to accept missions for intelligence collection

Monty: Code Name: Nine Iron (Chica uses any golf term arbitrarily)

Technically, a little older than Roxy, but worked as a normal agent for a while. He quickly showed potential, despite some anger issues that made him decline many polite and formal undercover missions. Loud and energetic as he is, he sells himself as a dumb brute a lot, but hides a keen mind. He’s just not the most patient person, and he knows it - but when he was recommended for a team-up with a Glamrock he didn’t dare question it either.

And then the mission went sideways, Bonnie disappeared (which Fez seemed all too eager to label as destruction after minimal evidence), and Monty was briefly investigated before being cleared. A little while after, when he was offered to join the Glamrocks, he did end up questioning it - why replace the guy so quickly, and with him of all people, who couldn’t even help Bonnie out? That’s just a bit too good to be true - it’s fishy.

Fez calmly explains the facts, and they don’t look good for Monty. A rising star on his best way to become a great agent, but with violent outbursts that have left the clean up a mess many times before. A Glamrock, meant to mellow him out on a difficult mission, and no witnesses to his destruction, with very little evidence. Monty can shut his mouth and take the job and thus the benefits it comes with, or at any point they can reopen the investigation and he won’t like what they’ll find.

He takes the job. But in turn, he’s very quickly disillusioned with Abra Fez as an agency, and only the threat hanging over him keeps him from spilling it all. Sometimes fights with the others about things Fez wants them to do, which they think is because of his little anger issues, and he lets them believe it. Any suspicion the others may have harbored however he quickly dissolves, simply because of the subdued condolences he shares the first time he joins their ranks. They’re all welcoming, and include him in their off the clock hang outs when those do happen, but his lack of faith in Fez makes him feel like an outsider anyway.

But after years of the other shoe never dropping, he does his best to push it all away and just be a part of the group. If he can’t believe in management, he can believe in the people who stuck out their necks to help him so many times before, and he’ll do the same right back - he couldn’t help Bonnie, and he’s feeling so very guilty for his unknowing complicity in his disappearance, but he can make sure none of his friends suffer the same fate.

(Besides, he’s aware of the fact that he’d be the first Fez would silence)

His disposition makes him more inclined to accept stealth missions, and/ or missions with anticipated enemy contact

But then, enter a little menace:

Gregory: no official code name, but when he declared he wanted one, Roxy offhandedly called him Arsonist. Freddy in the background gasped as if personally offended, which Chica took as a prompt to amend “in Training!” - Freddy’s reaction was to cry out a “No!” much like the “Show me what you have” “A knife!” vine, while Monty started losing his shit. Roxy slipped the kid a lighter while Freddy was busy telling Chica that “in Training” does not make it better. Freddy personally calls him Superstar, after Gregory commented that “Glamrocks” sounds more like a band than a team of secret agents. The kid loves it, soothing even the sourest of moods into quiet grumbles.

Doesn’t talk much about the time before Freddy found him - where his parents are, why he was living on the streets, and why he was so insistent to go with the guy who had just started a fire.

It also wasn’t exactly a matter of being found. Gold was on a mission to destroy a particular batch of evidence and prevent the company in question from making headway, so he figured to kill two birds with one stone and simply set the building in question on fire. Easy job, he thought. Not a residential area, and with extensive research on work schedules, there shouldn’t be any casualties - except someone started throwing rocks at him while yelling, and ruthless as he is he would never hurt a child.

Even though said child turns out extremely feral, and barely stops berating him for burning down the warehouse with the laxest security, where’s a kid supposed to sleep now, huh? His things were in there, asshole!

Gold, close to tears he can’t shed, feels incredibly guilty and apologizes throughout carrying Gregory away from the fast burning crime scene. Lil tot keeps hitting him, though. Gold quickly finds out the kid stonewalls at everything except his own name, won’t even say what was in the warehouse that was so important to him. For a while Gold just stares at the kid, contemplating how to continue - he can’t just leave him there, but he can’t expect Gregory to go with a stranger, and his life is dangerous -

“So, where are you going now?”

Entirely too nonchalant, but when Gold does not react as intended (i.e. with a direct answer), the kid huffs and crosses his arms. Boldly declares he’ll stick with - uhh, what’s his name, actually?

Freddy introduces himself through a slip up, and immediately freezes. Gregory grins the smuggest of grins. So if Freddy doesn’t let him tag along, there’s a lot of information he has that many people would be very interested in - namely the police and the company in question. Kid has been living on the streets for long enough to know a sucker, and Freddy is a big one.

The other Glamrocks were a bit wary of the kid first, but not entirely surprised that a feral stray decided to bully Freddy into adopting him. They’re all unfazed through their circumstances, and so when going through missing child reports does not yield any matches, Gregory gets a new faked identity (though various last names had to be rejected - RIP Gregory Fartmaster, you were never meant to be) and gets officially (but technically, very illegally) adopted by Freddy.

He calls Freddy both by his name and Dad, though he’s a little bashful about the latter. Freddy wants to melt every time. Both end up an emotional mess and don’t address it until the next time it happens. Monty is a very cool uncle, but fumbles a lot - especially when Gregory asks about the unholy amount of bent golf clubs Monty owns. He takes the kid to minigolf just so he’d stop asking, which Gregory promptly starts exploiting. Roxy starts out very aloof - but Gregs is very persistent, and quickly figures out how to get her talking. So she can see through walls? So cool! What’s the weirdest thing she’s seen? The grossest? Can she look through that wall right there? What’s on the other side? Roxy is unfortunately not immune to childlike wonder and admiration, and gives in quickly. Chica doesn’t even need to be convinced! She’s quickly very affectionate (lord knows she’s aware that Freddy needed a win - needed to not feel like he failed someone again), and a little too enabling for Freddy’s taste. A little trip to grab some fast food is always on the table, and she very seriously asks him about fashion advice sometimes, so he can feel included. His advice objectively sucks (for formal events), but once she wore hot wheels earrings for him and he’s been riding that high ever since.

Since Freddy found Gregory and thus, has a little human to take care of, he has lightened up considerably again. The novelty of everything keeps him on his toes, and seeing the positive impact he has on Gregory/ the safe home he can give the kid has helped him heal. He still misses his friends, but he has someone to take care of at home, and so he no longer works himself into the ground. The future is once again looking bright, despite the pain of the past, and he’s eager to explore it.

Roxy gets to bask in the admiration of someone who has never known Foxy, and in whose eyes she’s her own person and that person is great, even if some compliments just lead to sly requests of checking gifts for their content before it’s time to unwrap them.

Chica gets to see her oldest friend become himself again, and feels a lot lighter herself in turn. Gregory has no issue keeping up with her energy, and where their interests don’t match up, their sense for shenanigans does and they both enjoy that immensely.

Monty has little time to ponder the past when there’s a menace making a mess of the present, but he doesn’t find it in himself to complain, even if the kid tests his limited patience a lot. He likes being the fun uncle a lot more than being a fraud, and so he embraces it.

(And so, Gregory is starting to acquire parental units)

He does know that their work is secret, though, and has the official explanation of what to say when people ask what his father does for work memorized. After [REDACTED] on the street, he’s smart enough to keep secrets, and only complains when secrets are kept from him. He likes being in the know, and really, with how involved he is, doesn’t he deserve to know? One day he’ll say the wrong thing to the wrong person, all because no one clued him in…

That would be a tragedy, no? (:

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wolfpawzjakey · 7 months ago

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Drabble about Percy’s most definite trauma

Percy’s not normal childhood began to haunt him more and more as he got older and older. Childhood ability to disassociate from the problems lessened the more real people he killed. His distrust in himself drowned him when he and Annabeth had landed in Tartarus. Her fear of him drew him to the darkest moments of his life. Externally, people could just barely detect the hint of the storm of emotion in his chest. The rage, the fear, the sadness.

He’d had nightmares for much too long, but post wars, post Tartarus, they’d become practically unmanageable. He had already struggled with insomnia, but now it ate him alive. He slept random hours of the night if he could even sleep, waking up in panic every hour.

