#i actually did this and a bunch of other headshots in a week in like 31 dec-7 Jan but havent posted lol. will slowly post them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sephiwhore · 4 years

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Ok but literally all the cyberpunk oc questions? LETS GO CHOOM!!! -thosetwistedtales

Bet you didn’t think I’d actually do it >:3 Okay well I technically didn’t, I did skip some of them cause I couldn’t think of anything, I’d already answered it, or the answer was just “no”.

Without further ado I present, All The Questions about Tess, answered under the cut!

— BASICS

full name: Tess Valere

birthday: She has no idea, and for most of her life she didn’t even know birthdays were a thing

gender and pronouns: Female, she/her

nicknames or aliases: V (obviously), her surrogate brother called her Tessa

sexuality: a big ol bisexual

ethnicity: a big ol white girl

affiliations [corporation/gang/themselves/etc]: she grew up on the streets of Heywood, so certain Valentinos would help her out now and again. She’s nowhere near loyal to them, but she’ll try to avoid killing them during jobs

what languages do they speak?: English, conversational Spanish, and she knows a handful of Japanese words

— PERSONALITY

alignment: Chaotic Good, but she dabbles in Chaotic Neutral

color(s) you associate with them: cyan and black and after Johnny comes into her life, red

theme song: Unbreakable by Fireflight

what heavenly virtue would you assign them? Humility

what deadly sin would you assign them? Wrath

what is their biggest strength? Sheer fucking perseverence, mostly fueled by spite

what is their biggest fear? Losing the people she loves, because throughout her life those have been few and far between and she’s lost a good number of them

what is their biggest weakness? Again, the people she loves

are they confident in their abilities? Oh you bet your ass she is, so confident that she stormed Arasaka Tower with nothing but her revolver and her cyberdeck

what is their opinion on cybernetics? They’re a necessary evil. Her brother dealt with cyberpsychosis so in a way she resents cybernetics, but she also knows that you won’t get far as a merc in Night City without a few implants

do they have a good sense of humor? Yes, very dry and sarcastic

how do they cry? When she cries it’s either from rage or panic, very little in between

how do they laugh? Quite subdued, usually the most you’ll get out of her is a hearty chuckle. Very rarely does she go into a full laughing fit

do they smoke? She started smoking after Johnny popped up in her head cause she felt bad for his situation (after she stopped hating him anyway) and figured she could give him this one thing. And now she smokes like a chimney.

do they drink? She’s been dealing with alcohol dependence and borderline alcoholism for half of her life

what kind of drunk are they? As she drinks more it progresses from pretty chill, then VERY affectionate, and then Fightey

do they take any drugs? She knows how she is with alcohol so she avoids drugs like the plague

— COMBAT

preferred weapon: For close/mid-range, a nice beefy revolver (Overture) or Johnny’s Malorian. Long range, a sniper rifle.

combat style [stealth/melee/brute force/etc] Depending on the environment, it’s either stealth with a silenced pistol and lots of quickhacks, a John Wick style headshots-galore shootout, or sniping from a distance

primary stats [ex: intellect] Intelligence and Reflexes

biggest weakness in combat: She sometimes forgets to watch her back, and tends to ignore injuries and see the fight through when retreating would probably be the best course of action

threaten or charm? Depends on the target, she’s great at both

lethal or non-lethal? For corpos, the more malicious gangs (Tygers, Animals, 6th Street), or anyone who has hurt innocents, full lethal. If she’s just infiltrating a warehouse full of workers, non-lethal

leave quietly or send a message? She sends a message WHILE leaving quietly

strategy or improvise? Improvise

— APPEARANCE

hair style and color [is it natural? do they change it a lot?] She has synthhair so she can change the style and color at will (I have no idea if that’s how it actually works but I say it is) but she usually sticks to come kind of short sideshave/undercut in some shade of blue.

eye color: Natural eye color is green, but she usually has black scleras with a red circle

height: I had her at 5’8 until yesterday when I realized ya know what, I want a tall girl. So she’s 6 feet.

describe their body type: Skinny, small tiddies, but still fairly curvy

describe their style: Dark colors, leather jackets, lots of boots (also Johnny’s tank top and aviators)

do they wear makeup? Very smudgey eyeliner. Her upper lip is tattooed black and she usually leaves the bottom one bare

tattoos? any significant ones? Lots of tattoos that I haven’t figured out yet, except fir a modified version of the Valentinos neck tattoo, the V being to honor her brother Ven (she took on the name V to honor him too)

scars? Random ones here and there from random gunshots, stabbings, and other work-related injuries

piercings? A bunch that I can’t remember off the top of my head

cybernetics? Gorilla arms, the charge jump ankle ones, eventually she gets synth lungs as a preventative measure cause of the whole smoking thing

— FAVORITES

favorite place in night city: The streets of Heywood because they’re home to her, despite all the awful memories growing up. After Johnny comes along, she starts to like high places, and she loves to hang out on the patio outside Kerry’s house

favorite tv show and/or movie: She loves horror movies, except ghost one cause she doesn’t believe in ghosts so she just finds them dumb

favorite vehicle. do they prefer cars or motorcycles? Vastly prefers motorcycles, she hasn’t really driven a car much since she was a teenager. Her favorite is Jackie’s Arch.

favorite food: She sees food solely as a source of fuel, she will eat whatever is easiest

favorite drink: Tequila

favorite song: Black Dog :3

favorite type of weather: She LOVES the rain (but the water kind, not the acid kind)

favorite radio station: Vexelstrom, and then Morro Rock cause Samurai :3

favorite pastime: Working out, shooting ranges, Jackie and Vik got her into occasional boxing

— RELATIONSHIPS

what are their parents like? what kind of relationship do they have with your character? She had no memory of her parents and assumes they’re both dead

do they have any other family members? what kind of relationship do they have? She has a “brother”, who she knew only as Vendetta (or V). He found her on the streets and took her in when she was 10, and raised her from then on until he “died” 12 years later. Their relationship was great, despite the fact that he was not a very nice person to everyone else but her.

who is their closest friend? Of course Jackie, and then Kerry (and Johnny ofc)

who are their other friends if they have them? Nope! :D

what are their exes like? any significant ones? She’s never really had a serious relationship, mostly just flings and acquaintances-with-benefits

are they in a relationship? with who and how is it going? Johnny! And it’s uh. Well, ya know.

who are their enemies? She has a passionate hatred for whichever corpo makes cyberpsychosis medication, and for Max Tac cause she sees them as responsible for the loss of her brother. And of course Arasaka.

have they ever lost anyone important to them? Her brother, Jackie, Johnny

would they betray their own morals for their loved ones? Abso-fucking-lutely

have they ever sacrificed something for someone they care about? if so, what? In one of my two canons for her, she gives Johnny her body

— BACKGROUND

where did they grow up in night city? if not from night city, where are they from? The streets of Heywood, then in a shitty apartment in Heywood

how would you describe their childhood? Miserable

were they well-off, poor or somewhere in between when growing up? After Ven took her in, they did have an apartment but because he needed monthly baloperidol (cyberpsycho meds) injections, they were quite poor

what kind of education did they receive? The only real education she ever got was “how to shoot a gun”

what is the biggest lesson they learned growing up? Everything and everyone in the world is going to try its best to destroy you. Destroy it first.

what is their happiest memory? A few weeks after Ven took her in and and it finally hit her, this was real, she had a home, someone that cared for her, and she never had to go hungry again,

what is their most painful memory? Watching her brother, in the middle of a psychotic break, being gunned down. After that it would be saying goodbye to Johnny (in the canon where that happens)

have they kept any meaningful mementos from their past? One of the revolvers she owns was given to her by her brother, and all of her piercings and a couple of her tattoos were done by him so they’re mementos, in a way

is there anything they would change about their past? She would do anything to save her brother.

#themechaneer #ask game #oc: tess valere #oc: vendetta

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jenni42085 · 4 years

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Nervous <One>

Chapter 1

Evangeline “Lena” nervously shakes her leg and tries to let the music soothe her mind and soul. Mentally she is thinking of how much people will be upset if she just decides to trade in her return ticket sooner to be closer with her daughter. Her parents and his parents both agreed she needed a break and some “me time” but she wasn’t too sure if this was a smart idea. She realizes her daughter is young and won’t fully remember her being gone for a week but guilt still plagues her. She leans her head against the window and thinks of him.

Thinking of all the good things he is missing, not by choice but rather fate’s choice. 300 days since he was taken from her in a tragic car accident. She can still remember the officers at her door looking sad and not sure what to tell her. A wave of sadness washed over her as she felt the sadness that has slightly controlled her life the last 300 days. Some days were better than others but a day like today where she is flying to see her best friend Marylea in California with out her precious Eevee makes her a little bit more on edge and more time to let her mind wander to different places and topics.

Usually having the playful but shy 1 year old makes her mind focus on her instead of who isn’t with her anymore. She is wondering if this week will help her or make her regret ever coming out. It’s only a week she thinks to herself. A small part of her thinks that she needs a little time away to completely heal but the rest of her feels guilty for letting her family watch her daughter. Her greatest joy lately in life has been being a mom. She thought being a wife was an amazing thing but since being a mom she has felt like her life was complete. She leans her head back as the plane endures some turbulence, I pray this plane makes it, Eevee can’t lose another parent. With those final thoughts she drifted into a well deserved nap.

**************************************************************************************************************

“No, no, no” Jeff yells as he frustratedly throws the next headshot back in the stack of the others “These girls aren’t what we needing for his image! Does anyone ever listen to me?” As he says this he looks around at a few people to have them acknowledge him and his question. He sees yet another text from his client Chris going unanswered since he already knows what Chris is going to ask him.

“Maybe he could just not go because of a ‘medical problem’” he heard someone say.

“Absolutely not! This man is Captain America! He has great health and it really great with the press AND his fans. There is no way he is going to miss this premeire.”

“Well, what exactly is he wanting?” Marylea asks as she quietly places his drink order in front of him. She was still new to California and was looking for better work than being a runner. She wanted to write but she knew she had to first pay her dues. So until they thought she was ready to write, she’d be getting coffee.

For the first time in a long time he felt hopeless. He knew Chris never had any crazy demands, so he was trying hard to please him. It is not that often you get an actor who isn’t a complete douche bag, acts crazy in public, or hasn’t made a bunch of unattainable goals. Jeff runs this hands through his bleached blonde hair and grabs his coffee and looks at his new assistant. She hasn’t been there long but he knows she always got his coffee right and she was always quiet. Maybe the mouse is finally showing that she is more than a coffee runner. “He wants a real woman. Not a model, an actress, or anything like that. He wants to take a person to the charity event and movie premiere who makes him happy. Someone who looks like they go together.”

“You know he is our client and we will do most everything for him but, we aren’t a dating site.” Anna states flatly as she takes a sip of her water.

“Not the point. Happy people make for better press. The guy wants to go out a few times with someone who isn’t completely star struck.” Jeff knows what would make his client happy, he just has to find it.

Marylea stood quietly as she debated on letting Jeff know that she had a person who could possibly fill that position. She’s well aware that Lena hasn’t been seeing anyone since the death of her husband. And she had met Chris a few times and sat in a few meetings with him and honestly he seemed like a good guy. She thinks they would actually make a great couple since they are both so loving, giving, and most importantly selfless.

Jeff noticed that Marylea had gotten even more quiet and was silently debating something in her head. “Speak.”

Startled Marylea looks up at him like a deer caught in headlights. “I.... ummm ....”

“Well...”, Jeff stares at her slightly intimidating at her.

“My friend is in town for a month or so. She isn’t a model or anything like that.”

“Ok and ?” Anna replies with the look that Marylea shouldn’t have been talking.

“Well, to be honest. She’s black and quite beautiful if you ask me. She is single and honestly needs a boost in confidence”

Anna rolls her eyes while Jeff looks intrigued, “ If she is so beautiful why isn’t she in a relationship now?”

Marylea was really hoping no one would have asked that question but it would come out sooner or later. “Her husband died about a year ago. She has a one year daughter. She’s been giving all her time and energy into raising her alone. Even with that on her plate she still volunteers and fosters animals.”

“So no crazy exes?” Jeff questions. Marylea shakes her head quickly. “Why is she out here for a month? Where is the baby?”

By this point Marylea has decided to pull up a chair and sit down with the table of inquiring minds to the issue. “All of her friends and family think she needs a break. Her parents are watching her daughter for a week, then she is being flown out here. As her bestie, it is my job to get her back in society as a 34 year old mom. You know kind of get her groove back.”

Jeff slowly shakes his head. “This. This might actually work”. He stands up and stretches as he is thinking that this will benefit everyone. “The press eats it up when people have kids and everyone knows how much Chris loves kids we could have them doing events for kids. Depending how beautiful you say your friend is she might have a gig for a bit. But this is upon Chris’ approval though.”

“That’s fine. Hold on I have a few good pictures of her and Eevee.”

“She named her daughter after a Pokémon?” Anna replies with a smug smirk.

Marylea doesn’t appreciate anyone talking about her god-daughter like that. “No, her name is Evelyn. Eevee is her nickname thank you very much.”

By this point Gary has joined the group at the table and smiles like he has won the lottery. It’s not very often Marylea even talks let alone sticks up for herself or anyone but here she goes. “Meow! This little kitty is finally showing her claws.”

Hearing that Marylea blushes and puts her head down slightly. “I wouldn’t have suggested her if I didn’t think she was a good choice or that you guys had anyone who would fill the requirements you are looking for.”

“Good point. Well, she a beautiful girl and her daughter is adorable.” Jeff says as he hands Marylea’s phone back to her.

She opted on the most recent picture she has of her bestie granted it wasn’t the happiest day. Ezra’s funeral. Lena was in a simple black dress with her wedge heels to give her some height. She had opted to pull her naturally curly hair into a sleek bun. Lena was never one for a lot of makeup but on that day she wanted to look her best for him so she did smoky eye makeup and wing tips. Eevee was in her arms in a black tutu.

“When does she get here?” Jeff questions.

Marylea looks down at her phone. “She should be here in about an hour. Her flight from West Virginia left on time from the looks of things.”

“So we can meet her soon?” Gary perks up to hearing this news. He honestly was tired of looking through millions of head shots of females who didn’t fit the criteria that was asked.

“Yeah. I was going to have her meet me here to get my house key then get settled.”

Jeff thought about things and looked at his phone and quickly sent a message out to Chris. “Have her come here and we will let Chris meet her directly to see what he thinks. If he approves then you can tell her about a gig she has. Deal?”

“Deal!” Marylea replies excitedly.

************************************************************************************************************************************************

Lena rubs her eyes and stretches as she is one of the last ones to get off the plane. She didn’t think she needed sleep but apparently she did. It felt to actually sleep soundly and not have to wake up every 45 minutes or so bc she was afraid something was happening with Eevee.

This will be the longest she has gone without her little girl and it is kind of uncomfortable. Only a week. She continues to think of the benefits of having a week away and she isn’t really getting a lot of positives.

Lena takes her cellphone out and messages everyone to let them know she made it safely and check on her daughter. Once she knows everyone is ok, she breathes deeply and is enjoying the feel of the sun on her toasted almond skin. She doesn’t need a tan but a little extra sun would be great for the full on J.Lo effect that she likes. This is going to be a good trip. I’m ready for new experiences and new friends. Uber drops her off in front of a boring blue building, she texts Marylea to let her know she was outside and waiting for the key.

“Lena!!! You finally made it here!” Marylea shouts when she sees her bestie of ten plus years. Marylea practically knocks Lena over in an embrace. “I’ve missed you soooo much!”

“I know!” Lena replies just as excited as her bestie. “I’m loving it out here already. It’s so much better than Charleston.”

“Now you see why I hate coming home sometimes.”

“I totally get it. So what time do you get off?”

Marylea thought about breaking the news to her or just letting her relax first. “Well I don’t get off for another few hours. You can hang here if you want. And ...”

“I don’t mind waiting for you and seeing how much of a big shot you are from a small town,” Lena replies. She wasn’t really tired the nap on the plane ride was plenty of sleep. At this point she was ready to explore.

Hearing Lena say she has no problem with waiting for her made the stress in her chest relax. Might as well let her get her guard down then tell her, but it might be better to do it like a band aid. “That’s great! I may or may not have a project/favor to ask of you.”

“Shoot. Anything for you!” Lena replies with out thinking.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes of course. This is vacation right. What’s the worse you could ask of me?”

Marylea looks at her feet as they ride up the elevator. “Funny you should say that.... so you know this is my new job.” Lena nods and keeps smiling. “Well, I may or may not of gave your name to be a date for a celebrity.”

“Excuse me?” Lena relaxed smile went straight into a deer in headlights look. “You are shitting me right?”

Marylea shakes her. “I shit you not. They want needed someone who would go to a few functions this month with a client.”

“Ok but they couldn’t find a model or another actress?”

“See that’s the thing he requested someone who wasn’t in the industry. He didn’t want a white or ambiguously racial lady. He wanted someone real.”

“So you thought I would be a great person to fill those shoes?!?” The elevator comes to a halt and Lena feels her blood pressure raising. “I mean have you looked at me? And I have a daughter. Who would want to date me?!? Even if it is fake.”

Marylea can tell Lena is having a small manic episode due to the fact she was speed walking down a hall way in a place she has never been in. “Lena calm down please. Everyone can see you!” She squeaks out, even though the outside of the building looks horrible the inside has been renovated with all glass walls which everyone can see.

Lena turns around and stops in her tracks. She is feeling stressed but, she doesn’t want her best friend to lose her job that she has worked so hard to get. “Yes yes. I’m sorry but have you looked at me lately and thought to ask me first?”

“You were on the plane.”

“Not the point,” she replies with a grin.

Marylea tilts her head to the side and grins back,” would you rather have a smoke signal?”

“Yes.”

“Smart ass.” To that Lena flips her off then hangs her head down. “Look I know you aren’t thrilled about it but, I figure this is a good stepping stone for me to start writing and not being a coffee runner. Plus when I was told what they wanted I couldn’t think of anyone else but you.”

Lena’s face soften with happiness to know her best friend thinks that much of her. “What about Eevee? I can’t be away from her for a month to do a ‘gig’. I’m stressed out from being away from her after 13 hours.”

“They already know you have a child and etc., and it’s not even guaranteed that he is going to be cool with this whole idea my boss has thought up.”

************************************************************************************************************************************************

Chris nervously sat on Jeff’s couch as he waited for this mystery lady to show up. He knows that he asked Jeff for something of a miracle but he was starting to realize while he is waiting maybe he could have done a dating site. But he couldn’t kid himself he has been trying on and off for 3 years and every time he would think the lady was into him for him, she would start asking for help to “break in” to the business. At least with the girl being Jeff’s assistance friend maybe just maybe she has no interest is the business.

“Lena calm down! Everyone can hear and see you!” He heard Marylea whisper scream at a short messy bun wearing beauty speed walking down the hall way. Chris couldn’t see her facial features but her body type was that of someone he wouldn’t kick out of bed. She had on ripped Bermuda shorts with an oversized button down yellow shirt that made her skin glow. He noticed she has a few tattoos showing.

“Jeff.” Chris asked standing up stretching. “Is your mystery girl here yet?”

Jeff looks up from his desk looking at Marylea and the mystery tattooed girl walk into her office. “Yeah, I do believe she just walked in with Marylea. What do you think so far?”

Chris walks closer to the glass wall to get a better look at the girl even though she is still pretty far away. “ I don’t know. Maybe we can try. I still need to see her face to face and not from a distance.”

Jeff noticed the way Chris was focusing on the short mess bun wearing girl who was pacing around in Marylea’s office that he might have found something he likes. Granted the picture he was shown of the girl she was quite beautiful, hell she’d be his type if he wasn’t already crushing on someone else.

“Well, I’ll get Marylea and Evangeline to come meet you for a few minutes and tell me what you think. You know I’ll never make you do anything of this nature unless you want to.”

“Yes I know.” Chris replies still not taking his eyes of the girl pacing. Her body language looked like she was on the brink of a panic attack.

************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Marylea.” Jeff’s voice came over the intercom and made both the of females jump attention. “Is your friend here and ready to meet him?”

Marylea quickly glances at Lena with pleading eyes and her clasped together. She sees Lena nod her ok. “Yeah she’s here and I’ll bring her to your office.”

“Ok great hurry up. Time is of the essence.” Jeff said as the line when dead.

“You know you owe me right?” Lena looks at her while her hands are slightly shaking as she looks into the mirror. “By the way. . . You never told me who this ‘big shot’ was.”

“Don’t freak out ok?”

“Yeah, see saying that makes me want to not only freak out but panic majorly.”

“Lena.”

“Spill it Marylea.”

Marylea takes a deep sigh, “ it’s Chris Evans.”

Lena stood there a moment and took in who she just said. “Like Captain America Chris Evans?” Marylea looks silently at her and slowly nods. “ no way on God’s green precious earth. Have you looked at me and have you legit seen him?!? “

“Look, Jeff thinks you would be perfect for Chris. Just meet him first. Please??”

“Fine let’s go.... this won’t last long. He’ll meet me and see what I’m in and immediately turn me down.” Lena says as she links her arm with Marylea.

“Stop thinking the worst. Please. You and I could really use something awesome happening to us. Plus you are a smoking hot momma with a cute booty”

Lena sighs deeply and leans her head on Marylea. “I know we both do but how do you know that this is it? Like couldn’t we just win the lottery or something easier? Something less stressful?!?”

By the tone of Lena’s voice she could hear her friend was close to having a minor panic attack. She started breathing deeper so Lena could hear and start unconsciously breathing deep also. This trick has always worked and apparently still does now.

The pair stand outside of Jeff’s door for a brief second knowing the two men could see them. Marylea squeezes Lena hand and Lena gives her a nod of approval.

Even with the nod of approval Lena is wondering why me. Part of her is nervous because it was Chris freaking Evans, then the other part of her worries about what Ezra’s family thinks of her leaving Eevee for a week while she goes out with a movie star.

Chris can see the nervousness of the messy bun golden brown skin goddess as she is tightening her grip on Marylea’s arm. Good to know he wasn’t the only one who was nervous. He got a better look at her, she had dark brown eyes, an adorably small nose, plump lips that looked kissable, and a diamond stud lip ring on the right side of my mouth.

“Hello I’m Evangeline.” She stuck her hand out to Chris then Jeff. She gave them a strong handshake and nervous smile.

“I’m Jeff and this is of course Chris.” Jeff introduced even though they all knew Chris didn’t need to be introduced. The silence in the room started to go deafening and Jeff realized he needed to leave them alone to test the waters. “umm Marylea follow me to the board room will you?”

Marylea looked confused as to why they had to leave but she followed him out the room.

“So.....you just flew in?” Chris asks slightly nervous.

“Umm yeah. Just an hour or so ago.”

