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uvobreakmylegs · 4 years ago

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The Graveyard

Vampire!Hisoka

🎃~Happy Halloween~🎃

Warnings: violence, gore, kidnapping, threats of noncon

The Nostrade cemetery sat a few miles beyond your hometown of Milsy, tucked in between the trees of a vast forest that had stood there for ages. The cemetery itself had been there almost as long, and was consequently the subject of gossip and tales of the supernatural. Every child that was born in Milsy had it drilled into them at an early age that they were never to approach the old graveyard or the woods beyond it.

The older folk claimed it was a gateway to hell.

You had your doubts that there was anything out of the ordinary about the cemetery, however. The rumors circulated in your town calling the graveyard cursed and that all manner of creatures roamed around it at night, but exactly what kind of creatures changed depending on who you spoke to, though the most consistent one was stories of ghosts and other restless spirits who were trapped on the cursed spot of land. But asking questions on how it became cursed didn't get you much in the way of answers. Even the middle-aged women who had nothing better to do than gossip had little to say when you asked. The closest thing you had gotten resembling an explanation came from an old man at the retirement home who had told you that something 'unholy' had happened there, long before he was even born, and that since then, evil had been attracted to the place. His explanation shortly turned into a rant about how it was the cause of everything wrong in the town; from the mysterious illnesses that occasionally plagued the people living there, the claims wild beasts that roamed the forests that only ate human flesh, to the disappearances in the town where typically teens and sometimes children vanished without a trace.

One of the nurses at the retirement home had escorted you out after the old man's rant and asked that you not come back if you only intended on upsetting their patients.

It was hard to believe that a graveyard could be the cause of an occasional illness that went around, but you couldn't blame the man for thinking the disappearances were related to the area. All of the witnesses to the missing children saw them last near that cemetery. Same thing with the the teens. Anyone else who had gone missing just vanished one day with no warning. And based off of what you had heard, you suspected that they had the same interests as you in wanting to find out what made that graveyard so special.

Your family was aware of your curiosity and tried to keep you on a tight leash, keeping your days busy and trying to keep the thought of visiting the cemetery out of your mind. As hard as they had tried, you had still found your opportunity and slipped away. Maybe going to an abandoned, likely falling-apart graveyard probably wasn't the smartest thing you had ever done, but there were probably dumber things you could have done instead of that, and you swore to yourself that if you just went there once and just see the damn place, you could put the matter to rest in your own mind.

The sun was at its highest point in the sky as you entered through the rusted gateway, still a long way off from nightfall. Though you told yourself to not believe in such things, it gave you some comfort that it wasn't dark out. Every ghost and monster story you had ever heard always took place at night. If there was something otherworldly in the graveyard, it seemed unlikely that it would come out in the middle of the day.

All in all, you would say that you were underwhelmed. The abandoned Nostrade cemetery appeared to be just that: an abandoned cemetery. Within the confines of the stone walls, there were graves and headstones as far as you could see, with an occasional mausoleum that obscured parts of the vast graveyard. There were large portions that were overgrown as trees, bushes and other plant life covered the slabs of stone, turning the gray rock various shades of green. You approached one of the headstones, kneeling down to inspect it and see what had been carved into it. Unfortunately, all you could learn from that particular bit of rock was that it was old, as the weathered stone had been battered by time and the elements to the point that it was impossible to read anything off of it. As you made your way further into the cemetery, you found that to be true of all of the graves you came across. Though you had anticipated that to be the case, given that there was no one to take care of the place, you had hoped you could learn at least a little about the people who had been buried there. The most you were able to make out from a few was just the image of a skull with wings that adorned the tops of the headstones.

And as you went deeper still into the graveyard, no matter where you looked, there was still no sign of any ghost or ghoul that the people in town were convinced inhabited every corner of the ancient site.

Part of you told yourself that it was time to head back now. You had accomplished what you had come here for: you had seen the graveyard, and proved to yourself that the multitude of stories that were passed around were just stories told to scare children and keep them out. You could be content with knowing that there was nothing mystical about it and get on with your life.

But you didn't want to leave yet.

For whatever reason, you felt compelled to explore more of it, to see how far it went. The size of it confused you, as it was larger than you had expected, and you wondered how many generations of families were buried beneath your feet for so many graves to litter the area in the way they did.

'I'll leave after I see the back wall,' you told yourself. That way you would have explored at least a majority of the graveyard, as well as see if there was anything different at the back, maybe an ancient tool shed of some kind for the long-dead caretakers.

There was nothing of the sort when you saw that wall come into view. Walking around a crumbling mausoleum, your eyes scanned the wall and the foliage that covered it. There was quite a bit more plant life this side of the cemetery, the graves near the wall all but overtaken by vines and flowers you didn't recognize. A tall tree towards the back, and on closer inspection, you noticed that behind the tree a bit of the wall had collapsed, allowing you a view into the dense forest beyond the walls. Considering the amount of time that the cemetery had been standing here abandoned, it was a miracle that more parts of it weren't like that; that the majority of the structures within the walls were standing upright instead of crumbling and broken.

You glanced to your right, wondering if there were any more parts of the graveyard that were more dilapidated like the hole in the wall before you.

“And what might a little fruit like yourself be looking for in here?”

You jumped at the sound of a voice behind you, your heart racing as you turned around to see who had spoken.

A man sat behind the mausoleum you had passed by, sitting cross-legged on a raised stone casket. He was dressed strangely, with card symbols on the front and back of his shirt and black heels on his feet. His hair was a vibrant red, and when he glanced over to you, yellow eyes looked you over.

The two of you stared at each other for a moment. He then turned head towards you, smiling with his eyes closed.

“Well?” he asked, his tone cheerful.

“Uh.... Nothing, really?” you stuttered out, “I just wanted to look.”

��Ah, sightseeing, then?”

“I guess.”

He wore makeup as well, a star and a teardrop adorning his right and left cheeks respectively.

“And have the sights this cemetery has to offer been satisfactory to you?” he asked, turning his attention back to what was in front of him: a pyramid made out of playing cards. He held a card in each hand, carefully moving them to the top.

“For a cemetery, I guess it has,” you said, shrugging your shoulders.

He hummed, placing the last two cards on the pyramid and carefully pulling his hands away.

“You must have gone out of your way to come here, and yet you don't seem like you care much for this place. Why is that?” he asked, turning to look at you again.

“Everyone in town freaks out over this cemetery, saying that it's cursed. I wanted to see if that was true,” you answered, placing your hands on your hips as you looked around once more, “it seems like a normal graveyard to me.”

“Oh? So just because you don't see anything wrong with it means that it must be normal?”

“I mean, if it wasn't normal, would you be hanging out here?”

The man smiled and chuckled to himself.

“Fair enough,” he said. He then motioned to the spot before him.

“Sit with me.”

You huffed, but obliged as you walked towards him. While he definitely seemed strange, you didn't get any sort of feeling that he was dangerous. Just a harmless weirdo who hung out in graveyards playing with cards.

…. Saying that in your head like that didn't make it sound like he was harmless. But for now you decided to go along with it. If worse came to worse, you were certain you could outrun him.

“What's your name?” you asked as you pulled yourself up onto the casket, copying him in sitting with your legs crossed.

“Hisoka. And yours?”

You responded with your own name as you settled yourself. The old stone didn't make for a good seat, and you squirmed a bit as you tried to make yourself comfortable. Hisoka watched with amusement, his eyes taking in your form as you looked back to him.

“Would you like to try?” he asked, pointing to the tower of cards before him.

You shrugged.

“Okay.”

With a single finger, he knocked over the structure, sending the cards toppling down.

“I've never tried making one before, though,” you added.

“That's fine. I can show you. Watch,” Hisoka said, gathering the cards together.

He put the cards in a stack, and with a practiced ease, he passed them from one hand to the other in the same way a professional dealer would. He then set about making the base, setting up two cards together so they formed a small triangle. A second set of cards joined them, and then a third.

“.... So do you just come here to play around with cards?” you asked after the sixth card triangle had been placed.

“Sometimes,” he said, laying several cards over the ones he had set up, creating the base for the next row.

“Doesn't that get boring?”

“Not really. I've met many interesting people through my visits here.”

“Like who?”

Hisoka paused as he began setting up the next row, looking at you with a grin.

“..... Me?” you asked, an eyebrow raised.

He nodded at you, smiling.

“That's stupid,” you muttered.

“And why's that?”

“We just met and we're playing with cards. You can't call me an 'interesting person' just for that.”

“The fact that you're here at all is what interests me,” he said, placing another set of cards.

“You said that the people in your town dislike this place, and despite all you seemed to have heard you came here anyway. And it appears to have been all for your own satisfaction.”

He hummed to himself as he placed down another layer of cards on top, the second row complete.

“Does it not matter to you that people have gone missing around this area?” he asked.

“It's been over two years since someone last went missing, and they caught the guy who did it,” you said.

“Oh? They found out who took that young man?” Hisoka's eyebrows went up slightly.

“Yeah. It was some guy in the next town over. Serial killer, among other things.”

“And they confirmed that he was the one responsible?”

“Technically, no. But there's a lot of people who went missing while he was running lose, and he isn't telling the police where the bodies are. So it's a pretty good chance that he's the one who did it. It's not like there are any other suspects.”

“I see.”

Hisoka was smiling, and you swore he was holding back laughter.

“You think it's stupid that I came out here?” you stated more than asked.

“I would say that you're a bit more brave than the others in that town of yours. That, or you just have a poor sense of self-preservation,” he said. The third row was now done.

“Tell me, do you plan on telling people about your visit here?”

“If I did that my family would lock me in the house for a whole year,” you scoffed, “you said it yourself earlier; it's for my own satisfaction.”

Hisoka's smile had widened. To you, it seemed like it was slightly too wide. Like the edges of his mouth went further than they should have. You caught a flash of his teeth as well, and noted that something about them seemed off. Like they were somehow sharper than they should have been.

“That's rather selfish of you, isn't it?”

His words broke your train of thought.

“How so?” you asked. The last set of cards of the fourth row was being placed.

“You came here without telling anyone despite knowing that there's a possible danger. What would happen if you injured yourself and you couldn't get back? No one would know where you were, and in a worst case scenario, you could die before any search parties find you. If they were to find you at all.

“You really didn't think about anyone but yourself when you came out here, did you?”

“.... Well that's one way to make me feel guilty,” you mumbled, “but I don't plan on dying in a place like this,” you added with a bit more confidence.

“You'll survive through sheer force of will alone?” Hisoka prodded.

“Something like that,” you huffed.

Hisoka was chuckling again, looking back at you with amusement. He'd gotten to the fifth row of cards, leaving only the very top of it left. With the last two cards in hand, he repeated what you had seen him doing before and placed the cards at the top of the pyramid, pulling his hands away slowly and spreading his arms open with a slight flair.

“See? Easy,” he said.

“There's no way I can do that as fast as you can.”

“You'll never know unless you try.”

Just like before, he knocked over the tower with the tap of a finger, the cards fluttering down onto the stone below them. This time he made no move to collect them, and he leaned back on his palms as he looked at you expectantly. Taking the hint, you gathered up the cards, sticking them into a semi-neat pile before grabbing two and copying what you had seen him do.

Or you tried to, at least. It took you several tries before you could get the cards to stand upright, and when you grabbed two more, you accidentally brushed against the two you had just set up and sent them falling.

A beat of silence passed as both of you looked at your fallen cards.

“We're going to be here a while,” you mumbled.

“Fine by me. I didn't have any plans,” said Hisoka. It was like that smile never left his face.

Many more tries were made with similar results, and it didn't take long for you to become frustrated to the point that you were tempted to give up. But a look at Hisoka's face made you reconsider throwing in the towel. He was clearly enjoying your failures and how irritated you were becoming by them. He wanted you to give up. The smug look on his face pushed you to keep trying, unwilling to give him that satisfaction.

After a bit, you realized that you could cheat slightly with the first row. The surface of the stone casket you sat on was rough with many grooves and bumps that provided a bit of support that at least ensured that they wouldn't fall instantly. After some careful positioning you were finally able to get a row of six. If he disapproved of the tactic he didn't mention it. You copied what you had seen him do earlier, grabbing what would be the base of the second row and gently dropping them on top, holding your breath each time.

Neither of you had said anything during this time, and while he seemed content just to watch, the silence was starting to get to you.

“So have you been to Milsy?” you asked.

“Yes. I frequently find myself there,” he said.

“Do dress differently when you visit? I feel like I would have heard something about you before today. The older women there live off of gossip.”

Hisoka shook his head.

“I don't need a disguise, if that's what you're asking. I only let people see me if I want to be seen.”

“Hmm.”

The answer didn't tell you much of anything. You decided against asking what he meant by 'letting' people see him as he would likely only give you more cryptic replies.

You grabbed two cards, trying to place them as carefully as possible on top of the ones you had stacked so far to start the second row.

“So do you live near this area? In another town nearby, or are you some kind of hermit?”

“I'm a magician,” Hisoka said.

“Magician? So you do magic tricks?”

“Yes.”

“... Can you show me?”

“I could,” he drawled, tilting his head, “but it would be boring if I just did that for you without anything in return.”

Your eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?”

“That we could make this a little more interesting! How about I'll show you a trick or two if you can successfully make a card tower?” he asked.

It sounded reasonable enough, so you nodded.

“Oka- Fuck!”

You weren't paying attention and had set the cards down too forcefully, causing the cards beneath to fall under the pressure.

“Ah, too bad!” Hisoka teased, “going to try again?”

“Of course,” you said, already gathering up the scattered cards.

Remembering your cheat, you were able to set up the base cards a little more quickly this time as you began the process again and built your way back up. Trying to rush through it ended with you being punished when your tower fell once again when you reached the same point as the last time. Hisoka continued to smile while you cursed and began again.

You tried asking more questions about him, but the answers you were getting stayed cryptic. Hisoka was born “somewhere” and had lived in the area for “a long time”. He had no friends or family but said that he had “acquaintances” that could “work in those roles” if he so needed. He also claimed that he had traveled quite a bit but wouldn't say where exactly, saying that you wouldn't know the places he was talking about.

“I'm starting to think you're trying to get me to leave, Hisoka,” you said, hissing as your tower fell for the umpteenth time.

“And why do you think that?”

“You've been doing everything to avoid actually giving me a straight answer to any of my questions.”

Beginning again, you glanced back up at him, not surprised to see that smile still on his face.

“You're not wrong,” he said, shrugging, “however, I think if I told you the truth you would still be upset.”

“Why?”

“Because you would still think I was lying.”

You sighed.

“You're impossible to deal with.”

“So I'm told.”

Setting up the bottom row of cards had become somewhat easier now, and by this point you had managed to make it up to the third row. A small breeze came through and you froze, hands going around the cards protectively as if you could shield them. Luckily, the cards stayed in place.

“I don't actually want you to give up and leave,” Hisoka said, leaning forward with his chin resting in his hand.

“After watching you for this long, I want nothing more than for you to succeed. I would hate it if you gave up now.”

“If you say so.”

You weren't at all trying to hide your tone, broadcasting that you still weren't convinced.

Hisoka sat quietly as he watched your tower grow once again, taking in your expression.

“How about along with a few tricks, I give you something good if you complete it?” he asked suddenly.

“I don't know. Do I actually want anything from you?”

“I think you might. Complete the house of cards, and I promise it'll be worth your while,” he said, “you just promise me that you won't give up.”

You sighed once again.

“I've wasted so much time now, I'm not letting that all be for nothing.”

“That's the spirit!” Hisoka encouraged.

With your focus on the cards that you continually built up over and over again, you didn't notice the way the sun slipped lower into the sky as time moved forward. Though sunset was still far away, certain lesser things within the cemetery and the surrounding woods were waking up and found themselves drawn to your scent, multiple sets of eyes peeking over and around the old stone to look at the human who had wandered in. You didn't notice any of them, nor did you notice the warning glances Hisoka sent to all of the beings that approached. The smile stayed on his face the whole time, daring them to try something.

No attempts were made on your life; they knew better.

“Is this going to be the one?” Hisoka asked.

“Shut up.”

Hisoka chuckled, amused at how hard you were concentrating. You had finally made it to the fifth layer of the pyramid, four cards leaning against each other at the top. You held a card horizontally above them, preparing to place it. If you got this one, then all you would need to worry about was the last two cards to finish it, and then you would finally be done with this and be able to laugh in Hisoka's face. You were aware of how stupid and petty this whole thing had become, but after all of that effort, you refused to let it be for nothing.

The card was in place and you pulled away, releasing a small sigh of relief when the cards stayed standing. Without taking your eyes off of the pyramid you grabbed the last two, ever so slowly bringing them up to face each other in what was now a well practiced motion. You positioned them on top, placing them so that the top edges leaned on each other to create the point, and slowly, slowly pulled your hands away, mirroring the way Hisoka had done it earlier.

“I did it,” you breathed, amazed with yourself. Despite how you had told yourself that you weren't going to leave before doing it, you hadn't actually been sure that you could pull off the trick, your original motivations of wanting to prove Hisoka wrong long forgotten. It was such a meaningless achievement and had taken more time to complete than it was worth, but you had done it, and you couldn't help the pride you felt when you looked up to Hisoka who was politely applauding for you.

“Very well done,” said Hisoka.

And with one flick of his index finger he sent the cards toppling down.

Your satisfaction turned to shock as you watched the result of all your effort fall back down to the rough surface of the stone. All that time you spent, and it only stood for a few measly seconds.

“..... I want to punch you.”

“Now now, don't be like that,” the magician laughed as he gathered up the cards, “you won, after all.”

You glared at him as he flashed you another smile, and you caught it again: something that was just off with his teeth.

“Now, I promised to show you some tricks, correct?”

His voice brought you back to what he was doing as he divided the stack into two, holding the stacks in both hands. He then brought his hands together with a clap. When he pulled them away, the cards were gone.

…... A sleight of hand. That was his trick.

“I'm going to punch you.”

“But it was a trick, like you asked for!” he gasped, feigning shock at your irritation.

You put your head in your hands. This time had been so thoroughly wasted on this asshole.

“If it really doesn't satisfy you, I can show you some others. But first! I'll keep my other promise.”

Lifting your head back up slightly to look through your fingers, you saw Hisoka as he hopped off the casket and extended a hand towards you.

“.... Something 'good'? Do you want to elaborate on what that is?” you asked.

“All in good time; I want to take you somewhere first.”

“Take me where?” you questioned as he continued to beckon you into taking his hand.

“It's a surprise~”

When you didn't reach out to take his hand, he gave you another grin - what was wrong with his teeth? - and grabbed you by your wrist.

His hand was large enough that it circled around your wrist completely, and his nails long and sharp enough that they lightly nicked your skin as he pulled you off of the stone and led you through the cemetery. Hisoka weaved through the headstones and plants while you trailed behind. Normally you would have protested someone grabbing you and leading you along like this, but you were caught off-guard by how cold his skin was. Like a person who had been left out in freezing temperatures, Hisoka's skin virtually sapped the heat away from yours in his iron grip. It didn't make sense given how mild the weather was at the moment, and the two of you had been out there for so long; how could his skin feel so cold when you were just fine?

“Hisoka, are you sick?”

He tilted his head back as he smiled at you.

“I've never felt better.”

The two of you made your way to the hole in the cemetery's wall, climbing up the exposed roots of the tree that stood in front of it before stepping over the crumbled rock and out into the vast expanse of the forest. He continued to lead you forward, dodging your questions of where he was taking you with the same claim of it being a “surprise” and that you would “find out soon”, while his faster pace required you to trot behind him while you tripped over the forest floor. His hand remained in place around your wrist, never letting you fall and pulling you closer to him when you began to fall too far behind.

It now dawned on you how much time you had spent out here. People in the town would have noticed your absence, and for those that knew you well, it wouldn't take much for them to figure out where you had gone. You were screwed, and the only thing you could do to try and make this better was to get back before sunset.

“Hisoka,” you tried, “I just realized I've been gone for too long. I really need to get back home.”

“Don't worry; I'll take you home.”

Worries about this man that you had pushed away earlier were now coming back, and you mentally berated yourself for even speaking to him. You should have left the instant you saw him. Instead you spent, what, hours with him? With a man who thought that fun was hanging out in graveyards and playing with cards over buried bodies. You had idiotically thought he was harmless, and now you were being dragged by this man through the woods, further and further away from the cemetery and any familiar landmarks that would lead you back home while you fought against the grip on your wrist that didn't budge in the slightest no matter how you pulled against it. Your pleas to know where you were going and for him to let go became increasingly desperate but appeared to fall onto deaf ears as Hisoka pressed onward.

“Hisoka, please stop and tell me what you're doing!” you yelled, exasperated.

To your surprise, he abruptly stopped in his tracks and you to almost ran into him. You took the chance to catch your breath, looking back up at the magician. He wasn't looking at you, still facing forward.

“.... Hisoka?”

A long, low moan sounded from the man, and he turned towards you as he ran a hand through his hair, tongue licking his lips and his eyes brimming with lust.

“Your little heart is beating so fast and it's making me so excited~” he breathed, pulling your wrist up to his face and nuzzling against it. A chill ran down your spine and you tried again to pull back your hand. But just as before he didn't budge.

“Let go of me,” you whispered.

“That would be a bad idea, little fruit. There are lots of things in this forest that would love to have a piece of you, but as long as you're with me, you're safe.”

“I don't feel safe.”

Hisoka smiled against your skin, his other hand reaching to grip the back of your head. All the while his eyes never left yours.

“Would you believe that you're the first person to ever finish making a card house for me? In all of the years I've been here, every other person gave up and tried to leave,” he said.

“.... I can't say I blame them. I should have given up, too,” you mumbled.

“That would have been very bad for you, dear,” he continued, his lips only a breath away from the skin of your wrist.

“And why's that?”

“Because I would have killed you.”

Despite the gravity of his words, Hisoka said them with a certain air of nonchalance, all while he kept your wrist up near his face, his thumb rubbing circles into your skin as his eyes gauged your reaction.

