#her final high school masterpiece

[satori-runa]

—The star of the night

Summary: In the middle of chaos, Reca chooses you, his assistant, to replace the actual actress.

Words: 2k

Tags: Fluff, slight comedy, mr reca being mr reca

⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹

In your lifetime, you'd never been anywhere more glamorous than Reca's movie set. It was a polished spectacle of wealth, fame, and sheer creative ambition concentrated in a single place.

The set was pristine. Everything from the polished equipment to the crew buzzing around the latest cutting-edge technology spoke of high-budget prowess. Reca had wrangled only the crème de la crème of actors, and the script itself was a masterpiece, lauded by critics before a single frame had even been shot. Naturally, it was no surprise when the man beside you, the very architect of this grandiose vision, let out an audible groan, throwing his head into his hands. He pulled them down his face in a gesture so theatrical it almost belonged on the screen itself.

"No, no, no." He groaned, his voice laced with overdramatic despair. “Not like this. This is supposed to be art. Art!” He gestured wildly at the set. “Any three-year-old could create such a display with macaroni!"

While you found yourself captivated by the scene's intricate design—each prop in perfect position, the textures, the layout of furniture—all meticulously assembled to support the vision of an unfolding narrative, Reca saw only flaws. In his eyes, it was a desecration of the perfection he had so painstakingly envisioned.

To him, everything was wrong. The lighting was lifeless, casting shadows that fell harshly across the actors’ faces, robbing them of the soft glamour he’d imagined. The music? A hollow echo that failed to evoke a single stirring of emotion, as far from evocative as a flat note played on a broken piano. And the actress—the poor, unknowing actress who, in any other setting, would be lauded for her skill—was, to Reca, nothing short of an abomination in this moment. His eyes were fixed on her, his lips pressed into a thin line as he shook his head.

“Does she even know her lines?” He muttered, mostly to himself, though you heard every word. “It’s as if she’s performing in a high school play, not…not this.” He ran his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth, his presence a cyclone of perfectionism.

For the past hour, Reca had been tearing every detail apart. The set he'd once raved about was now an "ill-matched mess." The weeks you'd spent booking this elusive location, the endless calls, the backup locations you’d scouted, and the rejections you’d faced until this one finally came through. The casting? The exhausting process of reviewing tapes, organizing callbacks, going through Reca's list of notes and opinions on each actress, often just to have him change his mind the next day. And that demo track? You’d pulled every string, barely scraping by deadlines, just to make sure everything was in perfect order for him.

And here you were, watching it all unravel with each of Reca’s sighs and exasperated mutterings. As he kept pacing, criticizing the lighting again and muttering that the entire production was in danger of "crumbling into mediocrity," you couldn’t help but let out a silent prayer. An aeon, a muse, a miracle—someone save me, you thought, raising your hands briefly to the heavens in a quiet display of surrender.

Because if Reca’s mood didn’t lighten, there was absolutely no way this movie was getting made today.

Just as you were silently pleading for an escape from this nightmare, Reca’s pacing came to an abrupt halt. His head snapped in your direction, and his gaze narrowed, a glint of sudden inspiration lighting up his face. You felt a jolt of dread. That look—oh, you knew it too well. It was the same look he had whenever he came up with one of his “brilliant” ideas, which, more often than not, meant you were in for another impossible task.

“You.” He said, pointing at you with a fervor that made you take a step back. “You’ll be perfect.”

You blinked, uncertain if he was joking. “Me?”

“Yes! You!” He clapped his hands together, excitement bubbling up in his eyes. “Don’t you see? You have everything this role needs. Raw energy, authenticity—a complete lack of…training! It’s fresh. It’s real!”

“Reca, I don’t think—”

“Nonsense!” He cut you off, waving your protests away. “You’re exactly what this film is missing! All this time, I was looking in the wrong places. These actresses…they’re too polished. Too practiced. They lack that something—that spark of untamed potential that you have.” He smiled, a bit maniacally, but you could tell he was deadly serious.

“But I’m just your assistant.” You stammered, feeling your face flush. “I don’t know the first thing about acting. I’d probably ruin the entire film!”

“No way.” He insisted, eyes blazing with enthusiasm as if he’d already envisioned you on the big screen. “Think about it! You’ve been here for the whole process, you know every detail. You’ve seen every scene in my head just as I see it. Who else could be better prepared?”

You opened your mouth to protest again, there was no one that had the same vision as him, but he was already motioning to the costume designer, barking orders to prepare an outfit for you. Any hint of hesitation had disappeared from his face. In his mind, you were already cast and rehearsed, the missing piece that would bring his vision to life.

The next thing you knew, you were being ushered into the dressing room, handed a costume, and given a rapid rundown of your character’s motivations—directly from Reca himself, who seemed thrilled beyond measure. Somewhere between his impassioned monologues and the mounting nervousness that took over you, you found yourself on the set, standing beneath the very lights he’d spent hours cursing.

And as the camera rolled, with Reca’s wide-eyed gaze fixed intently on you, you couldn’t shake the surreal feeling. You’d gone from assistant to lead actress in a single, unpredictable twist, and despite your inexperience, you found yourself saying the lines and stepping into the role…all under the watchful, eager eyes of a director who now thought you were the perfect star.

The set had quieted down, and the crew took a break, leaving only a few people around. Reca, still lingering near you after that intense practice, watched the others drift away before turning back to you with a small, thoughtful smile.

“Let’s run through it one more time, mon cherie.” He said, his voice softer now. “Off camera. Just us.” There was a vulnerability in his tone you hadn’t heard before—a subtle, unspoken invitation.

You nodded, though your heart was pounding again. With the equipment and the audience gone, the space between you felt strangely intimate, as if stepping outside the boundary of the roles you were supposed to be playing.

He took a steadying breath and stood before you, his gaze searching yours. “Close your eyes.” He said, his hand brushing yours. “Forget the lines, the lights. Just…feel it.”

You closed your eyes, letting his words sink in. You could feel the warmth of his presence, so close now that every brush of his hand seemed to linger, every movement deliberate. He guided you gently, his fingertips tracing the edges of your hand until your fingers were laced together, his touch grounding, even protective.

“Imagine…” he whispered, his voice soft and full of emotion, “Imagine there’s no one here but us. No cameras. No crew.”

You opened your eyes, and he was watching you, his gaze vulnerable and sincere in a way you hadn’t seen before. His expression held an emotion that was entirely unscripted—almost a question lingering in his eyes, as if he was daring you to step closer.

His hand moved to your face, fingertips lightly tracing your cheek. The way he looked at you was overwhelming, like he was seeing parts of you no one had ever seen before. It felt like he was letting you in, past the director, past the confident professional, to something real and deeply hidden.

“Just us.” He murmured, almost to himself, his thumb brushing along your cheekbone. His eyes softened, and he leaned closer, his breath warm against your skin. For a second, it felt like he might kiss you—not as part of a scene, not as an actor in a role, but as himself.

You swallowed, your own emotions swelling, breaking past the practiced distance of assistant and director. The way he looked at you, the way his touch lingered just a moment too long, felt impossibly real. It wasn’t just acting. Not anymore.

And in that shared silence, the line between character and reality blurred completely, leaving you wondering if maybe, just maybe, there was something there that neither of you had dared to speak aloud.

Your breath caught as Reca leaned in closer, his hand cradling your face with an intensity that made the world around you disappear. His gaze dropped to your lips, lingering there for a heartbeat that stretched on, filled with a tension so thick it felt like the air had turned electric. His thumb brushed gently across your cheek, and you felt your heart pounding, anticipation building with each passing second.

You closed your eyes, half-expecting, half-hoping for the kiss that seemed to hover right on the edge of happening. The moment felt impossibly fragile, a secret shared only between the two of you. And just as you felt him draw in that final breath…

He pulled back, a sudden spark lighting up his eyes, and he spun around, letting out a shout that shattered the delicate silence. “Yes! That’s it! THAT expression—exactly what we need!”

You blinked, still reeling, as he practically leapt away from you, his energy blazing. “Everyone!” He called out, his voice filled with exhilaration. “Get ready to film! Now, now, now! We have to capture this—she’s got the emotion perfect, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!”

The crew scrambled into action, quickly setting up cameras and adjusting lights as you stood there, frozen and feeling a little…lost. You watched him pace excitedly, giving orders and pointing out positions, his focus now on preparing the scene. Meanwhile, you felt your cheeks flush with the sudden realization that the almost-kiss hadn’t been what you thought at all.

You felt the warmth creeping up your cheeks, your heart still racing from the almost-kiss that had left you somewhere between flustered and bewildered. As the crew finished setting up, you broke into a grin, chuckling softly at the absurdity of it all. Reca had played you perfectly, swept you into the scene so thoroughly that, for a moment, you’d forgotten where the acting stopped and the real feelings began. You couldn’t help but shake your head, laughing at yourself.

Reca, seeing your smile, grinned back, clearly thrilled that he’d managed to get such an authentic reaction. “That’s the spirit!” he cheered, clapping his hands together in delight. “I knew you had it in you!”

“You know, Reca.” You said, trying to keep the teasing note in your voice light as you crossed your arms, “you played me well. Got me all caught up in the moment. Almost too well, actually.”

He tilted his head, eyes glinting with mischief. “Only did what any good director would do.” He replied, a playful edge in his tone.

You raised an eyebrow, feeling a spark of confidence as you leaned in just a little. “Well, maybe we should rehearse some more roles in private sometime.” You suggested, your smile turning slightly coy. “You know…just to pick up where you left me hanging.”

For the briefest second, he looked taken aback, his eyes widening as if surprised by your boldness. But then, that familiar grin returned, his gaze lingering on you with a newfound intensity that sent a shiver down your spine.

“Perhaps we will.” he said, his voice a touch lower, his gaze still locked on you. “Only if you think you can handle a bit more of my…methods.”

Your smile deepened, and you felt a thrill run through you. Maybe, just maybe, the line between acting and reality was thinner than you’d thought. And if Reca wanted to blur it a little more…well, you couldn’t say you’d mind.

[etherealhannie]

( oneshot ) ،، eternal admirer ،، ⌇ 원우

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،، even on the days i ain't right by your side , i'm keeping my promise that i will be wherever you are ،، .ᐟ 🦋

pairing .ᐟ shy!wonwoo × fem!reader genre .ᐟ office romance au , lifetime crush word count .ᐟ 3.1k song rec. .ᐟ wherever u r ─ umi , v

note .ᐟ my playlist got the best of me─it's one of my favourite masterpiece , hope u guys love it as much as i do !

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Wonwoo first noticed Y/N in primary school, when they were just children sitting in the same classroom. It was something small at first—maybe the way she focused during lessons or how her laughter was bright and genuine. He didn’t know why, but even back then, something about her presence stayed with him.

Through middle school, Wonwoo kept his distance, content with admiring her from afar. He wasn’t the kind of boy to chase someone’s attention. In fact, he often found himself tucked in corners of the classroom, quietly reading while the others played during recess. Y/N was popular—not in the loud or flashy way—but in the way everyone naturally gravitated toward her. She was kind, easygoing, and always surrounded by friends. Wonwoo’s heart quietly thrived in that space of unspoken affection, never daring to break the surface.

High school came and went. Y/N was the star student—good grades, captain of the debate team, and still as radiant as ever. Meanwhile, Wonwoo was in the background, still the quiet boy who excelled in his own way but never sought the limelight. He had accepted by then that his love for her was something that would likely never be returned. It was easier that way. They barely shared more than polite smiles, a handful of group projects, and casual greetings.

His heart, however, had a way of betraying his thoughts. No matter how much he tried to push it down, his feelings for Y/N only grew. The longing became a constant companion—a soft ache he carried silently, never acting on it. He told himself he was okay with just admiring her from the sidelines.

They ended up attending the same university. It was a coincidence that almost felt like fate, though Wonwoo never allowed himself to believe in something as whimsical as that. University was different—they shared classes again, the same building, and occasionally ran into each other at the campus café. Those run-ins were his favorite part of the week. Sometimes they exchanged a few words, just small talk, but it was enough to keep his quiet hope alive.

During their final year, there was a group assignment, and for the first time, Wonwoo found himself working closely with Y/N. It was the most interaction they’d ever had, and for once, he allowed himself to believe they were becoming friends. His heart soared every time she asked for his help or when she smiled and thanked him for something small.

Graduation came quickly after that. Wonwoo had prepared himself for a life where their paths would finally diverge. He’d never confessed his feelings, and he told himself it was for the best. She was going to move on to bigger, brighter things, and he’d be left to move on as well, as he always had.

But life had other plans.

Three months after graduation, Wonwoo found himself at a sleek new office, ready to start his first job as a data analyst. The office was large and modern, a corporate hub buzzing with young professionals. He’d only been there a week when he saw her—Y/N, walking through the glass doors as if it were completely normal that they’d end up in the same place once again. His heart skipped a beat, then two, as she caught sight of him, smiling warmly.

“Wonwoo! I didn’t know you’d be working here too,” she said, her eyes crinkling at the corners in that familiar way.

He froze for a moment, fumbling for words, before managing a soft, “Yeah, I started last week.”

From that day on, they crossed paths daily—at meetings, during lunch breaks, in the shared spaces of the office. And every time they did, Wonwoo’s heart fluttered with the same nervous energy as it had back in school. Yet, despite all the opportunities, he still couldn’t find the courage to tell her how he felt.

Then, one afternoon, a project landed on their desks. It required collaboration between departments, and to his utter shock, Wonwoo found himself paired with Y/N. They would be working closely for the next two weeks. His mind spun at the thought of spending so much time with her, but he played it cool, nodding in agreement as if his heart wasn’t racing a mile a minute.

The first meeting was nerve-wracking. Y/N sat beside him, their elbows almost touching, and all Wonwoo could focus on was the warmth radiating from her. She asked him questions about the project, listened intently to his suggestions, and for the first time, he felt like she truly saw him—not just as a classmate or colleague, but as someone important.

By the end of the project, they had spent more time together than ever before, and Wonwoo’s heart was in overdrive. Every moment felt surreal, like a dream he didn’t want to wake from. The day they submitted their final report, Y/N turned to him with a smile that nearly made his knees buckle.

“We make a pretty good team,” she said, lightly nudging his arm.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, feeling his face heat up. “We do.”

That evening, back at his shared apartment, Wonwoo couldn’t contain his excitement. His roommates were lounging in the living room when he burst in, practically glowing.

“You won’t believe what happened,” he blurted out, pacing back and forth.

Mingyu, sitting on the couch with a game controller in hand, raised an eyebrow. “What’s got you all worked up?”

Wonwoo could hardly stand still as he recounted every small detail—how they’d worked together, how close they’d sat, and how Y/N had smiled at him like that. His friends listened with amused grins, teasing him about his schoolboy crush.

“You’re so whipped,” Seungcheol teased, laughing.

Wonwoo didn’t care. He was giddy, like a teenager all over again. For the first time in years, he felt like maybe, just maybe, something could happen between them. The hope he’d kept buried for so long was starting to bloom, and though he didn’t know where things would lead, he was finally ready to see where this journey would take him.

For now, that smile was enough to keep his heart racing.

The next few days at work were a blur of nervous energy for Wonwoo. Every time he saw Y/N in the office, his heart would leap, and his mind would start racing with all the possibilities. He couldn’t shake the memory of their project, the casual touches, and the way she looked at him. Every moment replayed in his head, keeping him awake at night, wondering if she saw him the same way he saw her.

Despite the rush of excitement he felt inside, outwardly, he was still the same Wonwoo—quiet, reserved, and shy. He wanted to keep things normal, professional even, but his friends had other ideas.

“You’re really going to let this chance slip away?” Mingyu asked one night after work, tossing a pillow at him. “Dude, you’ve liked her since forever! Now you’re practically working together every day, and you’re just gonna stay quiet?”

Wonwoo sighed, sinking deeper into the couch. “It’s not that easy, Gyu. What if she doesn’t see me that way? I don’t want to ruin everything.”

Seungcheol, who had been scrolling through his phone, chimed in. “You don’t have to confess your love out of nowhere, man. Just… get closer to her. Be her friend. See where things go.”

“I don’t even know how to do that,” Wonwoo admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’ve been in love with her from a distance for so long. Actually being around her now feels like… I don’t know, like I’m going to mess it up.”

Mingyu rolled his eyes, but a grin tugged at the corner of his lips. “You’re overthinking this, as usual. Just talk to her. You work in the same office, it’s the perfect excuse.”

As much as Wonwoo hated to admit it, his friends were right. He couldn’t keep waiting for things to happen by chance. He needed to take a step forward. But how?

The opportunity presented itself the next morning.

Wonwoo was sitting at his desk, reviewing some reports, when Y/N approached him with a hesitant smile. “Hey, Wonwoo. Do you have a moment? I could really use your help with something.”

His heart skipped a beat, but he kept his expression calm. “Sure, what do you need?”

Y/N explained that she was working on a new proposal but had hit a roadblock with the data analysis. “I know you’re great with numbers, and I’m kind of struggling,” she admitted with a small laugh. “Do you think you could take a look?”

For a moment, Wonwoo couldn’t believe she was asking for his help again. His mind raced, but he nodded, trying to play it cool. “Yeah, I can take a look. Let’s go over it together.”

They ended up spending the next hour in one of the meeting rooms, poring over spreadsheets and brainstorming ideas. Wonwoo found himself relaxing as they worked, focusing more on the task at hand and less on the nervous energy buzzing inside him. Y/N was thoughtful and sharp, always open to his suggestions, and the way she engaged with him made his chest swell with a quiet pride.

As they wrapped up, Y/N turned to him with a grateful smile. “You’re seriously a lifesaver. I don’t know how I’d get through this without your help.”

Wonwoo’s face heated up, and he looked down at the table, a small smile tugging at his lips. “It’s nothing. You could’ve figured it out.”

She laughed softly. “I don’t know about that. But seriously, thank you. You’ve been great to work with.”

Before he could respond, their phones buzzed simultaneously—lunchtime. Y/N glanced at her watch and then back at him, hesitating for a second. “Hey, do you want to grab lunch together? It’s been a while since we’ve really talked outside of work.”

Wonwoo’s mind went blank. Lunch? With her? It wasn’t the first time they’d shared a meal, but it felt different now. This was just the two of them, and he didn’t want to overthink it. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

They ended up at a cozy little café near the office, sitting across from each other with steaming cups of coffee and sandwiches. It was the most casual setting they’d been in together in years, and for the first time, Wonwoo allowed himself to relax.

“So,” Y/N started, stirring her coffee absentmindedly, “how’s it been for you, working here? It’s kind of funny that we ended up in the same place after all these years.”

Wonwoo smiled softly. “Yeah, I didn’t expect it either. It’s been good. Different from school, but… in a good way.”

Y/N nodded. “Same here. I was nervous at first, but seeing familiar faces like yours makes it a lot easier.”

His heart flipped at the mention of him making things easier for her, but he tried to keep his cool. They talked more about work, shared memories from university, and slowly, Wonwoo realized how natural it felt being around her. She wasn’t just the girl he’d admired from afar anymore; she was someone he could talk to, laugh with, and maybe even get closer to.

That evening, back at the apartment, he couldn’t contain his excitement once again. His roommates were already waiting for the update as soon as he walked through the door.

“So? How’d it go?” Mingyu asked, leaning forward with a grin.

Wonwoo tried to keep his expression neutral, but the smile that broke through was unstoppable. “We had lunch together.”

Seungcheol sat up straighter. “Lunch? Just the two of you?”

Wonwoo nodded, the warmth spreading through him as he remembered their conversation. “Yeah. It was… it was nice. Really nice.”

Mingyu chuckled, shaking his head. “Look at you, getting all giddy over lunch. You’ve got it bad, man.”

“I know,” Wonwoo admitted, laughing softly. “But… I think I’m finally starting to see things move forward.”

And for the first time in years, that hope he’d held onto so tightly felt within reach.

As the days passed, the lunch with Y/N became a new routine. They started meeting up more often, sometimes in the office cafeteria, other times at the same cozy café nearby. It wasn’t anything special on the surface—just two colleagues grabbing a bite together—but to Wonwoo, it was everything. Every conversation, every shared laugh, every accidental brush of their hands felt like another step closer to something he had never let himself imagine before.

His roommates, of course, continued to tease him about it at every chance they got.

“So, any big developments?” Seungcheol asked one night, casually flipping through the channels on TV. “Did you hold hands yet?”

Wonwoo groaned, throwing a pillow at him from across the room. “No, we’re just… talking. It’s not like that.”

Mingyu, sprawled out on the couch, shot him a knowing look. “Not yet, maybe. But come on, man. You’re basically going on mini-dates every day. When are you going to make a move?”

“I’m not,” Wonwoo said quickly, though the idea of making a move had crossed his mind more times than he cared to admit. “We’re just friends. She probably doesn’t even see me that way.”

Seungcheol snorted. “You’re dense, dude. She’s spending all this time with you for a reason. No one’s that nice unless they want to be around you.”

Wonwoo frowned, unsure of what to believe. The thought that Y/N might feel something for him seemed too good to be true. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, only to have them crushed. But then again, the way she smiled at him, the way her eyes lingered just a little longer than necessary—it made him wonder. Maybe… just maybe…

The next week, everything changed.

They were working late one evening, finishing up a project that was due the next day. The office was quiet, most of the employees already gone, and it was just the two of them in the meeting room, typing away on their laptops. Wonwoo was focused on the task at hand, trying to wrap things up as quickly as possible, when Y/N suddenly broke the silence.

“Wonwoo, can I ask you something?”

His fingers paused on the keyboard, and he looked up to find her staring at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. “Sure. What’s up?”

She hesitated for a moment, biting her lip like she was gathering her thoughts. “Do you… ever think about what things could’ve been like if we’d been closer back in school? Like, if we’d been better friends or… something more?”

Wonwoo’s heart slammed in his chest. Her words were casual, almost uncertain, but there was a vulnerability in them that made his pulse race. He didn’t know how to respond—didn’t know what she was really asking—but he couldn’t lie to her. Not now.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” he admitted softly, his voice barely above a whisper. “Probably more than I should.”

Y/N’s eyes softened, and she leaned back in her chair, exhaling a small laugh. “I always wondered about you, you know. You were so quiet, so reserved. But you were always… there. I noticed.”

Wonwoo blinked in surprise. “You did?”

“Of course I did,” she said, smiling. “I mean, you were always one of the smartest in the class, but you never tried to stand out. I thought that was interesting. You seemed… different.”

He swallowed hard, trying to process her words. All this time, he thought he’d been invisible to her, just a background character in her life. But now, sitting here with her, he realized that she’d been paying attention too.

“I always wanted to get to know you better,” Y/N continued, her voice quiet but sincere. “But I didn’t know how. You were so hard to approach.”

Wonwoo felt a lump form in his throat. He’d been so afraid of getting close to her, so afraid of rejection, that he never gave her a chance to know him. And now, here they were, years later, finally sitting across from each other, finally talking about the things that had been left unsaid for so long.

“I was… scared,” Wonwoo admitted, his voice trembling slightly. “I didn’t think you’d ever be interested in someone like me.”

Y/N tilted her head, her gaze softening even more. “Why would you think that?”

He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “You were always so… perfect. Smart, popular, surrounded by people. I didn’t think I had a chance.”

Y/N shook her head, smiling gently. “You’ve always had a chance, Wonwoo.”

The words hit him like a tidal wave, and he felt his heart swell with emotion. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to respond to something he’d dreamed of hearing for so long. But before he could find the words, Y/N reached across the table, her fingers brushing lightly against his.

“I know we’ve never been close,” she said softly, her eyes searching his. “But I’d like to change that. If you’re open to it.”

Wonwoo stared at her, his mind spinning. Was this really happening? Was she really giving him the chance he’d always wanted?

“I’d like that too,” he finally whispered, his voice thick with emotion.

Y/N’s smile widened, and for the first time, Wonwoo felt like maybe—just maybe—everything he’d hoped for was within reach. They sat there for a few moments in silence, the warmth of her hand lingering on his, and for the first time in years, Wonwoo allowed himself to believe in the possibility of something more.

That night, when he returned to the apartment, his friends didn’t even need to ask.

“You’re smiling like an idiot,” Mingyu teased, grinning from ear to ear. “What happened?”

Wonwoo dropped onto the couch, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face. “We talked. Really talked.”

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And…” Wonwoo paused, still trying to wrap his head around it all. “She said I’ve always had a chance.”

