#i do have a vision of adding arm cuffs and having some super light and floaty fabric between wrist & arm

[imaginejolls]

just finished my whore outfit (affectionate) in red this morning ❤️

[cherrycokedup]

This will get messy, I’m sure

Chapter one

Word count [6044]

Tags: lotsa blood talk, spiting? Miley is super aggressive, guns, knives, a whole death game, swearing, repeated words, chase scenes, mentions of murder, it’s the logic route, reference to forced love (maple) blacking out from pain, forced kissing

I think that’s everything but please let me know if other tags need to be added. English is my second language so please be gentle when pointing out mistakes!

Summary: Maple, Miley and Safalin decide to break everyone out of the death game. Except it’s a bit more dangerous than they hoped.

The plan was in motion.

Miley felt like she was going insane. But she gripped the key as she marched down the hall. Heels click, click, clicking on the floor.

Shit was about to go down. That’s how every good story starts, isn’t it?

Maple was right beside her. Such a tall girl, 6”8. Eyes orange with frazzled anxiety.

God they could just turn back. They should turn back. Let this run their course.

Miley slammed the door to the classroom shut.

No going back now.

Without waiting a moment, she took on her heel and chucked it at the camera in the classroom.

She counted.

Good. It’s all of them.

Miley locked the door.

“Shin, key. Give it.” Her heart was racing. This was a bad idea. It was a bad idea. She watched him sputter, trying to deny it was there. Gripping his scarf. Everyone else was yelling in confusion. And anger. Miley was responsible for two deaths after all. Her head was in a blur and she could barely comprehend what was being said.

Keiji was covering Sara’s ears as the name Joe started to be tossed around. Everyone was giving her a nasty glare to add on.

“Shin. Give me the fucking key. Unless you all want to die at Meister’s hands. Then you’re free to do so.” The words died down. Meister was a new name to them- as far as Miley knew.

Shin still didn’t hand it over.

Sweat made strands of Miley’s hair cling to her face. God she probably looked deranged. But, there wasn’t time to spare. She dashed over and took the scarf from his neck, before ripping the necklace off. She handed back the scarf, as Shin started to yell again. Sputters and curses.

“Hush.”

Miley glared, letting out a sigh.

“Good. Now show me your neck” She twirled the key between her gloved fingers, hoping he wouldn’t protest again. And just to her luck, he didn’t! Thank fucking god. She snapped the key in, turned and watched the metal collar clatter to the floor. It worked. Good.

“How did you know that would work? How did you know I had it-“ Shin asked, rubbing his now free neck as cold air rushed over it. The rest of the group was speechless as well. It must have been a shocking thing, to see the things that had been controlling their life for the past week, fall away as if it was nothing.

Miley didn’t answer questions, just shrugging. She really didn’t see why she should.

“Alright. Sara, get your ass over here” Miley had that tight feeling in her throat. At any time this plan could be busted. ���Better yet form a line behind Sara”

Miley tuned out people talking and asking questions. She didn’t have time to explain anything. Every word was just. It didn’t matter.

Maple stood next to the door, somehow still looking gorgeous despite the situation. A bright smile, hands folded behind her back. The still amber-orange anxiety color swirling. Now was not the time to be gushing over the obstructor.

Miley went through, making sure everyone had the collars off. If everything was going right, Saf should have the exit planned out. Miley went to the door to unlock it.

Wait no.

Miley went and grabbed the heel she had used to smash the camera and put it back on. She straightened up and started to tie her hair back, sighing again.

“Mai?”

“Oh- yes?” The sweet baker perked up at the sound of their name being spoken, tilting their head. Hair fell into her face, as she giggled, brushing it back. The thrill of sudden possible freedom must have made her a bit giggly.

“May I have that knife? Yes, the one you’re hiding in your weird little glove cuff thing.” Miley turned around, smiling. Having step one complete- it felt intoxicating. Her head was dizzy and light and she couldn’t keep from grinning.

“Knife-?” Mai feigned her innocence, blinking.

“Yes, the knife. Don’t make this hard please.”

It took a moment, Mai looking conflicted as she glanced at Q-Taro. But the knife was placed into Miley’s hand, to which she slashed her long curls off. It was such a sharp knife, it didn’t take a struggle at all.

It felt so freeing, remembering the reason she had grown it out in the first place. How her lover had run his hands through her short hair, kissing her forehead. He had asked if she ever thought about growing it out. How much he liked girls with long hair.

She had grown it out very long to be fair. When straightened, it went down to her knees when Miley spent the time straightening it out. It fell just to her mid thigh when Miley let it just be curly.

The knife clattered on the floor, and then Miley unlocked the door and opened it, giving a slight bow.

“Well, guess it’s curtains closed for this game-.”

Sara, of course, started to lead the group to the door, always trying to take the position of a leader, before Keiji grabbed her shoulder, making her stop in her tracks.

Like a puppet and the puppeteer.

“Not to sound distrustful- haha- but you know exactly why I don’t feel exactly esatic ‘bout the group of us running off with you” His voice had that drip of sarcasm, he looked up, hand on his neck.

“Fine then. Don’t trust me, and fucking rot here.” Her temper started to boil up, still feeling the cold of her own collar against her neck. “Just get over it for a moment. I killed that stupid old man- or that ditzy boy, sure that’s true. You know the floormasters have collars. Take a brain cell or two to think about it.” Miley didn’t have time to argue her innocence. They had to fucking go now.

Fine. If they wanted to stay, they could be Miley’s guest. Miley left the room, Maple following behind. If they followed, great. If they didn’t, it would almost certainly be death for them. Recollared and right back to playing.

But, to her surprise she heard footsteps follow behind. A quick glance back showed the group following.

Ranmaru was holding onto Sara’s arm, and Anzu was happily chittering away with Reko, Hinako was trailing behind Keiji, Kurumada and Shin not so secretly holding hands. Q-taro was carrying Gin, as Mai and Hayasaka whispered. That looked to be everyone at least.

They got to the fourth floor, Miley starting to think this would all go smoothly. Maple had reached out to hold Miley’s hand, rubbing comforting circles into it. This plan could still very well end in their deaths. Something Miley had killed to avoid.

“Oh, Maple and Miley. My pretty girls.”

God fucking dammit Midori. He stood in front of them, a huge grin. Hands at his side, tilting his head. They had prepared for this, Maple already taking off in the other direction and motioning for the others to follow. So then it was just Miley and Midori, standing alone

“Don’t make this hard” Miley muttered under her breath, standing up straighter as Midori approached. He hummed, putting a finger under her chin

“Are you trying to ruin my game Emi?” His voice dropped in honey sweet manipulation, sugar water with a pink tint, that made you want to drink up every word he said.

“Keep my name out of your mouth.” Miley grabbed his wrist, taking his hand away from her, keeping eye contact. But, He had somehow managed to get a hand behind her head, and grab a fistful of her shorn hair. She refused to cry out in pain, biting her tongue.

“And you cut your hair short. It was always so pretty long” He continued to hum, gripping her hair tighter “Awww you used to love when I called you that.”

Miley kicked at his leg, making his grip faulted as she pushed him away. He laid on a floor with a smile, standing back up “if it’s a fight you want-“

Pain bloomed in Miley jaw, as it registered that he had punched her. And so she punched back. Midori gripped her around the waist, dipping her low. Like this was some sick dance. Each one hoping to kill the other. She slammed his against a wall, getting a whine out of him. To which he twisted her arm behind her back, and Miley swore she heard something crack.

She elbowed him, feeling satisfied at the gasp her let out, kicking his legs again. Miley could keep hitting and hitting. But the problem was, most of him was plastic. Most of Miley’s punched just left her hand scraped.

They fought for a long while, Miley getting more battered but the minute. Looking like she had been thrown in a mixing bowl. There was a cut above her eye that was gushing blood, and her muscles burned from it all. Her lip was bleeding, and biting her lip only left blood to put out.

Midori dipped her one final time, pressing his lips to her own. She must have tasted like sweat and metal. She bit his lip and he pulled away with a grin, her blood dripping from his lips.

And suddenly she felt it crack. Some bones but she couldn’t tell what.

And that’s when the lights started to flash red, the alarm system screeching. Which meant the group had gotten out of the death game area.

He laughed, dropping her to the floor, pain reverting through her fragile body. She coughed more of her own blood into the ground, trying to stand up. Hurt him more.

“This whole thing has been fun, but I have some sheep to gather.” And he departed, but not before spitting her own blood right back into her face.

“Gross.” Miley thought, wiping it away.

Her chocolate decorated corset made it hard to breathe, vision starting to blur. The effects of the fight were really starting to get to her. Oh god everything felt like it was on fire. Was she going to pass out? Be found and then killed for causing all this chaos? Was it worth it?

Her head was in a blur, as she pushed herself off the floor, leaning against the wall. She still had things to do. She couldn’t let this plan get ruined.

Miley pulled off her gloves, starting to tear at the buttons on her corset. Her mother had always kissed her hands and said they were the one of a lady. Her mother- had Asu-naro already sent someone to kill her? What about her sister and brother. The twins. Just turning 13 next week, her mother had adopted them.

Had Miley made everything worse? In her false haze of wanting to play the hero, had she gotten the ones she cared about most killed?

Miley felt herself sliding down the wall, no matter how much she tried to keep walking. Midori was a strong man, and a fight like that- honestly it was going to be deadly.

And just like that, Miley blacked out, falling into a crumpled mess on the floor.

_

Maple had to turn away from Miley as Midori approached, leading the group away from the danger. Her heart felt like it was cut up, racing through the hall. Well- it was.

Miley had clumsy cut open her chest, and cut wires, and connected new ones. Maple wasn’t in love with Midori, but it still felt hurtful betraying him.

clack clack clack.

Her heels were comforting. It was a constant noise. It was easy to tune out the chatter of the group she was leading to safety. Safety. Maple had never known anything outside of these floors. Miley had her memorize the map.

But once they were out of the secret door, it was whole new territory for the girl. It was a scary concept, running into what could very well be a death trap.

clack clack clack

Focus on the clacking. Keep yourself calm. Panicking won’t do any good. She couldn’t disappoint Miley. She had worked so hard on this plan, a plan to try and reverse all of the pain they had caused. Some redemption arc.

Maple rushed into the elevators, making sure everyone got on.

Back to the fifth floor. Maple had to pick something up now that Miley wasn’t with them. Backup plans were good. Plans are good. Safe. She dashed into the room with the Shin AI who watched Maple take a spare ID card out of the vent. The name reading “Emiri Harai”

Maple thought that was a pretty name. But it was back to the mad dash, once again rushing into the elevators. And skittering out, counting to make sure everyone was accounted for.

Keiji kept trying to say something. Maple told him to save all questions for the outside.

The outside was such a wonderful concept, an endless world. Miley had told her all about it. It seemed wonderful.

Maple kept pressing the ID card into the dirt walls. Press press press.

It was somewhere around here, it had to be. Maple started to hear the whispers that maybe the poor dummy had been fried.

The door opened, just like Miley said it would. Maple pushed everyone in, squealing. She could hardly wait!

Safalin was standing in that long winding hallway of stairs, and Maple gave her the nod that said Miley was caught up with Midori.

Safalin threw off her heeled boots, and socks. It would be easier to run without heels and socks could make you slip. And she was running back inside the very place the group had just escaped.

Maple counted the doors.

clack clack clack had turned into a clop clop clop. Just focus on that.

Door number and sounds. Focus on that and everything would be okay. She felt her wires turn into knots, feeling fizzing water boil under her skin.She shivered, hugging her arms.

Death seemed to hang closer by the minute, spinning around her head, the rope tightening around her neck.

There it was. The final door. Open it, and the death game was ruined. Don’t and surely some other workers would come and dismantle Maple, recollar the others.

The door creaked as Maple pushed it open, grabbing onto Sara’s hand. Sara grabbed onto Ranmaru’s and so on, a chain. Qtaro at the end, still holding Gin.

“ah…are you all ready?” Maple turned to look at them, being met with a chorus of agreements, thumbs up.

“Just bout ready as any of us can be!” Q-taro said, grinning. Such a hopeful smile- had he really learned to trust people?

Well. It makes sense that they would trust Maple much more than Miley.

“Meow! I’ve been ready forever!” Gin waved, his pawed glove bonking Q-taro in the face who chuckled.

The had to go well, for the kids at least.

“There’s no going back now. You’ve gotten us this far.” Sara nodded, looking at Ranmaru then Keiji. Keiji just shrugged, with his usual lazy smile, distrustful as usual.

Maple pulled them into the empty hall. The air was cool, and had that fresh office smell, their footsteps making a muffled bomp bomp bomp. It was almost deadly silent, no one even daring to breathe. Maple felt the sweat from Sara’s palm. She wondered what it was like to sweat. But she wouldn’t know.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

bomp bomp bomp.

a door creaked open, someone stepping into the hall. They looked up from their paper, locking eyes with Maple. Eyes widened from both parties as everyone realized what just occurred. The man dashed past them, no doubt going to set off the alarm.

Maple started running, hearing everyone starting to breathe heavily behind her. They went through the door the man came from, running through the office area.

Oh goodness the noise. Everyone was shouting. And trying to pull the group apart. Maple kept her iron grip on Sara, and she just had to hope everyone was doing the same. Maple saw lights start to flash red.

God dammit.

She slid into the hallway, tile slipping against her shoes. She was knocking things over with her size, potted plants and printers crashing.

Clomp, click, bomp, clack.

As Maple dragged them through halls, and into different rooms, the floor pattern changed. Finally, Maple swung everyone into an empty room, and locked the door shut. Through the slats, Maple watched people run by. Most of them had weapons of the gun variety. But knives were also strewn in.

Turn around and count. Everyone was still there. Miley knew this was going to happen. Maple knew there was a plan. But it was just- god all of this was nerve wracking.

Get them out one by one. Or two by two

If Maple could at least do that, it would be okay.

She looked around the room, hearing everyone whisper to each other. Such a close knit group, forced together by a rope of death that tightened almost every moment. Keiji was going over something with Sara and Ranmaru. Anzu was listening in. Kurumada was lifting Shin up so they both could look out the door slats better.

Dammit this was stressful, Miley had warned her it would be. But actually seeing everyone. How much they were trying not to panic. The hope that they could go home was painted on their faces. But Now they were trapped in a room that no one had noticed them in yet.

Maple tried to remember the plan that Miley had told her, the plan for when they were found.

Get them out. Youngest to oldest.

Maple gently picked Gin out of Q-taro’s arms.