You didn't know what to say or how to react. The alarm bells in your head were blaring and you wanted to tear yourself away from his grip and escape this situation. But the longer you spent in his presence, a sick feeling rose within you that you wouldn't be getting away from this man.

“.... That's a sick joke, Hisoka.”

“I said earlier that if I told you the truth, you would think I was lying, didn't I? If I had been completely truthful, you would have been scared off and I would have needed to kill you. It's a little rule I made for myself,” he explained, “just killing anyone who wandered in became a bit boring, so I thought it would be more fun to give people a chance to save themselves by playing my game. But as I said, you're the only one who stuck through it. And I have to say, I couldn't be happier that the first person was you. Some of these people I simply-”

“Let go of me!”

Your yell interrupted his speech while you once again pulled against his hold on you, your other arm pushing against the one that held you by the head. His words sent a rush of adrenaline through you and you twisted and pulled to free your wrist while you kicked at him. He was insane, dangerous and if he wasn't going to kill you, you were willing to bet he was going to rape you just based off of the way he was looking you over.

“Did you not hear me? Right now you're safest with me,” said Hisoka, not at all bothered by your struggles.

“You wouldn't want to know what other kinds of things are around these parts.”

And with that he bit into your wrist.

You screamed as his teeth sunk into the flesh of your arm and broke through. Hitting and kicking at him, you felt him sucking out your blood, watching the way his throat moved as he swallowed it. He was drinking your blood. Actually drinking your blood.

Hisoka was unaffected by your attacks, ignoring the way you were beating at him in an attempt to get him off of you. In mere moments after he had bitten you, you began to feel dizzy, and when your free hand landed a soft blow to his head, it stayed there. He opened an eye, taking in your flushed appearance as the blood-loss – how had he taken so much so quickly? - began to get to you. The corners of the mouth that was still planted on your wrist turned upward as he sneered at you. He was enjoying your distress, and that realization had you seeing red.

In an action fueled by rage at being toyed with by this man, you moved the hand you had placed on his head-

And jammed your thumb into his eye socket.

Hisoka yelled out in a mixture of surprise and pain. He pulled away from your wrist as he staggered backwards.

You lifted a leg and kicked him, finally pulling away from him and turning to make a mad dash back to the cemetery. The adrenaline and the panic in your mind allowed you to not really think about what you had just done to him, only focusing on getting back to the cemetery and from there escape home. And after that, you swore you would never even think about this place again.

Dirt and leaves kicked up around you as you scrambled to get away from that man. You prayed that you would be able to find that entrance to the cemetery – whatever kind of freak Hisoka was, he wouldn't pursue you with a wounded eye, right?

You weren't sure if you tripped over a stray tree root or just simply lost your footing to sheer stupidity, but you stumbled as you ran and fell flat on your face, the speed at which you fell making you hit the ground hard. Your arms and legs flailed as you tried to push yourself back up and continue running, but the shakiness you were suddenly experiencing made it hard to control your limbs.

A heel slammed down on the base of your spine and you yelped as you were forced back down onto the ground. Struggling only made the heel dig in deeper and you screamed as the pain became too much, tears streaming down your face as you were forced into submission. Your whole body shook as you looked at the person standing over you: Hisoka, breathing hard, his eye shut and blood trailing down his cheek and ruining his make-up. Slowly, he brought a hand up to his bleeding eye, wiping the blood with a single finger. He inspected it, like it was something he had never seen before, never experienced. There was a wild look in his uninjured eye, and when he looked back at you he smiled, sharp bloody teeth on full display.

“You have a vicious streak in you,” he breathed, “ if you're willing to gouge out someone's eye just to get away from them.”

“You- you were drinking my blood, you freak,” you spat.

He groaned, licking up his own blood as he looked down at you.

“Darling, you're perfect.”

Suddenly his body was on top of yours, pressing down and holding you in place while he held your wrists above your head. His other hand roughly gripped your hair and pulled your head to the side. His teeth sunk into you again, this time into your neck.

Warm blood was dripping down your neck as he began to suck you dry. Your vision began spinning, and your limbs weren't moving like you wanted them to. When Hisoka pulled away the hand that held your wrists in favor of grabbing your waist, you could barely move them. Your strength was almost completely sapped and you whimpered, never imagining you would die like this.

Hisoka pulled off of you, licking up the blood he had missed before sitting up, virtually straddling you as he re-positioned himself.

“I needed to take a bit more since you injured me, and of course, now you're probably too weak for me to continue like I wanted to. Shame. I liked the idea of fucking you into the forest floor, but I really want you to be awake for it.”

With a good deal of effort, you glanced back up at him.

Two yellow eyes gazed back at you. Two, perfectly fine, yellow eyes that showed no sign of injury save for the lingering smear of blood on his cheek. The eye that you had shoved your thumb into had miraculously healed itself, and that wide smile formed once again when he saw your shock.

“I.... I.. M-my- how?”

“I just drank blood from your neck; you really can't figure it out?” Hisoka laughed, “you aren’t very bright, are you?”

He leaned back down, his nose nuzzling against your cheek. Hisoka sighed against your skin.

“I'm going to keep you like this for a while, let you live out a few more years as a human. You'll want for nothing, and I'll keep you safe. And eventually, I'll make you like me.”

'I don't want to be like you,' you wanted to scream, but you didn't have it in you to say anything. By now you were having a hard time keeping your eyes open. When he finally moved off of you, you made no move to run again. You physically couldn't.

He hauled you up by the back of your shirt, laughing as your head lolled back when he pressed your body against his.

Hisoka's hand on your jaw pulled you back, and his lips met yours in a sloppy kiss, tasting your own blood on his tongue as he shoved it into your slack mouth.

He pulled away, patting your cheek.

“Get some rest now. I expect a lot from you.”

You barely registered his words before unconsciousness finally overtook you.

With a satisfied hum, Hisoka slung you over his shoulder and began to make his journey back to his home deep within the forest. Licking the last of your blood off of his lips, he let out another satisfied sigh.

You were going to keep him entertained for a long time.

#yandere hunter x hunter #yandere #yandere x reader #Hisoka #hisoka x reader #hisoka morow #hisoka morow x reader #reader insert #yandere hxh #halloween #vampire #hxh hisoka

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btssmutficslovingfan01 · 4 years ago

Text

How to Dream About Your Crush

Summary: You’re gonna go into your crush’s dream and that’s not all, you’re going to make him fall madly in love with you, only in seven days.

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Pairing: Jungkook x Banshee! Reader

Words: 9k+

Warnings: No correlation to the wikihow article, wattpad got nothing on me, references to HYYH era and the ‘Save Me’ webtoon, Mentions of Suicidal Thoughts, Death, Pretty PG rated overall except for some suggestive parts

💌 A/N: This is the longest Jungkook ff I have ever written. Also, happy valentine’s day!

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“Who are you?” He asked you as you turned around, your long red dress flowing freely behind you as he ran towards you. “Your future.” You gave him a half smile and everything faded to white, that’s how the dream ended. You woke up with a smile on your face, feeling quite well rested. You weren’t, however, ready to face Jungkook after that little stunt you pulled. Yoongi was glaring at you as you trudged to the kitchen.

“There’s a reason why we don’t use the dream dust on humans, you know?”

“I know, I know. But he’s the cutest boy I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and you know I’m the equivalent of a newborn even at 22.” Your superior lets out a sigh.

“Yes, I suppose I understand why you did it. I just don’t like it, is all. Our kind isn’t known to humans. Even though we blend in well, we cannot mix. Some are just too smart for us to sneak past.” Yoongi finishes whipping up the last batch of his potions for the next week and a half.

“I know you’re salty because once they thought you were a ghost when you went out to go buy a t.v. It doesn’t help that they made a horror movie about it either.” You laugh at the memory, your eyes twinkling with mischief as your older brother glares daggers at you, again.

“We’re the laughing stalk of the 4th dimension, Y/N, how would you feel if a human mistook you for a demon and decided to give you a silly name like, “the crying woman?” or “the girl from the ring?” You just narrowed your eyes at him.

“Those things already exist. Besides, I think it was a good thing that you got caught. Humans fear us so they’ll stay away. Even if they’re wrong about the ghost part, we still have a cool name.” Yoongi buckles his satchel before putting his brown bag over his shoulder and going out for the day.

“For the record, Banshees are cool. Banhees are not.” You rolled your eyes at him as he left, finally locking the door behind him. You loved spending time alone, as you have been for the last quarter of a century. It felt like an eternity, all that time cooped up in your house that you were assigned to stay in with your superior, Yoongi. Over a period of time, he became like a brother to you, that’s why it’s easier to refer to him as your brother, even though you aren’t biologically related to one another.

Your world operates similar to the human world, the only difference is that ghouls don’t get into fights over silly things and there’s no concept of racism because the entire population consists of different types of people and it's not like you deal with the same species. Instead you consider yourselves a single population of just otherlanders. There are others like you, but their existence doesn’t affect yours in any shape or form.

You worked for the factory that you were born at, the same factory that sent you and Yoongi to the human dimension. This way, you could do good deeds without bothering anyone. You were born into a complicated situation. Your entire family was under arrest when you were still in utero, and you were born in a factory jail cell. You were sent to an orphanage as an infant and when you were around 18 years of age, you were sent to work at the factory. That is also where you met your 110 year old superior.

Others didn’t protest, even though it was odd for such a young Banshee to be traveling to the human world and completing tasks meant for elders. Yoongi luckily looked after you, and you became used to the workings of the human world. Your job was easy enough: Look after the souls who you have been assigned to and help them through their dreams.

It was an easy enough task, except for the fact that you couldn’t directly intervene in their lives. You had to go into their dreams and Jungkook Jeon just happened to be one of the lucky humans you had the pleasure of helping, at least that’s what you like to believe. Yoongi got assigned to him instead, but once you got a peek of that bunny-toothed smile, you just couldn’t resist! That boy was just too cute.

To Yoongi’s dismay, you started appearing in his dreams, whether they were dreams or nightmares. You also couldn’t risk him seeing your body, because the lifeless skin with a light blue tint would be a dead giveaway that you weren’t human.

All you needed was a picture of him and some dream dust, the unfortunate part was that Yoongi was the only one who could make it, as he knew the recipe by heart and refused to give it to you until you learned how to be a responsible Banshee and do your job. For your family, who you barely knew.

Later that night, you find yourself in the middle of a road. All you can see is darkness, except for the road with clear yellow lines separating the two lanes. A strange feeling forms in the pit of your belly as you look past your field of vision and you see the road cut off. When you turn around, you see Jungkook, who looks shocked to see you in the middle of his nightmare.

He shuts his eyes and covers himself with his arms, as if he would be shielded from whatever danger just because he can’t see it. Before you can ask him what he was doing, a blinding flash of light stops you, and you feel the impact of the car as glass shards go flying everywhere. It was in slow motion, but you could see Jungkook’s horrified face as you stare back at him with lifeless eyes. He was so startled that he woke up before you did, leaving you alone on the dark road again, only shards of glass and a smashed car to keep you company.

It seems Jungkook’s trauma runs deeper than his memory. When you were flying through the air in slow motion, your vision came back into focus. The blinding light hadn’t reached your eyes yet, so it gave you time to peer into the window. You didn’t see a driver, no face, no body, no hands. It was like the car was driving itself.

You also noticed that the car was driving in the middle of the road, not on either side so it didn’t give Jungkook an opportunity to move out of the way. You getting into an accident was not your fault either, you weren’t meant to be there in the first place. Now that you know, you can avoid this in the future by pulling Jungkook aside or pushing him out of the way. Even though it was a dream, you still felt pain from the incident. This was a downside to being a creature of the night, you remember dreams vividly and never forget pain. That’s why there were a small number of Banshees in your world, because people remembered the pain of giving birth, they stopped reproducing.

It was about 9 in the morning when you awakened from your slumber, after recounting the events in the dream world by yourself after Jungkook woke up, you stayed there alone. Sometimes, a girl just needs to have that peace and quiet.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Yoongi!” You gasp, sitting up on the bed, clutching your blanket with one hand and your dream journal in the other.

“I thought I told you to stop going after that Jungkook boy. He’s my assignment, after all.” You pout as Yoongi shuts you down again.

“Yoongi, how many times do I have to tell you? I can’t let him go. He’s special.” Yoongi rolls his eyes.

“How many times have I heard this before? One, two, three? They were all different names, different partners too. Ah, how it feels to be a teenager.”

“I’m not a teenager. Not in our dimension, anyways.” Yoongi doesn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at your naive remark. All he can do now is take care of you and get you home in one piece.

“I know that.” He clicks his tongue but you still look more perplexed than ever.

“We’re partners, but this assignment has to be done alone. If you screw this up for me, I can get fired.”

“I understand, sir yes sir,” You salute him before flipping through the pages of your dream diary. “I won’t mess this up. In fact, I think I even found the root of his trauma.” Yoongi shakes his head at your thoughtless comment.

“There is no such thing as a “root” of trauma. Normally, people are mentally scarred during their childhood and they grow up to have problems during their adult life. In Jungkook’s case, he is not a full adult yet, we’re just lucky we got here in time before it started taking over his life.”

“Yoongi, when can I have my first assignment? They said we were partners and sent us here so we can complete missions together but it feels like you just want me to stay out of it altogether.” Yoongi furrows his brows. He puts his fingers to his forehead, pressing down and rubbing his temples for relief. He looks tired and grumpy, like an old man.

“I can’t teach you if you won’t listen to me. When I told you to let me handle this alone, I meant that I wanted to be the one to open the gates to the dream world and let you through so you could observe from a distance.”

“Oh yeah? And how’s that coming for ya?”

“So far? Not so great.” He sighs, plopping onto the green couch with a thwack.

“Tell me what’s the matter.”

“You. You keep messing everything up. I bet you can’t even do your job right even if I assigned you the task.” Your eyes widen at his playful comment, which was a complete 180 from his authoritarian behavior from before.

“I bet I can do that, and make him fall madly in love with me while doing it.” The corners of his lips twitch upwards and into a strange mix between a grimace and a smirk. It takes you a moment to realize that he was trying to smile, something that Yoongi doesn’t do very often.

“In a week?” Yoongi adds. “If you fail, you have to buy me a Maxi size blanket from Max-Mart.” You reach out to shake his hand but withdraw quickly, realizing that you forgot to decide his punishment.

“And if I win, you have to give me the recipe to Dream Dust.” He scoffs. “Deal.” You shake on it.

Day 1

You wipe your sweaty palms on your pajamas as you prepare for another night in Jungkook’s Dream World. The first thing you needed to do was confront him. Unlike Yoongi, you believed in doing things head-on. Much to your company’s dismay, there were no specific rules stating that you can’t do so. You can’t interfere in the waking world, that’s all.

“It’s you.” Jungkook is in the middle of a floating pile of laundry, which piles higher than any mountain you’ve seen before.

“How’d you get up there?” You ask, trying to change that topic since dream logic allowed you to skip over the meaningless greetings and get to the point. Jungkook didn’t notice, giving you what he thought was a sensible answer but instead the letters came out jumbled and he said something about Alpaca parkas.

“That’s a lovely scent. What kind of detergent do you use?” Jungkook shrugs as you help him out of the pile, not minding that you flew up to do so. “Are you an angel?” He asks finally, when you set him down after flying him back down to safety.

“If that’ll help you sleep better at night, then yeah, I guess so.”

“I’ve seen you before, you’re the one that ran away from me the other time...but that was a dream. Oh my god, am I dreaming?” Jungkook’s smile makes your heart melt. You never thought you would meet a human that made you feel this way, much less a boy. If he belonged to your world, he would be an infant, same as you. But he is technically older than you, since you were only 22 and he was 24.

“Can you tell me who was driving the car?” You shift topics easily but Jungkook’s dreamscape looks murky. It’s like he’s having a thousand thoughts at once but you can’t hear any of them, as he’s keeping them to himself, even in his own dream. Technically, the dream plane is a place where people can share dreams if their connection is strong enough, but you forced your way into his dreams, with the dream dust. Another strange rule about the dream plane is that if he didn’t truly want you here, you could be cast out of his dream. Of course, that’s never happened to you before since you only watched Yoongi do this from afar and never interfered with it directly.

“No.” Again, the horn of that very same car warns you from behind as Jungkook watches the light with wide doe eyes, waiting for the impact that never comes.

He looks at you with confusion as you make the car swerve past you into a halt, something that Jungkook himself can never do. He always gets hit in the end, and then wakes up in his bed in a cold sweat. It’s not really a pleasant feeling, as his heart would race and he would have to get up to drink water or go to the bathroom to calm down his nerves.

“How did you do that?” His dreamscape changes again, to something more serene. A golden-orange sunset near the beach. You can feel the sand between your toes as the waves crash onto your feet and swipe it away. The change is drastic to the empty road in the darkness that always ends in a car crash. You can tell Jungkook still has no control over it, the car just hits him every time and instead of moving out of the way, he waits for the collision, like he’s supposed to get hit.

“I didn’t do anything. It’s your dream, after all.” You try twisting the situation around, since in the dreamscape, you can say or do anything and it will make sense to the person dreaming at the time.

“But you’re here. I know I’ve never met you in real life...so why do you keep appearing in my dreams?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you caught a glimpse of me somewhere and now your subconscious is presenting me as the answer to your problem.” Why did you say that? Now you’ve really gone and done it.

“How can you possibly be my “cure?” The car was just a coincidence. Let’s just say I was so taken aback that I stopped it from crushing you. What good does having you by my side do for me? Are you supposed to be my miracle?” You decide to play along, just for now. If Jungkook thinks he needs you, and you give him exactly what he wants (because it’s a dream), then in the waking world when you run into him, you can directly help him heal and overcome his fears. It’s a win-win situation! Although, Yoongi won’t be very proud of you for doing the latter.

He doesn’t believe in doing the work himself, he says making the humans come to a realization is much more satisfying than directly trying to fix the problem. He calls it pushing things into place, you call it laziness.

“Again, it’s all up to you. I’m just here for the ride.” You’re vague on purpose, as Jungkook comes close to you, practically bumping noses as his breath fans on your lips like a cool breeze of air. You don’t know why, but your heart races when he steps even closer to you.

His lips are almost touching yours, when he suddenly pulls away.

“I don’t even know you.”

You wake up in a cold sweat. Yoongi is flipping through a book, smirking as he sips some coffee while watching you struggle after your return from Jungkook’s dreamscape. He doesn’t think you’ll be able to get any further than angering Jungkook for prying into his most personal thoughts through his dreams.

You make yourself some coffee before starting the day, peering out the window to watch Jungkook as he exits his apartment in a rush, with a guitar case in hand. You know exactly where he’s going, too.

You decide to make your first encounter with Jungkook a mere coincidence. A chance-meeting. Two people meeting on the street only to meet later somewhere else. You were playing with destiny.

Your physical body has noticeable differences from a human’s body, which means if Jungkook gets too close, he could discover you’re not like him. You opted to wear a simple brown trench coat and some brown boots, but you keep your face covered until you drop a coin in his guitar case.

His eyes widen when he sees you, and you give him the sweetest smile you think a human girl can possibly muster. Quickly, you turn around and disappear around the corner, leaving Jungkook to busk again by his lonesome. He does it everyday, for two hours. After that, he heads down to his workplace which is by a supermarket.

You don’t go to that supermarket to buy groceries, since it was far away, compared to your local supermarket.

“You know, if you don’t think you can do this, you can give your bag of dream dust to me and I can—” “No!” You interrupt Yoongi, with tearful eyes. “I don’t care about your stupid bet. I just want Jungkook to get at least one night of rest. This may be a game for you, but he’s a real person, you know? He is more than an “assignment.” Yoongi, I’m asking you for a bit of humility.” Yoongi sighs before setting his book down on the table, putting a hand on his chin as he speaks to you.

“And so it begins. Your first mission,” You look at him with bewilderment; Had he meant to piss you off from the very beginning? “The same thing happened to me on mine, and my grandfather’s father. The key to a successful mission is realizing that your assigned humans are human.” You were at a loss for words.

Yoongi helped you? This one is definitely going in the book of reports.

“What difference does it make? Jungkook doesn’t want my help. He doesn’t even know me.”

“But you know him,” Yoongi’s eyes glimmer with flecks of gold, his irises naturally brown with a yellow undertone. You always found his eyes captivating, mirroring the very essence of his soul. He’s wise and monotonous, with a microscopic piece of warmth seeping through the cracks. Rarely does he express any kind of emotion at all. Yet this was one of those rare moments in which he displayed emotion. “So help him.”

Day 2

Jungkook’s dreamscape had taken a turn for the worst. This time, you found yourself in the middle of a crime scene, Jungkook watching himself bleed out as his double sinks into the white-tiled floor, fresh scarlet blood pooling around his head. You stood on the far side of the island, not wanting to be found out.

Jungkook walks past the body suddenly, making a beeline for the back door. You watch the scene around you shift once again, and suddenly, you’re in the middle of a party. Is Jungkook reliving memories? Seeing vivid nightmares because those memories haunt him? You know he was involved in a car accident, and that left him unable to dance. He still can’t exert force on his leg to this day, even though it’s been 5 years.

You follow Jungkook’s mop of dark brown hair, taking in his man-bun for a second before walking behind him as quietly as possible. The party itself isn’t loud, the strange dream logic allows Jungkook to drown out any noise. He probably doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but that’s how dreams work, subconsciously. You follow him along a dark corridor, your eyes going wide when you realize this is a make-out corner, and then to your horror, you see him kiss someone. You can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman given the crappy lighting, but you can see that whoever it is, they’re really into the kiss.

Jungkook suddenly pushes them away, running towards the bathroom, and when you go to see what’s the matter, someone from his dreamscape runs past you to go help him. You peer in through the door, only opening it half way to find none other than Yoongi himself assisting a half-dead Jungkook on the ground. His labored breaths resound through the room, as you watch him grip the edges of the toilet seat.