The room went silent for a moment, and then Mingyu let out a loud whoop, throwing a pillow at him. “Finally! Took you long enough!”

Seungcheol laughed, clapping him on the back. “Looks like things are finally falling into place.”

Wonwoo couldn’t help but laugh along with them, his heart feeling lighter than it had in years. For the first time, he felt like the walls he’d built around his heart were starting to come down, and with Y/N on the other side, maybe—just maybe—his story was only just beginning.

[arimiadev]

why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail

I love visual novels. being a long time fate/stay night fan and only having heard of mahoyo from hushed whispers about its cinematography, I was super invested when it was announced to be coming to the west and I could finally play an official version of it.

however, a lot of people interested in type-moon works had never heard of mahoyo, let alone it getting an official english translation. but how? aniplex is publishing the game and they're one of the largest anime distributors in the world.

with the console release of mahoyo being almost exactly a year ago and the steam release being just 10 days away, I want to look over some of aniplex USA's bizarre and nonexistent marketing for one of my favorite visual novels.

let's clear up a few things, first.

mahoyo is the shortened form of mahoutsukai no yoru (not to be confused with mahoutsukai no yome, i.e. the ancient magus bride), which has been localized as witch on the holy night. mahoyo was a linear non-eroge visual novel released by type-moon in 2012, being one of the first scripts kinoko nasu (co-founder of type-moon) wrote back in 1996 and adapted into a VN many, many years later.

in April of 2022, a console remaster (switch, playstation 4) was announced with HD assets and voice acting, to be published by aniplex. notably, this console release would contain an english translation and was later confirmed in June to be sold in the west via online retailers. this was huge news, as this meant mahoyo would be the first type-moon visual novel (not including gameplay-oriented titles like fate/extella or fate/grand order) to be officially released in the west, as despite numerous fan translations, their more recognizable visual novels tsukihime and fate/stay night still had not received a localization.

type-moon is the developer behind mahoyo and aniplex is the publisher, meaning that type-moon made the game and aniplex is in charge of distributing (and marketing) the game worldwide.

timeline:

April 11 2022: Mahoyo rerelease announced for consoles (Switch & PlayStation 4), including English translation

July 4 2022: Aniplex confirms Mahoyo will be available to the West, localized under the name Witch on the Holy Night

October 14 2022: 2nd trailer released, more voice actor info announced

November 3 2022: physical pre-orders launched, demo version available

November 18 2022: Aniplex attends Anime NYC with Mahoyo

December 7 2022: Mahoyo released digitally on Switch / PlayStation 4 (Dec 8th in Japan, Dec 7th in America)

December 12 2022: Mahoyo reaches 110k units sold worldwide

January 27 2023: Mahoyo physicals release

July 5 2023: Mahoyo reaches 150k units sold worldwide

September 10 2023: Mahoyo announced for Steam via a now unlisted Aniplex livestream

December 13 2023: Mahoyo will be released on Steam (Dec 14th in Japan, Dec 13th in America)

some of the dates might be a little fuzzy, especially the release dates, as some sources go by japanese time and some go by american timezones, so just be aware of that.

now, let's talk a bit about mahoyo itself.

mahoyo is a masterpiece. it's a niche game not meant for everyone. its cinematography is top notch among visual novels. its writing style can be off-putting to people who want faster-paced stories. it's one of my most beloved visual novels I've ever played, and I've been in this field for almost a decade and have played well over 100 VNs.

mahoyo is a completely linear visual novel—meaning it has no choices or gameplay—that follows aoko, a high schooler mage trying to balance her perfect school president facade with her secret life as a mage, something she has to keep secret at the risk of death. this is one of the lesser known type-moon works but it's well beloved because of the care put into it.

if you've ever heard someone talk about it, it's almost impossible for them to not mention the visuals. mahoyo is one of the most visually impressive visual novels I've ever seen, with its inspired use of artwork and in-game animations. I cannot recommend this VN enough if you like modern fantasy and don't mind linear VNs.

before we dive into aniplex USA's marketing, I want to clarify a few marketing terms for people who don't market visual novels as a job. marketing is not just advertising—it's everything related to how a product communicates with potential users, including its branding, its packaging, its everything. when marketing a game, you have several different avenues: social media, press & influencers, trailers, store pages, and more.

today I want to show you how, based off what I have researched after a long, manic day, aniplex USA has failed mahoyo on all of these accounts.

so let's go back to its western release.

mahoyo has a few official english channels:

website

twitter

facebook

aniplex also has an official english twitter with almost 500k followers where they shared mahoyo very rarely—only 9 tweets about the game ever.

well, surely their other pages are more maintained right—

both accounts stopped posting July 10th/11th, with their last post being about mahoyo going on sale on consoles. let's look at their posts prior to this, though, starting with the twitter.

we can see that the twitter account was made in december of 2022. if we scroll down far enough (it's not hard, given they only have 33 tweets), we can see that their first tweet was on december 6th 2022:

let's go back to our timeline. can you tell me when mahoyo's remaster released digitally?

yes they made both of the english mahoyo social media accounts the day before the game launched

we can very easily add up the entire social media posts for the game thus far:

mahoyo english twitter - 30 tweets and 3 retweets

mahoyo english facebook - 27 posts

aniplex english twitter - 9 tweets

aniplex english facebook - 2 posts

no other english social media accounts were tied to the website, so these are the only ones I looked at. this means in total, there were only 68 social media posts for the console release of mahoyo by the publisher for english audiences.

but what about the steam release? after the game sold over 150k+ units on consoles, surely aniplex was ready to market it a bit more for pc users—

neither account has made a post about the upcoming steam release.

if we look at the twitter, they have 3 tweets since July that do talk about the upcoming steam release- however, these are retweets from the japanese mahoyo account.

we know that this twitter and this facebook account are the official social media for mahoyo as they're linked on the website, so they're definitely meant to be followed for game updates in the west. well, maybe the english aniplex twitter has posted about it—

none of the english aniplex or mahoyo accounts have made a single post about the steam release

that's right, the social media posts I counted above are the only posts for mahoyo on their english accounts, all dating back before the steam release was announced. since then, they have not made a single original post even mentioning the steam release.

meanwhile, the japanese mahoyo twitter has been hustling hard to promote the upcoming steam release—reposting trailers, character bios, and more almost every day with pretty good numbers.

in fact, the japanese mahoyo twitter did such a good job at marketing it that the aniplex USA twitter never mentioned the english mahoyo twiter, instead only @ ing the japanese one in tweets (despite the english one being linked on the website).

why they even bothered making social media accounts and then not running them despite being one of the largest anime distributors in the world I have no clue.

well, maybe they didn't need to rely on social media presence. maybe they were going for the in-person approach and marketing it at conventions.

mahoyo had basically no anime convention presence

the only reference I can find to aniplex notably promoting mahoyo at any western convention is this tweet of them at anime NYC. from someone who was at anime NYC, I've been told that they pushed the game heavily at their booth with TV screens promoting the game.

however, anime NYC is only one anime convention. you cannot hope to sell a game by just attending one anime convention. mahoyo might have had a presence at other american conventions, but I'm unable to find any images or news about this.

maybe they don't understand type-moon

aniplex is the publisher for fate/grand order, one of the most successful mobile games ever created. they're also the distributor for a majority of type-moon related anime, ranging from fate to garden of sinners to side series. aniplex's marketing team should have lots of experience with type-moon properties.

maybe it was promoted in other aniplex titles

I was also unable to find a news post in fate/grand order related to mahoyo's release, despite news posts for other type-moon series (namely fate but also things like melty blood) getting news posts in fate/grand order. I might've missed the news posts when looking back through FGO but I don't believe there was one.

maybe it sold well in other regions but not western ones

(I'm going to be referring only to the console release for these stats, keep in mind)

mahoyo released December 7th/8th 2022 with an english, japanese, simplified chinese, and traditional chinese translations. at the end of the release week, mahoyo's japanese twitter announced the game had sold 110k copies worldwide and famitsu reported that 66,344 of these units were sold in japan. this means we have around 43k units unaccounted for.

we know the game was available in english, japanese, and chinese languages but we don't know what regions. mainland china has a very large visual novel playerbase (I say this as someone who sells visual novels), which means if it were sold there then it's easy to say that a big chunk of that 43k units could be attributed to them—this also means it would be easy to believe that aniplex saw mahoyo selling worse in western countries and took this as a sign to not promote the game any more there.

but was it ever sold in mainland china? from what I could tell—no.

looking at pricing charts for the nintendo eshop and the playstation store, china is not listed on either. furthermore, searching the game's chinese title on the chinese playstation store does not bring back any results. it looks like the only predominantly chinese-speaking regions that were able to buy it are hong kong, taiwan and possibly singapore (the playstation store page for it doesn't look like it's available for purchase anymore).

so what does this tell us?

without any other numbers it's hard to tell how many of the 43k launch week sales came from english-speaking players, but even if we conservatively say that only around 20k of the 110k launch week units were from western countries, that's still almost a million in revenue (and remember, the physical limited edition of the game was available in english for $60, which is $20 more than the digital base version).

maybe the store page is so good they don't need to market it

here's a little secret: store pages matter a lot more than you'd think. there are entire job positions dedicated to tailoring store pages (like a steam game page) to make it perfect for the game's target audience. there's a science to it that includes the artwork, descriptions, tags, screenshots, and more.

let's see what aniplex did for the steam page of mahoyo.

A tale told with vivid colors and rich sound in a classic TYPE-MOON visual novel.

I don't know how to describe this short description charitably other than to say it sounds like a person who's never heard of a visual novel has been tasked with describing a visual novel.

this tells me nothing about the game other than it's a visual novel. I hope you know what type-moon is, because if you don't then you've learned nothing else from this. alright, well, let's look at the screenshots—

there's only 1.

currently as of writing this, there's 10 images uploaded as screenshots (no trailers, they keep adding and removing the trailers for some reason). 9 of these images are just the full artworks from the game while 1 is an actual screenshot.

I really hate this, as you're not actually shown what the game looks like unless you look at the very last screenshot. this will absolutely lead to some people not understanding what they're getting into. what's worse is that some of these CGs are spoilers, especially one in particular featuring my wife touko.

why are we spoiling people instead of showing them screenshots? why not show people what mahoyo actually looks like??

there's also absolutely no use of the announcements section on steam. each game on steam can post announcements related to the game, including upcoming releases, new updates, and more. it's customary to post a steam announcement when a game has a release date announcement. mahoyo's steam page has none.

well they probably released the trailers in english for hype

I wish I had that much hope.

on mahoyo's english website, all of the videos listed are from the official type-moon youtube, which is their japanese channel. type-moon went through the effort to translate these videos. aniplex didn't upload these to their own youtube, where they already upload everything related to the fateverse and nasuverse.

searching up witch on the holy night brings up no results for the trailer—aniplex never uploaded the trailer to their channel.

maybe they got influencers to play it

according to steamdb, the max amount of viewers mahoyo streams have had on twitch was 71 viewers.

furthermore, if we check twitch and look for vods attached to mahoyo, we only find 4 videos total, all of which were posted in the past week. it looks like they didn't even reach out to streamers to play the console release, much less pay them.

over on the press side, it does look like they reached out to at least a few reviewers. for example, on the review by noisy pixel, they clarify that a review copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes. we can add that to the bare minimum of marketing—reaching out to press.

however, they did get for some other influencers to share the game! ...twitter game sale influencers, that is.

there's actually a lot more of these types of tweets for mahoyo than I was expecting when I searched it on twitter. as a friend pointed out, just because it says "#ad" doesn't necessarily mean these were paid for by aniplex—a lot of these links look to be referrals, which means they're getting a cut of any purchases.

let's recap

mahoyo released over 110k copies in the launch week for it's worldwide console release despite very, very limited marketing efforts from its publisher aniplex. now that the game has proven it can sell very well despite being a lesser known linear visual novel, aniplex has done no marketing for the steam release- no tweets, no influencer outreach, no localization of trailers, no announcements via steam, nothing.

so why?

why does aniplex want mahoyo to fail?

even after all of this, I still do not know why. to me, it's clear that the marketing team at aniplex were (most likely) given no budget for this game and just couldn't do anything with it, deciding to spend what little money they had on press outreach and an anime NYC booth.

but why? why didn't aniplex give them a budget, even a small one? why was their budget so tiny they couldn't even afford to tweet? to RT more posts from the japanese twitter? to share the already translated trailers to their own accounts?

I've heard a few excuses like "type-moon hates western fans and probably caused it" but this doesn't make any sense either. why would you authorize a translation of your game and allow your publisher to sell the game overseas but specifically make them not market the game (and what publisher would agree to that)? I've even heard excuses like "they just forgot it was coming out", to which I ask "how does an entire marketing team (a company the size of aniplex absolutely has a team(s) for marketing and not a singular person) forget a release for a game that's already sold over 150k copies?". the only excuse I've seen that I somewhat buy is that they did not have much faith in the game and relied almost entirely on fans doing word of mouth marketing for the game.

I don't think we'll ever get an answer. while I do believe the marketing team at aniplex was most likely given no budget for mahoyo, it still begs the question of why. why did someone at aniplex not want to give mahoyo a marketing budget? why are the japanese accounts for mahoyo and type-moon the only ones doing the marketing?

I hope the information I've provided here is accurate—if it's not, I'll try to update with corrections. I don't want this piece to cast hate towards the staff at aniplex or anyone involved with this projects, I'm just trying to assemble the pieces on what feels like a game being left to word of mouth. I've tried to include as many links to my sources as I could so you could come to your own judgements about what has happened regarding mahoyo's worldwide release.

mahoyo is a visual novel that's dear to me and will absolutely sell well on steam—with an estimated 50-80k wishlists, it's going to have a solid launch despite the zero marketing for its steam release. if you love other type-moon works or want to see an absolutely visually stunning visual novel, please check it out.

— arimia

[ageofbajabule]

Miracle

Alt!Jake Kiszka x Female Reader

Word Count: 6.8 K

Warnings: Drug use (marijuana, coke), Alcohol consumption, Partying, Oral Sex (F! & M! Receiving) Unprotected Sex, Depression, Abandonment, Lying, Crying, Arguing, Fluff.

Author’s Note: Please note that this is an Alternate Universe! And it is fiction, if any of the warnings are potentially triggering to you then I suggest you move along and avoid this fic. (Also, please note that I would never ever depict any of the guys to be like this. We don’t know who they truly are and again this is simply fanfiction.) This is inspired by Bad Omens song Miracle off of their The Death of Peace of Mind album. Also picture credit to the lovely @holybananafuck she did an absolutely stunning job on bringing Miracle Jake to life🤍

Going to parties wasn’t typically your vibe. However your dorm roommates bribed you into going as it was the first big party since coming back from summer break. You would much rather be at home listening to your favorite bands, or painting your next masterpiece. You had taken it upon yourself to get a degree in Art and Philosophy. In hopes to become an Art teacher or a tattoo artist.

You didn’t need a degree of course to be a tattoo artist, but learning different techniques in art helped your creative mind. You had started an apprenticeship at your favorite tattoo shop. Abby had taken you under her wing to train you, she absolutely loved your portfolio. You had already been teaching yourself since your senior year of high school.

You had purchased a tattooing machine set, an insane amount of ink, needles, and of course tattooable practice skin. Abby had said within the next year you could have all of the training necessary completed before becoming an official tattoo artist for her shop. Getting the degree was a back up plan in case your tattooing career didn’t end up working out for you.

After getting ready, you had finally opted on wearing a red lace bodysuit, paired with black ripped jeans, and your Doc Martens. You grabbed your black and gray flannel as well, putting it on as the early fall was a little chilly. Being satisfied with how you looked, you and your friends left. The party thankfully wasn’t at a frat house, instead at Xavier’s house that his parents left him for the weekend.

You typically hung out with what others would typically say is “alternative people”. And there was nothing wrong with that, you liked the people you surround yourself with. It was a comfortable friend group you had come to know. However tonight there was a new face at this party, one you hadn’t seen before. Yeah you never went to parties, but you still almost knew everyone from going out bowling.

Walking past the mysterious man, you had pulled your friend Maddy to the side.

“Who is he?” You grabbed a cup making yourself a vodka soda.

She giggled softly, “That is Jake… He’s majoring in music I believe. And he’s been trying to get his band going… But other than that, there isn’t much to tell about him. All I’ve heard is that he’s good in bed.” She smirked, making herself a drink.

You weren’t really looking to have a hook up. But he drew you in, and couldn’t put a finger as to why. You nodded, taking a sip from your drink.

“However, I don’t think he’s one to settle down… Guess he likes the party life.” She shrugged.

Maddy ventured off to find her boyfriend while you stood off the side, watching Jake from a distance. He wasn’t that tall, but he was gorgeous. His hair rested just upon his shoulders, a chestnut brown. Tattoos traveling all over his arms, his shirt was a little torn by his chest revealing a chest piece to you. His hands adorned with rings, and his ears gauged, a small hoop in his nostril and an eyebrow ring.

He was your type, but you tried to steer away because most times it didn’t end well for you. But your feet were telling you otherwise and suddenly you were in front of him.

He turned to face you, smiling softly.

One look at your eyes, and I cave in…

“Sorry, Hi. I’m Y/N…” You said shyly, sticking your hand out.

He chuckled softly, shaking your hand. You could feel the calluses on his hands. A guitar player perhaps. “I’m Jake, it’s nice to meet you.”

“I’ve never seen you around before? Are you friends with Xavier?”

He raised an eyebrow to you, “Yeah, good friends actually. Although it's funny, cause I’ve never seen you around before…”

You felt your cheeks warm, “I’m not typically one to party often.”

“A shame, it's nice to see such a pretty girl…” He mumbled, but you caught on.

You blushed, shaking your head lightly, “I’m not pretty. You’re just saying that.”

“I mean it…” He looked up at you with a twinkle in his eyes. He pulled a rolled joint from his flannel front pocket. “Wanna smoke?”

You nodded, as he led the way to the backyard of the noisy house. He sat down in front of the bonfire that was lit, weirdly enough no one was out back. So it was just the two of you. He placed the joint between his lips, bringing a lighter to light the end of it. Once it was lit, he took a couple puffs before handing it over to you.

You smiled softly, saying a thank you to him as you took a couple hits. Coughing slightly, you passed it back to him. “So tell me a bit about yourself.” He spoke with a bit of raspiness to his voice.

“Well, I’m attending university to get a degree in Art and Philosophy. While also doing an apprenticeship at my favorite tattoo shop. I hope to be a tattoo artist, and my sponsor thinks if I keep doing what I’m doing I’ll land a position for myself in no time.” You smiled softly, running your hand along your thighs nervously.

Jake nodded and smiled taking in what you had told him. “That’s amazing. I’ll have to check your work out sometime.” He smiled, taking a drag from the joint.

“So what about you?” You pulled the joint from his hand. He smirked softly.

“Music major, although I’m trying to get a band going with my brothers.” He grinned, shaking his head.

“A band, that’s really cool. Do you guys play often?” You took a drag, starting to feel the effects now.

“We have some gigs lined up to play at bars. Nothing crazy.” He shrugged, taking the joint back, finishing it off.

“You should see us sometime.”

“I’d like that…” You smiled softly.

The rest of the night you and Jake completely hit it off. The two of you had a lot more in common than you thought. And Maddy wasn’t lying when she said he was a party dude. The two of you played pong most of the night and kept winning every game. Eventually the two of you ventured off walking around the streets of the local frat homes as parties were starting to die out.

“Uh, did you want me to walk you back to your dorm?” He asked nervously.

“You don’t have too. I’m sure you want to get back to yours.” You felt your cheeks flush.

“No, I want to make sure you get back safely.” He smiled at you.

“Okay, it's just a couple blocks this way.” You smiled softly as you pointed in the direction.

He made sure to stay on your side, keeping you from stumbling into the street. As the two of you were still a bit drunk from your night out.

After a bit of walking you finally reach your dorm building as he walks with you up to your dorm room. Right outside your door.

“Well this is it.” You smiled at him.

He smiled softly, “Well I’ll leave you to it. It was nice meeting you Y/N.”

“You too Jake. I had fun tonight…”

“Uh, do you want to trade numbers?” His cheeks flushed.

You nodded, handing him your phone, as he switched yours out with his. After putting in your number, he finished putting his in yours.

“I’d like to get together again.” You grinned at him.

“Yeah of course. Have to get you to come see a gig.” He chuckled.

Then he leaned in closely, your breath starting to speed up as your lips touched. His lips are soft, satin and warm. It was a sweet small kiss.

One taste of the life, now I crave it

Then he pulled away, “Fuck. I’m sorry…” He chuckled nervously.

“No! It’s okay…” You blushed. “It would probably be best to leave it at that…”

He nodded, backing away slowly. “I’ll see you around love.” He said in a playful British accent.

After the small goodbye you retreated into your now empty dorm. You figured your roommates would be out for the rest of the evening and return in the late morning. So you decided to text Jake.

You: Thanks for walking me home. I appreciate it. And I’d love to see you play one night.☺️

Jake⚔️: Of course, I wouldn't have let you walk back all by yourself. And definitely! We have one coming up soon.

And that was the last you heard from Jake… You would reach out for the next few weeks hoping to hear back from him. But he completely ignored your messages. Maddy had told you that he probably wanted a hook up and since he didn’t get any he just dropped you.

You heard of him attending parties, and pretty much picking any chick he could find and leaving the party with them not too long after. Maddy had told you, she saw him snorting coke right off some chick's breasts the other night at a party. Making you see red, why were you even remotely upset?

Because you felt the two of you had a connection? But, maybe you had misjudged him.

It was Halloween weekend. All sorts of parties were going on this weekend so you were bound to run into Jake at one of them. You had different costumes to choose from. And the first night out you opted into a slutty nurse. (How original.)

Maddy helped pull your costume together by applying fake blood to it, and making sure your boobs perked out. You had gone for a dark makeup look and grabbed your wristlet. “Tonight, just forget about him! Clearly he’s missing out.” Maddy smiled at you softly.

“Don’t worry, I’m over it.” You lied through your teeth as you spoke. You weren’t over it, you still thought about how soft his lips were. How the two of you connected over music and wrecked ships. He was different to you…

Upon arriving at Xavier's house Maddy had left your side going and found Travis right away as she always did. You rolled your eyes playfully and went to the keg to get yourself a cup. You eyed around seeing if there was any sign of Jake. But alas no luck.

You ventured around, participating in drinking games as well as taking shots as you got further into the party.

Then you heard a familiar laugh, your ears perked up following the sound.

Coming to the outside balcony you see Jake dressed in a pirate costume with his arm wrapped around another girl, as he does a line off the table. You felt your blood boil…

It’s not too late to die for a reason

Jake’s eyes traveled towards you after he hit his line. His eyes widened as they locked with yours. You sucked your teeth nodding at him raising your cup then taking a long sip from it. Walking away from the scene, making way towards the bathroom down the hall.

Hearing footsteps tailing you, you felt your heartbeat grow faster.

“Y/N! Slow down.” Jake yelled for you.

You growled, “Why, Jake! Obviously you have no interest, you haven’t spoken to me in weeks! I’ve reached out and received radio silence.”

Jake groaned, “Things are just complicated.”

“Complicated my ass… You seem pretty fucking occupied with Slutty Nun back there.”

“As opposed to you being a Slutty Nurse?” He chuckled.

“How fucking high are you right now?” You grabbed his jaw looking at him closely.

“Don’t fucking start.” He pushed your hand away from his face.

“What else did you do besides coke? Are you on fucking molly, xanax?” You shook your head.

“What’s it to you?”

“Because Jake, you are trying to make something of yourself and taking this route will just make it worse.” You shook your head in disbelief.

“Listen just because you have your life together doesn’t mean I do, or that I have too.” He rubbed his nose.

“Wow Jake…. I thought you were different from others. But you just proved me absolutely wrong.”

“Honey, if you thought you would get something from me… It would’ve been one night and done.” He was standing dangerously close to you now. Smelling the hint of tobacco and teakwood off of him.

“Maybe I should’ve made it worth your while and did something that night.” You bit back.

“Why can’t you do something now?”

You giggled loudly, “After you’ve clearly been with another chick this whole night?”

Fall down on the sword you were swinging

Jake, wrapped his hand around your waist pulling you close. “Come on…”

I wanted to dress a blade up in red, with both of our necks

You melted into his touch pulling him into the bathroom. The alcohol had made you desperate for him. You were so drunk your anger you felt towards him had vanished making you vulnerable to him.