“Be gentle with him, will ya?” Worry shone in his tone, looking out of place now he wasn’t protecting the little boy

“Don’t worry woof! I’ll protect PancakeHead!” He smiled, eyes scrunching up. So brave. Maple just nodded, giving her best smile.

PakecakeHead

Maple liked that. It made her sound like some superhero

And she slipped out the door. The hallways had emptied, everyone assuming they headed for the lobby, the one with the biggest exit. Only sound was them and the alarm bells.

Maple pressed a finger to Gin’s mask, a silent way to ask him not to speak.

It wasn’t far from there, just down the staircase and into the old storage room

Finally, there was the door. Well- the back door. It was old and walked up, but as per the plan, Safalin had uncovered it beforehand. Maple opened the door to the back alley, looking around for a place to hide Gin. She set him down, a heavy sign leaving her lips.

“Stay out of sight”

“Okay meow!”

Could she trust him? Never mind that. No time for doubt. He was 12, he could handle himself.

It wasn’t long till Maple got back to the room. And she quickly explained the route. Because going one by one was a bit dangerous, and would take quite a while. And luckily everyone was already paired up. Which just made everything just absolutely much more convenient for Maple.

And Maple could take Hayasaka, since Gin was already gone.

And then they all went out.

And by some miracle, everyone met up in that alleyway safe and sound.

Everyone was clearly ecstatic. Taking deep breaths of the fresh air. Sara let her hair down to let the faint wind blow through. The bitter cold air bit at her cheeks, turning them red. Everyone was talking so excitedly, And quickly. It was nice to see everyone so happy.

She didn’t have the heart to remind the dummies about their battery.

_

footsteps pattered heavy, the only thing being heard- wait no. An alarm. That was also there.

Her chest shook with a cough, sticky blood spattering across her chest. It was warm, making her feel all the more sick. Everything honestly hurt, she felt like she had been dragged back from death.

Safalin held Miley closer, running through the hall, trying to just get out of the building. She couldn’t give a shit about the plan right now.

She had found Miley on the ground, her breathing rattling. When Safalin picked her up, she accidentally left out an audible gasp. It was just plain obvious with the way her side so easily squashed into Safalin, that whatever fight she had gotten into, something happened to her ribs. Broken, or something.

Running so hard against the tile with bare feet stung, each breath bringing a sharp pain. Safalin wasn’t exactly in shape. So she just felt almost like she was just going to wither away.

She felt almost pathetic in that way. She was just running. Not hurt at all. And Miley was on the brink of death.

Unfortunately, the sudden bang and loud ringing pain in her ear was absolutely to change that real quick. She felt blood ooze onto her shoulder, staining the white dress. It felt like the world was thrown off balance. The pain would kick in later.

clearly the security system had kicked in.

She didn’t have much of a chance to pause and figure out what happened. All she had was running. Keep running.

Adrenaline doused her, numbing most everything.

Blood on the cheek, dripping down her sides, caking to her leg. A slight burn was there, but Safalin chose to ignore it.

Rocks in the dirt dug into her feet, as she pressed her ID card quickly to the dirt and safely letting herself collapse in the hall of stairs.

Safalin wheezed in heavy breaths of air, pain starting to melt in.

Gunshots weren’t exactly pleasant. Burning filled her, spreading out and covering her, like a very thick unpleasant blanket.

The actual bullets hadn’t hurt at all. It felt like she had been flicked, or maybe a small marble had been thrown at her. But god the pain was fucking overwhelming.

She dropped the still unconscious Miley, letting herself just lay in all the hurt. It was like a flood, her throat aching. She wanted to cry. To scream and sob. But it was honestly just like she was waiting for death. Was she waiting for something to just come and brush all the pain away, and to lead her away into whatever afterlife was real.

But she never was. The pain started to dull, like when you sit in a boiling bath for too long. You know that it hurts, but it’s enough that you just can’t bring yourself to care.

Safalin sat up, forcing in a breath of air. The attacks must have been much more mild, likely just wanting to docile Miley and Safalin, forcing them back into place. Unlike how Miley was convinced if the slightest thing went wrong with this plan they’d be killed.

Speaking of Miley. When Safalin sat up, Miley was just gone. There was of course a blood trail. God- it really was a lot of blood. It was enough to make anyone sick. But being a nurse- Safalin really didn’t mind. She stood up, ignoring the new burning.

She stumbled down the stairs, wincing as she accidentally dragged her toe. Yes. Just survived all of that, and whining at a stubbed toe. The door the blood lead to was the third floor. She wondered what business Miley had there.

The Ranger AI was safely tucked into her pocket after all.

So of course she had to find her. Miley was likely just delirious with pain, walking around with no goal in mind. Safalin should go and find her, and make sure the woman didn’t do anything reckless.

The lobby was familiar to Safalin. In that nice calming way. The classic smell of the lobby was like a pat on the back, soft carpet making her just want to lay down. It had that old movie theater scent now that she took a moment to think about it. Vacuums, melted popcorn butter, sticky candy.

That was probably why it was so pleasant.

But the blood dripping into the carpet and clumping wasn’t very comforting. She followed the already set out path, as unsettling as it was to be searching for blood. The lights were shut off, since the floor wasn’t in use. The path went into the long hallway. Safalin took care not to look in the room of lies, Alice’s death was still too much to bear.

And soon enough, Safalin ended up in the main game room again.

It was a painful memory, clicking the button to trigger poor little Kanna’s death. It wasn’t something Safalin had ever wanted to do. Hence their plan that had been formed in break rooms, text messages and over late night calls.

Miley was bent over Kanna, brushing away the flowers. Flowers were just everywhere in the room. Pretty but heart wrenching.

Kanna looked so delicate, completely drained pale skin, a grey undertone. Her lips were a lovely shade of bruised purple. And of course bruises still covered her. Flowers and vines stretching under your skin weren’t very gentle.

Miley had a caring look on her face, a fond smile. It was almost like a child looking over her kid.

“Miley- come on we still have to meet everyone outside” Safalin tried to pled with the woman, sighing softly in regret as they were only met with Miley shushing her.

She was probably just delusional at the moment. The pain getting to her head.

“Shush Saf. She’s breathing”

Huh? No- well, maybe?

The flowers were meant to be a slow death. The flowers use your very life to fuel themselves, draining you, while also keeping you alive. A slow battle that ended in death.

She supposed it was possible that it was a slow enough death that hours later Kanna could still be alive. After all, the main game wasn’t all that long ago.

The group had been rushed off to the next floor afterwards after all, and then Miley came along and..

yes. It was entirely possible

Miley stood there a moment longer, legs shaking before picking up the girl. She petted Kanna’s hair. It was a bittersweet sight. Safalin knew Miley had a daughter that was Kanna’s age, but had died young.

Well at least that’s just what Safalin had to assume.

Miley rocked back and forth, humming softly, as she walked to the door. How Miley was able to seem so regal even with a limp and practically doused in blood, it was a mystery.

“Well come along Saf. We can’t keep the dear participants waiting, can we?”

Maybe there was something about almost dying that filled you with a calm elegance. However Safalin was the opposite, starting to sob. She always had tears running, that was never unusual.

She hugged her arms, and wailed, taking in large shaky breaths. “Mu-m-Mil-Miley! Luh-Look at yooooou!” Every word was chopped up to the hyperventilating, every breath being accompanied by a rather annoying wheezing noise. She had every right to start breaking down. The facility was in lockdown, everyone was on lookout for them, just hours before she had watched someone she saw as a son die at the hands of his father. It was all rather overwhelming.

Safalin had never been a rule breaker in the first place. She had happily gone along with what she was told, as long as she wouldn’t get in trouble. She was the delight to have in class, the girl who was called out as the example. She was nothing like Miley, who could curse people out, get into fights and yell. She had no problem bending the rules for her own enjoyment.

The only rules Miley hadn’t been able to bend was ASU-NARO’S so was that one of the reasons Miley had been happy to make this plan? Her longing to have everything go her way?

Safalin didn’t dare let herself fall to her knees, knowing she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to stand up again. The pain everywhere was almost too much, the constant warm burning. Being shot felt nothing like she thought it would feel like.

“Pfft- I know I look like hot shit, take a look at yourself!” Miley burst out into laughter, an almost cruel smile on her face. “You knew the danger we were putting ourselves into. Cry all you want but we can’t wait her forever. I’m sure Meister and Sou are already looking for us.”

Miley stood by the door, bouncing Kanna on her hip. It got a chuckle out of Safalin, soft sobs still racking her chest. “You know she isn’t a baby right? Kanna’s 14.”

The brunette scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Oh shush. She’s light enough to be one.” She stepped back out of the room, leaving Safalin to follow.

It was still quiet, as they left the second floor back at the staircase, walking down in silence. The calm was more stressful, considering any noise would mean someone else was here. And that could not be good. But it never occurred.

They went back into the hallway, trying to ignore the loud alarms.

“Miley- what if something happened to the van?”

“Then we find a new one.”

Her words were curt. She was tired, annoyed and in a lot of pain. She had wished all of this had gone smoothly, and of course she wished she didn’t want to wail in pain. Quite honestly, her head was still throbbing from when Kai had hit her with the frying pan.

The van was obviously so theyw could drive away. It wasn’t like they could all just return home, ASU-NARO knew where everyone lived. They would have to dissemble the company before they could go home for certain.

But it would be better than being trapped in a death game. Hopefully. That brought up a second question for Miley. She still had to sort out a way to actually expose ASU-NARO

The dummies would obviously be proof and they would have everyone’s testimonies. But they could just be seen as nut jobs. But Miley could worry about that later. Right now, their only plan was on how to get out. And she could follow that.

It was a very straight forward route, the same Maple and the others took.

And that’s where they meet back up, opening the door and feeling the sweet cold night air. The city smelled like most cities do, but it was perfect.

Miley smiled to herself, before unfortunately her brief moment was ruined by Shin very rudely starting to yell

“Jesus you’re sick. You had to bring her? For what? To taunt us-? For god’s sake you don’t need to bring a corpse!” His hands flew, as he paced back at forth, anger radiating from him.

Sara looked away, the gulit still heavy on voting for the young girl. There were other whispers and glares.

Miley wasn’t one to feel ashamed of gossip. “Can it. Your precious little sister is still breathing. “ She huffed, adjusting to the girl. She looked better now, color coming back to her cheeks. But until they could get somewhere where they would fully disconnect all of the plant like things, Kanna wouldn’t be able to wake. “Huh?” Shin paused, standing still as he stepped closer.

“She’s alright- well mostly. You can see for yourself if you like” no one could miss the motherly tone in her voice, as she held Kanna more like a baby, showing her to the rest of them, who all looked as if it was their first time meeting a baby at a family gathering.

Kanna honestly just mostly looked asleep. Her cheeks were flushed, and you could see her chest shakily rise and fall. She was alive and that was for certain.

“Well- we better get running before they realize we’re out” Ranmaru commented, his hand up in the air.

“But where?” Anzu asked, as she bounced from foot to foot. Whether she was excited or anxious, Miley couldn’t tell.

Miley hummed, brushing hair out of Kanna’s face “Why, to Miss Sara’s house of course. Considering what I know, that will be the last place they’ll think we head”

They didn’t run. They should have, but all of them were exhausted. So they just ended up walking through the streets looking like a freak show.

Maple held Miley’s free hand, and Safalin hung back near the the end, talking to Q-Taro and Mai. Considering that all of this had happened in just about an hour and a half, they had grown to have at least a small amount of trust.

The drug of being free had to have everyone in a good mood, willing to be nice. However being exhausted was also still there.

Through the city and into the housing area, chatter rose and fell. Of course everyone was excited but as Miley glanced at her cracked phone, the time read 4:25 am. Time was really off balance for the participants.

Sara’s street.

Sara smiled, going to the front of the group looking around. She looked so weary, her school uniform wrinkled, and at some point she had lost her blazer, and left her tie untied just letting it rest on her shoulders. Her hair was tangled even if she had let it down just a while ago.

She looked much less tired now that she couldn’t remember Joe. Miley would have to fix that soon.

“Miley?” Sara looked back at her, playing with the longer part of her bangs. Miley personally thought it was a neat hair cut- ridiculous and looked like a hack job. But it looked neat.

“Yes Sara?”

Sara paused, thinking over her words “Thank you. I never thought you would ever do something like that- but you did. Really, we all owe you our lives.”

Miley ended up chuckling, opening her mouth to say something that was now doubt cocky as all hell. Before Maple, who knew her well, elbowed her. Miley sucked in a sharp breath of pain, before forcing a smile “Of course Sara. It’s the least I can do after all we’ve put you through” That much was true. It was truly the least they could do.

Sara went up to her door, and turned the knob. Her eyes widened when it opened with ease. The hall was empty, but she could hear people talking in the living room. She invited everyone inside the house, the pile of shoes was- very large. Sara looked so at place in home, her smile unshakable. She looked hesitant, so Sara looked back to Miley. She knew that obviously she had a plan. Miley nodded.

Sara opened the door to the living room, running in

“Mama-! I’m home! Dad-!”

Miley watched from the doorway as Sara ran in, how her mother turned to look behind her, a face of joy melting on her face. Ryoko was also on that couch, jumping up to go hug her best friend

“Sara- oh my goodness, my baby- my girl. Are you hurt? What happened?” She pulled her into a hug, kissing her daughter’s face all over. “Thank goodness, you’re safe- I didn’t know what to do, you never came home and when I woke up you and your father were there- there’s been people missing all over the city. Jou’s missing too, and Kugie.” Her mother was in a ramble, looking to make sure there wasn’t a scratch on Sara. It was a nice thing to see. Ryoko hugging Sara from behind as Mrs.Chidouin fussed. To see Sara where she should have been all along. Finally, she noticed the rest of them standing in the hall, letting out a gasp

“That’s-“ she must have recognized them all from the news. Miley didn’t know what to do. Keiji stepped in, holding out his hand

“Shinogi Keiji. Dectective. We’ve all been with Sara this past week.”

Miley didn’t know if anything more was said. She had sat down on the bench in the hall, still holding Kanna close.

Miley finally let her eyes rest, and sleep overtook her.

[monstersandmaw]

ORCTOBERFEST HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN ON MONSTERS & MAW!

I’m super excited to share the first of my stories! Starting off with a plus size female reader who has very low self-esteem and some serious body image issues due to her size, and a sweetheart orc who helps her realise that she can do anything she sets her mind to, and that it’s ok to ask for help.  

Prompt: 'Ring' Wordcount: 4330

---

Chunky preview:

Never again, you thought as you typed ‘self-defence classes’ into your search engine at four am, still wearing your sweaty pyjamas, the nightmare still fresh in your mind. Never a-fucking-gain.  