Some days he could barely make it out of the cabin. Having to be pulled out by someone on most days. He appreciated it mostly, but some days he wished he could just hide away. Hide his emotions and the shame that came with them. They’d become more easy to read the less he slept.

He felt dangerous too. Like he’d cause harm to the ones he loved and cared for. Like he would hurt the young campers too. The fear grew more and more, and so did his irritation. That was when he’d been warned that, yes, he would be a danger to others if he’d continue on like this, his heath dangerously out of his control.

He tried to pick himself up again after that. He wanted to become what he’d been before despite his struggles. He needed to be that. But than, his girlfriend left him. Her fear of him. That took him down to the very bottom. Her almost empty face covered the fright in her eyes as much as they could, but he knew. Tartarus had scarred her as much as it did him, but he’d taken all of the losses.

There were days the lake was unsafe to be in, days he threw off all camp schedules because of it. He wanted to run and leave, find cover elsewhere but he was never allowed to go. Couldn’t escape because hands were gluing him to camp, they knew he was a danger just as much as he did and he wouldn’t be able to leave because of that now.

He wanted to hide, he wanted to see his mom, he wanted to disappear, he wanted to be seen. He’s so clustered at all points, he’s losing track of himself. The only time he can make these thoughts disappear is when he finally manages to sleep or when danger is too present to think about anything else. But he also thinks more in danger sometimes, his mind more clustered, because if he could just get it over with, he’d have nothing to worry about anymore, no one else would either. He had the option to never be a problem anymore, but that was a most unspoken thought. It remains as such.

This is staggered and mostly an unfinished thought, but I kind of wish we were able to see more of Percy’s internal thoughts, more of his struggles. He must have so many. There’s not a chance in hell he doesn’t have one of gods most complex PTSD cases in the world.

As a person who also struggles with it, Percy has been one of my biggest comforts. The books in a whole have been such a large comfort with coping, but Percy is special to me in this reason. I wish we could get a better expressed version of what he’s gone through. A character study which ends in him getting relief from finally talking about all of the horrors he’s seen. That’s a dream of mine.

#percy jackson #pjo #hoo #toa #pawz speaks #tw trauma #tw ptsd

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causeilikelix · 7 months ago

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'Cause I Like You - Chapter Fourteen - Dance Practice

↳ Pairing: Felix x OC / Hyunjin x OC

↳ Genre: Romance, comedy, smut (eventual), slow burn, enemies (idiots) to friends (idiots) to lovers (probably still idiots), high school au, college au, non-idol au

↳ See Chapter One for summery and blanket warnings

↳ Chapter warnings: Nothing specific, some sexual tension, a lot of girl talk, some creepy vibes...

↳ Read on my A03: Here

↳ Notes: Sorry this took so long! Had a mental break down. Here we are. Going forward there is a character in here who shares the same name and general appearance as a certain beloved idol. This character does not resemble him in real life, this is just a character depiction who needed a name, please don't be mad lol

<- Chapter Thirteen - Chapter Fifteen ->

“HYUNJIN-AH, WHAT AM I going to do?” Eunbyeol lamented, throwing herself onto the black vinyl floor of the dance practice room. “How is it that of all people I just had to be paired with the one person I hate the most?”

“You hate Felix? Wait... you know Felix?” Hyunjin blinked in surprise as he plugged his phone into the sound system to play music so they could warm up.

“As if you told me that you knew him!”

“It never came up.” Hyunjin shrugged.

“I guess I didn’t say anything either, but like come on! How could you not talk about your other friends with me?” Eunbyeol lifted her head off the floor to look up at him. “Are we not best friends anymore?”

“What?” Hyunjin turned to her with a gasp, his hand reaching up to clutch his heart. “How dare you even suggest that! My own best friend assumes I don’t devote all of my waking time to her!”

“I don’t know man, you’re the one not telling me about your other friends.” Eunbyeol rolled her eyes and set her head back down on the floor and ignoring Hyunjin’s drama. “It’s not like I enjoy talking about the person I hated in high school.”

“You hated him?” Hyunjin quirked an eyebrow up at her. He pretended like his gaze didn’t instinctively linger on her legs for a few extra seconds before turning back to his phone. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who hates Felix.”

“Really? I’m the only one?” Eunbyeol groaned, covering her face with her hands.

“I think so, Byeol-ah. He’s pretty popular in all of his friend groups and extracurriculars and stuff. Whatever he did or whoever he was in high school, it certainly can’t be that bad.”

“Honestly, I’m over it. He just gives off the wrong vibe, you know? I can’t believe I have to spend all this fucking time with him and hold his hand or look into his eyes or some shit.”

“You have to hold his hand?” Hyunjin perked up at this and tossed another glance over his shoulder. He hoped his tone of voice didn’t give away his alarm. He didn’t like the idea of some other guy holding hands with Eunbyeol properly before he could.

“Unless you can find something else to do that isn’t as fucking miserable with your partner, whatever his name is-”

“Dowoon.”

“Sorry?”

“My partner. His name is Dowoon.”

“Right, sorry, Dowoon... then maybe I can get out of all the shit I have to do with Felix. I looked over the list and like ninety percent of them are all things I want to do with you!”

Hyunjin didn’t respond while he scrolled through his playlist for the perfect song to warm up to. He kept quiet mostly to conceal the blush burning in his cheeks. Eunbyeol stared at the ceiling fan over her head spinning in lazy circles. She doubted very much that it would do anything for the airflow. After a few more minutes of silence an upbeat, peppy song filled the room. Eunbyeol groaned and threw her arm over her eyes, hoping for a few more seconds of peace before the work began.

Hyunjin made his way over to where his friend laid on the floor and crouched next to her. Eunbyeol’s breathing remained slow and steady and for a moment he wondered if she’d fallen asleep. It wouldn’t be the first time. Hyunjin reached out and gently poked her forearm. She didn’t move. Next he poked the palm of her hand, then her shoulder.

“Byeol-ah, come on.” Hyunjin whined, poking her shoulder a few times in rapid succession. Eunbyeol could practically see his lower lip stuck out into a pout. “We have to stretch.”

“No! I want to take a nap.” Eunbyeol protested, turning her head away from him.

Hyunjin poked her a few more times on her shoulder before venturing lower to her waist. There, he focused his efforts on tickling the exposed skin where her sports tank had ridden up. Eunbyeol shrieked and tried to roll away from him but Hyunjin’s slim yet muscular form hoved over her, tickling her relentlessly. Any attempts to escape his grip would be futile had she even tried. He poked his fingers to her sides and tugged on her arm, trying to pull it away from her eyes. None of his attempts seemed to work.

“Come on, get up!” Hyunjin urged, continuing to poke and tickle any and all exposed skin. He couldn’t help the grin that rose onto his lips from watching her wiggle around underneath him. “We have to get to work!”

“Jinnie, no! Stop!” Eunbyeol’s breath heaved from her exertions. Hyunjin immediately pulled his hands away. He sat down next to her and laughed as he watched her fight for breath. She laid there for a few more minutes with her arm slung over her eyes.

“Alright, let’s go.” Hyunjin rose to his feet and waited for her to respond. After a moment, he decided to take things into his own hands.

Eunbyeol thought for a second he’d given up or had started stretching without her. However, only seconds later Hyunjin grabbed her hand and pulled, urging her to get up. She didn’t move for a few seconds before sighing and letting her feet find the ground. Hyunjin pulled her up easily with one hand until they stood facing one another while the music played behind them.

Instantly, Eunbyeol let out a soft gasp at the sudden proximity. Hyunjin gazed down at her, his eyes wide with the same realization. His large hand enveloped hers comfortably with their palms pressed together warmly. It certainly was not a secret that Hwang Hyunjin was hot. Hyunjin’s features were soft and boyish, almost pixie-like. His black hair looked soft and Eunbyeol’s fingers itched to run through his long, thick strands. They were currently pulled back by a deep burgundy ribbon, keeping all of the flyaways out of his face. Though his soft face was sharply contrasted with a few angles in his jaw and cheekbones, Eunbyeol could imagine him as a baby. His plush mouth, however, was definitely not baby-like and she did not think about what it would feel like on hers. Not at all. Not even a little bit. She didn’t think of her best friend as anything other than just that: her best friend.