“Tell me you want this…” He held your face in his hands softly.

“I want this…” You pleaded to him, pulling him in for a heated kiss.

He wrapped his hand around your neck pulling your hair with his hand as his tongue slipped into your mouth. Tasting the whiskey on his breath. You melted into him, moaning softly into him, earning a groan from him as he locked the bathroom door.

You tug him closer to you, resulting in him lifting you up to place you on the counter. He pressed you against the mirror, trailing kisses down your neck leaving sloppy wet kisses.

“Jake…” You whined out, feeling the heat between your legs.

Like he knew what you needed, his hand moved to your clothed pussy. Pulling your thong off in a swift action stuffing them into his pants pocket.

“Fucking crying for me, aren’t you sweetheart…” He kissed your lips sloppily and his two fingers collected your slick, feeling how wet you were for him. “God… you’re gonna be the death of me…”

He licked his two fingers, humming contently before getting down to eye level with your cunt. He wrapped his lips around your bundle of nerves making you yelp, as your hands reached down to grip onto his hair.

He starts kneading his hands around your ass, pulling you closer to his face. Shaking his head back and forth like a starved man, lapping you up.

“Oh fuck…” You whine, as your back arches as you lean your head against the mirror.

Jake then slips two fingers, pumping and curling them at a steady pace. Grazing that spot that is ever so sweet inside of you. You felt yourself getting closer.

He pulls away for a brief moment, still pumping his fingers. “Come on angel, give me it. Drown me in it.”

Something inside of you snapped, as he reattached his mouth. He went into a frenzy, continuing to eat you out bringing you down from your high. He lapped up every inch of you, pulling away from your convulsing body, his lips glistening from you.

You pulled him up by his shirt grabbing his face to kiss him roughly, tasting yourself on him. Humming against his lips. He rutted his hips against you, feeling his hard, hot thick self pressing against you.

You pushed him back slightly, hopping off the counter. Pushing him against the counter, going onto your knees you undo his pants pulling them down to his knees, springing his cock free. Throbbing, the tip red and leaking with arousal. Taking your hand you wrap it around him, pumping him slowly, taking your thumb and rolling it over the tip as he shudders beneath you.

“Don’t be a tease baby.” He looked down at you, his eyes bloodshot and filled with lust.

Giving him your best doe eyes you smile softly, licking the tip slowly and languidly before taking him into your mouth. He groans as his head rolls back, as he relaxes against the counter.

Teasing him slowly, by flicking your tongue around his head, then took him far enough for the tip of his cock to hit the back of your throat, beginning to bob your head. His hand reached to gather your hair from your face. Letting out a moan against him, causing him to buck his hips causing you to slightly gag but you continued on breathing through your nose.

After a little while of bobbing your head and using your hand to pump the rest of his length. He eventually took control by grabbing your hair. “Just let me know if it gets to be a bit much. Tap on my leg.”

You nodded at him, as he then began to fuck your mouth. Feeling tears spill out the side of your eyes as he kept driving into your mouth, succumbing to his destiny. He was in an absolute haze. “God your mouth is fucking perfect…”

Somehow you managed your breathing to keep yourself from gagging, you hollowed your cheeks out as he kept thrusting. Eventually you felt him twitching, hearing him groan and watching his face contorted in pleasure he finally released down your throat. As you take every last drop of him, making sure to remember his distinct taste.

Jake eventually pulls back, cupping your cheek as he looks down at you. “So fucking beautiful.” He picked you up kissing your lips softly, getting a taste of himself.

The door then rattled as someone was trying to get in.

“Bathrooms occupied!” Jake yelled as you gathered yourself.

“Come on man you’ve been in there forever! Stephanie’s getting all fucking weird dude and asking for you.” A guy yelled back to him.

You looked at Jake as you stood up, adjusting your costume. “I guess you better tend to Slutty Nun…” You scoffed.

“Y/N, don’t do this. We can-“

“No Jake, this. This was obviously a mistake…” You felt your head throbbing. You then exited the bathroom quickly vanishing from the party.

But I wasn’t able, and I wasn’t stable, I guess

Jake’s POV

You felt like you were drowning, planning all these gigs. Trying to maintain your grades, and keeping up with whatever you had going on. The only things that kept you afloat were your music and drugs…

“Jake, come on dude! Get your fucking shit together.” Your youngest brother smacked you on the side of your head.

“Yeah, cause that’s gonna solve all my fucking problems man!” You cracked your neck, standing up slowly.

“You have been late to practice every fucking time we schedule it. And the gigs you’ve been slacking off man. You fucking wanted this, and now you’re throwing it away. What is your problem?” Sam got into your face.

“My problem! You want to know what my fucking problem is!? Its fucking everything. Everything I’ve ever worked for I just fuck up Sam, I don’t have brains like you, Josh or Danny. I just make stupid fucking mistakes and deal with the consequences all on my own. And I’m just a fucking mess.” You pushed him back. Causing Josh and Danny to intervene.

“Yo man, walk it off.” Danny called out.

“No, you know what. Fuck this, and fuck you guys.” You packed your guitar up and left the studio. Driving to god knows where, whichever girl was wanting to fuck you was all you could think about. Of course you thought about Y/N but you pushed her into the back of your mind. All that would be is heartbreak and disappointment.

She didn’t deserve that from you. She needed better and you couldn’t offer that to her, not with your fucked up mentality.

But nevertheless I’m fucking depressed

Another party you were off to. Travis was throwing one this time around, you knew it probably wasn’t best to go considering Y/N would probably be there. But so fucking what. You were so far gone it wouldn’t have mattered. Just as long as you had your bump, booze and a girl by your side.

Throughout the night you kept yourself busy, drowning in your sorrows. Getting a bump whenever you could, and flirting with all the girls that came through. Like you were testing the waters of who would come home with you tonight.

You were so far gone, you could barely stand straight. You ended up sitting on the lounge chair on the deck outside. Lighting up a blunt, smoking it by yourself, while some of your buddies eventually joined you. The four of you bullshitted, then out of nowhere you could hear her. You bit your lip nervously, standing up telling the guys you were just getting another drink.

Making your way into the house, you accidentally bump into her. “Jesus christ!” She yells.

You both look at each other. “Jake…”

“Y/N…”

“I um. Wasn’t expecting you here.” She wrapped her arms close to her chest.

“Don’t worry, I won’t waste your time darling. Going to get myself a drink and maybe another bump or a fuck.” The drugs and alcohol were taking over.

“Real classy Jake. Don’t you think it's time you grew up?” She scoffed.

“I’m grown baby, what’s the harm in having fun?” You smirked.

“Getting fucking high on god knows what and drunk every night is not having fun Jake. You bailed on your last gig.”

“Keeping tabs on me now?” You looked at her with wide eyes.

“Not keeping tabs, Josh asked me to come out. We are lab partners, you know.” She rolled her eyes.

“Look I don’t give a shit. You’re not shit…”

You watched her face get red as her eyes welled up with tears. “Jake I honestly wish you the absolute fucking worst. You are so fucked up… What is wrong with you? How can you think this is okay?” She was starting to get loud with you.

“I’ve been fucked up, you didn’t notice from day one. Haven’t you heard the stories? I’m a fucking mess baby… And no one is ever going to change that. I’m not going to give you what you’re looking for… I don’t do relationships. So stop fucking trying to fix me.” You yelled into her face. Causing her to cower back and she began to sob quietly to herself excusing herself from you.

You punched the wall beside you, screaming to yourself. How much more of a fuck up can you be…

So you stormed off and found some passable looking chick that was down to just fuck. You didn’t care you needed to blow off steam. Get your mind off things, off of her. And this was the way you went about it.

I hide it with sex, and drink till it's fatal

It’s so fucking painful

It’s a mess

The next few weeks you just drown your sorrows with booze, drugs and any chick that was down for whatever with you. Eventually Josh was fed up with you fucking your life up. Waking up with the worst hangover ever. Josh came barging into your room.

“Alright man, I’ve been letting shit slide for too fucking long. You need to sober up. This isn’t fucking you man. What has got you all fucked up?”

Your head was pounding as you adjusted to the real world. “She’s got me fucked up… She’s so.”

“She’s got you fucked up? You got her fucked up!” He was angry. “She called me last night fucking crying, I could barely understand a word out of her. Do you like fucking up the good ones Jake?”

“Of course not!” You felt yourself getting angry, not at your twin. At yourself.

“Then what the fuck is your deal?”

“I need help man… I need something…”

So give me something beautiful

So give me something else

“Jake… you have to want to help yourself… I can’t just.” He sighed.

“I can’t lose her.” You choked out.

“I honestly think that was the last straw…”

“Josh. Please, I need to get better. For us, the band. For her.” You were crying now.

“Well, what did you think was going to happen acting like that?” He sighed sitting beside you.

“I think I love her. But I just, I’m scared. Is that how it’s supposed to be? Am I supposed to be scared of this feeling…”

“Brother… I think you are scared from something actually working out for once. She is… She is exactly what you want in someone. And, man- you need to get your act together.” He rubbed your shoulder.

“So help me…”

I need another miracle

I really need some help, I need a miracle

Her POV

Spring semester had started, you were focused on your apprenticeship. Excelling in it, just as you suspected. You had grown close with Josh, becoming quite close even with the hurt Jake had put you through. Josh had apologized for his brother's actions even though it had nothing to do with it. As Jake was his own person and could own up to his own actions.

“Just come to our show Saturday.” Josh smiled softly, paying for your guys’ coffee.

“Josh… I don’t know.” You sighed quietly.

“I swear on my life. It will be worth it. And Jake… He. He’s better.” He beamed.

You looked at him with a serious look, but there was hope in his eyes. Hope that you would go, in not just support of him but the rest of them.

“Fine. But if Jake does some fucked shit, I’m a goner.” You had a serious tone, grabbing your coffee as it was called.

“I promise, he’ll be on his best behavior.” He smiled softly. “And besides, I want you to meet this guy I’ve been seeing… His name is Ethan. And I want to know what you think of him.” He blushed talking about this new guy to you.

“Okay, well now you just have to fill me in on everything!” You giggled softly as the two of you went on your daily walk.

Who’s left when we’re all for the taking?

Saturday came, you had opted to wear jeans and a t-shirt for the gig they were playing at the local bar. You didn’t want to wear anything flashy as you were going in support of your friends' band.

When arriving at the bar, you decided to start a tab getting yourself a Tequila Soda. You opted to sit at the bar with the perfect view of the stage. Seeing Danny and Sam finishing up on setting the stage up. While noticing Josh out of the corner of your eye, you waved to him with him waving back.

In a couple of minutes the guys hit the stage, as you watched them step onto the stage. You felt your heart start to beat quickly when you noticed Jake had actually made it. You drank the rest of your drink asking the bartender for another, as the guys started out their show.

Throughout their set, you paid close attention to Jake and how he played. You haven’t been able to see them just yet so you were mesmerized by his skills. You knew Josh had a beautiful voice from the times you’ve hung out. But you didn’t know Jake was amazingly talented.

Although in the back of your head all you could picture was how he had treated you. And how fucked up he was the last time you saw him, it had you wondering if he had gotten his act together. Or if he was still the same old prick you were facing the last two times.

No lives left to bet on obeying

Once their hour long set was finished, Josh had rushed over to you embracing you into a hug. “I’m so glad you came! What did you think?” He pulled back, raising an eyebrow.

“You guys are amazing! You didn’t tell me the talent you all had!” You playfully punched his arm.

“Jake has. Something’s changed, and honestly I think it makes us sound better.” He smiled softly.

You gave a hurt smile, that you knew he wouldn’t pick up on. And order the two of you a drink. “So where is this lovely Ethan?”

“He should be coming back soon, he went to the bathroom before I came over here.” He smiled while taking his drink you got him.

“Over here!” Josh flagged him down to join you two.

“Sorry, it was crowded as fuck over there.” Ethan giggled softly, embracing you into a hug. “I’m Ethan, you must be Y/N! Josh always talks about you.”

“The one and only. Best lab partner ever! But also the bestest friend.” You smiled softly. You were happy to see Josh glow with him, yet you felt a pang as you were missing out on something like that.

For the next hour you learned a lot about Ethan and came to find that he was going to school for film. Which was one of the many reasons Josh was so interested in him. Ethan had even offered to be one of your clients for when you can start tattooing on actual clientele which would be relatively soon.

Suddenly you felt a tap on your shoulder, looking over to see it’s Jake. You took a deep breath smiling softly.

“Hey… Is it okay if we, uh. Talk?” He scratched the back of his neck.

“Sure…” You stood up from the bar stool telling Josh and Ethan you would be back.

What are we calling it?

You felt your nerves practically shaking. You were scared, excited, and had all these emotions going at the same time. The two of you decided to step by the one area that wasn’t as crowded in the building.

“So um.” He started nervously.

“Before we continue I just want to make sure… You’re sober right?” You felt bad for asking, but wanted to make sure this wasn’t going to be another bad evening.

“I’ve cut out the hard drugs… I’m just smoking and drinking now. But I’ve barely had anything tonight.” He looked at you with honesty in his eyes.

“Okay… go on.”

“Look, I know I haven’t been the best person out there… And I know I’ve completely avoided you, abandoned you and was overall and outright dick to you. And that wasn’t fair to you…” He took a deep breath.

What does it cost?

“I was just… In over my head, when you found me. I didn’t know how to handle myself, or what to feel or how to feel. I’ve been broken for a very long time. And I just…. I love you to death-” He looked at you before you cut him off.

“But I’m drowning…” You sighed softly, looking into his sad eyes.

He tilted his head with tears threatening his eyes, stepping closer to you. He grabbed your hands, lifting them into his.

What are we calling it?

What does it cost?

“Jake you… You have put me through so much… And-“

Suddenly his lips crashed into yours pulling you closely to him. As you kissed him back passionately cupping his cheeks with your hands, as his wrap around your waist.

So give me something beautiful

The two of you separated from one another slowly, taking a breath. As you steady yourselves, looking at one another.

“You have to mean it Jake… You can’t just throw love around-“

“I do mean it! I- I’ve been cleaning my act up since. Josh practically knocked sense into me… I just. I’m stubborn and a fucking handful.” He gave a sly smile as he chuckled. “I just… ever since. Fuck I don’t even want to speak of her really. I just never believed I could love again… yet here you are.”

“Like I’m some sort of miracle…” You giggled softly looking at him.

He shook his head, smiling softly. “Yeah… like a miracle. Come on… Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed your hand.

“Wait! I have to tell Josh.” You looked at him with pleading eyes.

“Fine, I don’t want him thinking I scared you off again.”

The two of you walked back to the bar together standing beside Josh. “Hey, we’re gonna leave. Everything’s alright.” You whispered to him, smiling softly. “Now you have a fun evening with Ethan, and it was so lovely meeting you!” You hugged the both of them before closing your tab out and leaving the bar with Jake.

“You and Josh must’ve gotten really close, huh?” He smiled softly, walking you to his car.

“Yeah, we have. He’s honestly one of my best friends now…” You smiled softly as Jake opened the door for you to get into his car. Getting into his car you put your seatbelt as he gets around to the other side.

The drive back to the apartment he and his brother shared wasn’t too far from the bar. And surprisingly wasn’t too far from your dorm room either. The campus had everything relatively close to one another, which was a nice advantage.

After Jake parked his car, he got out helping you out of his car. The two of you walked up two flights of stairs before coming to the door of his apartment.

“I apologize if it's a mess… Partially my fault. But we’re managing.” He chuckled, taking his shoes off, as you did the same.

“It’s fine really. At least you have your own place. I stay in a shitty dorm.” You giggled softly.

“So…”

“Well, you have me here. All alone…” Speaking in a sultry tone.

“That I do…” He smiled pulling you close to him and he pecked your lips softly. Before pulling you in for a deeper, heated kiss.

You reciprocated back, wrapping your arms around his neck as he hoisted you up carrying you to his room. Giggling against his lips softly, he placed kisses against your jawline. As he got into his room he shut the door laying you on the bed softly.

He trailed kisses down your neck, as your hands played with his hair. You felt a flood of arousal to your panties, his hands went underneath your shirt, toying with your bra as he unhooked it, removing it while pulling your shirt off as you assisted him.

“You’re so beautiful…” He smiled, capturing your lips again, while using his one hand to massage your breast while the other toyed with your nipple. Eliciting a whine from you. That same nipple he latched his mouth, licking and nibbling at your hardened nipple.

“Fuck, Jake…” You left out a quiet moan.

“Don’t be shy baby, it’s just us…” He smiled softly, encouraging you.

Tugging his shirt off, you can see his bulge through his tight black jeans. Just wanting to be set free, you started to undo his buckle to help make the process quicker. After a little bit of back and forth shared kisses the two of you were finally completely bare in front of one another. You blushed as you covered yourself up slightly with his comforter.

“Baby…” He tilted his hand crawling over to you. “S’just me… You want to treat that pretty pussy nice?” He smiled softly, lowering himself as he peppered kisses along your stomach.

You nodded as a whimper escaped your lips. “Treat it real nice…”

He smiled softly, kissing the inside of your thighs leaving marks behind. Once he nestled himself, he licked a slow stripe causing you to shudder. After his first taste back he hummed, “I’ll never get over this…” Attaching his lips to your bundle of nerves, he continues to lick and flick his tongue. Earning nothing but profanities and cries of his name.

He then moved down a little to nestle his nose right against your clit as his tongue was prodding your entrance. He continued to fuck you with his tongue as he shook his head back and forth causing you to get closer to your orgasm. You felt your legs start to wrap his head, but he used his hands to hold them as he kept lapping at you.

“Oh, god. I’m…” You tilted your head back as your orgasm rippled through you. Your legs began to shake, as Jake licked every drop he could get. Before coming up and kissing your lips softly.

“I could get used to that…” You giggled softly, caressing his cheek.

“I’ll do it whenever you want, however you want, angel…” His cheeks were pink as he smiled at you. He went to the night stand to grab a condom.

“Wait.”

He looked at you, raising an eyebrow, “What’s the matter?”

“I’m on the pill, and I’d much rather… Feel all of you.” You blushed.

He smiled, retreating back, and looking at you. “You’re positive you want to do it without it?”

“Unless you’re not telling me something?”

“I’m as clean as I can be.” He chuckled softly, “I’m always prepared.” He lined himself up with you, tapping his cock against your sensitive clit before pushing into you.

You placed your hands on his arms as he slowly dragged his cock into you. Letting you adjust to him, feeling the slight burn from the stretch. After a little his thrusts became a steady pace to help ease you. You could feel him throbbing and pulsing inside of you, earning a moan from you.

“You feel like heaven…” He groaned as he brought his head down to kiss your lips softly. You groaned against his lips as his pace picked up. You wrapped your legs around his waist pulling him in closer as his hips snapped with purpose.

“Fuck” You moaned out again, as his mouth moved to suck on your tit licking and bitting at the nipple. His thrusts became more harsh as he fucked you harder, hearing you skin meeting one another as it bounced off the walls.

Jake eventually pulled back, to watch where you two connected, watching as he fits perfectly with you. He slowed down to do long languid thrusts watching you fall apart on him. He spits directly onto your pussy, taking his thumb rubbing circles causing you to go into your second orgasm of the night.

After letting you come down, he then pulls out earning a whine from you, as he smiles softly. “Come on baby… I want to watch you.” He sat against his headboard, while you straddled his lap taking him to line yourself up before sinking down onto him.

The two of you make an audible groan from the feeling, his hands placed firmly on your hips, kneading into your skin as you start to ride him making figure eights with your hips. Placing your hands on his tattooed covered chest. You could see the finer details of the work he’s had done.

Jake sneaked his one hand up to your breast, pinching and rolling your nipple between his fingers. Eliciting a whine from you, causing you to bounce on his cock.

“That’s it angel… Just like that.”

He lifted his legs slightly to start thrusting up into you. So as you would come back down, he would hit that right spot inside of you.

“Can you give me one more?” He kept thrusting into you, as he groaned nearing his.

“I- I don’t know…” You felt your legs growing weaker.

“Yeah you can. Come on…” He encouraged you, holding you flush against his chest as he started fucking into you. Wrapping your arms around his neck as he rocked into you. Your clit was brushing against his pubic hair just right, bringing you to the brink of your last orgasm he was able to rip through you.

“That’s my girl…”

His girl, you pulsed around his cock as you rode your orgasm out. He wasn’t too far behind as you could feel him twitching.

“Where, baby?” His breathing was labored.

“Inside…” You looked into his eyes, both of you completely fucked out.

His eyes rolled back as one final snap of his hips, he stilled inside of you filling you up making you more full then you were. He rested his head against your chest, kissing it softly.

Lifting his face with your hands you kissed his lips softly. And he responded back with an even deeper kiss.

“I love you…” You mumbled against his lips.

“I love you.” He murmured, smiling against your lips. He pulled away slowly looking into your eyes. “Thank you… for being patient with me. And giving me a proper chance.”

“Thank you, for being honest… It means more than you’ll ever know.”

“I’ll be honest for the rest of my life. I’ll never hurt you ever again.” He rested his head against yours.

“My little miracle…”

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Taglist-

@ignite-my-fire @sinsofstardust @char289 @gretasfallingsky @thecoldwind @holybananafuck @thunderstomp-and-tequila @myleftsock @hi-hi-hello11 @brujamagik @fkfearandliveyourlegend @itsafullmoon @wagnerbrainrot @gretavangroupie @gretavanmoon

[su-itca-se]

Dear Brother (Oniisama e…) LaserDisc scans and machine translations

These past few years I have fallen in love with the work of director Osamu Dezaki. Alongside Tomorrow’s Joe (Ashita no Joe), I hold Dear Brother in the highest regard.

It was a 1991 anime based on Riyoko Ikeda’s 1974 manga. You should watch the anime. It’s on Tubi for free. But really, just trust me. Buy the Blu-Ray from Discotek.

This anime came and went. There isn’t any merchandise besides some phone cards. Decaying fan sites and discourse is out there, but it’s a bit of a hunt.

Some time ago I saw a fan letter written by Hideaki Anno, apparently from the LaserDisc releases. From what I could tell, the LaserDisc packaging featured a treasure trove of notes from the staff that I just had to read. But I couldn’t find them!

If you’re not aware, LaserDiscs are one step above burnable trash in Japan — often on sale for 200 yen or less in heavy boxes shoved into the corner of second-hand anime stores. So I bought all five volumes of the 1993 Dear Brother LaserDisc release, was thrilled to notice unique letters from staff and industry luminaries in the interiors, and I scanned everything! And machine translated them.

I hope this (long, comprehensive) post brings fans of Dear Brother the same pleasure it brought me to compose it!

Note: I cannot read Japanese. I’ve used Google Lens for OCR, and GPT-4 for translation. My scans are good (and you can get them on Archive.org in high res) but these translations are not archive-quality and should not be depended on without verification. I’ve done my best to make corrections and have attempted to wrangle the correct tone and meaning out of the AI, but they’re essentially just for fun. Corrections of the most egregious stuff would be welcomed, email me: suitcase@soaringrabbit.com.

Volume One

Each disc is themed after a character and colour. The back is peppered with screencaps and notable quotes (“Anata wa dare?” says little Nanako) as well as series credits. The two notable parts to translate are the disc synopsis, and the subheading (seen here in pink on the far left.) Maybe it’s a pull quote? Not really. So I called it a subheading.

Volume One Subheading

A forbidden cult anime masterpiece born of satellite broadcasting is finally available on LD.

Volume One Synopsis

Private Seiran Academy. A story of beautiful love and deep hatred unfolds at this prestigious all-girls high school steeped in tradition. The protagonist, Nanako Misonoo, who is thrilled to enroll in the high school division of her dream academy, encounters three stunning individuals: Miya-sama, Sanjust-sama, and Sho no Kimi. She also gets introduced to the glamorous world of Seiran Sorority, a society that only the chosen few are allowed to join. As a freshman granted unexpected membership in the Sorority, Nanako begins to take a deep look at love, friendship, and the essence of being human, all while being surrounded by envy and jealousy. She confides her various experiences at the academy, along with unspeakable worries and hardships, in letters to her elder “brother” and a young man named Takehiko Henmi… A masterpiece anime born of satellite broadcasting. It is a work by Riyoko Ikeda that the Dezaki-Sugino duo took on for the first time in 11 years since “The Rose of Versailles.” It is considered a unique work that brings a fresh, unprecedented shock by transcending the framework of TV anime with its aesthetic world.