The nicest looking gym you found was in town, and only a short walk from your apartment. You’d have been lying if you said you weren’t practically shitting bricks about joining up and starting a martial arts class, but enough was enough. You weren’t about to become a vigilante or anything, hunting the streets at night for men who preyed on and mugged people who were short and ‘somewhat chunky’ to put it mildly. You just weren’t about to be taken by surprise again.  

Ever.  

With your heart in your mouth, you walked up the street, super aware of how your body felt, of every curve and wobble, but you bit that back and focused on why you were there.  

Behind the reception desk in the simple foyer of the old warehouse gym sat a creature that looked possibly like a half-gargoyle, half-orc, but they smiled warmly enough up at you. You squinted, having left your glasses at home, and thought that the name tag read ‘Sibylla’. She had smoky grey skin, beautiful purple eyes, and a short muzzle. With features as intimidating as hers, she was the last person you’d expect to be on the front desk, but she asked in a husky, rich voice how she could help you, and you found yourself warming to her almost immediately.

“Hi,” you said, feeling utterly stupid as your face flushed a violent crimson. “Um… I saw on your website that you do self-defence classes…?” You trailed off rather pathetically before rallying again and adding, “And I’m kind of thinking about maybe doing some personal trainer stuff to get fitter and shift some weight...?”

“Sure,” she smiled, her massive canines clicking down in front of the long tusks in her lower jaw as she spoke. She had two short, black horns that curved up out of her forehead and over the top of her head. “Are you a member of the gym already?”

You shook your head. If I were, do you think I’d look like this? you thought.  

“Well,” she said. “We have a number of options then – oh, hi Liam!” she chirped as someone entered the foyer behind you from the street outside.  

You glanced nervously over your shoulder, trying not to twitch like a frightened doe in an open pasture, and when you saw the person she waved at, your heart stopped beating and then galloped wildly in your chest. The orc who had stepped into the reception area through the glass doors from the street was, in a word, gorgeous.  

He had shoulder-length, black hair, which was unusually short for an orc, half tied back off his face, and he was relatively slim too, for an orc. Beside anyone else, he would have looked like a demigod. His sculpted arms and chest were shown off by the skin-tight, black compression t-shirt he wore, and he stood at just over six feet, again remarkably short, but only short for an orc. His skin was a pale, sage green, and his eyes a warm brown. His small-ish tusks bore no metal cuffs, and there were no beads in his hair, though his ears were studded with silver and his black top was so tight that you could plainly see he had both nipples pierced.  

You felt the absolute and instant desire for the ground to swallow you whole, no matter of it had to open up a hole the size of Manhattan to achieve that. He was beautiful, and there you were with your big tummy and your fat ass, standing in front of the reception desk like an absolute fucking chump. You did not belong here.  

“Sorry,” Sibylla smiled, turning back to you. “So yeah, the options…”

“No, you know what? That’s ok. I…” you stammered.  

“You signing up?” the orc named Liam asked, coming up behind you. “Anything you’re looking forward to doing in particular?”

“Barely managing to lumber fifty yards and then spending the next two days aching and not even able to move even that far?” you muttered in disgust.  

The orc laughed, but not unkindly. “Everyone’s gotta start somewhere,” he said sweetly. “We’ll have you doing the things you really want in good time, I promise. We’ll take care of you here.”

Something about the way he said it made tears spring to your eyes, and you felt your face crumple, turning away from him to hide your embarrassment.  

“Hey now,” he said, gently bringing his hand to your shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not you,” you sniffled. “Look, thank you for your time,” you said to Sibylla. “I’m sorry I wasted it.” And you turned and fled the gym, not stopping to catch the looks Sibylla and the orc exchanged.  

Anger and disappointment at yourself flooded through you and tears still stung your eyes. Every time it was like this. Every time you set your mind to some new challenge, you backed out.  

You’d not made it ten paces down the road before you heard jogging feet, and a large figure loomed into your field of vision. It was the orc, Liam.  

“You that desperate for new customers?” you shot sarcastically at him as he drew to a halt slightly in front of you and just off to one side.  

He deflated a little, holding up his hands. God, they were nice hands. “No, I just… I’m sorry if I upset you. Whether or not you join the gym, I just didn’t want to part like that…”

“Oh,” you said, rather lamely.  

“Listen,” he said, running his palms nervously down his thighs, “Would you at least let me give you a tour of the place…? See what it’s like before you make a decision?”

You took a deep breath, teetering on the edge of a choice. You knew you should. What was it you’d said to yourself at four o’clock that very morning? Never again.

“O-Ok...” you nodded. “Thank you.”

He beamed at you, tusks gleaming in the bright sunlight, and his dark eyes glittering. 

Read the whole thing, and gain exclusive access to monthly stories, the Orctoberfest with more orcs than you can shake a WoW game at, WIP snippets, polls, character bios, and our private Discord server right now!

[nytreecx]

Marinette is not a Bad Designer

Alright… I’ve seen one-too many bitter posts by fans of Miraculous Ladybug disappointed by Marinette’s deep-down costume choice to not put my thoughts on the matter forward.

When considering a design in textiles, we are taught to critically observe it through two lenses: functional and aesthetic. Simply put: how it serves its purpose and its overall appearance (usually how visually appealing it is). Despite often clashing and getting in the way of one-another, they sometimes are easier to see as concepts that blend into one another. In water colour, if you paint red and blue next to each other, they are going mix to create purple. (I blather when I explain these concepts, so if you wish to get to the analysis of Marinette and Adrien’s designs skip ahead to ***)

As an example for this outlook, I’ll use a cushion on a lounge. Its functions are to provide lumbar support; help maintain good posture; filling the gaps of a comfortable sitting space the lounge may have missed; to last continuous uses; and to complement and accentuate the design of the lounge. This means function will control the shape, size, density, and – to a degree – the fabric choices such as category and type (e.g. woven and cotton respectively) of the cushion, and provide a starting point for the aesthetics via the lounge’s aesthetics. The cushion’s aesthetic purposes on a plain lounge are to create interesting and appealing focal points; on a patterned lounge, they provide plain yet grounding points to bring focus and calm to an otherwise busy design. Aesthetics therefore controls the shape, fabric type and pattern (e.g. cotton or plush, and floral respectively), and notions such as piping and buttons. I have most likely missed a plethora of points, but I am aware I am usually long winded and am an amateur.

Of course, some designs need to heavily lean to one side of planning. A wall-hanging is a piece of art using textiles mediums; therefore it will have dependence on aesthetics planning to be successful. Its function is simply to look good. A tent taken on a camping trip, however, is going to be all purpose. It wants to keep you safe from the elements, and not take up too much room in your car or weight in your backpack. If the tent is made from chiffon, with bolts of cloth dedicated to frills and decorative drapes, it will be bulky; be even more difficult to stuff into its bag than your sleeping-bag; tear easily on the first bit of nature it comes in contact with; and metaphorically take on the properties of fairy-floss when it rains, not only drenching you, but keeping you wet and trapped as the delicate and light fabric becomes heavy and collapses on top of you and whatever unfortunate soul tried to foolishly take refuge in it. One may even say its aesthetic purpose it to look durable. The only acceptation I can think of is a camouflage design, where a specific pattern and frills that mimic leaves are necessary.

***

Through this, I have hopefully illustrated that the relationship between function and aesthetics is one of give and take. Adrien does not give a damn about this. His father may be a famous designer, and whether or not he has shared a few tips of the trade, this boy grew up on manga. He is going to hit this super-hero costume with as much magic-girl that his kawaii desu ne heart possesses. He’s got cuffs; a long-ass tail that has its own pose in the transformation sequence; paw prints on the boots; unnecessary seams and piping; morphed pupils (that may be an automatic change to give him night-vision); and a big bell that rings, for crying out loud. The only functions I can see are steel-caps, pockets, removability of the tail, and claws. Even then I suspect these were mainly chosen for the aesthetics. Even his seams are what you would call aesthetic seams. It’s a suit made from magic. You don’t need seams.

Marinette, on the other hand, is focused on the function of this being a superhero costume. She knows she will be going into battle. Taking leaf out of Edna Mode’s book and then the whole library, she forgoes the iconic billowing cape and anything else that would hinder or even put her in danger her while fighting. Seams, zipper tags, cuffs, tails, and bells can be exploited by getting grabbed by a villain or accidentally caught on an edge or pointy debris while dodging or escaping. She only has an allusion to antenna as ribbons rather long poles sticking out of her head will basically become handles for whomever she is fighting. The only fault I can see is keeping her pigtails (*SPOILER* which we know she can change from the leak of Kitty Noir *SPOILER OVER*). Even then they may serve to create some kind of barrier from the back for her miraculous. She doesn’t need such things as steel caps because her magical fabric is already all the armour she needs.

I’ve had fun creating alternative costumes for Marinette. With function in mind, and wanting to reference the beetle, I added plate armour to the front to mimic the underside of the ladybird; angled spikes on the arms and legs like many beetles have to catch blades and cause damage; white spots like on their head on a black helmet that conceals her identity better; and the red and black shell only as a detachable shield on the back. Apart from being a design more appropriate for an AU, I forgot one important thing that all these features I wanted as tributes to the source material took away. Marinette knew that a superhero needs to be recognisable. Hence, this is the goal of the aesthetics.

The simplicity of the fabric’s pattern is to be iconic. What’s the most salient part of a ladybird? The black spots on their red shell. What pattern has she chosen? Exactly that. She is supposed to be a hero of the people. Someone every citizen can recognise as she swings by so fast she’s a blur. Parisians are going to be attacked so often that the red with black polka-dots needs to inspire feelings of safety, so that when they see her they don’t instantly think she’s akuma they need to seek shelter from. When she rescues terrified and flustered citizens, or toddlers crying for their mother, she needs to be recognised immediately; to create a focus point for the panicked mind; and to inspire peace and a sense that it will all be okay now that she’s here. A plain pattern in bold colours is the easiest way to do this. Adrien has even done this with the almost unanimously black outfit and silhouette alluding to a cat with the ears and tail. Her simplicity is necessary BOTH functionally and aesthetically.

*SPOILER*

In the event they swap kwamiis, they retain their design philosophies, and yet are influenced by someone they love and care about’s take on it. They need to hold onto the established iconic design the other has come up with, yet express they are someone else with their own unique take on it. Adrien keeps the iconic spots as the main feature, but adds panels of black to accentuate the pattern; give a nod to the actual ratio of black to spots on the ladybird; suggest armour; and to add depth and accentuate muscle anatomy. Marinette turns the bells and whistles into lines on the fabric to remove the danger of them while honouring them. Her plat imitates a tail instead of a more-easily-grappled belt and the collar tells of her Chinese heritage. In the event of the mouse fiasco, she needs to alter her design philosophy from hero to “omg please don’t find out I’m Ladybug”. Her colours are the usual palette she wears to inspire Marinette thoughts for Chat; her hair resembles mouse ears and are definitely and defiantly not Ladybug’s piggy tails; and her stripes and spikes, and tail create the farce that she is an inexperienced hero by forgoing the ungrabblable and to be easily recognised as the animal of their miraculous holder attitude Ladybug adopts.

*SPOILER OVER*

Being a designer isn’t just “Ima add frills for days cuz that shit’s tight”; knowing that busy patterns next to each other clash; making things look visually appealing or stunning; or even knowing what’s hot this season. It’s about making something for and around a purpose. And through this, Marinette can indeed retain her title of “good designer”. Thank you for reading my one thousand and five-hundred word essay. I hope this has enlightened some confused and vexed fans.

[clevernewdimension]

Exhaulted Part Sixteen (M)

Parts: Prologue, One, Two, Three (M), Four, Five, Six (M), Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen (Coming Soon!)

Genre: Drama, Romance, Violence, etc.

Pairing: SehunxReaderxMinseok (Smut with Jongin tho ;D)

Word Count: 6.1K

A/N: AYYY SMUT THAT I’M REALLY BAD AT WRITING LOLOLOLOL Also, I love throwing in plot twists! 😈😈😈

I wasn’t expecting the kiss to go from super sweet to intensely passionate in zero point two seconds. His hands travel from down my back to my thighs, giving them a firm squeeze. Jongin seemed so shy and sweet usually, seeing that change into something else so quickly was thrilling. His plush lips travel down my throat, giving me a light bite now and then.

I pulled his shirt, making my intentions very clear. He laughs, leaning back and pulling it up and over. I ran my hand down his chest, appreciating the art dancing has sculpted his body into. I leaned forward, biting and kissing his shoulder, making my way to his neck.

Jongin laughs, “I take it you needed a distraction?”

I leaned back quickly, frowning a bit. Guilt flooded my mind as I sigh. I feel him touch my face, making me look at him.

“Don’t feel bad at all,” He says with a smile. “I completely understand. I don’t feel used, either. I promise.” He kisses me lightly, a smile on his lips as he did it, “Do you still want this?”

I wrap my arms around his neck, kissing him harder. The guilt going away at the sincerity of his words. “Yes,” I say in between kisses.

Jongin pulls away, his eyes going to the zipper of his hoodie I wore. He bit his lip, before looking up at me, raising an eyebrow. He didn’t move for it, just silently asking me permission. I smirk a bit, reaching up as pulling the zipper slowly down. The air was cooler, making me shiver a bit. His eyes followed my hand until it was done, completely unzipped. The way he bit his lip after smirking just ooze complete sex appeal.

Licking his lips, his hands moved, from my hips to the bare skin of my waist. One arm wrapped around me, pulling me close as his kissed me again, the other finding my breast. “Hold on,” He mutters between a kiss before biting my bottom lip. I tighten my legs around him as he moves, standing up. It seemed effortless, picking me up. One of my hands pulled at his soft hair, the other around him. I rolled my hips against him, feeling how hard he is through the clothes. “Fuck,” He mutters, giving my breast a slight squeeze in retaliation to my teasing.

I wasn’t paying attention where we were going, lost in the kisses as I felt him lean forward. I held on tighter, ending the kiss in a bit of panic. His hands moved, one around my middle and the other gripping a thigh. He held me firmly as I look seeing him pick up one of the doors, lifting it over our heads and letting it fall back down with a thud. I just laughed at my reaction, before being set down softly on the bed. The room was dark until I see a light flash in Jongin’s hands. “Gotta love Bluetooth,” He says, using it to turn on a light and a set of speakers on the other side.