“Jungkook-ah, I’m here now. Let’s get you home.” You’re quick to realize that’s not your Yoongi, although the two of them bear a striking resemblance.

“Hyung, do you love me?” You hear Jungkook croak out, the innocence in his voice suggesting that this was one of his early memories from school.

“Of course I do. Do you think I’d come all the way here if I didn’t?”

“I kissed her. Your girlfriend.” Instead of becoming upset, or dropping Jungkook, he just lets out a chuckle. You feel instantly jealous of Jungkook for getting such an expressive Yoongi. Your Yoongi is broken. Not to mention now, he has black hair. The Yoongi that’s helping Jungkook out of the colorful club restroom has mint-green hair.

“That’s fine. You know I’d even share her with you, if you asked.” You gawk at the boys as they walk past you, Jungkook oblivious to even you at that moment. It seems like he is the closest to Yoongi, even though you know for a fact Yoongi has never even gone out to bars in the human world. He’s a stickler when it comes to rules. This man is most definitely not someone you know.

You’re sure about one thing, though. He’s got to be the key to healing Jungkook. Yet, you have no idea where to even begin. For now, you settle on following Jungkook from a distance and approaching him when the time is right. This time, when the scene fades, you’re in the middle of a graveyard. Oh hell no.

You see none other than Yoongi, at least his picture, resting on the tombstone. You were so taken aback, you woke up out of shock, like an amateur.

“What? Can’t sleep?” He mocks as he flips to the next page of his book.

“I just saw you. Your past life, it was you!” Yoongi is quick to put his book away, standing up and walking towards you to check your temperature.

“Tell me what happened.”

“You had mint green hair. Jungkook was a close friend of yours, he even went to your funeral. I think he was reliving a memory.”

“But that’s not possible! Five years ago I wasn’t even in the human realm! How could this happen?”

“I don’t know. But I saw it on your tombstone. Yoongi Min, 1993-2016.” Yoongi mutters a couple curses in latin under his breath before turning back to you. “There was a human version of me living at the same time as a Banhee version of me?”

“It looks like it. I was going to seek him out but it doesn’t look like I can anymore.”

“Maybe the one upstairs willed it.”

“You mean to say God actually made it like that so you can help me out with the current situation?” He nods.

“Precisely. We have the same first names, different surnames, but we are most definitely identical. Here, I found a picture of him online. Don’t we look like twins?” You hate to admit it, but it looks like Yoongi will have to help you with this one.

“Creepy.”

“Let’s put a halt on that bet. It’s not fair to either of us if I help you out by pretending to be this Yoongi person,” Your lips curve upwards into a smirk. “But this Yoongi has mint-green hair.” Yoongi shakes his head, grabbing your hand as you reach up to mess with his hair.

You make a quick trip to a beauty store to collect some things like bleach, hair dye, and some makeup just for you. Yoongi glared at you since he was the one paying for everything but it’s not like he does any “obscure human jobs” as he would call them. You’re paid in human money, but all of your pay is collected by the facility that’s holding your family. You’d have to work for 50 years to free them, so during that time you have to depend on Yoongi for money. He gets an average of $3000 per month, plus the money that he’s been saving since the 1920��s, and luckily since the Great Depression only effected the “stupid humans who don’t know how to handle their money,” Yoongi only made more money in the end, racking up tenfold of his pay. The value of his money went up, and he was a millionaire now so it didn’t matter.

He just hated spending money, is all.

You spent the rest of the night dying Yoongi’s hair, bleaching it first before waiting so you could add the mint green dye. Yoongi reminded you of how much he hated you every second of the way.

By 8 am, he was dyed and ready. His mint green hair looked resplendent. You licked your lips and sent him out, not realizing that it was already the next day.

Day 3

Yoongi bumped into Jungkook, breaking his own rules with the “coincidence.” You made sure that it was just a run-in though, something that will make Jungkook’s subconscious mind think about his Yoongi again. Yoongi was determined to help you now more than ever, since it seemed there was a human double of him born with the same name, but he was only a few years older than Jungkook, as opposed to being nearly a whole century older than him.

You knew this would mean Jungkook would dream of Yoongi tonight, and your Yoongi could slip unknowingly to find out more. You needed to know, it seemed as if Yoongi was essential to solving the problem behind Jungkook’s nightmares, the same ones that creep in during the day, leaving him restless and stroppy in the morning.

When night fell, you were ready to hide under the nearest tree you could find. It looks like today, Jungkook is thinking about his friend’s death. Some things remained unclear, as Jungkook fell flat on his face and began sobbing, stirring your own emotions as you empathize with him. Never have you ever felt this way about an assignment before, you only observed from a distance. Seeing Jungkook’s tears roll down his cheeks and his eyes turning puffy only made you more encouraged to help him. Yoongi watches you from his hiding place, smiling as you wipe your own tears, and wait for him to make the next move.

Yoongi walks up to him slowly, after what felt like an eternity, he is directly in front of him.

“Stand up, old friend.” Jungkook’s face lights up at his voice, and his cheeks have retained a lovely rosy hue that you’ve never seen before. He’s just so adorable, the way he chats away with your superior, believing him to be his long-dead friend.

“I miss you a lot these days, you know?” Jungkook turns back to him with a sad smile as he observes his features. “Your green hair was truly iconic. Actually, I think you might have been the only person in Korea to pass away with mint-green hair.” He laughs along with Yoongi making sure to play his part and gain the intel you needed to execute the plan.

“Enough about the green hair. I’m here to check up on you. Heaven has really bad reception so I couldn’t connect to Earth.” Jungkook stifles a laugh at his joke, quieting down when he sees that Yoongi isn’t laughing along.

“I’m leaving this place soon, too,”

Your face turns pale at his words. He couldn’t mean that he wanted to...there was no way. “I’m dying, like a flower blooming in reverse.” It sounded beautiful, when he said it. A part of you wanted to see it for yourself, a flower blooming in reverse. In this case, it seemed that Jungkook was the flower. And a flower can’t possibly turn back into a bud. The only thing it can do is shrivel up and die. You certainly didn’t want to see that happening to Jungkook any time soon.

“It’s called wilting. And also, what do you mean?” Yoongi puts a hand on his hip. You can tell he’s growing impatient.

“I’m losing my will to live. What’s the point of life if there’s no one to share it with? Jimin won’t even come visit your grave because he’s still in denial that you’re gone, Jin is living his dream in America in broadway doing shows, and everyone that we knew before is busy. They moved on with their lives, forgot about you, and us, we were the dream team.”

“That’s a part of life, Kook. I’m sorry if you feel that way now but just because I’m gone it doesn’t mean you should just put a halt on your life. We were the dream team, but now it’s just you. You have to put in an effort to move forward and carry those past experiences with you.”

You never knew the weight of a heavy heart before now.

You resisted running forward as well, letting Yoongi handle this as he was always meant to.

“It’s not that easy, you know? I’ve changed. It’s hard for me to even get a decent night’s sleep with all of the nightmares I have.” Yoongi realizes quickly that Jungkook hasn’t recognized that he is dreaming yet. It is common within humans not to understand that, even when it’s so obvious that their subconscious is altering their dreams while they are in the dream.

“Why don’t you try going to sleep now? I’m sure you can sleep well if you let go.” Yoongi gestures for you to come forward when Jungkook takes his advice and he goes to “bed.” You were in the middle of his bedroom, while he “slept” soundly on a bed. A dream within a dream.

“What do we do? We’ve never tried to help someone like this before.” Yoongi shrugs.

“This way, if he gets too excited and wakes up, he will still be dreaming. It’s a simple banshee-dream surfing hack.” You roll your eyes, relaxing for only a minute before Jungkook begins to stir in his bed.

“Now, put your hand on his forehead. You are going to go inside his dream and confront his problems next to him.” You nervously look up at Yoongi, before putting your hand down on his forehead. Even his forehead is hot. Does this man have to be so sexy all the time?

You were back on the empty road. Except this time Yoongi was there, but it wasn’t your Yoongi. This Yoongi was human, bleeding bright crimson blood, and he was as good as dead. You felt a rush of fear for a moment, having to remind yourself that the real Yoongi is watching you from outside, as you were inside a dream within a dream.

“Please, wake up.” Jungkook desperately shakes his friend, crying as he lies limp in his arms.

“He’s gone, Jungkook.”

“Why are you here again?!” He snaps, and all you can do is wonder how to save yourself the trouble of an explanation.

And then he wakes up.

Day 4

“Since you screwed up so bad yesterday, I wanted to ask you if you’ll stay out of trouble and avoid interacting with Jungkook unless you absolutely have to.”

“Yes sir.” You salute your mentor as you drink a glass of milk before curling up in your comfy bed.

Yoongi was going to join you again in the dreamscape, this time making Jungkook show him the answers without asking. He was a master of deception, making sure to lure his assignments into a false sense of security before making them face their biggest nightmare only to make them realize that they were their own enemy all along.

It was surprising how most of the time, things turned out exactly the same way, with there being a 99% chance that the reason why a person isn’t able to move forward in their life, it is due to their own fears of failure. One should never be afraid of the unknown, as the possibilities for success are endless.

All that he had to do was show Jungkook what could happen if he would just let go of his friend’s death.

He is standing in the middle of a dark and desolate dreamscape, as you duck behind a dead tree only to see that flowers bloom at your touch. This could only mean one thing: you were starting to creep into his subconscious, his deeper thoughts as you appeared many times in his dreams before and now he was actively thinking of you.

You felt flattered at first, before you realized that this could potentially ruin the entire plan.

You stay hidden and watch Yoongi as he bends and controls the environment to his will, showing Jungkook a vision of an ideal family. His future if he learned to let go. His picture-perfect (faceless) wife and two kids, his furnace burning bright as winter came early, and a little golden retriever puppy.

“This isn’t right. I should be married to her,” Jungkook mutters to himself, but it’s still loud enough for you to hear. You see Jungkook create a different version of you from his memory, but since it is a dream it isn’t perfect. You know it’s you because she’s wearing the same red dress you wore when you were fooling around in his dreams before the bet even started in the first place. “She’s the only one for me.” You feel something similar to an earthquake, as Jungkook’s dreamscape shakes violently. You come flying out of your hiding place, Yoongi’s hand reaching out to you a smidge too late as you face Jungkook.

“Who are you?” He inquires, once again reaching out to you as you gaze into his deep brown eyes, admiring his handsomeness before being yanked out from the dream by your superior.

You sit up straight in bed, as if you had just walked right out of the dream realm. Your awareness was intact, and Yoongi was sitting beside you, in his prized rocking chair. You knew with whatever you were planning now, you needed to involve Yoongi.

“Yoongi, do you know where Banshees come from?” Yoongi groans as you ask him the same question all the little ones back in your world ask you.

“No. As I told you before, there’s no exact science.”

“Then does that mean everything I am doing is for nothing? I’m helping my supposed “family” by doing this job but I don’t think I really understand who it is I’m helping. As far as I know, my parents didn’t raise me. They could be dead.” Yoongi sighs, putting a hand on your shoulder as you tell him about your worries.

“While some of that may be true, I know that you are the closest thing that I have to a sister right now. Even if you feel doubt about your birth family, stop thinking about them. I’m the loneliest creature on this planet. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a partner and I’m glad they chose you. You keep me company, and the house feels more lively with you. So what do you say? If you won’t do this for your real family, do this for me?” How could you possibly say no to him when he puts it like that?

“You are my real family, dummy. And who said I was quitting? I just don’t know if I can pull this off yet.” You share an embrace before running off to make yourselves some hot coco.

Meanwhile, across the street when Jungkook wakes up in his bed, he notices the couple running around in their apartment, and upon closer inspection, he noticed that you bore very similar resemblance to someone he saw in his dreams. He didn’t get a good look at the guy, but he also looked familiar.

Jungkook tucked the thought away in the back of his mind, planning to investigate it later, after work. He hops out of bed to get the day started, only thinking of his ideal girl and Yoongi. His past was starting to matter less and less to him, so he felt like he could accomplish a lot more today.

Maybe you were starting to make some progress on him.

Day 5

Jungkook’s dream started off a nightmare again. The recurring car crash scene played out before him, but instead of colliding with the glass and flying through the air in slow motion, he stopped it by holding out his hand.

“I knew it, I’m dreaming!” You and Yoongi share a look of fear as humans who are aware that they are dreaming are not to be messed with. If either of you exposed the magical world to a human, the kind of trouble you would get in is far worse than life in jail.

“We have to get out of here.” Whispered Yoongi as you met in the clouds. It was the only place you could hide, since Jungkook had awareness and it was a bad idea to be seen while he was in a state to make sense of things.

“How?”

“We need to wake him up somehow. Maybe we should trick him!”

“Yoongi, what are you thinking of doing?” You ask as he stands up, preparing to jump down from the cloud.

“I’m gonna try and wake him up. With my true form.” You shake your head at that, trying to grab onto his legs as he floats down.

He turns an ugly shade of blue, his pale skin an unnatural shade of white, the same white that corpses turn after spending hours at the morgue. His hair turns black, and grows out just a little too long. His legs become crooked, bending an unnatural way as Jungkook turns around to face him.

“AHHHHHHH!” He wakes up immediately, pulling you and Yoongi out of your dream sequence.

“Good going. Although, I can never figure out how to make my legs do that.” Yoongi shrugs, before hopping out of bed and leaving you confused.

“Wait, you slept next to me last night? I don’t remember that…” He ignored you as he quickly got out his phone and started going through emails he had received from HQ in the human world. Who would’ve thought? The fancy software company uptown was a cover for all of the monsters working in the human world.

“Oh no, they’re asking me for a progress report.”

“So?” You didn’t know why he sounded so stressed all of a sudden.

“By now he shouldn’t be having that car nightmare. What are we gonna do?” He grips your shoulders as you comfort him with patting his hands.

“There, there. Don’t cry. I think we can do this in three days. We have to use Yoongi, though. The one from Jungkook’s memories.”

While you were busy with Yoongi in your apartment, Jungkook was groveling in his own place, remembering the painful events from the past which led him here.

Yoongi tried killing himself, multiple times. But he saved Jungkook when he was about to get hit by a car. It wasn’t just him. His friends were there too. They came running to find them in the corner of an alleyway after Yoongi had been run over and Jungkook was too shocked to speak.

He was closer with Yoongi than any of the others so when he died, a part of himself died as well. Yoongi was depressed after his last girlfriend left him. They were so close but then out of the blue she ghosted him and blocked his number and everything. Jungkook couldn’t do much to help except play piano for the man when he asked. While Yoongi smoked on his ugly green couch, Jungkook would play.

The same song which haunts him to this day.

Day 6

“When will I see you again?” Jungkook asked as he reached out to the apparition of Yoongi.

He disappeared, turning into smoke when Jungkook tried to touch him. “Why am I so lonely?”

“You’re not lonely because he left. You’re lonely because you miss him.” When he turned around, you were standing before him, in your red dress. Just as he remembered seeing you the first time.

“You’re the girl who’s been appearing in my dreams every night.” You looked down at your gown, deciding to own up to the fact that you’d been showing up in his dreams.

“At first, I thought you were just a cute boy with a troubled past. But I see your past is a lot more than just that.” You sit next to him as he sits down in an empty patch of grass, surrounded by a beautiful garden at his feet.

“How did you get in my head? Surely I would remember what my own crush looks like.” You shake your head. At first, making him fall in love with you was your ultimate goal. You didn’t want to continue deceiving him like this, pretending that you were some angel when you’re not.

“I’m not anyone you know. I’m just here to help and leave after I’m done.”

“What do you mean?” With the way he was looking at you right now, you were a sure goner. His long, black curls forming a natural halo around his head as his face...his soft cheeks blush a light pink. Under the sunset and the dreamy atmosphere, Jungkook looks unreal. It didn’t take long for his lips to connect with yours.

When you woke up from the excitement, you knew you were screwed. There’s no way you could come back now.

“Yoongi!” You called out for your partner as he continued fixing hot chocolate for you. “I need to meet him in real life. Every time I get too close, he just wakes up. Dreaming isn’t going to help anymore, I need to take action in the real world.”

“But Y/N, I can’t let you do that. He’s a human and if he even sees you, he’ll know you aren’t an ordinary girl.” You look at your own skin, dreading how you looked at the moment because you were no greek goddess when it came to looks. You just had control over what you looked like in the dream realm so you appeared human.

“I need to try, Yoongi. Maybe I’ll hide my face. My eyes give it all away. Or maybe I could get contacts like you.”

“No contacts. And no going out alone. How many times do I have to tell you? It is against the rules to initiate contact with a subject directly if not in the dream realm. Even then, you have to keep a distance because there’s a rule about that too.”

“Screw you and your rules! I’ll do what I want. This dream dust is mine.”

“Y/N, no!” Yoongi called out to you as you sprinkled the last of the dream dust on you, drifting off to sleep just to arrive at a party.

“Where am I?”

“You’re at our frat partayyy! Could you do me a favor and go make out with our newest recruit over there? It’s part of our initiation to kiss a girl before being sworn in.” You walked over to the direction the guy pointed you in, seeing a frightened Jungkook sitting alone.

“Hey, are you Jungkook?” You pretend like this is the first time you’re seeing him, since he didn’t know he was dreaming and a lot of dialogue is very scripted in these kinds of dreams as well.

“Yeah.”

“Come with me.” You pulled him towards the closet, making it so that when you entered, you would enter a different place.

“Where are we now?”

“Our first date. Cotton candy?” Jungkook didn’t question you, but he had his doubts as you headed to the Ferris Wheel. You were in the middle of a fair, but Jungkook didn’t seem to be enjoying himself at the moment.

“You’re the dream girl!” You whacked his arm, smiling sheepishly like you were having a natural reaction to what he said even though you kissed a couple dreams ago.

“Aw, I didn’t think I was your ideal type. I guess we got lucky, huh?” You kissed his cheek as he stayed completely still, blinking a few times as the world around you started to crumble. He was about to wake up, but you didn’t want to be present when he did. You quickly used your power to lull his dream self to sleep, putting him down under a safe place before going into his dream within his dream.

“Jungkook! What are you doing here?” He was currently sitting with a group of people, around a campfire as you ran towards him in a new outfit so it looked like you randomly stumbled upon this place.

“What a coincidence. I was out here toasting marshmallows and I found you.” You felt a pang of guilt in your heart from lying to him but you couldn’t disclose your identity so quickly! You were keen on healing him.

“Do you wanna get out of here?”

“No way, I’m not ditching my friends.” You waved your hand behind your back, making the people disappear.

“Too bad, because it looks like they already left you,” You giggle as he groans, before grabbing a stick for you to toast. “Thank you.” You snack on the marshmallow as he asks you some things.

“So are we a thing now?” You nearly choke on your stick as Jungkook awaits an answer.

“I guess. I never really liked labels though, how about we just call it “us?” It’s a lot easier when we don’t have to explain it.”

“You’re right,” Jungkook stays silent for a bit, making the entire exchange feel almost...normal. “You like me, right?” You stay silent for a few seconds, enjoying the calm environment for once.

“Yes.”

When you wake up this time, It’s a lot more clearer and satisfying. You finished your dream, and now Jungkook trusts you. You knew it would be only a matter of time before Jungkook was fully healed.

“Are you happy now? You went back into his dream and threw the rulebook out of the window,” Says Yoongi as you feel a slight pain in the back of your head. “Oh, and I didn’t try to move you from your spot because you just looked like you were sleeping peacefully.”

“Jerk.” You get up, dusting yourself off and glaring at your “partner” before going off to change. You liked wearing different clothes around the house because it made you feel like time was moving forward. Or else everyday just feels like the same day repeating over and over again.

You also put on some makeup, forgetting in between that you had some lipstick on so you ended up swallowing some products but it was okay because nothing was too harmful. Monsters ate all kinds of trash back in your world, anyways. The foundation gives you a more natural look since your skin was an ashy shade of blue and very pale without it.

You went about your day like normal until a doorbell rang, alerting you and Yoongi. “I didn’t see any emails about a dream inspector checking up on us today.” Yoongi whispers as you stay completely still.

“Maybe it’s a surprise visit?” You hoped no one found out about your selfish actions while you were in Jungkook’s dream. Kissing him was already a huge breach of the rules.

When you open the door, you’re at a loss for words. Jungkook was standing before you, looking at you and Yoongi like he had seen a ghost. Before he could say anything, you pull him inside the apartment, shutting the door behind him.

Day 7

You put Jungkook to sleep before saying anything else, silent as mice as he rested on your multicolored retro bean bag. Yoongi paces back and forth, flipping through his handbook and nursing you internally.

“Dammit. There’s nothing about this in the rulebook.”

“That’s because regular people solve these things with their heads. You have a brain, so use it!” You knock some sense into him before kneeling down to take Jungkook’s pulse.

“Let’s go into his dream and see what it is that needs fixing. Maybe when he wakes up I can sprinkle him with some five-minute forgetting powder.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” You ask with worry as Yoongi rushes to look at all of the beakers filled with magical potions and fairy dust and other things he might need to make dream dust. You still didn’t have the recipe.

“I don’t know. But I trust you and after seeing how you handled most of this on your own, I’ll let you finish it. Alone.” You squeak in excitement, staying quiet as Jungkook snores lightly and turns over in the beanbag.

“Hurry, he’s gonna wake up.” Yoongi panicked and spilled some sleep powder on him, that’s why Jungkook was unconscious but he wasn’t in such a state where he would dream. It was a temporary formula, meant to last only a few minutes before he woke up again. Unless Yoongi doused him in dream dust. You got ready to follow him into his dreams again one last time, as Yoongi held the bag of dust over your heads, making sure you were snuggled up beside Jungkook in the bed before sprinkling you both with dream dust.

“I must be dreaming.” Jungkook blinks twice as you come into view. He was currently standing in your apartment, the same one he visited before he passed out. Except Yoongi was nowhere to be seen, it was just you.

“Would you like some tea, coffee, water?” You offer, acting like you were another figure in his dreams.