Not at all.

Hyunjin suddenly cleared his throat and dropped her hand. Right away all of the atmosphere in the room disappeared. Or maybe it was Eunbyeol’s throat closing. Either way, Hyunjin turned towards the mirrors and began to tilt his head from side to side, exposing his neck to her. Eunbyeol took a shameless moment to stare at him and wondered why the hell she couldn’t grow a goddamn backbone and just tell him. In the end, she didn’t want to ruin a good thing. She followed his lead and tilted her head back and forth in time with his.

“Have you come up with some songs for our first duet assignment in a couple weeks?” Eunbyeol inquired innocently, hoping to cover up any and all traces of the last few minutes.

“What do you take me for?” Hyunjin scoffed as he began to roll his neck in slow circles. Eunbyeol followed his lead. Hyunjin reached into the pocket of his sweats and produced a carefully folded piece of notebook paper and passed it to her without missing a beat.

“Have I ever told you that you’re the best partner of all time?” Eunbyeol carefully unfolded the page to peer at the list. “You also have impeccable music taste.”

“What can I say?” Hyunjin made a huge show of tossing his imaginary hair over his shoulder. “I’m the greatest.”

“Oh, I don’t know about ‘Senorita’. I think everyone else will want to do that song, too.”

“I know, but don’t you remember that night we went out to Starcatcher a few weeks ago? That song came on and I swear to god even Minho was salivating watching us. I think we could make it so unique.”

“I love the song and all, but I don’t know about doing our assignment on it. We could choreograph our own if you want, though.” Eunbyeol offered him a sly smile in the mirror as they raised their arms over their head before bending over in half. Even though he only saw it for a second, Hyunjin caught on anyway.

“You just want to be in another one of my videos for YouTube.” Hyunjin rolled his eyes so hard, Eunbyeol could practically see them rolling to the back of his skull.

“Come on, don’t you remember how many views you got when we posted our duet of ‘Best Friend’? Everyone loved our choreography!”

“You just want the portfolio addition. I see right through you, Cha Eunbyeol.”

“As if you don’t! C’mon, I got like a thousand new subscribers overnight. Not to mention, my TikTok following skyrocketed.” Eunbyeol slowly straightened her spine and they gracefully moved into the next stretch.

“Okay, before we decide on that, I want to know your ideas for our duet project.” Hyunjin huffed decidedly.

A smirk rose onto Eunbyeol’s lips and she briefly abandoned stretching one of her arms to reach into the side pocket of her leggings for her own folded piece of paper. She reached out with that hand and slipped the page between Hyunjin’s backwardly outstretched hand. His long fingers curled around the paper immediately and he quickly unfolded it before bending back into the stretch. He hummed and mused over her song choices for a few seconds before immediately standing up straight and turning to her with a mock-hurt expression written on his features. His lips parted into an ‘O’ and his hand found its place on his ever-wronged heart.

“You bitch, you want to do ‘Senorita’, too! Why are you being such a hardass?” Hyunjin’s fake scowl made a giggle bubble up in Eunbyeol’s throat. Hyunjin could insult her all day long every day and she would know that he didn’t mean a single word.

“Because...” Eunbyeol shifted into their next stretch and he was quick to copy her. “It’s fun to be mean to you.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

He didn’t.

As far as Eunbyeol was concerned, he was probably the best thing that could have possibly happened to her during her freshman year intro dance class. They met on the very first day of class and hit it off like they’d been friends for years. With Hyunjin, everything was easy. Dancing came to him like he was born to do it and with how skilled he was already Eunbyeol could easily believe it. They weren’t dance partners at first, since most of their first semester focused on basic steps and theory. In fact, they weren’t partners properly until their second semester.

Eunbyeol never once in her life thought that sparks flying was a real thing. Perfect chemistry with someone else simply didn’t exist and she was sure that she would never experience it. At least, not until she danced with Hyunjin. It was like he knew each and every one of her movements several counts before she actually did it. It’s not like they were improv pros or anything (the bruise on Hyunjin’s left foot from where Eunbyeol stepped it all semester was proof enough of that), but they grew to learn each other’s dancing styles quickly. With all the time they spent together practicing, it wasn’t long before they started spending time outside of the studio. Aside from Jiho, Eunbyeol was sure she’d never clicked with another person quite as well as she clicked with him.

The pair stretched for a few more minutes while the music cycled through whatever playlist Hyunjin put on. Eunbyeol sighed happily as her muscles tensed and relaxed into each new stretch. Sometimes, the stretches at the beginning and end of practice were the best parts. Nothing was more relaxing than releasing all of that pent-up tension. Hyunjin glanced over at her and grinned. Nothing was quite as healing as dancing with your best friend. How did she get so lucky?

“Alright,” Eunbyeol stretched her arms over her head as Hyunjin made his way over to his phone to turn the music off. “What ideas do you have? I don’t remember everything we did.”

“It’s not my fault you had that fifth drink and can’t remember!” Hyunjin teased. “But I was thinking of something along the same vein as that one cover that May J Lee did. Like one of us does the first verse and chorus, the other does the second, and then we combine them. The idea is to show how our dance styles complement each other right?”

“Right, I agree, but I think we should combine on the second chorus. Here’s what I’m thinking... let’s choreograph the chorus so our moves could be stand-alone for the first chorus and build from there. I had an idea for the second eight-count, you know the part when he sings...”

Eunbyeol and Hyunjin jumped right into choreographing. As Hyunjin showed her his ideas, some of that drunken night at Starcatcher came back to her. Not all of it, but just enough to get what he was saying. It wasn’t long before they found an easy rhythm, moving with one another easily as if they’d been doing this for years. Hyunjin effortlessly countered her every move and even predicted her almost stepping on his foot (again) and jumped out of the way just in time.

She watched their bodies move in the mirror and it was almost surreal. Hyunjin’s eyes were glued to the mirror, watching as a routine came to life before him. Eunbyeol also couldn’t believe it. No matter how many times she and Hyunjin worked together, Eunbyeol had to be reminded every time just how talented he was. Hyunjin’s long limbs were completely under his control from the very tips of his strong hands to his toes. He towered several inches over her, which made their dynamic all that much more interesting. Somehow she wondered how he walked around because his legs were slim and sometimes she wondered if he even had a waist. However, due to his active lifestyle his muscles were firm to the touch so he wasn’t about to wither away anytime soon. Hyunjin didn’t need the ego boost, so Eunbyeol kept her thoughts about his physique to herself.

The pair experimented with different moves for so long that she forgot to check the time. A common instance, seeing as the texts building up from Jiho weren’t as alarmed as they used to be when she and Hyunjin first started doing this. For now, Eunbyeol’s phone sat forgotten on top of her backpack. The clock over the door counted the minutes away. The sun dipped slightly lower in the sky, casting a golden glow over the campus and long shadows stretching over the ground. Eunbyeol and Hyunjin kept their eyes on their reflections in the mirror as they danced and created.

After a while, Hyunjin bounded over to his phone to turn on the song before hurrying back to her to try their new choreography with the music again. They hoped that their timing would be right this time. Their thin workout clothes clung to their skin. Eunbyeol pretended not to notice his glistening skin when he made his way back over and took his natural place by her side. He counted their steps under his breath as they danced, just to make sure both of them were on time. After only a few hours it was far from perfect but on its way to something beautiful.