“Was it a good flight?” He asks as she walks away from him to the window. She is maybe 5’5 if that, which is adorable. From what he count on her body that is showing she has about ten tattoos. Never dated a woman with that many she must be a badass.

Lena can feel his eyes on her and she isn’t sure how she feels about this. Sure she has been checked out before but right now she feels like he might want more than just a date. “Yeah it was good. I slept most of the way so I consider it a good flight.”

“That’s good. So....”. Chris isn’t sure why this petite girl is making him so nervous.

Lena turns around to look at him; if she didn’t know any better she’d think she makes him nervous like he makes her nervous. She slowly crosses the room feeling his eyes on her the whole time. “So what exactly are you wanting or needing? I’m not a call girl. I’m a mom. And isn’t there a model or struggling actress you could have decided on?”

Her bluntness shocked him and herself. She was internally shaking even saying it but, she didn’t have a chance to ask Marylea any of these questions. Once it was all out she realized how rude she kind of sounded and that honestly wasn’t her character. “I’m sorry to sound so blunt and rude. I didn’t mean it to come off that way. I’m just .... I just ....” She stops again hanging her head in defeat, while plopping her body down on the couch next to the still stunned actor. “I’m just not sure I can be what you are wanting. This last year took a man who I loved very much away from me, I’m raising an one year daughter alone, I’m doing a week away from her and I guess I’m just not fully ready to come out of my shell even though I really need to.”

Chris sits there slightly stunned by everything she said. Honestly he couldn’t imagine how she is holding it all together but he admires that. “Well, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t want or need a call girl, model, or actress. I tried dating sites but let’s be honest they are. . . “

They both look at each and say in unison, “horrible.” They chuckle together and he continues. “I just want some one different to spend some time with. Maybe go with me to a few events. Not as a girlfriend or anything but just a friend. But if things develop I wouldn’t be upset either.”

“Ok. That I could possibly do. But I have a little girl who comes first.” Lena replies as she is slowly relaxing after his admission.

“Oh I understand that you have a child and want her always to come first and I’ll help you in any way that I can. Jeff said this was your vacation and I want you enjoy your time out here. Maybe we could go to Disney one day,” The look he gives her is meaning that he is honest about what he means. He isn’t sure of her whole backstory but he knows he is a smitten kitten with her genuine smile that lights up her whole face. “Can I see a picture of your little girl?”

Hearing all of this is slightly overwhelming and shocking to hear a man want to not only help out but also spend time with her daughter and want to see her. She smiles at him as she pulls her phone from her back pocket. “Umm let me find the most recent one of Evelyn.” She shows him a picture that she took of her right before she left. She was in a blue polka dotted onesies with her hair in pigtails.

He took the phone out of her hand examine the small infant who looks a lot like her mother with the same small nose and genuine smile. Her eyes and skin were a few shades lighter than her mother making him wonder if the baby’s father was white. “She’s absolutely adorable. So she will be here in a week? Is she flying alone or with someone?”

“My in-laws are flying to Japan so they are flying to Cali with her for the layover. I hope she is a good flyer.” She replies with a hopeful smile.

“In-laws? I don’t mean to pry but did you get a divorce?” Chris asked before his mind would stop him.

She knew that it would be asked sooner if not later. “No, he died in a car wreck right after Eevee was born. I want her to know who he was from me and his side of the family, I keep the connection always open. She’s their first grand child.”

He nods his head feeling like a dumbass for asking because he could see the slight bit of sadness come across her face when she was replying. With out thinking he puts his arm around her shoulder and gives her a hug. At first he felt her body tense by the sudden physical contact but she slowly relaxed in his arms.

“Thanks.”

“Thanks for telling me. And just being honest. I think that is why I needed help from Jeff because I just want to hang out and know someone genuinely. You know?”

“Understood. Just odd that you would need help.”

“Really? Why is that?”

Lena bit on her lip ring finding the words to say not realizing that he thought she was absolutely adorable. “Well, let’s see. You are very handsome, and from what I’ve seen in the media an all around good guy.”

Chris blushes at her comment. He’s never been good accepting them and wondering if the person who says them are genuine or not. “Thanks. I try.”

A small silence happens between them but not in an awkward way. “So, how are you guys doing? What do you think? Will this work for you Chris?” Jeff says. The way he said it makes Chris slump, since it makes him feel like he has to accept to be polite even though he wanted to be linked up to her.

Lena shifts her attention to Marylea who is giving her a hopeful smile. This is worse then being picked for a team. “We are good. I think we are meshing really well.”

“Ok great! We just have some paperwork to go over and need you to see his schedule and compare it to yours.” Jeff says as he crosses the room to his desk.

“Paperwork?” Lena and Marylea reply in unison. “What kind of paperwork?”

Jeff stops searching for documents on his computer to look at the two females. “Yes, paperwork. NDA meaning you won’t go to the press about Chris or any of his personal business. Nothing to crazy and he can fill one out for you since you have a daughter.”

Chris looks at her, her expression is unreadable. He doesn’t do anything to be exposed to the paparazzi but he knows Jeff wants to be safe. “I’d rather her not sign it.”

“Umm excuse me? Ladies I need a word with him. I’ll call you back in a few.” Jeff says with a slightly frustrated look.

The women nod and leave the room looking confused like Jeff. “Dude what’s that about?” Jeff asks.

“I trust her.”

“Maybe so but I think you should have her sign it.”

“I’d rather she not. What if I end up with her? I don’t want that to be a reason why she isn’t with me.”

“But you don’t even know her yet.”

“Key word is yet. I think we might actually be good together. If I don’t feel like it’s ok we can revisit it in two weeks”

Jeff sighs deeply and looks at the hopeful look on Chris’ face. “Fine. But two weeks and that is all.”

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

Lena and Marylea walked down the long hall way to Marylea’s office. Before the two got all the way to her office they hear heavy foodstuff coming their way.

“Hey Evangeline! Wait up!” Chris says.

“You guys done so soon?” Lena asks with a questioning expression. “Ready for me to sign the papers?”

“Yes and no.” The two women gave him confused expression. “Yes we are done and no you don’t have to do the NDA. I trust you.”

“Thanks. I guess.” Lena replies. “So how does this all work?”

Chris shoves his hands in his pockets looking a little unsure. “Well, we could lunch or dinner today if you would like. I know you just got into town and I know you and Marylea will want to catch up. Just figure a meal together to know more about each other and the events I have to attend.”

Marylea can see Lena’s body slowly grow tense, she knew Lena was probably going to put off hanging out with Chris as long as she could. Before Lena could open her mouth, “How about your guys do lunch since I don’t get off work for a few more hours then afterwards us girls can have girl’s night.”

Lena turns her head and looks at Marylea like she has lost her mind. “Yeah sure we can do lunch.”

“Great! Let me tell Jeff I’m leaving and we will be good to go.” Chris says cheerfully.

As soon as the door shuts, “Seriously? What have you signed me up for?” Lena says as she pulls out her mirror to make sure she looks decent to be seen out in public.

“You’ve signed up for a good time. I promise it will be ok. Just trust that it will be ok. I think you guys will get along just fine.”

“Yes yes, but you owe me big.”

“I know. Drinks on me tonight.”

Chris comes back to the office, “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” As the two leave Marylea’s office, Chris’ hand moves to Lena’s lower back to usher her out the room. This will be ok. This will be ok, she mentally chants to herself.

************************************

#chris evans #chris evans x black reader #anxious

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delightfulstarlightparadise · 4 years

Text

Imagine Reader/Katsuki Bakugo part 3

Part two here:

Once again, I remind you that English is not my main language. But I am doing my best.

Also, that it has been a while since I last watched or read BNHA and some stuff might be out of the anime context.

After being caught by professor Mic with Bakugo in what it seemed to be a making out session, you are called out by your uncle Aizawa and decide to go back to keeping a low profile at the academy. Bakugo keeps trying to rilvarize with you, but you always step away. Until you are forced into playing a game of quirkball with him in which you realize Bakugo is actually a very attractive boy. After having an intense dream with him you finally realize that,oh damn, you like him.

You are in class, Aizawa is explaining something about math and strategies, but you can't bring yourself to pay attention to it. From the corner of your eyes you can see Bakugo staring outside the window. He seems distracted too.

He looks back at his notebook and sunddely at you. As you cross eyes, you blush and look away, at Aizawa as quick as you can. You remember the dream you had a couple of weeks ago and shrink your shoulders in embarassment. Could anybody there read your tuoughts? Was there anyone with this quirk? What if somebody told him??

"Hey y/n!" somebody yells at you and you quickly correct your posture caught by surprize. It is Kirishima, he is standing in front of your desk, the class is over. "Wanna hang out?"

"Sorry?" You say, but he doesn't seem to aknowledge your confusion. He just straight up catches you by the wrist and pulls you along with him. "Wait, Kirishima!"

"Come on! We are having a gaming session with snacks today."

You try to get him to let you go but he barely notices your struggle.

"I don't even know you guys." you say, impressed by his strengh.

"Yeah, that is the point!" He says as he opens the door of his room. "The best way to get to someone is meeting their friends."

Sero, Denki and Mina are all sitting on Kirishima's bed, the two last with videogame controls on his hands.

You feel that caramel scent.

Bakugo is sitting on a chair next to them eating what seems to be nachos with peper. His jaw drops when he sees you come in with Kirishima, who is now hugging you in an armlock.

"I brought a new player, guys!" Kirishima says almos tosssing you towards his bed.

"Hello y/n! I didn't know you were into videogames!" Mina greets you, pulling you towards her. "We are playing Halo, I want you in my team!"

She hugs yor arm pulling you to herself. You blush quite quickly.

"Hey! We are raffling the teams." Sero says and looks at you with a huge smile. "I want y/n in my team too. You are,like, supercool."

You don't even know how to act as they start discussing who might get you in their teams. Bakugo still looks at you perplexed and Kirishima smirks looking bewtween the both of you.

Actually, videogames are not something you are really good at, and you end up disappointing all of them while you are on their teams. But they actually laugh a lot about it. Until, by accident you end up killing Bakugo while you are on his team.

"Hahahahahah! Y/n headshoted him!" Denki rolls around in bed as he laguhs at Bakugo's furious face.

"I told you to stay out of my way!" he yells at you, while he throws the control at Kirishima's head, who is also laughing.

"I... I... sorry. I don't... I am not used to..." you stutter.

"If you don't know how to play, you shouldn't even be here!" he says, pointing at your face.

"Who said I wanted to be here?!" you answer standing up and stomping on the floor.

The laughs stop and they all look at you. There is a heavy energy in the air as you and Bakugo stare at each other as if you are going to get physical, in a bad way. Kirishima scratches his head unconfortably.

"Sorry. I guess I misread the sings." He says to you, and you immediately let your guard down, feeling awful for making him feel bad.

"I..." you start, but you don't even know what to say.

There is another moment of creeppy silence among you all.

"Come on Bakugo! You are not even that good at videogames too!" Mina mocks, hitting him in the head with a punch.

"Yeah, my turn now!" Denki says taking the control in your hands.

"Come here y/n. I will teach you the controls! I am the best player." says Sero pulling you to his side.

Soon, the energy gets back to a very excited and fun one with all of them screaming and playing again, except for Bakugo, who spends the rest of the time with a serious expression.

When everyone is leaving, you stay behind to talk to Kirishima.

"I am very sorry for what happened. You were being really nice to me, I shouldn't have said that." You say, bowing in front of him.

"Hey! It is fine! I am sorry I forced you into coming here. Its just that I thougt..." he makes another embarassed face. "Listen, Bakugo is not always a mean guy, you know? He, he has feelings too. Hidden way too deep inside of him, but he has them."

"I think the only feeling Bakugo has for me is hatred."

"He. You would be surprized." Kirishima says, gently smiling at you. "I just wanna see him happy, you know."

You smile at him and go back to your dorm. Actually, this night was the most fun you've had in weeks.

...

Liking someone you are sure does not like you back is hard. Liking someone who you know hates you is even worse.

The months go by and you try to avoid Bakugo as much as you can, but all of a sudden you are part of his friendship group.

You meet Mina almost everywhere you go, she is always sitting next to you and gossiping, even though you rarely talk back to her. Actually it seems that you being a quiet person is what attracts her in you. She seems to like listening to herself talk. The also makes your hair and puts make up on you (independent of your gender).

Almost everyday Sero and Denki take you with them to whatever the weird thing they are planing on doing that day. Be it playing videogames, eating a whole bunch of snacks or playing sports.

And every friday Kirishima grabs you from your room in the dorms to play videogames with them. That is always when you see Bakugo.

He is always serious and competitive. You avoid playing on his team or against him, but the second is harder to do. Everytime you play against each other, he blows up your charactmer right away.

"Who brought these?" Bakugo asks one night after finishing another pack of snacks. "They are really spicy."

"Y/n did." Kirishima answers.

Bakugo turns to you as if it is the first time he notices you in the room. This makes you kind of angry, but also makes you feel kind of well once his face doesn't seem to be so threatening this time.

"Where did you buy them?" He asks.

"In a store near the academy. They sell all kinds of treats." you answer, a little embarassed."I can show you where it is."

"Fine." He answers while opening another bag of the snack. "Tomorrow, then."

He gets back to eating them while playing. He seems really chill.

But everyone else is looking at you, jaws dropped. Kirishima starts smiling obsessively with those sharp teeth and Mina shrieks.

That is when you realize that Bakugo has just set a date with you.

...

You are sitting alone on the couch of the common area. You have put on an outifit specially for this, and now you are afraid to be overdressed(take your time to imagine it).

A scent comes to your nose. There is a bit of caramel in it, but mixed with wodden perfume. You turn around and Bakugo is behind you wearing a black plain T-shirt under a plaid red shirt.

"Hi." You say standing up a little bit quicker than you intended to.

"Hey." He answers, hands in pockets.

A deep silence falls over you.

"Let's go?" He asks while already walking to the door.

You follow him until you are side by side and you start walking in silence until you are out of the school. As you do so, you pass by many other students from class 1-A that, you are pretty sure, make perplexed faces to see you two together.

"It is a couple of blocks ahead." You say.

"Actually..." Bakugo stops behind you. "Why don't we take a stroll first?"

You turn to him, confused. He is staring at you with a serious face, pretty misterious to you.

"O...ok." you stutter a little intimidated by it.

You follow Bakugo to a commercial area where the both of you start window shopping in silence, until he seems to see something and pulls you by your forearm to it.

"A fight movie?" you ask when you see him point to the poster in the movie theater.

"Do you have anything better to do?" he asks.

"Ok, it's just that... I have seen this movie already." you say, remembering that you had come to watch it with Aizawa. He slept the whole session.

"We can see that one then." he points at a romantic movie poster.

"Ahn... no I don't like these." you say pointing at the third and final poster available. "Let's see that one. I'll pay for the popcorn."

"You will want separate popcorn." He says.

He was right, Bakugo's popcorn was so full of barbecue sauce that you couldn't even put it in your mouth. He seems to really enjoy spicy food.

As for the movie... it was an horror movie about a psycopath that murdered people in a school. Bakugo whispered during the whole movie about how dumb the characters were and even laughed in a scene with lots of gore. You couldn't avoid to laugh with him, because, yeah, the effects were not that good.

He turned to you when he saw you giggle and you exchanged a smile.

When you left the session the sun was setting.

"So, let's go to the store and... back to campus?" you say stretching your arms up.

"Yeah." He answers putting one of his arms around your waist.

You freeze as Bakugo guides you out of the movie in that way. You can barely walk straight and don't know what to do. Your face is hot red but not as hot as the feeling of his hand on your waist.

You walk in silence that way till you get to the store.

"It... it's here." You say.

"Yeah." he answers.

You wait for him to let go of you so you can get inside, but he doesn't.

"Bakugo." You say, too embarassed to look at him.

"Call me Katsuki." He tells you, his mouth close to your ear.

You are daytripping, right? Is it a dream again? What is going on? All of a sundden this is happening. You get afraid to pinch yourself and be back in the common room.

But that heat he emanates near you makes you sure that this time, it is for real.

"How dumb do you think I am, eh?" He says, taking his hand off your hip and standing in front of you.

"I don't think you're dumb." You answer taking a step back and crossing your arms. "Annoying? Sure. Rude? Absolutely. A jerk? Yeah...but not dumb."

"You think I am annoying?" He says with a smirk."You think I am a Jerk? Y/n, you have baaad taste for men, then."

"WHAT?!" you yell as you feel your face becoming even more red.

"It did take Eijiro to tell me for me to notice at first, but then I realized he was right. All your little stares, the way you got when I was around. You like me, don't you?" he rises one of his eyebrows and smiles.

"I DON'T." You say quickly, but then cover your mouth. You feel like running away, but you can't control yout legs.

Bakugo pulls you to him and gets his face close to yours.

"I am flattered." He says in a huge side smile.

You keep your hands in your mouth.

"Your breath smells like barbecue." Is the only think you can think of answering.

You feel very dumb about it, but he starts laughing and lets you go. You step back and put your head down, shrinking your shoulders.

"You... like me?" you ask with a wisper.

"If I like you? I don't even know you." He says putting his hands on his pockets. "But I know you're intelligent, strong and..."

Bakugo pulls your chin up and stares at you, deep in the eyes.

"I think you are very pretty too." he says. "I think I could get to like you a lot... little brat."

"What did you just..."

You are about to start a fight, but Bakugo rests his lips on yours. He doesn't kiss agressively, actually, his lips are very soft.

When he steps away, you hide your face in your hands. You can feel your whole body burning.

"That is cute, I actually thought your were going to try to beat the shit out of me for doing this." he laughs.

"I WILL!" you say, throwing some punches on his chest, but not really hard.

He holds your wirsts and gives you a sweep kick, putting you up one of his shoulders. You let go a scream.

"Yeah, I like it better like this. Let's buy those nice snacks." he says, taking you into the store like that.

Next part here:

#bnha imagines #bnha fanfic #bakugo imagine #katsuki bakugo #bakugo #bakugo fanfic

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verai-marcel · 5 years

Text

Chase Me Down (RDR2 Fanfic, Arthur x Fem!Reader, 18+, DubCon)

Just posting some of my older fics to tumblr. This is the Captured Hearts series, part 2 of 4.

Summary: You hadn't seen him in weeks, and then he shows up while you're in the middle of a hunt. How will you deal with Arthur’s forceful entry back into your life?

Author's Notes: I wasn't intending to write another one in this series… But since I am, let me establish a few world building things. This is a world where Chapter 2 in the game just started, and it's staying there, as if you went on a bunch of side missions and are not advancing any story missions. So no spoilers beyond that because it isn't happening. Blackwater happened in the past, and that's all. No other crimes occurred, no other plot lines to get in the way. And now, on to the smut!

Tags: LH Arthur, DubCon, smut, rough sex, D/s undertones, Female!Reader

Word Count: 4772

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

You've had a really good run lately. It has been a month since you failed to capture Arthur Morgan, and your “encounter” with him has become just a memory. At least, that's what you tell yourself when you're not furiously touching yourself after dreaming of his strong hands around your neck and pulling your hair. Part of you thinks you've lost your mind. Another part of you wants to go find him and beg to be taken again.

You shake that all out of your head. You get your rifle ready as you reach the edge of the cliff, far above the gang camp. If you could bring in the leader and two of his cronies, you could make enough money to rest for a month. You had been tracking this whole gang for a while now, and bringing in a few of the men here and there, dead, of course. They weren't much trouble, and you eventually managed to bring one in alive too. But you finally got a good lead three days ago, and tonight you tracked a few of the loud idiots back to their base camp.

You'd have to be fast if you were to take out the top three men in the gang. There were at least seven men below. You wondered if you were a fast enough sniper to get them all in one go.

You decided to wait until night and take them out quietly once most of them slept. It'd be a long night, but it beat getting all of them running towards you at once. And you had learned your lesson about being impatient with Arthur.

Thinking of him made you shudder. The feeling you had was complicated; it was both longing and apprehension wrapped up into a solid lump in your chest.

You took a deep breath and focused on the work at hand.

As night fell and men started to go to sleep, you waited until all but one was tucked into their bedrolls. You waited another half an hour to make sure at least some of them were passed out.

Then you started shooting. The first headshot was for the man on watch. The next three were for the men sleeping nearby.

By now, the three remaining men had woken up and were hiding behind crates and began firing in your general direction. You quickly scuttled to another part of the cliff, closer to the men but circling around them, to fire once more. Another headshot. Two left.

You heard a rustling behind you. Not this time, you thought, as you pulled out your revolver and scampered around the cliff to some tree cover. A bullet hit the tree next to you, and you looked through the trees behind you and saw a few men coming your way with lanterns, making them easy to spot.

One hand slinging your rifle back over your shoulder, you shot at the men with your revolver, hitting one and making two of them dodge back into the forest. Then you ran. You needed better cover.

Bullets began flying again, and you cursed your luck. Of course some of the other gang members would come from a different direction and get behind you. You couldn't kill all of them, but you knew you got the three men you needed. Now you just had to get out and wait, and maybe you could collect their bodies later.

You found a nice thicket to hide around, and decided to try something. Finding a rock, you waited for them to get closer. As two of them approached, you threw the rock far away from you, but out of their sight. Foolishly, they followed the sound, and you quickly shot both of them in the head.

As you came out and around to confirm the kills, you heard the other man, the one you had shot earlier, come bursting through, his gun pointed at your head. You could see down the barrel of his gun and thought this would be a shit way to die. You tensed to dodge and shoot.

And then blood exploded from his head and he fell over before you could move.

You quickly tried to dive back into the thicket, but a shot was fired at your feet. You stopped moving forward, dropped your gun, and slowly raised your hands as you looked up from your crouched position.

A familiar face appeared from behind the trees, and you felt both relief and trepidation. But mostly you felt surprised at seeing him here, and it probably showed on your face.

“Hey sweetheart,” Arthur said as one corner of his mouth twitched in amusement at seeing your reaction to him.

“Did you have to shoot at me?” you asked, somewhat annoyed, as you picked up your gun and started walking to the dead men to loot them.

“Well, had to be sure you wouldn’t shoot me first,” he said in a light tone. “By the way, I took out the rest of them bastards at that camp.”

You just glared at him and walked away. You had this. You fucking had this bounty. And now you might have to share.

“You’re supposed to say thank you at times like this,” he said sarcastically.

“Thanks,” you responded curtly.

He looted the body that he had killed, and followed you as you made your way back to the camp. The walk was made in silence, with Arthur following you a few steps behind like a dog, or perhaps more like a stalker, and it was making you nervous. He was obviously playing with you, and you didn’t really like that at the moment. Also reminded you that he was an outlaw with no loyalty to you.

When you got back to the camp, you whistled for your horse while you grabbed the head of the gang and dragged his body to a big rock. It was a gristly business, but after the last hunter had lied about killing this guy, the sheriff in the town you took this job from had wanted physical evidence of his death.