The disc looks like this:

An “obi” (sash that covers the spine) is included. Of course, it says “My tears won’t stop!” in huge text, sells it as the latest Dezaki/Sugino collaboration, and describes it as tanibi na sekai — a poetic concept of a romantic, sublime world of aesthetic beauty.

There are two paper inserts in each volume. The first one looks like this, and is an index of LaserDisc chapter markers based not on plot developments, but notable character quotes.

There’s also a form you can fill out to get a telephone card. Simply cut out a coupon from each volume to prove you bought the full set. Be quick, entries are due end of March 1994.

The interior is the best part. Here’s the spread for Volume One.

I haven’t translated episode synopses, but I’ve attempted to translate both the staff letter and the “letter to dear brother” from someone external to the production. There’s a bio for each author.

Volume One’s “From the staff to all the fans”

Bio:

Osamu Dezaki Joined Mushi Production in 1963. After directing series like “Astro Boy” and “Goku’s Great Adventure,” he was selected as the general director for “Tomorrow’s Joe” in 1970 at the young age of 26. Born on November 18, 1943, and hailing from Tokyo, he has received high praise as a director. Subsequently, he has brought numerous masterpieces into the world, including “Aim for the Ace!”, “The Adventures of Ganba,” “Nobody’s Boy,” “Treasure Island,” “The Rose of Versailles,” “Space Adventure Cobra,” “BB,” and more. He is also referred to as “Sakimakura” and “Mataba Sakimakura.”

The letter:

This is my second time working on Ikeda-san’s work since “The Rose of Versailles.” Her works have a unique aroma, whether you call it a theme or a world. They seem to pursue the literary aspect of the story. When I read the original work of “Dear Brother,” I was very drawn to these aspects, and at the same time, I felt a sense of anticipation that it would be difficult, but perhaps various images could be created. It’s not just about being cool or intense; it’s about creating images that resonate more and more with people’s hearts. Fundamentally, there is an original story, but when the characters start to move, and each begins to live, the story could go anywhere. I always had that sense of tension. So, rather than sticking to the original work, I placed more emphasis on the directorial focus of the reality of the characters who had started to move. As for the techniques, it was not something I was particularly conscious of, but I used a lot of completely black shots simply because I honestly felt they needed to be black. Whether or not it was successful, I wanted to effectively overlap the visuals with the characters’ psychology by delivering such physiological shocks. The psychological fluctuations of the people are indeed the overall aroma of this work. How the audience perceives that aroma is something I want to leave up to each individual’s free sensitivity. - July 8, 1993, at Tezuka Pro

Volume One’s “Letter to Dear Brother”

Bio:

Mutsumi Inomata Born on December 23 in Kanagawa Prefecture. After working with Ashi Production and Kaname Production, she is currently freelance. After going through Ashi Production and Kaname Production, she is now a freelance artist. Mutsumi Inomata is her real name. She was born on December 23 in Kanagawa Prefecture. She is active in both the fields of anime character design and illustration. In the realm of animation, she served as the character designer and chief animation director for works such as “Plawres Sanshiro” and “Genmu Senki Leda,” and as the character designer for “Future GPX Cyber Formula.” As an illustrator, she has also provided numerous illustrations for novels, including titles like “Prince of the Universe,” “Dragon Quest,” and “Continent of the Wind.”

The letter:

Comics are way hard to translate without actually knowing Japanese. Here’s my best effort to uncover some meaning.

For several years, I had stopped watching anime and stuff… Living a hectic life, it’s been like this for a while now. Having a set day and a set time to watch a specific program (not just limited to anime), had become impossible for me. Recording videos is also a hassle, and first and foremost, I just don’t feel that “I must watch the next episode!” kind of emotion anymore. Ah well, I was thinking maybe I’ve just become an adult. Heh heh heh. I’m such an idiot. No, that’s not it.

The blonde guy in the bottom-right is labeled as her friend, and she’s saying something about “Poupee-chan”. I think in the second panel he’s yelling saying “But that doll is supposed to be a girl!”

The final monologue starts with:

By the way, I have a container for “dangerous items” at the corner of my work desk. I keep things like cutter blades in it, so that I don’t accidentally drop them on the floor and cut myself or something. The “dangerous items” container I’m using now has a sticker with Saint-Just-sama’s “Nanako’s Eyes,” heh heh heh ♡

That’s about all there is to note about Volume One, besides the fact it comes with an enormous poster (it’s the same art used on the cover of the Discotek Blu-Ray.)

Volume Two

Volume Two Subheading

Those eyes of that person, mysteriously and beautifully shining. Why these feelings? Why...? The increasing heartbeat, the endless tears of adolescence. A masterpiece of forbidden cult anime born from satellite broadcasting! The second installment on LaserDisc!

Volume Two Synopsis

Nanako’s life at school, after being chosen as a sorority member, was not all glitz and glamour. There were misunderstandings with her best friend Tomiko, and jealousy and slander from other students, including Misaki Aya. And then there was the obsessive love from her fellow sorority member, Nobuo Mariko. “What is a sorority? Is it really that important?” Nanako began to question the very existence of sororities. Yet, she tries to look straight into herself, even while confused. Always before her were the mysteriously beautiful and shining eyes of Saint-Just. Drawn to those eyes that seemed to peer into a distant past, Nanako attempts to uncover their secret. Then, by chance, she finds out about the special relationship between Fukiko and Saint-Just. Could it be that Miya-sama and Saint-Just-sama are…? The complicated interplay of relationships and the previously enigmatic characters start to become a little clearer in “Volume 2: The Chapter of Freezing Rain.” The subtle breaths of the people surrounding Nanako can be heard.

Volume Two’s “From the staff, Dear Nanako”

Bio:

Hideo Takayashiki Born in 1947, native of Iwate Prefecture. After passing through Osamu Tezuka’s Mushi Production, became a scenario writer. Known for scripts of theatrical anime films such as “Hang in There, Tabuchi-kun!”, “Barefoot Gen”, and the “Phoenix” series. Also worked on numerous TV anime scripts like “Gutsy Frog”, “Gamba’s Adventure”, and “Tomorrow’s Joe”. Additionally, wrote scripts for original videos and TV dramas like “The Laughing Target”, “One-Pound Gospel”, and has written many novels, actively contributing as a versatile scriptwriter. Member of the Japan Broadcast Writers Association.

The letter:

Dear Nanako Misonoo, How are you? How is university life? It’s hard to believe that three years have passed since then. I was involved with you and those around you for just one year, but in retrospect, it was a very intense year. In any case, I did something terrible to you. It may have been the extreme form of “bullying” in some sense. My work as a scriptwriter involved probing and expanding the uncharted worlds between the frames of original works, constructing new narratives. In a sense, it was a painful job. And for you, it was excruciating. But now it’s a wonderful memory. I am filled with the feeling that I did some real work after a long time. How is your best friend, Tomoko? What about Mariko? I assume Fuki is becoming more and more beautiful? Do you occasionally receive letters from Kaoru? This summer marked the third anniversary of Saint-Just-sama’s passing. Thinking back, it was an unusually hot day. Your anguished form, waiting alone at the platform while listening to the chirping cicadas and the sound of the sea, is still etched in my memory. I hear that there has not been a single day without flowers at the electric pole where Saint-Just-sama fell. I am grateful for the chance to have met you and the people around you. Autumn, 1993

Volume Two’s “Letter to Dear Brother”

Bio:

Kazuhiko Shimamoto Born April 26, 1961 From the hinterland of Hokkaido After being selected as an honorable mention in the 9th Shogakukan Newcomer Comics Award Debuted with “Hissatsu no Transfer Student”. His masterpieces include Gyakkyo Nine’ and Moeyo Pen. Examples include Flame Transfer Student’ and Kamen Rider ZO.”

The letter:

Another piece directed by Osamu Dezaki and supervised by Akio Sugino has become a permanent edition (converted to LaserDisc)! (Hooray!) From the anime “Ashita no Joe” (1), the unique and beautiful way of life portrayed in anime is so intense that it has consistently given us dreams, hopes, despair, loneliness, friendship, love, perseverance, and revival! These works have even surpassed the original works in the emotional impact of their final episodes. I continue to be captivated by the atmosphere conveyed by these works. The reason I enjoy drawing the final episodes of my own works is entirely due to Director Dezaki’s influence! Currently, Osamu Tezuka and Ikki Kajiwara, the two individuals whom I revered as gods in the manga world, are no longer with us. Even now, these works, which possess added charm, continue to provide us (even those who have become professionals) with anticipation for the next episode, life lessons, and motivation for creating works. Seagulls, dance! Liquids, shine!! Wind, blow and then, “Why go to such lengths?” Charafo! Go as far as you can go! Mariko, somehow you’re really scary, Mariko.

Then the words scribbled next to the drawing of Mariko:

You are the protagonist of this work! I’m paying the most attention to you. You’re not alone! That’s right! Make me Mariko’s ‘older brother’… ‘older brother’…

Mariko is saying (OCR mangling here, sadly):

Thank you… I just feel… that’s special… Why not? If I had to say, maybe it’s a ‘woman’s world’…

(Clearly a reference to Rikiishi Toru of Dezaki’s earlier anime Ashita no Joe, who intensely speaks of a “man’s world”. He and Mariko love a good starvation diet!)

The little chibi version of Shimamoto(?) in the bottom left is saying:

But everyone, don’t easily become someone’s ‘older brother.’ It’ll be troublesome later!

GPT-4 noticed a cute reference it couldn’t include in its translation. Its note:

The text seems to be OCR scanned partially, and hence some meanings might be missing or distorted, such as “マンガ界のジョン・シルバーだ!!”, which appears to compare Dezaki and Sugino to a ‘John Silver’ of the manga world.

Volume Three

Volume Three Subheading

It’s not too late; our beautiful time can still be preserved, forever unspoiled, just like this white snow… A forbidden masterpiece of a cult anime born from satellite broadcasting! The fourth release on LD!

Volume Three Synopsis

Suddenly summoned to the sorority house, Nanako is pressured by Fukiko to end her relationship with Hemimi. Upon hearing this, Saint-Just confesses her complicated relationship with Fukiko. The shocking truth behind why “Miya-sama” wanted Nanako in the sorority unfolds, leaving her deeply shaken. Meanwhile, Saint-Just is tormented by the realization that the stronger her feelings for Fukiko, the more she ends up hurting her. The complex relationship between Saint-Just and Fukiko has a tragic past involving a near-suicidal event. On another front, Mariko causes an incident by attacking Misaki, motivated by slander about her parents’ divorce, which leads to a movement spearheaded by Kaoru to abolish the sorority. Amid the crumbling sorority, Fukiko remains composed. The fourth volume, “Chapter of Snow Dance,” captures her frightening yet noble confidence and deep sorrow. In the snow that never melts, remains the sad yet beautiful promise of Saint-Just.

Volume Three’s “From the staff to all the fans”

Bio:

Tomoko Konparu Born on March 13, 1956, in Nara Prefecture. Pisces. Blood type AB. A fan of both manga and anime, she became a screenplay writer and debuted during her university days with “Ikkyu-san.” Anime works include “Urusei Yatsura: Only You,” “Urusei Yatsura: Remember My Love,” “Touch 2: Farewell Gift,” “Phoenix,” “Cat’s Eye,” “Hime-chan’s Ribbon,” and more. Novel works include “Mystery at the Tower of London,” “Mystery at Nara’s Great Buddha” (published by Kobunsha Bunko), among others.

The letter:

When I heard that this work was going to be turned into an anime, I was shocked. I’d known about the series since its serialization, so my reaction was something like, “What!? Are they really going to do it!? And on NHK of all places!?” Expanding on the original work and filling in the parts that hadn’t been depicted was incredibly challenging, but also enjoyable. What surprised me was that, around the midpoint, the characters started to assert themselves, taking actions that were entirely different from what I had planned. The princess would say, “My pride isn’t so easily swayed,” San Just would insist, “I’m not going to commit suicide,” and even the older sisters of the sorority were like, “We can’t back down now.” Every time this happened, I had to rework the composition. This phenomenon of “characters moving on their own accord” was a first for me in an anime series, and it was an incredibly fresh and pleasant experience. That being said, it’s rare to be so emotionally invested in characters while working, to the point of even role-playing their lines. To be honest, this was a work that got my inner anime fan excited. Ah, I want to do work like this again!

Volume Three’s “Letter to Dear Brother”

Bio:

Keiko Fukuyama Born on September 7. From Tokyo. Currently, she is working as a manga artist, authoring works like “Ruru-chan of Star Island” and “The Tale of Appfelrant.” She also illustrates for children’s stories, including the “Mama Ghost Series.”

The letter:

It appears to be titled “To the Unforgettable Older Sister”. Much of it is too hard to OCR. It opens with this caption:

“To My Older Brother…” is so melancholic and sentimental that it instantly takes us back to our student days where we felt we were tossed around by fate for no fault of our own…

Here’s some of the text beside the character drawings:

Fukiko/Saint-Just: Reputed as the most beautiful sisters in school Mariko: The most popular Mariko-san who lured our tears. There’s a lot to think about! Tomoko: A straightforward, kind friend Nanako: So there I was, fully embracing my Nanako persona, reaping all the sorority perks you could imagine. (I mean, they even say they’ll hook me up with a dreamy guy!) 💧 And just when I’m soaking up that sorority vibe, guess who’s set to make a surprise appearance right after the teaser for the next issue!

Text coming out of the TV:

It was “Oniisama e”!!!! Poor Mariko-san, right~ Misaki-san also, there was no need to say that much, you know.

Volume Four

Volume Four Subheading

It’s not too late yet, our beautiful time can still last forever, unspoiled by anyone, just like this white snow… A forbidden cult anime masterpiece born from satellite broadcasting! The fourth installment on LD!

Volume Four Synopsis

Suddenly summoned to the sorority house, Nanako is pressured by Fukiko to end her relationship with Hemmi. Hearing this, Sanjust is compelled to confess his relationship with Fukiko. The shocking truth makes Nanako reel in disbelief. He deeply ponders that the stronger his feelings for Fukiko, the more he ends up hurting her. The unusual relationship between Sanjust and Fukiko reveals a tragic past of a failed double suicide. Meanwhile, in the school, an incident occurs where Mariko, slandered for her parents’ divorce, attacks Misaki, leading to an anti-sorority movement centered around Kaoru. Fukiko still acts nonchalantly in front of the crumbling sorority. The volume unfolds displaying Fukiko’s terrifying yet noble confidence and deep sorrow. A beautiful yet sad promise lingers in the snow that never melts.

Volume Four’s “From the staff to all the fans”

Bio:

Kenichiro Haneda Born on January 12, 1949. Graduated from Toho Gakuen College of Music in the Piano Department. An accomplished concert pianist, Kenichiro Haneda has a broad range of experience, including composing and performing music for movies and TV themes, as well as acting as a musical director for musicals and commercials. He has worked on numerous soundtracks such as NHK’s morning drama “Youth Family,” TBS’s “Women Work Hard” and “Life Is Full of Demons.” With his genre-defying approach to music and his bright, humorous personality, he is a sought-after multi-artist in various fields.

The letter:

I’ve worked quite a bit with Music Director Seiji Suzuki in the past. Suzuki gives me the music menu, and I’m the one who creates it. We’ve had some pretty detailed discussions about it. Of course, I’ve read the original work as well. When I read it at home, my daughter gives me a puzzled look, as if to say my interests have changed quite a bit (laughs). I think I wrote around 40 songs in total. The music is meant to have a Baroque sound while also feeling contemporary. The order was for something classical yet with a pop atmosphere. The image that immediately came to my mind was a rhythm section, with a harpsichord playing the melody. String instruments intricately marking the rhythm, much like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. And on top of that, a flugelhorn playing the melody… Regarding the scenes where the piano is played, I played all of it myself. I often compose and perform my own pieces. It’s less about talent and more like playing two roles; maybe I contribute quite a bit to cost-saving (laughs). In any case, this work has a unique atmosphere. If the music I created successfully captures that, then I must again express my gratitude to Suzuki for coordinating everything. October 28, 1993, aired on NHK

Volume Four’s “Letter to Dear Brother”

Bio:

Hideaki Anno Born on May 22, 1960. Originally from Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Height is 180 cm; weight is a secret. Debuted as an animator during his time at Osaka University of Arts, working on the TV version of “Macross.” Later worked on “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” the film version of “Macross,” “Royal Space Force,” and others, before directing “Gunbuster” and “Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.” Currently planning new projects.

The letter:

Way to go!! Oniisama e… Wow!! The long-awaited, tumultuous Volume 4!! This volume shows us the peak of the series, from Mariko-san’s stabbing incident to the dissolution of the sorority. Amazing, this is really amazing!! Yes. Especially the heartbreaking breakdown of Nobuo’s family, and the portrayal of the sorority’s downfall reminiscent of the French Revolution, are things that are indescribable with words. Yes. The highlights this time are– Brilliant! Highly sophisticated direction and high-quality animation in Episode 27! Tear-jerking! In Episode 28, Mr. Nobuo Hikawa’s soul-stirring outcry!! Upon hearing those lines, my tears really wouldn’t stop. Seriously. Amazing!! Oh, so moving! The heartfelt words of Miya-sama at the end of Episode 32. The sight of Miya-sama waiting alone in the Sorority House and those lines really hit me hard. Moreover, as always– Incredible!! The world that reminds me of ‘Aim for the Ace!’ and ‘The Rose of Versailles’!! Impressive!! The drama unfolds only in limited settings, like homes, trains, buses, crossings, schools, and other familiar places!! Very Sophisticated!! The direction, composed of stillness and motion, light and black, feels so mature. As expected, Dezaki-san! And, Powerful!! Nanako-san is turning into an adult right before our eyes. Moreover, the music is also great!! I wish the BGM CD would come out soon. The use of chimes and telephones remains clever as ever!! Ah, the only thing missing is a bit more on the background elements… by H. ANO ‘93 10/27

The tiger is saying “It’s awesome, isn’t it!”

Written above the drawings of Mariko and Saint-Just: “These two are definitely the ones. Yes.”

Volume Five

Volume Five Subheading

The summer full of light ends, the eventful summer ends… And then the cherry blossoms bloom again… Brother, I am now… A satellite broadcast-born forbidden cult anime masterpiece! The final chapter on LD!

Volume Five Synopsis

Finally, the petition to abolish the sorority has garnered signatures from over two-thirds of all students. As the campus is in a state of upheaval, Saint-Just is lost in thought alone. One day, he calls Nanako out and promises to take her to the beach where he used to go often with his mother when he was younger. However, on the promised day, Saint-Just never shows up. His sudden death plunges many people, including Nanako, into the depths of sorrow. Among them, Kaoru, who is battling cancer and fearful of its recurrence, takes the news of Saint-Just’s death most seriously. She finds comfort in the warmth of Takahiko Henmi, but continues to stubbornly refuse his love, thinking about his future. Love, friendship, bonds… The fifth volume, titled “Chapter of the Fireflies,” explores the dignity, beauty, and value of human life. Seasons turn, and the cherry blossoms bloom again, bringing back familiar scents to Nanako. All of this is accompanied by the most beautiful “love.”

Volume Five’s “From the staff to all the fans”

Bio:

Riyoko Ikeda Born December 18, Showa 22 (1947). Native of Osaka City. Blood type AB. Graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Hakutsuru High School and went on to the Philosophy department at Tokyo University of Education (now Tsukuba University). Began drawing manga during her time in school and debuted with “The Girl in the Rose Mansion.” In 1972, she achieved great success with “The Rose of Versailles,” acquiring a broad fan base that transcended the realm of girls’ manga. Known for her keen historical perspective and deep insight into human nature. Active as a writer and essayist as well. Her hobbies include Nihon buyo (Japanese traditional dance), oil painting, movie appreciation, vocal music, piano, cooking, and knitting. Her work has been selected for the 76th Nika Exhibition. Major works: “The Rose of Versailles,” “Window of Orpheus,” “Empress Catherine,” “To My Brother,” “At the Ends of the Sky,” “The Blue Pomegranate,” “My Manga” Books: “If Only Life Could Be Lived Once,” “Women of the French Revolution,” “Women Who Wrote Masterpieces” Currently writing “Eroica” and “Prince Shotoku.”

The letter:

As one who has journeyed far from that radiant chapter called youth, a time that shone with an almost awkward brilliance, I find myself in a peculiar blend of bewilderment and nostalgia. Seeing my old ideas of high school life come to life as animation almost 20 years later is surreal, to say the least. Still, it’s exciting: hearing voices given to these characters, seeing them talk, laugh, and get angry. Watching them come alive is truly a thrilling and satisfying experience. Ah, adolescence — everyone’s inescapable stairway to adulthood. Some people take each step slowly and carefully, while others rush ahead, ending up out of breath or even lost. And then, there are those who may lose their direction, standing still, contemplating each step. Wrapped in the love of family, meeting various people, nurturing friendships, experiencing love, and going through the ups and downs of hurt and forgiveness — it would be wonderful to climb those steps in such a way.

Volume Five’s “Letter to Dear Brother”

Bio:

Rumiko Takahashi Born in Niigata Prefecture. Debuted in 1978 with “Katte na Yatsura,” submitted while still in college, in Shonen Sunday. Famous works include “Urusei Yatsura,” “Maison Ikkoku,” and others. Currently serializing “Ranma 1/2” in Shonen Sunday.

The letter:

A masterpiece infused with the creator’s soul. When I heard from the staff that “Oniisama e…” was getting the anime treatment on satellite TV, I was surprised. I’d delved into the original comic before and it’s quite an eccentric story. “How are they going to pull this off?” I thought. But learning that the script was in the capable hands of my acquaintance Tomoko Konparu, I was very excited. In fact, the anime that aired was genuinely captivating. The characters are so larger-than-life that they electrify the screen the moment they step into frame. It’s been a long time since an anime had that kind of presence. I believe the animation is done by the same people who worked on “Tomorrow’s Joe 2.” The scenes are so visceral that you can almost feel the punches land and see the fighters hit the mat. I kept asking myself, “Why isn”t a mouthpiece flying out?” (laughs) My favorite character in the work is Nobuo Mariko. The scenes where she bites her lip until it turns a flushed red, I find it really cute. But what blew me away was the show’s emotional intelligence. Just when the heroine seems on the brink of breaking, a lifeline is thrown her way. This nuanced touch prevents the darker, more harrowing elements from overwhelming the viewer. It’s as if you can feel the sincerity of the creator throughout the piece.

And that’s it. Again, check out the full scans on Archive.org, and remember to encourage all your friends to experience this beautiful anime!

[trofysisters]

Катя, Карина и Давид

Несколько лет назад Сашка был замечен в ТЦ "Лавка мастеров" за изучением чуда робототехники. (Several years ago, Sashka was spotted in the "Lavka Masterov" shopping center studying the wonder of robotics)

После переезда Кати с Сашкой и Карины с Давидом в соседние квартиры выяснилось, что Сашка втайне от жены всё-таки приобрел робота, которого назвал Оптимус. Сашка напрасно опасался гнева Кати, она была рада помощнику по хозяйству. (After Katya and Sashka and Karina and David moved into neighboring apartments, it turned out that Sashka had secretly bought a robot, which he named Optimus. Sashka was in vain to fear Katya’s wrath; she was glad to have a house helper)

Вот только робот обрел самосознание и захотел простых человеческих радостей: погладить собачку, почувствовать вкус еды и любви, а его работать заставляют. (But the robot gained self-awareness and wanted simple human joys: to pet a dog, to taste food and love, but he was forced to work)

Давид на своей работе наконец-то понял, как получают высокие должности. Играя с мэром в крестики-нолики и обыграв его, Давид стал сенатором. (At his job, David finally understood how people get high positions. Playing tic-tac-toe with the mayor and beating him, David became a senator)

Карину, как жену сенатора, сделали студийным музыкантом, а могли бы сразу звездой, чтобы она могла отправиться в путешествие, то есть в турне. (Karina, as the senator's wife, was made a studio musician, but they could have made her a star right away, so that she could go on a trip, that is, on a tour)

Но с дальнейшим продвижением в карьере и поездками ей придется подождать, ведь она беременна. (But she will have to wait with further career advancement and trips, because she is pregnant)

Катя побежала первой поделиться этой новостью с любимым зятем, который планировал в скором времени стать мэром Областного центра. (Katya ran first to share this news with her beloved son-in-law, who was planning to soon become the mayor of the regional center)

Сашка не мог поверить, что скоро станет дедушкой. Только недавно Карина сама была ребенком и играла в куклы. А Давид сел за компьютер, чтобы написать для малыша детскую книжку. (Sashka could not believe that he would soon become a grandfather. Only recently, Karina herself was a child and played with dolls. And David sat down at the computer to write a children's book for the baby)

Конечно же, готовя завтрак, Сашка отнес порцию для дочери. В ее положении нужно много отдыхать и хорошо питаться. (Of course, while preparing breakfast, Sashka brought a portion for his daughter. In her condition, she needs to rest a lot and eat well)

С��ми пожилые супруги, оставив Карину на попечение Оптимусу, отправились в игровой центр. (The elderly spouses themselves, leaving Karina in the care of Optimus, went to the game center)

Когда к ним за стол подсел младший сын Фили, Катя с Сашкой чуть не прослезились от умиления, представив, что скоро в их доме появиться такой же ребенок. (When Filya's youngest son joined them at the table, Katya and Sashka almost shed tears of emotion, imagining that the same child would soon appear in their house)

Став сенатором, Давид сумел добиться отставки недальновидного мэра. Да здравствует новый мэр - Давид! (Having become a senator, David managed to force the resignation of the short-sighted mayor. Long live the new mayor - David!)