“Water is fine, thanks,” You watch him swipe his fingers through his long, curly hair. He looks so dreamy, sitting before you on the breakfast bar where you eat with Yoongi everyday. You wouldn’t mind spending every morning with him. Jungkook seems like the ideal husband. Yet the idea of settling down with a human scares you, you would never be allowed to expose your true self to him. Even if you dated him, you’d have to end up leaving him one day. It’s the only way to protect your world. Humans can be dangerous and destructive creatures. Who knows what would happen if Jungkook went to the news? You would be called a freak, or even worse by local news stations.

You got lost in your thoughts for a moment before Jungkook brought you back. “Why did you move here? To this town, I mean.” Jungkook knew this city was relatively tiny and all of the people knew each other.

“I wanted to get away. From responsibilities, my old life.”

“Did your boyfriend want that too?” You nearly spit out your drink at that, Jungkook thought Yoongi was your boyfriend?

“I’m sorry, I don’t have a boyfriend. Only an older brother, if I have to label him that.”

“Oh, I see.” Jungkook sips his water in silence, watching you with those innocent doe eyes.

“What’s troubling you?” You ask him as he suddenly looks sad, morrow filling his gaze as he continues to stare at you.

“I’m all alone in this world.” He sighs, as you put a hand on his shoulder.

“No you’re not. You have me, and your memories of Yoongi.” Jungkook’s breathing turns shallow.

“You’re just an extension of me. As much as I want you to be real I can’t even remember what your face looks like,” With all of your might, you try to make your surroundings more detailed just so Jungkook could remember the dream better when he wakes up. “What is your name?” He asks after careful consideration.

“Y/N.”

“What a beautiful name.” He kisses you ever so slightly, leaning in after you backed away momentarily.

“You’re a distraction.” You shut your eyes tightly as he places the most tender kisses on your exposed neck.

“What does that make you?” He grins, cheekily sliding his tongue over the surface of your lips.

“I’m only a woman.” You give into your desires, kissing him full on the lips after realizing that you don’t care about the consequences to your actions. You want to kiss him, dammit!

“You make me feel less lonely.”

“Here, take this with you.” You press a picture into his warm palm, leaving him to wonder why you were acting so hasty.

“Why? What is it?”

“When you feel lonely or sad, just look at this picture. It’s a picture of me.” Jungkook looks down for a moment, to examine the item you gifted to him.

“Why are you acting like we don’t have much time together? You’re gonna keep visiting me, right?” You wipe your nose. You and Jungkook were never meant to be.

“Goodbye, Jungkook.”

“Y/N, wait!”

When Jungkook woke up, he felt something sticking to his palms. He was alone, but he could have sworn he felt another warmth. In his hand was a polaroid picture of a girl smiling at the camera. He felt comforted just looking at the picture, and turning it around he found a message on the back.

“I’ll always be with you- Y/N.” Jungkook smiles, looking at the bright afternoon sun as it blinds him through the sheer white curtains. It looks like he was able to meet his dream girl after all.

#jungkook x reader #jungkook #yoongi #bts #fluff #oneshot #jungkook imagine #jungkook fluff #Female reader #yoonkook #BTS jungkook #jeon jungkook #death #cute jungkook

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kember-writes · 3 years ago

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First Sentence Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @theonlywolfpants!

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have fewer than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag some people to take part.

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Finished Fic

1. There was a girl in Sirius’s room. — Paper Walls (Wolfstar college roommates)

2. The Year Without a Summer, that’s what they were calling it in the newspapers, but Sirius Black couldn’t honestly say he’d noticed the difference. — Goetia (Wolfstar Regency infernal romance)

3. Remus fell awake with a start, and for just one blessed moment he allowed himself to believe that everything – the events of the last few days – it had all been some hideous nightmare. — Stay (Wolfstar-raising-Harry heartbreak)

4. “We really shouldn’t be drinking while we’re on watch,” Harry commented, setting the half-empty bottle of whiskey down on the rock between them. — Whiskey on the Rocks (Rarry besties-kiss-all-the-time)

5. He found Regulus sitting in a secluded corner of the library beside a tall window, almost hidden behind a stack of books, ignoring the rain that lashed against the leaded diamond panes beside him. — The Night Shows You (Blackrose overwork-isn't-sexy)

6. James was just about ready to die of embarrassment, and he hadn’t even started the damn essay yet. — Sex Education in School Isn’t Something We Can Rely On (Moonchaser public sex)

7. Sirius appraises himself in the mirror, then grimaces, then scowls, and plucks at the front of his old robes. — Wasted (On You) (Wolfstar heartbreak... uh, again)

8. “Wait a minute, are you jealous?” — Grey-Eyed Monster (Prongsfoot heartbreak! Change of pace)

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WIPs (in various states of completion)

9. It’s a beautiful morning in Godric’s Hollow, as it always is. — Best in Show (Wolfstar village idiots)

10. There was something about the promise of an early-morning practice that got James’s blood racing, made it difficult to fall asleep the night before and easy to wake up the morning of. — The Inside Track (Jegulus sports rivals)

11. It was a mad plan. — Under His Thumb (Drarry wild-scenario-leads-to-tender-moments)

12. Question One: Outline the appropriate procedures for dealing with (a) a Boggart; (b) a Chameleon Ghoul; and (c) a Pooka; and, (d) summarise the similarities and differences between these methods. — untitled Hogwarts story (not giving away any details suckaz :P)

13. Fun fact: the more times you run away from school, the less they care when you do it again. — untitled (older Wolfstar + Drarry spy AU)

14. Remus had turned his back. — Predator (Wolfstar heartbreak LOOK YOU KNOW THE DRILL... and mutually beloathed Rematrix...)

15. Lily was way, way out of her depth. — The Prince of Cordoba (Jily/Wolfstar/abortive Starflower medieval royalty)

16. Remus felt like he’d been punched in the gut, and when he pulled his hand away from his side it was slick with blood. — Long Shot (Wolfstar Victorian sick-fic but the "sick" in question is several bullets)

17. The cell in Nurmengard was nothing if not predictable. — Für das Allgemeinwohl (Grindeldore old flames)

18. Miss Bertha Jorkins, of Blackmoor, Hampshire, had always been exceptionally observant. — Saturnalia (Wolfstar Regency Christmas demon haunting with gratuitous mental torment of Walburga Black)

19. The wolf, of course, had always been silver, the colour of raindrops in moonlight. — Old Dogs, New Tricks (middle-aged post-war Wolfstar)

20. Remus had been ignoring James’s stare for the past ten minutes, but he could feel it prickling the back of his neck and his resolve was at breaking point. — It’ll Be Fun (Amortentia drinking game gone horribly right - Wolfstar/Jily/Dorlene/James^2/Moonflower/Mary & Peter sports commentators extraordinaire)

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So what we've learned from this is that I love causing pain to My Boys and that, wow, I really like starting things!

Fairly sure everyone I know has been tagged in this or decided to take part of their own volition, but if you haven't, please consider this your tag.

#I'm fairly sure this is the only one of these I've seen with all 20 spots filled in #my initial reaction was ''oh who the fuck has twenty fics'' but it's me. I do.#(actually I have more)#(I had to choose three WIPs to eliminate)#writing #tag game

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animationadventures · 3 years ago

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I posted 489 times in 2021

141 posts created (29%)

348 posts reblogged (71%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.5 posts.

I added 675 tags in 2021

#the owl house - 133 posts

#toh - 122 posts

#ducktales - 99 posts

#infinity train - 72 posts

#luz noceda - 62 posts

#ducktales 2017 - 54 posts

#eda clawthorne - 46 posts

#finish infinity train - 31 posts

#raine whispers - 28 posts

#louie duck - 28 posts

Longest Tag: 44 characters

#endless possibilities is literally my anthem

My Top Posts in 2021

Before the series finale aired, I had a couple of ideas that could have worked for DuckTales Season 4.

“The Second Adventure!” - Scrooge’s babysitting duties double up when he has to take young Gladstone and young Fethry along with the twins on an adventure.

“Gosalyn’s New Best Friend!” - Drake and Gosalyn’s neighbor, a boy Gosalyn’s age named Honker, joins them on a visit to Duckburg to avoid being babysat by his mean older brother. During the visit, Honker finds out just how much of a hurricane Gosalyn’s life is and makes a bunch of new friends.

“Fethry the Scientist!” - Huey and Webby help Fethry pursue his dream of becoming a scientist, and convince Scrooge to let him work in the lab with Gyro and Fenton so he can learn.

“The Ghoul and the Hero!” - Drake and his team of Launchpad, Gosalyn, and Honker investigate a strange string of robberies that lead them to a potential ally in St. Canard, a witch named Morgana.

I would need 18 more episodes like these to fill out a whole season, but these are a few examples.

128 notes • Posted 2021-03-30 15:44:19 GMT

I’m excited for Encanto next week.

We’ve never had a Disney movie that focuses on an extended family like this before, and it sounds like we’re going to get to know all of them pretty well. I just like the vibe I get from all of the family.

Mirabel, I relate to her so much even though my family doesn’t ignore me like hers seems to do unintentionally. She’s going to be a lot of fun to follow.

Isabela and Luisa clearly have more going on beneath the surface as their songs suggest. Without seeing the movie yet, I hope they’re just as big dorks as Mirabel.

Julieta reminds me a lot of my own mom, though the same can be said for a lot of mom characters in Disney stuff.

Pepa is a bit of a wild card. I have mixed feelings about her. I’m sure she’s a good mom, but the stuff about her issues with Bruno complicates things.

Dolores, I relate to her too with being quiet and having hearing that’s different from everyone else.

Camilo doesn’t look like he gets a lot of screentime like middle kids often do. But I can tell his jokes are going to be a highlight, like using his shapeshifting to mimic his dad or trying to sneak seconds of food as Dolores.

Antonio is going to be a delight. We rarely get a young boy character in Disney stuff too that isn’t a stereotypical bratty little boy that annoys his family. In an interesting twist, he’s a boy with the gift to befriend animals instead of a girl like most in Disney seem to have a talent for.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of Bruno. He’s going to be a fun mess.

We don’t see too much of Felix and Agustin, but they seem nice. I definitely want to see more of Agustin with his daughters. The little promos we’ve seen around the Internet have shown more of Felix interacting with his children than Agustin interacting with his.

Alma... is going to be complicated. I understand she has the family’s best interests at heart, but isolating those like Mirabel who don’t fit into the mold is not the way to go. In a way, I appreciate she’s going to be more than the sweet grandma that all the children love and never makes a mistake.

I’ve already got ideas churning around for Encanto fics. More on that later. So excited for next week.

166 notes • Posted 2021-11-20 21:02:56 GMT

Saw Encanto on Friday. It was great! I loved all the characters and the idea of a house with rooms bigger than the house itself.

I only really had two issues with the movie. The first is the lack of development for Pepa’s side of the family. Isabela and Luisa both got songs and moments of vulnerability, showing their true depths as people rather than what Mirabel only knew on the surface. We didn’t see Dolores confessing how difficult her gift is because she can’t turn it off like the other gifts, but didn’t want to say anything because she didn’t want to be viewed as ungrateful. Camilo was advertised as still figuring himself out, but we didn’t see anything of him questioning his identity.

I think if the movie was longer, then we might have gotten that depth with the rest of the family.

I know I’m probably in the minority here, but I didn’t really enjoy the songs all that much. Maybe the music genre just isn’t my thing? I did like Mirabel’s Waiting on a Miracle and Isabela’s What Else Can I Do. The Family Madrigal song was fun up until Mirabel sung so fast I couldn’t make out what she was saying. Same issue with Surface Pressure, sometimes Luisa sung so fast I couldn’t understand what she was saying.

But yeah, I enjoyed the movie. I think if they juggled the family dynamics a bit more, and gave Pepa’s side of the family more time to shine, then it would be even better.

210 notes • Posted 2021-11-28 16:30:20 GMT

Hey everyone browsing my page, it’s been a while since I talked about this, but today’s a good day for it.

The Owl House is one of Disney’s best cartoons in a long time. It has potential for more than three seasons worth of content.

The thing is it’s getting two seasons and a third of what could have been the third season. Really, calling it a third is generous.

It’s insane that The Owl House is not getting to live up to its full potential, all because one executive decided ‘it doesn’t fit the Disney brand’, which is a complete lie since shows like Gravity Falls exist.

There’s so much that could be explored in The Owl House, from the rest of the Boiling Isles to the world beyond our heroes’ homeland to the dynamic and complex cast of characters to the intricate and well-thought magic system.

The Owl House needs your help. It needs more than two and a half seasons. Here’s what you can do:

Write a letter to Disney, not an email, asking them for more The Owl House, and tell them what you love about the show and how much it means to you. Here’s the address:

DisneyTVA

811 Sonora Avenue

Glendale, CA

91201, USA

The USA part is only for international fans, so if you live in the States, you don’t need that part for the address. When writing your letter, remember to be polite and not accusatory or rude, because they will perceive anything sounding accusatory or rude as hate mail and throw it out without consideration. Also make sure to watch The Owl House on Disney + if you have it because they are watching the viewership numbers on there too. Stream it again and again if you can.

Additionally, Rebecca Rose on Youtube found some addresses for some executives that might have the power to greenlight the renewal. Check out my post discussing Yesterday’s Lie for those.

Go Hexside!

249 notes • Posted 2021-12-12 20:21:28 GMT

I enjoyed Encanto, and then I began wondering what would the plot of a sequel be? Then it hit me.

Encanto 2 - A year or two after the first movie, things are going great for the family. They all understand each other better now, and Bruno has been readapting to living with the rest of the family instead of in the walls.

Dolores is set to get married to Mariano, with him taking the Madrigal family name like Agustin and Felix did, but the road to the wedding has a few bumps in the road. Since the first movie mostly focused on Mirabel’s relationships with her parents and sisters, this one would feature more of her cousins.

On top of struggling to share Dolores with a man that’s soon to be her husband, Camilo and Antonio have their own issues. Camilo was advertised as trying to figure himself out in the movie, but we didn’t see any of that, so that subplot is explored here. Meanwhile, Antonio is set to be ring bearer for the wedding, but is scared to go down the aisle by himself, just like he was scared during his gift ceremony. His subplot would be about becoming braver to do things like that without someone with him.

On the adult side of things, Bruno and Julieta help Pepa manage her stress about the wedding so there isn’t a repeat of her and Felix’s wedding hurricane. And Agustin and Felix help Mariano prepare to become a Madrigal man, and Felix has jitters about giving his only daughter away.

Add in magic issues, and you have the perfect plot for a sequel.

798 notes • Posted 2021-12-12 02:58:19 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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ask-the-clergy-bc · 4 years ago

Note

can I pls have some hcs of the Papas/Copia what they'd be like parenting a son?

You got it, fam!

Also just a quick note that in my writings Copia is not related to the Emeritus. :) So it will show in how he interacts with Nihil and vice versa!

Papas/Copia Parenting a Son

Papa Nihil:

~Well, it would definitely be vastly different from how he raised his current three if he had a fourth! Unfortunately, with his current brood he wasn’t the best father. Not by any means the absolute worst... just not the best at all.

~Nihil was a very inattentive parent who let the rest of the clergy raise his heirs. He was always sure that his sons didn’t need him the way normal children would. They had a lot more to learn than the average child, and would constantly need teaching only the ministry can provide. Not cuddles, or fishing trips, or bed time stories- or whatever it is that real dads do!

~Not to mention, during that time Nihil was off chasing pleasure as a Papa deserves. But it’s not like the boys didn’t have nannies, mentors, and ghouls to watch them! Nihil was content to occasionally visit his sons in their childhood with some gifts and asking about their growth. It’s all they needed right?

~When he sons were older and graduated seminary, that’s when he was usually more involved. “Mentoring” them in the ways of Papacy. His eldest didn’t need as much attention, as he was a natural progeny of the clergy... but his other two needed his guidence- even if they didn’t want it!

~With a fourth heir? He might be old, but he is attentive and present always! This is a new chance to succeed where his others have failed. Not to mention, a way to put the Cardinal in his place! Nihil will be the most annoying father and mentor the child has ever seen. Drilling into them how to be the best papa, son of Lucifer, and force the Clergy has ever seen!

Papa I:

~Takes to Fatherhood like a duck to water! Very few people know that Papa pretty much raised his two younger brothers from a young age. Being about ten years their senior, Papa stepped up when his own father was rarely present. So he already knows a thing or two about raising sons. Plus, Papa knows an heir of his own is an unblessing from Lucifer, and it’s not one he would ever take for granted.

~Papa is not one to be especially emotionally, but he is very caring to his son. Papa knows the importance of being emotionally available to your child, and will do his best to offer his support and love. It’s very odd to many to see the old, scary Papa help calm his crying son down during a bad day.

~Tries his best not to put crippling pressure on his son, but does have many expectations about how his son is taught as he gets older. To be a Papa, one must apply themselves above everyone else. You should always be expected to know as much of Lucifer’s teachings as possible. A Papa needs to be well educated,well rounded, articulate, passionate, and above all- versed in everything that is unholy.

~Despite being one of the most qualified to teach his son personally, Papa goes out of his way to make sure he’s not the only one around for his child. It takes a village to raise a child, isn’t that how the saying goes? Papa wants his son to meet others and learn from every willing teacher he can! That and, should his son be more sociable, make as many friends as possible.

~Determined to raise a great Papa and make Lucifer proud. But also raise a son that will feel loved and, in turn, spread that love to others through Lucifer’s light.

Papa II:

~Actually not that cold hearted bastard everyone thought he would be if he had a son. Because of his mix of wild, night escapades and bitterness many thought Papa would just be like his father. Indifferent, cold, and absolutely uncaring as to what happened to his spawn. But it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

~If it’s one thing Papa prides himself on it’s not being as idiotic as a man as he regards Nihil to be sometimes. True, he wouldn’t be the emotional or cuddly father type like Papa III or Copia. But he would care and he’d make effort to be in his son’s life. Even if the child was born from a prime mover he had no emotional connection with.

~Deep down he has always resented his father for treating him like a burden to be shipped away and then molded to the ministry’s liking. So he would never put his child through that, especially with them being a son and heir to the Emeritus bloodline. Of course he’d want the best education and teaching and luxury... but nothing like treating his own child as a pawn or puzzle piece.

~Very firm, has high expectations, but very fair to his son. Papa will raise his child to be strong, level headed, and dedicated to their Unholy Lord.All he wants is for his heir to not fall into the same despair he has thanks to the Clergy and it’s manipulative ways.

~To many, even his own son, he will sometimes come off as emotionless and uncaring... but truthfully, he’s always been that way. He’s just prickly. But he cares about his son and their well being. Papa will still praise them in his very subtle and almost cold way, and give them proper recognition when they earn it. But he’s also quick to correct them and help them improve. Seems like he’s too harsh in getting his child to succeed but it’s because he wants them to be their best and not settle for anything less.

Papa III:

~It actually depends on who is the one who mothers his child. Papa is not a cruel man, but he is very cautious on where his emotional investments will go. So if his son is born of someone he isn’t involved with, like a fling or a prime mover forced upon him by the clergy, he is more indifferent.

~That isn’t to say Papa would completely ignore his child. He wouldn’t want to be like his father (entirely). But a heir born to continue his bloodline is a ministry pushed endeavor, and he feels like he was just the breeding stud to get the next Emeritus. Honestly, he would be more afraid of being shut out of the child’s life if he interfered too much with the will of the Clergy.

~If this was a son born out of love or a prime mover he cares about, Papa is way more involved. Almost to an alarming degree by High Clergy standards. Granted, he’s not sure even how to be a father and it scares the all mighty Hell out of him! But he tries his best! He wants to be a better father than Nihil ever was.

~Makes it a point to be personally involved in raising his son, like a normal parent would be. He can’t always be there daily thanks to Papal duties, but damn it if he isn’t going to try! Papa knows how important it is to be active in his son’s life if he wants them to grow up feeling secure, loved, and emotionally stable. Truthfully, he always worries his child will grow up feeling abandoned or unloved like he did. As much as he loves himself, Papa doesn’t want a mini version of his emotional baggage walking around.

~Many were taken aback when Papa is so proud and boastful about his son! He likes to show his child off and talk about what a proud father he is. Will go on for hours about how he has the next great Papa under his wing, and how amazing his son is. Actually keeps pictures and documents all the big milestones. You can even find him playing or reading to the little one. Tries to be every bit of a “normal” dad as he can in this Clergy lifestyle.

Papa IV/Cardinal Copia:

~An almost comical mixture of excited new father and hovering mentor figure. On one hand he was an Orphan of a child, and wants his son to be raised with the love and guidance Copia never received as a boy. On the other, he wants his son to be thick skinned and ready for all the challenges of being the first heir to a new bloodline!

~When his child is smaller he doesn’t want them to be too overwhelmed with being raised as the next future Papa. He wants them to have a good childhood with many happy memories and not too much pressure. At the same time, when his son is older he will press harder for him to study and to take his legacy seriously. Copia often worries he’s either pushing too hard or not hard enough for his son to achieve papacy!

~Personally wants to mentor his son as much as he can. Copia had to learn a LOT and fought very hard to become the next Father of a bloodline. So Copia always had to know more than everyone, be smarter than everyone, work harder than everyone, AND be more alert than everyone. All traits and values he pushes onto his child.

~Copia does have such a soft spot for his son, as he just wants his son to be happy in the end. So he may or may not let the boy get away with some things, depending on what it is! Copia is weird in that way where he would gladly sneak his son extra dessert when his child knows he can’t have anymore... yet he would turn around and scold his son for not finishing his homework in a timely manner.

~Despite his power and knowledge, Copia can still be the embarrassing dad. Making crappy dad jokes that embarrass his son. Accidentally ‘ruining’ dates, not even realizing his teenager was in the middle of flirting. Or Hell, even showing off the various giant portraits he had painted of his heir. All in the life of a #1 Satanic Dad!