Arthur just watched, amused, as you led your horse to the rock and started hauling the body up and onto his back. It took you some time, but you finally did it. When you looked back over at the other two bodies, you realized that in the time it had taken you to move one body, Arthur had moved the other two to his horse, and was mostly done with his cigarette.

“Son of a bitch,” you mumbled. Then you called out to him, “I guess you’ll be wanting partial credit for this?”

“Half.”

“Fuck you.”

He walked closer until the two of you were standing toe to toe. He was taller than you, but that didn’t scare you. What did frighten you was the intense look in his eyes as he stared at you for just a few moments too long.

“Careful what you say, missy,” he finally uttered in a low tone.

Your brain decided at that moment to remind you of the last time you met, and you felt your cheeks heat up. It was the middle of the night, but in the moonlight, you felt like he could see everything.

You quickly turned around and got on your horse. It wasn’t like you could really fight him and take his horse with the bounties from him. You knew a losing battle when you saw one. Sighing heavily, you started riding back to town, knowing that it would take you at least the rest of the night and part of the morning to get back. You could get a hotel room and sleep for a day afterwards.

Arthur followed, and you weren’t sure what to expect. You mostly felt annoyed that your reward money was being split.

***

You rode through the night and into the early hours of the morning. Despite the situation, you enjoyed the sunrise, though you were tired and your nerves were frayed because of Arthur’s complete silence along the way. It was eerie.

But during the ride, you had thought about what just happened. He did save you. You hated to be in debt to someone. You also hated it when you got help you didn’t need. Made you feel weak.

You looked over your shoulder to peer at him. He was still following you quietly, and he was looking around, clearly keeping an eye out around you.

When the two of you got to town, it was almost business as usual, except for the Sheriff looking at Arthur suspiciously. You had done quite a few jobs in this town, and he had never seen you work with a partner.

“Thought you worked alone, O'Malley,” the sheriff finally said after he had confirmed the identities of the three bodies and handed a stack of bills to you.

“Ran into him on the way, thought it might be faster with two,” you said, affecting a deeper voice; you, at least hopefully, sounded like a boy on the cusp of becoming a man. Arthur was giving you a pointed look, glancing at the money in your hands. You counted out half and passed the bills to him begrudgingly.

“Alright then. Well, come on by next week, see if we got any more trouble. Wish you'd take my offer of deputizing you. You're young but capable,” he said, clapping you on the shoulder. You noticed Arthur eyeing the man’s hand on you.

You shook your head at the Sheriff’s offer. “No thanks, but appreciate the compliment,” you replied as you ducked away from him and walked out the door. Arthur just tipped his hat to the sheriff and followed you out.

“O'Malley, huh? That ain't your real name,” Arthur said after the two of you were back on your horses and riding to the other side of town, via a back road.

“Of course not. It's just the name I give out as a bounty hunter,” you said as you took your hat off that was concealing your longer hair, and shed your bulky jacket so you actually looked like a woman with your tighter fitting union shirt.

“Hmmmm. So you that O'Malley Kid that I hear about sometimes? Young guy that only brings in dead bounties?”

“I brought in one man alive!” you retort, but the jocular grin on Arthur's face makes you laugh. You were somewhat aware of your reputation, but to know that he had heard of it too was a bit embarrassing.

You had reached the hotel, and wanted to just sleep. You looked back at Arthur, who was just watching you with that intense stare again. But you were so tired.

“I'm just gonna get some rest. Maybe see ya some other time,” you said almost too quickly as you slid off your horse, hitched him, and started fast walking up the stairs.

Arthur, of course, followed suit, and was right behind you when you missed a step and almost ate it at the front door. An arm quickly wrapped around your waist, and he pulled you close to his chest.

“Seem a bit tired, sweetheart.”

“Don't call me that.”

“You gonna give me a name, then?”

Not answering him, you shrugged out his hold and surprisingly, he let you go. You could feel him next to you though, and you had an inkling as to why he was sticking around.

“I’d like a room, please,” you said to the clerk at the front desk. The clerk glanced at Arthur, who said nothing.

“Alright,” he said after a moment before handing you a key. “Upstairs, second door on the right.” You gave him a dollar and made your way upstairs. Arthur was following you quietly, and you really didn’t want to make a scene, but the second you got to the door, you whirled around.

“I need some alone time.” And you slammed the door shut in his face.

***

Arthur stood there, a bit stunned, but once he recovered, he just chuckled to himself quietly and sauntered back downstairs.

The clerk raised an eyebrow at him.

“Lady thinks I smell. Could I get a bath?”

The clerk just laughed, and got another worker to prepare it for him.

***

As soon as you locked the door, you practically leapt onto the bed and sighed in comfort. You were exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but you were also nervous because you had also slammed the door on the most dangerous man you had ever met. Would he break in and then, potentially, break you?

You were mad at yourself for being a little bit excited by the idea. This man really was dangerous. Dangerous to your mental stability, that is. You tossed and turned on the bed for a few minutes, and then realized you had to run. There was no way you’d be able to enjoy this nice room while knowing that HE was nearby.

You opened the door and went downstairs. Walking past the clerk who was reading a paper, you asked if he had seen Arthur.

“Oh, he went to take a bath, just for you,” he said with a wink.

Plastering a fake smile on your face, you said, “Oh, that’s good. I’m just going to step out for a few minutes, please let him know I’ll be back shortly.”

“Sure thing miss,” he said, already going back to his paper.

You got on your horse and fled like the wind.

***

After riding all day, you finally felt like you could breathe again. You knew part of you had been really happy to see him, but it was also the part of you that just wanted to bend over and let him have his way with you. You were an independent woman, dammit!

You chose to bounty hunt because it was what your father did, and it was how he met your mother in a small town out in the middle of the plains. Even though you didn’t see him much back then, every time he came back, he had new toys for you and stories to tell you about the crazy things he had seen. It was too bad your mother came down with an illness seven years ago and died while he was out on a week-long job. You didn’t know what to do; you remember seeing your mother’s dead body in bed, and shutting the door to her room and just surviving on canned food until your father came back. Once he did, he mourned & buried her in a day, and then he packed your bags, got you a horse, and you two never went back to that house. You learned everything from him, how to snipe, how to survive in the wilderness, and how to dress and act like a man so that no one would take advantage of you.

You had learned so much. You should have been better. So you regretted your actions when a job went bad a few years ago. You should have been patient. You should have breathed out when taking that shot. Then your old man wouldn’t have had to go in. He wouldn’t have had to die in that gun fight.

You shook your head of the past. You had been making your own way for years now. You missed both your parents, but like your old man had said the day he buried your mother: “You must move forward and face the future. If you stand still and look behind you all the time, life will pass you by and you’ll be left for dead.”

I must move forward, you thought to yourself again, and took your horse off the path to find a spot in the wilderness to tent up for the night. You felt safe out here, where there were few travelers and there were enough rabbits that you could easily hunt one for supper. A stream nearby made a calming sound as you set up camp and relaxed. After a satisfying rabbit stew, you killed the fire and crawled into your tent to sleep soundly.

***

You woke up to a hand around your mouth. Panic set in. How did your horse not whinny at strangers approaching? Was he okay? You swear, if anyone hurt Ol’ Trigger, you were going to be real pissed. You latched onto that angry feeling to give you courage.

That is, until you heard a voice like butter in your ear.

“Cute, trying to run like that, sweetheart.”

You relaxed, but tensed up again immediately. How did he find you so quickly? You swear you took several back roads and went in and out of streams to lose a trail. And why didn’t Trigger neigh or something?

“I went after you as soon as that clerk said you had stepped out for a little while. I knew it was a lie,” he said, a bit angrily. He slowly let go of your mouth.

“Is my horse okay?” you immediately asked.

“He’s fine. Led me right to you, in fact.”

You were shocked. Trigger wouldn’t betray you.

“I copied your whistle.”

You sighed. You hadn’t thought of that. Then you tried to sit up, but he pushed you back down with his other hand.

“Stay.”

“I’m not a dog to command-”

He immediately put a hand over your mouth again. You were about to bite him and retort, but you saw that he wasn’t looking at you anymore. He was looking outside the tent.

You listened intently. You heard bushes moving and the sound of your horse stamping his foot and whining softly.

Arthur turned to you with a look that said stay here, and he pulled out his revolver and quietly crawled outside. You stayed put for all of three seconds before grabbing your revolver and following him.

Once out of your tent, you immediately saw an agitated Trigger. Quickly going to him, you patted his neck to calm him, but you weren't prepared for the gunshots nearby. Trigger reared up and nearly landed on you as you jumped back. You grabbed at his reins and calmed him once more.

You were feeding him an apple when Arthur came back, a wolf corpse tied up on his horse. He got off and walked towards you, grabbed you by the wrist, and pulled you towards your tent.

You tugged and dug your feet into the ground, but he was too damn strong. He had almost gotten you to the tent; then he grabbed your hair and forced you onto your knees in front of him.

“Unbutton my pants, sweetheart.”

You blinked and looked up at him. He kept watching you silently. After a few moments you reached up and did as he commanded. His tone of voice did not brook argument. That, and you felt heat curl below your belly and knew you would do whatever he asked. That voice did a number on your senses, and your sense.

“Take out my cock.”

You reached into his pants and pulled him out, your hand gentle on his skin. He hissed with pleasure and wrapped his hand around yours, guiding you on stroking him. With his other hand, he cupped your chin.

“Open your mouth,” he rumbled.

Your eyebrows furrowed.

Arthur let go of your hand and pinched your nose, forcing you to open your mouth to breathe. When you did, he forced his cock into your mouth.

“Just lick and suck on it,” he coaxed, letting go of your nose and caressing your cheek gently with the back of his fingers.

You started to move your lips and tongue around the head, looking up at him and watching for his reaction to everything you tried. Tonguing a line from the base of him to the tip made his eyes roll up, which made you unreasonably happy.

Then he suddenly grabbed your hair at the back of your head and thrust deep into your mouth. Your eyes started to tear up, and he pulled back, only to thrust in again, but shallower this time. He did this slowly at first, but then he was going at a steady rhythm, taking your mouth.

Your mind fell into pace with his movement, and you grew wet from him ravaging you like this. You didn't know how much you had missed the feeling of him fisting your hair like this.

He pulled you away from him after who knows how long. Then he started taking off his jacket and shirt. You just stayed still, transfixed. I should run, you thought to yourself.

But then he threw you into the tent and onto the bed roll. Landing on your back, you got up on your elbows to see him crawling towards you, and you couldn't help but think again of the wolf coming to eat his prey. You quivered, knowing that there was no escape, but you didn't know if you really wanted to escape now.

“Take your clothes off.”

You started to take off your pants.

“Slowly,” he added.

Under his gaze, you did as he said, each piece of clothing sliding off your skin slowly as you trembled. He was watching you so closely, and it was bringing heat to your cheeks as you finally took off your drawers and chemise.

You sat on your bed roll, naked, and covered your breasts out of habit.

He crawled closer to you and wrapped his hand around your throat, pushing you down onto your back. You struggled a bit before letting him. Then he put a hand on each of your knees and started to spread your legs apart. You strained your muscles to keep yourself together.

“Keep fighting me,” he snarled. “It'll make breaking you all the sweeter.”

Like some twisted reverse psychology, you instantly relaxed your legs and let him spread you out. He chuckled darkly before dipping his head down to your stomach and kissing your scar. Then he moved lower, kissing a path to your clit. He licked around it, torturing you with almost-but-not-quite touches, sticking his tongue into your wet channel and making you squirm. Your hands reached for him and you ran your hands through his soft hair.

Then he started sucking and licking your clit with no mercy. You gasped and writhed, your body coming apart under him as he brought you to climax with just his mouth. As you lay there, breathing heavily, he lifted his head, wiped his mouth, and pounced on you, his cock sliding up and down your folds, but not penetrating you.

Grabbing your wrists, he positioned them on either side of your head. He lifted himself up so his cock was nudging your entrance.

“Surrender to me.”

Your heart beat wildly at his command. You couldn't look away if you tried as he took you, agonizingly slow. Your hips bucked, and he froze.

“Don't you dare move,” he growled. You gulped and nodded.

He hummed approvingly and kept pushing into you. Once he was all the way in, he crushed you under his weight, making it hard to breathe. He stayed still for a moment, just feeling your heart beating loud in the night.

Then he took you with abandon, his grip on your wrists tightening as his thrusts became faster, harder. He came with a harsh groan, and finally let go of your wrists. He rolled off you and bundled you up in his arms, pulling you close. Your cheek was against his chest and you could hear his heartbeat calming down.

But much to your annoyance, you wanted to come again, and you started to reach down to take care of things, but then you felt embarrassed about even thinking of touching yourself while he was right there.

As if he was reading your mind, Arthur reached between the two of you and stroked you, exactly the way you wanted. You looked up to see him watching you intently.

“I wouldn't leave you wantin’, sweetheart.”

Trapped in his gaze, he brought you to the edge, slowed down, and did it again, driving you crazy. You grabbed his arm and dug your fingernails in.

“Damn you,” you cursed as he teased you some more.

“Beg me.”

“Never.” You started to reach down to finish yourself, but he grabbed your wrist and twisted you around so your back, and your arm, was against his chest. It hurt a little.

“Now now, you should know better,” he whispered. “Just give in, it’ll be better for both of us.”

You reached for yourself with your other arm, but he just grabbed it too, pulled your arms back and held your wrists together behind your back with one hand. You pulled and twisted, and in retaliation he wrapped his legs around you to keep you still, and snaked his free arm down to touch you again.

You’re not sure how long it was, of him teasing you, edging you, driving you mad with the desire to come. You hated to admit that he was wearing you down, and you were close to just begging for it.

“Just one little word, and I’ll give you what you need,” he said low in your ear.

You finally whispered, “Please…”

He changed his pace immediately, his stroking became exactly what you needed to push you over the edge and you came in his arms, crying with pleasure and relief, the release almost too much for your poor tired body.

Arthur let go of your wrists and let you stretch your muscles before wrapping his body around yours and petting you gently until you fell asleep.

***

You woke up deliciously refreshed. You’re not sure how long you slept, but the sun was high in the sky now. You rolled over, and found that Arthur was gone. The relief at being alone again, and the shame of succumbing to him once more flooded through you. Along with that tempest of emotions, so too did you have the feeling of a string wrapping around your heart.

You quietly got up and threw some clothes on before crawling out of your tent.

To your surprise, he was still here, patting Ol’ Trigger nearby and feeding him a carrot. It ticked you off, just a little, to see him so friendly with YOUR horse. As you got closer, you could hear Arthur mumbling something to him.

“Now you take care of your lady, you hear. She’s precious, don’t let her get hurt.”

Your heart melted.

He turned to you and smiled, and it was warm like the sun. Goddammit, why was he like this only after fucking you mindless?

“How you doin’?”

“Doin’ alright.”

“Just alright?”

“I’m doin’ GREAT. Is that what you wanted to hear?” you responded, a bit annoyed now.

“I just want your truth,” he said calmly.

His answer threw you for a second. Then you laughed. “My truth,” you said after a while, “is that I feel good. Thanks.”

Arthur just nodded, gave Ol’ Trigger one last pat, and started walking towards you. “Guess I’d better be goin’. I’m sure you have other bounties to hunt.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Now that he was leaving, you felt torn. You loved your independence. But you also loved what he did to you, though you would never admit that to his face lest he have even more power over you. You watched as he walked up to you. He cupped your cheek and stroked your skin with his thumb. Then he leaned in and kissed you on the forehead.

“See ya later, sweetheart.” He took a few steps back, his eyes on you one last time, before he turned around, got on his horse, and rode away without looking back.

Once he was out of sight, you immediately fell to your knees and hugged yourself.

After a few deep breaths, you regained your composure and broke camp. Packing your stuff onto Ol’ Trigger, you noticed your saddle bag had been opened. You looked and saw a wad of bills and a piece of paper.

Counting the bills first, you noted that it was half of the amount you had given Arthur yesterday. Then you read the paper.

“Thanks for the fun night, my sweet.”

You were caught between being pissed and being amused. Maybe he was paying you like a whore. Maybe he felt bad about barging in on your hunt.

Maybe it was both.

You shoved the money and the letter back in your saddle bag and got onto your horse.

“Son of a bitch!” you yelled as you rode west.

--------

End Notes: I’ve got two more fics in this series on the way, so keep an eye out. Thank you for reading!

#dubcon #arthur morgan #arthur x reader #low honor arthur morgan #fanfic #old fanfic #writing #lemon fanfic #nsft #arthur x fem!reader #captured hearts

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iamkatehardy · 6 years

Text

Shots (Handsome Bob x Reader) Pt 1

Tags: @tiredoffeelinglost, @eap1935, @ellar21, @but--dear-this-is-not-wonderland, @titty-teetee , @sparklyreaderx , @iv-nyc

Warnings: mentions of weaponry, meantions of death.

A/N: Ok, writing about a new character is a challenge, so feedback is specially appreciated 😜

I’m doing 2 parts, so it doesn’t get too long/boring for you! This one is about shots in business, the next one will be all about other kind of shots... Multiple kinds of shots actually ( aka Bob smut) 😏

Shots - Pt1

You tapped the fingers impatiently on the worn table, as your eyes scanned the terrible familiar room; it was just as messy as when you last saw it, but far more devoid of people than it used to be. Was this what the Wild Bunch had become, while you were incarcerated?

The silence was broken by the sound of men’s voices, coming closer and closer.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the three stooges…” – Crossing your arms, you got up, pacing around the room and giving them a sideways smirk. – “You better have a good reason to call me here; I’m a busy girl, these days...” – You walked over to them, leaning forward greet them. – “Mumbles… One Two… Chauffeur…”

“That’s Handsome Bob…” – Mumbles introduced the younger man.

“I’m sorry, what?” – You didn’t even try to contain your laugh at that. – “Since when have the gangster nicknames come to this?“ – You asked with a teasing voice.

“Do you have a better one?” – Good-humored even in his annoyance, Bob asked.

“Actually , I do… “ – Lips scarcely an inch from his ear, you whispered, before turning on your heel. – “But after I served my time, it wouldn’t be good to call me by that name in public, Handsome. (Y/N) will do, or Gorgeous (Y/N), suit yourself. “ – A cocky smile flashed on your lips, and you turned to the other two.- “ Now, I bet you didn’t call me here to catch up, or to introduce me to your driver…So, let’s get down to business?”

The men took a big wooden box off the closet behind you, putting it over the table, and opening it with crowbars. You examined the content cautiously, sliding your finger across it.

“May I?” – Your gaze shifted from the box to the men, and One Two nodded an acknowledgment. – “Neat!”

“Be careful with that!” – Bob placed his hand on yours, as you took the gun out of the box.

“I’m a superb marksman, meaning can handle these babies blindfolded, if needed. My gangster nickname is Deadshot… Just as self-explanatory as Handsome Bob, no? “ – You threw him a sidelong glance. - “ Don’t ever underestimate me; it’s a grave mistake.” - Giving him a derisive smile, you pulled your hand back, assembling the high-precision rifle together before they knew it. – “Depending on the conditions, the maximum effective range will be between 1 and 1,5 miles…” – You thoroughly analyzed the scope. – “Which, let me tell you, is a fuckin’ lot! You can even work with thermal imaging, if you’re close enough to the target… This is beyond cutting-edge, better than the ones that most of the armies use.“ – Just as quickly as you assembled it, you disassembled it, putting it carefully back in the box – “Everything about this baby is ultra-high end. This is not what you used for armed robbery…” - You studied their faces for a moment.

“We won’t use it in a robbery…” – One Two sat on the edge of the table.

“We won’t use it… We don’t know how to handle that kind of weaponry. But you do…”- Sauntering across the room, Mumbles scratched his chin.

“It’s not a robbery and you want a sniper’s help? Oh boy, why does it sound to me like things might get dicey, huh? Listen, I’m on probation… If things go south, and I get caught, I’ll be put behind bars for the next decade, or more.” – Taking a deep breath, you clasped your hands tightly together.

Mumbles was about to make the case, but Bob interrupted him.

“We’re in trouble, and we have nobody else to turn to, (Y/N)…”

“We don’t want to kill anyone, but you know, just in case… Think of it like a life insurance.” – One Two shrugged his shoulders, as if trying to put you at ease.

“Then perhaps you should fill me in. I’m all ears.” – Pensive, your eyes were glued to your hands, as you cracked your knuckled loudly. The men exchanged glances, with a smile on their lips, at the thought you could go along with their plan. – “Well? I don’t have all the time in the world.” – The long wait made you exhale loudly in frustration and turn your attention back at them.

They walked towards the closet again, getting a noticeably heavier box.

“Another treasure chest?” – You facepalmed, as they struggled to open the box.

When the box was finally open, they removed the raffia that covered the merchandise. You took a peek and your eyes went wide.

“RPGs?! First you show me a high-precision riffle, and now RPGs?! These shits can blow up an armored vehicle, like, a fuckin’ tank! Boooom! Jesus.” – You buried your head in your hands. - “Did you rob the Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, or something like that?”

“The Russians.” – Bob added.

“Oh God.” – You dug your fingers deeper into your scalp. – “I don’t know what’s worse actually, stealing from the army, or stealing from the fucking Russians. They’re nuts! They are coming after you for this, do you realize that?!”

“That’s why we need you (Y/N).”

“No, mate, I have enough holes in my body, I am not adding more to the list. I’m out. Get rid of those, before you get yourselves killed.” - Pinching the bridge of your nose, you stepped back.

“We are getting a rid of it; we will make good money selling them to a rival gang.”

“That’s not what I meant by getting rid of them, moron.” - You rolled your eyes, before scowling at them.

“One more job and we’ll go straight once and for all….25% of the sale is yours, are you in?” – Mumbles tried to make a bargain with you.

You raised an eyebrow and took two or three steps toward the door.

“30 %.” – One Two hesitated, but he knew he had to raise the stakes, in order to keep you interested.

Shaking your head, you kept slowly stepping out the doorway.

“50%.” – Bob shouted loud enough for you to hear. You stopped, scratching your head, deep in thought.

“I’m so going to regret this…” – Whispering to yourself, you turned around, peeking through the door. “Did you, by any chance, say fifty?” – The corners of your mouth quirked up.

They gave Bob an unbelieving look; half the profits was an incredibly high share. Were they that desperate?

“35%.” – They tried to correct the proposal.

“Nuh-huh, I like Bob’s offer. Fifty or nothing… You’ve got ten seconds to make your decision from… Now.” – Looking at the watch you started counting down the ten seconds, as they discussed among themselves if they were willing to pay your price. – “Two… One… What’s it gonna be?”

“Fifty.” – They said in unison.

“One last thing… We’ll do it my way.”

The remainder of the week was spent making plans, going over them over and over again; the date and place of transaction, the communication system and the safety word in case they needed your help, the escape routes and what to do in case anything went wrong… You thought you had it all figured out, but you never do, when it comes to Russians.