Even after all that time, the pair only came up with the first half of the chorus but as soon as they came to a stop, with Hyunjin behind her with both hands on her waist, a wide smile lit up his face. His eyes turned into little crescent moons and Eunbyeol couldn’t stop herself from turning in his grasp and throwing her arms around his neck. Hyunjin’s hands were quick to move from her waist to wrap around her torso and pull her into him. They ignored the stickiness of their sweaty skin and damp clothes in favor of hugging. She didn’t even mind that his long black hair stuck to him and droplets of sweat fell onto her shoulders. Eunbyeol giggled brightly when Hyunjin lifted her feet off the ground.

“This looks so good already, Jinnie! We’re gonna get a good grade for sure.”

“That’s all I am to you? A good grade?” Hyunjin lowered her feet to the ground but didn’t let her go.

“Yes, but you’re the best grade.” Eunbyeol smiled innocently up at him and he threw his head back and laughed, bringing a hand up to ruffle her hair a little bit.

“I can accept this. You wanna go get bubble tea?” Hyunjin offered.

“Do I ever! I’m starving, too. We should probably record this first and then do our ending stretches, though.”

“Come on, let’s just go!” Hyunjin whined, his face dropping into a pout. He stuck his lip out at her and she almost caved.

“We have to record it so we can remember it! Also, you’ll just whine at me when you wake up all sore tomorrow.”

“Always the voice of reason.” He rolled his eyes dramatically before releasing her from his grip. His hands grazed over her back and to her waist before dropping off her completely. “Whose phone should we use?”

“We can use mine.” Eunbyeol dropped her grip from around him and started for her phone but a voice from the door stopped her in her tracks.

“I could record it for you!”

Her heart stopped in her chest and she gasped, turning to catch a glance at who might have spoken. Park Jimin, a senior in the dance major, leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. A smile stretched across his soft features and he tilted his head at her. He stared at her openly, almost not even seeing Hyunjin until his protective hand came up to cover her shoulder. Eunbyeol relaxed, seeing it was just her friend who was the TA for her dance theory class last semester.

“Ah, Jimin-sunbae, you scared me!” Eunbyeol smiled politely. Hyunjin squeezed her shoulder but she brushed him off. “That’s nice of you but we can take care of it.”

“I thought you didn’t bring your phone stand with you to school today.” Jimin reminded her.

“Oh, I’m sure I did...” Eunbyeol made her way over to her backpack and duffle bag to dig through her stuff. She unzipped her duffle bag to rummage around, finding her ballet shoes, another change of activewear, binding tape, her foot roller for her arches, a circle light but no... phone stand. “I could have sworn I packed it this morning.”

“It’s okay, I can hold your phone and record you guys. I have pretty steady hands. You looked great!” Jimin stepped into the room, keeping his eyes on Eunbyeol and stretching out his hand for her phone.

“We can take care of it ourselves.” Hyunjin spoke, but Jimin waited for Eunbyeol’s approval.

“Oh sure, thank you!” Eunbyeol, thoroughly persuaded, opened the camera app and passed him her phone. “I really appreciate it.”

“Byeol-ah, we can just prop it up on the barre.” Hyunjin suggested.

“Come on, it’ll just take a second. Go start the music.”

“I...” Hyunjin watched Jimin out of the corner of his eye as he moved to stand in the front of the room, holding the camera up to gauge lighting. “Fine. But make sure to bring your stand tomorrow, yeah?”

“I will!” Eunbyeol promised before heading to the center of the room to take her spot. Hyunjin rolled his eyes and made his way over to his phone to set up the music. “Thank you, Jimin-sunbae!”

“Always happy to help out a friend.” He paused a second, glancing over at Hyunjin before continuing. “Are you coming to the welcoming party for the freshman?”

“When is that? I haven’t been to the common room this semester yet.”

“We have some conflicts for the next couple of weekends but it’ll be on the third week of the semester on a Friday. Can you make it?” A hopeful glance flashed across Jimin’s face but it was gone moments later.

“In three weeks? Strange time to have a party. Don’t we usually do them the first week of school? I don’t know yet, but I'll have to see what Hyunjin is doing.” Eunbyeol looked over at Hyunjin.

“Oh, I think he’s going to be in Daegu that weekend for a showcase. I thought you were going to go to that, too, but I looked at the list and didn’t see your name.” Jimin’s easy smile returned, spanning across his young features. “We had to postpone it because something happened at the restaurant we usually go to so we couldn’t get a reservation for a couple weeks. I dunno, someone was saying something about a fire?”

“Oh... I’m not sure I’m going to go if he’s not. I’ll have to let you know.”

“Sure! Just let me know. I hope you’ll be able to make it.”

Eunbyeol’s muscles suddenly relaxed when Hyunjin signaled for Jimin to start recording. She hadn’t realized how tense she’d gotten. She figured she’d just been dancing for too long. Hyunjin hurried to Eunbyeol’s side to start the choreography. They got into position and waited for the second chorus to begin. Eunbyeol watched herself in the mirror, trying to focus on that and not the camera trained or Hyunjin’s hand snaking along her waist from behind. She tried especially hard not to focus on the blush creeping up the back of her neck or her thighs clenching in anticipation. Hyunjin often affected her like this and she figured that it was part of why they were so good together... as dance partners.

When the chorus started, the pair of them started to dance, falling into it and into each other easily. Even though they’d only just started working on the choreography, her body remembered it as if it was as easy as breathing. Hyunjin’s body rolled and swayed with hers and she found that she didn’t need to watch the mirror anymore, she only needed to watch him. The moment their eyes connected, Eunbyeol’s knees almost gave out but Hyunjin’s hands were on her waist to guide her into the next move before she knew it. His eyes bore into her intensely, letting the message of the song shimmer in them. His lips parted slightly and Eunbyeol had to look away from him, faking a sudden need to check her movements in the mirror.

Eunbyeol’s eyes found Jimin’s immediately and her lips parted in shock. She’d forgotten that he was even there. Something about dancing with Hyunjin made the outside world slip away. Her heart skipped a beat to find that Jimin was already staring at her. Hyunjin’s grip on her waist tightened the moment their choreography ended. The song continued playing over the speakers but Hyunjin made no move to let go of her. Jimin’s smile stretched over his face once more when the song ended and he tapped on the screen of her phone to end the recording.

“Great job guys! You choreographed all of that in just a few hours?” Jimin stepped forward to hand Eunbyeol’s phone back to her, but Hyunjin took it instead.

“Yeah, we did.” Hyunjin responded on behalf of Eunbyeol.

“That’s incredible! I can’t wait to see the finished result!” Jimin shot Eunbyeol a wink and she responded with a weak smile. Hyunjin’s grip on her tightened for another second before he had to move away to pause the song. Jimin took the opportunity to close in. “Listen... I knew you were good, but not that good! I’m impressed.”

“Thanks.” Eunbyeol managed, her gaze drifted past him to where Hyunjin stood in the corner, messing with his phone.

“So, listen. For the last couple years I’ve been interning at Hybe Entertainment and I’m pretty sure they’re gonna offer me a job when I graduate because they like me so much. I was thinking... You really have a lot of talent. If you wanted, I could get you an internship there. I could talk to my manager and get your resume through if you apply.”

“Sorry, Hybe?” Eunbyeol’s eyes widened and her already pounding heart began to hurt, remembering him talking about it during class last semester. The prestigious company produced so many of the top idols in the Kpop industry and their choreography was notorious for being difficult. Their backup dancers often went on to be in other idol groups or get other good jobs in the industry. Except... “I didn’t know they accepted women into the company?”

“Well, maybe not female trainees, but they would accept you onto the dance team to at least be a backup dancer. Even if it’s not what you do forever, Hybe would look really good on your resume.” Jimin wiggled his eyebrows.

“Really?” Eunbyeol raised an eyebrow at him incredulously. “You could get me an internship?”

“I could. It would be so easy.”

“That would be incredible! I mean... I don’t know if I could fit it in between my job and school but it would be so amazing.” Eunbyeol grinned in spite of herself, her mind swirling with images of working in such a high-profile company. It almost sounded too good to be true.

“Come on, just apply and give it a shot. I’ll pull some strings and get you a spot, hm?” Jimin urged with a wink.

“You could seriously do that?”