#the band ghost #ghost bc #ghost headcanons #papa nihil #papa emeritus i #Papa Emeritus II #papa emeritus iii #papa emeritus iv #cardinal copia

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littlemeowmeowschimmy · 5 years ago

Text

Librarian [Namjoon x Reader]

credit: littlemeowmeowschimmy

Requests opened // m.list

Warnings: Daddy Kink, wolf in heat, creampie, etc

Genre: Smut

Werewolf: Kook - Tae - Jimin

Summary: you should write a fic where joon is a librarian and at first he is all dorky and shy but behind closed doors he's a total daddy 😳😍❤

WC: 5.7k

A/N: I started this at 9 pm. It’s past 3 in the morning. Christ almighty fml i didn’t expect it to be this long nor did I expect to be writing werewolf smut

He strolled in around the corner of the back desk. His white shirt tightening around his muscles as the end was tucked into his dress pants. He wore his hair up with gel and thick black frames around his eye. One hand was stuffed in his pocket while the other held a book. Namjoon was ready to start teaching his first-class about the library as he was extremely excited.

Everyone knew there was a new faculty member in the building, but they didn’t exactly know what he looked like. It had been a while since this girl’s academy got someone knew. To hear that it was a male, the whispers started. They all seemed to stop when he stood in front of the class.

“Hello, my name is Kim Namjoon,” he starts looking at the class filled with girls who were all over themselves over the new librarian. “It’s a pleasure to be your librarian this school year.” It was then that every single girl’s mission was to get under the sheets with the new hottie.

»»————-　★　————-««

This was your senior year, and all you wanted was to get the fuck out of there. You went to an all-girls academy simply because your parents didn’t want you to go to the public school just a few blocks from your house. So, you drove for half an hour to deal with girls who most of them thought they were better than everyone around.

While your parents were hunters, you were a hunter in training. What does a hunter mean? A hunter is a person who hunts supernatural beings. Anywhere from demons to werewolves. You grew up most of your life traveling around the country, fighting monsters with your parents. When you got old enough, they settled down in a small town.

Which was mostly filled with supernatural beings, but they weren’t harmful. Most of your friends didn’t believe that any of these things existed, and that was how you were going to keep it. But it was soon going to change once they found out that their librarian, was in fact, a werewolf.

Mr.Kim Namjoon was the talk of the entire school. Every girl wanted to get with him and the friends he tagged along with. Namjoon was old enough to be someone’s brother, but most, if not all, the girls didn’t care. Instead, when he walked in on his first-class, every single phone was blowing up. Talking about how handsome in his tight shirt, he looked, how his ass was perky enough that they could stop staring, and everything else in between.

Your friend Leana was all over that shit when it was happening. You were politely trying to stay away from such topics. You could tell Namjoon was a werewolf just by how he acted around other girls. On top of that, his pack couldn’t stay away from him. Meaning, he must have been the leader. Starting your senior year was just as crazy as when you started your freshman year. Only this time, it was filled with werewolves and stupid girls who drooled over them.

You soon learned that the babies of his pack were just regular teens. Park Jimin was the eldest, Kim Taehyung, the middle, and Jeon Jungkook, the youngest. There were three others above him, as you heard from Leana, but you weren’t going to ask for names. Instead, you were simply listening through the grapevine.

Park Jimin and Taehyung were around your age as Jungkook was just a little younger. You already knew Taehyung had mated because of how he acted on school campus. They mainly came when their classes were over and spent most of their time in the library.

You kept an eye on them at all times, which brought some attention your way. Especially when Jimin found himself bouncing towards you one afternoon. Your head was stuck in one of your books your mother told you to read on. She was hunting ghouls with your father down in Florida and needed as much information as possible.

“What’s a pretty lady like you doing here?” Park Jimin pipes giving a small grin. You glance up at him, noticing that the ring around his eyes wasn’t golden. Thank god, because if he lustful, you would probably have to stab him or something.

“Reading about the supernatural.” You mumble flipping a page in your book. Jimin’s eyebrow furrowed for a second, curious as to why you were reading such a thing. You minded your own business as you continued to read. Taking notes down for your mother.

“Don’t bother her, Jimin-ah,” Taehyung calls from the front desk, where Namjoon was scanning a few books. Your eyes crept over the spine to watch the interaction the two where having. Taehyung seemed just a little antsy being around this many girls. You could tell that he was itching to get out of here, considering that he already mated. He even looked down at his phone to see if his mate would text him or not.

“You should shut up,” Jungkook pipes up, taking a bite of his cookie.

“How many times have I told you not to eat in the library?” Namjoon jabs narrowing his eyes at the smaller one. Jungkook simply shrugs his shoulders and goes back to eating the rather large sweet. Jimin seemed unbothered by this all and turned his attention back towards you.

“You know it’s not real, right?” he lies. This was the first time you were pleasantly surprised. You set your book down on your lap, eyes moving back towards his. You gave him a kind smile, one you’d typically wouldn’t give to people who bothered you. Even though your mother told you to never admit to anyone you were a hunter, you couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

“Just like the fangs you pretend to hide aren’t real.” You muse, noticing his jaw drop. Namjoon’s head snapped almost immediately, and he found himself right in front of you. His eyes were dark, and his muscles tensed. Maybe you should have said something different if this was the reaction you were going to receive...

Looking at him closely, you had to admit, Namjoon was pretty attractive for a werewolf. The way his body was tall and muscular, fluffy hair, and pale skin. His dark eyes and dimples stood out to you the most. But the idea he held himself now, kind of terrified you. You hadn’t been this close to a wolf in years, and frankly, you wanted to run as fast as you possibly could. Maybe if your mother were here, then you could feel slightly calmer, but this was just too much.

“Mr.Kim,” You start clearing your throat as you sat there with as much confidence as you possibly could.

“Ms.L/n,” he says, his jaw coming forwards. A small tick that he seemed to have when concentrating.

“Is there something you need?”

“How did you know?”

“What?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” he pauses to look around to see if anyone was paying them any attention. You took a deep breath in and then out as you were closing your book. You noticed all eyes were on you, and now you couldn’t run away from it. Then you reached down into your backpack and pulled out a knife your mother gave you.

“I’m a hunter, okay?” You managed, slipping it back in. Then quickly stating without trying to cause any panic. “I’m not investing your pack. Jesus, I’m just trying to live a regular life while my parents go out and hunt. Unless you do something wrong, well, I’ll be the one to end you.”

»»————-　★　————-««

Months had passed since you learned that they werewolves. Or more so, confirming your already growing suspicion about them. You and Mr.Kim were playing roles like you never knew that the other could kill if need be. However, he seemed more protective around the three whenever they came to visit. That didn’t stop you from talking to them, or them talking to you.

Namjoon was an overall caring guy. He mentioned dropped out of college when the boys were starting their junior year. Which meant he was just a little older than you, but you weren’t complaining. It wasn’t like he was dating you, so you were beautiful with his age. And even if you were dating, which again will never happen, you wouldn’t have a problem with it in the first place.

You and Jimin became somewhat close to one another. You shared a lot of the same interest, and you joked around with Jungkook a lot. Especially after learning, he mated his best friend after being a heat like a cycle for almost a week. You were still curious as to what Seokjin’s reaction was to Taehyung and how he found his mate, but the others didn’t want to share.

Even rule-abiding Namjoon wasn’t going to share what happened. Today, you were researching werewolves further as your parents were once again on a hunt. Thankfully, you had some wolves around you, so it was easy enough to ask for their help. Namjoon was the first to jump in since he knew the most, Jimin playing along as well.

“Isn’t the full moon coming up?” You mentioned glancing at the four wolves around you. Namjoon was in the back, putting a few books away while the two youngest were glued to their phone. Jimin’s eyes perked at that small mention, and he waggled his brows in your direction.

“What? You wanna become my mate Y/n?” he purrs a crooked smile seeming to grow out of thin air.

“Seokjin would destroy you,” Namjoon mentioned without turning his back around. You were interested in what he was going on about, but you already assumed that mating a hunter wasn’t the best idea.

“C’mon Joon, live a little,” Jimin mentioned shrugging his shoulders as he places his hands behind his back. You turned to look at your friend again, noticing that his eyes were darker than usual. Which could only mean that he was breaking the one rule you heard them talk about. Since the younger two had mates to help them through their time of need, it would be difficult for the others.

Namjoon usually took a few days off when his time came. It seemed like he had found other ways to deal with it, while the others were craving human touch. At Jimin’s mention, Namjoon just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t respond back to him, which left the curious cat purr in the back of your mind. You turned your attention back to the younger wolf, leaning forwards and asking, "What? He doesn’t go out often?” tilting your head a bit to the side.

Jimin just shrugs his shoulders at your question. Namjoon tenses when you mentioned him, but he doesn’t do anything else. Instead, he simply minds his own business as he gets ready for tomorrow. It was the end of the week, and the full mon was starting to approach. You couldn’t remember if it was supposed to be tonight or the next night.

“For as long as I’ve known Joonie,” he says, smiling at the little nickname. “I’ve never seen him have fun outside of the pack.”

In reality, Namjoon had “fun.” For the most part, the pack usually didn’t notice it because they were enjoying one another. Outside of the pack, his life was pretty dull. He went to work every single day, hung out with some of his acquaintances, read a lot of books, and genuinely enjoyed your company. When the full moon came, Namjoon locked himself in his apartment and sweated the rut away. Jimin’s definition of fun was utterly different from Namjoon’s, and he wasn’t going to correct him.

You noticed the small tint in his eye once again, and you didn’t say anything at all. Instead, you assumed that he was probably going to find a way to get through his own cycle. When you turned to look at the younger two, it seemed like they were already gone. Due to how jumpy they were from the beginning, you could only assume they both ran to their mates.

Jimin started to tap away at the table before stretching and pushing his chair back. “I should probably start to get ready for tonight,” he mumbles, scratching the back of his head. You scrunched your brows together but didn’t ask him anything. Because Jimin brought a hand up to his mouth and shook his head. It seemed like he wasn’t going to answer whatever question was burning at the back of your mind.

“Ah, let me finish up a few things, and I’ll take you home,” Namjoon mentions pushing a few of the books to the side and finally grabs a small jacket. He places it in the folds of his arms, then turns to look at you. “Well, Ms.L/n,”

“Namjoon,” you said, pushing your chair out. “I’ve asked you to call me by my first name,” you said, shaking your head.

“I apologize, but I’m simply trying to be a proper gentleman,” he answered, flashing you a smile. That’s when you knew, if you continued down this path, you wouldn’t make it out alive....or even single at best. The way his dimples showed, and his eyes creased, had your heart already pounding for him.

“Proper my ass,” Jimin grumbles, then grunts when he yearns a huge thump to the back of his head. Jimin complains, rubbing the end of his head, then pushes the doors to the library open. You quickly follow after him, hiding your flushed face from the wolf you told yourself you weren’t going to fall for.

»»————-　★　————-««

Namjoon paces back and forth in his apartment. It had been two weeks, and it hasn’t passed at all. He still had to deal with Jimin and his dumbass idea to mark a vampire, while also trying to figure out what he was going to do with himself. None of his other tricks were working, and he couldn’t only find a female wolf to release himself into.

He was only in his sweats, and his hair was all over the place. Some of it was sticking to the side as beads of sweat dripped down. His phone was already blowing up with text messages from the pack, trying to figure out where he was. He had to call in and make up some bullshit lie to get him some weeks off. He just started a new job, and this was the bullshit he was receiving only five months into working?!

Namjoon growls low as he pushes some of his things off the counter. He slams his fist into the marble, cracking it just a little as he does so. These entire two weeks have been hell for him because your face kept popping up at random times. The fact that he was attracted to one of his students, who was just a little younger than him, and all he could think about was you, was completely insane. Namjoon could get fired if he tried anything with you, and hell, he didn’t want to be known as the librarian who fucked one of his students.

But his wolf had other ideas. His wolf wanted to take you on all fours, with his hands wrapped around your neck. He wanted to see your face covered in his seed, your pretty voice begging for more. God, his wolf wanted to demolish you, and all Namjoon wanted was a healthy relationship with you. He didn’t want to make things awkward because he was two years older than you. Nor did he want to get fired from a job he worked hard on receiving.

There was a faint knock at the door, and Namjoon could only think of Seokjin coming to check on him. He leans against the counter dragging his nails through his hair. Loudly, Namjoon calls out to Seokjin, telling him to go away. He didn’t want anyone to bother him because he was going to figure out what was going on.

“Actually, it’s Y/n,” your voice came from behind the door. “Jimin kind of told me where you lived and said maybe I could help you...?” Namjoon’s head instantly popped up from where he stood. He turns around, glancing at the door and shaking his head. His wolf demanded that he opened the door and took what he was yearning for.

“Since when does Jimin know what’s best for me?” Namjoon mumbles under his breath as he was pacing back and forth once again. “You know the repercussions here, right?” Namjoon questions as he wasn’t even considering opening that door. He didn’t know what was going to happen if he did or not. From in front of the door, you leaned against it. Then you placed a hand on the handle, groaning as you did so.

“Of course I do,” you answered honestly. “I’m a senior in high school, and you just started working there. Hell, you’re two years older than me and could instantly get fired.” you continued licking your lips. “Plus, I’m a hunter, so that doesn’t mix well with being a wolf,” you added in laughing at that last part, but it was silent on the other end.

So much for trying to lighten the mood Y/n. You rolled your eyes as the thought passed your mind. Namjoon had barely known you, and even if he did know anything about you, it was surface-level things. Yes, your small acquaintance turned into somewhat of a friendship, but you viewed him as the sweet librarian in your school.

You were still a senior, and hell, he could lose his job. But, you wanted to help him more than anything. Honestly, it didn’t really excuse the fact that he was still an employee getting with you. Under the law, you were a legal adult. You could make decisions for yourself, but most people don’t consider that part. The school board certainly wouldn’t believe that part when discussing what to do with his job.

What you didn’t expect was for Namjoon to move closer. You heard the unlocking of the apartment door, and you instantly moved back. You watched as he slowly opened the door, wholly shirtless and sweating. You noticed how golden his eyes were, due to how long it was going to be. You gulped hard, your cheeks flushing a bright red.

“I don’t think you understand the full intensity of this Y/n,” he whispers, his knuckles turning bright white due to how hard he was grasping the doorknob. You noticed that if he held on any harder, then he could potentially break it. Maybe even -

“You mean to tell me that you might mark me?” You ask, scrunching your eyebrows together as he didn’t say anything back. Just simply turned his head to the side and proceeded not to look in your direction. You watched with curiosity at how he held himself. Namjoon, a college drop out, your librarian, someone who seemed to have himself put together, was now acting like a teenage boy. You chuckled at the thought of it, but it was soon replaced but his harsh stare.

Namjoon glanced back and forth, then reached out to take your hand. He moves you in, slams the door and presses his back against it. You looked at his body once again. Noticing with every small movement, some muscles twitched and moved as well. You had to admit, you were smitten entirely for this man. Or was it his body?

Or was that your hormones speaking? You couldn’t really decide, considering you were in a trance. It seemed like Namjoon was doing a rather great job of holding himself together. You wanted to applaud him for working so hard. But then, you saw his eye twitching. You gulped, biting your lower lip, a habit in which you needed to grow out of as soon as possible.

“Are you really just here to help me?” he questions again. You noticed that the gears were starting to turn, and you couldn’t help but nod your head.

“Yeah, Jimin mentioned that you were in a heat like cycle. I figured maybe if -” you paused again then cleared your throat as you were getting your words together. “I know there’s a lot of risks that go into it, but if it helps you pass it then...I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?”

Namjoon looks back, wets his lips and walks over. He stands in front of you, his tall frame making you feel small. You took a sharp breath, watching as he leans down to cup your cheek in his palm. Without warning, he does the same to the other and pulls your face close. Kissing you with such a gentle touch, you almost forgot he was ----.

When he pulled back, you were about to say something. However, you were out of breath and found yourself panting too much. Only for him to take you once again, this time losing any sort of control. Namjoon held your cheeks tight in his grasp, making sure you were close. Then one hand drops and presses itself the back of your waist.

Pushing you as close as you could get. You didn’t know what to do with your hands, and where they landed, you were mortified with yourself. Right at the brim of his sweats as you curled the fabric in your fingers. Namjoon noticed this right away and pulled back. You couldn’t tell if his cheeks were flushed from the heat or if they were from the kiss.

“What're your hands doing down there, Y/n?” he muses, bringing his head forward to rest against your forehead.

“I..”

“You just can’t wait, can you?” he questions, pushing his waist into your grasp. You wanted to say that it was an accident because clearly, you didn’t know what the hell you were doing. Instead, he simply took this and used it against you. Namjoon brings his hands down to yours, merely pressing them together. He then moves one of yours down in between his legs.

You flushed at how hard he felt under the fabric. This was totally wrong in every sense, but you couldn’t help but feel like a rebel. The rational part of your brain was telling you to stop it, but the irrational part was screaming at you to continue. Then Jimin’s words rang from the other day “You should live a little.”

“No, I can’t,” You boldly mention looking back up at Namjoon. At first, he was taken back by the confidence you showed, but it quickly faded. He leaned back, still pressing your hand against his cock.

“Well, I’m sorry to say, but bad girls don’t get the sweet reward of my cock,” he mentions. Now, this was a surprise to you. Who knew Namjoon would have a daddy kink, considering how sweet and gentleman like he was at the academy.

So you played along with it. “And what do bad girls get, daddy?” this earns a growl from Namjoon. His actions only furthered your point while you took a step back. You placed your hands behind your back and stood tall. Looking at him as you were waiting for his answer.

“A spanking.” he snarls, reaching back out to grab you by your elbow. He drags you to the nearest piece of furniture. Proceeds to sit down, then swing you over his knee. Namjoon’s hand moved up the back of your calf and across your thigh. Bringing to the nape of your ass. There, he curls his fingers around the muscle, molding it and playing.

Since you were wearing a skirt, it was much easier to gain access. When you least expected it, Namjoon smacked your ass. With the force of the hit, your body moved against his lap. Your nails raked into his sweats, trying to find something to grasp.

What surprised both of you was the moan you let out. You more than anything else was taken back by how much you enjoyed this. Namjoon simply tucked that thought away and continued to smack your ass. With each hit, you felt his length twitch against your stomach.

“T-ah!” You cried, not even getting the number out. Namjoon wanted you to count how many times he spanked you, and you were already messing it up. He had reached twenty, and it was like you forgot how to count. Your throat was already getting somewhat dry, between the moaning and the counting, as your ass felt like it was on fire.

But the whole point of it all was that you were enjoying yourself. This wasn’t much of a punishment as it was a turn on. It made you want Namjoon more and more each time he smacked his hand against your ass.

“I didn’t hear you, sweetheart,” he purrs, smacking you again.

“Twenty!” You cried bowing your head as your hips subconsciously moved themselves up. Sticking your ass more in his line of vision.

“What a pretty bitch we have here,” Namjoon purrs, smoothing his hand across your ass. “You come to my apartment, sweet and innocent,” pausing as he gives a light tap, which sent a small whimper escaping through your lips. “Only to turn out to be a complete and utter slut on the inside.”

You could only nod in response since the words weren’t coming to you. Namjoon huffed at such, rolling you over, then set you up. He quickly maneuvers your body, spreading your legs, so they were pressed against his. While your now dripping core was pressing against his twitching dick. Namjoon places two large hands on your waist, his own starting to roll against you.

The small friction was enough to send sparks throughout your body. He wasn’t even touching you directly in between your legs, and you were already moaning. “I’d never thought I’d meet such a submissive bitch,” he muses, leaning inwards to press a small kiss on the nape of your neck. “I quite enjoy it.”

“I..I do to daddy..” you whisper this earning you a nice smack to your ass. Once again, with the force of it, your body moves forward. Your hands were bracing the couch behind Namjoon as your chest press against his. He chuckles at your little accident and simply rubs your ass once more.

His hips never do stop, even as he basically dry humps you. Your body bouncing up now, as his eyes were watching your breasts. Then, he grumbles a few sentences under his breath and rips your shirt open. You gasp, watching him easily tear through the fabric and yank your bra off afterward. He takes your breast in like he was an animal. No pun intended.

His teeth rank against your nipple, then against your skin. He leaves large love bites all over as if there was no tomorrow. Namjoon took one breast in hand and locked eye contact with you. He was sucking on your nipple, rolling the hard nub around his tongue.

Then give the same treatment to the other. He was heightening your senses more, watching you completely melt under his eye. When Namjoon pulls away, a string of saliva connected you two together. He swipes his tongue, disconnecting it and then moving to stand you up.

“Can you do daddy a favor?” he questions, spreading his arms across the back of his couch. You were so stimulated the words instantly fell from your mouth. He grins, patting the side of your leg as he asks you to go into the kitchen. There, a bottle of lube would be hidden in one of the drawers. At first, you were beyond curious as to why he had a bottle of lube in his kitchen.

But you weren’t going to question anything. Instead, you did as you were told and went straight into the kitchen. You started to panic as you realized he only spanked you and fondled with your breast. You weren’t at all prepared for him in any way, and you had no idea how huge he was going to be in the end. As you walked back, Namjoon still had his sweats on and was sitting in the position you left him.

He told to hand over the lube, and you did so. You watched as he lathered his fingers up and set it down next to him. He pulled you in by the belt of your skirt, then moved his other hand in. After pushing your underwear to the side, Namjoon inserts two fingers inside. Your knees buckle at the feeling of his index and middle scissoring themselves inside.

He fingers you like this, eventually moving his thumb up to press against your clit. Eyes still locked on yours as he was giving you as much pleasure as he wanted. You weren’t even close to your orgasm when Namjoon pulled his fingers out.

“H-Have I been good enough yet, daddy?” Your question, your hands coming down to your skirt and unzipping at the side. You didn’t want him to wreck this piece, because you didn’t know what you would go home in. Namjoon watches you strip for him, and his mouth gaped slightly.