D-Day. Wearing a military uniform, you packed the parts of the rifle in a black rucksack.

“A uniform? Rawr, I love them.” – Bob leaned against the table, with a mischievous smile.

“Yeah, that’s exactly why I brought it…” – You smiled back, picking the rucksack up and putting it over one shoulder.

“Really?”

“No… The System considered my skills pretty useful for some agreed exceptional cases; if I cooperate, I’m a free bitch. Let’s say I am doing a little service for the System, on behalf of the military forces, technically I would be allowed to have this backpack and its content…Now, if I were caught with this backpack on my own initiative, as a civilian, an ex-con, bye bye parole...”

“Aren��t you afraid of being caught?”

“There’s no reason to pull over and question someone who’s working for the army, is there, Bob?” – You shrugged, walking out the door.

When the time had come, you all took your positions at the rendezvous point; they waited for the Russians on the eleventh floor of a condemned building, meanwhile, you assembled the rifle on the building across the street, targeting the room where they were.

The Russians arrived, acting surprisingly friendly, and the exchange happened exactly as planned, although the boys were outnumbered three to one. Six Russians carried the three wooden boxes with the weaponry to their black SUVs, while the boys checked the payment, accompanied by three other Russians. The SUVs left and one of the Russians that were still on the room got a call. You all had a tiny earpiece, so you could keep track of the boys in case they needed help.

“I don’t speak Russian, but something’s not right… Guys? Come up with an excuse and leave as discretely as possible, we count the money later. Do you copy?”

They closed the suitcase, and within seconds a Russian was blocking their access to the door. Cornered, they split up, backing off to different parts of the room.

“Fuck…” – You held your position, waiting for that command, but you put the window in the crosshairs, ready to pull the trigger. – “Ready to shoot, on your command.”

One of the Russians walked up to Bob, trapping him between himself and the window, with a gun in hand, ruining your chances of a clear shot.

“Banana.” – One Two mumbled your safety word.

“I don’t have a clear shot…” – You sighed. – “Bob’s in the way…” – In order to shoot the Russians, you’d have to headshot Bob, and that wasn’t part of the plan.

Bob tried to move but the giant Russian aimed his gun to Bob’s head.

“Banana, banana, banana… BANANA.” – One Two closed his eyes wide shut as he held his hands in the air, as if surrendering to the Russians. His hunger for bananas made all the Russians look at him, wondering what the fuck was going on.

“I’m so sorry, Bob.” – As soon as the Russian that was threatening Bob got distracted, you finally pulled the trigger. The shot grazed Bob’s arm, making him kneel on the ground, groaning in pain; but you finally had a clear shot, or three of them. – “Do svidaniya (Goodbye), bitches.” – When the Russian turned around to see where did the shot come from, a bullet penetrated his skull from one side to the other ; the other two rushed to the aid of their friend, but he was dead, and in no time, so where they, with an extra hole in their heads.

“Ooo, that was close…” – They panted, and came to help Bob get up.

After disassembling the rifle, you peaked through the window and gave the others a thumbs-up.

“That psycho just shot me!”- Bob flipped the bird in response to your thumbs-up, before moaning in pain again.

You drove back in separate cars, and they arrived to the warehouse before you did.

“I have to go to hospital! Be honest One Two, am I gonna die?” – Bob opened only one eye.

“Yes, you are going to die, we all are…” – After throwing the rucksack on the table, you picked a bottle of vodka and a knife, before sitting by Bob’s side. – “Look, I’m sorry, but I had no choice.” – You soaked a piece of cloth with the vodka, putting it over his wound with an apologetic look on your face.

“Was it really necessary? Is this really necessary?” – He writhed in pain.

“ It’s a flesh wound, don’t be a pussy!” – Mumbles slapped the back of his neck playfully.

“Back where I come from, people with a pussy handle pain just fine…” – You smirked, you inspected the wound.

“Does Cookie have anesthesia for sale?”

“Come on, Bob… You’ll be fine, just apply pressure on the wound, it’s a superficial wound…” – You finished cleaning the wound.

“What if it has bullet fragments?!” – Worried, he watched you clean the wound.

“Only one way to find out…” – You took a sharp knife in your hand, sterilizing it with a lighter.

“Nevermind, no bullet fragments there.” – Bob straightened up on the sofa, making a face. You chuckled and shook your head.

“Let’s go get something to drink, I’m buying. “ – You reached for your jacket, putting it back on.

“I just got shot and you want to party?!” – Bob’s face displayed indignation.

“Tequila, absinthe… Didn’t you ask for anesthesia?” – Smirking, you walked out the door. – “Sometimes I get sick of shots for business; sometimes I like shots for pleasure…”

An agreement had been reached, and you made your way to a local club. You felt like Bob was avoiding you, so you put your arm around him, pulling him away from the crowd, into a corner.

“Listen man, I swear to god I would’ve done things differently if I could… But I didn’t have much choice, Handsome. Are we cool?”

Bob tilted his head, weighting your words.

“We’cool.” – He looked down at you, offering his hand for a handshake; you handed him a shot instead. – “ Well, that works too!” – He gulped at the drink and you did the same. – “ Would you like to dance?”

#rocknrolla #rocknrolla fanfic #rocknrolla fanfiction #rockrolla handsome bob #rocknrolla tom hardy #tom hardy characters #handsome bob #handsome bob x reader #handsome bob x you #handsome bob x oc #handsome bob imagine

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caffeineivore · 5 years

Text

Cheer up emo R/J

For @coppercrane2 specifically because she wanted this scene but also for whoever else wants it and needs some R/J cheer up emo.

If JFK is a post-apocalyptic wasteland where manners and dreams went to die, LAX is simply a clusterfuck. Raven Fletcher isn’t stupid enough to mean-mug the smarmy-looking TSA agent at the end of the line, not exactly, but the smile in place on her face is about as gruesome as Heath Ledger’s Joker. She had the whole system down pat by now-- plastic bag of toiletries, no belt, no hat, no jacket, no sunglasses, shoes that could easily be slipped off and on, no electronics and items in the pockets-- but the whole process is a drag, anyway. And of course, they still always gave her crap, and this time is no exception.

“What were you doing in LA?”

“Meeting up with some clients in the industry, catching up, making plans for New York Fashion Week.”

“So you live in New York, then?”

“Yeah. I thought it says so on my license.” And moreover, she certainly didn’t sound like a Californian, now did she?

The TSA agent gives her a warning look; her sass is clearly not appreciated, and undoubtedly he’d use it as an excuse to make her suffer in the next five to ten minutes and probably go through every last bit of her bags, down to counting how many tampons she stashed in and probably testing her makeup wipes to ensure that nothing was radioactive. Raven bites her tongue and tries not to roll her eyes as he beckons over a female officer to pat her down even as he paws through all her belongings. He shakes out a Dior dress that’s tucked into her garment bag that’s likely worth more than the X-ray machine that the bag just passed through, and Raven wants to ask that he change his damn gloves first, but at this rate, if he goes any slower, she’d miss her connection. Sunny weather or not, she’d be damned if she got stuck in LA for another day.

Finally, the ordeal comes to an end, which leaves her roughly half an hour to get from one end of the airport to the other on four-inch Louboutins. Raven has no problem with mowing through crowds-- sharp elbows and the aggressive New Yorker walk does wonders-- but to have to do so just to get to her gate in time is aggravating when it was certainly not her fault that the security check took so long. She certainly couldn’t just crumple up the damned Dior and stuff it back into the garment bag-- she had a client dinner right after getting back in town, and on no planet did Raven Fletcher appear at such events anything less than perfectly dressed and groomed.

There’s the moving walkway up ahead, and she strides on, a woman on a mission, long legs eating up the length of the conveyor. Raven is a petite woman, five-foot-four before the stiletto heels and too short for the modeling work that she immerses herself in dealing with on a daily basis, but she’s leggy, and can walk, jog and possibly do step aerobics in heels with the best of them. She steps off at the end of the moving walkway, leading with her shoulders, and smacks painfully into a solid male chest.

“I’m so sorry. Are you all right, miss?” A pair of big hands wrap around her elbows and pull her up, and had she landed any harder, she probably would have broken a thousand-dollar heel, and perhaps an ankle. Raven looks up from legs clad in casual gray chinos to a torso in blue tweed, with brown elbow patches, up into an almost-unforgivably handsome face, all golden California tan and tousled, sun-bleached blond hair, wearing horn-rimmed glasses over his baby blues. And... headphones. Of course. Because it would certainly be too much to ask for a man to be too perfect, so this particular specimen had to be moseying through the airport deaf to his surroundings like an oblivious moron.

“I would be better if you were watching where you were going, but forget about it.” She bypasses the hand he holds out to help her up, and snags both her garment bag and her briefcase. Her ankle gives her a twinge as she stands up, but she stalks off without a backward glance. If she hurried, she’d have just enough time to pop into the Starbucks by her gate for a quad venti iced macchiato to wash down the Excedrin before getting on the plane.

The boarding process, after she reaches her gate, and where someone else might have passed their time sleeping or watching a movie or two on the five-hour flight, Raven opens her briefcase after the plane reaches cruising altitude to organize her files for the upcoming client dinner. Not that there is much to do, really, because Morgan Austen, even at age seventeen, didn’t exactly require much of an introduction. Blonde and willowy and charming and self-assured, the girl’s celebrity background might have gotten her in the door, but she’d certainly lived up to all the hype. Only too often were the celebrity actor-model types unforgivably uppity and spoiled, and while a small, petty part of Raven enjoyed putting them in their place as needed, it always came as a pleasant surprise when someone didn’t have to get told off for their own good.

Her heart gives a pitter-patter, though, when she reaches inside the bag and feels, underneath her manicured fingertips, a bunch of manila folders rather than the sleek leather portfolio that should be contained in that compartment. Cautiously, she draws out the papers, then only barely manages to avoid swearing loudly and noticeably in the airplane cabin.

“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. This is a joke. A really bad joke.”

In place of the carefully-curated and prepped collection of headshots and polaroids of Morgan Austen is a collection of lab reports, all with the header of ‘153BH, UCLA/Huntley’. Raven has exactly zero interest in the subject of Nucleotide Metabolism, and the worst part about it is the fact that she has a whole three and a half hours before the plane lands and she can even get on her phone to do something about this mishap.

It’s the longest three and a half hours of her life, feels like, and she pulls out her cell phone almost before the flight attendants turn off the seatbelt sign, calls the agency to postpone the dinner with the rep from Michael Kors.

“Yeah, there’s been a problem with my bag. Stupid LAX. Can you just... tell them my flight was delayed, or something? They’ll be a-o-fucking-kay because they’re getting Morgan Austen to walk their damn show in a month and it’ll be the biggest thing to happen to them since dude designed Michelle Obama’s official portrait dress. Thanks, Luna. You’re a whole bag of organic non-GMO peaches. And... someone’s calling, and it’s a 310 area code, so I’m going to let you go.”

She recognizes the area code as Los Angeles, of course, and expects that it’s some minion from some customer service desk in LAX reporting that they’d found her bag, but the voice which comes through is male and sounds oddly familiar, with that faint Calfornian drawl. “Am I speaking to Ms. Raven Fletcher?”

“Yeah. Who’s this?”

“My name is Jude Huntley, and we bumped into each other at the airport? I seem to have your work bag rather than mine.” The tone is summery-smooth and apologetic, the cadence quick yet lacking the almost-harsh briskness of Manhattan. “It’s entirely my fault, and I’m going to get your bag back to you, but could you tell me where you’d like to pick it up?”

“Well, if you can’t tell, I’m kinda on the opposite coast to you now, buddy. Elite Models, New York, New York. We’re on 5th Avenue.” He doesn’t seem at all fazed by her slightly snotty tone, which takes the wind out of her sails, just a little. “Look, pal, if you want to send off my bag to New York, that’d be great. I can do the same with yours. UCLA, right? At least it’s summertime. Hopefully school’s out for you. Shitty time for me to lose my bag because summer’s prime time for campaigns, but it’s not like my stuff can just magically appear overnight.” All around her, people are rising up from their seats, and Raven scowls at nothing in particular. “I gotta get off the plane. Look, since you clearly got my number from my card, you can get the address, too. I’ll get your bag back to you as soon as I can.”

She hangs up, and seethes from the gate all the way to the taxi stand and then all the way to her apartment, before kicking off the heels and unapologetically ordering pizza delivery, to be consumed with wine while soaking in the tub. After the day she’d had, it was the least she deserved.

Raven arrives at the agency at eight o’clock sharp the next morning, with the briefcase-that-is-not-hers in one hand, a giant to-go cup of coffee in the other, and spends the first hour of her day making a phone call to the reps at Michael Kors to explain her bag mishap and reschedule the dinner meeting. Thankfully, Morgan Austen’s name is enough to negate any wrath which might have been incurred at the inconvenience, and, crisis averted, she’s just about ready to schedule a conference call-- with a talent scout out in BFE, Cornfields, Small-town USA somewhere-or-another-- when her assistant Phoebe knocks on the door. The diminuitive brunette has a peculiar look in her beady eyes.

“Someone’s here to see you. No appointment. Great face but I doubt he’s a model, unless he’s doing some sort of ad for Geek Chic. Says his name is Jude. Do you know a Jude? I didn’t think you knew a Jude, though this guy’s sort of got the hot younger Jude Law thing going on so...”

Raven’s eyebrows shoot up to her hairline. She’s only made the acquaintance of one individual by that name, and certainly Phoebe is wrong. There is no freaking way that the man from the airport in Los Angeles was actually in New York at this very second. She waves in a vague manner at Phoebe, who takes it as assent to let him in, and then her jaw drops. It’s the man from the airport, all right. Still wearing his tweed jacket and his horn-rimmed glasses, but now sporting dark-blond five-o’clock shadow like gold dust smudged against his chiseled jaw and deep shadows under those blue eyes. But his lips quirk into a smile when he sees her, and he holds out her bag, like an olive branch.

“You asked for it to be overnighted, didn’t you? I took the red-eye over.”

“But--- but---why?” Flying a red-eye from coast to coast is the worst, and doing so on standby just seemed like her own idea of Hell on Earth. “You could’ve just dropped it off at a FedEx. I...” She had barely been civil to him on the phone, and definitely was on the wrong side of rude when they’d bumped into each other at the airport. Under no circumstance could Raven see a reason for a man-- especially one who looked as though he had a job and a life well on the other side of the country-- to drop everything just to bring her her bag back in person.

But rather than give her a hard time, the man named Jude smiles, and it’s a great smile, with a dimple in both cheeks and in the chin. Geek chic indeed... “Well, I need those lab reports back, too. Summer class. I have a commitment to my students to get it back to them by Friday, and they’re kind of time consuming to grade. Call it an impulse, I guess.” He’s still holding out her bag, and this time she takes it, and belatedly hands him his own. “Anyway, let’s start over again. My name is Jude Huntley, and I’m an assistant professor at UCLA’s Chemistry department.”

“Raven Fletcher. I’m an agent here at Elite Models. Nice to meet you.” Two almost-identical bags switch hands, just before his fingers close around hers, and the touch is warm and sharp with the brush of static electricity. Raven’s fairly sure that her spine is, metaphorically speaking, stainless steel. And yet a shiver works its way up and down as he holds on for just a moment too long, and a decidedly unfamiliar warmth creeps up into her cheeks as he smiles at her again.

“The pleasure is definitely all mine.”

#R/J #coppercrane2 #ssminibang #fanfiction #fanfic #sailor moon #senshi/shitennou

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putabourqueinit · 5 years

Text

L.A. Daze

Memory Lane

I recently ran for State House Representative for Louisiana. I made the decision then I worked really hard on a campaign for 6 months. I hired a social media person and we began branding Leslie Bourque. It was surreal. We created a website and my Facebook page. It has been a few weeks now since the election results, which I did not win. Since that day I haven’t revisited my website or FB page. Not because it pains me I lost, but because for 6 months I learned as much as I could about my city and state. I felt important and since it is over I sorta feel a void. I will eventually look back at that special time in my life.

I recently took down my box of old pictures. It was my mom’s 70th birthday and my brother wanted to make a video for her. I saw some binders that I haven’t opened in years. Memories from what seems like a lifetime ago, my Los Angeles days. A stack of headshots from when I pursued acting and modeling. I don’t know why I haven’t looked at them in so long, but I decided to grab a glass of wine and take a stroll down memory lane.

Before I did so, I remembered the picture below. I feverishly looked for it. It is of me in 1997 in my cherry red Nissan 240X. The day I bravely drove across the country on I-10. Stopping only once in El Paso to sleep for the night. I think I had my mom’s car phone bag and a bunch of CD’s. It took me 2 days but I clearly remember driving into Los Angeles and then to my the apartment I sublet for 4 months from a stranger. I parked on Detroit Ave and retrieved the key from my new neighbor. It was an old dingy building, but the studio apartment was perfect for me. As I entered the key into the keyhole, I knew my life was changed forever. I opened the door and just took it all in. Me by myself a million miles from home. The apartment was full of her things. It was sorta a hippie/hollywood decor. I sat on her furniture and looked at her pots I would be cooking on. I saw all of her clothes hanging with empty hangers for mine. I laid in another persons bed and I closed my eyes hoping for the best.

Headshot

Luckily I had a job waiting for me when I got to Los Angeles. I worked as a production assistant on a movie called “Wild Things” starring Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Chevy Chase, Denis Richards and Neve Campbell. We shot on the Sony Lot in Culver City. It was epic to drive into this lot where so many important films were made. My boss was named Taylor. She was a hard one to read, but nice enough. I was diligent and I was quiet. It all seemed grander than life to me. One day while I was passing out papers to executives offices I entered the President of Mandalay Pictures. I had seen him before in meetings where I was basically the gopher. I walked into his office and he asked me to close the door and sit down. He said “Here is your chance. Give me a 5 minute rundown of who you are and what to you want to do?”

I moved to Los Angeles with expectations to learn acting. I didn��t know if I could be an actress, but I wanted to try. The day I pulled into California I had never taken an acting class. When this man asked me to tell him about me and what I wanted to do, I almost fainted. I didn’t have the verbiage at the time to know what to say. I mean I literally just got off of the boat from Lafayette, Louisiana!! I ended up telling him how I got to Los Angeles. I sheepishly said I wanted to be an actress. He told me I had a look and I should take some classes and then find him again and he would help me. I took a thousand classes and never found him again.

The first thing you are told to do is to get a good headshot. I have no idea how I found my first photographer, David LaPorte. Basically you interview them and try to find the right fit for you. It becomes an intimate process and you unveil your soul a bit. He made me feel the least nervous. I have always been photogenic, but a headshot is a whole other level. Basically, it is your calling card for casting directors to pick you out of millions to call in for an audition. You must convey with your eyes how you will tell a story. I spent hours with David and at the end I finally got the hang of it. He was patient and I was grateful.

Identity Change

The last name I was bestowed was always a bit tricky for me. I don’t want to say I didn’t like it, but I didn’t appreciate it. You can imagine some of the jokes I got “pork a Bourque” etc. When I got to L.A. people couldn’t pronounce it. They would fancy it up in a very shi shi French way. They couldn’t spell it. I always loved my middle name for some reason. I love that I had an accent. I decided to drop my last name.

The next two pictures are with a famous photographer, Randall Slavin. I remember going to his house and we shot in the garage. He was so cool. Like “too cool for school” cool. He was the hot headshot guy and working his way to bigger, better things. If you look close in my eyeballs you can see his reflection. I felt more comfortable, but still intimidated.

I got a commercial agent. Representation. I had a pager and was on call. If they called I had to run. I was in the best acting class. The one that was hard to get into. I was doing it. I didn’t know how to do it, but I was navigating the unknown. I felt liberated and I felt like I had a path to success.

Finding my groove

I was working. I was actually making money. I started doing print work and commercials. I landed my very first national commercial-Miller High Life. I had confidence. I had a commercial agent and a talent agent. I had now gone through so many acting classes. I stayed up late studying my craft. I felt I made it, even though I hadn’t made it exactly. I went back to my first photographer, David. I had sass now and I had a sense of who I was. He noticed. It was a totally different shoot than the first time.

Edging it up

Another photographer. This time a woman. She wanted me to get rid of the cute and find my sexy. I knew the camera at this point. I knew it liked me. I remember creating stories in my mind and really playing a character.

I decided I didn’t hate my last name anymore.

I was auditioning a lot. I was in a play. I was spending a lot of money on classes. I was making a lot of money as a fitness/pilates trainer. I was losing the excitement of the pursuit. I loved studying the craft, but the hustle was getting to me.

The End

A friend of mine was now taking head shots. We traded her taking pictures of me for me training her in pilates. We had a lot of fun during the shoot. I had no idea this would be the last set of head shots I would take.

I decided after years of pursuing acting I would stop the chase. I didn’t love it anymore and I found something else that turned me on. Writing. I was urged to start writing by a few influential people. I started taking a writing class. I was terrified I would fail. I ended up meeting Dylan and I stopped taking the class.

I became Dylan’s girl and Amélie and Hud’s mom.

My latest headshot was on a huge sign and were placed all around my district. It was mind boggling to think how far I have come.

My new headshot is just me. It is me and all my flaws. 47 years and I see it all on my face. I am ready to embrace my latest headshot. I wonder where it will take me.

#headshots acting pursuing Pictures modeling journey

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pickalilywrites · 6 years

Note

Hiiii! When you get the time can you pls write a levi/petra one-shot in which they end up having a second date (their first one was a failure) ❤️ thank you!

I was watching a kdrama where two celebrities pretend to get married and pursue a relationship for a variety show and i was like “cute”

Let’s Fall in Love!

Rivetra. Dating Show AU.

4547 words.

Buy me a ko-fi!

It is every girl’s dream to date Levi Ackerman, lead singer of the hit rock band No Name. In fact, Petra herself had fantasized him being her boyfriend when she was just a teenager, but she’s completely changed her mind after their initial meeting when he had clasped his hand in hers for a handshake and remarked that her hand was unusually cold.

“Kind of a like a dead person’s,” he said aloud.

At first, she was sure that she had just misheard, but the rest of their interactions only confirmed his rudeness. Petra knows that you should never meet your heroes, but this is ridiculous.

“I liked the part when he was complimenting her,” Eld says with a grin. He reaches out twirl a lock of Petra’s hair around his finger and watches it unwind as it falls away. He mimics the constipated expression of the famous rock singer and says in a low voice, “’Your hair…is very orange.’”

“Oh, what about the time he visibly cringed when he saw her putting cream in her coffee?” Gutner says.

“Or when he said he’d never heard of her music before?” Auruo snickers.

She’d yell at them to get out of her dressing room, but she’s trying to keep her temper in check especially when she eventually has to meet up with Levi again. She’d rather never see him again after the disastrous date from last week, but they’ve already signed the contract and she can’t back out of it now. Goddamn variety shows.