Хоть денег у семьи было предостаточно, Кате было мало, она продолжала создавать и продавать шедевры. А для Карины важнее была репутация, поэтому общественности лучше не знать, как она училась в школе. (Although the family had plenty of money, Katya was not enough, she continued to create and sell masterpieces. But for Karina, reputation was more important, so it was better for the public not to know how she did at school)

[yourjughead]

Influence

Sweet Pea X Reader

Synopsis: You visited Riverdale intermittently throughout your young life, captivating and definitely influencing a certain serpent

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

Sweet Pea POV 

Age 9

“Ready?”

“I don't know yn” our toes hung over the edge of the inlet with river water running below. I was never a good swimmer, YN attempted to teach me when I was 7 during her family visit with Toni. I never made it past the dog paddle, wasn't sure I ever would. She always influenced me to do these things, wasn't sure how it happened. Before I could object again, she pulled me by the hand off the edge and into the depths below. 

Age 12

I was never going to be ready for this new school. YN dragged the yellow spray can along the wall, its paint splattering everywhere.

“Are you sure this is okay YN?” She just laughed at me continuing on with her masterpiece.

“Why not, it's just a shed?” 

“Hey you kids!” The voice of a burly man screaming from his car shook the both of us. 

“Run!” YN dropped the tin, caught me by the hand and hauled me off through the streets of the Southside. She was hysterically laughing when we finally stopped running, huddled up behind a disused bus stop. 

“You’re crazy YN” that was so close my god

“Oh well” she beamed at me. Is this what love feels like? The sound of her phone interrupted my thought process.

“Hi Dad - Yeah - okay I'm coming home now - bye” she hung up the phone before standing back up and pulling me back to my feet.  

“I gotta go Sweet Pea, dad's waiting to drive me back….nice to see you” it was so quick it was like it didn't happen, she kissed my lips so fast and then ran off back into the streets. I couldn't move my feet from the spot as I watched her disappear into the evening. My first kiss.

Age 15

“Who are you taking to the dance?”

“I'm not sure Fangs, maybe YN, she's visiting isn't she?”

“Oh you loooove her”

“I do not shut up” I shoved him off the path on our way walking home. Yn was like my best friend….my long distance best friend, I don't think I like her like that. 

“He loves who?” She joined our side with Toni in tow. I gave Fangs’ smirking face a warning glance. I'm gonna deck him when they're gone. 

“Sweet Pea loves dancing is all” she cocked an eyebrow to Fangs as Toni rolled her eyes at all of us. 

“I've never seen him dance”

“Well why not see it on Saturday at the Southside High dance” oh he's dead dead, I glare towards his goofy face, a dead man.

“Sure why not” my head whipped back around to her, no way no way no way.

“Keen Sweet Pea?” my glare returned to Tonis smug voice. I tried to nod as little as I could and play it off cool, not very successfully. 

~ 

That Saturday I waited outside the High School for her. I waited. I waited. I waited. She never showed. I waited. I waited. I waited. 

Age 18

3rd person POV

You lounge across the sofa, the room spinning with drunk and wild teenagers attempting to escape the plagues of senior year. Cheryl's birthday party engulfed the entire manor as you sipped cool gold liquid from a crystal flute until it was empty. 

“Don't sulk cousin” Toni replaced the glass in your hand. You gave a half there smile before drinking deeply again. Toni swayed as she walked towards Cheryl, hugging her tightly and raising a glass to her, their laughs swallowed by the loud music. Your envious gaze left them and landed back on your glass. You had broken up with your long term boyfriend two weeks ago before fleeing to Riverdale to gain some distance from the heart break. Your glance lifted from the crystal again and onto the tall Serpent sinking pints in the doorway. His body shook with laughter at his friends antics before meeting your eyes across the room. You adjusted yourself slightly, trying to not look like the fallen bird you felt like. The Serpent pushed from the doorway, exiting his conversation to land himself next to you.

“Long time no see YN” he gave a genuine smile to you, leaning further back into the sofa as you sank your drink, grabbing another from a passing waiter's tray. You hadn't been back in almost 4 years, things had settled a lot at home and the yearly pilgrimage for peace to Riverdale wasn't as desperately required.

“Makes me laugh that even at a rager, Cheryl's got white glove service” you nod to the waiter in thanks as he fights a roll of the eyes.

“Are you going to talk to me or should I leave you to make googly eyes at your alcohol?” you turned your torso to face him, his arm across the back of the chair behind you. You clink your glass off of his and take a deep sip. The golden liquid causes your head to swirl slightly, a crutch to ease your aching heart. 

“I'm just passing through” you offer.

“Hmm yeah I heard about…yeah I heard” he tried his best to stop the pity from painting his face, failing massively, gaining a scoff from you. 

“Id rather not talk about that”

“Rather talk about standing me up 3 years ago instead” you sighed, dropping your face into your hand in almost disgrace. He nudged you laughing.

“Relax YN, water under the bridge, I'm just teasing”

“I'm sorry regardless, I'm sure Toni explained but I had to go-”

“-YN please I'm only teasing it's okay, teenage Sweet Pea is probably still pissed but I've grown” you couldn't hide your laugh at his joking tone. 

“And how do I make it up to teenage Sweet Pea?” 

~

“Okay Sweet Pea if you leave a mark then Toni will know” you almost giggle separating the Serpent from your neck.

“Maybe I want her to know” he grins before biting down again in sweet pressure, laughing as you slip from his grip slightly, your head gently knocking off the brick of the wine sellar wall behind you. 

“She wouldn't like it very much” you grinned as he met your lips with an equal smile. His hands slipped down your sides to grip you from behind, your own hands across his shoulders. Sweet Pea lifted you from the ground allowing you to wrap your legs around his waist, your back flush against the brick all without breaking apart his lips from yours. Your ringtone cut through the air of the wine cellar loudly, giving you both a fright. Your ex's name illuminating the brick as you pull it from your pocket. Sweet Pea slowly dropped you gently back to your feet, his face falling too. He stepped back away from you to look anywhere but at the glowing screen as you answered it

“Hello - hi - Riverdale why? - maybe - really? How sorry? - maybe I could come back - I just -” the phone was snatched out of your hand so quickly you didn't have time to react. 

“Hey she's busy!” he hung up the phone to your confused ex.

“Pea why'd you do that!?”

“Why'd you answer the phone in the first place!?” His sharp tone matched your own as your face contorted in confusion.

“I don't understand”

“YN Ive waited 6 years to kiss you again and you -”

“Again?....oh my god yeah” you rubbed your hand down your face and almost half laughed at the cringe of a 12 year old you.

“Yeah, man I was so surprised” he followed your laugh, cringing at his own reaction. Silence fell between you both again, the chill in the air cutting at you both. 

“Remember that time when we were like 7 or something and I taught you how to swim-”

“-Remember? I nearly drowned and got pneumonia” he laughed with his chest at the memory and you smiled.

“Or that time we climbed the tree by the Wyrm-”

“-You mean the time I broke my elbow?” 

“God Pea, I'm a bad influence” Sweet Pea closed the gap between you both, his hands finding their way to your hips again. 

“I never mind being influenced by you” you bit your lip at his quiet words before kissing passionately again. 

“How long are you going to stay this time YN?”

“Well actually….I was thinking of transferring for senior year” in one smooth motion Sweet Pea picked you up from the ground and back against the wall. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, just thinking about it” you ran a hand down his chest.

“Well YN….allow me to influence you” he reattached himself to your neck as you laughed, wrapping your arms around him again

[lilly-onthevalley]

Tips for my girlies in university and early work

I decided to make this post based on what has made my life easier these past few years. Every woman wants to cultivate beauty; make themselves put together, be taken seriously, and find a partner who is equally yoked if you're into that. As an old tumblr girl shifting in and out of the scene, I wanted to make another tip post like the old times that's accurate to what helped me.

A lot of the older/retired girlie's where amazing advisors, however one thing that created a barrier was that they were were endowed with large wealth and their society paved a path for them, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I love to see it actually. I wanted to make a post looking back to what has helped me make my own steps to now be able to utilise the old girl's advice as it was supposed to.

Hair

Learning a basic blow out is necessary. If you're starting out, you don't need all of the fancy brands, and you'll notice that technique is what differentiates the quality of a blowout. Get a good round brush that conducts heat well, mid range but reliable (Babyliss) blow driers, flat irons, and curling rod. Invest in a heat protectant too. Sweet talk the hair dressers and ask where they get their stock from. Get yours hands on some pro hair sheers to get your own trims and layers going.

Silk scrunchies and pillow cases are an underrated and feminine must-have. I'm a lazy girl who always has a silk press if my hair is out and I can get away with collapsing onto a silk pillowcase with no head wrap and still manage to have a lovely style in the morning. I would say order these from a small business. Many girls have businesses dealing with small textile projects like scrunchie packs and average size pillow cases, support them! :)

Learn to do your own cornrows and invest in a half wig especially if you're busy with classes and don't have time for the whole round brush ordeal.

Don't be scared of wigs, and don't be ashamed of not having enough time to pull off a dazzling natural masterpiece. There's a reason why wigs are in high demand from women of all races. People are all over busy. You can start with a natural synthetic and move on to better hair.

I learnt the art of hair when I was 15, so I've been doing it for a while. However, because of this, I can tell you the importance of having a lovely crown on your head. I have received hundreds (not joking) of compliments from years, whether my hair was real or fake, and that shows how important it is for a first impression.

Nails/Feet

Don't forget to take care of them. Walking all the miles, wearing the mandated courts, sitting in one place. You will indeed develop calluses, perhaps even athletes' foot and hyperpigmentation from a lack of circulation.

Get yourself a basic pumice stone or a scrubber and use them when need. Massage yourself as well to maintain mobility and flexibility.

If you can, get yourself an affordable gel set. It might seem a bit expensive, but it'll save you the time and money of the upwardly costly nail appointments. You'll find out when you get up and socialise more that what tops the cake of classy is a glossy basic nail. Natural nudes and whites are always a go to.

Scent

Scent connoisseurs are going to absolutely hate me for this, but girlie's, if you can't get that Jean Paul Gaultier or Baccarat Rouge, get the damn arabic fragrance. Back in high-school when me and my girls were starting up, setting ourselves apart and getting invited to important places, Lattafa was our favourite. Social media is currently finally going crazy for them. (The African/Arab girls got them first 🤭.) I loved my floral Haayati with a mix of Zakra (other brand, heavy masculine oud tones for my peace of mind), and my best girl loved her gourmand Yara and her vanilla oils.

I love to talk about fragrance because it talks first for you. Nothing is better than a delicious light smell accompanying your presence. It shows you hold yourself to some esteem.

Skin

Face Essentials - gua sha stone, gentle cleanser, exfoliating cleanser or serum, sunscreen, thick moisturising butter, anti fungal or bacterial essential oil, lip moisturiser, clean cloth.

These will help you start out on a basic level to having healthy looking skin. Exfoliating is very important towards a glow. When you're stuck working with a bright light in your face, soaking up the harsh morning air full of car exhaust, sweating as the hours go by - what will make the difference is making sure that you get rid of that excess dead skin every 3-7 days.

Gua sha is amazing for getting rid of the stress if you clench your jaw during moments of stress. Say you have to present an assignment or address and debate a crowd, that takes a tole on the jaw and the facial muscles. Using a gua sha is great for ironing those knots and that tension out.

On the topic of massage, spas can be unaffordable at times, time is could also be a problem. Get into a habit of using every minute you have. That 5 minutes that you sit and doom scroll on tik tok, take out a wood tool, grab a moisturiser, and press those muscles to release built-up tension. Taking care of the vehicle you have is so important. Your body and mind are separate but complimentary. Take care of her, and she will take care of you. Don't forget that every second, she's pumping the blood that facilitates your social meetings and work hours.

When it comes to body, get yourself exfoliating mits or an abrasive rag. Once again, exfoliation, exfoliation, exfoliating. It's great for blood flow and circulation as well as moving your muscles and tissues that may be constantly seditary from a desk.

Dry brushing is something I also swear by. Once again, absolutely wonderful for circulation and waking the skin up.

Get yourself a foam roller... I press such an emphasis on these tools that stimulate the muscles because we often forget how much our bodies are taking multiple hits from working. Joint issues are something that's prevalent when you're a working girl, coming straight out of high-school and going into the world outside the home of your care taker. Roll those legs out, release that back into the grooves. It makes a world of difference!

Clothing

I loved to dress like a blank canvas back in my early days when I decided I want to make something of myself. Nothing beats good denim pants and a white t-shirt. Especially when you're starting out and want to begin establishing outfits for everyday, you'll notice the blank canvas approach will prevent you from looking crazy on crazy days. Stock up on 3 white tees, white and blue jeans, yoga pants, well fitting good quality skin tone lingerie, a belt, a watch, some fake pearls, black or white dress, a ring and a necklace and my all time favourite, a pair of shades.

Ugh, I can't get enough of combinations like this. I grew up and was educated by women who followed this but fancied it up with a bold Goyard St Louis, a 3 stone engagement ring with a gold band, a local pure and heavy polished silver bracelet and some Loro Pianas. Absolutely gorgeous women, who knew how to constantly present themselves as nothing less than reliable, stylish and beautiful.

You might say that, 'Omg Lilly, that's so boring', that's not the point here 😂. As a green girl with a good head on your shoulders, you're going to get a lot of new opportunities. Whether it's internships, parties, socials with the girls or the guys, dates, fund raisers, club representative workshops, you're going to be expected to show up well and put together. Say you have a social evening at a club house, in the morning you have an internship and the next day you have to manage and represent your society. Those 3 white shirts paired with a rotation of basic bottoms and versatile shoes will make things a lot easier for you especially if you're starting out in a foreign country where you don't know what is to be worn exactly.

Makeup

Those who have known me are well aware that I'm a retired goth girl and was killing it with the cut crease and James Charles tutorials back in the day. Makeup is something that has seamlessly became part of my life. Unfortunately or fortunately, I grew out of that creative phase and started wondering what actually makes my natural features and face pop. What presents me as healthy, bright, and hyper-feminine (in contrast to the basic clothing)

I came up with the recipe of 'Biology' makeup. Blush because it signifies healthy blood flow and interest in the person you're interacting with. Healthy full eyebrows, non-matte evenly toned skin with naturally bronzed dimensions. A healthy hydrated pink lip. Some extras are a little liner to enhance the eye, flirty lashes from carefully applied mascara and/or lashes and some depth and glitter to draw attention at the eyes.

Very basic, very safe, very attractive, very reliable. This is a routine that can be executed within 8 minutes.

Moisturiser -> sunscreen base -> full coverage foundation or concealer watered down with sunscreen to make it more glowy and allow the natural dimensions of the face to peer through->bronzer/darker powder-> semi heavy blush combined with some loose banana powder to calm down the concelar-> light wing-> lashes-> wipe the lips and eyebrows-> fill both in and end with a natural colour applied to both.

Inspo below

E.T.C

Other important notes:

Yoga, cardio and pilates to maintain mobility, lubricate those joints, crack those bones back into place. Sweat is amazing to get those toxins, lose a bit of unnecessary weight, blow off steam, improve skin health, get your blood pumping and much more.

Save your money, all these things are meant to make life simpler for you so you are in a place where you are investing into things that are truly important like rent, food, tuition, remittances, dental work, medical aid, insurance, etc till you have someone who could assist with that :)

Remember to keep a balanced diet. Oh lord, when I went out to a new country, thank god I was young, but I became close friends with the local McDonald's and knew all of the door dash delivery men by name. Please, for the love of God, buy your fresh food and meal prep. The temptation is so real after a long night, to drop a bunch of pounds or euros on a quarter pounder and some zinger wings but it will not nourish you to survive another active day with decent cognition and drive. Especially if you were living alone and stressing out about making your own path, don't feed the delivery demon. You'll lose useful money, and mess your hormones up.

Instead to reward yourself, buy your place some flowers. If you want to eat go to a restaurant which serves whole food. Buy some new fancy stationery, party, get a spa or cosmetic treatment that you've been wanting, travel or take a train to somewhere scenic! Perhaps I'm too harsh but addiction to quick fixes is real when you first drop into a state of independence whether it's financially or physically. Don't abuse it by splurging. Understand moderation through strict monitoring then after a while, go get that Wingstop or whatever after knowing how to access real food and that it's an affordable and doable option first! (me and my guy friends literally never ate any real food for a month straight while gallivanting in Europe because we were so codependent on Taco Bell and used our lack of knowledge of the city as an excuse to take the easy way out 🤣.)

If you can do something really well, make a mini business out of it.

Network, network, network. Ask questions, ask for opportunities, get numbers and business cards.

Self defense starter kit (Google it according to the laws of your nation)

Lastly, make friends, call family, volunteer at an animal shelter every now and then to remind you of what love is 😂 because in the fast paced assimilation into new environments, you do forget and only notice when suddenly you're sadder than usual, and have anxiety during basic interactions.

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[erina-writes-headcanons]

Hi so i have receive your message that your ask box is open and i would like to ask if you can do a dating headcanon + a jealous headcanon for himuro and hanamiya please ? ^^

💔Himuro Tatsuya, Hanamiya Makoto, and Aomine Daiki Getting Jealous Headcannons💔

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Hello there Anon. I still remember if you were allowed to ask for Headcanons and once I open, I quickly told you that you can request me quickly before it gets full so yeah I hope you like the final result!

Gender: Neutral Warning: Creeps being creepy and OAmine being slightly violent

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Himuro Tatsuya - Yōsen High School

We can see from the Anime that Himuro can be pretty gentlemanly to women (But not really when it comes to Kagami. I don't really like how rude he is with Kagami but I do like when he tries to defend Alex from Haizaki.)

He might be all calm on the outside with a soft smile on his face and you thought he is okay when there was another guy/girl coming up to you with an intention to court you.

But let's check what is inside of his head and you will know that he is indeed furious when that person waltzes up to you and thinks they could court you or take your attention away.

The first time, he would smile and politely tell the person to leave you alone because you are his boyfriend/girlfriend/partner and that person should respect that.

If the person still does not budge and keeps trying to get close to you. That's when things can be scary. I believe he is not a violent person but he could be very cunning and manipulative.

He would also indirectly insult the person without sounding like he is insulting the person. (In fact, I do believe he can pull 'Dog Whistle Manipulation' which means a gaslighting abuse technique where an abuser can cause suffering to another without others being aware of what is occurring.)

You can just see the shame of that person without you realizing what just happens to that person as the person is walking with their tail between their legs.

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The sky gets darker as the snow starts to fall from the sky. The air is getting colder each minute as the temperature drops. When (Y/N) was young, the young feela used to love snow because the neighbourhood kids would play together with you, playing freeze tag or snowball wars and going home to drink hot chocolate on Christmas day.

However, you are not little anymore, and those loves of snow are replaced with despise. The older version of (Y/N) easily got sick and cold, and the next day you immediately got the flu from the horrible winter. This did not go unnoticed by your beloved boyfriend, who sometimes let you wear his scarves just so you would not be cold.

But today is different; the basketball training is getting really late, and you have to wait for your boyfriend, who is still training Basketball for the upcoming Winter Cup. You do hear the opponent in the winter cup will be even tougher, so it was understandable that your boyfriend was training hard.

As (Y/N) stood there, eyes fixed on the basketball court, (Y/N) couldn't help but be amazed by the sheer dedication and skill of Himuro Tatsuya. Every shot he took seemed like a work of art, a perfectly executed masterpiece. The way he controlled the ball, the precision with which he released it, and the accuracy with which it found its target were nothing short of mesmerizing.

Beads of sweat formed on (Y/N)'s forehead, and a faint flush crept across their/her/his cheeks, but (Y/N) paid no mind, entirely absorbed by the mastery of his shooting skills. The room's atmosphere seemed charged with energy, only when you finally tore your gaze away for a moment and you realize the warmth that had filled the space. It was getting very bothering

A friendly voice broke (Y/N)'s concentration. Turning to the source of the sound, (Y/N) was surprised to see one of Yosen's players. He was tall with unkempt brunette hair along with freckles adorned across the bridge of his nose. He's pretty cute in your opinion but you're dating Himuro Tatsuya. "Hey! Excuse me, pretty/handsome. It seems you're thirsty. Do you want some cold drink?" He had a welcoming smile and held out a cold refreshing drink.

(Y/N) was a little bit hesitant to accept the guy's drink. (Y/N) did not think anything bad about the guy since (Y/N) is aware that they are in the basketball gym and it feels rude to reject the guy's offer but they/she/he did not know who is this guy. Before you could take the bottle, you felt a sudden presence beside you.

It was Himuro Tatsuya, his usually warm smile taking on an oddly forced quality. It didn't take long for (Y/N) to sense a hint of jealousy beneath his polite exterior. He gently push (Y/N) behind him and stood in front of the guy. "Thank you for the kind gesture," he began, his voice steady, "but I believe you don't need to offer a drink to my boyfriend/girlfriend/partner," His words carried a gentle authority, making it clear that he appreciated the gesture but wanted to set a boundary.

The player couldn't help but sense the undercurrents of Himuro's subtle jealousy despite Himuro not being aggressive. is realization, combined with Himuro's polite yet firm words, left the Yosen player to respect his boundaries. "I am very sorry, Himuro-Senpai. I was just offering her/him/them a drink," with a nod and a slightly sheepish smile, the Yosen player decided to back away gracefully, allowing Himuro to be together with you.

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Hanamiya Makoto - Kirisaki Daichi High School

Good luck to whoever made Hanamiya Jealous when they keep trying to make themselves close to you. I'm not joking, he is much worse than Himuro.

Unlike Himuro, his patience is not as thick as his and he would use all kinds of tactics against those who made him jealous while still playing the 'Innocent' card.

Whereas your dumb brain is still not aware that he was actually harassing the other person with just simply his words, railing against the person that made him jealous with a smile.

Listen to me, he definitely trying to guilt trip whoever made him jealous by asking them "Do you really hate me that much that you don't let me spend my time with my S/O? That's really mean of you," with a fake sad face.

If that's not working? Prepare another card he is going to use for that person who made him jealous. He could play the victim card after he made an insult that attacks the person's insecurity.

I do think he still has his violent tendencies but he can clearly hide it well when there are many people watching. For example, he would step on the person's foot on purpose but when the person tattletale. He would just not admit it or he would just say he doesn't mean it

So don't even think trying to make him jealous or he is going to make everyone hates you or people giving you those dirty stare even though you didn't do anything particularly wrong.

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As (Y/N)'s sat in the classroom, (Y/N)'s focus was entirely on the teacher at the front of the room, eagerly explaining the Geometric which (Y/N) is already good with. (Y/N) would be scribbling notes furiously, trying to capture all of the important notes without missing important details and by doing this. It would make it much easier at the house to just read it and remember the given formulas.

The resounding chime of the school bell echoed through the hallways, signalling the long-awaited end of the day. Students quickly gathered their belongings, ready to leave the torturous day and go back to their beloved home sweet home, including the certain someone with (H/C) hair colour and (S/C) Skin colour.