I take a moment to look at the room. Tapestries of different designs hung on the walls, adding something to what would have been a blank wall. The bed had a metal headboard of swirling designs, the blanket soft under me. The lamp that was on had a piece of cloth over it, making it dimmer. The music was soft but still setting a great mood, making me smile in excitement. I looked at him, smiling as I get pulled towards him, standing. “This your room,” I ask, pulling the hoodie off and tossing it to the side.

“Sure is,” He mutters, leaning down and connecting our lips. His hands softly tangle in my hair, before pulling away and tilting my head to the side, kissing down my neck slowly biting gently and with languid licks in between. “The real question I have to ask is what you want from me? I’m up for anything, just tell me what you want.”

I sigh at the feeling, my hands finding his belt as I start to pull it free. “You sound like a real pleaser,” I mutter as one of he slowly drags his fingers down my back.

“It’s all about you, Baby,” He mutters in my ear, his fingers still going slow down my back. “I have some ideas, but I like to know what you want first.”

“Surprise me,” I say, unbuttoning his pants and pulling the zipper down quickly. “Make me beg.”

The hand in my hair tightens as he pulls me away a bit. I gasp, letting out a tiny moan at the feeling. The smirk on his face grew, “Alright, but remember. You asked for this. Tell me if you want me to stop if you don’t like something.”

I nod as Jongin just turns us, pulling the rest of his clothes off quickly before he sits on the edge of the bed. I get on my knees in front of him, smiling as I reach my hands forward.

He lightly pushes one back, “Ah, ah, ah! No hands.”

“Noted,” I say with a smile. One of his hands goes to my hair my hair, the other holding his hard member right in front of me. I brush my tongue along the tip, hearing him take a deep breath in. I swirl my tongue around it before just skipping the teasing altogether. His fingers tighten their grasp as his other hand joins in my hair. I suck him, slowly going up and down as I look up at him. His eyes on mine, bottom lip between his teeth. “Goddamn,” He says, “Y/N.” I hum, hearing him say my name like that, full of lust. He then smirks for a second, pulling my face further down, taking more in. I gagged a bit, but not as much as I probably should of as he starts making the pace faster and faster.

“Fuck, Y/N,” He moans, leaning his head back. He pulls me off as I gasp for air. I didn’t have a moment to rest before I was being picked up and thrown onto the bed.

I smile, laughing a bit, “Jongin! I was having so much fun!”

He opens a drawer, getting a few things out. “As good as you are at sucking cock, I want this to be about you. Besides, you’re about to have much more fun,” He mutters, his voice husky and dark. “Close your eyes.”

I do as he said, leaning back against the pillows. His fingers trailing against my skin, teasing me. Then, I feel him tie something around my head. I opened my eyes, my vision still black. I smile, “Blindfolds huh? Anything else?”

I feel something on my wrist, moving my arm. Clanking of metal on metal as something else cold closes on my other wrist.

“You could say that,” He says with a chuckle as I pull. The chain to these cuffs was fairly long.

“Now, let me see that pretty mouth again,” He murmurs. I open, happily expecting him to slide his cock back in only for there to be something else. His hands at the back of my head again as I bite down, feeling it give in my teeth. My voice was muffled, hearing him going to get a few things. I feel my shorts being pulled down. It was slow, intentionally teasing me.

“Y/N,” Jongin says as the bed moves from his weight. “You’re so beautiful like this,” He whispers as I feel one hand lightly touching the inside of one thigh. I open my legs wider, hearing him laugh at that. “So impatient. Let me appreciate how you look, handcuffed beneath me.”

The bed shifts as I feel a kiss placed between my breasts. I groan, one of his hands over one as his mouth went to the other. “You’re so beautiful, Y/N. Your skin is so soft,” He mutters before letting his tongue flick at one of my nipples. The softness of his voice and words are such a wonderful juxtaposition to how I’m bound and gagged. I expected him to be rough on me once these were brought out, but he’s been sweet and slow, sending shivers down my spine as his other hand swipes up my slit, making me fight against the restraints.

“We always compliment you about how smart you are, about how strong you are,” He says, his kisses slowly moving further down my body. “But trust me, we all want to tell you how good you look, and now that I have the chance to, I will.”

The finger swipes up my slit again, making me arch up, but still unable to go anything. “Your body is amazing,” Jongin says, pushing my legs further apart. Something wraps around my one of my legs, just below the knee. I try to pull it up, only for it to be stuck as the same thing happens to the other.

“And your legs,” He says, the playful softness to his voice still there. “They’re so nice, Y/N, but I can’t have them in my way, can I?”

I wanted so desperately to see him then. See how he was looking at me as he spoke words of just pure adoration. I bit down on the gag the second I felt something warm and wet slowly lick at me. From the bottom to the top, avoiding brushing on my clit.

“Baby girl, you’re so wet already,” He says, as a finger now is pushing ever so slowly into me. I moan at the feeling, trying up get more. Jongin reaches up, one hand groping at a breast as he licks softly at my clit once. “What a pretty pussy, Y/N, and it tastes just as good as it looks,” He says, his breath hot on my skin. My heart was racing, my imagination filling in how he looked down there. Twice. “You’re incredible.” Three times. “I can’t stop watching my finger go into your wonderful cunt, Y/N.” Four times as I pull my hands, wanting to touch him so badly. I was biting the gag, my saliva escaping and going down my face. “It’s so hard to resist you and keep having fun when all I want to do is bury my cock in you.” He sucks lightly at my clit, adding another finger.

I was shaking already on the edge of my orgasm, his tongue expertly working my clit. I was moaning the best I could, arching my back as his he sucks on my clit, harder and harder. I’m yelling words to him, telling him I’m about to cum. The tightness in my stomach was reaching its peak so quickly I was practically delirious with the pleasure.

Then his mouth leaves me, and his fingers. I whine, fighting against the handcuffs as I could only hear him chuckle.

Then there’s just the music and my whining. He says nothing. He does nothing. Leaving me there as I’m left at the edge of pleasure, slowly dwindling. I call out, mumbling from behind the gag, wanting to move my hands and legs so bad to try and see if he’s still there.

I feel something at my entrance, slowly pushing in. It was thick and fairly big. His tongue goes back to where it was, teasing my clit as I moan. His tongue leaves me as I feel the blindfold come off. The light took some getting used to, but when I did, I wasn’t disappointed in the sight at all.

Jongin had a sex toy in his hand, slowly thrusting it into me as his tongue went back to my clit. He smirks, “There are your beautiful eyes! The look on your face is stunning!”

He keeps his eyes locked on mine as he sucks on my clit, thrusting the toy faster and harder. I bite down on the gag hard, leaning up as much as I can to watch this. His other hand moves to the toy, before twisting something at the end.

The vibrating sensation was incredible. I threw my head back, my body shaking as I was quickly climbing back towards my peak yet again. I yell, asking as best I could if I could cum.

He, once again, pulls away. My whines loud as my body convulsed at the loss again.

“Baby,” He says with a smirk that was sin incarnate. “The way your body is shaking. You want to cum so bad, don’t you?”

I nod, yelling how much I wanted to, only for it to be a muffled mess.

I fall back down from the peak of pleasure again. My orgasm that was one second away, gone. Lazy licks to my clit start again, making my fight against all restraints.

“You’re so fine, Y/N,” Jongin says as he slowly pushes the vibrator that was off in me again. “The way you act, the way you hold yourself, all amazing and wonderful.” He laughs, giving me just a bite into my thigh quickly. I groan out as the toy turns on, my wrists hurting from the metal. I was shaking, yelling loud when the vibrator hit the specific spot in me. Jongin took notice, a smile on his face as he kept aiming there, hitting it over and over. I was yelling how I wanted to cum so badly.

The bed shifts as I see him move up, his face near mine as he grabs my hair, tugging at it to force me to look at him. “Let me see you,” He growls as he starts thrusting the toy in me faster and faster. “Let me watch you fall apart.”

My body starts to shake as I yell out, my eyes wide as the feeling of intense orgasm washes finally over me. I’m chanting his name the best I can from behind the gag as his eyes don’t leave mine, focused on my face as he doesn’t stop, thrusting the vibrating toy in me without mercy. I was shaking, thrashing against him as much as possible.

He pulls away, taking the vibrator out and quickly turning it off. As he slides on a condom, he takes my legs down, letting them be free. Jongin looks amazing, eyes racking up my body as he reaches behind my head, taking the ball gag and throwing it to the side.

“I want to hear your pretty moans this time,” He says, lips molding against mine as he lines himself up. One quick thrust and I moaned out, still very sensitive from the previous orgasm.

“Jongin,” I moan, pulling hard against the handcuffs, the metal clanging loudly.

He’s still, letting out a throaty, deep groan as he savors the feeling of being in me. He looks down, moving and kissing me. “Do you know how hard it was not to just fuck you? You looked so fucking amazing baby, that I just wanted to bury myself in you as quick as I could.”

“Fuck,” I moan, “Oh fuck! God Jongin”

I thought the vibrator was the best thing I’d feel, but that was before he started to move. Strong, fluid thrusts were quick, not giving me a moment to think. He buried his face in my neck, moaning and groaning loudly. “Fuck, you’re so goddamn beautiful, Y/N. Watching you cum like that was so sexy,” He groans, his muscles tensing as he thrusts harder and faster, not missing my g-spot a single time. He reaches over, quickly undoing the restraints on my legs. I couldn’t stop pulling at the handcuffs as I arch my back and wrap my legs around him. I wanted to touch him so badly.

He continues to speak his soft and lovely compliments as he slammed into me. He locked his eyes into mine, one hand holding the side of my face softly as the other was gripping one leg in an iron grasp, holding it up, creating a new angle.

I yelled out, his name, curses, and nonsense falling from my lips as he thrust a few more times. I rode out my second orgasm as he kept slamming his hips to mine. Jongin lets go of my leg before he leans back, pulling out of me before taking off the condom. I watch as he wraps his hand around himself, pumping a few times before he groans loudly. I feel warm semen land on my stomach and chest as his head was back, body tense. I just stare at him watching him until he stops, catching his breath.

“Oh my god,” I say, just looking at him as he breathes deeply. He looks at me, a huge grin on his face. He reaches forward for a second, freeing my hands from the handcuffs. They just my there for a moment, resting from fighting against the metal. It was like I was boneless, just laying there and recovering for a moment.

He leans over me, looking at my legs where they were still red from the restraints. He takes a moment to kiss each one, looking up at him with a smile as he was gasping for air. “I meant everything I said, by the way.” He moves up, smirking for a moment. Giving my tummy a small kiss. He just smirks at me before leaning forward, licking up the cum that littered my body, getting it all. If it wasn’t for the fact I was already tired, watching him do that would definitely turn me on. He looked just so sexy and confident as he did it. A lot of guys don’t even like kissing their girlfriends after they give them a blowjob, but not Jongin. He just flicks his tongue over one of my nipples, collecting the last of his cum that landed on me.

I reach out for him, pulling him down and kissing him. He groans into it, his tongue slowly playing with mine. I could taste the bitter saltiness of his release in his mouth. He wraps his arms around me, pulling me so that I rested on him. Jongin’s hands find my shoulders rubbing them softly as I giggle, still a bit drunk of pleasure from the moment.

Kisses slowed down, his hands gentle as they moved all along my body. I pull away, lying with my head resting as I place soft, chaste kisses on his neck. Jongin mumbles sweet words in my ear, making me smile. Most men would stop the sweet words once they had sex. Jongin is genuinely just sweet for the sake of being sweet, and it shows in how he treats everyone.

We didn’t have time to soak up the after sex bliss, however. A loud ringing cuts through the air as Jongin groans. He sighs, kissing my shoulder before I roll off him. He calmly searches for his phone, finding it easily. I turn, reaching over to the stereo and turning it down just before he answers the call.

“Hello,” He says, taking a moment to listen. His eyes widen a bit, “What?”

He starts to reach for clothes, listening more before speaking again. “I’ll be there right away. Yeah, she’s here.” He pauses a moment, looking at me before pulling the phone away from his head, glaring at it a bit, “Min, she’s literally right next to me. You know for a fact she isn’t going to just sit around-”

He stops, listening as I sit up, watching him worriedly. What’s wrong with Minseok? Is he ok?

“I can’t believe this. I’ll be there soon,” Jongin mutters, hanging up as he starts to pull on his underwear. He looks at me with an apologetic look. “Promise me you won’t lose it when I tell you this?”

“Fuck no I won’t,” I mutter, standing and searching for my clothes. I sigh, getting frustrated from the fact I still couldn’t find my shirt.

“Well, you’re coming with me, because I don’t feel like getting you mad at me,” Jongin says, pulling his shirt over his head. He points to the door, “Two doors down is the room you were in. Your shirt has to be there.”

I hop out, pulling the door up, “Then tell me what’s happening, please.”

“I promise,” He says, hopping as he was pulling up his jeans.

I was in the next room in an instant, finding my discarded bra and shirt easily. My shirt was covered in something sticky and I growl in frustration. “Shirt’s ruined,” I yell, hoping he can hear me through the walls.

“I have extras here,” He yells back.

I find my shoes and socks, quicking getting those on. I spy my phone on the bedside table, grabbing it before I walk back towards his room just in time for him to be coming out.

He hands me a black shirt and I pull it on quickly. I reach into the pockets of my shorts, pulling my unruly hair up and into the messiest bun ever. He hands me his hoodie, “It’s raining,” He warns as we quickly descended the stairs. Out and into his black car quickly. It was a nice luxury car, but I was too focused on what was happening to really appreciate it.

“Daejung attacked Minseok,” Jongin says, a frown on his face. He looked angry, his hands gripping the steering wheel. “Attacked him, but footage makes it look like it’s the other way around. They’re literally standing before the Royal Lawyer right now.”

At the mention of Daejung, my mind freezes. Jongin must have noticed as he places a hand on my shoulder. “He’s fine, Y/N. Daejung picked the wrong fight. Minseok will never start a fight but he will sure as hell end one.”

I just nod, feeling numb. “He’s there, isn’t he?”

The deafening silence gave me my answer.

I walked quickly, trying to keep up with Jongin’s long, quick strides. The courtroom doors open for Jongin. One reaches out for me, but Jongin just wraps his arms around my shoulders, making sure they understood that I was going with him.

“Stay by me, ok? I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch you,” He mutters as we enter the room. Everyone turns to look at us. My eyes instantly find Minseok and Kyungsoo. They stood to the right, while Daejung, his family's personal lawyer and Fiancee, Jihae. She smirks at me, giving me a wink. I roll my eyes at her but feel my heart want to stop in fear when Daejung looked over his shoulder. His hair was cut shorter since the last time I saw him, but his eyes were still as cruel as I remember. There were bruises all over his face and one of his lips busted open. Seeing him like that for once was honestly a better sight than it should be.