“Of course! They’re recruiting interns right now, so you have a good chance. Think about it and let me know, yeah?” Jimin reached out and patted her shoulder. “I’ll see you later! Text me about dinner, okay?”

“I will!” Eunbyeol waved as he started towards the door. He shot her one more wink before slinking out of the practice room.

“What the hell did he want?” Hyunjin asked immediately, his voice filling the room a little too loudly.

“He was just being nice, Jinnie.” Eunbyeol sighed, getting in position in front of the mirror to do their post-dance stretches. “He wants me to apply for an internship at Hybe.”

“You mean his internship that he never shuts up about?” Hyunjin rolled his eyes and started his playlist and joined her to stretch. “And he wants you to join?”

“Yeah, he says I’m talented enough to get in! Isn’t that crazy?” Eunbyeol grinned. “I think it would be so cool to at least audition there, don’t you? Hey, we could apply together! They’re hiring interns right now!”

“I’d rather walk over a pit of hot coals than audition for Hybe, to be honest.”

“Really? Is it really that bad?”

“Not necessarily, just not my ideal company, that’s all.” Hyunjin shrugged as they started to roll their necks in circles.

“Alright, then I’ll look into applying myself!” Eunbyeol’s heart fluttered as she spoke. Hyunjin shot her a grin.

“Hey, guys,” a new voice came from the door but neither of the dancers budged. Eunbyeol glanced up to see one of the seniors in the major but she wasn’t too close to him. Luckily, Hyunjin knew him well.

“Yeah, Minho-hyung, what is it?” Hyunjin kept looking at the mirror and not at the cat-eyed senior at the door.

“Are you guys almost done? My studio time starts in less than ten minutes.”

“Yeah, we’re doing our closing stretches. You’re welcome to join us if you want.” Hyunjin offered.

Eunbyeol glanced over at their senior, who was still in his street clothes with his dance bag slung over his shoulder. His arms were crossed over his chest and he rolled his eyes and Hyunjin’s answer. His face was set and stoic. For a second, Eunbyeol worried he was upset. Instead, he waved a hand dismissively.

“I still have to change. You guys better be gone by the time I come back.”

With that, Minho turned away from the door and disappeared from their line of sight. Eunbyeol glanced back at the mirror, where Hyunjin was looking at her instead of where Minho-sunbae had just disappeared.

“Where do you want to go for dinner?”

Hyunjin glanced over at her as the gears turned in her head for a second. Then, her eyes lit up and she turned to him with a glint in her eye that made his heart flip flop in his chest. Even with her hair messy from dancing and reeking of sweat, she looked beautiful and like the only person he wanted to spend his day with. She opened her mouth to speak and he said it with her.

“Ddeokbokki.”

~!~!~!~!~!~

“HYUNJIN-AH, WHY ARE you late again?” Chan didn’t even glance up from his computer when Hyunjin entered the studio and crashed heavily onto the brown leather sofa along the back wall.

Chan, a music production major and a year or two ahead of Hyunjin and everyone else in their friend group, kept his eyes glued to his computer and barely acknowledged Hyunjin until he sat down. He pulled one of his earphones off his ear so he could hear both Hyunjin and Minho, who was in the recording booth and singing a new song that Chan wrote. Hyunjin hauled himself off the couch and made his way to where Chan sat and found a few pages of sheet music with his name written along the top. He took it and returned to his seat, sinking into the cool fabric.

“Dance practice went over again.” His usual excuse, and it was usually true. Chan, however, was too smart.

“You went to dinner with Miss Dance Partner again?” Chan finally glanced over his shoulder to smile at his friend. Hyunjin fought back a smile, but he couldn’t keep it at bay for long.

“Yeah.”

“Ooooh, Hyunjinnie is in loooove!” Changbin, the shortest of the group and a music technology junior, cooed from his place in his beanbag chair in the corner. Hyunjin coughed dramatically and turned his face away so the other boys couldn’t see the flush warming his cheeks.

“I’m gonna have to have a talk with this girl and lecture her on letting you go early so we can record.” Chan shook his head, but judging from the smile on his face, Hyunjin figured he didn’t really mean it.

“Yeah, you still have to introduce us, don’t think I’ve forgotten! From the videos on YoutTube, your dance partner looks hot as fuck and its a crime to keep that from me!” Changbin thrust an accusing finger at Hyunjin.

“I know, I know!” Hyunjin raised his hands in defense. “I asked her to tag along today but she got a message from her acting partner and got into a bad mood, so she went home instead.”

“Her acting partner? Wait, you didn’t get to be her partner? I’m surprised the planet is still spinning!”

“Yeah, she was late to class. She was listening to that radio show she likes so much.” Hyunjin rolled her eyes at the thought and suddenly found himself glad that the host couldn’t hear him. “So, she got paired with someone she didn’t like and I got paired with some kid named Dowoon.”

“How will you ever survive this semester without her as your theater partner!” Changbin lamented and threw his head back, covering his eyes with his arm. “I shall begin arranging your funeral promptly.”

“Shut up, Changbin-hyung, seriously. It’s not that bad. I’m disappointed but it is what it is.”

“Very mature for someone who literally was drunk crying a few weeks ago about how much you liked her.”

“Hey! I thought we agreed not to talk about that!” Hyunjin sat up, searching his immediate vicinity for something to chuck at Changbin. He found a random crumpled receipt stuck between the cushions and used that. Changbin didn’t even flinch when it bounced harmlessly off his bicep.

“Our lovesick Hyunjinnie is so cute!” Changbin’s smile made Hyunjin dive back into the cushions for something else to throw. “I mean, I agree. She looked cute in that dress on Jeongin’s Outfit of the Day Intsa post. What, that blue dress?”

“She did.” Hyunjin paused, his lip sticking out in a pout. He paused. “And the dress was pink.”

“Guys, come on. At least look at the sheet music I spent all night notating for you?” Chan muttered over his shoulder.

The two younger boys apologized to the eldest and turned their attention onto the music. The song that Chan had written was, as usual, incredible. Hyunjin was always so flattered that Chan, Changbin, and Jisung liked to include his voice in their songs. He thought he was a better dancer than a singer, but since he started working with Chan and the others on their musical endeavors his voice had improved so much. This time, it looked like Hyunjin would be rapping more than singing and he wasn’t complaining.

Eventually, Chan okayed Minho to leave the studio and the boy inside took off his headphones and made his way into the room. Minho was older than Hyunjin by a year or so and he often had a hard resting-face that made him look consistently angry. The later into the day it got and the more tired he became, the more his resting-bitch-face unnerved Hyunjin to no end. Which is why the moment Minho’s tired eyes landed on the spot where Hyunjin sat on the couch he sprang to sit on the other side. Minho wasn’t exactly mean or rude, especially not to Hyunjin, but he never wanted to be on the receiving end of his anger. He’d seen it once before and he never wanted to see it again.

Minho collapsed onto the couch and lolled his head back and closed his eyes. It wasn’t terribly late in the day, but he’d been up since before dawn and he was looking forward to resting. Hyunjin admired Minho for many reasons, including the fact that he was double majoring in dance and music production. Because of that, Hyunjin was inspired to double major himself. Despite the exhausting schedule, he was glad that he could indulge his two greatest talents and hobbies.

When Hyunjin wasn’t in the dance studio with Eunbyeol, he spent the rest of his time in the art studio covered in paint from head to toe. Even now he knew he needed to shower and wash his hair well because he accidentally got some blue in it earlier. As long as images and colors and art left his fingertips, he didn’t care what medium he used. Pencils, oils, markers, Hyunjin loved it all.

“Hyunjin-ah...” Minho’s tired voice came from the other side of the couch. “Will you pass me my water?”

“Sure, Hyung.” Hyunjin glanced around and found Minho’s distinctive yellow water bottle on the floor under the coffee table. He passed it to his friend wordlessly.

“Is Felix here with the coffee yet? I’m exhausted.” Minho let out a long yawn and didn’t open his eyes to take a drink of his water.