Before I could leave the classroom, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw my teacher staring at me with hopeful eyes. "(L/N)-San, May I speak with you for a moment. I need your help," she spoke. "Of course, what is it. Sensei?" (Y/N) asks the old woman. "I would like you to help with your fellow student. Eikichi-san, he is struggling with Geometric and you are the only student who could help him. If you teach him, I would give you more scores," the old woman asks.

(Y/N) was a little bit hesitant as you turn around to see the student. The guy had partly dyed blonde hair and he has that vibe that writes 'trouble' all over him. Nevertheless, the teacher promised you a bonus point for your score. "I will try teaching him geometric for the upcoming test," You told the teacher. "Thank you so much, (Y/N). I knew I could count on you," she smiles.

‿︵‿︵＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／︵‿︵‿Timeskip

(Y/N) was sitting across from Eikichi who is staring at her/him/them. His eyes would be looking at you from your chest and your face. Despite (Y/N) writing the notes, (Y/N) could feel him staring like a creep it sent a shiver down her/his/their spine. His attempts at flirting were blatant, and it made the whole situation rather uncomfortable. While (Y/N) was there to genuinely assist and teach, he seemed more interested in making offhand comments about my appearance and attempting to turn the lesson into an awkward exchange. "So, are you free today, cutie? We can go home and ignore all of this and we would have so much fun," he winks.

As the inappropriate comments from the guy continued, (Y/N)'s patience wore thin. They/her/he was on the verge of delivering a piece of their mind and stopping the guy from being creepy until I feel a presence behind me. When I turned around, there was Makoto Hanamiya

Hanamiya, with his signature cocky grin, couldn't resist the opportunity to put the overly flirtatious and creepy student in his place. "Ah, trying to charm someone who is taken, are we? You've got a knack for numbers, I see. Shame you're just not adding up in the 'respect for personal space' department," His words carried a mix of sarcasm and a cold jab. Indirectly calling him an idiot.

The student's face turned a shade of embarrassment, and you couldn't help but hold your own laughter with Hanamiya's remarks who are calling the guy idiot and creepy indirectly. The creepy student's face flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and anger at Makoto's sharp remark.

In a feeble attempt to save face, he mustered a nervous chuckle before unleashing a mocking retort. "SHUT THE HELL UP EYEBROWS! YOU'LL REGRET THIS!" The guy stood from his chair as he keeps pointing his finger at Hanamiya. With a huff and a flustered glare, the student gathered his belongings and stormed off, muttering under his breath. It was clear that he couldn't handle the witty banter and had been outmatched by Hanamiya's sharp tongue "Thanks for shooing that guy away," You sigh in relief. "...Sure, whatever. You owe me some chocolate bars...and I want the dark one. Not the normal milk one," The Kirisaki Daichi captain sat next to (Y/N) before putting his arm around (Y/N(.

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Aomine Daiki - Touou High School

I'm not going to say sorry about what I am going to say but Aomine are much more obvious than them. He is also much more man-child than Himuro and Hanamiya.

Unlike Hanamiya and HImuro. Aomine is much more obvious when he is jealous when someone is taking his attention away but it depends on the person too.

Someone with pure intention that just wants to be your friend or cute animal? Aomine definitely gonna sulk and give you the silent treatment. If you ask him what makes him angry, he would say: "Why don't you go with that friends/pets of yours!" while pouting.

Someone with bad intentions or some kind of casanova wannabe that thinks they can get your attention? He's going to confront them by standing in front of them and giving them the scariest glare. "Leave my girlfriend/boyfriend you fucking creep!" Scaring them away.

If the person still does not leave you alone. He would not be afraid to use his hands to punch the daylight of the person just like what he did to Haizaki but worse

Once they left, he would just keep his hands on yours and not let anyone get close to you. If you ask about it, he would just gonna say: "I'm just protecting you from those assholes," he mutters.

Aomine is far away from the word subtle. He would make sure that everyone knows that you are his girlfriend/boyfriend by holding your hands the whole way when you two go home.

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It was in the afternoon as (Y/N) and Momoi sat on the bleachers, their eyes fixed on the intense basketball game unfolding before them. It was an exhilarating match, as Aomine and Kagami, two titans of the court, faced off in a display of skill and determination. Their movements were swift, dribbling the ball with finesse, leaping through the air to score impossible shots. The atmosphere was charged with excitement, and Momoi and I couldn't help but cheer for both of them, appreciating the incredible talent on display.

Momoi glanced at (Y/N), a playful smile on her face, and declared that she would go fetch some drinks from the vending machine. "(Y/N)-chan! Tell me everything that happens in the court. I will get us something to drink!" She takes a few cash from her purse before skipping away to get some refreshing drinks.

Nodding, (Y/N) watch her leave before she pays attention to Aomine and Kagami competing against each other. Those players seemed to be giving it their all, determined to outdo each other. You couldn't help but be in awe of the raw power and skill they possessed

As (Y/N) engrossed in her/his/their own world, there was an unmistakable feeling of someone's presence beside (Y/N). A subtle shift in the atmosphere, a hint of another person's energy, caught your attention. (Y/N) turned their/her/his head slightly, curious who might it be. A mysterious figure wearing a baseball cap. concealed his features. The brim cast a shadow over his face, making it nearly impossible to make out any details.

The guy in a baseball cap demeanour was unsettling. The guy leaned in a little too close, his words laced with a tone that sent chills through my veins. He began to flirt, but it wasn't the playful, charming kind of flirtation. It was invasive, predatory, making me feel trapped and vulnerable. "Hey there, cutiepie. Do you want to see seven foot long? I'm sure you have never seen it. Especially as someone as attractive as you," He licks his lips.

Out of nowhere, a basketball came hurtling through the air, narrowly missing the guy with the baseball cap and landing with a thud beside (Y/N) and the creepy guy. The guy with the baseball cap and I jolted with surprise, their attention instantly drawn to the ball lying there. As they turned in the direction the ball had come from, their locked eyes on Aomine, who stood a few feet away, his expression a mix of hatred and anger in his eyes.

Aomine's voice cut through the unease like a blade. His glare intensified, and his words were laced with a deadly seriousness that sent a shiver down the spine of the creepy guy. "If you ever lay a finger on my partner again, I won't hesitate to break your face. This court is meant for the game, not for your twisted games," Aomine's words not only send a shiver to the stranger but also to (Y/N) too.

The creepy guy visibly gulped, "I-I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean any harm," he mumbled, his eyes darting between Aomine's stern face and the basketball lying nearby. He quickly realized he had crossed the line. Without waiting for a response, the stranger hastily turned on his heels, not daring to look back, and fled from the court, disappearing into the distance.

Aomine's protective instinct kicked in as he walked over to (Y/N), his concern evident in his eyes. He gently pulled (Y/N) into a reassuring hug, his strong arms offering a sense of security. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked softly. Looking up at Aomine, (Y/N) shook their head, grateful he was there to stop the guy from getting further, "I'm okay, Aomine. He didn't touch me." "Good, "If he ever tries anything again, don't hesitate to let me know. I'll make sure he regrets it," he promises.

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[luckyshinyhunter]

Having trouble finding some films to watch, especially now that it's pride month?

Well have no fear, because I have some that is recommended, whether queer or queer-coded, these are movies you should watch.

Despite being forgotten or criticize being "woke", Strange World is a underrated gem that join the list of underrated and forgotten disney films such Lightyear, Treasure Planet and Atlantis.

It has an gay main character and a diverse cast including an 3-legged dog. Inspired by classic sci-fi adventure film in the 50's and 60's, Strange World is fun adventure film about an generation of a family dealing with their own faults, also opening a door of possibilities with it's lore.

Freaky is a fun twist on the classic "Freaky Friday" trope, telling the story of a teenager who swap bodies with a serial killer, thanks to a mystical artifact.

Co-written and directed by the guy who also made Happy Death Day, Freaky delivers some gore-filled kills and feel good laughs while offering some parts of queer identity along with a gay character who proud of who he is.

The Fear Street trilogy itself not only joined the list of amazing horror films in 2021 but also an spot of queer horror.

It follows an romance of two lesbian teens in the 90's not only dealing with homophobia but also a ancient connected curse of the town of Shadyside.

Chalked with nostalgia of classic horror films like Scream, Friday the 13th and The Crucible.

Fear Street wins fans over with it's violent kills, remarkable characters, talented performances, and great and relatable queer representation.

Jennifer's Body introduced an another horror icon and bisexuality.

Megan Fox plays Jennifer Check who was possessed by a demon and targets on guys after being sacrificed by an fame-hungry band.

Tho Jennifer is not a lesbian, but the films does show that she is interested in both boys and girls, claiming she goes both ways and has some interest in her friend Needy, even kissing her too.

The cult classic not only has an amazing bisexual icon but tackles heavy themes such as assault, exploitation and the female gaze.

Bottoms is a must watch masterpiece, chaotic, brutal and gut-bursting funny, the film follows two high school friends that made a fight club to just hook up with two popular cheerleaders.

With an ridiculously unhinged final act, meet cute romance, and jokes that have you laughing your butt off. This 2000's coded movie is a a treat to start off the month.

After rewatching it again, Arlo has queer heavy themes if you think about it. Looking back, one of the film's characters, has some queer-coded hints about him.

I'm not going to spoil on the titular character, I think you should watch the film in order to get what I'm saying.

Other than that the film has an amazing soundtrack and has colorful characters as well.

Luca definitely is a queer film without a doubt. Focusing on two young sea monsters, spending an unforgettable summer in the town of Portorosso on the Italian Riviera.

It's themes of self discovery, chosen families, homophobia and acceptance.

This emotionally sweet sea-filled tale is a instant classic with a pretty much Canon couple too.

Robot Dreams also has hints of queer companionship and also is a story of loneliness, the film's out now, you definitely think you should see it.

Based off the comic in 2007, Robot Dreams is set in the 80's of New York City.

A lonely dog assemble and befriends a robot in a dialogue-less journey of friendship, love and rusted parts.

There's no surprises are a lot of clear queer-tonic themes in the films, especially among the two main characters, Robot Dreams is a perfect way to spend your summer.

Last year, Nimona was not only one final goodbye from Blue sky studios but is a part of the best films of 2023.

No surprise that the creator of the graphic novel also did Netflix's She-ra, the film is heavy on not only disability but also gender identity and transphobia.

it's a film that everyone will enjoy, thanks to it's commentary and electrifying performances by the cast, combine with pretty metal animation, Nimona is the film you should definitely watch.

🏳️‍🌈Happy pride month, hope all of you have a great day, and let me know on what think of these films.🏳️‍🌈

[gourmetjello]

könig x fem!reader : sniper hood

before we start thank you thank you thank you for the likes on my previous oneshot and also huge thanks to the people that followed me !! i’m so glad people are reading my stupid things. and i’m trying to follow back everyone that likes <(˶ᵔᵕᵔ˶)>

guys, this oneshot turned out gross. really. i was thinking about putting this in dead dove do not eat, so keep that in mind please.

anyways -> 3rd person pov and english isn’t my first language! tw !!! sexism, blood, war, beating, guns, death, detailed, gore-y and graphic description of wounds and basically anything nasty related to stuff like that. 16+ recommended. it’s probably going to be a little angsty but not sure just yet, i’m still experimenting with detailed descriptions of human feelings — i hope i’m doing an okay job!

also! if you feel like könig is your lovey dovey pookie wookie baby boy then this oneshot might disappoint! don’t read it then! i’m sorry :(

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the screams of a woman are nothing to be scared of. those rough, high-pitched sounds are always filled with pure attention-seeking and they make a man’s ears ache. it’s funny how they all think that their voice will make the other gender pity them.

it’s always disappointing to see a woman’s body laying on the battlefield — not really because people feel bad that such a gentle body had to suffer through whatever happened, but because their team totally wasted an empty slot on someone as frail as a female. they could have brought womeone who was physically and mentally stronger, someone who had more muscle on and someone that could have fought back against whoever broke their nose with a single, well-targeted slap. the blood smeared across a woman’s face was nothing but red lipstick.

why would someone be mad upon hearing these things? they are just facts, a woman could never and will never overpower a man. they might have one or two nice shots, that’s okay, but they will never be able to stomp on anyone’s face in way that will immediately break their neck. if anything, the solider under their boots will probably just pray to whatever god there is for the woman to accidentally slip and land right on them. that way they would be on the best possible road to taking advantage of them.

she always thought these statements were all wrong and that girls could dominate the military just like men do. she wore t-shirts with camouflage prints on them ever since she knew what the army was. she always played with little plastic guns instead of barbies and ponies (however she liked them, she just never wanted to show anyone her other interests in case they would stop taking her seriously!), it was all one huge picture that was basically being painted ever since she was born. every thing she did before joining the military was just one little stroke on the canvas — and when she finally wore the uniform for the first time, it was like color was added to the masterpiece.

the first time she held a real gun in her hand was when the dominant color became brown — brown, because they always had to crawl and lay in mud, dark green because they were often commanded to hide in bushes with weird leaf-like mats and blankets on top of their heads, and beige because of how dusty of a color it was. the walls at the base were painted beige, the floors were made out of some kind of cheap beige colored plastic-y material and the sand that flew into their eyes, noses and mouths oh so carelessly was also similar in color to the others.

she was convinced that a female could be just as good as a man , she was a 100% sure that she could fulfill every single duty of a man when deployed. she knew that it would require a lot of work but gosh, she just wanted to finally do what she wanted to ever since she was a little kid. she wanted to prove everyone that bullied her in middle school wrong, she wanted to show her mother that she could do just fine on her own and she wanted to show her father that she was just as good as a son would have been.

those thoughts lingered in her head everytime she was out training or just walking around the base. she’d brush her hands against the cold, hard wall to feel reassured that this was the right path, that she chose the best profession and that she was chasing her dreams right now, in this very moment. it was hard for her to admit that she slowly started to doubt herself whenever she held a gun in her hands. the targets they used in training always became a little more realistic, from a wooden sign to a sand bag, from a potato sack to a bloody gummy copy of a human. she tried not to flinch when the guts under the clear jelly flew everywhere, coating the grass in a reddish color thanks to the colored liquid inside it.

‘it’s food coloring. it’s food coloring. fuck, it’s just..’ she kept repeating in her head as she crouched next to a wall, her gun shaking in her hands. she saw someone lay next to her, it was a teammate, a co-worker, a friend, whatever you want to call it — but it was a dead person. ironically enough, it was yet another woman, she had been shot right in the liver. the puddle under her was becoming bigger and bigger, spreading towards the other woman that simply didn’t know what to do.

she was panicked, feeling her heart beat in her throat once the liquid gently brushed against her dusty boots, cleaning the beige little coating off of it. her breathing was ragged, and if you ask me, i would just call it straight up panting. she could feel cold sweat drip down her temple and she knew she couldn’t lose her sanity in a situation like this, but gosh, it was so bad. the first time she had ever seen anyone die and it was already the real deal — she knew she was weak, she knew she should have never applied for this fucking job, she should have never had the obsession with guns and soliders and the whole fucking army, but.. was she really in the wrong for thinking a girl could do it all?

coldness started spreading along her ribs and her spine as she kept staring at the dead body in front of her. she couldn’t take her eyes off of the piece of wounded, no longer breathing meat that once used to be someone she chatted with. hell, they even sat next to eachother in the cafeteria.

her entire body was trembling and shaking with fear. she tried to focus on something else, but once her hands instinctively raised her gun with the careful move she had done so many times in practice, she immediately had to let it drop down to the floor because of how nauseous she felt holding that rough tool. she felt dirty. she felt like she should have never been associated with any of this shit! regret was the only thing in her mind right now.

and then all of sudden — everything went black.

“don’t leave ya’ fuckin’ guard down, missy. gets you killed, y’know?”

she heard a deep voice that was soaked with ego and a disgusting tint of disgrace towards women in the military. she wished she would have just died that instant because she definitely didn’t need to hear the string of insults and sounds of her own bones breaking and cracking that came next. she felt someone, someone heavy stomp on her chest, and then her nose, and then — gosh, he finally stepped off of her.

“fuck.. yer’ ass still breathin’? warum bist du noch nicht gestorben, hm? dumme schlampe-“

after fighting with many of her aching body parts, her eyes finally shot open. she wanted to keep them closed, she didn’t want to see who the person was above her, but reflexes were a lot stronger than will, and there was nothing she could do against them. her eyes were filled with fear as she saw nothing but a dark shoelace dangling in front of her face, dried mud falling off of it as the man shook his leg lightly.

she felt the weight of her gun on her stomach, yet there was nothing she could do about it. everything hurt, a number of her bones were probably shattered and she felt like she couldn’t even move her pinky finger a little bit. nothing. it was like she was paralyzed.

and she wasn’t far away from reality.

the shoelace was soon out of her sight and all she saw was someone crouching down next to her. the man that stomped on her just a few seconds ago. why was he doing this?

“scheisse..” he mumbled under his breath. “you won’t die like this, this’ll just hurt more than being shot..”

..and that was when she saw him raise his gun and angle it downwards. he aimed it right at her face. his finger twitched on the trigger as he had already destroyed her frail bones, making sure that she will never even come close to walking or moving ever again, yet.. why did he feel so much pity right now? why did he feel like such a shitty person? he had most likely given her spine a few cracks, why hasn’t she died yet?

the guilt probably kicked for könig in because he didn’t see her die immediately. he already messed up when he was too slow with grabbing his gun. it was just for a split second but he saw her fear-filled eyes and her trembling pupils. her cheeks that were stained by dirt now, her pretty, feminine face made ugly and messed up with the muddy and bloody print of his shoe. her nose was crooked and leaking blood, down to the floor — completely mixing together with the spreading puddle of blood that originated from the other woman’s cold body. fuck, this situation was already as bad as it could get.

“fuck, can’t shoot ya’, missy. can’t get myself to.”

he let down his gun in defeat, lowering himself to her level once again. the blurry spheres were finally coming to life as her eyes seemed to focus on whatever huge darkness was leaning down right into her face. she finally realized it was a sniper hood hanging down and not some kind of black crow that came in the sign of afterlife or the gates of hell (because something that’s dirty and pitch black can’t possibly symbolize heaven, right?).

“jeez, you look horrible. fucked ya’ pretty face up so bad. scheisse.. didn’t anyone tell you to get the fuck outta’ military the second you joined?”

she wanted to say something. she wanted to scream, she wanted to open her mouth and give voice to every single one of her fears and frustrations but she simply couldn’t. the only hope she had was that the lunch she had earlier would just stop threatening her body already and finally come up through her mouth — as bad as it sounded, she just begged for some kind of inner force to make her vomit and finally get his face dirty with something that was even more disgusting than blood.

könig quickly acted without thinking. he basically ripped the sniper shood off of his head and rushed to hide her bloody face with it. it was a pathetic excuse of a sniper hood anyway. it was an old, ragged shirt — bleached around the eye holes for that extra intimidating look, you know? but the way the fabric was too big on her head made it look like the eye holes were lining up with her chapped and shaking lips. just as he intended it to be.

“yeah, like that.”

he quickly glanced over to the other body that was laying on the floor, he was convinced that it was already cold (which was right) so he didn’t even really bother trying to do anything with that. he wasn’t fazed by the sight of that dead woman at all. instead, he quickly scooped the girl he just gave his sniper hood up into his arms and began running towards his base, her gun left behind them on the floor, soaking in the puddle of mixed blood.

as könig held her body close to himself while rushing with her in his arms, he quickly reached up to rip the velcro strips that signaled her team off of her uniform and vest. he desperately reached down to rip the austria flag off of his body and place it on her shoulder instead.

and now he finally felt the chills through his spine and ribs the same way she did before he had attacked her — starting from this moment, he was a target of his very own squad.

—

gosh! not proud of this. the writing is okay i’d say (i got to use some of my german knowledge ehehe) but it’s disgusting. i hope i didn’t traumatize anyone! (·•᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ )

please let me know what i should write about next!

good night!

[wandabear]

WISH YOU WERE HERE - WANDA MAXIMOFF X FEMALE READER

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Summary: 17 years ago, a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness, and the surviving team members are left stranded for nineteen months.

Jules is portrayed by Adelaide Kane. Here.

chapter warnings: smut, angst, death, violence, blood, mentions of abuse. Please, as I said before, this is going to be harder on this and the next chapters. And this one is... doomcoming. I'm responsible for letting you know that, but if you don't like that, you can choose not to read it. ㅤㅤ

I must clarify again, all of them are 18 years old or more. Lots of characters will not survive, that's it. That doesn't mean I hate them or I don't like them.

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CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN FINALE

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ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤCHAPTER SIX: DOOMCOMING

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BEFORE

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Despite the fact that the deer hunt had brought good vibes to the girls and full bellies for about three days, the days that followed became more difficult.

They thought that perhaps luck would still be on their side, but the arrival of autumn and soon winter made it more and more difficult. Some animals migrated to warmer places, leaving them without hope.

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“Here you go.”

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With a look of desolation, they all looked at their plates, completely fed up and disgusted. It wasn't smiles and fun anymore after weeks of being lost.

Y/N thought that the disgusting stew her mother used to cook right now seemed like an exquisite culinary masterpiece.

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“it's all we got, we're saving some deer meat left for tomorrow.” Wanda explained as she sat down with her friends.

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They all began to eat 'what they had managed to get' and although it didn't seem to make them happy, at least it kept them alive for one more day.

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“Okay, I can't do this anymore.” Carol complained exhausted, setting the plate aside. The blonde caught everyone's attention when she got up to go get something in the corner where she was sleeping and approached them, leaving a huge glass jar with a purple liquid.

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“What is that?” Y/N frowned.

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“It was some berries I was trying to save, but…” Carol sighed and opened the jar.  “I think it might've turned into booze? I don't know about the rest of you, but I could use a drink.”

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They all watched intently, completely interested in the idea of forgetting everything for a while.

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Natasha raised an eyebrow.  “Do we think it's safe?”

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“Do we care?” Jules shrugged, smiling kindly at Carol who just nodded, grateful to have her support. Things between Nat and the brunette hadn't been quite the same, and everyone was starting to notice it.

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“I have a few more.”

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“If we have booze, let's have a party.” Jennifer exclaimed and some of them giggled, even though things weren't too bad, they couldn't afford to lose their spirits.

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“'Cause we've got so much to celebrate.” Sharon rolled her eyes.

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“Do we need a reason?” Y/N got up from her seat and looked out the window. Some clouds in the distance said that the most difficult time would soon begin. In summer, that place was spectacular, but winter? It was a subarctic place, definitely if they didn't find them soon, the girls would start to suffer more or even die. “If they don't find us and we don't forage for food to get us through the winter, we'll be dead. I say we party now.”

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“There's a full moon tomorrow night.” Wanda added maybe a bit excited, which was very cute.  “And it's almost Homecoming.”

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“We packed dresses, right?” Jules said interested in the idea of drinking and forgetting about that damn place for a while.  “For the awards dinner?”

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“There we go.” Y/N put her hands on her hips, willing to make this moment something different and not let her spirits die. “We have dresses, we have booze. We can decorate.”

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“Have a sort of... moon homecoming.” Wanda smiled, looking at Y/N. The connection between her gazes stole her breath.

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“More like a doom homecoming.” Pietro scoffed but Wanda quickly nudged him.

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Jules chuckles softly. “A Doomcoming.”

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Some of them chuckled, but they all seemed to agree.  Even Sharon agreed saying: “Now that's a party idea.”

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“All right. Doomcoming.” Natasha patted her leg and got up, although she wasn't entirely sure, drinking a little and losing your mind for a while wasn't bad at all.  “Tomorrow night, we'll drink rotten berries and celebrate our impending death.”

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They all cheered and whistled, ready to relax for a night at least. Not knowing that in the attic, a man was growling just listening to them.

Grant Ward looked at himself in the mirror, those dark circles and his weeks messy beard made him look more careless.

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He didn't even care, what he did care about was seeing that part of his leg was missing. Chopped. Feeling like there was no future, and his future as a real coach was gone when he lost his leg. Seemed to be drifting further and further from reality.

They were all doing their best to make the night the best. Some were in charge of decorating around the cabin, using pieces of cloth, colored stones and flowers, as well as huge dry leaves.

Others used some candles, wild animal bones, and also made torches to make the evening special.

In a few hours, they would be having the fun they deserved.

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“Сука!” The girl muttered between teeth, after winning the battle with her suitcase that seemed to be stuck. Natasha smiled when she finally opened the damn thing, looking through her stuff. All the girls were outside so she took advantage of using the kitchen to be alone.