“Are you guys done?” she asks through gritted teeth. She stands up from her dresser and brushes herself off. She looks at herself once more in the mirror and frowns at her reflection thinking that Levi will definitely hate her no matter what she looks like. Not that she cares. She’d wear her ugliest clothes, but she’d get a lot of criticism online if she didn’t look perfect. Sighing, she runs her hands through her hair and looks warily at her bandmates. “Besides, it’s our music that he hasn’t heard of. Aren’t you guys the least bit offended? We’ve idolized No Name our entire lives and he’s not even interested in us even after the success of our last album. He could at least pretend to be a little impressed, don’t you think?”

Gunter shrugs. “Everyone knows he’s pretty reclusive. If it were his bandmate Hanji or their drummer Mike, I’d be miffed, but it’s Levi we’re talking about. He doesn’t seem to be interested in anything.” He pats her on the shoulder when her frown deepens and gives her a smile. “It’s just a silly show for fun. I doubt you’re the worst celebrity couple they’ve put on this show.”

“Not according to some people on Twitter,” Eld says as he scrolls through his phone. He chuckles as he reads a few out loud for them. “’Levi and Petra have absolutely NO CHEMISTRY at all.’ ‘Watching Levi and Petra together makes me want to tear my eyes out. They’re so terrible!’ ‘Petra doesn’t deserve to date Levi.’ Oh.” Eld frowns when he comes across a particular tweet. “This person wants to kill you for dating him. That won’t do. Don’t worry, Pet, I got you.”

“If they want to date Levi so badly, they can,” Petra groans as Eld furiously taps away on his phone. She’s stopped reading any tweets involving her lately. While she does get a bunch of tweets about how lucky she is to be dating the No Name front man or compliments about how nice she looks on the show, she’s been bombarded with more insults than she normally is and she’s thinking about staying off all her social media until this is all over and done with. “Don’t they know this isn’t real anyway? It’s just a TV show.”

“Does it matter? It might as well be real. You know about half the celebrities that get paired up on this show end up dating each other in real life?” Auruo says as he leans against her counter. He inspects his nails and grins at her slyly, watching her from the corner of his eye. “I know high school you would be ecstatic at an opportunity to date Levi Ackerman even if it’s just for a variety show. You were over the moon about him, saying that he was the greatest male vocalist in our time and you’d die if you ever met him in real life. I think you even said you’d marry him at one point.”

Petra side-eyes her friend, thinking that it’s unfortunate that one of her bandmates has to be her childhood friend. He knows far too much about her. She’d get rid of him, but he’s terribly good bass guitar player and it’d be a bitch to replace him. “Are you sure you don’t want to marry him instead?” Petra asks him as he splutters and turns beet red. “You certainly seem to have a lot of good things to say about him even now and isn’t your hair cut in the same style as his?”

“Alright, alright,” Gunter says, holding his hands up to signal them to settle down. “It’s not so bad, right? Our sales are going up at any rate, so just try to do your best with him, Petra. It’ll all be over in a few weeks anyway.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Petra mutters. “You don’t have to date him.”

Just then there’s a knock on the door and someone on the outside, probably a studio hand, calling Petra out. She’d rather just stay in her dressing room than go out there and see Levi again, but she is getting paid for this so she might as well just go.

“I’m coming,” she calls, pasting a fake smile on her face as she heads towards the door.

“Good luck, Petra!” Eld calls as she pushes the door open, the rest of the band also sending her off with their own well wishes.

“Looks like your band is optimistic,” smiles the studio hand. It’s Eren Jaeger, the studio intern who had comforted her after she had filmed the first episode. It turns out that while he’s a big fan of No Name (like most people are), he’s also been a fan of Wings of Freedom ever since its conception and talked to her excitedly about how much he looks forward to her band’s new music after she’s done filming for this show.

“Yeah, well,” Petra says, dropping her mask and giving him a weary smile. It’s nice to have an ally in the studio, she thinks. “It can’t really get much worse than last week, right?”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” Eren says with a shrug. He fiddles with the paper on his clipboard with all the tasks on his schedule, folding and unfolding the bottom corner. “I’ve seen interviews he’s done with people he really hates, and he’s nothing like that with you. Besides, you guys might not get along swimmingly, but you definitely have one of the more interesting dynamics this season. I really think the viewers will be rooting for the two of you in a few episodes.”

“Rooting for us to break up and leave the show early,” Petra snorts. She actually contemplated the possibility after the first shooting, but it’d take a chunk out of her earnings. “How much did you guys offer him? It makes sense for me to sign up for something like this. Wings of Freedom might be big now, but it’s still somewhat of a fledgling of a band. I’m sure No Name is well off even without being featured in shows like this.”

Eren scratches the back of his neck and shifts his gaze away from her. “Er, I’m not supposed to know things like that,” he mumbles. “But he must be interested in you somehow if it’s not the money, right? Why else would he sign up for something like this?”

“Because the headshot you used when you were convincing him to pick me was really good?” Petra suggests. When Eren frowns, she ruffles his hair and grins at him. “Don’t worry, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m glad you’re enjoying us though. It’s always good to have a supporter.”

He grins widely back at her and asks her how Wings of Freedom’s second album is coming along as he leads her to the nearby café near the studio that they’re filming at for today’s “date.” It’s the same one that they had gone to in the first episode and unlike a lot of the other celebrity couples that had visited this place, Petra doesn’t have any happy memories here.

“Hey, nice timing!” someone says. When Petra turns, she sees Hanji, the lead guitarist of No Name. They have what looks like a friendly smile on their face, but Petra has no idea why they’d smile at her in that way if they’d seen the last episode. They hold out a hand for Petra to shake and Petra takes it tentatively in hers. “I’m Hanji, but I think you already know that. I’m flattered you find our band such an inspiration! The way that Wings of Freedom is rising up the charts, you’re a real competition to us, you know? It’s good to finally meet you, Petra. Hopefully, I’ll be able to meet all the other members as well!”

“Nice to meet you too?” Petra says. She’d be ecstatic about meeting another member of No Name, but her experience with Levi so far has made her cautious. “What are you doing here?”

“I just want to see how much of a dumpster fire this date’s going to be,” Hanji says casually. When they see Petra reel back in surprise, they laugh and throw an arm around her shoulders. “Hey, don’t worry about it. If it’s terrible, it’s going to be Levi’s fault. That guy’s just difficult to get along with. I should know since I’ve worked with him for years! You couldn’t do anything wrong even if you tried, Petra. You’re adorable. If you want, I could take his place and date you instead.”

Before Petra can say anything, Levi appears from behind Hanji. He reaches up to pinch his band mate’s ear and scowls, “Shut up, Hanji.” To Petra, he says, “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

At least she knows he feels the same way about this.

“Welcome once again to Let’s Fall in Love!, the show where you get to see your favorite celebrities fall in love with each other!” the announcer says, gesturing toward where Levi and Petra sit at the café table. She’s a rather nice woman named Ilse, although Petra’s sure she’d like her better if they hadn’t gotten acquainted on this show. “While it wasn’t love at first sight for them, maybe they’ll find love today at this very same café!”

“It’s good seeing you again,” Petra murmurs. She tries to give him her most genuine smile, but it’s so forced that she’s afraid that he can see right through it.

“Hm,” Levi says in reply, not even bothering to give her a proper response. He looks at her briefly but looks away immediately afterward. It’s probably because he can’t stand the sight of her. If she weren’t on camera, she’d scowl at him.

“Let’s see how well these two know each other now after that first date! They’ll be ordering for each other today by writing it on these napkins, which we’ll give to the barista,” the hostess says with a plastered-on smile. They wave one of the napkins around before placing it in front of Petra. “And we’ll join them while we wait for their drinks to arrive to see the progress they’ve made.”

It’s not a lot of progress, Petra thinks with a grimace. Outwardly, she smiles pleasantly at the hostess and speaks about how great it will be to let others catch up on her relationship with Levi, how much she’s learned about him so far, and how she was looking forward to exploring this relationship with him further. Levi, meanwhile, sits at his end of the table with that perpetual scowl on his face. Looking at it now, it’s difficult for her to understand how she could have ever thought his frown sexy back when she hadn’t known him.

“So, have you and Levi gotten together off-camera after the events of last week?” Ilse asks Petra. Petra’s sure that the woman had intentionally spoken with her first instead of Levi knowing that Petra was far easier to manage than him.

“Unfortunately, no,” Petra says sheepishly. She hopes that she doesn’t look too happy about it. “Both our bands are busy, I’m sure. Wings of Freedom is currently working on our second album, so my bandmates and I are spending as many days in the studio when I’m not busy filming over here.” Even if she did have free time to spend with Levi, she wouldn’t. Not that she’d say that out loud though. It definitely wouldn’t go over well with viewers and Levi already hates her as it is.

“What have you been busy with, Levi?” Ilse asks.

Even though the hostess gives him a polite smile, he only stares back at her with a frosty glare. “Rehearsing for the No Name’s upcoming tour,” he replies, not even bothering to give her his answer in a complete sentence.

“Wow, you two have some much in common. It’s a shame that you don’t spend more time together. I’m sure you’d hit it off even more if you did,” Ilse says, but even Petra can tell that she’s finding Levi difficult to handle from her strained smile. The hostess pulls out a small deck of index cards from her pocket, tapping them against the table as she turns once again to Petra. “Well, we all knew this would happen with two superstars, so let’s play a little game! I’ll ask you a few questions about your partner and you’ll answer. Even if you get it wrong, you’ll still be getting to know each other!”

Petra laughs weakly. It seems that Levi has similar feelings because he’s looking like he’d rather die than stay here and play a get-to-know-you game.

“Sounds fun,” Petra says, sitting up and folding her hands in front of her. She gives Ilse a cheerful smile. “I don’t mind starting.”

“Great!” Ilse says. It might just be Petra’s imagination, but Ilse looks a little relieved. Their hostess clears her throat and glances at the first card before saying, “We all know that you and your band are huge fans of No Name and consider them to be a big inspiration for you, so I expect some of these questions to be a breeze for you, Petra. First question: When is Levi’s birthday?”

“December 25th,” Petra says without hesitation. She notices that both Ilse and Levi are staring at her, probably surprised because she answered so quickly. Is it really that surprising though? She is a fan…or at least she was one. Refusing to be embarrassed, Petra reaches up to pat her hair down for any stray hairs and laughs nervously. “It’s an easy birthday to remember after all.”

“I guess that is true! It’s the same day as Christmas after all,” Ilse laughs. She turns to Levi now, glancing down at the card. “You have a slightly harder question, Levi. Your question is: What year was Petra born?”

His frown deepens, and he looks at Petra and back at Ilse as if one of them will tell him the answer, but none of them budge. He finally takes another long, hard look at Petra before opening his mouth and saying very slowly, “1998?”

It’s more surprising than when Petra answered the question. This is because while Petra took less than a heartbeat to answer and was right, Levi took his time and still was off by half a decade.

“Do you think I’m twenty?” Petra asks. She had been able to resist herself before, but she can’t hold herself back now. She really wants to know if he really thinks she looks twenty or if he’s just really bad at math. She looks at Ilse incredulously. “Do I look like a fetus?”

Even Ilse starts to laugh at her reaction, but Levi looks less amused. He crosses his arms and turns away from her. “You look abnormally young for your age,” he mutters under her breath, but she’s not sure if this is supposed to be a compliment or not.

“I’m very well above the drinking age,” she informs him with a smirk.

He raises an eyebrow and props his elbow on the table, leaning towards her as he asks, “Is that so? How often do you get carded despite that?”

Nearly every goddamn time she has to get drinks, she thinks sorely. When she doesn’t answer, he smiles smugly. She’d feel even more insulted if she weren’t so surprised. She doesn’t think she’s seen him smile at all in front of her until now.

“Alright, alright,” Ilse says, clearing her throat. She nods at the both of them and flips to the next card. “Petra is actually born in 1993, Levi, so at least you got the decade right. Are the two of you ready to move on to the next couple of questions we have for you?”

Petra looks up and meets Levi’s eyes from across the table, but he looks away quickly from her.

“Yeah, whatever,” Levi mumbles. He taps his fingers impatiently on the table. His ears are still red with embarrassment from answering the last question wrong.

For the first time since being on set, Petra thinks that this might just be fun after all.

The rest of the game goes similarly. Whatever question Ilse throws at Petra about Levi, Petra answers flawlessly without much thought. She has impeccable knowledge about all of No Name, Levi included, and she’s aware that she might come off as an obsessed fangirl after this episode comes out, but she doesn’t care at the moment. She’s far too amused by Levi’s inability to answer any of their questions about her at all.

It doesn’t matter what they ask him about her. He gets it wrong every time. With each incorrect answer, he gets more flustered and tongue-tied. He snaps out his answer grumpily whenever Ilse turns to him and scowls whenever she informs him that he’s wrong. He can’t name a single song Petra’s written, where she grew up, or the other bands she listens to aside from No Name. He’s so frazzled that Petra’s sure that if Ilse asked him what her hair color was he’d get it wrong even though she’s sitting right across from him.

“Petra, what’s the first song that Levi wrote for No Name?” Ilse asks her.

“’The Reluctant Heroes,’” Petra says easily. She glances over at Levi who scowls at her once more. She only shrugs and smiles in reply.

“Correct once again! You really weren’t kidding when you said you loved No Name. I’m sure Levi is flattered to be with such a talented artist and dedicated fan,” Ilse says, not at all noticing the glower on Levi’s face. To Levi, she asks, “Final question is for you Levi. What is the name of the song Petra and her band Wings of Freedom covered that helped propel them into mainstream success?”

Petra sits up, smirking at Levi because she’s sure that he’s going to get this answer wrong as well, but he has the oddest look on his face. The hardened gaze of his is gone and his expression has softened. Gone is his frustration and impatience, and he looks at her quietly before answering in a quiet voice, “’Call Your Name.’”

“That’s right! After covering No Name’s best-selling single ‘Call Your Name,’ Wings of Freedom began to catch other people’s attention and helped lead them on the road to success,” Ilse says happily. “While you might not know a lot about Petra now, you’ve certainly learned a lot about her today, Levi, and it’s good to see that you at least know something about her.”

Levi doesn’t reply and instead continues to look at Petra, who finds herself blushing. She’s not sure if it’s because he’s looking at her with such a soft expression or because she’s finally being acknowledged by her childhood idol or some other third reason she doesn’t even want to think about at this moment, but his gaze makes her turn away.

“It was a really…it was a good cover,” she hears Levi says. “Beautiful.”

She can feel her face burst into flames. “Thanks,” she mumbles.”

A waitress finally comes by to hand them their drinks. What good timing. They’ve taken far longer than they should, and Petra suspects that they delayed the orders to allow more time for the game. These stupid shows and their stupid games, she thinks with a sigh.

The black coffee Petra had ordered for Levi sits in front of him and Petra finds her own drink set in front of her. It’s a mocha topped with a generous amount of whipped cream and sprinkled with cinnamon and chocolate swirls. Just looking at it makes her feel like she has a cavity and she looks over at Levi confusedly.

“Well,” Ilse says, clapping her hands together and looking from Petra to Levi again. Petra wonders if the hostess is ever tired of acting so excited for these things. “You have your drinks in front of you. Tell us how you like them! Levi, did Petra make the right choice for you? I wouldn’t be surprised if she did!”

Levi takes an awkward sip in front of the camera, pausing before he answers to taste the coffee. Somehow, he’s shocked, and he gives Petra a suspicious glare as if she shouldn’t know his coffee preferences despite her showing how knowledgeable she is about him and going on a coffee date with her last week where he ordered the exact same thing. “It’s good,” Levi finally says.

“And you, Petra?” Ilse asks eagerly. She gestures at the cup in front of Petra, motioning at her to take a sip.

“Ah,” Petra says with a nervous laugh. It’s not that she doesn’t like sweet things, but she doesn’t like overly sweet coffee. If she wanted something sweet and chocolatey, she would have just ordered a hot chocolate. Still, she doesn’t want to seem rude and hesitantly picks up the cup and holds it to her lips. It’s even sweeter that she had thought it would be, and she begins to choke from the taste of it. “Oh, it’s…it’s very sweet,” Petra coughs.

She’s not sure why, but Levi looks hurt. How strange.

“I don’t usually drink such sweet things,” Petra says apologetically, but she’s not sure if she should say this to Ilse or Levi so she just awkwardly speaks to the space between them. “It’s not bad though…it’s…nice.”

Ilse laughs at her response. “Well, I’m glad you can still enjoy it even though it’s not quite to your liking. Thanks for joining Levi and Petra once again on their romantic journey. Let’s hope that Levi can get to know Petra even more in the upcoming weeks!”

Once the cameras are finished rolling, Ilse sighs and rips off her mic. Smiling at Petra, she says, “Thanks for playing along so well, Petra. And thanks for your participation today too, Levi – ah.”

Levi has already torn off his microphone and stalked out of the café without so much as a goodbye. Petra does notice that he did take his coffee with him though.

She should really stay behind and talk with Ilse for a while, thank her for being such a wonderful host, but she really wants to chase after Levi and ask him something, so she smiles apologetically at Ilse and excuses herself, saying that she’ll catch up with her sometime during the week.

When she catches up with Levi, she sees him being held back by Hanji. Or Hanji’s trying to hold him back. Levi’s managing to walk quite well despite having to drag along another person behind him.

“Why’d you run away? Go back!” Hanji tells him. “Don’t you want to talk to Petra some more?”

“No, I don’t want to talk to her,” Levi says, trying to shake Hanji off.

“Should I go back then?” Petra says amusedly. While Hanji looks at her with an expression of pleasant surprise, Levi looks incredibly horrified. “Sorry. I just wanted to talk to you for a little bit, but I can just see you next week if you’d rather not see me.”

“I can talk to you, Petra!” Hanji says, letting go of Levi. They wrap an arm around her and grin down at her. “Levi’s always a grouch, so don’t mind him. I’m much better company than he is!”

Levi sighs and stomps over to where they are, pulling Hanji off Petra and glaring. “It’s fine. I’ll talk to her. Just…go back to the hotel and talk to Mike or something,” he grumbles at Hanji. When he looks at Petra, she sees that his face is flushed the same way it was when they were at the café together. He’s starting to look a little less mean-looking, Petra thinks. To Petra, he asks, “What did you want to talk about?”

“The cover my band did,” she says. “Did you really listen to it?”

“Yeah. Hanji made me listen to it during rehearsal last week.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and turns away from her. “It was good. It was really good. I was going to sit and listen to your album, but I haven’t got the chance to do that yet.”

“Oh, I’m glad you liked it. I didn’t think you’d be interested in listening to my band,” Petra laughs. She’s starting to think that although he’s difficult to get along with at first, he’s not a bad person. Maybe this won’t be so unbearable after all.

“Why not?” Levi asks, looking at her with a furrowed brow. “Your voice is beautiful.”

“Huh?” she says stupidly. It’s difficult to believe he’s complimented when she had firmly believed he hated her only an hour ago. She’s blushing more than she usually would if any other person had said the same words to her and she covers her cheeks with her hands in an unsubtle attempt to hide her blush. “Ah, that’s…I’m so happy…”

“Hm” is all Levi says. He continues to look at her, his expression curious now, and she remembers why she had swooned over him back in her high school days.

“Er, I have to go now,” Petra says, desperate for an excuse to escape. She doesn’t reconvene with her band until tomorrow, but it’s not like Levi knows that. She doesn’t even know he says goodbye to her because she’s already run away.

She doesn’t think she hates him anymore though. No, she’s pretty sure she doesn’t. She’s not sure how she feels exactly, but she does know that there’s a part of her that looks forward to seeing him next weekend even though this relationship isn’t really real.

#rivetra #petra ral #levi ackerman #dating show au #snk #requests #asks #answered #anon #anonymous #hanji zoe #auruo bossard #eld jinn #Gunter Schultz

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gaiyofanfiction · 7 years

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Too Late Pt. 2

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Alternate Ending

J-hope x Reader

Much Angst

A/N: Omg, I got so much love for my first part! Thank you all so much! This next part is almost twice as long. I actually wanted to put more in this but it would have made it too long so I’ll have to put the rest in the next chapter. I hope you all like it! Thank you! ~Yosei

Too Late Pt. 2:

After about an hour of having a panic attack, you've calm down enough to tell them what's wrong. You try not to cry again but you could help the tears falling. They're silent for a moment, taking in everything you said. Suddenly, Yoongi punches the wall next to him, making the three of you jump.

“That bastard. What is wrong with him?!” He growls.

You shake your head and try to calm him down. “It's not his fault. It's mine. I was too late.” You drop your head in your hands.

Jungkook grabs your hands while Taehyung rubs your back. “It's not your fault. It was pretty obvious how you felt about him. He's just too dense to notice.”

Sighing, you stand up with Jungkook’s help and walk yourself to the couch. “I guess I was too late. It's probably time for me to move on.”

“Y/N, you need to tell him. You deserve some kind of closure, if anything. It's been 10 years, for fucks sake.” Taehyung scolds you.

You glare at him. “No. I don't want him to know. Not anymore. I'd rather not have my heart break anymore than it already has. So just drop it already.”

The three boys glance at each other with concerned looks on their faces. You stand up once more and hobble to the door. “I'm going home. I just want to sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning.”

Before you can even make it to the door, Yoongi picks you up and takes you to his room. “I don't think so. You aren't going to be staying by yourself.”

You struggle in his arms but he holds on tighter. “Min Yoongi, let me go. I want to be alone right now.”

He shakes his head and drops you on his bed. “Hell no. I'm not risking my best friend hurting herself because of this. Not again.” He gestures to the scratches on your arm.

You hide your arm behind you, ashamed to have done that in front of your friends. Yoongi’s eyes soften and places a small kiss on your forehead. “Sleep, Y/N. Please. We'll be out here if you need it.”

You nod silently and watch as the door closes. You lay down and stare at the ceiling. The only thing you can think about is Hoseok. God, why did you have to fall in love with your best friend? Does he even consider you his best friend anymore? He only called you his friend. The more you think about it, the worse your depression gets. You close your eyes, trying to think about anything but him.

Once Yoongi closes the door he sighs from exhaustion. He pushes himself towards the two youngest, who are silent with worry.

“Hyung, what are we going to do?” Jungkook wipes his tears. He hates seeing any of his friends cry, especially you.

Yoongi shakes his head. “I don't know but the only thing I want to do right now is punch Hoseok in the face. He's been ditching us, his friends for all his life, for this girl he just met? And lying about it too.”

Taehyung clenches his fists. “I know he loves her. Why doesn't he say anything? It's so fucking obvious he does.”

“I don't know what his damage is, but I'm about done with this too.” Suddenly Yoongi's phone rings. He looks at the caller ID and scoffs. “Speak of the devil.” He answers and puts the phone on speaker for the two boys, but not loud enough for you to hear.

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“Damn, Yoongi. What got your panties in a bunch? Somebody wake you up from your nap?”