“As I was saying,” The Royal Lawyer, sat behind a desk says, ignoring the two of us completely. “I expected better from you, Minseok.”

“I didn’t attack him,” He says, keeping his voice even and his face completely calm. He had a black eye too, a scratch on his face but overall, he was fine. His suit disheveled.

“Video evidence says otherwise,” Daejung’s lawyer says. He was a thin, tall man, who looked like he was part bird. His voice was high and his voice sounded like you were chewing gravel.

Kyungsoo hands something to the royal lawyer,” This the security cameras from the military base that shows an alternate angle. It shows the beginning of the fight, as well as the rest. We have both the cameras keep a backup in them along with it uploaded to a secure place. Someone smashed the camera thinking it would hide this evidence.

He held it in his hand, looking forward. He was older, in his late sixties. His hair white as he was dressed in all black, much like others from the South. Doors open and some guards come in, my eyes shifting to them. I clutched Jongin’s arm tightly, watching, trying to ignore the feeling of Daejung looking at me.

“The lawful procedure dictates that we cuff you both and keep an eye on you until we see who is in the wrong,” He says, the hollow voice of his echoing in the room.

I glance at Minseok, who looked at me in surprise, finally fully realizing that I was there. One of the guards came up being him, putting him in handcuffs, hands behind his back. I turn to see if they were doing the same to Daejung. The one close to him doesn’t move an inch.

“But we’re anything but lawful,” The Royal Lawyer says, his eyes glaring at Minseok as he drops the flash drive in a glass of water. He looks over to Daejung, “You have five minutes before he’s taken into custody, Lee Daejung.”

My jaw drops as I see Jihae smile at the Royal Lawyer, “We’ll make sure the money gets to you within the day.”

The guard holds Minseok as Daejung smirks. Jongin goes to move forward, wanting to protect his brother. His face is full of anger as he’s pulled back by a guard. I’m pulled away by another as they restrain Jongin as he attempts to break free of the guards. Three ambushed Kyungsoo, who was able to handle the first two. He fought, punching and fighting like he’s been trained his whole life. Three of them was too much before he was pinned to the ground. He was angry, “How could you!” He never stopped struggling.

The disregard of the law is sick, and it goes all the way to the top. This is what Minseok meant. This is why Sehun hasn’t done anything about Lina’s mom. This justice system was just a sham.

Minseok’s eyes met mine, “Y/N!, Close your eyes, ok? Please, don’t look.” His eyes were desperate, not scared of what was going to happen or anything Daejung was going to do, but worried for me.

The look between us was cut off when Daejung’s fist met his stomach followed quickly by one to the face. Jongin pulled away from them, only to be tackled to the ground. “Leave him alone,” Jongin yells, even has his face is forced into the floor.

My eyes fill with tears as I try to take a step forward, only to be yanked back. “Minseok,” I say, my hands shaking.

“Please, Y/N,” He says, letting out a cry of pain as another sharp punch hit his face. His nose starts to pour blood, but he just looks at me as if nothing happened. “Look away! Leave! Please! I don’t want him to hurt you!” He looks desperate, never looking towards Daejung or even thinking about begging him to stop. The pain isn’t what’s hurting Minseok. Knowing that I was there, seeing Daejung like this again…

I felt the hand on my wrist loosen for a moment. I pulled myself free, running. All the other guards were too busy holding Jongin, none were left to stop me as I ran forward. I placed myself between Daejung and Minseok, tears falling from my face, a deep, burning hatred in my chest. I glared up at him, forgetting that I’m deathly afraid of this man.

Daejung just laughs, “Defending him? Really, Y/N?”

Minseok from behind me, fights against the guard for the first time, almost getting free from his grasp. “No! Y/N, please, turn around and go back! Please!”

Daejung just smiles at his words, “It’s cute, hearing him beg like that to you. Pure desperation in those words… reminds me how you’d beg me to stop over and over.”

“I’m through begging,” I say, standing tall to him.

“Y/N, please, I can take this, I promise! I can’t take seeing you hurt! Go, while you still can,” Minseok screams, his voice breaking and cracking under the stress in his voice. “Goddamnit, Y/N! Please! PLEASE!”

A sharp, loud slap echoes in the room and my cheek is on fire. I turn to look at Daejung, seeing Jihae smirking in the background.

Minseok practically roared in anger, “I'M GOING TO FUC-”

The doors are thrown open, the echo of the heavy wood banging against the walls are almost deafening. My eyes find Sehun’s first, who, as he took in the scene in front of him, was getting angrier and angrier. Junmyeon was next to him, his eyes glaring at the Royal Lawyer in disgust.

Stood between them is King Song, my father. He took one look at the room before exuding a very calm, angry presence. His eyes met mine, before moving to my face, where I’m sure my cheek was glowing red from the slap.

“Your majesty,” Jihae mutters, shock on her face, “W-we were just here because Minseok-”

“Defended himself,” Sehun cuts in before glaring at Daejung, “from a worthless piece of shit.”

Daejung gave Sehun a withering glare, “Yo-”

“Silence,” Song says, glaring. He looks at the Royal Lawyer, “What decisions you’ve made, they no longer hold any weight. Unhand Minseok immediately.”

The Royal Lawyer stands, a smirk on his face, “My word is law, not even a rightful king can stop the decisions of a Royal Lawyer. You know this.”

Junmyeon smirked, for once looking a bit conceited. “As of noon today, you are no longer the Royal Lawyer. Paperwork has been sent and approved by his majesty and myself.”

Jihae glares at him, “Then who is? I’m sure once we give him all the facts, he’ll side with us. Money talks, after all!”

Sehun laughs sarcastically, “No, he will not.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Daejung says, barely keeping his voice from yelling. He looks at me, giving me a glare before looking back at the King.

My father looks over at the guards, “Uncuff Kim Minseok, son of the Southern Duke Kim and, as of noon today, the 57th Royal Lawyer of Exdria.”

My jaw drops as I see Junmyeon look at Minseok, a smile on his face. I look back at him, seeing his beaten face go from shock to a smile. This sort of smile wasn’t from happiness, but pride. “Unhand me and put Lee Daejung and Park Jihae in custody for conspiracy, and bribery. Add Assault to Lee’s charge,” The cuffs come undone in an instant as guards swarmed the two. “Take the previous Royal Lawyer into custody too, on the grounds of accepting bribes and treason. His duty is first and foremost to his people, whom he abandoned. More charges will come to all of them,” Minseok look at Daejung, a glare on his face, “Such as domestic abuse, for example.” He turns to Jihae, “And blackmail.”

Daejung’s eyes widened before he glared at me. “You cunt,” He bellows, moving so his face was right up to mine. “You worthless bitch! You think that now you’re friends with these Royals you’re safe?! You’re never safe from me!”

“Burn in hell,” I say quietly, glaring. The fear in me blocked out by the anger and pain of years of torture. “After everything you’ve done, you deserve far worse than prison.”

He’s yanked away from me and Jongin and Kyungsoo are pulled to their feet. Sehun rushes forward, putting an arm around both Minseok and I. He hugs us tightly, not caring about the blood all over Minseok. He turns, pressing his lips to my forehead, and then Minseok’s.

After the three of them are pulled from the room, Junmyeon hands Minseok a few tissues from a pack he carries in his pocket.

Minseok pulls away from Sehun before hugging Junmyeon. “How, why-”

“It’s the only way we could have stopped him,” Song says calmly, striding forward.

Sehun lets go of me as he reaches out, touching my cheek softly. He looks at Minseok, “You know… striking a royal is treason and punishable by death.”

“She’d have to accept the title of Princess for that to be charged,” Minseok says calmly. “But who’s idea was it? How?”

“Sehun, Song and I were all together when we first heard about what happened,” Junmyeon says, mothering over Minseok and checking for any serious injuries. He had a cut in one eyebrow, but his nose wasn’t broken. “We knew what would happen. It was Sehun’s idea. After all, you’ve been past ready for this job for a very long time. Thankfully they kept you locked up for a while, that’s what gave us the time to get the paperwork done.”

Minseok looks at Sehun, who glances at the floor. His face completely flushed, “You didn’t think that we’d sit by and let you rot in prison for something you didn’t do, right? Idiot.”

“Well,” Minseok says, giving Sehun a smile, “Good thing I know exactly what to you to pay you back. I’m going to need all the evidence you have, Sehunnie.”

Song gave Minseok a curious look but stayed silent. Junmyeon lets out a sigh of relief as we all walk out. The second we left the courthouse, Yixing, who was waiting outside just in case, walks over to Minseok and starts to fuss over his injuries.

While we all left and waited for Minseok to receive medical attention, I was lost in my thoughts. Song and Junmyeon had to leave and talk to the council what happened and relay the message from Minseok that he was going to seek out all those who have been corrupt. Kyungsoo patted me on the back, “You’re very brave, Y/N. I don’t know if I could have stood up to someone who hurt me that badly like you did.”

I smile, hug him before he had to go and report back to his father, General Do. Jongin was sent to deliver the news of what happened to his and Minseok’s father. Granted he fought for a while not to have to go. He wanted to stay with his brother after seeing that but decided to make sure their family, as well as everyone else, knows. Before he left, he touched the cheek that wasn’t slapped before giving me a small kiss on the other.

“Thank you,” He says. “Not for earlier. I mean, thank for that too, but thank you for defending my brother. Seriously… seeing him like that was painful. It’s nice to see more people in his corner, you know?” I nod, giving him one last hug before he left on his way.

Yixing, Minseok, Sehun and I were all huddled in a small room in the hospital as Yixing was treating Minseok. Sewing stitches into his eyebrow, he kept the conversation lighthearted. My mind kept going to Daejung. It’s funny, in the moment, I wasn’t scared at all. Now, even though he’s locked up and can’t get out, I’m terrified. My hand shaking as Yixing leaves, taking off gloves as he goes to quickly fill out and go paperwork before Minseok can be discharged. The ticking of the clock was unnerving.

Sehun looked at me, shaking his head. He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a few bucks, “You know what helps me when I’m scared? A nice, chewy, sweet candy bar from the vending machine.”

I just smile at him. He was worried, standing close to Minseok and me, going back and forth between the two of us, hovering like a mother would. He and Junmyeon have more in common than they realize.

I nod, taking the money without argument. I was too emotionally and physically drained.

“Can I have one,” Minseok asks, checking his pockets to give me some of his money.

Sehun lightly swats at his hands, pulling out another dollar from his pockets. “Minnie likes the chocolate covered coffee beans.”

I nod, walking silently to the machine. If it wasn’t for the fact my phone was dead, I’m fairly certain that Lina would be blowing it up right now. I put the dollars in, getting the chocolate coffee beans for Minseok and some fruit chews for myself. I wanted to be happy, that Daejung was finally going to see justice, but for some reason, I just can’t help but feel like he’ll get out of it like he usually does. The words he screamed at me before he was taken away resonated with me.

Safe. I haven’t known what that felt like for a long time.

I turn back, looking in the room, only for my heart to stop for a moment at the sight I saw.

Sehun, standing between Minseok’s legs, his hands grasping his face softly as their lips were locked in a passionate kiss. Minseok’s hands grabbed at Sehun’s waist, smiling in the kiss.

I hide behind the wall, blushing furiously at what I’ve seen. My mind racing. Minseok and Sehun?

[polkari-seuta]

[Fic][Event] Yearly Check-Up

Decided to participate in @jikookfluffweek. XD

I wish I spent more time on this, but I really wanted to get this out today before I do some studying for my tests this week. ;.;

Title: Yearly Check-Up Word Count: 2030 Prompt: Domestic Sunday Genre: Fluff, Family AU (or non-AU, if you like) Summary: Their daughter doesn’t like doctor visits.

“Appa…” 

The nervous whimper of Jimin and Jungkook’s two-year-old daughter was enough to indicate that she knew what was going on. She fidgeted in Jimin’s lap, eyes darting around at the activity in the pediatric clinic waiting room--the incoming parents of patients signing in at the receptionist’s desk, the other children playing with the toys set out, the cough, cough of some of the others around her.

“It’s okay, Miseon-ah,” Jimin soothed, pressing his lips to her forehead. “It won’t be long.”

“Just over an hour,” his husband Jungkook grumbled next to him, slouching in his chair, but the former was quick to shush him.

“It’s just check-up, baby,” Jimin continued to Miseon, planting more calming kisses against her soft, smooth face, the fine black hair on her head. “They’re just gonna make sure you’re super healthy.”

But Miseon wasn’t reassured. She just squeezed Jimin instead, fussing over every little movement he made, afraid the next one would indicate her two-year-old-imagined doom. “No doctor,” she mumbled.

Jimin was about to speak up again, but the door next to the reception desk opened.

“Park-Jeon, Miseon?”

Miseon’s attention perked. She was usually very attentive of when her name was called. Jimin liked to think it was because of pride. She loved her name and she loved her parents. She may be adopted, but even at her age, she carried the name with elegance as if Jimin’s and Jungkooks’ blood ran through her veins.

But now, when she realized why it was called, she became no more than their anxious baby, burying her teary face into Jimin’s shoulder as the family settled into the room.

Miseon was normally an optimistic child--often energetic, always smiling. Not even when she fell and scraped her knees or elbows did she cry.

It seemed the only thing that did were doctor visits.

“Miseon, the nurse is just going to check a few things,” Jimin said, sitting the girl on his lap. “We’ve done this before.”

“That’s a pretty dress,” the nurse cooed, placing the diaphragm of the stethoscope over her chest.

Jimin saw, out of his peripheral vision, Jungkook’s chest puff out from the chair he sat in on the opposite wall. He was the one who picked her dress, after all.

“Say thank you, Miseon-ah,” Jimin prompted his daughter.

Miseon mumbled something somewhat close to thank you, momentarily distracted by the tool the nurse was using. Her small,chubby fingers traced over the diaphragm, the electric blue of the tubing. When the nurse finished, Miseon became nervous again, her slight smile transforming to a rapidly deepening frown.

“Aw, what’s the matter?” the nurse asked her.

“No doctor,” she whined, fisting the front of Jimin’s button-down shirt. “Appa, go home.”

“I’m sorry, Miseon-ah.”

Miseon scowled and turned to Jungkook. “Appa. Home now.” She tried to make her escape, using all her energy to pull free, but Jimin easily thwarted her by tightening his embrace around her.

“We’ll go home soon,” Jungkook reassured her from his seat. He smiled at their daughter, and Jimin swore he fell in love with his husband even more. “Just a bit more.”