“Do you see any coffee?” Changbin’s eyes were also starting to droop. “Felix and Jisung have been gone for almost an hour. I’m gonna kill them.”

“Jisung has been trapped in this studio since lunch. I’m jealous that he’s even getting a break.” Chan spoke up from his place at the computer. He lowered his headphones to rest around his neck.

“Why don’t you take one, Hyung?” Minho suggested. “Hyunjin needs a little more time to look over the music before his turn in the studio, right? For the love of all that is holy, go take a walk. Use the bathroom. Step out into the sun for a few seconds before it sets completely. Touch some grass.”

“Touch some grass-” Chan muttered along with Minho, “You know I’d love to do that but-”

“The work comes first. Got it, got it.”

“Once Hyunjin and Felix have their turns in the studio then I can finally finish piecing this song together.” Chan explained.

“Wait, Seungmin and Jeongin have already been here?” Changmin looked up from his sheet music. “I didn’t see them today.”

“Yeah, we popped into the studio last night for two hours or so. Seungmin really only needed one take but we took three of them. He was really adamant.” Chan chuckled at the thought, clicking through a few pages and pulling up his recording. “This was his first take.”

Seungmin’s airy, romantic voice filled the studio. The raw vocals filled the room and Hyunjin’s eyes widened at the sound. Seungmin, as usual, was a powerhouse. He sang the words beautifully and without a single error. Even his breathing sounded perfect. He only had a few lines, so the recording was over too quickly. Once it ended, all of the boys applauded even though no one was there to hear them.

“Jeez, and he wanted two more takes?” Minho gasped out.

“He wanted four but I made him go home.” Chan grinned.

“Where did we find this kid, again?” Changnbin’s question was rhetorical but Chan answered anyway.

“He was part of Jisung’s friend group in high school. Pretty much all of Jisung’s friends are just as talented.”

“You say that as if we’re not all friends now.” Hyunjin chuckled, smiling fondly at the thought of the friendships he had with each of the younger boys, including Felix.

“I know, I know. We won’t be friends for much longer though if Jisung and Felix don’t get here soon with that coffee and my refresher. I’m dying here.” Chan sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair, letting it take all of his weight. “I’m gonna call him.”

Chan grabbed his phone from the desk and called Jisung. The boys sat in silence, listening to the phone ring for a few seconds. Jisung didn’t answer, so Chan called him again all while muttering profanities under his breath. Once again, no answer.

Hyunjin took the opportunity to check and see if Felix had texted him. His phone screen lit up when he pressed the button and he had to fight a smile at the sight of his background picture. It was a simple one that he’d taken with Eunbyeol several months ago during cherry blossom season. They’d walked through the park for hours, drinking coffee, snacking on candy, and taking hundreds of pictures together. In this one, she smiled brightly up at the camera and Hyunjin had his chin atop the crown of her head with an equally bright smile on his face. Even though it had been months, he didn’t have the heart to change it. She looked so pretty.

He had to shake his head to look at his phone properly, but it didn’t matter because Felix hadn’t texted him since this morning, apologizing for being late to class. Hyunjin shot him a quick ‘Where the fuck are you?’ text before checking his other notifications. Felix may not have texted him however, his other best friend had. Judging from the time stamp, she hadn’t even made it home yet before texting him. He cursed himself for not checking his phone earlier, but he responded eagerly to her message. He knew they’d see each other the next afternoon, but he missed her already.

“Chan-hyung, quit blowing up my phone!” Jisung’s loud, whiny voice filled the studio as he pushed into the room with his hands weighed down with drink carriers. “God, I know I’m popular but even popular people need a break sometimes.”

“What is he talking about?” Changbin rolled his eyes.

“Well,” Felix followed Jisung into the room, also carrying a drink carrier in each hand. “First, I was talking his ear off, then he was on the phone with his girlfriend for over half an hour, then Chan-hyung was calling him while he was still on the phone... I think he’s overwhelmed.”

“The coffee was taking forever!” Changbin argued. “I mean, look! Chan is almost asleep and Minho is practically dead! Is that what you want? To kill Minho-hyung?”

“Relax, it wasn’t my fault!” Jisung argued back with a huff. “The cafe was already busy and then we had to order six coffees. My poor coworkers. Didn’t inspire me enough to jump behind the counter, though.”

“I can vouch for him.” Felix offered, setting his drink carriers on the coffee table and sliding into the space on the couch between Hyunjin and Minho.

“You’re not innocent in this either!” Jisung pointed an accusatory finger at the boy, who cowered behind Hyunjin’s lean form. “You wouldn’t shut up about that girl! What are we? In a K-drama? In high school? Get it together!”

“‘That girl’?” Changbin’s ears perked up at the mere mention of some gossip. “Do tell!”

“Please, don’t make me listen again! Put me out of my misery!” Jisung wailed, throwing himself into a beanbag chair next to Changbin as dramatically as possible, careful not to spill any coffee. “That's all he talked about for like thirty minutes. I thought we were done with her!”

“Who?” Hyunjin’s curiosity got the best of him.

“Um, well...” Felix’s freckled cheeks were suddenly tinged a shade darker and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Remember that night we all got drunk and I cried about never seeing my first love again?”

“I think I blacked out, but go on.” Minho encouraged.

“The night Hyunjin cried about his crush? How could I forget?” Changbin cackled.

“Well, I thought I would never see her again because I thought she went to medical school. Except she didn’t. She's here!”

“What?” Hyunjin blinked in surprise. “Wow, that’s incredible! What a small world! How did you find out?”

“Honestly, it’s miraculous.” Felix sat forward to grab his coffee from the table. Chan’s eyes widened as he watched the younger boy take a drink, but hung onto his every word regardless. Felix on coffee was always a sight to see. “We’re taking a class together.”

“Wait, really?” Chan lifted an eyebrow.

“Not only that, but there’s a pairs project over the course of the entire semester!” Felix began to bounce. First, it was just one of his legs. Then both of his legs. Before Hyunjin knew it, it was like Felix’s entire body was actually vibrating right before his eyes. “And I’m her partner!”

“Disgusting.” Jisung wrinkled his nose. “I don’t get why you’re so excited when she rejected you in high school and blatantly ignored you during senior year.”

“Wait, she rejected you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get rejected.” Hyunjin blinked in surprise, but something ugly settled in the pit of his stomach. He witnessed everything in class but he hadn’t heard Felix’s side of the story.

“Yeah...” Felix sighed sadly for a moment before perking right back up. “I know, I feel crazy for being so excited about it.”

“She treated you like crap.” Jisung rolled his eyes.

“I know! And I thought I was going to hate being in this class with her, but I just texted her earlier to ask her when she wants to meet up to look at scenes to do together or figure out the rest of the assignment. But... like... wow...” Felix paused to take another sip of his coffee. “The second I got a text back from her... like, is my heart supposed to be beating this fast?”

Hyunjin really didn’t like where this was going.

“You’re drinking coffee.” Minho deadpanned.

“I know, but like... is it weird that I’m looking forward to it?”

“Yes!” Jisung exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. “You’re absolutely batshit crazy! You heard Jiho! She thinks you’re crazy, too!”

“Jiho knows her, too?” Chan blinked in surprise. Normally, talking about girls wasn’t his favorite subject, but Hyunjin figured he was using this as an excuse not to stare at his computer for a bit.

“Yeah, she’s Jiho’s roommate.” Jisung waved off the question as if the answer was obvious. “So like, if Jiho says you’re crazy to see her best friend of five goddamn years, then you’re insane. Chan-hyung, call the nearest insane asylum! We’re losing him!”

“God, you and Hyunjin are both girl-crazy.” Changbin rolled his eyes. “You’ve both got heart-eyes for girls who are completely unattainable.”

“Hey, Hyunjin’s at least got a pretty good chance with his girl.” Jisung muttered exasperatedly. It was Hyunjin’s turn to blush at the phrasing. He liked the sound of that... his girl. “They’re actually friends.”