Yoongi rolls his eyes to the boys. “Oh just shut up. We haven't heard from you in days. What's up now?”

“So Y/N was just here. Do you know anything about that?”

Jungkook's eyes widen and he shakes his head, informing Yoongi not to say anything.

“Nope, I have no clue. We were all just playing games and she left to go home.”

“Well, alright… hey, so I wanted to ask you… um, could you guys come over this weekend? I wanted you to meet someone.”

Yoongi narrows his eyes, knowing exactly who he wants them to meet. “Well, Tae, Kook, Y/N and I had plans. But I guess you could bring her over here.”

There's silence on the other end before he speaks. “Oh. Yeah sure. I can do that.”

“Okay cool see you Friday.” He hangs up the phone before Hoseok could say anything else.

Taehyung whistles. “Wow, Yoongi-Hyung. Savage.”

Yoongi grumbles. “He's ditched us all for a girl. All of us. That includes you two.”

Jungkook and Taehyung nodded, knowing how much it sucked that their best friend has been lying lately.

Yoongi sighs and grabs a pillow and blanket, throwing them on the couch. He glances at Jungkook and Taehyung. “You guys staying over too?”

They both nod, not wanting to leave you in case something happens. Yoongi throws then both a pillow and blanket, which they set up on the floor. But none of them can sleep as they hear you crying in the other room.

“Yoongi, I don't know if I can do this.” You mumble into the couch as you lay face down. He waited til Friday to tell you they were coming over.

“Don't worry, Y/N. It'll be fine. Us three will be here too.” Yoongi tries to convince you. But he knows this is probably a terrible idea.

“Come on, Y/N. Let's play. It'll take your mind off things.” Jungkook pats the floor next to him. You send him a small smile and sit between the two youngest. You grab your laptop and start it up.

Just as the three of you entered into the deathmatch, the doorbell rings. Instantly, you jump up, your anxiety flaring up. Jungkook places his hand on your knee, trying to calm you down. “Just focus on the game. Don't even look at them.”

You nod and turn your attention back to the screen. You hear Yoongi’s footsteps and then the click of the front door.

“Yo, how's it going?” hearing Hoseok’s voice made your chest hurt. You you try to pay attention to the game in front of you.

“Hi,” Yoongi deadpans. He gestures into the room. Both Hoseok and Mina sit on the couch while Yoongi sits in the chair closest to you.

“Hey, Kook, Tae, Y/N. How have you been?” Hoseok asks. You can almost hear the smile in his voice. You try not to turn towards him.

“We're good.” Taehyung says shortly. Hoseok looks around awkwardly, wondering why everyone is acting weird.

“So, um, this is my new girlfriend. Mina.”

The girl waves shyly. “Hi. Nice to meet you all.”

You, Taehyung, and Jungkook nod in response, too focused on the game. Hoseok furrows his eyebrows, wondering why you're all being so rude.

“Y/N, that was a cheap shot!” Jungkook pushes you over. You had just headshot him while he was trapped by Taehyung’s Junkrat trap. “And you stole Tae's kill!”

You push him back, giggling. “Welp, my kill now, bitches.”

Hoseok and Mina watch the interaction between the two of you. “So, are you two together?” Mina asks you and Jungkook.

Yoongi chokes on his water and Taehyung almost dropped his laptop. Jungkook and you both look at each other.

“What? No. Ew.” You both say at the same time. That made you both burst into laughter, followed by Taehyung and a chuckling Yoongi.

“Hell no, those two would not make a good couple.” Yoongi wipes the water from his lips.

“Oh. Why not?” She asks. Hoseok looks uncomfortable, confused by the interactions.

“He's like my annoying younger brother.” You mumble to her, getting back to the game.

“Oh,” is all she says.

Hoseok speaks up. “Hey guys, can I get in on the next game?”

Taehyung hesitates before saying. “Sorry, hyung. But all the laptops are in use.”

“Oh. That's alright,” he laughs awkwardly.

Yoongi, Hoseok and Mina talk for most of the time while you, Jungkook and Taehyung play. Unfortunately for you, you could see Hoseok and Mins reflection in your laptop. They kept looking at each other and smiling, giving each other kisses and Hoseok rubbing her legs. Finally you saw Hoseok mouth 'I love you’ to her and that was the last straw.

You quickly stand up, knocking the laptop over and surprising everyone. “I-I need some air.” with that, you almost run out the door, slamming it behind you.

Before Hoseok says anything, Yoongi stands up. “I'll go find her.” Shutting up Hoseok and following you out the door.

He finds you hyperventilating against the tree in front. He walks and squats down in front of you and moves your hair out of your face.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” He asks out of concern.

You shake your head and grab Yoongi's hand to hold. “H-he said ‘I love you’ to her. Only after a few weeks. He's known me for over 10 years. I'm so sorry Yoongi. I thought I could do this but I just can't.”

Yoongi's grip on your hand tightens. You look up to see his face filled with rage. “He actually said that?”

You shake your head and pat his shoulder. “Yoongi, it's alright. I'm not entitled to his love just because I'm his friend. I just wish he could see me instead of other girls for once.” Your voice gets quieter as you say the last part.

Yoongi doesn't say anything. He just pulls you into his body and hug you tightly. You let out a quiet sob and hug him back tighter.

You pull back and smile at him. “I think I'm going to go home now, if that's okay. I'm just not feeling up to anything.” You stand up and brush yourself off.

Yoongi nods and gives you a small kiss on the forehead. “Please call or text me if you need anything.”

You say goodbye and turn to walk home. Yoongi watches you with sad eyes. He hated seeing you like this. All he ever wanted to do was protect you but how can he protect you from this?

The more he thinks about it, the angrier he gets. Cluching his fists, he re-enters the house. Hoseok quickly stands up, seeming worried. “Where's Y/N? Is she okay?”

Yoongi glares at his friend, who is confused by the glare. “She went home. She wasn't feeling good.”

Mina pulls Hoseok down on her lap, wanting his attention back. Yoongi grinds his teeth, already making a decision. “Alright, you two. Get out,” he points to Hoseok and Mina.

Hoseok furrows his brows. “What? What do you mean get out?”

“Exactly what I said. Get. Out. I'm tired and want to sleep.”

Hoseok points to Jungkook and Taehyung. “How come they don't have to leave?”

“Because they're staying the night and don't have any girlfriends they have to take care of.” Yoongi opens the door and points to the outside. “Now get out.”

Hoseok takes Mina’s hand and leads her to the door. He looks back once more at his long time friends. Yoongi's face full of anger, Taehyung’s face filled with annoyance and Jungkook's face filled with pity. He sighs and ushers Mina out, not looking back.

Back at your house, you lay face up on your head, staring at the ceiling. You wanted to cry more but it seems like you have no more tears to give. Sighing, you take out your phone and notice you had 10 missed calls and 6 missed texts. You had put your phone on silent, seeing as you were with the one people who talk to you. You open up the texts and your stomach sinks as you see who had msged you.

Hobi <3: Hey, where did you go? Are you okay?

Hobi <3: What happened out there? Yoongi suddenly kicked us out of his place.

Hobi <3: Y/N why won't you talk to me? Are you mad at me or something?

Hobi <3: Please tell me if I did anything. I don't want my best friend to hate me.

Hobi <3: Please talk to me. I miss being around you and talking to you.

Hobi <3: Well I guess this is goodnight. I hope you're okay. I love you.

You throw your phone at the wall after reading that last message. You know he doesn't mean it like that. He only means it as a friend. You want to scream but the only thing that comes out is a squeak. 'I’m so tired. Emotionally and physically. I can't do it anymore.’

At this moment, you swore to yourself you would get over him. You would get over Jung Hoseok.

Yoongi lays on the couch watching Jungkook and Taehyung play Call Of Duty. “Man, do you ever do anything other than play video games?”

“Man, do you ever do anything other than sleep?” Jungkook mocks, not taking his eyes off the TV.

Yoongi throws a pillow, hitting Jungkook square in the back of the head. “Hey!” He throws the pillow back.

“Why do you two have to be playing so early anyway?”

Taehyung raises an eyebrow. “Hyung, it's 2 in the afternoon.”

Yoongi yawns, “so? It's my day off. I can sleep as long as I want to.”

Before anyone could respond, there's a knock at the door. Yoongi groans as he stands up. “Who the hell could this be?” Yoongi slumps over to the door and opens it. Standing there is none other than Jung Hoseok.

“What are you doing here?” Yoongi scowls.

Hoseok furrows his eyebrows and tries to ignore Yoongi’s rudeness. “Um, I was wondering if Y/N was here? I’ve been trying to call and text her but she’s not answering me.”

Yoongi shrugs, not surprised that you don’t want to talk to him. “Nope, she’s not here. Goodbye.” He tries to close the door but Hoseok sticks his foot in. Being slightly stronger than Yoongi, he pushes through the door. He sees Jungkook and Taehyung playing Call Of Duty. He looks at the three of his best friends with hurt and confusion.

“So this is how it is then? I’m finally out of the group?”

Yoongi sighs and sits back on the couch. “I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

“Dude, you guys have been shutting me out lately! You’re making plans without inviting me. Y/N won’t talk to me. You guys are acting like I either don’t exist or are an annoyance to all of you. We’ve been friends for over 10 years, what’s happened?!”

Taehyung pauses the game and turns to Hoseok, anger passing through his eyes. “Oh yeah? You think we’ve cut you out, huh? I don’t think you’ve realized who was the one who had cut the other person first.”

“What do you mean?”

Jungkook glances at Hoseok. “He means that you haven’t been around, Hoseok.”

He throws his hands up in the air. “What do you mean I haven’t been around?! I’ve been right here! Only a few blocks away! I could have seen you guys at anytime!”

Yoongi glares at Hoseok, his temper rising. “Yes, you could have. But you didn’t. Not only have you constantly been ditching us everytime we asked you to hang out, but you’ve been lying to us WHY you can’t hang out! You’ve said you had work or you had dance practice. But when Y/N went over the other day, she saw you with your girlfriend. You’ve been ditching us for a girl you’ve just met!”

It’s Hoseok’s turn to glare at Yoongi. “So what! I have a girlfriend. I’m allowed to be in relationships, you know! Maybe you should get off your ass and find yourself someone too!”

Yoongi stands up, getting into Hoseok’s face. “You know, you’ve turned into a real asshole. And you mention Y/N Coming over the other day. Do you even know what she wanted to talk about?”

Hoseok snarls at Yoongi. “I have no fucking clue why she was there! She was being fucking rude and decided to walk away as I was talking to her! She barely even acknowledged my girlfriend when she said hi! God, maybe hanging out with the three of you turned her into a bitch too.”

That’s when Yoongi took a swing at Hoseok, knocking him back. Jungkook and Taehyung gasp and grab Yoongi’s arms to hold him back. “You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about! God, you’re so fucking dense you can’t even see it! You can’t even SEE how much she’s been suffering!”

Jungkook’s eyes widen, “Hyung, she told you she didn’t want us saying anything to him. I don’t think this is a good idea.” He warns Yoongi.

Hoseok wipes the bloods off his lips. “What do you mean? What doesn’t she want doesn’t she want me to know! Is she sick?! Is she okay?!” He demands.

Yoongi push Jungkook and Taehyung off him. Finally his anger gets the best of him. “Get off me. I’ve had enough of this bullshit, I don’t care if she hates me, this has to fucking stop!” He turns to Hoseok. “No she’s not okay! You don’t fucking get it, do you! Wake the fuck up, Hoseok and see what’s right in front of you! CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT Y/N HAS BEEN DOING THE PAST 10 YEARS?”

Hoseok shakes his head, his anxiety growing.

Yoongi loudly groans and throws his phone at the wall, making the other boys jump. “CAN YOU GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS FOR ONCE AND SEE THAT SHE’S IN LOVE WITH YOU?!”

Hoseok freezes. His eyes widen and his arms drop to his side. “Y-Y/N’s in love with me?”

Yoongi chuckles, not believing that Hoseok is this stupid. “Yeah, I have no fucking clue WHY she’s in love with you, but she is.” He glares at the man in front of him. “She’s been in love with you for the last 10 years.”

[Masterlist]

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thedeaditeslayer · 7 years

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TDS Exclusive: Interview with Ash vs. Evil Dead actress Arielle Carver-O’Neill

Below is a transcribed interview done over the phone with Australian actress Arielle Carver-O’Neill. Arielle started her career in small television roles and is know for Suburbs, Worst Year of my Life, Again! and Ash vs. Evil Dead.

Arielle Carver-O’Neill as Brandy in Ash vs. Evil Dead. (image courtesy of Starz)

Q: First off, could you tell us what inspired you to be an actress and how you made it in the industry?

A: I’ve always wanted to do it. It’s probably boring but I’ve never had that moment where I really thought that’s what I want to do. It’s kind of always been there. I’ve always loved it. I got an agent in Australia when I was fifteen. I did a couple of guest roles on some Australian shows. I got another agent when I was eighteen who I am with now and she is brilliant and then I got a manager in America through her. He’s great.

I did audition after audition after audition and got no, no and no and then suddenly yes came along. I could not be told better since I mean this show is incredible. I’ve learned more than I could than on five other productions. It did so much for me here. The great thing about Ash vs. Evil Dead is that it’s every genre. There’s drama, comedy, action and horror and you’re working with practical effects and effects that get put in later. I don’t know any other thing on TV or film where you get to experiment and work on pretty much every style of film-making. I’m incredibly lucky to be a part of that.

A recent headshot of Arielle Carver-O’Neill. (source)

Q: How would you compare working on a TV set for Ash vs. Evil Dead in New Zealand than to one in Australia?

A: It moves a lot faster on Ash vs. Evil Dead. I feel like a lot got done very quickly. The things that I’ve worked on in Australia have been small parts. I’ve only been on sets for two weeks max. There’s one project that I did six weeks on but it was spread out over a few months. The difference with Ash vs. Evil Dead is that I was there all the time. I was on set pretty much every day of the entire shoot. That was a new experience for me and having elaborate sets that were so well made was amazing. There were three different studios. The incredible work by the art department just showed off the enormity of it. It was definitely different and it was fantastic. I do wish that I got to see more of New Zealand though. I’ll have to go back!

Q: Can you tell us how you got cast as Brandy in Ash vs. Evil Dead?

A: I got sent in an audition from America so I filmed it in Australia and had it sent off. Within a couple of weeks, I got a call and I was flying in to New Zealand to meet Rob Tapert, Rick Jacobson and Moira Grant. They gave me a tour of the set and introduced me to a bunch of the production people. It was amazing but at the same time as I was walking around I was thinking that I better get this because if I’ve been introduced to anybody and I don’t get this then it’s going to be pretty embarrassing! I ended up getting it obviously and it was awesome and I had my second and final audition on my trip there with Rick and also a guy that was coaching. I had a lot of fun working with them and even meeting in the audition room. They created such a cool character for me to play. It was a lot of fun.

Arielle Carver-O’Neill poses as Brandy in this promo photo for Ash vs. Evil Dead. (Courtesy of Starz)

Q: Do you relate to Brandy and how would you best describe her character?

A: Brandy is more of a rebel than I am. She had a few issues growing up where you know, smoking weed in the school halls and going to detention. She knows who she is and she’s very much her own person. She knows what she wants. She wants to get out of Elk Grove. She never feels like she belongs there. She feels like she’s an outcast and that she’s out of place. She doesn’t belong with these people which I think that Ash has felt too. I love playing Brandy and unfortunately, she gets dragged into the fight versus evil in an entertaining but very traumatic way. As a result, her entire reality and everything that she’s ever known is completely shattered. The world is not what she thought it was for the past seventeen years. Not only demons are ready to kill her for real but now she has a father. He has one hand and he has a chainsaw on his stump and he’s saying “It’s not me! It’s the demons who did it!” It’s an adjustment period for her and also a grieving period so she’s very confused. She’s also the kind of person who doesn’t trust easily. She needs to go out there for herself and find out what’s real and what’s the truth and what it means for her on her own. She’s very independent like that. As a result, you do discover some similarities between her and Ash. They have the same sense of humor. They both have that Williams stuff in them. Brandy thinks later and Ash thinks never. I think that she’s a little smarter than him and a bit more responsible but he actually does a surprisingly good attempt at fathering.

Q. Are you into horror and how much did you know about Evil Dead before casting for the part of Brandy?

A: I knew of the franchise and I knew of the show. I’ve heard that both of them are awesome. I knew a lot of fans of them but I’ve never seen them before. When I was younger I saw Scary Movie and it traumatized me! I got nightmares for a week. I thought that if I can’t handle a spoof comedy like Scary Movie then there’s no way that I can handle like real horror. From then on, I kind of steered clear but then I got the audition so I was engaged in research. I watched the TV series and from the first episode, I could not stop. I had to keep watching. It was fantastic. Yes, there was horror and it was terrifying but it was so original and ridiculous at times and hilarious. It’s so much fun that it made horror watchable for me and it turned me into a horror fan. Now I can handle watching horror films and actually enjoy them because of this show. I think that is something that is very special and I feel like it’s only this show. There’s really nothing else like it out there that does it as well as Ash vs. Evil Dead does.

Q: What’s it like working opposite of Bruce Campbell and did he ever give you any advice?

A: He did actually the second I met him. The first thing that he told me is if you’re not having fun then you’re doing it wrong. I think that is the best advice that I could have been given for a lead role in an American series because it is a lot of work. You do get tired especially when you’re doing all the genres in one show. That was great advice. I definitely had fun and I kept reminding myself to have fun and to have a great experience. I mean he’s an icon and so is Lucy Lawless so I was working with a king and a goddess well so it doesn’t get much better than that.

Arielle Carver-O’Neill acts alongside Bruce Campbell as Ash in Ash vs. Evil Dead. (courtesy of Starz)

Q: The moment that you signed on as Brandy it was apparent that you had to buckle down for the show’s gory effects. What did you do to prepare for this and was the experience what you expected?

A: I don’t think that I could have expected anything that happened on the show. I mean it was probably even better than I expected. After I met everybody on the show including the crew I was just so pleasantly surprised at how wonderful every single person was. They were so generous and supportive and they were incredibly fun to work with. I think that’s something that doesn’t happen on every set. That in itself was an amazing experience. I’d read the table reads and I’d be like what is my job? The things that they write in the script are just out of this world. There’s no way that I could have expected any of those things to happen. Yeah, I guess that I could have never really prepared myself for any of it.

TDS: I guess that it’s hard to really prepare for buckets and gallons of blood being dumped on you right!

A: You can’t prepare for that. They’re just going to do whatever they do and then you’re in shock. Just every time it’s just shock! There’s no being casual about it. It’s always a shock every time that blood hits you.

Arielle Carver-O’Neill as Brandy gets in on some deadite action in Ash vs. Evil Dead. (courtesy of Starz)

Q: Did the experience on Ash vs. Evil Dead give you a different outlook on the horror genre?

A: Oh definitely. I enjoy horror a whole lot more now. It made it watchable for me. It made horror attainable for someone who couldn’t handle horror especially by working on the show and seeing how it’s made. It also makes it easier to watch I think and it doesn’t take away from it. I’d love to make more horror stuff because I think horror is just so much fun. That genre in itself is grear and Ash vs Evil Dead has other genres to it as well. It’s even more fun because you get to play in every arena. I’m a new fan of horror because of this show.

TDS: Thank you so much for taking your time to speak with us! Do you have anything that you would like to share with TDS followers?

A: I want to say thank you to them all. I wouldn’t be here without any of you and none of us would. It’s just so incredibly humbling, exciting, and nerve racking to be a part of such an incredible family of fans. Everybody loves this show and the franchise so much and they’re so dedicated. I’ve not been a part of something this huge and beautiful. I just feel so honored to be here. Thank you for welcoming me and the family of Ash vs. Evil Dead.

From left to right: Lindsay Farris, Dana DeLorenzo, Arielle Carver-O’Neill, Ray Santiago and Bruce Campbell at the 2017 New York Comicon. (source)

Thank you greatly to Starz and Arielle Carver-O’Neill for the wonderful interview!

Visit the Starz Ash vs. Evil Dead official website here.

Visit Arielle Carver-O’Neill’s IMDb here.

#Arielle Carver-O'Neill #Arielle Carver O'Neill #Starz #Ash vs. Evil Dead #Ash vs Evil Dead #Lionsgate

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tisfan · 7 years

Note

Ooohh holiday prompts! Either 'invitation' or 'parade' for Winteriron please!

“Hey,is this Bucky Barnes, from Bucky’sBroken-heart Blog?” the voice onthe phone was chipper, excited, and spoke as if the guy had drunk entirely toomany venti frappes in a row.

Bucky held his cell phone away fromhis ear for a moment to glare at the screen. What the hell? Okay, so his phonenumber technically was listed in the bio section of his blog, but who the fuckever looked at that, and for that matter, why the hell was someone calling himabout his blog? Most people who bothered to call him were bill collectors andhis mom.

“Yes?” Bucky said.

“You sound uncertain,” the mansaid. “You answer ‘how to get over your ex’ letters on the internet?”

“Yes,” Bucky said, again. That muchwas true, he did do that. It had started as a joke, really, him screaming intothe void about his journey to get over Alexander Pierce, and then later makingdark humor jokes about his ex, and then later, answering self-help sort ofquestions from other people with similar problems.

He’d ended up being able tomonetize bitching about Alex in a public forum, and somehow, that had ended upbeing the best revenge ever.

“This is Tony Stark, DJ with WBAC,the Wayback FM, 98.3 on your dial for your smiles,” the man said, “and I’d loveto have you come in for an interview on our morning show, for the localcommute… we’d compensate you for your time, of course.”

Bucky held the phone out again,stared blankly. “Did I get an invitation to do a radio show? Is that what thisis?” Did people even listen to the radio anymore? Bucky was a Pandorasubscriber, and his friend Steve was constantly arguing that Spotify was betterif you liked Indie bands. (Bucky didn’t, really. He liked music that he wasfamiliar with, so he could just tune it into the background and sing, insteadof having to look up lyrics online – and while he was thinking about it, hefelt bad for people who used to listen to the radio before the internet, andmaybe he should be jotting these things down, because music was a big thing inboth relationships and post-relationships, and there were certain songs he’dlistened to after Alex proved himself to be a cheating bastard of a boyfriend…and maybe he should pay attention, because the guy on the phone was asking ifthe call had been dropped.)

“Sorry,” Bucky said. He wasn’t,really. Who the hell talked on the phone these days, either? “I got lost in myown thoughts.”

“Oh, well, that happens to the bestof us. Anyway, come on down to the studio – is Wednesday two weeks fromtomorrow too early –” pause “–great, we’ll do that, Wednesday at 6am, andwe’ll work you in. Compensation, I said that, right? Write you a check and feedyou donuts. Great! See you then!”

Bucky sighed. Apparently he wasdoing a radio interview. At least he probably didn’t have to dress up.