The nurse came to the rescue. “Here, want to play with this for a while?”

She loosened her own hold on the stethoscope so that the toddler could hold it. Miseon calmed down instantly. Her eyes sparkled as she examined it, and Jimin couldn’t help but tilt his head in wonder at her.

Next was oxygen saturation, then her temperature. Both assessments passed without event. Her blood pressure created only minimal distress--Miseon wasn’t fond of the cuff squeezing her arm, but she tolerated it. Better than their last visit, in which Miseon struggled so hard against the thing (which, at the time, was a light, portable machine instead of the manual one attached to the wall behind Jimin) that it toppled over and Jimin spent the rest of the appointment apologizing while his husband laughed his ass off.

“The doctor will be in shortly,” the nurse announced. She put a hand on the stethoscope. “Can I take this now?” she asked Miseon in a gentle voice.

Miseon looked at Jungkook, then at Jimin, who gave her a short nod, and then nodded slowly, and somewhat suspiciously, at the nurse as she took the stethoscope back.

The nurse smiled and left. Jimin felt his daughter physically relax, and couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“Miseon-ah, are you scared?”

“No!” Miseon quickly protested, giving her father an aghast look. She’s a lot like Jungkook, Jimin thought--he never liked admitting to fear even when it was obvious.

“Then why are you so pouty?” Jimin questioned. He formed an exaggerated frown on his face, causing a giggle to erupt from Miseon. “Our pouty baby who doesn’t like the doctor…”

He managed to catch a gaze from Jungkook, looking back with the same love and admiration Jimin had earlier.

My husband, Jimin thought with a soft beat of his heart. My husband who’ll grow old with me, who’s raising this baby with me.

They exchanged smiles. Before Miseon could complain about losing Jimin’s attention, there was a knock on the door.

Miseon whimpered. Jimin kissed her temple as Jungkook called out, “Come in!”

Miseon’s regular pediatrician, Kim Jangmi, was a slender, middle-aged woman, with her hair always swept up in a loose, somewhat haphazard bun, cat-eye glasses balanced low on her nose, and her white coat a size too big.

Not the neatest-appearing doctor, but she did her job well.

“Hello!” she said extravagantly as she shut the door behind her. She glanced at Jimin, Jungkook, and finally at Miseon in Jimin’s lap. The little girl took one frightened look at the doctor before burying her face into Jimin’s neck.

“She’s not usually this shy,” Jungkook piped up. “You should really see her at home.”

“No, no, I trust that this little critter’s got energy,” Dr. Kim chuckled. “It’s not uncommon to see them scared of seeing me.” She leaned over to tap Miseon’s shoulder. She looked down at the chart in her hand before glancing up again. “The yearly check-up, huh?” She grinned at Miseon. “Hey, darling. Is it okay if I look at you?”

Jimin’s and Jungkook’s daughter moved her head slightly, just enough to look at the doctor warily out of the corner of her eye, through a full fringe of bangs.. She was quick to notice the stethoscope around her neck, though, a pastel pink instead of electric blue, equally fascinating.

“Oh,” Jungkook noticed, watching her eagerly. “What’s that, Miseon-ah?”

Miseon exclaimed something that sounded sort of like stethoscope (their baby was so smart!) and reached one hand out.

“Maybe she’ll be a doctor,” Jimin contemplated, to which his husband retorted, “I still think she’ll be a master bowler.”

“Jungkook-ah--”

“She grabbed the bowling pin when we did that thing on her first birthday!”

“Of course she would. That thing was bright green!”

When Miseon turned one, Jimin and Jungkook set out an array of objects on a tray in front of their daughter to see which one she would pick up first--a fun little activity that indicated what her future career would be. Jimin remembered setting out a calculator (for something math-related) and a toy microphone (for singer, obviously), while Jungkook put out a few normal things, like a wooden spoon (for chef)  and a pen.

And then he added a plastic bowling pin.

Like the nurse who checked her vitals, Dr. Kim allowed Miseon to touch and play with the pink stethoscope. She, meanwhile, took out another pair from her coat pocket, a heavier, more professional-looking black one.

The examination went smoothly for a while. Miseon got the giggles from Dr. Kim assessing her head and her tummy.

But Miseon knew what came next when the doctor turned toward the wall. Next to the blood pressure cuff were the instruments that checked her eyes and ears.

Jimin knew what this meant.

There wasn’t a time when Miseon didn’t squirm or overall became hard to deal with during clinic visits. She didn’t like strange instruments that didn’t have bright, child-friendly colors; things ugly to her, probably, that felt heavy and cold.

“Appa!” Miseon shouted, her voice cute but sharp and indignant in his ear. She somehow managed to wriggle herself loose in his arms and try to stand up in his lap, the heels of her pretty little ballet flats digging into his thigh.

Jimin winced. “Baby, come on.” He put his hands around her to settle her down, but she only cried out and continued to half-climb, half-stomp on him. 

“Do you remember how to hold her for this?” Dr. Kim asked.

“Of course,” Jimin replied breathlessly, “Just let me--”

Miseon lost her balance on him and slipped, her knee pressing into him now instead of her shoe; not much better, pain-wise.

Jimin gritted his teeth to bear it.

“Hyung,” Jungkook finally spoke up, looking at them with more amusement than concern for Jimin’s probably bruising legs, “are you gonna tag me in for this one?”

Jimin let out a low chuckle. Sometimes Jungkook liked to compare their parenting to a tag-team fighting game match. “Yes, honey. I’m tagging you in.”

Jungkook practically leaped out of his chair to and went over to Jimin, taking their little girl out of his arms and into his. Jungkook was much stronger than Jimin, able to keep their fidgety daughter still when needed.

“C’mere, baby,” Jungkook soothed as he sat the two of them down, squishing her chubby cheeks between his fingers until she resembled a fish. “You don’t like your ears checked?”

“‘Ppa,” was all she responded with, clearly dismayed. She gripped him by the wrist to let her go, but Jungkook only laughed.

Dr. Kim smiled and pulled the otoscope from the wall.

Miseon took one look at the tool and whimpered, face crumpling dramatically. She struggled against Jungkook in the same manner as she did with Jimin, but Jungkook was swift and rock steady in sitting her properly in his lap, her legs pulled over to the side of his, the side of her face pressed against his chest to keep it still, and his arm around her, holding her limbs down.

Thanks to him, the rest of the exam went smoothly. Jimin watched in a bit of awe as Jungkook thanked Dr. Kim and stood up, their darling baby now complacent in his protective arms.

A beautiful sight, for sure, of a wonderful father and a sweet little girl.

“Hyung,” Jungkook called, catching him out of his trance. “Ready?”

“Hung,” Miseon tried to repeat, and Jungkook’s nose scrunched in a smile.

After they checked out (and after Miseon received a popsicle from the doctor for “being a good girl despite the squirming”), Jimin became aware of Jungkook looking at him as the family left the clinic and returned to their car.

“Hyung?”

“Hm?”

Jungkook balanced Miseon on his other side so he could walk closer with Jimin. “You got quiet at the end there. Is something wrong?”

Jimin looked at him and smiled. He shook his head. “Of course not. I’m just happy.”

Jungkook laughed. “That we got Miseonnie’s visit over with?”

“No,” Jimin responded serenely. “That you’re my husband and that Miseonnie’s the baby we’re raising together.”

Jungkook faltered, pausing mid-step, blinking like Jimin’s words literally squeezed his heart. “Oh.” He recovered quickly with an embarrassed laugh. “I thought you were gonna troll me with something.”

“Not today.”

Jungkook slid his free arm over Jimin’s shoulders. “I’m happy, too,” he told Jimin truthfully, in a low, vulnerable voice--the one he used only when he was completely honest, stripped of jokes and teases; the one reserved for his family and the man he loved most. “Nothing else could make me this happy.”

Jimin’s heart swelled with complacency. He leaned into Jungkook, who tilted his chin downward to kiss him on the top of his head before going on to unlock their car.

Jimin watched, with a soft, fond smile as Jungkook strapped their daughter into her booster seat. He didn’t know a sight as perfect as this one, a life as wonderful.

For him, too--nothing else could make him happier.

[ masterlist ]

[fae-fucker]

Zenith: Prologue - Chapter 1

This is the old snark I did of the first preview chapters that were released before the complete book, updated with new notes from me where I discuss some of the changes in the final product. The notes will be in bold.

The actual story will continue after chapter 12, which previously was chapter 9. 

Let’s see what Shinsay has cooked up for us, shall we?

Prologue

This part is actually called “Cell 377″ but you can’t fool me, Shinsay, I know it’s a prologue.

The updated version has inexplicably changed the cell number from 377 to 306. 

Thirty-six days of endless darkness.

Update: This line has been changed to just “Endless darkness”, to make it more dramatic, I guess.

It surrounded Valen Cortas in cell 377, twisting and turning itself into his bones until he and the darkness had become one.

Fair warning, people: This will get about as edgy as a 12-year-old’s Sonic OC on DeviantArt.

And keep in mind that one of the writers (or the only writer, if this was ghostwritten and Sasha didn’t actually touch the script itself), is an actual published author. This doesn’t say much, considering the garbage that gets published nowadays, but I just wanted to point this out.

I have several issues with the opening sentences already (mostly the overuse of “the darkness,” the level of melodrama, and the general wtf-ness), but I don’t want to be here for a billion days, so let’s just move on.

Valen Cortas is chilling around all sad and lonely in the daaahkness of his lonely daaahk cell.

I am Valen Cortas. He rolled the words over and over in his mind. It was the only thing that kept him going, and it leashed a sharp coil of courage around his veins as he added, Vengeance will be mine.

Leashed a ... sharp coil of ... courage ... around his veins ...

This reads like mad libs. Did Lindsay make the sentence structure and just let Sasha fill in the blanks with the most dramatic words she knew?

Valen had traveled all his life, leaving his home for long stretches at a time, sometimes to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. It wasn’t until here, in the darkness of cell 377 [...]

Yes, it’s very dark in cell 377 306. We get it. Very dark. Just super duper dark. The darkness? It’s in his BOOONES. That’s how dark it is. Move on please.

Update: This has been changed and there’s no longer any mention of the DAAAHK CELL, and Valen now has lived in Arcardius his whole life, as opposed to having traveled all his life.

Valen feels all angsty and sad about the fact that he used to love all of the most dramatic colors of the world, and now he can’t even remember some of them!

As each moment in this abyss passed, the colors all melted into a single shade of black.

It’s very dark in here, guys. Did you get that yet?

He shivered and pulled the blanket tighter around his thin shoulders. The pain of remembering things loved and lost had sunk its claws into him, threatening to crush his bones.

His bones are already filled with darkness, mind you, so I imagine if they get crushed, they’ll just spill out more darkness to add to the darkness.

It’ll be darkness overload. Dark darkness.

Somewhere, in the dank darkness, a scream rang out.

Or ... dank darkness. That works too.

Update: This has been changed to “dank prison.” I guess they had enough sense to change this lmao.

He rolled over, pressing his hands to his ears. “I am Valen Cortas,” he whispered, fingertips touching his cracked lips. “Vengeance will be mine.”

Do me a favor and press your hands to your ears. Now try to touch your lips without removing your hands from your head.

Our first hint that Valen might be an alien with a suspiciously human name, because how else would one explain his freakishly long fingers?

Update: This has been changed, and there’s no longer any mention of Valen’s infinite fingers.

We find out he’s somewhere called Lunamere. Is it a planet? A country? A prison? I guess we’ll find out.

The cold was endless.

Just like the darkness!

The food was enough to keep skin hanging on bones [..]

As we all know, when you starve the first thing that happens is all your skin slops off.

He had to bide his time, and hope that the godstars had not forgotten him. And so he sat, wrapped up in the cold arms of darkness.

Wait wait wait ... So you’re telling me ... It’s both COLD ...

AND DARK?????

Hmm. I hadn’t considered that.

Update: Godstars is now properly capitalized. 

The last line has been changed to “And so he sat, dreaming of darkness, wrapped up in its cold arms” which makes no sense. You just said he wants to see the colors of the world, but instead he dreams of ... darkness? That’s already surrounding him and that he’s tired of? What is he, a masochist? 

Chapter 1

Her nightmares were like bloodstains.

A bitch to wash off?

But Andi had decided, long ago, that the nightmares were her punishment.

She was the Bloody Baroness, after all. And if surviving meant giving up sleep, then she would bear the exhaustion.

Our main character, the Celaena ripoff, as it were, is Androma Racella. And her nickname is Andi.

Yes, really, though I must wonder why they didn’t go the whole way and just name her Andromeda instead of Androma. Was that just too cliché?

This is also false, because you will survive despite nightmares, as any living person can attest to, while lack of sleep can literally kill you. But who gives a damn about that when you can be dramatic?

And these civilizations have advanced far enough to master space travel, but some sleeping pills that knock you straight out is just too unrealistic, huh? I suppose if there was any logic, there wouldn’t be any cheap nightmare drama.

Andi is the captain of a ship named the Marauder (pff) and she’s “busy” etching another mark into one of her super cool katanas to symbolize that she’s killed yet another poor, weak fool.

Her fingertips were white as she gouged a thin tally the length of her smallest finger into one blade. Without its spirals of electricity, the sword looked like any other weapon, the tallies, any other soldier’s lucky mark. But Andi knew better.

Each line she etched into the metal was another life cut off, another heart stopped at the slice of this very blade.

I mean ... I would expect her to know the real meaning behind something she consciously does. Why does this imply that she realizes some sort of deep mystery while everyone else is a dumbass, she’s the one doing it so of course she “knows better.”

And honestly? I’m no sword expert, but what idiot carves marks into their beloved swords? Why would you purposefully damage the metal like that, just to prove how badass you are?

Whatever. I guess I’m no BLOODY BARONESS, I just don’t GET IT.

Update: Andi’s nails are now painted red, and she also wears glowing “compression cuffs” that protect the burned skin around her wrists from the Accident. 

A hundred lives to cover up the pain of the very first. A hundred more to shovel away the hurt into a place that was dark and deep.

From what I know, Andi is plagued by nightmares of her first kill, and while I get that it could “mean” more to a person than the ones after, it feels stupid that she supposedly feels so bad for it that she still has nightmares, but doesn’t care about the other hundreds of people she murdered. It becomes even dumber when the book says she’s killing more to bury that first kill in her conscience.

Andi looked up from her blades as a flash of light in the sky caught her eye.

A piece of space trash, hurtling through thousands of stars.