“That’s true but...” Felix paused and Hyunjin’s heart stopped beating in his chest. “In the class, we have to do a trust exercise each week. We have to work together all semester! That’s something, right?”

“Lee Felix, I am putting the asylum on speed dial!” Jisung made a huge show of holding his phone up while he searched for a phone number. “Chan-hyung, I can’t fucking listen to this right now. Set me up, I’m gonna record my verse again.”

With that, Jisung stood and disappeared into the recording studio. Chan flashed Felix a grin before turning back to his computer to set things up to record for Jisung. Hyunjin watched his friend retreat. On one hand, he wanted to know what this girl did to Felix but on the other hand he was happy not knowing a thing. If Hyunjin was right in his suspicions, things were about to get really awkward.

Despite sitting up and away from him, Felix’s leg pressed firmly into Hyunjin’s. Felix’s hands clenched and released, desperate to hold onto something or someone. Minho, an unsuspecting victim, jumped when Felix grabbed his knee and squeezed. At this rate, Hyunjin expected Felix to simply vibrate out of his clothes. Felix, when they first met, was generally extroverted and excited about everything. When Hyunjin bought him tickets to a Twice concert, Felix had collapsed in tears and he jumped and danced through the entire concert without stopping. When their group of friends took a weekend in Jeju over the summer break, Hyunjin wondered if Felix’s face hurt from smiling so much. Excited Felix was a force to be reckoned with. But this... this level of anxiety and excitement was like nothing Hyunjin had ever seen before.

When Felix’s phone vibrated in his lap, he practically leapt through the ceiling. Minho cussed under his breath at the sudden jolt and Hyunjin jerked away so as not to be hit with a stray elbow. Felix’s hands shook as he tapped the screen and he let out an audible groan when he saw the notification. Hyunjin pulled his lip between his teeth and pretended not to steal a glance at his friend’s phone. Playing the part of a concerned friend, Hyunjin leaned forward and slung an arm around Felix’s shoulders. Felix gratefully leaned into him as he read the text. Hyunjin’s eyes glanced over the screen and found his worst fear to be true.

[Pretty Eunbyeol: Fine, whatever, I have maybe an hour after class on Tuesday. Don’t wait up.]

Hyunjin tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Felix’s eyes were wide with wonder as he stared down at his phone. Hyunjin glanced at his own phone when it lit up from a text from the very girl they were talking about. From the very girl texting Felix now.

Felix’s first love.

Hyunjin tried to find solace in the fact that most of the time first loves never worked out, but it wasn’t as reassuring as he’d hoped. Because, at this rate, he’d be shooting himself in the foot. He wasn’t sure he’d ever cared for anyone the way he cared for Eunbyeol. What if she was his first love, too?

“How do I respond to that?” Felix glanced around him at the boys in search of any advice.

“Hate to break it to you, but you don’t.” Changbin shrugged, taking a long sip from his iced americano. “Wait until next week and text her the morning of to confirm the plans. That’s the next move.”

“But-” Felix’s eyes shimmered with hope but Changbin wasn’t having it.

“No! No buts. Jisung literally just told you that she doesn’t like you. And you have to respect that, yeah? Leave her alone.”

Felix pouted and turned back to his phone screen. The exchange between him and Eunbyeol was short, under five lines of text, but it was the most they’d ever been in direct contact like this. Now he actually had physical proof that they’d spoken. He shook his head and stuck his phone back into his pocket. It was like he was a teenager all over again. His heart pounded in his ears and his mouth went dry at the thought of seeing her.

Hyunjin, on the other hand, leaned back on the couch and strategically angled his phone so Felix couldn’t see. He opened the extensive conversation between him and Eunbyeol and smiled when he saw her newest text to him. It was short, sweet, to the point, and made Hyunjin’s heart explode with butterflies. As he scanned the words over and over again, his anxiety about Felix liking her reduced a little. It didn’t matter that they had history or that Felix had feelings. The only thing that mattered was that Eunbyeol’s attention was on him.

[Partner in Crime: Hyunjinnie~ I miss you! Come over tomorrow after practice?]

Hyunjin agreed to those plans without hesitation, figuring he could cancel anything he might have had. A small smile crept onto his lips and he had a feeling that good things were in store.

After all, at the end of the day, she was his partner.

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the-masked-reviewer · 3 months ago

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Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief Comparison

Book v. Show

What Changed

There are jokes in the book that are completely left out and never even alluded too. The episode named “We take a Zebra to Vegas”, shows you multiple animals that the smugglers are transporting, none of them being a Zebra. They kept the book’s corresponding chapter name but not the actual Zebra.

The show’s focus is more on Percy and Annabeth and their relationship, but in order to accomplish that, they pushed Grover into a more side character position making it far harder to see Percy and Grover’s relationship as the platonic soulmates they are.

The books show Gabe’s behavior in fairly subtle ways, mostly through Percy’s internal dialogue and not through direct scenes with Gabe. I think the show actually did a pretty good job at showing just how bad of a person Gabe is, though they did leave out a few scenes that would’ve helped. I don’t think changing the way Gabe turns to stone really does anything other than take away Sally’s revenge and make a dumbass die by cause of being a dumbass.

Celestial Bronze is explained early on in the book at the same time most of the basic general knowledge of demigod life is explained to Percy and the reader. However in the show, they don’t even tell you this is a material that exists until the fifth out of eight episodes, taking away both Percy’s growing knowledge of his new world and the importance of the material.

In the books, Percy describes when he meets Hades like, “He was the third god I’d met, but he was the first that really struck me as godlike” (pg. 309) but the show introduces him as a weird fruity twink. It just takes away all the power the man is supposed to hold. He is literally the King of The Underworld and he is shown as a guy I don’t think anyone could ever reasonably be afraid of Even when Percy describes Dionysus, the first god he meets, “He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life” (pg. 70-71). It’s clear that these beings have an aura and could never not have a large powerful presence. But here Hades, the King of The Underworld, is just a guy. Comparing the two descriptions from the book makes it so clear how powerful Hades is supposed to be if compared to the visions of death and people turning into dolphins doesn’t register as godlike.

The show never once tells the audience what Tartarus is, not even after Percy and Grover are nearly dragged into it by Luke’s flying shoes. There was never any real foreshadowing for Luke or parallel to him a Percy until later in the season where you get flashbacks to Luke and Percy training. At that point it feels more like an afterthought to add in the evidence that it’s been Luke the whole time.

The show lets the audience witness scenes we’ve never gotten the chance to see before, and I can’t understate enough how much I love that. Getting to see Grover and Ares both attempt psychological warfare on each other in a dinner is peak Percy Jackson. However, the way the show is written takes away the audiences ability to truly see just how smart Percy is.

One of the changes I actually ended up liking far more than I thought I would initially was the change in the number of pearls the gang is given. By being given four pearls it shows that Poseidon not only cares for Percy and is watching him as he goes through life, but that he also truly cares for Sally.

The flashbacks are some of my favorite scenes. They’re written so well, and are great at taking advantage of the visual story telling techniques you have when you make a television show.

Not wanting your show to have a very exposition heavy introduction is understandable, but the show’s way of working around this problem is to put information right before or during the thing that’s being explained is happening results in a very exposition heavy, slow show where your characters, in this case Percy, are completely clueless at worst. For example, the gang not only knows but has a plan for facing Procrustes. The audience does not get to see the gang making this plan, just them executing it, having Percy explain to Procrustes (and the invisible audience) who he is and why he’s bad. This isn’t the only example of explaining things for the audience, like when they go over the entirety of Hephaestus’ story and his relationship with Aphrodite when clearly both characters in the scene know the story. The information these 12 year olds (Grover is technically 24 yes, but in human years he is also 12) is just inconsistent. They know who Medusa, the fates, Hephaestus all are, and yeah I’d honestly kind of hope they would. But they also know Crusty’s whole story, and details about how monsters hunt and generally act? Echidna literally spelled out who she was before the gang was able to figure it out (they then seem to understand perfectly how the Chimera hunts while simultaneously not knowing what kind of monster it is). Yet they seem to not only know but be intimately familiar with Crusty’s entire mythos.