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Nat exhaled in relief when she saw that fabric, was starting to think she lost it. Her dress, the one Melina bought for the awards ceremony; the redhead finally smiled wistfully.

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“Hey. What are you doing?”

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Jules's voice made her close the suitcase quickly, looking up.

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“Just trying to open this.” Natasha sighed, perhaps a little more exasperated than she expected to show. “What's going on?”

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“I- umh, they are all doing this kind of pairing tonight and…” Jules licked her lips nervously, walking up to face her.  “Will you go with me to the party?”

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But she didn't get an answer, Natasha just sighed deeply.

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Why the hell had she thought that maybe there was hope of having something with Nat? Nat never gave her a sign, she just used her to have sex and nothing else, that was the deal between them. But Jules didn't give up, expecting Natasha to realize her feelings. It was useless, that would never happen.

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Jules just shook her head, smiling sadly.  “Oh, it's okay. I get it.”

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“You know I don't do that.” Nat raised an eyebrow, then looked down at her suitcase, unable to keep her gaze on it and not feel guilty. “That's not what we had and you know it.”

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“I know. It was really dumb.” The raven haired girl exhaled and then turned to leave the kitchen, trying to hide her teary eyes.

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While in the back of the cabin, hiding from the other girls, Wanda giggled as she felt how Y/N kissed her neck slowly, hands settled on her hips but never crossed the limits.

The tender and sweet kisses began to gain a passion that increased more and more.

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“You ever think about what we'd be doing if we hadn't crashed?” Wanda asked once they separated, making sure no one saw them.

Not because either of them felt embarrassed, not at all, but they wanted to keep something unique together. Something nice between just them.

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“Like, we'd be going to so many parties?” Y/N joked and adjusted her shirt. Maybe if she thought about what would have happened, they would both be in some nice hotel celebrating or even being just 'friends', without daring to get close.

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“Yeah, I-I guess.” Wanda smiled and shrugged, thinking about 'what could have happened' could become painful if you let yourself go. “I don't really think about it.”

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“Well, all I think about is you.” Y/N responded completely in love, leaning in to kiss her lips once more.

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“What if this is it, Y/N?” The brunette wrapped her arms around Y/N’s  neck, lost in those eyes that she liked so much.  “Everything we did, uh, everything we didn't do.”

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Y/N didn't know what she meant, just decided to listen to her girl's concerns.

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“I'm not gonna die a virgin.” Wanda sighed deeply, ready to make that decision, Y/N just widened her eyes.

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“What?” Y/N babbled, of course she understood correctly but that was quite surprising.

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“I wanna be with you.” Wanda's cheeks blushed, looking even more adorable. “I wanna be yours. Please.”

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It was an important decision, but the truth was that they were completely crazy about each other. Y/N would be lying if she said that she hadn't dreamed and fantasized about it many times, especially when the kisses became more and more passionate and needy.

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“Are you sure?” She caressed her girlfriend's cheek gently, and Wanda could only imagine being touched that way under her clothes.

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“I’m so sure.” Wanda bit her bottom lip and then smiled excitedly.  “Tonight?”

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Smiling as well, Y/N nodded.  “Tonight.”

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It was a date.

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“So…” The raven-haired girl began as they both finished decorating an arch with some branches, flowers and strips of cloth. “I have seen that you disappear from time to time. Strangely, Wanda is not here either.”

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Jules smiled mischievously.

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Y/N looked at her sister a bit nervous but then she just shrugged. “Yeah? Weird…”

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“I’m not stupid, Y/N, but the team haven't noticed yet.” Jules murmured as they finished the arch, making it perfect for everyone to go through. “Are you happy?”

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Y/N hesitated to answer but then she understood that she was one of the most important person in her life. How not to tell Jules the truth? “Very happy.”

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They both smiled, keeping that secret.

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“That's all I want.” Jules leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek. “I want you to be happy, sweetie. And this place is... I don't know how long we'll be alive, so enjoy.”

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“I love you.”

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“Love you too, Y/N/N.”

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They sat down for a moment to rest and talk about Wanda and her, but after a few minutes, they noticed that Carol was coming towards them. ㅤㅤ

“Hey.” Carol approached slowly, almost as if she was afraid or something. She had something in her hands that quickly hid, looking at Jules. “Can I ask you something? I mean, can we talk?”

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They both eyed her curiously, Jules nodded. “Shoot.”

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“Alone.” Carol said so fast and looked at Y/N out of the corner of her eye, who narrowed her eyes without understanding what was happening there.  “Please?”

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“Okay, weird, got it. I will go to wash myself in the river and for my clothes.” Y/N got up from her seat and looked at them somewhat confused before leaving. ㅤㅤ

“What is it? Are you okay? Is about the berries?” Jules finally asked, not understanding what was so important or secret that Carol wanted to say.

They were friends, teammates, but they had never been close. Carol was a somewhat crazy, funny, kinda grumpy sometimes, but she was a good teammate.

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“Yeah, I guess, in the mood for a burger.” She joked and they shared a laugh. “How are you?”

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Jules had an endless number of responses and none of them were too positive, but she just decided to fake a smile.  “I’m okay.”

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“I've noticed you've been a bit down lately.” The blonde pursed her lips and came over to help light the torches.

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“This place doesn't make me feel very good, but it's all we've got.” Jules swallowed.  “I'm starting to appreciate it.”

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“You're not doing your makeup and looking for what to wear like the girls over there.”

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Watching her out of the corner of her eye, Carol noticed that the brunette lowered her gaze, something happened. Of course. “I was thinking… you know…”

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Jules looked at her, she'd never seen Carol so nervous.

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“Some of the girls are going in couples or- or pairing to this ‘doomcoming’ and- I want to…” The blonde seemed to have trouble saying it, but even so she took courage and said it: "Would you go with me?”

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Danvers was asking her. Carol fucking Danvers, wild one, love for leather jackets, Top Gun and bad reputation.

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“I thought you would go with Valkyrie.” Jules frowned, but she wasn't going to deny that she was quite flattered.

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“Yeah, she's my friend but… I kinda… kinda like you too.” Carol handed her a pair of yellow daisies, a tiny bouquet. “…So?”

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Perhaps one of the cutest gestures Jules had ever received and never expected to come from fucking Carol Danvers.

What to say? ‘No, I'm waiting for Natasha to reconsider and come over.’ But the truth is that Nat wasn’t going to do it, the russian would never accept anything more and Jules' feelings would never be reciprocated.

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“I would be happy to go to the doomcoming with you.” Jules smiled tenderly and nodded, taking that flower. It was a pretty yellow daisy, the kind that grew near the lake.

She smiled, not out of courtesy this time, especially when Carol beamed and nodded quickly, excited.

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“Yeah? Awesome! I’ve to go, I left the booze alone and I should go back...” The blonde turned to go get dressed and get ready, but not before saying: “I told you someone was going to invite you, remember? Before the pep rally.”

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And she was right.

Wanda sighed and looked at herself in the mirror once more, couldn't even remember the last time she was so nervous.

Dates with Vision no longer that exciting tension, and although this time it was just a simple reunion in the middle of the forest, it made her heart pound fast.

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Natasha went into the attic and noticed how Wanda was struggling to close the zipper of her dress, so she came closer. “Come here, I’ll help you.”

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“Thank you.” Wanda smiled kindly and turned around.

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“hey, you look beautiful.” Nat told her with a kind smile and then reaffirmed it when Wanda turned to see her.

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“Would you help me braid it? My hair, I mean.” Wanda sighed and watched as her hair had fluffed up a bit due to the lack of hygiene items.

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Natasha agreed and they both went to the window so they could enjoy the sunlight, or the few minutes that were left of it.

They were chatting for a while until Wanda noticed that one of backpacks was open. She frowned, no one touched her stuff. Especially the bag where the girl collected the mushrooms and stuff she found in the forest, many could be toxic.

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“Hey, do you know if anyone searched my stuff? The bag where I keep the mushrooms is open.” She looked at Nat with some concern. “The ones we shouldn't eat.”

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“I have no idea, I just know that Carol was making the booze but I didn't see any mushrooms.” Nat frowned, finishing combing Wanda's hair. “Maybe some girl was looking for makeup?”

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Not very convinced about that but really hoping that it would be so, Wanda just nodded.  “Yeah, maybe.”

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Each of the girls met at the arch and ‘crossed it’ together. Between friends or couples, no one was ever alone. Even Pietro was encouraged to ask Monica, who accepted gladly. Yelena and Kate went together, the archer wearing a black suit -that Pietro gave her because her dress was torn- while Yelena a pretty blue dress.

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Y/N looked at herself once more in the old broken mirror and then left the cabin to walk towards the arch. She was wearing a beautiful black dress, they all had pretty flower crowns, her hair was loose.

But Y/N’s smile grew even more when she saw Wanda shyly approaching her. The brunette was wearing a beautiful dark scarlet dress, her hair was braided to the side, surely Natasha helped her. Y/N knew that she should say goodbye to her heart forever now.

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“Woah, you look…” Y/N searched for the exact word with which to define her but it was impossible, she was much more than all that. Feeling captivated just by seeing her, that beauty left her breathless.  “You look amazing. Beautiful.”

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“Thank you.” The blush made her look even prettier if that was possible. Wanda held out her arm.  “Shall we…?”

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“Let’s do this, gorgeous.” Y/N took her arm and they both crossed through that arch, listening to how their friends cheered those they were coming. They all laughed happily, imagining that it was a nice event at school.

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But once Wanda and Y/N walked through the arch hand in hand, they all cheered and smiled happily as they joined the round around the campfire.

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“Are they…?” Kate asked, smirking.

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“Duh.” Pietro responded, watching them happy.

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Being under everyone's gaze, they both turned to look at each other. And leaving any fear behind, Wanda took Y/N's face and kissed her. So bravely, her heart had no room for fear.

The cheering and happy laughs from everyone warmed their hearts, not realizing that an evil gaze was watching them from the attic.

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The last ones were Carol, who was wearing a black suit and her blond hair loose, making a perfect contrast. Next to her, Jules was wearing a dress of the same color, with some touches of lace.

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They all seemed happy too, except Natasha, who from her look seemed quite surprised and hurt to see them. The only one to notice this was Y/N.

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“Let the Doomcoming begin!” Jennifer yelled hitting a pot, starting that party. They all cheered and raised their glasses before trying some of that drink.

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“Oh, now we just need a DJ to pump up the volume.” Jules made a face as she tasted the drink, which while it wasn't the best, at least it was something.

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At that moment, Y/N took out her portable player from her pocket and held it up high, saving everyone's spirits. “Here's your savior, losers! Worship me!”

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“But dude, your battery will die tonight.” Kate pouted.

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“I know. I've been saving it for a special occasion.” Y/N just shrugged and approached Yelena, together they tried to fix it so the echo would make it louder.  

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They all squealed again and jumped with excitement when ‘Genie in a bottle’ one of the songs of the time, began to play.  They dance through the choreography completely, remembering for once that they were just teenagers. For one night, they all danced, laughed and drank, leaving behind all the bad things and enjoying themselves. Not knowing how hard tomorrow would be.

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Everything was going well until the player started to fail, until it ran out of battery in the middle of the party. They all began to boo and silence embraced them again.

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Y/N took  the device and the battery was definitely dead.  “Thanks my friend. You've come a long way... Yep, it's dead.”

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“That’s sad… We missed the slow dance.” Jules scrunched her nose.

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“There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.” Kate began to sing, making the others laugh, but little by little they all joined in singing that slow song.

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Carol didn’t hesitate to take Jules hand and begin to dance slowly, without realizing that the russian seemed to annihilate her with just her gaze.

ㅤㅤ

“May I have this dance?” Y/N held out her hand to Wanda, playing  a bit to make her laugh, and of course, she succeeded.

ㅤㅤ

They both danced slowly while their friends sang. Wanda closed her eyes, trying to imagine that she was at the school homecoming, surrounded by everyone, finally with the person she truly wanted.

ㅤㅤ

“So… is this what a high school dance feels like?” Y/N murmured with a small smile, noticing how Wanda looked up to see her.

ㅤㅤ

The sokovian bit her bottom lip.  “I guess so.”

ㅤㅤ

“You look beautiful, Wands.”  Y/N leaned in to peck her lips and then moved away when the girls stopped singing because they were busy drinking.

ㅤㅤ

Wanda smiled as she took Y/N’s hand, moving away from everyone a bit. “Aren't you going to drink?”

ㅤㅤ

“Nah, I don't wanna drink too much… my mother is an alcoholic.” Y/N shrugged, trying not to lose her mind as Wanda fixed her shirt collar. “You?”

ㅤㅤ

“I think one sip was enough.” Wanda scrunched her nose. “I don't want to despise that ‘expensive’ berry liqueur.”

ㅤㅤ

“Hey… You want to get out of here?” The taller girl leaned in to whisper in her ear.  “I have something for us where you know.”

ㅤㅤ

That whisper made Wanda feel a chill down her spine, her body tensed exquisitely. They both knew exactly what that meant.

ㅤㅤ

“Oh, my God, yes.” Green eyes that sparkled with desire.

ㅤㅤ

Y/N smiled mischievously, leading her by the hand away from the party.

ㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

And the party went on for quite a while, until things started to get weird.

Natasha, who was standing in a corner watching that everything was okay, noticed that many of them began to laugh excessively and stumble. While the drink seemed strong, Nat found the girls' behavior quite strange.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The redhead approached to see the jar and noticed that they had almost drunk it all, but what surprised her the most was seeing some pieces of something strange at the bottom.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha thanked that she didn't tried that thing.

ㅤㅤㅤ

About to reach in to remove it, Natasha stopped when she heard Jules voice, laughing out loud and sensually dancing to Carol, not caring too much who saw her. Back to the jar, Nat confirmed that they were mushrooms. The ones that Wanda was looking for in the afternoon.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey. We have problems.” Natasha quickly approached to them, trying to get the attention of both but neither seemed interested. The brunette seemed interested in watching her hands in the air and moving, Carol was interested in her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, god. Look at these...” Jules muttered gawkingly, grinning when she finally discovered the stars, Natasha frowned quite worried.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jules, listen. We need to find Y/N and Wanda, I think someone poisoned all of us… With shrooms.” Nat looked around to see who was missing, besides her friends. Neither Pietro nor Ward were there.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You mean, like, shrooms-shrooms?” Jules chuckled and rolled her eyes, not even seeming to care too much about what she was saying. “Oh, god, this feels so good.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

All her senses were clouded when Carol placed her hand on her lower waist, pulling the girl closer. Jules seemed to enjoy it which annoyed Natasha enough to get in the way.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Can you listen to me for a fucking moment?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You look like a tree. Like a really hot tree.” Carol  buried her face in the brunette's neck, making her moan.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey, enough, let her go.” Natasha finally pushed Carol away, making her stumble and fall to the ground. But Carol couldn't even get up, she just stayed babbling nonsense, lying on the ground in the craziest astral journey of all.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck, this doesn't make sense.” Natasha just walked towards the cabin to look for the others.

“Guys, doesn't Natasha look like a tree right now?” Carol asked and they all started laughing.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She kind of does, looks like fire too.” Jennifer babbled and moved closer to the torch, reaching out her hand to feel the heat but not burn herself. They all found something to loose themselves or just dropped on the floor.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Shut up. You all shut up.” Slowly Jules began to come to her senses even while completely drugged. She stopped, holding on to one of the trees. “Someone drugged us.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I feel weird. I don't like this.” Kate blinked rapidly, looking down at her hands. Her hands were no longer hands, they were hawk claws.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Shh. Do you feel that?” Jules swallowed, trying to hear through all the screaming. She narrowed her eyes, something was speaking to her, an almost imperceptible whisper.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I think I do, like... energy coming up from the ground.” Yelena lay back on the ground, sinking her hands into the earth.

Jules whispered: “Something is coming… It says we won't be hungry much longer.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Yelena laughed out loud.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She needs help… Can't you hear it?” The brunette covered her ears, trying to concentrate but they just kept going in that madness. Without further ado, she walked to the cabin to take the axe.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Hand in hand, Y/N and Wanda arrived at their special place, smirking. Y/N borrowed some candles, of course they surely wouldn't notice the lack of these with the party going.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N, this is… ” Wanda couldn't even finish.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N lit some old candles, they had some blankets on the grass and the most romantic atmosphere that both of them could imagine in such a situation. In the distance you could see some fireflies hanging around, making the moment even more special.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I found these yesterday, had to hide them well.”  Y/N pointed to a small bowl with some berries, not many but enough to share. She'd had a hard time hiding them among her stuff without Jules or Nat noticing.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You’re the cutest.” Wanda smiled widely, the way Y/N made her feel was so unique and so pure. She never thought someone could show her so much affection like that, even having so little.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I just… I want to make you feel good.” The girl sighed deeply, feeling so nervous. She cleared her throat before going on.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I’m in love with you… Ever since I met you, I haven't stopped thinking about you. When you came from your country, you sat at the back of the classroom. You didn't talk much.” Y/N took Wanda’s hand, inviting her to sit next to her.  “You had those adorable braces, and your glasses… which I love how you look with them.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda just blushed, adjusting her glasses.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I love everything about you.” Y/N finished this little love speech before sealing it with a soft kiss.

ㅤㅤㅤ That promise became real, that night was special. Slowly, both of them took off their clothes carefully. Though desire was there and the need made their skins burn, patience was an exquisite addition to this moment.

The first time Wanda made love, leaving all fear and prejudice behind.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N made sure that every touch made her feel safe, just as she also made sure that Wanda felt at ease by giving her pleasure.

Holding her, Y/N helped Wanda move her hips quickly looking for the third orgasm. Her fingers completely saoked from the humidity of that tight sex, asking for more. The way her hand cradled Wanda's breasts perfectly, or how their lips met before coming together.

The way Wanda's lips ran over Y/N's belly, kissing and biting the area to make sure it was hers. It didn't matter if it wasn't Y/N’s first time, she knew that this was the most important one. ㅤㅤㅤ

She didn't know how to do it, the sokovian had never even seen those pornographic TV channels or magazines like the cabin ones, but Y/N taught her every place she had to touch until Wanda knew her completely.

Her tongue ran through Y/N’s sex and she knew perfectly well that she just had to let herself go, devouring her girlfriend completely.

ㅤㅤㅤ

No one had ever told Wanda that this was a trap, giving pleasure to Y/N also caused her exquisite pleasure.

The first time together, one of the most perfect of all.

They both put on their clothes slowly, smiling completely in love. Both decided to stay a while longer, lying down, catching their breath, they both watched the stars feeling like a small part of that vast universe.

ㅤㅤㅤ “I love you, detka.” Wanda was encouraged to confess, she couldn't understand how all that excitement and happiness only seemed to increase more and more. Now she understands what everyone means when they talk about sex.

ㅤㅤㅤ

With a big leap, Y/N’s heart was ready to give itself completely once more.  “I love you, Wands.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Both remained embraced for a moment until the sound of the leaves breaking made Y/N alert and quickly get up.

Maybe a wild animal? A wolf? Maybe a deer, the good thing is that maybe the fire could help. But the footsteps didn’t seem to be from some wild animal, the steps were slow and clumsy.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wait here.” Y/N whispered, Wanda tried to stop her but the girl just told her to be quiet.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N took a step forward, grabbing one of the gas lamps but a grunt and a 'fuck!' made her relax.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Coach Ward?” Y/N frowned, coming out of their place to look for the man. Perhaps he got lost, the man had been quite lonely lately.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N, you have to help me… something is over here.” The man begged. Y/N searched through the trees but the only thing she found was a strong blow to the back of her neck, making her fall.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The man they thought it could be trusted, approached against Y/N and began to hit her over and over again. On her face, on her ribs, on her back.

Ward held back her anger for so long, finally releasing it in the most cruel and hateful way.

ㅤㅤㅤ

He had always been a rather cold and unhappy man, especially with his job as a mediocre high school coach. Ward never believed that there could be anything worse than that, until the plane went down.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Losing his job, his life and his leg caused him to lose his mind as well. Poisoning all the girls with the mushrooms to make them completely helpless was the first step. With each blow, Ward felt his anger rise. The only way to feel powerful was to make others worse off than he was.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda screamed horrified, running to help Y/N but only received a blow from that man's cane, making her fall to the ground too.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You're the one who chopped my leg, right?” Ward yelled furious and moved toward her, he took the girl and dragged her, staying on top of her. “You fucking cunt!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“HELP!” Wanda yelled with all her might, hoping that one of her friends would hear.

ㅤㅤㅤ Y/N was unconscious next to her, her face began to swell due to the strong blows.

Taking advantage of his strength and knowing that he could subdue the girl, Ward prevented Wanda from escaping or moving her hands.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm going to kill each one of you. I'm sick of all of you!” He growled through his teeth, squeezing Wanda's neck with his dirty hand. “Stop jerking around like a fish! I'll do something you'll like.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“NO!” Wanda's eyes widened, terror chilling her blood.  “HELP!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

But nobody responded. She kicked the man on his injured leg, making Ward to grunt in pain.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“HELP ME!” Wanda screamed once more before Ward punched her face and pulled out a hunting knife, slashing her thigh.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Staggering desperately, clinging to every tree she found, the brunette felt the screams grow louder. Everything around Jules was spinning non-stop, the effect of the mushrooms and the alcohol began to hit hard.

Dragging the ax to her side, she walked over to where the voices were growing. More and more, they whispered that she must do it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

She frowned seeing how a weird monster tried to attack Wanda, desperate, about to do something horrible. As soon as Jules saw that scene, she approached and without thinking, without hesitation, raised the ax and hit the man's back with strength, making him cry out in pain.

Drops of blood spattered on the girl’s pale face; Jules stepped back, watching as Ward dropped Wanda and scrambled to the ground like a trampled insect.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Julia stepped forward, still carrying the axe.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“D-Don’t-” he begged, raising his hand.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“SHE SAID ‘NO’!” Jules raised the ax again and hit him once more, two, three times, taking his life. But suddenly that man stopped, opening his eyes wide, finally finding death. Droplets of blood began to escape from his dry lips, falling to the ground. Moistening the earth.

ㅤㅤㅤ

A strange breeze moved their hair when that happened, as if something woke up in that place. And it did, something ancient and ancestral  awakened.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The blood had been spilled.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda screamed in horror and pushed him away from her, Ward's corpse lying next to her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What did I do?” Jules murmured, remaining in that trance. Still holding the bloody axe, clinging to it.  “What did I do? What did I do?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The girl repeated again and again.

Wanda got up and ran to Y/N, kneeling by her side, trying to wake her up. Her heart broke to see that Y/N her face and right eye swollen.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Detka, please wake up. Please, my love, wake up.” Wanda caressed her cheek, The Sokovian woman put her ear to Y/N's chest to check if she was still alive, and sighed to confirm it. Her heart kept beating.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Little by little, Y/N opened er good eye. Looked around her and understood the horror scene in front of them.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Are you okay?”  Y/N asked to her girlfriend, was barely able to speak because of the pain.

ㅤㅤㅤ

At that moment Natasha came running desperately, the fear on her face was shown  when she saw her friends on the ground and a bloody shocked Jules in front of Ward. Mumbling nonsense.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jules, hey, do you hear me?” The redhead cupped Jules's face, trying to snap her out of her trance. She reached for the axe, stroking Jules hand gently to take the axe.   “Let it go. Easy.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I heard that she needed me, I heard-” Jules kept saying, the tears began to fall down her face without stopping.  “I swear. I swear, believe me. Something told me to come here and help her!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Nat turned to see Wanda, who was helping Y/N get up.  “Are you okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The sokovian nodded slowly, worried about her girlfriend's condition. “He was going to… he wanted to-…" Wanda swallowed, feeling a tiny blood trickle down her leg from her body. She turned her gaze away to not see Ward's body. “She’s right, she defended me.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It’s okay. Don’t look at him, look at me.” Natasha murmured. "We have to get them to the cabin, now." ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda helped Y/N to stay on her feet.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Her eyes are still dilated.” Natasha murmured, looking into Jules's eyes, then looked at her friends. “Let's go. We don't know if he attacked anyone else. Then we'll see what to tell them.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

How would they explain all this to the other girls? Oh, this was going to cause chaos.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤNOW

ㅤㅤㅤ

How strange is. So strange to finally wake up without being the victim of nightmares.