When you think about it, aren’t we all pieces of space trash, hurtling through thousands of stars?

What’s the difference between space trash and trash in space? Is there a difference? I ask too many questions.

She had always loved the stars. But tonight, she felt as if they were watching her, waiting for her to fail. Mocking little bastards. They’d be sorely disappointed.

EVERY FUCKING SENTENCE OF THIS IS A COMEDIC MASTERPIECE.

So she enjoys looking at the stars ... but not tonight. For some reason? Because they look wrong? Somehow? What? Is this just an excuse to make Andi seem BADASS, she’s so strong she can FIGHT THE STARS???

I’m cackling.

We find out that Andi and her all-girl crew are space pirates, and they’ve recently been smuggling, and I’m 100% serious, BIODRUGS.

That’s what they’re called. BioDrugs.

Aight.

It’s a collective name, and we don’t get the name of the specific BIODRUG that they were dealing, because that would take effort and I imagine there’s not enough left after Shinsay came up with BIODRUGS.

Andi is super edgy and thinks about her latest kill, how he looked into her eyes as she pulled her blade out of him, “silent as a whisper.” Yes, really. At least Andi seems to actually kill people, which already put her above Sardines, though I won’t give any points until I see her do it.

Update: “Varillium,” the type of glass their ship is made of, is no longer capitalized and is specified to be impenetrable.

The man Andi killed is now mentioned to have “double-crossed” her and her crew, which I guess is supposed to make Andi look less like a senseless murderer?

Andi now apparently doesn’t like killing, and contemplates that every person (”even killers like her”) has a soul. Idk why this was added. Is it an attempt to make Andi more of a Woobie? You know you can’t have her both be a ruthless killer and mope about killing, Shinsay?

Some blue chick comes in and announces herself as the second in command. Yes, really.

“As Second in Command,” the figure said, her voice as smooth as the spiced rigna they drank last week, “I demand that you return to your quarters and get some sleep.”

The blue-skinned space babe is Lira, and she’s part of a race called the Adhirans, who are all funky colors, hairless, and have super vision.

Update: Lira now also has scales that glow and can heat up to dangerous degrees when she feels “extreme emotions?” Which sometimes renders her unconscious? 

Lira’s sharp eyes and seeming knowledge of Andi’s whereabouts are now attributed to just her instead of her entire race, which is better if you want to impress someone with how talented your character is. If their whole race is awesome, then her being awesome isn’t quite as impressive.

There’s more info dumping about how Lira is special due to her scales, which are a type of mutation caused by a “radiation event” on a planet that her race colonized.

Lira stepped into the starlit bay and lifted a hairless brow.

[...]

Lira smirked back as she lifted her wrist to her blue lips.

I have a growing feeling that Shinsay have a thing for repeating already known information, but I don’t know where I could’ve gotten that.

Update: There’s FORESHADOWING about Andi’s dancing, which Lira suggest she should take up again to release some of her “deadly tension.”

Lira forces the rest of the crew to wake up, because if the Captain can’t sleep, nobody else should either. That’s ... a dick move, but OK.

Update: The girls now have “internal communication channels” which they activate by swiping their temples.

We’re introduced to Gilly, who’s a redhead and barely thirteen, but everyone is edgy here so she’s already killed people with her cool guns, of course.

“Why do you insist on ruining my beauty sleep?” Gilly exclaimed, in her fluid little voice.

Her ... fluid voice?

Is she gargling something? Does she need help?

The clunky-ass introductions continue as we get introduced to Breck, who’s the “head gunner,” whatever that means.

A tall, broad-shouldered girl appeared behind [Gilly], bending so as not to hit her head on the doorway as she entered.

Hey, you know you could’ve omitted “tall” if you, IN THE SAME SENTENCE, show that she’s tall, right? And you don’t need to say that she entered, we can kind of assume that since she appears in the scene and walks through a doorway.

A broad-shouldered girl appeared behind Gilly, bending so as not to hit her head on the doorway.

See? Much better already.

Gilly (How is this pronounced? Jil-ee? Gil-ee?) asks why her beauty sleep was interrupted and Breck tells her not to question anything Lira does because she can’t give reasonable answers.

Lira usually explained herself in complex riddles that no one could decipher; a smart ploy to get out of questions she would rather not answer.

1) Yes, yes! Inform that trait!

Update: This line is completely gone, though Gilly’s dumbass question remains.

2) This is all really dumb banter well and good, except they already know why Lira woke them up. Lira literally told them that if the Captain doesn’t sleep, they shouldn’t either.

3) Since Andi seems to have frequent trouble sleeping and Lira knows this well enough to know where to find her when she’s not in bed, why are they surprised?

Whatever.

We get some more exposition in the form of tepid banter, and we “find out” that Breck is super tall and big and was “pegged for arson” and on the run with a fucked-up Gilly when Andi found them two years ago. Gilly had been saved from becoming a child soldier or some shit.

Update: Breck is no longer pegged for arson and in fact, remembers nothing of her past at all, to the point where they all assume her origin, while it’s outright stated in the earlier version.

Gilly’s gun is still golden and still double-triggered, which still makes no goddamn sense, though I didn’t mention it in my original snark, so I’ll do it now: Double-barreled? A thing. Double action? A thing. Double trigger? Apparently was a thing on old SHOTGUNS. And I’m sorry but a 13-year-old child wouldn’t be carrying a golden fucking shotgun at her hip.

They mention that they don’t have much money, only 300 “Krevs,” which tells me nothing. A small “they couldn’t even fill a whole tank of fancy sci-fi space fuel for that” or similar would’ve sufficed, you know.

[Andi] stared at her blades once more before returning them to their harness. If only she could put her memories away just as easily.

Andi informs them about a new job on some standard desert planet, because apparently drug dealing isn’t very lucrative in this world.

Breck shrugged. “Any money is good money, if it brings us more food stores.” “And ammo,” Gilly said, cracking her knuckles like the soldier she was.

1) Yes, we get it, Gilly likes to shoot bang-bang-pew-pew guns.

2) I love how the girl rescued from becoming a child soldier is now called a soldier. Very top-notch stuff, there.

3) I didn’t know only soldiers cracked their knuckles.

Andi calls Lira “Lir,” because I guess that one extra letter takes too much effort, telling her to take them to Andi’s informant.

“As you wish.” Lira punched the destination coordinates for Vacilis into the Holoscreen on the dashboard, readying the ship for flight.

Andi turned in her seat. “Breck, Gilly, go to the vault and do a weapons check. Then make sure the Big Bang is fully loaded. I want you two ready, should anything go wrong.”

Why are the guns in the vault.

Why does the ship have a vault.

Where are their engineers.

Holoscreen.

Big Bang.

This is a masterpiece.

Update: “As you wish.” Lira punched the destination into the control panel’ s holoscreen. A diagram of Mirabel illuminated the room with blue light, stars floating around their heads and the little planets that made up each major system orbiting their suns. A bright line traced from their current location near an unnamed moon, too barren for habitation, to Vacilis, almost half a galaxy away.

Lira scrutinized the route, then minimized the map and readied the ship for hyperspace travel.

Andi turned in her seat. “Breck, Gilly, go to the vault and do a weapons check. Then make sure the Big Bang is fully loaded. I want you two ready in case we run into any trouble once we arrive in the Taavina System.”

Gilly skipping along behind Breck, her golden gun bobbing against her tiny frame.

This is the second mention of Gilly’s stupid golden gun. If they have to take on dangerous jobs with uncertain pay to get by, why the fuck does this brat have golden guns and why the hell does Andi have electric katanas?

I’m hoping that it’ll be explained that gold isn’t actually worth much on an intergalactic level, but I doubt that much thought was put into this.

Since space travel is so exciting, Andi falls asleep and we get an obligatory show of her super edgy nightmare.

It’s some girl dying (whose name is Kalee) and it’s all bloody and gruesome and oop, Lira wakes Andi up because they’re being chased by what I can only hope is the space po-po.

Lira curled her lip in annoyance. She tapped a blue fingertip on the Holoscreen, changing it to the rear-cam, where Andi could just see the ships soaring toward them.

REAR CAM.

Ok.

And yes, we get it. Lira is very blue. WE GET IT, WE REMEMBER, I PROMISE.

Update: She tapped a blue fingertip on the holoscreen, changing it to the rear-cam, showing Andi a faraway look at the ships soaring behind them.

Andi’s mind raced, calculating all possible scenarios for their current predicament.

Listen, I get that battle strategies in space are a thing that most people, especially people like Shinsay, probably don’t understand, but couldn’t you at least have tried showing us Andi’s thoughts? Pull something out of your ass for all I care, it doesn’t have to be right, it just has to be convincing.

Anyway, Andi’s brilliant mind comes to the conclusion that the ships tailing them must’ve been cloaked, because Lira would NEVAR let anyone get the drop on them. This raises a bunch of questions, which I'll go into in a sec.

Andi closed her eyes. Black holes ablaze, she was fiked.

This is what passes for cursing now, I guess.

Update: “Fike” has been completely removed from the book, and replaced with “screwed” in this instance. YOU DIRTY COWARDS.

“Cloaking is useless at this point,” Lira said, as she readied the gears, slamming buttons, tapping in codes. Andi felt the Marauder groan in response to Lira’s touch. “Damn their starshined tech.”

The narration just said that the Marauder doesn’t have fancy cloaking tech, but I’m guessing it does but it’s ... inferior to the cloaking tech of the space po-po? The Marauder also seems to have inferior detection tech, which raises the question of how exactly they’ve been evading the space po-po for this long (which the narration says they have) despite their clearly inferior setup, especially since (which the narration also mentions) the “Mirabel Patrol” has had their ship pegged for years.

Also, “starshined” is a bad thing, so a curse basically, which makes no sense because you’d expect most people to have a fairly positive view of the stars, but it also makes the phrase “damn starshined” redundant.

Update: “Cloaking is useless at this point,” Lira said as she readied the gears, slamming buttons, tapping in codes. “Engines are still too hot to go back into hyperspace. Damn their tech.”

“Get us out of this, and I’ll see to it that we get devices of the same caliber.”

“And bigger guns?” Lira asked, her blue eyes wide. “We’ll barely scrape by if we have to turn and fire on them. We only have one Big Bang left.”

Andi nodded. “Much bigger guns.”

Sooo is Big Bang ... a special kind of ammunition? Because then you’d just need to buy more ammo instead of upgrading the ship’s guns. Is it a one-use-only gun? That would be incredibly stupid, but that’s what this phrasing implies. Is it one of the main guns on the ship, and the other Big Bangs have been blasted off? What’s going on?

Also, how is Andi expecting to afford technology of the same caliber as the space police while they don’t have money to hire a cook and seem to be struggling getting food in the first place?

Lira says that “the stars may align” for them, which contradicts “starshined” as a curse, and they blast off into hyperspace to evade the space po-po. What was the point of all that if you could just do that in the first place? Do you want to upgrade your ship so you can kill some po-pos? Do they realize more will just show up so upgrading evasion tech is better than upgrading your guns in their particular case? If they’re smugglers, one would presume they would rather stay hidden and stealthy vs outright space battle.

Update: As previously mentioned, their engines are now “too hot” to get back into hyperspace, so now the chase makes a bit more sense.

Well, whatever.

That was the beginning of Zenith!

I suddenly feel like playing Mass Effect.

[itispossibleihaveissues]

This Night - Chapter 2

TITLE: This Night AUTHOR: Mikimoo RECIPIENT: tristen84 PAIRING: JayDick RATING: Mature WARNINGS: Off screen Non-Con, murder of innocent young people, violence SUMMARY: The Red Hood and Officer Grayson are on the same case. A small misstep has far reaching consequences for them both. 

Chapter 1 is here

Fourteen hours later saw them scoping out the bunker holding Ruiz. Lying in the undergrowth and watching through night vision goggles they argued extensively about the best options to gain entry. Between them, they had eventually figured out the only possible way to infiltrate the building when they were low on pretty much everything, and one of them was running a fever and could barely walk. 

But hey, they had faced worse odds. Apparently one year Dick had gone into Blackgate alone, while suffering from the flu and he had come out okay. Although he could actually walk unaided on that occasion, which had probably helped.

But they were committed to this madness, so they had to make sure they did everything right – there wasn’t going to be another chance.

The plan was pretty simple and involved relying on far more luck than Jason was comfortable with. Each of these outposts had a command center, a hub where all the surveillance equipment was. It could be manned by two to four people and from there, the guards and gang members could be directed toward any threat. If they could get Dick in there, he could guide Jason to Ruiz and simultaneously send the guards to the opposite side of the compound. Then Jason and Ruiz, who hopefully could walk under her own power, would fetch Dick and they would escape into the jungle. Simple.

If they survived that, then they would head for the rendezvous point, where maybe they would get picked up by a friendly Merc, or maybe get shot to death, depending.

Just to be clear, Jason hated this plan. Even though he had helped come up with it.

 They intended to take the electrics out, using the dark to improve their chances. As Jason had lost his helmet and his mask to the gang, and his high spec night vision goggles to the river, they only had his lightweight emergency spare to work with. They both needed to have at least a little night vision for their separate tasks, so they carefully cut free one of the lenses for Dick, and Jason wore the other one as it was intended. Only using one eye to shoot was risky so he planned to use a flashlight where ever possible. They had rigged up the second lens for Dick using a combination of fast drying glue from Jason’s kit and the elastic from his boxers. Never let it be said they weren’t experts in improvisation. Dick seemed extremely amused to be wearing a part of Jason’s underwear on his head.

Jason would never understand that guy as long as he lived.

The first stage went surprisingly well, despite a minor spat on the merits of murdering the guards, versus just incapacitating them. Jason reluctantly capitulated to avoid stressing Dick out further, although his terms had rather a lot of scope – he promised he wouldn’t kill during this operation, unless it was necessary to save a life – that could give him a little wiggle room and left plenty of space for coming back and annihilating the whole fucking lot of them after he got Dick and Ruiz out safely.

 They made the command center with little trouble – a fact that made Jason nervous; the theme for this whole mission had been that if it’s too easy, then disaster is sure to follow.

Mostly Jason was concerned about leaving Dick when he was barely mobile.

The infection, while having been slowed by the antibiotics was both painful and weakening - to the point where he could hardly go two paces without needing to lean on Jason. The added pressure on the wound from attempting to walk was causing enough discomfort that Dick was sweating profusely, his face set in a grimace.

But his options were to leave Dick, or try to carry him down the dark corridor to wherever they were keeping Ruiz, and that was not going to happen. It didn't mean he was happy about it though.