Since it seemed like he was out of commission, you decided to throw something his way. You got down on your knees, spread his legs, and reached inwards. There, you took the hem of his sweats and pulled them down. Namjoon wasn’t wearing anything underneath, so when you saw his length, you gasp. He was large, thick, and his tip angry red.

You licked your lips slowly, noting that beads of precum streamed down the sides. Namjoon was still in a state of shock when you lean in and grasp him. He groaned at the touch, then seemingly snapping out of it reached forwards to grab your hair. He stopped you, shaking his head and then removing your hand. You sat back on your knees, watching him grab the bottle.

In a few seconds, you were sitting on his lap again. Namjoon’s hands gripped your waist tightly, then looked back up at you. “There’s no going back, sweetheart,” he says, watching you closely as you glanced in between his cock and his gaze.

Not another word came from your mouth because you were already lifting yourself off his lap. Then position yourself, so you were hovering right above him. Namjooned reaches in between your bodies, nods his head and watches you lower yourself.

It didn’t hurt as much as you thought it would. Maybe it was because of the amount of lube he used on you, but whatever it was, you felt like you were in heaven. The way his length stretched your walls, his thickness filling you to the brim. “Daddy,” you mewled, placing your hands on his shoulders.

“Fuck,” he says in response, then smacks your ass. It was your cue to start moving, even as you were slowly adjusting yourself. Your body bounces against his, this new sensation you’d never felt before. Namjoon helps you by holding your waist tightly, moving you along with his own hip thrusts.

Namjoon moves his head in, planting open-mouthed kisses along your skin. He digs his nails into your waist, the pain of it, causing you to moan louder. You reach in between, your fingers moving slowly against your clit. Namjoon noticed, however, he wasn’t going to do anything about it. Instead, he wanted you to experience the long drawn out orgasm.

Because Namjoon was too sensitive and you were overstimulated, you both felt your ends starting to creep up on you. This caused Namjoon to flip you over onto the couch and plant his hands on either side. He digs his nails into your waist, pushing you back against him as his thrusts became harder and faster. He was fucking you into the couch as the animal inside took over.

Making sure he was hitting your sensitive nerve endings over and over again. This brought your moans into cries as you were praising him with every bit of sound. Your fingers move quickly as you could feel your own end getting closer and closer. You closed your eyes, allowing your body to ride the wave, that was until a sharp pain erupted.

What Namjoon didn’t realize was he took one of your breasts in hand. Moving it up to his mouth as his canines sunk deep into your flesh. Breaking the first layer and ultimately marking you. In doing so, your orgasm hit you like a wave as you felt your walls clenching around him.

Then you felt his seed erupt inside. Filling your core to the brim with his essence as he held his grip on your breast. You panted harshly, watching as Namjoon pulls away from you, blinks a few times, and then pulls himself out.

“Shit shit shit,” he grumbles, scurrying to grab his sweats as he was now back to his senses. You lay down, chest still rising and falling, but processing everything. You did not just have sex with your librarian, who marked and came inside you, did you?

“I’m on birth control..” you start rolling yourself over and glancing at the tattered fabric you called your favorite shirt. “I think I’m more worried about you marking me than anything else.”

“Yeah, me too.” Namjoon answers glancing back in your direction. You looked down before glancing upwards. Only to notice that he was still rock hard, and his eyes were still golden. This piqued your interest as you were sexually interested in everything he had to offer.

“Maybe we can discuss that after you fuck me again alpha,” you purr positioning yourself in an erotic pose. Namjoon stops his pacing and glances at you once more. His eyes go straight for the mark on your right breast, then to your ass. He gulps as now his instincts were taking over. Namjoon was drawn to you, everything about you.

He walks over, bending down, so he was eye level. Then proceeds to say, “I don’t really like the term alpha. It doesn’t suit me,” smirking as he finishes. “You know what to call me, sweetheart.”

#littlemeowmeowschimmy #bangtanarmynet #bts #bangtan #bts reader insert #werewolf au #bts werewolf au #werewolf namjoon #kim namjoon #kim namjoon x reader #bts kim namjoon #bts namjoon #bts kim namjoon x reader #bts smut

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kirkstanbulstrode · 5 years ago

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Ravenclaw.

It had been days, weeks since his conversation with Gilderoy Lockhart in the bar area of his casino, and it hadn’t left his mind since. They’d had plenty of conversations since then, of course, because the man couldn’t go a day without bugging him in his own lobby, but Stan kept going back to how odd Gilderoy had been acting that afternoon. Their banter had turned into a guessing game, because while Gilderoy knew a bit about Stan, he in turn hardly knew anything about his resident author, and it was frustrating to say the least. He prided himself on knowing everyone to at least some degree, but despite the man’s carefully crafted About the Author section of his books, Stan knew jack shit about the person underneath the author.

He’d thought he’d made headway when dissecting him to find his Hogwarts house, but he was only left with more mysteries.

Ravenclaw, he was in Ravenclaw with me. That could be so many people, but Stan wasn’t a Ravenclaw for no reason: he knew how to research, how to narrow down what he was given to come to the proper conclusions. People seemed to forget there was a brain behind the casino owner; it worked in his favor normally, but it was endlessly frustrating when people were shocked by his smarts. The next logical step, at least to him, was to look into the Hogwarts archives, maybe for a yearbook of each graduating class. No one could just visit Hogwarts for no reason, though; it would take a bit of writing and gaining permissions so he could get into the library and scour the shelves under the watchful eye of the school librarian.

Walking through the halls, even with an escort, decades after graduation didn’t make his return to his alma mater any less weird.

“Is there a reason you want to look through the yearbooks?” his escort asked, and Stan put on a charming smile as he answered,

“Just need to check something, that’s all.” He shrugged. “Or maybe I’m feeling nostalgic. Either way I won’t be long.”

The escort accepted the vague explanation and pulled out the yearbooks he’d requested--his graduating class (1961) and what he assumed Gilderoy’s was (1966)--before giving him a bit of privacy, which he was thankful for. Stan brought the books over to a table and cracked them open, a bit taken aback by everyone he saw and recognized. They were so young, he thought fondly, and when he saw his own picture he snorted at the full head of hair that he’d meticulously styled like his father used to teach him. He didn’t talk to anyone from his year anymore, which was sad to realize--they’d been his best friends, people he thought he’d know for the rest of his life.

They didn’t understand why he’d leave magic behind, though, and refused to learn muggle technology to stay in touch, so there went that friendship. Stan frowned and quickly looked away, looking down to the third years and examining the photo carefully. His eyes went over a few of them, those like Arissa McElroy who were snobbish know-it-alls and Gerald Hartley, a particular third year who seemed to have a knack for theatrics and seemed less thrilled in studying like the Ravenclaw stereotype called them to do. No Gilderoy Lockhart, though, and his frown deepened.

There was always the possibility that Gilderoy hadn’t been lying, that he genuinely hadn’t gone to Hogwarts after all, and with that he moved onto the second yearbook.

People didn’t change much from when they graduated to their present self, save for some wrinkles and general signs of age. Arissa had changed drastically between third and seventh year, but he had been able to recognize her on the streets of Diagon Alley after a moment of wait I know you that had him pausing in the middle of the street. Most of the other students were the same, and his face fell slightly as it passed by Gerald Hartley’s photograph in the yearbook, his hair fluffy and full of wayward curls and his general appearance ordinary in the Hogwarts uniform. He sighed and stared at the plain boy, head tilting to the side as he thought. Would he recognize him on the streets? His eyes examined his features again, and Stan was picturing him in far more stylish clothes and meticulously slicked over hair, head tilted up so he could look down on those no matter how much shorter (or taller) they were than him.

Stan froze when he connected the dots, looking at the photo far too intently. If he stared any harder, the page would likely catch fire.

“Is everything alright?” the escort asked, and Stan looked up quickly, coughing to recover himself as he nodded.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he said a bit hoarsely, handing the books back to them and watching as they were slotted back into the archive’s shelves. He waited a beat before venturing, “Did Gilderoy Lockhart go to Hogwarts by any chance?”

The escort laughed. “Don’t be silly. Everyone would know if he’d come here. Besides, last I heard he’d attended Beauxbaton, out in France. Why?”

“No reason. Do you know what happened to Gerald Hartley?”

The escort frowned. “Only once, right after his graduation. I always figured he’d gone off to do something in theatre, given how he acted in school, but I suppose not everyone is meant for fame. I saw his name in the Prophet a few times, though, but not for years.” They shook their head and put a smile back on their face. “Was there anything else we can do for you?”

Stan chewed the inside of his cheek and shook his own head, glancing back at the shelf. “No, I don’t think so. Thank you.”

He was led back off the grounds with a quick stop to say hi to Mercy, who’d been walking to class (and very surprised to see her father willingly in Hogwarts), and Stan pondered what he’d discovered once he got to Hogsmeade over a cup of coffee at the Three Broomsticks.

Gerald Hartley.

He looked far too similar to Gilderoy Lockhart to be a coincidence, but not so much that anyone would realize it off the street. If Gilderoy were trying to distance himself from the little farmer boy he’d noticed a few times in the Ravenclaw common room, he’d done a good job of it. The thing was, Stan didn’t understand why he would go to such lengths to ensure that Gerald Hartley was essentially dead to the world. Hell, lack of studiousness aside, he recalled Gerald being a relatively smart kid, one who knew what he deserved and had the determination to get there. It was admirable, really; maybe he should have talked to him more while in school, but why would Stan have talked to a kid five years his junior?

Besides, it was all a theory.

Why would Gerald Hartley be Gilderoy Lockhart? Similarities aside, they could be two different people for all Stan knew--but there was one way to find out. He finished his coffee and disapparated to Diagon Alley, once again scouring archives after convincing the receptionist at the Daily Prophet that he needed to look through older editions of the paper. His Hogwarts escort had said soon after Gerald’s graduation, but how soon?

It took about two hours to find a few articles penned under Gerald Hartley--his name was small print, but the articles themselves were on various topics and of various lengths. What stood out the most was the flair that Gerald wrote with, and Stan had seen that flair before. Several times before, in fact, particularly when Mercy had first brought the name Gilderoy Lockhart into his mind and insisted she have her own copy of Break with a Banshee.

Gilderoy Lockhart was, in fact, Gerald Hartley.

Stan was frozen in surprise, rather than shock, when he confirmed his suspicion. If anyone had enough information to go off of, they could easily connect the two together, and maybe that was why Gilderoy was so elusive in giving out information about himself. If it was this easy for Stan to find out, imagine his image if the general public figured out. Not that he’d ever give Gilderoy away, of course, but it made a bit more sense as to why he acted as aloof as he was.

That, and it was likely just part of his personality.

Stan thanked the receptionist for her time and left for home, the Century being run smoothly by his manager in his absence. He was distinctly aware that, not many rooms away, Gilderoy was likely basking in his melancholy over Gadding with Ghouls not cooperating with his vision, living a life that he deemed suitable for himself rather than the life of Gerald Hartley. Despite his revelations, Stan wanted to hear someone address Gilderoy as Gerald, or perhaps hear it from Gilderoy himself, as if hearing it from someone else’s lips would solidify what he already knew.

Likely, going up to Gilderoy with anything but speculation would end very poorly, and he wrote down what he’d found on some loose leaf paper, his short-hand indecipherable to anyone save for himself. Stan wouldn’t give away Gilderoy’s secrets, but he did have questions.

He just had to bide his time to get them answered.

Until then, Stan would sit idly by, entertain Gilderoy like he did every day… and wait.

@gillockhart

#thread: gilderoy #self-para #groundhog day

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facets-and-rainbows · 6 years ago

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Bloody Fairy Tale (part 1)

The first part of the longest canon-ish story we have about young Shiro! Now in English woooooo!

Picture is from this post by @strongcraving, check it out!

Love, faith, loyalty, devotion, even the fear of death—none of them could save me.

So then what can rescue me from this ugly world?

La Buena Diosa—a totally unremarkable little village tucked away in a corner of South America.

I found out this village existed totally by coincidence. But the more I learned about it, the more I thought this had to be the place.

This was the place where I could get everything I wanted.

The lonely cemetery in the center of the village was…yes, it was like the toy box I dreamed of as a child.

Once I had my sights set on my goal, I started visiting the village frequently. I said I had an interest in religious art; it was a pretty good excuse, if I do say so myself.

Most of the villagers had the sort of insular attitude you tend to get with rural villages like this, but fortunately one of the kids really took a liking to me, so they stopped acting so standoffish. She was a little girl named Anita, and as long as she was with me I could move around the village completely naturally. Thanks to that, I was able to put a lot of care into my preparations.

I owed it all to Anita.

“Señorita, I love you!”

As she walked next to me, Anita gently reached for my right hand. Her hand was warm and a little bit damp. It reminded me of a newborn puppy.

When the girl’s eyes met mine, her suntanned brown face broke into a shy smile. I smiled back warmly.

And in my mind, I softly told that poor noble child:

Once you become a ghoul, Anita, I’ll use you to make my finest Naberius.

Then I’ll finally be able to love you back.

I hope you’ll forgive me, but until then…

I just don’t find you cute at all…

“Stay calm, everyone. It’s okay.”

On my tenth visit, I had some ghouls I revived beforehand attack the village.

It took everything I had to contain my joy as I skillfully guided the bewildered villagers to the church in the middle of the cemetery.

It went well.

I had made careful preparations, but I was still almost scared by how well it went.

After the shocking experience of being attacked by dead bodies, the villagers totally trusted and depended on the nun Maria LaMorte. It would be a trivial matter to dispatch them all by daybreak. Like taking candy from a baby…

But the most important question was how to kill them.

Poison? Strangling? Or maybe…

As I searched my mind for the method that would damage the bodies the least, I felt a tug on the sleeve of my habit. I looked down to see Anita clutching it in her shaking hands. The color was drained from her brown cheeks, and there were big tears welling up in her eyes.

“Will…we…all be killed?” came the weak voice, desperately trying to swallow the fear.

“Oh, Anita, it’s okay. It’s okay. I won’t let that happen.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’ve made a barrier with holy water around us, so the ghouls can’t get in. It’s safe here,” I lied, and gently hugged the girl. “Now, go find your mother.”

Anita gave a small nod, but suddenly looked toward the window by the door and murmured, “A light…”

“A light?” I tilted my head in confusion, then followed Anita’s gaze. She was right: the sky to the southwest of the village was lit up like midday. The entrance to the village was in that direction, facing the highway.

There was no mistaking it. That was a flare.

And not the kind that motorists use—it was a special flare used by exorcists to fight demons. I knew because I was carrying a few of them myself.

Could the Vatican’s dogs have sniffed me out here already? No…it was too soon for that.

After a moment’s hesitation, I turned from the window back to Anita.

“Something might have happened. I’ll go take a look. Anita, you stay here in the church,” I ordered.

Anita’s expression changed. “No! You can’t! Señorita, you’ll be killed!”

“Oh, Anita. It’s okay…It’s okay.” It was nice that she was worried for me and all, but this was honestly the most annoying thing I could imagine. Getting too friendly is a problem too, I sighed internally. “I have weapons and everything. If anything happens, I’ll run right away. Okay?”

I cajoled the flustered Anita into calming down a little and stepped outside the church. The southwestern sky was still lit up.

Well, it was a small village after all.

It didn’t take long to pass through the cemetery and rush to the source of the light. Even so, the flare had gone out by the time I got there.

In the darkness, I sensed the presence of live humans, not ghouls. I quietly hid behind a nearby house.

Straining my eyes in the dark, I could make out two men surrounded by ghouls.

One was a tall, lanky Caucasian and the other was an average-sized Asian. Both were wearing imposing black uniforms—the official uniforms of the Order of the True Cross, which I also belonged to. The Asian was carrying a handgun in a holster at his waist, but the white guy looked to be completely unarmed.

My, my, aren’t you two poorly equipped?

I couldn’t suppress a grin.

And I thought they had come from the Vatican! I shouldn’t jump to conclusions like that.

Laughing at my own rashness, I decided to watch them for a bit.

The group of ghouls was beginning to recover from the flare. The Asian man tossed a holy water grenade at them.

The ghouls wailed in agony as holy water exploded into the air around them.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeyyyaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”

Urk…

Seeing the ghouls suffer made my heart cry out in pain too.

But it’s only holy water, I reassured myself. As long as it isn’t AAA grade it’ll only stop them temporarily. Besides, there are only two exorcists.

I had ten times that many ghouls.

Even as I was thinking it, the Asian man was already being attacked by a few that had avoided a direct hit from the holy water.

Enraptured, I fantasized about the moment when their claws would tear apart his flesh.

But the foreigner nimbly leaned back and landed a strong kick on a ghoul’s jaw. In the same swift movement, he elbowed another ghoul, leaped back, and started reciting a prayer in a loud, clear voice.

The words came out fluidly and musically, savage like a beast, and filled with a power that took hold of the listener’s mind and wouldn’t let go. There was no kindness enveloping you, no feeling of purity.

Despite that, it moved my heart and soul more strongly than any prayer I’d ever heard.

Even as he unveiled such an impressive recitation, the man kept knocking aside the ghouls that attacked him from all sides.

So many Arias would have been defenseless while chanting; you had to admit this man’s reactions were impressive.

He moved like flowing water. I didn’t know much about martial arts, but even I could tell he was pretty good.

Perhaps this was real-life kung fu, like you see so much in Asian movies.

I was captivated by the man’s movements for a while, but soon realized this was no time to be distracted. First off, why was the Asian man the only one fighting?

Where was the other guy?

I searched for the white man in the darkness and found him standing uselessly away from the commotion, not even lifting a finger to help. Maybe he was frozen in terror at being surrounded by so many ghouls. If that was the case, he had to be pretty pathetic.

“Amen,” the Asian man finished, making the sign of the cross in the air.

In an instant, the demons possessing the bodies were expelled and the corpses went back to just being corpses…or so he thought.

But as it turned out, the ghouls weren’t exorcised.

They kept swarming the two men as if nothing had happened.

The Asian man groaned something in another language and clucked his tongue. Probably wondering why his chant hadn’t worked.

I leaned back against the house’s old wall and laughed silently to myself.

Think that’s strange? It’s strange, isn’t it?

But that isn’t going to cut it.

My condolences.

Why don’t you give it another shot?

Once I was done laughing for a bit, I peeked my face out again to see how those foolish men were doing. A ghoul was just about to attack the Asian man savagely.

The man dodged without wasting any movement, knocked the attacking ghoul down with a bare-handed punch, and mercilessly twisted its neck. He put all his strength into it, and the ghoul’s head came off of its body with a sickening snap.

The man tossed the head aside without batting an eye, then ripped the arm off of another ghoul and knocked it to the ground. He stomped on it, putting a thick-soled boot through its chest.

“Gyaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!”

My blood ran cold at the pained scream.

Apparently, the man had switched strategies as soon as he realized chanting wouldn’t work. He was planning to physically destroy the ghouls one by one.

As I watched the man fighting against the huge horde like it was nothing, I found myself trembling.

This is bad…

At this rate, a ton of my most valuable parts would be damaged.

I was done observing.

I slipped a hand inside my habit and took out a flare from the holster on my thigh. I quickly removed the pin and threw it above the two men and the ghouls.

The flare exploded in the darkness, bathing everything in blinding light. The ghouls slowed down.

“This way!” I yelled in English. The Asian man noticed me first. He looked at this sudden newcomer with suspicion.

As I’d expected, he was extremely wary. I would just have to force my way in. I reached my arm out and urged them to come with me quickly.

“This way! Hurry! The light won’t last long!” My feigned desperation was worthy of an Academy Award, if I do say so myself. The man rushed over to me right away.

It had been hard to tell from far away, but he was about 10 centimeters taller than me, and I was 170 centimeters tall. Average height and weight—no, I suppose he was tall for an Asian. Up close, his face looked cleaner and manlier than I had thought. With his pale hair, he could have been a boy, or a young man, or way older than me. Not that I was good at guessing Asian people’s ages anyway.

“What’re you doing here? Are you an exorcist?”

“Save the introductions for later,” I responded to his fluent English question. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him into running with me.

“Hey, you too! Come quickly!” I yelled at the white guy, and made a beeline for the church. He tottered along after us, looking like he couldn’t care less about what was going on.

#translation #blue exorcist novel #bloody fairy tale #there's gonna be so many parts of this #it's so long

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geek-patient-zero · 5 years ago

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Part 1, Chapter 3 (Pt. 1)

Or: Mage Chat at The Club Diabolique

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Volume 1

This chapter features a scene most V:TM fans will be familiar with: important vampires meeting in a seedy nightclub to talk about vampire shit.

Thanks to some reckless driving, Dire McCann arrives at Club Diabolique’s front door at exactly midnight. We also learn that he has a late-model Chrysler, but since I’m not a car guy I don’t know if that means anything about him as a character.

Originally an abandoned warehouse, the building had been converted into a disco by several ambitious young capitalists ten years earlier.

There were still discos in 1984? Wait, when did Xanadu come out?

When that craze had died, so had the club. It passed through several hands and incarnations before being bought by the present owner, Oliver Pearson. After several months of extensive interior designing, the nightspot had reopened with a new name, The Club Diabolique, and a new attitude. Converted into a Gothic-Punk haven, with live music, a huge dance floor, and an exclusive “Members Only” upper level, the bar had quickly developed into the hottest place to be in town.

It wouldn’t be a Vampire: The Masquerade story without a shady nightclub in there somewhere. This one, despite its Gothic-Punk theme, has a mixed crowd of patrons. Most importantly are the vampires, as Alexander Vargoss holds court in that members only area, but obviously none of the mortals in the club know about them.

There were rich, middle-aged businessmen wearing expensive suits, accompanied by much younger women dressed to kill in skin-tight designer dresses and five-inch heels. Club Diabolique catered to mistresses and expensive ladies of the evening, not wives. Morals and inhibitions were checked at the door.

I have a hard time believing this club could remain the hottest nightspot in town for very long if they cater to creepy old stiffs cheating on their wives. It’d hurt the club’s image with the rebellious young goth generation the club’s theme is supposedly catering to. Speaking of, we of course have some goth kids. Most of page thirty-one is spent describing them.