Turned out that Tony Stark, themorning DJ, was actually pretty funny, even if Bucky resented the fuck out ofhaving to get up early in the morning to listen to the show. (What the fuckeven was morning? He was a blogger for fuck’s sake. He didn’t do mornings!)He and his co-host, Pepper Potts, did a rapid patter that was entertaining andslick. And, a point in the station’s favor; they didn’t do the typicaldumb-guy, smart-girl routine. In the days that Bucky managed to wake up enoughto listen to the show, Pepper definitely came across as the sane host, and Tonywas the crazy guy who was up for anything, but neither of them wascondescending to the other, even in jest.

Tony did have a group of excitablefans that called themselves the Tony Stark Defense Squad; every day that Buckylistened, at least one of them called in to the show, usually to gush about anevent Tony had attended, or how sweet, smart, and brave Tony was. There wassome history there that Bucky wasn’t getting, obviously.

And there were no punch-down jokes,which Bucky appreciated. He’d had his entire sexuality made out as a punchlinefor a lot of his life, so not hearing any cracks on women, gays, people ofcolor, etc, made him pretty happy. (Well, as happy as he could be at seven inthe damn morning. Tony better have quality donuts. And coffee.)

By the time Bucky was ready to goon the show, he had to admit, he kinda had a little bitty crush on Tony Stark.Which was entirely doomed, he knew that. Everyone had heard the phrase “a facefor radio” and Tony probably didn’t look anything like what Bucky wasimagining. And, of course, the real Tony probably wasn’t much like radio Tony,even like Bucky wasn’t entirely like his blog persona.

The one who had his life togetherand who dared to give advice as if he was qualified for it. But whenever hisreaders wrote to tell him how much just having someone that listened, andcared, about their heartbreak, helped them, he couldn’t give it up. No matterhow much of a faker he felt he was.

He arrived at the station, day ofthe interview, a little early. He wouldn’t confess under threat of torture thathe’d mapped out his route twice on google maps, and had made the drive once,just to make sure. Bucky didn’t usually… go places. He had his routine downthat included getting a local service to deliver his groceries (he bought wayless Twinkies if he didn’t walk past the display, not to mention chips andstring cheese.) and going out maybe twice a month to anyplace that wasn’tClint’s house, or Steve’s place, or sometimes he did things with Nat when shedecided he needed some sort of cultural exposure, but she always drove for that.

“Hey,” Bucky said to thereceptionist, a skinny kid with a large nametag that read Peter.“I’m James Barnes, I’m here for–”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Barnes, I know,I’ve been waiting for you, thank God you’re here, Mr. Stark’s been climbing thewalls, well, you know, not literallyclimbing the walls, but… let’sget you down to the white room and we’ll do some quick publicity shots whileyou’re still fresh. Mr. Stark tends to frazzle people, so just– yeah, thisway, come on…”

Peter led Bucky down the hall to aroom with a huge light-box. A woman with a comb and a makeup kit did a fewquick adjustments before Peter shooed her away with a “photoshop is a thing!”admonishment. He took a few dozen pictures, headshots, and dynamic poses andthen had Bucky jump into the air a few times to get “action” shots.

Bucky was panting for breath and alittle sweaty by the time Peter directed him to Studio Four. Of course. He wasabsolutely not at his best when he was introduced to the most beautiful manBucky had ever seen.

Why the hell was this guy a radiodisc jockey? He could have been a movie star. Perfect face, gorgeous hair,adorable little goatee. And oh, holy fuck, when he turned around to introduceBucky to the co-host, Pepper, Bucky’s gaze was drawn down to the most beautifulass in history. Like, there should be a monument to that backside.

Pepper, when she shook Bucky’shand, smiled, her eyebrows up, as if she knew exactly what Bucky was thinking.And didn’t exactly disapprove.

“Welcome to the morning show,” shesaid. “Sit down, I’ll get you a donut. Here, look over this list, Tony’s selecteda bunch of breakup songs to play around your interview, let me know if any ofthem are triggering for you, and I’ll strike it off the list. We’ll be on afive minute delay during the interview, so if there’s a question you’reuncomfortable with, or something you don’t want to talk about, just say so, andwe’ll delete that. We’re here to promote you, and entertain our listeners, notmake anyone unhappy.”

“Does everyone around here drinkhigh octane?” Bucky whined, just a little bit plaintive. There was way too muchawake and go-go-go for this early in the morning.

“Yes, yes, we do. Coffee is awonderful thing, divine invention and all that,” Tony said. He pressed a cupinto Bucky’s hand. “And here’s yours. I don’t know how you like it, but we’vegot all the fixings back here. And you’ll sit there; chocolate donut okay? Ofcourse it is, what kind of heathen doesn’t like chocolate, well, aside fromPep, but she’s every sort of heathen, so that answers that question.”

“Yeah, okay, chocolate, yeah, that’s…you’re fine, I’m–”

Tony smirked. “I know I’m fine,” hesaid, winking. “You’re not so bad yourself. Next time, warn a guy, like wow. Iwas expecting a little more basement dweller, little less underwear model.”

“Tony,” Pepper said, shoving herco-host playfully. “Do not flirt with him.”

Tony pouted, giving Pepper, andthen Bucky, an enormous set of brown bambi eyes. Bucky could absolutely havedrowned in those eyes. “Why not? He’s cute. I want one.”

“Well, you can’t have one,” Peppersaid, firmly. “He’s a guest, stop bothering him.”

“I don’t get an opinion, here?”Bucky asked. He couldn’t help grinning. It’d been a while since anyone flirtedwith him at all, much less someone as knock-out gorgeous.

“See? See, it’s fine, we’re fine,come on, interview first, flirt later. Flirt during. Something. We’ll figure itout.”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah, okay. Flirtduring. That’ll be good. I’m off my game here, so by all means, let’s get meall flustered during my first official live broadcast.”

Pepper laughed. “Okay, you’ll dogreat. And I’ll just… stay out of the way.”

Tony flicked a switch in the boothand Little Mix’s Shoutout to my Excame on. “Good lead in, don’t youthink?”

“Sure,” Bucky said.

“Great. Sit down, get comfy, andwe’ll get started,” Tony said.

#winteriron #meet cute #holiday ficlets #stocking stuffers #invitation #Tony Stark #Bucky Barnes #Blogger!Bucky #DJ!Tony #Pepper Potts #Peter Parker #summerpipedream

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violetsystems · 4 years

Text

#personal

There’s always levels to depression in anything. I was reading an article this morning on the “limits of positive thinking.” America has always had this sing song hum to it when it comes to adversity. I’m not talking about we shall overcome. It’s more like “This too shall pass.” My dad is famous for saying this. He’s also famous for thinking every major fashion house is a subsidiary of Polo by Ralph Lauren. When I told my Dad about the job I applied for he said he knew a guy. I did the google search. That guy did indeed work for Ralph Lauren and not the company I applied for. My mom was a little more receptive. I had forwarded her the resume acceptance email. She acknowledged it for about fifteen seconds then turned the conversation towards her car problems for the next four minutes. I call my parents because I am indeed lonely. I reached out on LinkedIn for the first time into my professional past. I connected to about fifteen or so people who could be called upon as references. It feels more like a trial. That’s where the limits to happiness come into play under constant duress. I think psychologically applying for my first real job is more significant than the outcome. The article talks about how people need to be realistic about our goals and expectations. Everything having a silver lining sounds nice and gets you through week after week. But when nobody has any real insight about your struggle, you tend to turn inward. And that is when the depression sets in with varying degrees of intensity. It’s all a foggy notion at best. Where do you go in your career after this? A paycheck, a job, a mission? I paid my rent yesterday. The psychological precipice of how am I going to pay for things isn’t as threatening as it would be for other people. I did have a severance. I am waiting on more. I’ve spent most of my time trying to stay at zero so that I can take a financial breather. Analyze my spending. Figure out exactly how much I need to survive. The encouraging thing about having a resume is that applying for things should be a no brainer. And yet all I see are jobs in the health care industry or some cultish startup black data mining incubators. Work for a law firm. Work for Insurance. Coming from the number two art school in America all these sound horrifying culturally. Staffing agencies and recruiters are a whole other nightmare. In a time this dark, you have the tendency to wish for the light. That your paladin like behavior will some day be rewarded effortlessly. They’ll just know. And how will they if they’ve never done a background check or run your name through a government registry? I’ve already spent two months proving my identity to enough two factor authentication services to know. The only thing positive I’m about is I know somebody knows my birth name and what I’ve been doing with my life the last twenty or so years.

What I don’t know or feel is that anybody really cares. And while I did maybe think somebody out there could empathize, I didn’t want to sit here useless. And so sometimes, trying is about as best as you can do. And after a coffee fueled morning I had already written my resume for a contract position that ghosted without an interview. I made the decision to put a head shot on it. When the algorithm pinged my watch, I saw the logo for the company I was about to apply for. I felt a rush of hope and maybe something else. And I cautioned myself as one should do in these situations. Because I’ve had my heart crushed so many times to know. If nothing ever comes of it, you can’t say I didn’t try. You cannot say I didn’t go to all ends of the earth to connect. And you can’t say the opportunities weren’t there for me to do so. If one door is open, there is most assuredly another way. The reality of the job I applied for is that I will probably be disqualified over the fact I don’t live in Shanghai. Of course, there could be exceptions. Am I prepared to drop everything and go. I have to be. The only difficulty would be the cat I adopted. And I’m sure my mom could watch her while I figure out a way to transport her too. But this is all fairy tales I tell myself when the nightmare I’ve been living is all too real. I connected with elements of my past on LinkedIn more out of ransom. For two months I have had no contact or outreach from my previous life. I’ve tiptoed through the neighborhood around people’s suspicions and emotions. I’ve moved all my plants from the patio so as to not damage the air conditioner. I’ve vigilantly watched the thermostat I pay the utilities for so the troll below me doesn’t whine. I go out to shop and people follow me around in t-shirts advertising lawyers or that I should go get a physical with my COBRA benefits. This is America mind you. It sounds like what you would expect Russia or China to feel like. I’ve been to China a couple of times by myself. I’ve read so many articles from conservative political officials in America who bemoan the risks to privacy the Chinese pose. I literally installed TikTok to remind myself how much of this is a joke to me. An Amazon IT staff member recently had made this sweeping security decision to remove it from all phones in the organization. It was an overreaction at best. What people worry about the communist party spying on is kind of ridiculous when everyone in America is just as nosy if not more. The worst is that they do absolutely nothing with the information. Even if you overshare it. My only hope these days happens to be the algorithms that surround it all. I almost connect to people for the dataset and not the company these days. That’s what networking is all about I guess. The cognitive dissonance of maintaining completely one-sided professional and personal relationships is truly American. So is the double speak. We are free only after we give up all our information and share all our power. And then we’re lucky to be forgotten about.

Putting all those emotions behind me is easy. I have a suitcase. I have a lot of things still to get rid of. I don’t know that this is the most mutually beneficial or holistic answer in these times. Chicago happens to still have one of the only Chinese consulates in the states. It’s fairly easy and cheap to fly to Shanghai if it’s business. I don’t leave my house other than to travel. I have the world’s sickest connection to the internet when it decides to go over 300 megabit. I built a whole home office to support COVID-19 and it generally is now wasted on video games and streaming. My side hobby of investment has definitely seen some improvement. My name is at least on the books at enough companies to know in passing. Some of those in Shanghai. Not enough shares to register a full nod or even blink of an eye. But through this process I came to understand a new way out. People keep following me around like I’m an asset but it never amounts to much other than being bothersome and annoying. I don’t literally have any clue what people think about me. I’m completely alone and shell-shocked one hundred percent of the time. The only things keeping me sane are of my own volition and cost money to survive. Come September when the financial result of all of this is actually more real I could conceivably sit out like I planned until my birthday. This is to say if the right job didn’t come along. What is the right job for somebody like me? Why do I feel picked over like a vulture? You have to go out there and try regardless. And when things aren’t working out your way, you have to find a way to survive. This does not mean you have to find a way to stay positive when the evidence is very real. It’s not just that nobody cares about me here. Nobody respects me at all really other than a major women’s fashion brand. I guess I could work for them too. It definitely feels more realistic than sitting with a bunch of bro-coders who make dick jokes in the workplace and expect you to validate it with a chuckle. If anything I can say clearly is that the email verification was a simple way of saying that I had officially started my job search. I don’t actually feel like the position is far off at all. It was actually one of the only clear and concise job postings I’ve read in the tech industry thus far. Whatever happens I at least know somebody scanned my name and my headshot before it was filed under G. I really hope G stands for good boy and not goddamn this guy really went that far to make a connection. If it is the later of the two scenarios I at least know somebody out there appreciates how far I go to say hello. I’m not expecting the world out of that. Barely anybody talks to me at all. So I’m humble in that fact that I can back up my ridiculous love letters with a professional resume. In that you know I won’t stop trying. Just don’t expect me to be positive about it all the time. <3 Tim

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helenamayhathaway · 4 years

Text

The Bachelor(s) - Sope Fic

“Run that by me one more time, chief.”

He groans out the anger that he wants to take out by smacking Yoongi across the face. “Twenty-five guys stepping out of the limo. Fifteen roses. Nine weeks. Then you pick one guy.”

“Pick him to do what?” Yoongi says, playing dumb. He gives Yoongi a stare so intimidating that his balls shrivel back into his body. “Fuck, oh my god, I’m just kidding! Fall in love blah blah blah. I got it.”

Read Chapter 1 below the cut!! (also on AO3 and Wattpad)

{{

The Bachelor: Boys Will Be Boys SK Promo #3 (Yoongi)

Interviewer: (Excitedly and absolutely incapable of reading the room) What made you decide to enter as a contestant on the first ever season of The Bachelor: Boys Will Be Boys?

Yoongi: (Under his breath) What a ridiculous [censored] title.

Interviewer: I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.

Yoongi: Honestly, I thought there was a cash prize.

Interviewer: You… you what?

Yoongi: I thought that like, if I came on the show and won, I’d get money. I’ve never seen the show, the original one or whatever. I thought it was a bunch of single people fighting to the death or something. And I’m like, I can definitely cut a [censored] if I need to.

Interviewer: (Dejectedly) Okay…

Yoongi: But I already signed the contract, it’s too late to turn back now.

Interviewer: (Trying to steer the conversation into a direction that won’t get him fired [he is definitely going to get fired]): So how does it feel now that instead of being a contestant, you’ve been chosen to be The Bachelor [Excited jazz hands]?

Yoongi: I still don’t win any money.

Interviewer: Just to be clear, you are aware this is a dating show, right?

Yoongi: It has been explained to me.

Interviewer: …and that twenty-five men will be vying for your love?

Yoongi: [unbelievably censored] That’s a lot of people I’m going to let down.

Interviewer: Well this is sure to be an exciting season isn’t it?

Yoongi: Do you think they’ll let me make all the other dudes do a Wipeout course? I want to weed out the weak among them.

Interviewer: [Damn it, man, this is your first gig in the biz, you have to get some goddamn emotions out of this man] Do you think you’re going to be falling in love this season?

Yoongi: [Laughs hysterically]

Interviewer: (Facing both God and his father who told him he’d never amount to anything) Tune in this Friday for the series premier of The Bachelor: Boys Will Be Boys!

Yoongi: (Quickly so as to make his voice heard before the cut) Buy my [censored] mixtape “Agust D” you [censored] cowards!

**Notes from the director: Do not let this interview see the light of day or so help me.

}}

“You are not a pleasant man!” the interviewer says to him once he’s sure the camera is no longer rolling.

“Aw, you don’t say,” he says, mockingly. Yoongi disagrees though. He is a very pleasant person. Most of his friends consider him to be dazzling and wonderful, or at least, that is what his mind insists that they think of him. He’s just super pissed he got himself into this situation, and he’s going to be a jackass about it. The cash prize thing isn’t the true story, but it’s the impression he wants to give off. Street cred and the like. He’s a rapper and he needs a certain amount of reputation so that he can call someone a motherfucker and people will take it seriously.

It’s his fault, of course it’s his fucking fault. He submitted a headshot and a copy of his self-produced-recorded-in-the-bathroom-of-his-friend’s-studio-apartment-because-it-had-great-acoustics mixtape to every goddamn company he could find. If you throw enough bait in the ocean, surely someone will snap. He’s not a considerably patient person, so after a very crafty google search of: “how to be famous”, and a very glamorous looking email from TB BWBB SK OTC LC – he still does not know what any of these letters stand for – reached out to him for an audition, well obviously he turned himself into the bait and tripped over his own feet running to be noticed. I’m special and worthy, make me your star!

Obviously, he doesn’t have an agent because 608 people have listened to said mixtape on SoundCloud and a whopping ten copies of it have sold on iTunes, and four of those copies were bought by his mom, but she will deny it until the ends of the earth. He probably could have used an agent, or common sense, or just someone to smack him in the head before that fateful audition two months ago.

“Bach-e-lor,” he read out looking at the extremely official looking poster board sign propped up on a music stand before him at the doors of that very glamorous brothel turned home brewery turned themed café turned TV Studio. “That is an English word, I do not know what that is.” He also didn’t really care about looking it up, because he is an overwhelmingly lazy person. It cannot be overstated, Yoongi should have someone follow him around to tell him when he’s being a fucking idiot.

“Boys will be boys,” he read the next line. The person who made the sign did not think about the spacing of letters, so the second part of the sentence was all crammed together. B o y s w illbeboys. Very sexy. “Well… I am a boy,” he nodded to himself, looking down for confirmation, even though no one was there to witness his joke.

So, he just walked right fucking into that studio and pretty much fucked up his entire future in one viciously fell swoop. What’s the worst that could happen, he thought? He goes on one of those K-Pop Idol shows and he doesn’t win but he gets his name and face out there so people go buy his mixtape and then some company is like “damn you’re fine” and he gets scouted and then becomes an international superstar. What could go wrong?

He did think it was kind of weird that they asked him what his preference in men was, but he’s never breathed the air of a talent agency, so he thought maybe that’s just how these things are. Yes, of course I like fellow musicians. No, I’m not a vegan, what do I look like to you, a monster?

To say it’s been a whirlwind would be an understatement. It only really starts to be real in the two weeks leading up to Night One, where he’s having his picture taken relentlessly, shoved into various seats and interviewed by various people who don’t get paid enough. Made up like a doll, advised to wear better clothes. He feels like an idol but excluding the being excited about it part. He’s trying to maintain his sleek, bad boy composure throughout all of it, and he’d say he’s doing a fairly good job, but there are cracks in the act, surely.

Two months and an unreasonable amount of Soju as a coping mechanism later, his bags are packed and all ready to move into this unforgivingly modern mansion for the next nine weeks. The mansion is the ugly kind of modern, not the “that looks relaxing and practical!” modern. All ninety-degree angles and manufactured pleasantness which don’t quite hit the mark. He supposes that the architecture is rather prophetic for the chaos that Yoongi is about to unleash inside its walls. If he’s going to be the next bachelor, and the first gay one, then goddammit if he isn’t going to raise hell.

“You’re telling me that twenty-five people are going to live in this thing?” Yoongi asks the producer who he has actually quite lovingly decided he will refer to as “Producer Dad.” See, he’s a pleasant person. Off camera, that is.

“Has anyone even explained how this show works to you?” Producer Dad says.

“Men. Roses. Hand to hand combat? Um… that’s the gist of it. I’m sure I’ll pick it up along the way, I’m a fast learner.” He did sign his soul away to this goddamn circus, though, so fast learner or not, he needs to be less of an idiot.

“So tonight, after you have your first impressions with everyone, you’re going to hand out fifteen roses. Only fifteen people will be in the mansion after that, not twenty-five.”

“I don’t think I can remember fifteen different people’s names,” Yoongi says.

“Try your hardest.”

“At the end, once I’ve eliminated all of the contestants, do I get to keep the house?” It’s ugly, but he can always sell it and get something else.

“How is it that you have not been fired yet and replaced?”

“Between you and me, I think it’s because I’m unparalleled sexy,” Yoongi says. He might be lazy and a little bit full of himself, but he’s pretty sure the actual reason is that the powers that be want this show to fail. They don’t want a gay bachelor any more than the next “Forced Diversity” crybaby, so they chose someone who’s going to make it crash and burn so that they have an excuse to say “See! It didn’t work, so now we can’t ever do it again.” They did choose the right man, because gay? bisexual? questioning? all you can eat buffet? whatever the hell Yoongi is, he is the man for the job.

“Do I get my own bedroom? My own bathroom? My own closet? Walk in closet? This is very important.”

“I’m confused, you only have one bag?” Producer Dad says.

“You’re saying the truck hasn’t come yet?”

The Truck? Oh, Producer Dad you are in for it.

“This is going to be a long nine weeks.”

Yoongi shrugs. It’s going to be stupid and dumb, but he’s going to be living the good life. Nice bedroom which he will sleep very late into the morning in? Does the mansion come with a chef? Maybe even a bathtub? Fuck! They’re going to have a lot of trouble trying to get him to move out. He’s sure if he’s stubborn enough they’ll decide to forego the glue remover required to detach him from his bed, because it would be far easier to just stew in misery over the abyss of lost profits that this train wreck of a show is going to create than to buy industrial grade Yoongi Be Gone.

“I’ll play nice with the other boys as long as I get to advertise my mixtape every five minutes of screen time.” Something tells him that this ultimatum means he’s not going to be playing nice with the other boys.

He had been lying about the truck. It’s more just a van. As he walks up to the house, with its weirdly glamorous driveway, he sees it parked out in front, seeming to gleam in the harsh summer sun. Yoongi is not particularly good at packing, though, so a lot of the reason for why he takes up so much space is because he left all of his clothes on hangers and just threw them into an impractical number of trash bags. Producer Dad is not especially willing to help Yoongi move all of his stuff into the mansion, so he does his best impression of the cutest cat you’ve ever seen to all of the crew, but Producer Dad has spitefully told all of his Producer Siblings not to help Yoongi move in his armfuls and armfuls of clothes. And all of his personal bedding. And some audio recording equipment because what if he’s sitting in his bed avoiding the responsibilities of being a reality TV star and he comes up with the next Rap God? If this wasn’t a nine-week venture, he wouldn’t have travelled so heavy, but it is a nine-week venture so fuck it. If he’s going to be a diva then he will be the diva.

He’d like to think he unpacks all of his belongings pretty quickly. The hard part is making it up the stairs into the master bedroom. When he sees it for the first time, he gets an evil glint in his eyes. The room itself is nice, he does have his own bath and an okay closet, but what really gets him is the bed itself. He’s a struggling musician, he’s never even been in a room with a bed this big. He is realizing that the bedding he brought isn’t the right size, but still, this bed is big enough that he could starfish with room to spare. He could fit two people on here to starfish. He’s going to get used to it quite quickly. So quickly in fact that after he shoves all of his clothes in the closet, he passes out on the bed for a solid three or four hours. It’s amazing.