 He adjusted his earpiece. At least they had comms. Who knows what they would have had to construct if they hadn’t?

“Dickie-Bird to Jay-Bird,” Dick said over the line. “Do you read me?”

“Loud and clear, asshole. Now shut up,” Jason muttered, making his way carefully down the dark passageway.

Dick directed him, using the plans he had on the tablet, and the security cameras. There were a few tense moments when Jason had to crouch down and stay silent as guards ran past – directed towards a fake disturbance elsewhere – but otherwise the plan went smoothly.

There were two guards on the door to the cell they hoped Ruiz was being held in, and Jason thought he did an admirable job of not killing them. Although he hit them hard enough to cause permanent brain damage, Dick didn't say anything over the comm line – maybe he didn't realize, or maybe he didn't care. Jason wasn't sure which option he preferred.

“I opened the electronic lock,” Dick said, over the line. “You just have to pick the regular one.”

Jason examined it closely. It was sturdy, but he had picked worse locks when he was barely out of kindergarten.

“Once you're inside I won't have a visual, so keep me in the loop, OK?”

“Yes, boss.” Jason muttered back, as he slid his second pic into place. “It’s not like I haven't done this before, you know.”

“Well normally I get to be there, not stuck in a dark room with computers and trash everywhere. Although this swivel chair is super nice, a proper ergonomic office chair like the ones Tim ordered when he was playing CEO at Wayne Enterprises.”

“I know you like to flap your mouth when you’re feeling anxious, but some of us are concentrating.”

“Whatever. You can pick locks in your sleep, you're just being difficult. Do you think they ordered this chair in specially? Like, does one of the bad guys have a bad back or carpal tunnel or something, so needed some extra support?”

Jason ignored him, although he could feel his face trying to smile. He ruthlessly tried to stop it though, he had to at least pretend to still have some dignity.

“Do you think they ordered it from Ikea or somewhere? Or is there a special store for criminal underground bases -”

“I'm in,” Jason interrupted, and Dick fell silent. Jason realized he was probably worried about what Jason might find behind that door. Was Ruiz alive? Had she been tortured? Was she mobile? Their chances of escaping this place fell dramatically if she wasn't. “I'll bring her out,” he said, with more confidence than he felt.

He opened the door slowly. The room was dark, but the light from his torch illuminated a similar set up to Dick's cell. A broken chair was propped against one wall and a mattress lay on the floor. Cuffs hung from the wall and Jason's senses pinged with alarm before he even finished registering something wasn't right.

He dodged down and away as he sensed movement to his left and narrowly missed being brained by a chair leg. Ruiz swung again, and he caught the blow on his upraised arm. The impact made him stumble and drop his flashlight, but he managed to catch her before she could go for his face again.

“Ruiz, stop! It's Grayson's PI friend, I've come to get you out!”

She stopped struggling but he could feel her muscles still tense and ready to fight. He moved them slightly, so the light from his fallen torch caught his features.

Her breathing was harsh in the sudden quiet. “What’s you name?” she asked, finally.

“Jason. I'm going to let you go - don't clobber me.” He stepped back, and she moved away, chair leg still upraised, clutched in her hand. Her knuckles were bruised; this wasn't the first time she had tried to fight her way out.

They looked at each other for a moment, her assessing him; searching his face and quickly skimming over his weird get up – the patchwork of weapons and gear he had on was definitely not the same as the guards and gang members in this place, who appeared to be something of a paramilitary unit.

In turn he gave her a quick visual check for injuries and obvious signs of drugs. She seemed mobile and her eyes were clear so it appeared they hadn't bothered to incapacitate her like they had Dick. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

“Why did you come back for me?” She asked, suddenly. “Where's Grayson? He was shot.”

“Yeah, I know. He’s alright, for now.” The comms were open, and Jason could hear Dick's breathing in his ear, a little fast with relief, a little heavy with pain, but still strong and comforting. “I got him out first, then we came back for you,” Jason added, when she still looked skeptical.

“We? Even though he got shot?”

“Yeah, he's an idiot that way.”

She nodded and rolled her eyes. It was a very: 'I have had to work with Dick Grayson and he's a moron' expression. Dick seemed to cause a similar series of facial tics and eye rolls where ever he had to spend time with people in a professional capacity. It was weirdly endearing.

“You have a gun?” Ruiz asked, all business now.

“I got three.”

“Give me one.” She held out a hand. Her short fingernails were torn and bloody, and although he wasn't sure if that had happened when she attacked a person or liberated the chair leg, Jason was pretty certain her opponent had come off worse.

“You going to shoot me with it?” he asked. She didn't know him from Adam, and if he had been in her situation, he would be pretty cautious and a little trigger happy.

“Don't be a fool,” she said, “I could never escape without help. And I'm not going to shoot my rescuer, it’s bad manners.”

Jason grinned and handed her his Ruger. He liked Ruiz, and the competent way she checked the gun over gave him confidence that she would provide decent back up for getting Dick out of this place safely.

Apparently finding the gun to her liking, she dropped the chair leg. Jason winced at the hollow echoing sound it made when it hit the stone floor.

“What was that?” Dick asked in his ear.

“Chair leg. We're heading back your way. We clear?”

“Yeah, for now. You might want to avoid the southwest corridor and take the longer route – there's a lot less activity in that direction.”

“Understood,” Jason glanced at Ruiz who was looking at him steadily.

“That Grayson?” she asked.

“Yeah, he’s giving us directions.”

Ruiz nodded. “Where are we going?” She asked quietly, as they slipped back into the dark corridor.

“We're heading towards the central command center to pick up Grayson. He's not especially mobile so we may have to do that literally.”

“Wonderful,” Ruiz said, and Jason smothered another grin, he could actually hear her eyes roll.

 Their plan had been working beautifully. With Dick directing both the guards and Jason, they had avoided any confrontation. However their luck couldn't last. Because the universe just couldn't let him catch a fucking break.

As they turned the corner, the lights flickered on. Someone must have activated a backup generator not attached to the mains.

“Houston, we have a problem,” Dick said.

 Jason growled in response. They were so damn close. And this was supposed to be the easy bit.

“The bad guys have caught on. You have three heading towards you from the northeast and another three already in front of you.”

“They know where we are?” Jason asked, signaling Ruiz to pause. She did so, looking grim and determined.

“Not yet.” Dick's voice was a little strained and there were clattering noises in the background.

“Dick, talk to me. What's happening?”

“They know they've been compromised. They have the command center surrounded, and are switching off my electrics one by one.”

“Fuck!”

“Stop yelling in my ear!” Dick complained. “I may not be able to do any wild acrobatics, but I can deal with this. However, I've already lost my visual of you. You're on your own.”

“Dick, you have a gun, for fuck sake, use it if you have too.”

“Jason-”

“No, Dick. I know you can - you shot me pretty good after all.”

“Yeah sorry about that. Look, I'll use all the tools I have, Jay. Head for the exit, I'll catch you up.”

Like hell that was happening. “Not a chance, Flyboy.”

“Working with you is so annoying!” Dick had the nerve to sound exasperated.

Jason wanted to punch him. “Working with me is annoying? Me? What about you?” He was aware his voice was rising, and had to consciously rein it in a bit.

“Can you please have this domestic another time?” Ruiz interjected, scowling at him in bemusement.

Jason ignored her. “We're coming to get you, and that's final!” he said, trying to keep his voice low.

“Jason, don't be such a stubborn -” And then there was nothing but static.

“Dick?” Jason's heart was pounding. He couldn't cope with going through this again so soon after the last time. His stress levels were through the damn roof. “Dick!” He wasn't really expecting an answer but the silence still felt raw and bitter. “We lost contact,” he told Ruiz, gruffly.

“I heard. We going to go rescue him?” Ruiz asked. She looked scared and angry, and like she'd had more than enough of this shit.

“We're going to try.” More rescues. How many were there going to be, before there was an end to this?

Ruiz nodded and fell into step behind him.

[itsjaybullme]

The 10 Best Shoulders Exercises for Beginners

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Head and Shoulders Above

Westend61 / Getty

So you’ve joined up at a gym (or maybe built your own) and dedicated yourself to getting bigger shoulders? Awesome—you’ve come to the right place. We’ve collected 10 of the most tried-and-true shoulder moves around, exercises that will build each part of your deltoid muscles as well as your traps and your triceps.

But before you start clangin’ and bangin’ in your basement sweatbox, you should know there’s more to gaining shirt-stretching shoulders than a volume-focused lifting program.

“Some lifters think training for hypertrophy means you must grab super-light weights and do as many repetitions as you can,” says Chris Falcon, personal trainer and founder of Chicago’s Reactive Performance Enhancement Center. “I am a firm believer that you if you want your muscles to grow, the load must be substantial, and the amount of force you are generating to move the load must be high and consistent.”

When utilizing the following best shoulder exercises, Falcon suggests using a load between 50–70% of your one-rep max, once you’re certain you have the movement patterns down. (Bad form + heavy weights = an injury waiting to happen, especially in a very mobile joint like the shoulders.)

As always, make sure you warm up your shoulders with exercises like these—they’ll go a long way to ensure you don’t suffer from routine-breakers like tendonitis.

FEATURED WORKOUT: SUMMER SHRED 2017>>

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1. Wall Slide

Why: This one should be done with no weights at all—and before every shoulders workout. Why? “One of the key things to keep in mind when training shoulders is you need to have the requisite mobility in the shoulder to press overhead,” says Chris Cooper, a personal trainer and co-owner of Active Movement & Performance in Long Island, NY. “If that is lacking, it could cause potential problems for the shoulder joint.”

How: Stand against a wall, arms at right angles, pointed up like football goal posts. Slowly, slide your arms up straight overhead, then back to right angles, keeping your forearms and backs of hands against the wall (if you can).

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2. Free Weights Overhead Press

Jay Sullivan / M+F Magazine

Why: The overhead press—hold weights at armpits and press straight-up overhead, with narrow or wide grip—is pretty much the go-to move for front and middle delt building. “Using a dumbbell or kettlebell allows for more freedom of movement with the press, and isolates each shoulder, so if one is weaker than the other, you can work on that,” Cooper says. It also works the core, especially if you do one side at a time. Falcon likes Arnold presses (which start with neutral grip and end with fingers facing forward). “Done together, alternating, or single-arm, these presses are fantastic for building mass in the shoulders,” he says. “This exercise allows for full ROM, and internal and external rotation in the shoulder joint, making this a very complete exercise.”

How: Check out our videos on properly executing the seated dumbbell shoulder press or the Arnold press.

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3. Barbell Overhead Press

Alex Mares-Manton / Getty

Why: The gold standard in heavy lifting for the shoulders, a barbell overhead press is often better used as a progression to the free weights (the opposite of what’s typical), once you're able to get the full range of motion—that is, getting that bar all the way overhead. “The barbell is the perfect tool for being able to load and press a large amount of weight,” says Cooper. “This can overload the shoulder muscles, and cause them to grow.”

How: Watch our video on executing the overhead barbell press.

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4. Half-kneeling Landmine Press

M+F Magazine

Why: Need a safer alternative for lifting heavy if you have limited overhead mobility? Cooper suggests using the “landmine,” which allows you to press a larger load overhead than you could with free weights, in a movement pattern that is kinder to tight shoulders. Do it half-kneeling (bring up the knee opposite your working arm), which works the core and allows you to get under the weight.

How: See our instructions for a landmine press here.

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5. Standing Cable Face Pull

M+F Magazine

This cable move hits both the rear delts and the back. You’ll use a rope attachment at chin-level to, in essence, perform a wide-elbow row while standing up (with soft knees, please). “I prefer this exercise over high barbell pulls, as it hits the posterior delts brilliantly, and is a bit easier on the rotator cuff,” Falcone says. “It also doesn't leave much room for cheating.”

How: Check out our instructions for the cable face pull.

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6. Chest Supported Rear-delt Raises

Hero Images / Getty

Also known as “reverse flyes,” you’ll do these by straddling a bench and leaning your chest on the inclined back, then raising dumbbells out to the sides (sort of like your arms are wings). “A great exercise for maintaining optimal posture, this exercise targets the posterior fibers of the shoulder,” says Cooper. “Most people are very anterior-delt dominant from doing lots of presses, so these work to counteract that.” Definitely an essential if you want healthy, well-rounded shoulders.

How: Check out our video instructions for the bent-over lateral raise, which is the same basic exercise, except bent over instead of on a bench.

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7. Single-arm Lateral Raise

Teresa Recena / EyeEm / Getty

Why: Doing a lateral raise with one arm at a time can potentially even out any muscle imbalances. Furthermore, “it’s a great middle-delt isolator that also works your core,” says Falcon. Watch your form carefully, switching to a neutral hammer grip and scaption if you have rotator cuff issues.

How: Like this, except just one arm at a time.

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8. Prone Shoulder Press

svetikd/ Getty Images

Why: By switching up your body angle—lying face-down on a bench or even a stability ball—the overhead press movement becomes much more about your rear delts as well as your core (rather than your front or middle delts, which it targets when standing upright). “This one definitely involves a bit more strength and stability, but adding moves like this to your mass routine only leads to greater gains,” Falcon says.

How: Lie on the floor face-down with (light) dumbbells in your hands. Extend your arms parallel to the ground (“over your head,” if you were vertical instead of horizontal). Make sure not to let the dumbbells touch the ground. Bring them back to your shoulders. That’s one rep.

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9. Trap Bar Shrugs

Katherina Kolupaeva / EyeEm / Getty

Why: “No one can deny that a nice pair of upper traps only highlights the delts,” says Falcon. “I like these because I think that maintaining a neutral hand position is easier on the shoulder when working with heavier weights.”

How: Load a trap bar (sometimes also called a hex bar), step inside it, and deadlift it to stand up. Then shrug your shoulders up, and lower them down with control.

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10. Front + Lateral Raise

Matthew Leete / Getty

Why: Independently, front raises (lift dumbbells straight in front of you, stopping parallel to the ground) and lateral raise (same idea, but arms go to the sides) are great for targeting the front and middle delts, respectively. As a combo, “I like how alternating between planes provides just enough muscle confusion to keep the shoulders screaming,” says Falcon. To make sure those shrieks aren’t because of rotator-cuff irritation, keep your hands in a hammer grip (thumbs up) and narrow your lateral raise slightly from 180° (so you can see your hands in your peripheral vision), in what’s known as “scaption”. Also: No matter what you see all those gym rats do, go lighter than you’d expect to start and make sure you go to full range of motion—no cheating.

How: See our instructional videos for the dumbbell front raise and the dumbbell lateral raise.

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