They were punks with an attitude.

You can tell this was written in the 90′s because the word “attitude” here doesn’t really mean anything.

Generation X-ers without much money and without much hope, they felt cheated by a world spoiled by their elders.

The kind of subculture that doesn’t mind hanging out in the same club with creepy middle-aged businessmen and their mistresses, right?

This line could also be a good way to describe how many neonates, newly-Embraced vampires, might feel towards their sires and the older vampires. You can easily make a comparison between these fledgling vampires and the disaffected mortal youth they once were, and the connection could both say something about them and help them maintain their humanity when everything else about vampire life, nature, and society is pressuring them to be monsters. But Blood War is one of those V:TM stories that doesn’t focus on neonates.

Their quest for identity had led them down some strange paths. Searching for meaning in a meaningless world, they turned to the 19th-century Gothic traditions for inspiration. Their look was a mix of black leather and Victorian finery.

A look that probably clashes with the “without much money” description. One disadvantage goths have when it comes to image, compared to punk and grunge, is that being able to afford their fancy outfits out them as suburban middle-class. There’s a whole paragraph describing their look, but I’m assuming you all know what goths look like.

McCann sympathized with the Goths. Most of them were bright, sensitive young men and women trying desperately to cope with a world of diminishing returns. Lonely and bored, they had created a whole new subculture based on a romanticized view of decadence and death.

After that “goths are punks with Attitude® “ line I was expecting the descriptions for goths to be Weinberg talking about how weird the youth of today is mixed with misconceptions like that they worship the devil or something. But this was pretty good. Their disaffection and feelings of hopelessness might be exaggerated, but that’s justified given the World of Darkness’s generally bleak setting. And there’s no mention of the music scene the subcuture came up around, but I don’t think McCann’s much of a modern music person, so it makes in-character sense. And if it’s not perfect, who are we to judge? How many of you on this hellhole of an internet know the goth subculture as anything other than a meme and a fetish?

The most relevant thing about the narration’s description of goths is their view on (the pop culture version of) vampires, and how that clashes with reality. It’s what you’d expect.

Many of them, not realizing the bitter truth behind the legends, fantasized about becoming vampires. Sometimes it happened, turning their dreams into nightmares.

[...]

Their view of the undead came from erotic novels and movies, not the Kindred. As he strolled past them, he uttered a silent prayer that they forever remain ignorant of the truth.

Aw, that’s sweet of McCann. Maybe under that master schemer detective persona beats the heart of a big old softie. Well, no, not at all, but despite being secretly really old he isn’t a dick about young people.

Club Diabolique has a doorman who’s described as “a giant of a man,” even compared to Dire McCann, who is merely big.

Dressed in undertaker’s garb, he exuded an air of restrained menace. This was Brutus, nicknamed the Arbitrator of Souls. In more mundane terms, the ex-wrestler worked as the doorman.

I wonder, does he have that nickname because goths are over-dramatic, or because vampires are over-dramatic?

Brutus is one of those unbribable club doormen who picked who can get in based on a certain criteria beyond “is the person old enough to be here” and “is this guy gonna start shit if he gets inside?” Thing is, no one knew how Brutus decided who gets in and why, and since he’s a huge scary motherfucker no one asks. Given some of the patrons, and the fact that Brutus is one of Vargoss’s ghouls, I’m guessing he judges based on who looks like they have the tastiest blood.

McCann doesn’t have to worry about Brutus, though, since they both know he has an appointment inside. There’s two paragraphs describing the club, but since the plot doesn’t spend any time here, just know that the music’s too loud to talk over and everyone’s there to dance, drink, and sin. And the band playing is called the Children of the Apocalypse, which McCann finds darkly amusing given the news he received last chapter.

Instead we’ll skip to upstairs, at the door to the member’s only area, guarded by a young “looks-eighteen-but-is-actually-a-hundred” vampire named “Fast Eddie” Sanchez, named so due to his skills with a knife. McCann asks him what’s up, and we learn that Vargoss’s guest is “some big shot Tremere sorcerer” and that “word on the street is that bad times are coming.” McCann says that it sound like a good reason for Eddie to keep his knives sharpened.

“I always keep my knives ready, McCann,” said Eddie, seriously, as the detective walked past him and into the next room.

You notice how that quote’s in italics? There’s several different instances in this chapter where lines are randomly written in italics and I have no idea why. The first thing I assumed is that it’s a subtle way of showing that a vampire is using a speech enhancing discipline, like maybe Eddie’s using a Presence power here to sound more intimidating? That’d explain lines of dialogue, but there are lines by the narration that’re randomly in italics too. You can see that here, since the description of McCann walking into the next room is also italicized along with the dialogue. I have no idea what the writer was doing here, and this is the only chapter where this happens.

McCann describes the members only vampire part of the club:

There were a dozen round cocktail tables scattered about the private chamber, with perhaps fifteen Kindred and twice that number of ghouls present. A small bar served whiskey for the ghouls and blood, both human and animal, for the Undead. Neonates, recently embraced vampires, worked as the waiters.

One criticism I’ve heard about the earlier versions of the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop game is that players, despite being big tough vampires with cool powers, are usually railroaded into being neonates doing low-level schmuck work for the actually powerful Count Dracula level vampires, rarely in a position to do much politicking or even hunting. Superpowered errand boys instead of, you know, vampires. These poor waiters here reminded me of that, though in the tabletop’s defense I doubt you’re expected to work a minimum wage job instead of something more exciting and action packed. In the end, it depends on the storyteller. Also, as the book goes on, I think it unintentionally makes an argument for why campaigns about elders and methuselahs might not be the best idea.

To the rear of the room, on a small raised stage, an undead trio of jazz legends were playing some of their greatest hits for a small but appreciative crowd gathered nearby.

I hope those poor bastards aren’t Toreador, but given that they’re just playing their greatest hits about sixty years after their embrace...

Alexander Vargoss hated rock music and refused to have it in his domain.

Unlike McCann, Vargoss is not down with the youth of (about forty years ago up to) today and hates their “rock” “music.” I was also going to ask why Vargoss holds court in a room over a place he can’t stand, but I figure since he’s a Ventrue he’s compelled to follow the money regardless of where it leads. The member’s only area’s soundproofed, anyway.

They kept the noise outside, and, sometimes, held the screams inside. Humans other than McCann had entered the private chamber. But he was the only one who had ever left alive.

Kindred can drink from humans without killing them, so either the humans killed here are Masquerade threats being dealt with discreetly, Vargoss is a low Humanity bastard, or everyone in the club has bad luck with frenzy-stopping dice rolls.

A stunning redhead was singing with the band tonight. Wearing a green sequined dress that sharply delineated a near-perfect figure, she possessed a deep, syrupy voice that blended in perfect harmony with the three musicians.

Of course she’s hot.

McCann’s never seen the singer before, but she looks “vaguely familiar”, so he asks one of those vampire waiters who she is. Turns out she’s a ghoul belonging to a Toreador named Iverson, whose been visiting St. Louis on business for the last month and is sitting nearby watching her. We’re also reminded by the narration that Toreador are known for their “obsession with the arts.”

“He watches her real, real careful. Doesn’t like anyone else taking an interest in the lady. Can’t say I blame him. She’s good.”

“She’s terrific,” said McCann. “I’m surprised he’s left her mortal. Having her as his childe would really boost his prestige in the clan.”

“I think he’s worried she might lose her sultriness if Embraced,” replied the waiter.

See? Even the Toreador know their art sucks.

The waiter advises McCann to stop gawking and get over to Vargoss’s table. Vargoss is getting impatient and that flashy Around the World in Eighty Days style “arriving at your destination at the exact time” entrance only counts if you arrive in the exact room you’re supposed to meet in. So, somewhat unceremoniously given that this is the Prince of St. Louis, McCann walks over to Vargoss’s table, apologizes for being late, and that’s that. The Prince is there, sitting with his back against a brick wall because he’s paranoid about attacks from behind, along with his bodyguards, ~*~The Dark Angels~*~ Fawn and Flavia, at either side of him, and their guest, a little rat-faced Tremere wizard. We get more random italics.

“You delayed our conversation until this kine arrived?” the wizard snarled at Vargoss, making it quite clear he considered McCann a step below a monkey. The Tremere Clan were not noted for their social graces.

The Tremere guy’s an asshole. No surprise there.

Vargoss seems to ignore him and asks McCann what he thinks of the singer, who we learn is named Rachel Young, but his “icy tone” implies that the wizard’s bad manners have offended him as a host, and the wizard realizes this and shuts up. We also learn that a “closely trusted Tremere councilor” had tried to betray Vargoss a few months ago, but McCann uncovered the plot and stopped him, so Vargoss is especially pissed at he Tremere’s sudden dickishness and general presence.

After some banter about Rachel Young, during which she meets McCann’s gaze from the stage and smiles enigmatically at him, Vargoss chews the Tremere out, warning him to watch his manners or else. He also says that McCann is no ordinary human.

The Prince showing off his pet human, thought McCann sarcastically.

And now the random italics are showing up halfway through sentences. What’s with this? Was there no editor?

What makes McCann “no ordinary human” to Vargoss has nothing to do with his detective skills. Instead, McCann traces “a certain proscribed cabalistic phrase” on the table, presumably with his finger but I’m not ruling out a nearby spoon. The letters he made glow red for an instant before disappearing. It’s not very impressive given the vampire powers we’ll see elsewhere in the story, but it’s enough to prove that McCann is magic. And one of the biggest conversation derailers in the franchise.

“You’re a mage?” he whispered. “Of what tradition?”

“Euthanatos.” replied McCann, naming the infamous Death cult. Several of their number cooperated with the Kindred, lending credence to the detective’s lie.

Hoo boy, mages.

Mage: The Ascension is another game that’s part of the World of Darkness franchise. I can’t tell you much about it since I’d only ever been interested in V:TM. But from what I’d been able to understand from online chat, there’s one important thing to keep in mind when it comes to mages in relation to Vampire: The Masquerade.

You should NOT. TALK. ABOUT MAGES IN RELATION TO VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE.

Mages tend to be way, way more powerful than vampires thanks to having fantastic cosmic reality warping powers or some shit. They’ve also got technology. The Technocracy, which I’ve seen get brought up a lot, have orbital mirrors that can create sun-powered space lasers, and goddamn space travel. On top of the obvious power level arguments this’d cause, the nature of mages tend to lead to more “high-minded” concepts like the nature of reality and finding a way for all of humanity to “Ascend.” Compare that to the Kindred’s pettier goals like hiding their existence from the average mortal, manipulating each other, and seeking individual power. When there’re all these factions of magic mortals reshaping reality and burning things with sun lasers in space, it makes the Kindred and their petty earthly squabbles seem pretty damn stupid and unimportant.

So when you’re chatting about Vampire: The Masquerade, bring up mages at your own risk, unless you want to cause long derails about what the mages would do, how they could solve any big problem for vampires without even trying, why they wouldn’t get involved, how something contradicts the lore of one of the two franchises, why are the Antediluvians a threat in the first place when the Technolocracy can sun laser them from space (and they actually do this to one, read up on The Week of Nightmares), and of course, why someone’s pet vampire can totally beat a mage in a fight. And lore dumps. Pages of ‘em.

Hell, I’m derailing right now, and this post is long enough. Back to the story.

The rat-faced Tremere, shocked and more than little scared to have insulted a mage, apologizes, introduces himself as Tyrus Benedict, and assures that he meant no disrespect to McCann or his “order.” We also get this little bit.

Like most Kindred, he was extremely wary of mages. Those beings foolish enough to cross magicians usually ended up perishing in peculiar fashion. Including the Undead.

Also remember that the Tremere used to be mages, so that’s a another group of even more dangerous people who’d like to stick a foot up the Tremere’s asses.

McCann’s trying not to laugh at the easily fooled vampire. See, he’s lying about being Euthanatos. He isn’t even a mage. He just knows a few simple “parlor tricks” like creating glowing red runes with his finger/spoon to fool vamps like Vargoss and Benedict here into thinking he’s a mage.

The Kindred were masters of deceit and deception. Yet they much too easily accepted the unbelievable when confronted with the obvious. They saw complications where none existed. It was a basic character flaw that Dire McCann understood and exploited quite effectively. And had done so, in various guises, over the milennia.

So. He’s at least a thousand years old, but he’s mortal, not a Kindred. He knows some minor magic, but he’s not a mage...

Also, I’m not seeing how “I’m a Mage, I can do magic” is any more complicated than the truth here.

Vargoss and Benedict have some “blood cocktails” (the whiskey here’s too smooth for a big tough guy like Dire McCann, and the twins, edgelords that they are, prefer drinking from the source) and they finally get down to business. The Camarilla elders sent Tyrus to St. Louis to inform Vargoss of current events in the former Soviet Union. Why Vargoss is important enough to bother informing I don’t know, but McCann has to find out somehow, so here we are.

It all started about three years ago, a year before the prologue.

“...at the height of Boris Yeltsin’s unexpected rise to supreme authority in Moscow, all communications with the Kindred inside the former Soviet Union ceased. In the period of a few days, an Iron Curtain of silence descended across Russia. It was as if the Earth itself swallowed up our brethren.”

According to the wiki, this was called the Shadow Curtain.

The European Ventrue and Toreador clans sent some spies into Russia to find out what’s going on, but none returned. Vargoss doesn’t find this very mysterious.

Vargoss shrugged. “Obviously it was a Sabbat takeover. The Brujah elders in Moscow underestimated the discontent among their kine. Their puppet rulers spent too much money on weapons and not enough on food. Without a strong leader like Stalin to keep the commoners in line, discontent and anarchy flourished. The fall of the government, and the Brujah with it, was inevitable. No mystery there. We saw it take place on television.”

How topical for the early 90′s... I have some opinions about Vampire: The Masquerade’s use of historical and current events, and how vampires were involved with them, but that’ll wait until I get to a more offending example toward the end of the book.

Vargoss thinks that the Sabbat, experts at staging revolutions, caught the Brujah unaware and took over. Benedict says the Camarilla elders thought so too, but their spies within the Sabbat revealed that they lost a half dozen of their own people when the curtain fell. They sacrificed dozens of “packs” to break the “barrier of silence,” but they got nothing. Whatever’s causing the Shadow Curtain is stronger than both the Camarilla and the Sabbot. Vargoss asks what could be stronger than the Camarilla, and Benedict answers. Still in italics, of course.

“The Army of Night,’ said Tyrus Benedict, his voice rising in intensity. An unholy band of demonic Kindred belonging to no clan, they are allied with the forces of hell. The fiends belong to the brood of the most feared sorceress of all time—the Hag, Baba Yaga.”

No, not him.

“She awoke from torpor several years ago and has now reclaimed Russia as her own. Armageddon approaches. The Nictuku are rising!”

The legendary Baba Yaga’s a vampire in this setting, the one responsible for the Shadow Curtain, and yet another one of the Nictuku. When Benedict mentions Armageddon here, he doesn’t just mean because some old and cannabalistic methuselahs are waking up just to annoy them. The rising is said to be a sign that Gehenna, the end of the world for vampires and mankind, is starting.

Again, the Nictuku are 4th generation Nosferatu, completely loyal to their sire, the Antediluvian Absimiliard. And Absimiliard apparently hates his descendants, since he was a vain handsome bastard before Caine cursed him and the ugly little rat people living in the sewers remind him of his curse. It’s said that when the Nictuku rise, they’ll wipe out the later generations of Nosferatu, just as their sire wants. Except, funny enough, for Baba Yaga here. She’s apparently a rebel among the Nictuku, and is said to even be the direct vampiric ancestor of all modern Nosferatu, done just to piss Absimiliard off. Seems she just wants to gain power for herself, which is what she’s doing in Russia.

In short: If the Nictuku are rising, they’re probably going to do Absimiliard’s bidding. And if they’re rising, maybe Absimiliard is stirring too. And if he’s beginning to rise, so are the other Antediluvians. And if that’s happening, boom. Gehenna. Everyone’s fucked.

Going according to Camarilla policy, Vargoss angrily denies that the Nictuku (and what they represent, though that’s left unsaid) exist, that they’re just myths “invented by the Nosferatu elders to frighten their rebellious childer.” But turns out Benedict has photographic evidence. He hands over some photos, informing Vargoss that many bothans Tremere wizards met the Final Death getting them. The Sabbat and the rest of the Camarilla couldn’t figure out what was going on in Russia, but somehow the sneaky fuck blood magic clan managed to get pictures of the cause.

McCann doesn’t get to see them, and thus neither do we. But Vargoss tells us all we need to know.

Vargoss’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the photos. Raising up one particular picture, he showed it to Fawn and Flavia. “She has teeth of iron and six-inch claws,” he stated in hushed tones. “Just as the legends claim.”

It’s enough to shut down any more “Nictuku aren’t real” talk.

McCann, meanwhile, notices that Benedict hadn’t said anything since he revealed the photos, which, come on McCann, it’s not even been a minute. But this is supposed to hint that something’s off, because Benedict is staring at the stage with Young and the jazz trio. Who’ve stopped playing.

Suddenly, they hear Young scream.

McCann and the vamps at the table (except Benedict, the wimp) jump up and face the stage, forming a neat little group action pose that’d make for good promotion material if this were a visual media and not a book.

In one hand, he gripped his machine gun pistol, ready for action. At his side were the Dark Angels. Each of them held a pair of short swords they were capable of wielding with deadly efficiency. Right behind them stood Alexander Vargoss. The Prince of St. Louis was no coward.

Says the book after specifically describing him as standing behind the other three. But, alright, I know what Weinberg’s going for.

“Who in hell’s name is that?” whispered McCann ... “What in hell’s name is that?”

Time to meet the bad guy.

Tall and gaunt, a lone figure dominated the center of the chamber, a few feet in front of the stage. It had not been there a moment ago. Somehow, it had materialized out of thin air. That was what the Tremere wizard had seen. It was a magical feat that challenged even the most powerful of Kindred.

You sure he didn’t just reveal himself after deactivating Obfuscate? Or turn into an animal, sneak in, and change back at a dramatically appropriate time? Or-

The newcomer wore a single garment consisting of a ripped and tattered shroud held tightly in place about his body with moldering white bandages. His chalk-white face was that of a long dead corpse. Ancient, decaying skin stretched tightly across a hairless skull. Paper-thin lips, a beak-like nose, and hollow, gaunt cheeks combined in a look of utter malevolence. Huge unblinking eyes, like the black pits of hell, took in all those in the chamber.

A creature of blacks and whites, streaks of brilliant crimson marked his face, his hands, and his arms. Hands and fingers glowed ghostly red. The bright scarlet of fresh blood. There was no question in McCann’s mind that here stood the Red Death.

And his body seems to be generating great heat, and not in the fun wrestling terminology kind of way.

The floor surrounding the walking corpse sizzled. The vinyl bubbled like lava beneath the creature’s feet. Waves of superheated air rose around the figure, giving it an eerie, unearthly vagueness. The Red Death blazed, but did not burn.

Fire’s a fatal weakness for vampires, and that presumably goes for heat so intense it should make things burst into flame too. If you’re playing the tabletop game, you gotta roll to see if your character will freak out and run from fire or not. So this corpse-looking guy generating heat that can melt the floor with no harm to himself is a big deal. Benedict and McCann hype him up a bit more for good measure.

“In three hundred years I have never seen its like,’ muttered Benedict, still seated. ‘How can such a monster exist?”

McCann wondered the same thing. And he based his observation on a much greater span of time.

Vargoss speaks up, trying to live up to that “no coward” description from earlier.

“Who are you?” The Prince’s voice rang like a bell through the silent chamber. “And how dare you violate the traditions and enter my domain without permission?”

“This is how you face the devil straight up, McCann, you wuss.”

The figure raised its head until its eyes glared directly at Vargoss. “I am the Red Death,” the monster declared in slow, deliberate tones. “I go where I want. Your petty territorial claims mean nothing to me. My will is the only law.”

We’ll stop here for now, with McCann and the vampires about to take on the titular Red Death. He acts tough and yeah, he made quite an entrance, but in the end, who knows? Maybe McCann and the vamps’ll do alright.

#vampire the masquerade #vampire: the masquerade #vtm #vtmb #world of darkness #blood war

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iamnotadamnedmonkey · 6 years ago

Text

A guide to the Detroit Wastes.

The year is, most likely, unimportant. I can tell you that it has been 300 years since the merging of magic and science resulted in a golden age of mankind, unparrelled progress and expansion. This advancement resulted in people going heavy duty into genetic modification, both of the world around them, resulting in fantastical beasts abounding, and their own bodies, creating new races of men, some with very little connections to the originals.

I can also tell you that you were in stasis for centuries before that, how many exactly, I’m not sure.

It has been 200 years since mankind delved where it should not have. There are some things man is not meant to know. The Foundation, a clandestine organization charged with keeping the world safe from otherworldly menaces, had been containing disturbing creatures, places, items and events for centuries previous to the golden age. 200 years ago, something went wrong. It is unknown if this was done on purpose, or even what happened, but the skies boiled, the very air shattered, as things from other worlds broke into ours, and laid waste to it. This is commonly referred to as the Breach. The governments of the world retaliated, with nuclear weapons.

It didn’t work.

It was at this point that the Contained rose up and rebelled, escaping to become the Thousand Demons of the Waste. Many people were saved by quick retreat into Vault-Tech brand fallout shelters. Communication systems were shattered by the vast release of magical energies. Those humans left outside have struggled to continue their lives, but it’s hard going.

Major Features of the Detroit Wastes

Vault 72- Your home, for better or worse. When I worked here, it was not just a containment site, but a research site, dedicated to extending peoples lives. One of those projects was Experiment 3172, which I believe you and intimately familiar with. It was designed to induce a stasis field, effectively securing people from the ravages of time, by keeping them from living through it. I have disengaged this field, although, with the destruction of the main computer, it would have been hard to activate again anyways. I have taken the liberty of locking down your suite, and making it inaccessible from the outside. Save points should keep you, heh, safe. I will warn you, the generator beneath your new home is only good for another thousand years, it wasn’t meant to be used to actually power the apartment for long periods of time.