Y/N sighed and opened her eyes, feeling Wanda's soft caresses on her belly. They were both lying on that bed after having spent a wonderful and passionate night.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Morning.” Y/N murmured in fear of breaking the moment, that it would break completely and everything would go back to 'normal', that cold place she already knew.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Morning.” Wanda answered with a soft voice, without stopping those caresses, which made Y/N sigh in relaxation.

They were both like that for a while, enjoying the pleasant silence that the morning offered.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N's fingers gently caressed Wanda’s thigh, feeling that scar. A memory of that night, so beautiful and at the same time so harsh.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Do you still remember everything that happened there or does it start to fade between memories?” Y/N whispered while her fingertips traced her belly.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Sometimes I wonder if what we experienced was real or there are parts where my head makes it up.” Wanda sighed feeling the caresses.  “The scar reminds me that it was true.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N kept her gaze on her thigh, somewhat thoughtful. “I’m sorry.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It wasn’t your fault.” The brunette looked up to see her, noticing the guilt in Y/N's eyes. She placed a soft kiss on her jaw, despite the fact that she made all that guilt worse for a long time due to anger, Wanda didn’t want to see her that way. Not anymore.  “None of it was your fault.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N said nothing, just kept caressing the bare skin of her beloved, running through it like that first time.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What you did was to help us survive, Jules saved us that night and you saved us the following months… Hey, look at me.” The sokovian took her face to fix her gaze on Y/N’s eyes.  “Those of us who did it, it was thanks to you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N swallowed, wishing she felt the same way about herself. “Do you think I did it right?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You did what we had to in order to survive.” Wanda assured her. And likewise, because despite the fact that she tried to go through life thinking that all that was behind her, guilt often used to drown her.

But life gave her the little ones, and she had to be strong.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I love you.” Y/N whispered lost in those beautiful green eyes.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda just smiled with a certain tenderness and kissed those lips.

The brunette sat on Y/N's hips, enjoying seeing the nakedness of the woman below her. Wanda's fingertips rubbed her belly slowly.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So…” She bit her lower lip, happy to see that the taunt worked.  It had been a long time since Wanda's sex life was as active as it is now. Feeling like a seductive woman, would do anything to please Y/N. “Pancakes or morning quickie?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N smirked, caressing her hips.  “You know I can't resist you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It's good because I really need to feel you.” Wanda said with a mischievous smile, leaning down to kiss her lips slowly, deeply and passionately.

ㅤㅤㅤ 🐝🐝🐝 Things will get ugly for the baby Yellowjackets... and maybe the grown ups too. ㅤㅤㅤ

the cutest and lovely people tags ✨ @kaiidth-wandika @yourfavunsub @pawiie @fanboy7794 @sunsol-22 @scarlettbitchx @arcturusseer @imnotasuperhero @chtte @lesbians-in-outer-space @starry-night17 @cristin-rjd @kenlymar @chtte @marvelogic @druggedduck @aliherreraaa @widowwaddles @gingiesworld

[winguontheweb]

I'm having quite the mental experience tonight.

I have relived a childhood formative experience in the 2010 Nickelodeon TV movie, "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf." Hooooooo boy this movie. Not gonna say it's a cinematic masterpiece, it's pretty standard kids' channel TV movie, but like. This movie had a massive effect on my life and why I'm a furry.

Seeing a trailer for it aired on TV when I was 9, by random chance, I was completely entranced by its concept and effects. Then finally finding out about the release date and behind the scenes online, watching it when it first aired and recording it, followed by rewatching it... many times. I was not normal about it for so long yet it really only consisted of me wanting to rewatch it over and over. That was the only way I knew how to react.

After a time, my interest in it died down, the recording got overwritten, and I forgot about it.

And then I had a dream in like, 2013? Around then, about "Thunder Wolves" which was the name came up with in there (I point to my brain). It involved various typical werewolf tropes in a story about an outcast. Wasn't too detailed or vivid, but that dream was just enough for my brain to be completely sold on werewolves forever.

From there, I'm 99% sure I would never have been on the path to becoming a furry I ended up on. Werewolves are why I'm a furry.

Rewatching The Boy Who Cried Werewolf tonight with my girlfriend and others, I got to re-experience that formative moment and realized just how fucking much I still take from this movie in terms of my love of werewolves, the tropes I enjoy, how I enjoy them. Werewolf curses being caused by werewolf blood injection, shifting into wolf form every night rather than ONLY on full moons, the slow transformation at sunset leading into the full form, the struggle of trying to keep it cool when others can potentially see the transformation, changes even in your human form and demeanor after werewolf-ing. Even the visuals of like, the eyes changing and fangs coming in before the full transformation was something that's stuck with me for all my life.

Every fucking memory of this movie came flooding back to me, I knew everything that happened, basically nothing was a surprise to me. Being age 9-10 when I was watching it probably means this movie might be the earliest Vivid memory I have.

The visuals were honestly better than I remembered. Like, not gonna lie, they could've been BETTER for the adult furry-brained cow that I am, but like. They actually had the full wolf form on screen way longer than they had the half-human half-wolf ugly looking transformation stage. I'm also 90% sure that the full wolf form was all practical effects with a suit? Maybe some of it was CGI, 2010 was capable of good CGI, and this is exactly the type of production (especially at Nickelodeon) where I'd imagine they'd do CGI. But instead from what I can tell with the lighting and interactions with the world, I feel it's most likely a practical suit with puppeted/controllable expression in the face and ears. My main complaint is a lot of the wolf scenes DID utilize really quick, choppy cuts that made it hard to see the form in full force

Design-wise the wolf form is a blend of like, ferocious, beastly, scary, but also a bit... cute, in a way? If the wolf transformation wasn't turning into a bloodthirsty monster and instead just turning into Big Ouppy I could see this being made to be made out to be very cute.

Actually yeah also 9 year old Meadow almost certainly was crushing and she didn't even know it, her brain wasn't built for that

Overall, 23 year old Meadow's experience with this: I really really enjoyed it! I started off watching it clutching my pillow from embarrassment and fear that it was going to be total crap, especially seeing so many high school teen drama tropes and painfully obvious foreshadowing, but being with people willing to give it a chance and who also knew the context of why it's important to me was like, suuuuper important for allowing me to even touch it again.

Basically, I am now in an extreme werewolf mood, and feeling things about werewolves I haven't felt in 13 years. This movie is my playbook. I have knowingly or unknowingly used this as my basis for Werewolf Curse things all my life.

I understand myself better than I ever have, having seen this movie.

So anyway...

Any werewolves out there wanna bite me or do a blood transfusion?

Please?

[deadandbeautiful]

break the habit. [eren x reader]

// hello coffin dwellers! dee here, finally with a fic in progress!! :) decided since eren's been on the mind, i'd give em a go- i haven't written for him in awhile, so apologies if im rusty! this fic will be updated on wednesdays and we'll see how long i'll keep it running lol it depends if im not lazy LMAOOO cw: eren and reader are childhood best friends, mikasa is a lesbian do not @ me that ending NEVER happened smh, reader has chronic anxiety, smoking, learning to break the cycle of addiction and trauma, replacing smoking with chewing gum, bad coping mechanisms, overall a hurt with comfort fic !!

your parents weren’t great people. you knew this after being born the eldest daughter; and their only daughter, might i add. your parents fought a lot of the time; a broken marriage far too deep with wounds and often you wondered why they never split up.

so when their stress wasn’t on themselves, it was on you. you became their target for everything; a father who wanted you to be successful like him, and a mother who wanted you to settle down and give her grandchildren; to even walk in her footsteps as a stay-at-home wife.

but you detested the thought; built on rebellion since you came out of the womb, you chose to live your own story and found yourself adoring the highs life had to bring; whether it was through skateboarding, or breaking school rules, your childhood was a masterpiece of a wild ride.

and throughout your childhood you met eren jaeger; a stubborn headed, foul mouthed boy who wanted to leave a mark on the world, one way or another. he moved in next door with his younger sister mikasa, after his mom died and his father ended up marrying another woman.

you two shared a lot in common, it seems. a love for adrenaline, a love for adventure, and most of all, you understood one another when it came to each other’s problems. eren knew your parents weren’t in your corner since day one, and often than not a lot of the time you found yourself sleeping over in Mikasa’s room next door when your world was turned upside down and venting to both of your closest friends. but through this family stress came more than just anxiety; it came with a habit you wish you could break to this day.

you started only truly smoking in early high school; when your friend Jean offered you a hit of his cigarette after finding you hyperventilating on the first day of school behind the bleachers.

ever since then, you couldn’t stop. you found nicotine to be the only way to ease your mind; the familiar burning of the tobacco in the back of your throat being the only thing to bring you back to earth.

eren, on the other hand, distastefully disagreed with your habits. often than not he was the one offering you mint chewing gum on your worst days, the same days your father would start a heated debate over what you wanted to do with your life; or when your mother would cry at the fact you just couldn’t fit into her “perfect daughter” image.

around the end of senior year, you and eren stop talking after getting into a huge fight. life seemed to drift from you since then; now a college student barely scraping by and the only thing going for her is her studies in gender equality.

you felt hopeless, to say the least. talking and making friends was hard, and your anxiety issues only seemed to catch up to you after high school graduation. you wondered where things would’ve taken you if you had decided to follow in your parents’ footsteps.

you end up going to a party on campus to clear your thoughts one night. little did you know, the same pair of teal eyes you’d come to drown in as a kid were quick to follow, after furrowing at the sight of a familiar cigarette laced between your fingertips.

[keanureevesisbae]

Kylian Mbappe x Dutch!fem!reader (but who are we truly kidding, it's about me 😂😂)

Summary: You and your friend get stuck in an elevator with two guys who are the proud owners of the World Champion title of 2018. It's just that you don't know that yet.

Word count: 2.1k

A/N: I tried to fight it, I truly do, however I just couldn't help myself. So here it is: a stupid little one shot, based of a dream I had 😂 Also, the reader is Dutch, you have a friend named Jocelyn and it's June 2022

masterlist // misc. masterlist

Forget Emily in Paris. Who needs her, when you have me—Y/N Y/L/N—right here in the heart of Paris? I’ll just admit it straight away: I am that cliche. I eat croissants, am a whore for crepes and am looking into eating escargot. Finally I have an excuse to wear the beret. Try to impress the French with my mediocre accent and the three things I remember from my French lessons back in high school, though I don’t think I’m necessarily succeeding.

I’m wearing a black midi dress, paired with the platform boots and I push the sunglasses in my hair. I put on a thin white cardigan with daisies on it. After I zipped up my black boots, I grab the purse and ask my friend: ‘Ready?’

‘Is overdressing really your main purpose in life?’

I scoff. ‘Thought you knew me by now,’ I say, looking into the mirror to fix my hair. ‘It was I who showed up in a very cute dress and Mary Janes for orientation and that was back home. You bet you’re ass I’m gonna dress up in a different city.’

Jocelyn has been best friend since forever, therefore is familiar with my antics and she stands up from the bed after she put on her white sneakers and pulls up her baggy jeans. On top she’s wearing a cute blue crop top and grabs a simple sporty cardigan. ‘I’m ready,’ she says with a smile, before she uses the hairlip to twist her blonde locks in a messy, but stylish manner. 

The two of us lock our hotelroom behind us and make our way to the elevator. This entire place is beautiful, absolutely magnificent and normally, it would be totally out of our price range. However, Jocelyn is a queen when it comes to finding the best bargains, so we got this five night stay for a mere two hundred euros.

Per person that is, but still. A bargain is a bargain.  

And who am I to say no to a fun trip to Paris with my best friend for that price?

Jocelyn presses the button for the elevator, while I take in the extravagant hallway. Even the ceilings look like masterpieces. I wonder whether or not rich people who stay in luxurious hotel after another take a look at the ceiling and admiring its beauty.

The doors slide open and I can see two guys standing in the elevator already. Jocelyn and I—both masters in the European politeness—both smile identically. A tight lipped gesture with the mouth, that resembles a smile, but in reality looks like an awkward emoji.

They both nod into our direction and when I see the right button to go to the ground floor is already pressed, I relax as I lean against the wall. Usually I’d strike up a conversation with my friend, however the two of us stay silent now.

The elevator starts to descend some more, however it abruptly stops to a halt, which causes a high pitched yelp to leave from both my lips and Jocelyn’s. While one of the guys presses the emergency button, the other who is wearing a cap asks: ‘Ça va?’

I know what à droite is and a gauche and thanks to my high school French, I can ask for his name and I can introduce myself and tell him ‘un blond garçon’, because that was one of the first things I learned in school.

But in this case, that is obviously not gonna be helpful.

This however appears to be so simple, yet I have not a single clue what it means. I glance over to Jocelyn, who is just as confused as I am. 

I curse myself for dropping French after year three of high school. 

‘I’m sorry, what?’ I ask.

Cap guy clears his throat. ‘Are you two okay?’ His accent is thick, however I can still understand him perfectly fine. 

‘Yeah, yeah,’ I say with a smile. ‘I am.’ Realizing the question was a bit more specific, I quickly add: ‘We are.’

Goodness gracious, this guy is exactly the type of guy I would date. Deep down I know that Jocelyn knows. We’ve been through many phases together and while her ideal type has shifted over the years, mine has not.

And lo and behold, my ideal type is standing right in front of me.

The other one says something into the intercom, before he says something to his friend. Serving as the translator, Cap guy turns to us. ’There is a technical issue,’ he says. He almost dramatically leaves a few second silence between us. ’It might take an hour if not more to fix it.’

╚═*.·:·.✧ ✦✧.·:·.*═╝

‘What are your names?’ Cap guy asks after a five minute silence where everyone seemed to gather their thoughts and feelings about the current situation. My conclusion was that a faulty elevator causes the temperature to rise, so within five minutes of us being here, I already stripped myself from my cardigan, just like Jocelyn undid herself from her own.

‘I’m Y/N,’ I say. ‘This is my friend Jocelyn.’

‘Where are you from?’

‘The Netherlands. We’re students.’

Jocelyn clears her throat and asks: ‘What are your names?’

‘Kylian,’ Cap guy says and the other introduces himself as Olivier. Olivier appears to be much more mature, a wedding band visible on his ring finger, but nonetheless, still very attractive. While age shouldn’t necessarily be an issue in friendships, Kylian seems to be closer to our age than Olivier. 

‘What do you guys do?’ I ask, an attempt to make sure this conversation doesn’t fall on the ground.

‘We’re football players,’ Kylian says. 

‘Oh neat,’ I say with a smile. ‘What club?’

‘PSG,’ he answers.

‘AC Milan,’ Olivier answers for himself.

Those are pretty solid teams, I think to myself. 

Olivier smiles and adds: ‘We also play for the French National Team. Les Blues.’

Wait a damn minute. I turn to Jocelyn, with who I share a brain cell. We realize the same thing. Oh no… ‘Did you win the World Cup 2018?’ I ask. 

Jocelyn found her voice too. ‘And are going to play in Qatar upcoming November?’

Kylian and Olivier both chuckle. ‘The one and only,’ Kylian says. 

He could’ve just slapped me in the face. Here I am, asking what these guys do for a living and it turns out I am talking to actual world champions. Coming to think of it, the name Kylian in combination with French National Team and World Champions does sound familiar now. 

Jocelyn gasps. ‘Oh my gosh, you are Kylian Mbappe. And you are Olivier Giroud.’

While Giroud does not sound familiar, Kylian Mbappe does. 

‘Y/N,’ she hisses, ‘we watched the games. We watched the finale together.’

This just goes from bad to worse. I am not an avid football fan, however I get awfully intrigued during the Euro and World Cup. The patriotism I never knew I possessed, all of the sudden is there in all its glory. Because the Netherlands didn’t participate in the World Cup 2018, I just watched it for fun.

And I remember saying that the French had a very attractive team.

‘Oh… I remember now,’ I say in a soft tone. Thankfully Jocelyn doesn’t repeat my infamous words I said during the finale of the World Cup 2018.

I would totally allow number 10 to do things to me.

╚═*.·:·.✧ ✦✧.·:·.*═╝

After Jocelyn and I gotten over the embarrassing fact we were talking to pro athletes (and kept to ourselves we said the most unhinged things during the finale—mind you, we were nineteen and very single), time went by with jokes, stupid games and me sharing some sweets I had in my purse. 

Besides, I think Kylian is into me. I know how that makes me sound, like I have the world’s biggest ego, but I have been on the side lines many times when guys were showing interests in my friends. Lingering eye contact, allowing me to sit on his jacket so my dress isn’t getting dirty and a very innocent touch every now and then.

It’s all there.

This is the most amazing time for me to practice my hard to get skills and not gonna lie, I am nailing it. Giving him enough to try again, but not too much so I appear way too eager. Maybe I’m this on fire, because I know deep down that I’ll never see these two again, if Kylian Mbappe himself is not gonna ask for my number, because no way in hell I was gonna ask for his.

Jocelyn send me a text saying: IF IT WEREN’T FOR ME AND GIROUD NEXT TO YOU, YA’LL BE SPENDING YOUR TIME KISSING AND MAKING OUT IN THE ELEVATOR. 

Thankfully she wrote it in Dutch, because if one of these guys read what she sent me, I might actually pry the doors open myself so I could drop myself to the ground and die.

‘No, no, no,’ I say, ‘the capital of Estonia is Tallinn. Look it up!’

Olivier does what I ask him to do and he sighs. ‘She’s right. She’s too good.’

Right before we can continue on with our country game (it’s not a very exciting one, I’m mile aheads of them), the doors slide open and we are freed. It’s colder in the hallway, but it’s nice to cool down.

Once we’re at the exit of the hotel, I look at the two famous players, who are all smiles and what not. ‘This was fun,’ I say. 

‘We had fun,’ Jocelyn adds. ‘You two are hopeless with countries, but you can run really fast, so it’s all forgiven.’

They both chuckle. 

And then, in the most awkward way, we part ways. A soft goodbye, a thank you and Jocelyn and I are on our merry way to get our croissants we’ve been craving for more than an hour now. 

‘You and I, missy, need to discuss your flirting highlights,’ Jocelyn says. ‘Because you are gifted.’

‘I am not gifted.’

‘You impressed a hot and single football player,’ she says in all serious. ‘You, my friend, are gifted. I saw it all: the doe eyes, the hard to get and then the flirtatious way you smiled and chuckled at his jokes.’

Before I can say something about it, I hear from behind me: ‘Y/N, wait up.’

‘Thank you,’ Jocelyn says, in no one in particular. ‘I refused to believe this was it.’

‘What?’

‘That goodbye couldn’t be the end of the ‘Y/N Y/L/N and Kylian Mbappe’-saga.’

I can’t even respond to it, because Kylian caught up with us. ‘Hi,’ I say. 

‘Hi.’ A smile so bright and almost innocently hopeful. ‘Can I have your number?’

‘What?’ I ask. ‘Why?’

‘Because… You’re fun and I had fun with you. I… I was hoping you and I could spend some more time together, before you go back to the Netherlands.’ He clears his throat. ‘If you want, of course.’

This is not the time to freak out, Y/N and do something stupid. ‘Of course.’

We exchanged numbers, before he looks at his watch and with an apology telling me he has to go. He holds out his hand and when I place mine in it, he presses a kiss on my knuckles.

Don’t faint. Please, hold yourself together. 

‘Bye,’ he says and then he walks away.

I think I have reached a catatonic state, because I can’t move.  

‘You are gonna be a WAG!’ Jocelyn says. ‘Once you are accustomed to a lifestyle of luxury, please remember your roots, therefore me.’

That drags me right back into reality. ‘He just asked for my number.’

Jocelyn scoffs. ‘You had a meet cute and a number exchange. This is gonna be the love story you’ve been waiting for. Come on, you’re twenty three, like yours truly and we both deserve a love story. Please, hook my up with one of his hot and single friends.’

‘You’re going way too fast,’ I say. ‘He just asked for my number.’

Almost on cue, my phone chimes. 

Jocelyn pulls it from my hand and lets out an excited squeal. Then she turns the screen to me and says: ‘You need to write a ‘how to-guide’ on how to get yourself a footballer in a few hours. It would be an absolute bestseller.’

Deciding to ignore her, I grab my phone from her hand and read the text.

Kylian Mbappe: If you don’t have plans for tonight, I’d like to take you out for a date

Kylian Mbappe: If you want, of course.

╚═*.·:·.✧ ✦✧.·:·.*═╝

Taglist: @diegos-butt (because I am forcing you to read this 😂😂😂)

[pilferingapples]

Since you've read most of Victor Hugo's books, how would you rank them from best to worst, and why? I really want to know your thoughts. Always love to hear it <3

!!! THANK YOU THIS IS SO SWEET and also so hard but here we go!

Les Miserables yes it's my favorite but I also do think it's the best! The most ambitious of his works story-structure and character/theme density and frankly? He absolutely lands it. I have been arguing with and about this book for over a decade now and I expect I will be doing so for the rest of my life, because it's worth it. I probably don't have to argue hard for it in top spot on the Les Miserables Webbed Site, though, so moving on:

Ninety Three /Quatre-vingt treize Not my second favorite but honestly probably just as good as LM but in a different way? Much more compact and focused, and feels every bit of the influence of more recent political events in France at the time, but just as ambitious in terms of the arguments and themes it's trying to cover. The ending is something you can have eighty feelings about in an afternoon but it is always unforgettable. Deserves to be so much better known. Toilers of the Sea /Les Travailleurs de la mer  My actual second favorite Hugo novel! A big Romanticist nature-focused love letter to the Channel Islands and to the sea! A mix of delightfully unreliable Nature Facts and Hugo's own observations about the place, that Nature-focus is always convincing either way with Hugo's descriptions. It's so very different from most of Hugo's later novels, but also *so* good, if you're willing to just sit back and enjoy the view . Gilliatt is a Forever Fave. Please more people read Toilers, it's a delight. And it has an Octopus Fight! The Man Who Laughs /L'homme qui rit Victor Hugo's Revenge on English History! I could feel my knowledge of actual English History Facts peeling away as I read this. Incredibly described scenes, iconic central characters, Ursus is one of the best-written characters of all time (though I have learned that some people have apparently never met a guy like this?? he is such a Type though!) . There's a wolf and the wolf is named Homo. After Les Mis, some old Hugo fans were lamenting about how far he'd strayed since the days of Notre Dame , and I think The Man Who Laughs feels a lot like a return to that old , over-the-top Goth style of Hugo's,but stronger, in keeping with the way his writing had grown over time-- until the end, when everything kind of feels like it wraps up too abruptly. Which makes sense! Hugo was finishing it up while his wife Adéle was in her final illness, and it makes sense that it would show--but I think it does show, and keeps the novel from being quite all it could be. Notre Dame de Paris I know it's either Hugo's most famous or second-most famous novel, but I really do think it's not as solid as the others! Which isn't a roast on him, it's a good thing for an author to get better over time--but it still leaves this novel feeling kinda messy. I can see Hugo trying to do his signature move of pulling together multiple separate plot/themes into a triumphant grand finale, but he hasn't quite got the knack yet. Plus there's still a lot of elements here that feel like Hugo relying on tropes a bit (and horrible tropes at that, too) instead of entirely speaking with his own voice quite yet. (also ohman. the Issues. but I'm trying to keep this post from being nine million screens long) All of the above range from "absolute masterpiece" to "not an entire masterpiece but still iconic", and then there's Hugo's Early Stuff, so: Bug Jargal - honestly it's not fair of me to even include this, it was a novel he wrote as a very young person, on a time-dare. If I'd written a Nano novel in high school it would have been SO bad. And this is bad! It's SO bad!! But you can still definitely tell it's Hugo by the way he makes sure to tell us, AFTER the story is over, that EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE BOOK DIED, EVERYONE, EVEN THE PETS. Stunning. Peak Romanticism XD (again though. THE ISSUES. whooof.)

Han d'Islande: Í have not even read this one. HUGO was down on this one later in life. I Dare Not XD (I probably will someday). But it has a polar bear and drinking seawater from skulls and inspired some very questionable behavior from the fans (attempting to drink seawater from skulls!) so I gotta acknowledge it!

Honorable Mention: the novelas

Not quite in the same group as the novels, but I think both Last Day of a Condemned Man and Claude Geaux are excellent, super-focused stories about the injustice of the prison system and the issue of capital punishment. Obviously they can't have the range of his novels, but that's not the point--they are much more direct statements on a single issue and they're really intense and effective in that!

This was fun! thank you for asking! And I'd love to hear your own thoughts on this , if you ever feel like writing them up:D