When the gang is traveling with the animal smugglers, the book audience learns these guy are not good people from the description Percy gives of the inside of the truck and how the animals are treated, whereas the show has Grover tell Annabeth and Percy “the men driving this truck are not nice people” (Episode 5, 4:35). This would’ve been such an easy moment to take advantage of the media they are using and tell us this visually in the same way the book did.

The fact that the gang knows what kind of situation they are walking into practically every time does more than just take away the surprise. It takes away the viewers ability to try and predict what’s happening because it has already been explained. And what’s worse is it takes the tension away from the story. Without impending unknown doom, and always having a plan may paint your characters, primarily Annabeth because she is the one who always knows and makes plans, as smart and prepared but it also takes away most of the stakes and point of the story.

A lot of the story stayed mostly the same, and details and deliveries changed the most. But two of the changes that bothered me the most were the lack of explaining what Riptide even is and its importance, which for a show that likes to explain everything is awfully surprising, and how they decided to turn Gabe to stone.

Why Change it/Care

Dialogue is an important thing in storytelling, obviously. But there are some things that work better when shown. You don’t need to explain out loud all of the “you’re ___”s and “This is how your story goes.” In order to tell an interesting story you have to get a balance of dialogue and showing the story in order for it to be interesting. You have to trust the audience to figure out what isn’t explained.

The Thrill Ride O’ Love scene is one of the best examples of being to reliant on dialogue. Instead of letting the beautiful animation play out and leave the viewers using their brains to figure out what’s happening (which isn’t very hard, the animation is done wonderfully and tells the story of Hephaestus brilliantly) they have Percy telling the story over the animation (and “what is love” which is a crime of its own) and narrate the story. This is especially annoying because the only other person witnessing this (aside from invisible audience) is Annabeth, who’s been the one in the gang who knows and explains everything. I already don’t like how they’ve been using the “Athena’s kid” and “six steps ahead” things as Practically all of Annabeth’s character traits, but in this instance it’s only the two of them and Percy is telling the story. Who is he supposed to be explaining this too other than the viewer, Annabeth clearly knows the story too.

The flashbacks are so well written that while rewatching they kept tricking me into thinking the show wasn’t over explaining what was going on and was instead letting the story do all the heavy lifting. Then of course it would cut back to the current story and I’d be reminded that the flashbacks were in fact the exceptions and not the rule in this shows case.

The heavy exposition, read just straight up telling the viewer what’s going on, was used mostly in the side adventures and for world building things to do what feels like an attempt at saving time. While exposition is usually used for basic world building things, it wouldn’t have taken any more time to have so many of those things be shown visually. There are places where it may have added time but the show’s episode lengths are inconsistent and range from having content in anywhere from roughly 27-40 minutes depending on the episode, so even if there was a time increase from doing things visually there’s space to shuffle things around and make consistent episode full of visual story telling.

In the notes I took for this project I only used the word “explains” nine times to cover the entirety of the book. In the first three episodes of notes alone I used “explains” 14 times. Meaning, in less than half of the show something is explained 1.5 times more than the complete book.

Sometimes you just have to trust the audience to understand what is happening in the story. I understand media literacy is going down (which is an insane fact given how much media people have access to now) but if you continue to talk down to them, they obviously aren’t going to learn how to figure it out themselves. I know “kids show” and all that, but if the kids who read the book were able to understand, and love, the story without it being almost all exposition, why would they not get it when it’s in the form of media they do know and consume now?

When adapting a story, it’s expected that things get cut and altered to fit the new media and really take all the advantages of that media to show pieces of the story that wouldn’t have worked in the original source. But in the case of Gabe turning to stone, it’s only talked about and isn’t actually in the book. Where in the show you show Gabe turning to stone but make it something he brought upon himself. It would not have taken more time or been any harder to have Sally take care of Gabe like we know she does. They could’ve shown her doing it, or followed the books way and only show the outcome. It is astounding how hard they worked to not have the story play out visually in visual media. This feels like the show version of the “highlight everything, if it wasn’t important it wouldn’t be included” mindset.

I understand the source material is a first person book, so everything is in the form of dialogue or internal monologue but you’re working with visual media, everyone doesn’t need to always state what is happening.

Needing to condense and simplify the story to work for the form of media you’re in is the whole point of adapting. It’s supposed to take advantage of the different things you can do that you couldn’t do in the original form of media. Having people explain what things are and what’s happening is definitely something that could happen in a book, but it didn’t happen in The Lightning Thief because it doesn’t make for a good story. So why would doing that in visual media make for any better of a story?

Is it Good

The build-up to the show was full of Rick promising it would be far more faithful then the [REDACTED] movie. All that press really helped get everyone excited because the fandom, much like Rick himself, hate the movies and how much they changed the story. Then the show comes along and repeats the mistake of the movies in different ways, a fact made all the more worse with everything Rick had promised. The show is more faithful to the books then the movies, but that isn’t a very high bar.

I’ve seen a few people mention that they should’ve made the show animated, with the main reason of character congruency since real life people obviously grow up. A thing made more obvious with the timeline most streaming shows end up taking. And while that probably would’ve been a better show, I think if they had just treated this like a real television show and made it on a classic (read mostly outdated, unfortunately) timeline it would’ve ended up a much better, more consistent show. There were also the points of special effects and the gods all looking better animated, which again they would have, but if done right, would look especially good in live action. I mean imagine watching a real Percy Jackson come face to face with a well-designed, perfectly intimidating Hades, and it all looks as real as they can get with CGI.

A friend of mine, who had to put up with my ramblings about this the whole time, said “As someone who isn’t a dedicated fan of the books and just read the first book for 6th grade English… I can’t say anything about the show as an adaptation but as its own thing, I’d honestly say it was between ‘ok’ and ‘great’ and I think the fanbase deserves better than halfway between ok and good”.

The flashback with Sally and Poseidon talking about Percy and Poseidon just being there to support her does so much. It’s easily the best scene in the entire show, and my favorite, hands down. The final episode of the season let the story work. It’s probably my favorite episode, even if I don’t like how they ended up handling Gabe. Since it’s a post-credit scene I’ve decided to not let it affect this.

The behind the scenes documentary was a chance for me to step back and look at the whole show not just all those tiny details that drive me crazy. Solidifying that the only real complaint is the writing, which is important, because the acting, set design, casting, direction, just everything except parts of the dialogue are so good. It isn’t even all the writing, just the over explaining. It’s one of those things where everything was set up to be perfect but one tiny thing didn’t hold it’s weight and tainted everything else.

The frustrating thing is I don’t think it’s the show (or even Disney) that’s at fault for why it wasn’t great. I think this is just the direction tv media (and all visual media) has been heading towards. If they had more time for the story, they would’ve been able to show us the in between moments and more interactions between our characters. The documentary really shows how much everyone working on it, both in the cast and crew, deeply care about the project. The way everyone talks about their work in the documentary make it so clear how much love and care went into to show. I’m more mad at the industry and streaming corruption making the show into what it was then the show as a whole.

It feels like the show version of not planning out where to write you letters on a poster. You start out all big and bold and slowly everything just gets more and more squished.

It’s a good show, and I did enjoy it. But it didn’t stand up to the expectations that were built up for it. Those expectations were so high, primarily because of Rick continuing to say it’ll be close to the book, and the knowledge that he was involved and hates the movies as much as the fans, gave me, and all of us, hope for the story. Then we got the story and while it wasn’t hugely changed, it was still fundamentally different. The moment I found out how long the show’s season was going to be, I knew it wasn’t going to be quite what I wanted or what it deserves to be because so much would have to be cut and/or altered to fit.

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#percy jackson #Percy Jackon and the Olympians #the lightning thief #pjo series #PJO #pjo tv show #pjo criticism #annabeth chase #grover pjo #Dionysus pjo #hades pjo #disney pjo #pjo movies

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