He is awoken when a Producer who is not Producer Dad comes screaming for him, panicked because apparently the crew thought he had run away, but actually he just sleeps like a brick. She is telling him to get changed because Tonight is the Night, and he groans because he was unconscious for so long that he blissfully forgot why it is that he gets to sleep in this nice bed. He wants to stay in this big fancy mansion just for the comfort of it, he doesn’t want to actually exert effort. Effort is disgusting.

Then he’s being put into a suit. Dragged into a trailer outside of the mansion that he’s sure will never make it on camera, where about five different people all start attacking his face all at once. His hair is done, he doesn’t know what there is to do, they put so much product in, but it looks the same now as it did before. He gets makeup slathered all over him. He’d never worn makeup before they started shooting promos for the show, but he looks damn good in it he decides as he looks at himself in the mirror. How does he still look tired, though? Probably because he doesn’t want to be here. His eyes look heavier than they felt before he took that nap. Ah, that nap. He will remember it fondly until his dying days.

“Can I just eat?” he complains after possibly four hours or possibly twenty minutes. “Give me food. Please. How humiliating would it be if you could hear my stomach growl on camera?”

Producer Dad rolls his eyes, but he relents and then Yoongi is being given what seems to him like someone’s leftovers but he’s a hungry bitch, so he doesn’t really care.

“Why do you film it so late at night?” Yoongi asks, because the sun set nearly an hour ago and now he’s just standing by, waiting for shooting to begin.

“It’s for the drama of it.”

“Yeah,” he rolls his eyes, “that makes total sense.” These entertainment types are so weird to him. They don’t seem like bad people, they just have vastly different priorities and thoughts as he does. Who would think that people walking out of a limo is more dramatic at night? These guys! Everyone is in agreement about it. Yoongi feels like a child in comparison to everyone around him.

The production quality of this show overall seems astoundingly low. The house is pretty nice and all that, but no one seems to know what they’re doing. Or maybe he just thinks that because he himself does not know what he’s doing. He shouldn’t even be here. Why the fuck is he here?

He’s not a reality star, or an idol. He’s not really an anything. He’s just some guy who got in over his head and signed up for the wrong kind of show, and now he’s here.

There is some truth to the fact that he did technically sort of a little bit kind of definitely know what he was doing. Initially, yeah, he had no clue. But it didn’t take that long for him to realize what kind of show this was. He’ll deny it to anyone who asks, make up some new, even more outrageous explanation for how he got here, but he did say yes knowing full well what he was doing.

He’s not very proud of the fact that he’s here, but it was on purpose, more or less. It’s not the way he would like to have done it, but people will know his name after tonight, or technically on Friday when this airs. The mixtape has been out for months and no one has noticed it. Months! He needs something. This is definitely not the way he thought it would happen, but this is how it is going to happen.

“Are you ready to shoot your pre thoughts?” Producer Dad asks as he beckons for the host of the show to come by. Yoongi has talked to the host like a whole two times so far, and has decided that his name is Host Uncle, because he is never content with anything that Yoongi does.

“Fuck, I mean, I guess so?”

“Please try to refrain from swearing, okay? It costs the network actual money when we have to bleep your words.”

“I’ve got to get it all out now then,” he says before doing something that would not be condoned by the network or his own mother.

“I do not get paid enough for this,” Producer Dad says before Yoongi is being put on his mark and then being counted down.

“So Yoongi, you’re about to meet twenty-five men for the first time, one of them could even be your future husband! How are you feeling?” Host Uncle asks in a news reporter sort of voice that doesn’t sound natural.

“Well, I certainly am feeling emotions,” he says, though he refuses to show any actual emotions on his face.

“What kind of emotions might those be?”

“Disbelief,” he says, “did not think I would ever be here.”

Host Uncle has a fake laugh and then misinterprets the words either intentionally or unintentionally. “It’s almost like your whole life has culminated in this moment!”

“Okay,” he says apathetically. “I’m just here to promote my mixtape.”

“Cut!” Producer Dad shouts. “Yoongi, we talked about this.”

“Sure, but I ignored you.”

“Let’s try that again, but please avoid plugging your mixtape this time, okay?”

Yoongi groans loudly. One time was painful enough and now he’s got to do it again, and he really exerted as much emotion as he was capable of exerting in that first take, which is little to none. He doesn’t think he’s going to be able to top that.

They do at least five takes. Yoongi doesn’t watch reality shows, it never occurred to him just how much of what goes on the screen is rehearsed and fake. They only let him off the hook when he goes completely over the top.

“Yes of course I’m super excited!” he says with the most insincere tone known to man, but no one seems to notice it, or maybe they’re all just so thankful that the words he’s saying aren’t negative that they’re choosing to see it as a win.

“Do you think that one of these men is going to be your soulmate?”

“Well, I sure hope so,” he says before he smiles at the camera with his cheesiest, gummiest, toothpaste commercial smile.

“It’ll have to do,” Producer Dad finally says.

“The name of my autobiography,” Yoongi mutters. “Can I eat more food now?”

Producer Dad makes an exaggerated sound of frustration, throwing his hands in the air, which Yoongi takes as a yes. He goes back to the trailer where he knows that they’re storing the food, and he then proceeds to eat his emotions away. His emotions are very hungry.

A lot of people he doesn’t know are trying to tell him things. Lots of crew members who seem like perfectly nice people but they’re talking about things he doesn’t care about so he instead decides to tune them out and think about himself instead.

What’s nine weeks? He’s been on this earth for much longer than that, he’ll be able to make it through nine weeks. He’s in a big fancy house. It may be hideous but it does nevertheless have a very good bed. He thinks lovingly of that bed for the next several minutes.

From outside the trailer, he hears Producer Dad shout, “First limo is en route!” All hell breaks loose. Everyone starts scrambling like a bomb went off. Yoongi is being dabbed off and he’s not even sweating. People are fixing his everything. Then he’s being tugged back outside to stand in front of the mansion at a dramatic angle.

He remembers that he has to start acting now. Well, maybe not "acting," but he has to prepare himself to be on camera now and for the next two and a half months. The last few days of promos and pre-interviews are just the appetizer, now it’s time for him to become what he hates. Remember Yoongi, you’re only here for the plu. You just have to make it through this with as many cheeky self-plugs as you can get. People absolutely eat up reality stars. This could be great for you.

He’s actually getting nervous. He didn’t think he was going to get nervous, but he is. It’s not nerves because he’s worried about meeting all the guys, it’s nerves because the weight of everything around him is starting to fall on his shoulders and he is not strong enough not to be crushed by it.

“The limo is going to be here in five minutes, are you ready, Yoongi?”

“I am full of regret and lots of food.”

“You just have to be personable; I know you can do it. I know somewhere in there, deep, deep, deep down, you’re not an asshole.”

“I’ve yet to find that person,” Yoongi responds, smirking.

“You’re insufferable. You know what to do, right? You only have to connect with 15 guys tonight. That’s all you have to do.”

“Run that by me one more time, chief.”

He groans out the anger that he wants to take out by smacking Yoongi across the face. “Twenty-five guys stepping out of the limo. Fifteen roses. Nine weeks. Then you pick one guy.”

“Pick him to do what?” Yoongi says, playing dumb. Producer Dad gives Yoongi a stare so intimidating that his balls shrivel back into his body. “Fuck, oh my god, I’m just kidding! Fall in love blah blah blah. I got it.”

Producer Dad then turns white as a sheet as he hears something in his headpiece. “It’s here!” The camera catches the shot as everyone runs away so as not to be seen in shot. Yoongi is left standing there, the drama of the dark night finally starting to make sense to him as he watches the limo slowly make its way to the driveway right in front of him. How cliché it would be to say his fate is behind those doors, yet too true to deny.

He doesn’t know if he has ever felt so alone and transparent in his entire life. He’s standing here, made up and plasticized. Full of annoyance and nerves and stupidity. Thinking about what he would be doing if he wasn’t here. In one of those dead-end jobs that he uses to support his nonexistent music career. No one knowing his name. But soon the scene of him standing here waiting for that door to open will be seen by the whole country.

He feels fake right now, and he knows that’s because his on-camera self thus far has been fake. He isn’t this person. He’s genuinely a nice person. He definitely needs his mouth washed out with brillo pad, but he’s a good friend, a hard worker. Here he stands feeling like an action figure bent to do The Man’s will.

The minute that the door to the first limo opens, he has a very disheartening realization. Shit. He can’t be a jackass to all of these guys. It’s just not inside of him. He wants so much to be a jackass. It would be such a pleasure. But that would not be fair. It would be so awful for this to be the very first season of this show, queer representation hoorah and then to be piece of shit to everybody. These are the people he’s going to be sharing the screen with for so many weeks, and they are real people. Real people who actually came here to find love and what they got was Yoongi taking the piss. Sure, some of them might just be in it for the fame and drama of it all, not unlike himself, but they’re still human beings.

Alright, Yoongi, what are you going to do? He decides that maybe he will make nice. He’s going to be an asshole to the camera without question but to these dudes? Who came all the way out here to find love? Putting themselves into such an uncomfortable position? That wouldn’t be fair. By no means is Yoongi going to fall in love with anyone, he has some self-respect, but he won’t be a jerk. He will try his hardest not to be.

The door opens in such a way that Yoongi cannot see who’s inside. He doesn’t mean to but Yoongi looks at the camera and makes a very nervous, and probably very cute expression. This is actually about to be real.

The first person that steps out of the limo is… a guy. Korean. Wild, who would have thought? He’s wearing a suit, it could be the exact same one as the one on Yoongi. He has two arms, two legs. Silver hair, dyed. Quite a nice texture. Looks soft. Great skin care regimen. Alright, so he’s hot. Yoongi has two eyes and a dick, he knows when someone is hot.

The distance between them can’t be more than a few yards and yet the length of time that it takes for this guy to walk up to Yoongi is centuries long. He’s quite a bit taller than him, but Yoongi is not a very large person to begin with.

He stops in front of Yoongi, neither of them is doing anything that would be defined as “smiling” but it also couldn’t be defined as anything else.

“Hi,” the other man says. Yoongi takes in a deep breath as subtly as he can. So it begins.

“Hi,” Yoongi responds. Had he meant to say more? Wow, they’re both going to be good at this.

“I’m uh, this is a really weird format to meet someone for the first time isn’t it?” he says sheepishly. Time is not progressing in the way that time usually progresses. He’s not sure if he’s entered a dream or not. It’s not that it feels magical, it just doesn’t feel grounded. He’s not really here. This isn’t really happening.

“Yes,” Yoongi says. Maybe once his mouth stops being dry, he’ll graduate to more than one syllable at a time.

“It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Yeah.” Uncomfortable silence… maybe he should mention his mixtape?

“Are you nervous?” he asks.

“I’m just awkward,” he says, smiling just a little bit to show how uncomfortable he actually is. It’s not a sincere smile. It’s a mom just told me to smile for a picture but I’m eleven and I just want to get through this vacation in one-piece smile.

“Me too. I didn’t know I would be going first. It’s a lot of pressure to say something meaningful… I guess I should tell you my name,” he says. Yes, that might help, you very pretty man. “I’m Namjoon.”

“Yoongi.” Yoongi goes in for a handshake but Namjoon misreads it, so they have an awkward hug with Yoongi’s hand in his stomach. Holy shit, he went into this hoping so much to be a serious, stoic, confident rapper promoting his mixtape, and this is Bachelor One and he already wants to hide in a sewer.

“This can only get weirder from now on,” Namjoon says with actually a really cute smile, and Yoongi doesn’t know why but those words actually comfort him a little bit. “Good luck. I hope when we talk again it’ll feel a little less terrifying.” Oh that’s right, Yoongi reminds himself that after all these introductions he has to go and have one-on-one conversations with everyone and try not to get super drunk while he does it. That’s going to be the hardest part. He wishes he had warmed up with at least something to make his posture a little less straight.

He watches as Namjoon walks past him into the house, and due to the fact that Yoongi has hormones, he looks at him as he walks past and is very sad to learn that there is no ass to speak of. Twenty-four people to go whose asses will surely be more impressive.

Now it’s round two and he’s still uncomfortable but he’s done this once so now he thinks he can handle it a little bit better. Fuck, this one is cute. This one is bubblier. The instant he steps out of the limo, his face already has a smile on it. Christ, this is a good one. So was the last one. This is already hard. There’s no way he’d have been able to be an asshole to faces like these, even if he tried.

“Jimin,” he announces after a few words. Yoongi can tell that he’s going to go in for a hug because that radiates off of this guy. It’s a nice hug. They exchange a few pleasantries. It doesn’t feel natural, but it’s not awful. Jimin walks away and Yoongi is starting to think that this might not be as disgustingly fake as he thought it would be. Jimin made it a little less extremely uncomfortable. Oh, he has very much got an ass. Yoongi makes an unconscious nod before he remembers that there’s a camera on him.

As much as he would like for it not to be true, a lot of the guys run the same as the previous. This one has black hair, but this one has black hair. That one has piercings, oh those are very nice piercings, but that one has a velvet suit jacket and that really does something for Yoongi. He remembers that he has to make it through twenty-five different people, and there are too many names to remember, so he starts assigning them letters.

“Nice to meet you A, I’m Yoongi.”

“Oh, hello B, I’m Yoongi.”

“Thank you so much for saying that C, my name is Yoongi.”

He doesn’t tell any of them that they are being given letters. That would be rude.

“Jungkook.” Okay, yeah cool, your name is L now. “Jin.” Congratulations contestant number whatever, your name is Q. Yoongi skips the letter P because he feels like that would just be cruel, especially considering that Q is unbelievably handsome.

It’s been half an hour, is he nearly done? Producer Dad shows him his fingers. Four left. Thank god. He only has to meet four more people. But then he has to go talk to all of them. But then, quite a mercy, he gets to eliminate ten of them! No need to remember them anymore. He’s got to keep the first two because they’re the only ones whose names he thinks he remembers, but other than that it’ll be a crap shoot.

“Taehyung.” Oh, his voice is deep, and Yoongi decides that he likes that. Yes, very much so. He instantly forgets the name that this man just assigned himself, but V seems to suit him quit well. Goodbye V, and yes, Yoongi looks at his ass too. But he’s gotten fairly good at being subtle about it. The viewers at home will still probably be able to tell. Maybe it will make him genuine and endearing? Maybe he’ll just be called a pig.

The next one has brown hair. A very squishy face, which Yoongi has been told he also has. The second he steps out of the limo he can tell that this one, much like the second guy who Yoongi wants to say was called Jimin, that this guy radiates something. A very bright smile, if a little nervous. He looks very good in his suit. Everyone that has walked out of the limo has looked nice and been nice, but there’s something about this one in particular that just gets right to Yoongi’s core.

“Nice to meet you,” he says, which is a phrase that Yoongi has heard countless times before, and it’s a little disappointing that that is how this one has started the conversation.

“Hello,” he says. To be fair, Yoongi’s first line hasn’t had a lot of variety either.

"Your bio failed to mention that you were this cute," he says, and gives Yoongi a respectful once-over. Yoongi refrains from rolling his eyes. “Before I say anything else, I read on your bio that you're a rapper?”

His eyes immediately sparkle. Yes! Finally, someone is asking him about it! “I am! Yes!” Is this excitement? Is that what he feels? Excitement? Let me talk about myself please!

“That’s really cool. You may be here on this weird show now, but the next minute you’ll be an idol.”

“A man can dream, right?” Yoongi says. His squishy cheeks are about to make their debut to the camera, he can just tell.

“You look like you make a good rapper,” he says. His face becomes warm. Is this blush? He’s super pale, this guy is going to be able to tell that he’s blushing.

“I have a mixtape, you should listen to it,” Yoongi stumbles a little bit on his words. He realizes that this is the first time he’s managing to get a plug in for his mixtape, so he looks at the camera quickly and says, “Agust D, check it out.”

“How about you tell me more about it when we talk later, yeah?” he says smiling. This guy can most definitely tell that Yoongi is blushing. You can read it on his face like a book. Yoongi also suspects that he knows what he’s doing. He’s so charming. He’s cute. Everyone has been cute, literally everyone, but this one complimented not just his face but also said he looks like a good rapper. Fifteen roses to give out, this guy has already earned one.

“Two left after me, but make sure I’m the one you remember, okay?” he says. Fuck. Yoongi nods, and he turns to watch him go, but then he realizes-

“Wait, you didn’t tell me your name!”

“Silly me,” he says, smiling with his soft oh-my-god-yoongi-are-you-gay? cheeks, really bright like he’s a light source and Yoongi is a flower that needs it to grow. “Hoseok.”

Alright, Hoseok. You get to have a name instead of a letter. You’ve earned it.

Also? Very nice ass.

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unit8amg · 5 years

Text

Final Evaluation

Context

This project was just a big experiment on my end just to know what I'm actually capable of doing and it turned out to be my best “still” piece by far. The purpose of my work in the creative industry was firstly just to be used in a cinematic trailer for a game but now that I've expanded the model and made it possible for anyone to download, it can truly be used for anything in the world. The model, however, is quite big; if you're counting it by polygons, mainly because of the hair as each of the strands, are a 3d object in the triangular pattern with means it has 3 sides for each strand which is made up of 4 sided polygons, so, for example, just the front portion of the hair, it has 10000 strands and 15 segments, 3x15=45x10,000=450,000x15=6,750,000 polygons, and that's just one section of the hair. What I'm trying to say is that it's extremely tasking on the computer to simulate all of them one by one that's why I disabled it for the project, if they want, they can always enable it.

At first, I didn't know how to do most of this stuff but with enough time and experimenting, I was able to create this peace. for example, it was my first time; doing sculpting, using hair, creating garments (marvelous designer), and using substance painter for more than just applying a bunch of materials and calling it a day. Now that I know all these things, I feel like I can make a piece that is 10x better and that is what I will try and work on in summer. So when I do, I will focus on improving the eyes especially as I feel like that is what was lacking in this project. The eyes did not look as real as I hoped and the look of the makeup was also quite mediocre and I should have researched the look of it a bit more. The next piece I'm thinking of only creating the bust to create a headshot of the subject. it will follow up with the same theme which was cyberpunk/sci-fi, however, this time go into much more detail.

Research

I think I've done lots of research and from that was able to create this piece. I had lots of varying sources of research (which are in my bibliography) ranging from the look of the skin, clothes, weapons, lighting, style, etc.

I'm gonna be honest, I could've done a lot more sketched but I already had the whole idea planned out in my head and just wanted to get to work as it would have taken some time to draw literally everything I was thinking of for this project (which was a lot). the ones I do actually have aren't really too much of use other than the arm anatomy experiments and the swords. I did add them in my final project it's just that I didn't create a mock object for each of those drawings as it would've taken way too much time.

Currently, for my research I use; Twitter, Behance, Artstation, and Pinterest as I think it has the most varying sources on the web. I don't think I would change the way I research as it worked completely fine on this project, however, I would maybe look into more websites that are like that or something along those lines. Having multiple websites for research is a huge bonus as it allows you to get things that the other websites don't have, as Artstation and Behance are art oriented. while Pinterest is just a plethora of a little bit of everything.

Problem-solving

I had a handful of problems while creating my project. my first problem was that I didn't like how my 3 weeks of work went, this resulted in me scrapping everything and starting again. I had another hiccup when my hair decided to bug out and completely break resulting in me having to completely redo it. I'm not angry about it as the new hair came out better than the previous pair I had. Then I had many less crucial bugs that I had to tackle like the UV mapping for the clothes was not working as it made all of it transparent which I had to fix by manually selecting areas I wanted to be that transparent pattern. This was an important addition as I didn't want the clothing to be completely bland. I wanted it to have some real-world characteristics which I was able to achieve by adding branding, the branding I used was Nike. I've had another problem with the skin of my character. at first, it looked oily and unnatural. I fixed it by altering the roughness and specular maps to be a bit more contrast between the blacks and whites. this helped it to bring out a little more detail in the groves for the skin and the bumps used on top. I think the lighting had a play in it as well, so I changed my environments HDRI and created some light sources to give highlights on more important areas like the side of the cheek, the eyes, and the rim light for more highlights on the hair and show off the translucency I created for it and the skin, you can see this because the tips of the hair are white and the ear is red due to the Subsurface scattering.

I think I learned many things due to these problems and how I can now deal with them, I now know how to deal with skin, hair and clothing if they break. This ensures me to have fewer errors and a more straight forward workflow. To fix these I will now know that I cant add extra geometry to the object with area selection as that breaks the math, ill know that the skin needs more contrasting textures and that I need to incorporate my alphas (transparency) within them.

Planning and production

I think my planning was decent, I had a mood board for each subject if it was, for example, the sword, character look or, an overall style of the composition. It was enough to get the whole idea of the model I was making which in the end looked like I wanted. to be honest, looking at it now I would've changed some bits like the eye makeup and some adjustments to the eyebrows as they currently look like they're a bit too low to be realistic, it was a bit of a pain to work on it as the scene was quite laggy and my selection brush was not properly selecting object faces.

I would do a lot of things differently in my future projects like having a more efficient workflow for the hair, this would mean using the symmetry tool on it so it would be easier to control and manipulate because then you only need to focus on one side of the head and perfect that as it will then result on the other side too. I would also try and work on the clothing a bit more as I've only got the basics down right at this moment. considering ill be doing the same style for my next project I will try a bit harder to create a more cyberpunk feel as this one right now only gives off a small amount of that. In that case, I will try and go a bit more overboard with all the tech and create something more interesting.

Practical skills

I have learned “soooo” many new things during this project if it was, for example, marvelous designer or substance painter. It was something completely different than to what I was accustomed to, I'm used to creating visual moving environments but I decided to change some things up and create a modelled character. because of this, I'm now more comfortable using the new tools in my disposal for any other project I create, and you can trust me, I will.

A lot of things went into this project, things that took me years to learn, and things that took me weeks, I other words, I've still got far to go into perfecting all these new tools. That's why I'm doing a new project in a week or two. I want to also learn more advanced and hard surface modelling for more tech-oriented things like futuristic goggles or what not.

Evaluation

I evaluated my work as much as I could while also including as much detail as I could. I don't want to talk about something that wasn't relevant to the post so I included only the important parts. I could add more text but I feel like it’s unnecessary.

I try and describe the things I'm talking about so people would have at least some understanding of what my process was. for example, the process of the software I was using or the way I did something to achieve my outcome.

Presentation

My blog is decently structured but even if it wasn't there would be any way to change it so I would have to delete my posts and add them again which is quite annoying. That's why I want to and will present my work on Behance as I have a lot more freedom to personalise the look and feel of the project.

I'm going to continue using Behance for my final pieces and I guess I'm going to work on when and how I post my posts because as of now some of them don't really line up in my timeline as I had posts waiting to be done as drafts which then result in me not being able to post them in time as I have other things I have to post as well.

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