Vault 5- Devoted to the research of genetics, and the breeding of stable races. There has been no contact with Vault 5 since the Breach. The Sea of Fire is DANGEROUS. Creatures that have become relatively stable in the rest of the waste mutate horribly there. Vault 5 is also the only place where any possible documentation from before the Breach exists.

Vault 99- Heavy weapons research. Last known message from them indicated that they were locking themselves in the vault, and the world could handle itself.

Vault 1- Research dealing with other planes of existence, and time travel. My home vault. I advise against visiting, there have been some… issues. Temporal portals, spots of slow and fast time… It’s not nice.

Vault 13- Devoted to medical research. Opened itself to public use roughly 100 years ago, now serves as the center of the town known as Vaultillion, and has been turned into a temple to Teej.

Freedom City- Built on the remains of the city you know as Detroit, ex-slaves from The Pit have made this a home for any who wish to be free. The entire city acts as a Temple to David.

Mutant Town- A full town of Super Mutants. Not fun. Contains a temple to Jaeger.

Ghoul Town- Go ahead. Guess. Major temple to Luminous.

Necropolis- For all the feral ghouls who don’t fit in with Ghoul Town.

The Zoo Zoo Zoo- No one has been inside for 200 years. Well. That’s not true. Plenty of people have entered. No one has left. A temple to Velyn has been established in the old parking structure.

Weirdville- A collection of settlers and normalish people, trying to survive the apocalypse. Contains a major temple to Old Aggie.

Creatures and Others of the Waste

Super Mutants: Over large humanoid creatures. Said to have stemmed from illegal genetic alterations pre-Breach, the majority of Super Mutants have a greenish tone to their skin. They are largely dumber than their smaller humanoid cousins, but make up for it with tremendous strength. Super Mutants that exhibit intelligence swiftly rise to leadership positions, and learn magical tricks from their patron god, Jaeger. Some rare Super Mutants are known to follow Drac, and these are friendly towards humans and the like.

Ghouls: Deceased spirits haunting their own bodies. Ghouls are souls that have refused to die, and continue living by animating dead flesh. Ghouls come in two main varieties. Feral Ghouls have lost their memories, or simply their will, and are mindless monsters, seeking only to consume flesh. Non-Feral Ghouls appear as wrecked, decomposing bodies, but can still talk and interact as humans. You can generally tell the difference from a distance because Non-Ferals will still be trying to wear good clothing, not the rags and tatters ferals do. When a Non-Feral ghoul is killed, their soul finds the nearest non-souled body to jump into. Some Ghouls have learned how to gain power in doing this, making them effectively immortal. It is believed that Feral Ghouls cannot inhabit a body by themselves, requiring outside help to do so.

Mirelurks: Giant, shelled, lobster like humanoids, that first rose out of the Great Lakes a hundred years ago. While they seem to have some kind of internal command structure, they do not like talking with humans. Rumor has it they are a result of something leaking from the rifts the Breach caused.

Deathclaws: Originally bred as security forces, during the years post-Breach, Deathclaws have thrived in the magical fallout. Growing bigger, and more intelligent, these reptilian monsters would be the rulers of the waste… if they didn’t hate each other. Appearing in a multitude of colors, and capable of expelling a variety of dangerous energy from their mouths, the older they get, the bigger they become, the biggest one recorded being well over 200 feet tall. They are all hoarders, each of them deciding in adult hood what they will horde, everything from gold, to weapons, to some reports of Deathclaws hoarding people. They are very intelligent, to the point that the eldest of them seem capable of casting spells.

Raiders: Other humans and humanoids, who seek to get the most out of the Waste, by taking it from other people. A unique breed, they practice a form of magic that allows them to jury rig weaponry. Mostly they follow All Tok or Drak, with some few venerating Jaeger.

Brotherhood of Steel: A legion of Knight warriors, devoted to Strelnik, who seek to save and restore the technology and magic of the past. They also host a more scholarly branch knows as Scribes, who venerate Luminous.

Casers Legion: Slavers and bully boys, devoted to their leader Caesar. They seek to put the world under their thumb, and have succeeded in a good chunk of it in the southern states. They follow Lament, and think he has blessed their cause.

Gods of the Waste

Shakka Brigit, The Many Bodied One

Domain: Madness, Fire

Symbols: A silver pendant with a red ruby in the middle

Weapon: Mace

About: Shakka Brigit is not a god anyone often admits to worshipping. Anyone who wears his amulet is, in effect, a part of the god, and while they can largely work on their own, at any time, he can focus his will through them to manifest within them. It is said that to even touch his symbol is to become a part of the greater whole. When pictured, Shakka is shown with red hair, and a white robe. It is said he was tricked into the amulet by Yoric and All Toc, over a debate about who should marry Aggie. Shakka is most often shown in opposition to Jaeger, eternal foes. He is also said to be brother to Teej.

The Broken God, Machine Lord

Domain: Artifice, Darkness, Void, Anything to do with Machines or Robots.

Symbols: The broken gear, creeping ivy.

About: The Broken God is often blamed for the Breach, stories tell of it trying to enter our reality being what broke everything so wide. It is most often pictured as a mass of broken machinery, with steam escaping. There are many secret worshippers of the Broken God, hoping to appease it, and find the pieces it needs to be put back together. Many Synths, Gearforged, and sapient machines follows the Broken God, in hopes of being made human, or at least souled. All of the other gods strive against the Broken God, it has no ties to any of them.

Jaeger/ Jaeger Mann, The Hunter

Domain: Evil, Destruction, Murder

Symbols: A horned boars skull/head, a gear wrapped in red vines, a blue x.

About: The worst of the gods, he himself has claimed to be the one who caused the Breach. He is a god of everything wrong in the world. No one knowingly admits to following him, as it is the equivalent of publicly admitting to cannibalism, or worse. He is said to move beside the world, instead of in it, watching for the point to push just the right pressure to cause a second Breach, that will allow him to shatter the world. While The Shining One combats Jaeger wherever he may dwell, it is Shakka Brigit that seems to draws Jaegers true ire.

Old Aggie, Granny of the Waste

Domain: Luck, Protection, Children, and the Lost

Symbols: Traditional fertility goddess imagery, the rotund woman. Apples. Dildos, although no one knows why.

Weapon: Whip

About: Old Aggie is generally depicted in stories and drawings as an eldery woman with a ribald sense of humor. While she cares most for children, entertainers, fools, and the just plain unlucky can often times feel her gaze upon them. She is generally followed by women and kids, mainly because she sees nothing wrong with pranking her male followers. Aggie is known to be tolerant of Yoric, trading jokes with him, and watches over Teej. Shrines to Old Aggie can be found anywhere someone needs a bit of luck, and thus often turn up in the oddest places.

Poor Yoric, the Man of Infinite Jest

Domain: Charm, Travel

Symbols: A white trilby, snakes, and rolled bedding, oft seen atop travelers packs.

Weapon: Walking cane

About: Yoric is the travelers god, a happy go lucky fellow who always seems delighted to hear peoples stories. Anyone who dons all three of his symbols is seen as a Hermit of Yoric, and, as long as they offer no violence, is to be given safe passage in all lands. In the tales, he is often inserted as a foil to Jaeger and Shakka, distracting those two from their fighting in order to steal away humans they meant to kill, or otherwise leading them from their goals. Yoric is followed largely by traders, and anyone else who makes a living traveling the vast Waste. Even Deathclaws are wary of attacking a pilgrim of Yoric. While not the most worshipped, Shrines to Yoric are likely the most populous in the Waste.

Strelnik, Commandant of the Eternal Armies

Domain: War, Law

Symbols: A shield, baton and helmet, a sword in an anvil, chickens.

Weapon: Sword

About: Strelnik is a strident, angry god. He believes in the rule of law, a place for everything, and everything in its place. He is almost always shown as shorter than the other gods, but wider. It is given to him to watch over the endless wars that plague the land, and he is very happy with it all. He is often linked romantically with Old Aggie, but despises Drak and Lament, for focusing on the wrong parts of battle. He is followed mostly by fighters, soldiers, and officers of the law. Shrines to Strelnik are rare, being set up on battlefields, or at any local law buildings. These shrines are often used for administering oaths, or proving the truth of statements.

All Tok, the Trickster

Domain: Trickery, Rune

Symbols: Ukelele, straw hat, hawiian shirt, third eye, cream pies.

Weapon: Crossbow

About: All Tok is the laughing god of the waste, always ready with a quick joke and an open palm. His sense of humor is more upper class than Yorics, being more of the type of joke that makes you think, or the prank that makes you realize you dun fucked up, than something just for the joke of it. All Tok is ALWAYS three steps ahead, and will gladly lead you off a cliff, while he snags the hidden rope to swing to safety. He’s the cool uncle of the gods, or maybe the goofy uncle, he hasn’t quite decided. While he has a history of trading pranks with Yoric, usually getting the better end of the deal, he is deadly rivals with Drac, neither of them respecting the other. He is devoted to the cause of ridding Shakka Brigit from this world. He is often followed by people who should know better, and delights in opening his followers minds, sometimes painfully wide. He is often shown with his symbols, the hat pulled over his face. It is said that none may know the true face of All Tok, as he is constantly changing it. Many people follow All Toc, all for their own reasons. There are no shrines to All Tok, as any that have tried to be built end up being destroyed, ‘accidentally.’

Drak, the Dragon King

Domain: Glory, Air, Weather, Wealth, Deathclaws

Symbols: A dragon clutching its own tail, cameras, four diagonal slashes as if from a deathclaw, butterflies.

Weapon: Long Bow

About: Drak is a humorless, dour god, who desires to always be the most respected, and powerful. He is the self-styled King of the gods, and while the others may not respect him, they do not debate it. Those who disparage him title him ‘King of the Butterflies.’ He is often portrayed as watching important events unfold, camera in hand. All Deathclaws bow their head to him, and, sometimes, to his servants. He has a running rivalry with All Tok, and is romantically connected to the Shining One, as his co-leader. People who follow Drak are known to be glory seekers, people who are out to make themselves look good, and rich. He is often pictured as a dark haired man on a throne, accompanied by both a pet deathclaw, and a horde of butterflies.

The Shining One, Beacon in the Darkness

Domain: Good, Water, Mirelurks

Symbols: A golden Halo, cephalopods

Weapon: Trident

About: She is the light in the night, the one true way. The Shining One is only ever portrayed as a mass of light. Although the patron of all things good, she is a distant deity, rarely appearing to her multitude of followers. She is the second most revered deity, with shrines to her popping up anywhere that there is water. The mirelurks claim her as their creator, but whether this means they are good is up for debate. She is a distant wife to Drak, and generally keeps out of the usual sniping of the others gods. Many people confuse her and Luminous, but the gods seem not to mind.

Lament, the Raging Bull

Domain: Strength, Nobility.

Symbols: Bulls horns, the hand with two middle fingers touching thumb and two outer fingers extended, weights.

Weapon: Battle axe

About: Lament is seen as the bruiser of the Gods. When a god needs a mortal leaned on, or monsters removed from a holy site, they may send Lament to clear things up. It was Lament who stopped the dreaded plague of Peanut from wiping out all human life, and it was he who wrestled Great Lizard to a stalemate, trapping the beast far underground, in a vat of acid. He is often pictured as a man with bulls horns. He is followed mostly by warriors who seek personal advancement. His shrines are few. He is romantically involved with Serra Pho, and rivals with Drac and Strelnik.

Serra Pho, the Returning Green

Domain: Plants, Earth, Sun

Symbols: A newly sprouting tree, the sun

Weapon: Quarterstaff

About: Serra Pho is depicted as a two faced goddess, to show that nature can be bother a blessing and a curse. She is invoked as Serra in her antagonistic aspect, and as Pho in her beneficial form. She is said to be the wife of Lament, and it is he that keep her eternally pregnant, with new species of plant life to unleash upon the world. She is rarely followed directly, except by farmers and forest dwellers. Shrines to Serra Pho can be found in many woodland glades, and sometime in the oddest places where life has found a way.

Teej, God of the Gaps

Domains: Healing, Death

Symbols: A red cross

Weapon: Mace

About: Teej is supposedly one of the thousand demons of the waste, ascended to god hood by the will of the other gods. He is a healer and … well, that’s about it. Teej is known as the God of the Gaps, because he shows no interest in the modern world. When his mind touches his worshippers, it is always with the feeling that they have drawn his attention to them, but he doesn’t really seem to be paying attention. He is most often depicted as a red haired youth, in a blue gown. His followers are everywhere, seeking to bring health and aid to the suffering… or to ease them into death, if that is the more charitable option. His shrines are mostly small and personal, in the homes of those who need him. It is claimed that he is the child of Velyn, and brother to Shaka Brigit, Luminous and Queen Madb.

Luminous, the Three In One

Domains: Knowledge, Magic, The Future

Symbols: Triangle, computers, crystal balls

Weapon: Magic

About: Portrayed as a trio of feminine shapes beneath a single voluminous cloak, one head old, one middle aged, one teen, Luminous is the fortune teller of the gods. They see all, They knows all, and they rarely says anything about it. There are few shrines to Luminous, mostly in far out of the way places, that require a great trek to get to. They rarely communicate with anyone outside of the shrines, but has been known to manifest briefly to get pretentious people on the right track. Any female in purple robes is assumed to be at least influenced by them, if not an aspect of them.

Velyn, Mother of Monsters

Domains: Chaos, Animals, Mutation, Change

Symbols: A ball of tentacles, dna spiral, playing cards.

Weapons: Warhammer, but any weapon you’ve made improvements to will work.

About: Velyn is the goddess of change. She is constantly shifting, growing, making herself better. Many claim that the many mutations of the waste have sprung from her womb, as several of the gods and Demons have. Very few worship her, but those who do purposefully expose themselves to radiation and fluxing magical energies, hoping to become closer to her. She is often seen as an antagonist to the other gods, creating beasts and things that require their intervention. There is one shrine to Velyn, no one else would dare. She is served by four Demons known as Jacks.

David, the Loving

Domains: Community, Liberation, Repose

Symbol: Sunglasses, a stick with a red tip, peace symbol

Weapon: Clubs

About: David is the most human seeming of the gods. He is a god of peace and love, and the most revered of the new pantheon. David walks amongst his flock, a black man who appears to be blind, and gives his blessing frequently. It is rare to find a human settlement that does not have a shrine to David. He tends to ignore the rest of the pantheon, having no time for their endless bickering, when he can do something to help the world.

Kohg, The Godfather

Domains: Knowledge, Technology

Symbol: A pristine unbroken gear, an open book

Weapon: automatic crossbow

About: It is said that Kohg made the Gods of the Waste so that humankind would have someone else to bother while he went about the important business of learning. He was the first god, and raised the others up, and then… walked away. He is still worshipped, but it is often unknown if worship of him is in any way effective. He often chooses his worshippers from the smartest of researchers, wizards, and the like, and demands that they follow him and help him learn how to fix things. His primary servant is the demi-god of Time, Joey.

Demons of the Waste

(A small sampling of the 1000 Demons)

Peanut: An invisible demon, capable of living only in statues. While it is in this world, it animates inanimate, humanoid shaped objects. When observed, it cannot move, but when it is not watched, it can move at phenomenal speed., seeking to grab any nearby humans, and break their necks. Several times, influence of other Demons has cause it to be able to animate more than one body at a time, resulting in plagues of statues upon the land, which usually requires the direct intervention of Lament to stop.

Tonin: Called the Daughter of Darkness, Tonin is a female Demon capable of clouding mens minds, and forcing them to her will. She seeks the death of all that lives, claiming that only that will bring her mother back to life. She is most often foiled by Serra Pho.

The Jacks: Three male and one female Demon, bound to the service of Velyn, who created them. They each seek to breed with humankind, creating offspring that appear human until they reach puberty, when they begin to show the traits of their sires, and run off to join them. Joh is a goatlike humanoid, a seducer of virgins, and defiler of maidens. Jos is a human with squid features, who procreates through forcing his attentions on the unknowing. Joc is most likely some form of werewolf, who spreads his seed amongst those who will accept him. Jod, or Jackie, is a female with spider features, who breeds by inserting her eggs in criminals and defilers. Their packs of children roam the wastes, doing the Jacks bidding, and whatever Velyn demands of them.

Queen Madb: Queen, not of the demons, but of an otherworldly race of fae, she is an unnaturally tall, horribly thin, gray skinned female. She is often seen garbed in a raiment of sparkling light, wielding a spear made of cold iron. Her and her people are found in the dark places, where men fear to tread.

The Piper: The human who holds a pipe carved from the bone of a Demon, there have been many Pipers over the years, but always there will be another. The mystic pipe allows him to control animals and children, and the Piper uses this to his advantage.

The Great Lizard: The dreaded king of the Demons, a vast reptilian figure, capable of coming back from any wound dealt it, it is only the combined might of the gods that can wrestle it back into the acid pit that constrains it, when it breaks free.

The Doctor: If you see a man wearing a beak shaped mask, run.

There are a multitude of other Demons in the waste. I ask if you do run into any others, you document them. I should note that not all Demons are mobile, some are items, or too big to move. But, you should be able to know them when you find them.

With much love,

J. Tamlin, Level 5

(An IC guide my players found in their home. Feel free to make suggestions! Yoric has already granted them Fast Travel to certain places they’ve been before... Yay pip boys!) (Also also, feel free to comment! I like to know what people think) (Last also: Yes, it’s Bright family focused, duh.)

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jkottke · 6 years ago

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My Recent Media Diet, the "Please God Let Winter Be Over Soon" Edition

I've been keeping track of every media thing I "consume", so here are quick reviews of some things I've read, seen, heard, and experienced since the beginning of the year. One of the reasons I like doing these posts is the great recommendations I get back from readers. Turns out some of you know me and my tastes pretty well by now. For instance, a reader emailed a rec for the amazing Apollo 13 podcast listed below. I never would have found that on my own...thanks, Jason (no relation).

Vice. Inventive filmmaking from McKay. Watching parts of this was difficult though...Cheney is a ghoul. (B+)

Bird Box. Mindless but fun. The aliens made no sense... (B)

Rainbrow. Faces weren't designed to control games. I think I may have sprained my eyebrows? (C+)

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Roma. A masterpiece from Cuarón. My pick for the best film of 2018. (A)

A Fish Called Wanda. What was the middle one again? (B+)

The Apollo 13 series on the Brady Heywood Podcast. Sean Brady is a forensic engineer and in this five-part series about the Apollo 13 mission, he does a play-by-play of what went wrong on the mission and how the NASA and the three astronauts worked together to solve it. This is five hours of storytelling stuffed full of technical details and I was completely riveted the entire time. A thrilling engineering tale. (A)

Uplift standing desk. Still getting used to it, but I like being able to alternate between sitting and standing. (B+)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I read the Simon Armitage translation to the kids as our bedtime story over the course of a few weeks. The English epic was not the fan favorite that Harry Potter or the Odyssey were. (B)

The Departed. Probably not the best Scorsese film but perhaps my favorite? (A)

Desktop Tower Defense. I still love this game. (A-)

Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris. A bracing history of how humans learned where and when we are in the universe. (B+)

They Shall Not Grow Old. The restoration & colorization brought World War I right into the present, but I found myself wondering if all the digital editing & sound effects crossed the line into fiction. (B+)

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Shoplifters. What does "family" mean in the 21st century? Watching this made me think of this story about older Japanese women purposefully shoplifting in order to go to jail. (A)

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. I had no idea going in that this movie was exactly about my family: an older boy (who likes space battles) and younger girl (who likes Friends and parties) who struggle to play Legos together under constant threat of me chucking all of them into the trash if they don't stop fighting. They nailed it, right down to the crack about Radiohead's music being depressing...every time I play RH in the car, I hear a chorus of boos from the back seat. (A-)

The Mule. I don't know who this movie is for or why I went to see it. (D+)

Minding the Gap. You might think this is about how skateboarding binds three friends together. And it is! But it's also about the compounding debt of domestic violence, toxic masculinity, and economic depression in America. My sole complaint is that it could easily have been 30 minutes longer. (A)

Classic Doctor Who marathon on Twitch. Nothing makes me more nostalgic for my childhood than old episodes of Doctor Who. I may have over-indulged in this marathon. (B+)

You Were Never Really Here. Excellent direction, music, and sound design. (B+)

Widows. Fun ensemble thriller. (B+)

Burning. Engaging but the slow burn was a bit too slow. I also watched this in a terrible theater and my opinion might have been different if the quality were better. (B+)

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If Beale Street Could Talk. Beautifully filmed romantic dread. I didn't know whether to feel happy or sad at the end. (A-)

Russian Doll. Groundhog Day adjacent. Natasha Lyonne is mesmerizing. (B+)

Killing Eve. Was I supposed to hate both of the very annoying main characters? And why is everyone so incompetent at their jobs? Villanelle is so sloppy and arrogant she would never have gotten away with one murder, let alone a dozen. I don't think this show is for me, but I can see why others like it. (B-)

The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. A re-read...burned through all three books in a week, by far the most concentrated reading I've done in years. (A)

Crazy Rich Asians. A rewatch. I'm not suggesting this should be up for Best Picture at the Oscars or anything, but this movie deserves some end-of-the-year recognition as a romantic comedy that also did some heavy thematic lifting without being either frivolous or overbearing. The filmmakers hit it just right. (A-)

Heat. This is Allen Iverson's favorite movie. No one chews scenery like Pacino in this movie. Wow. (B+)

Past installments of my media diet are available here.

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vdoesbookrecs · 6 years ago

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Timeless Tomes #1 - The Graveyard Book

Blurb: It takes a graveyard to raise a child.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He wouldn’t be completely normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy - an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack - who has already killed Bod’s family.

The Graveyard Book, a modern classic, is the only work ever to win both the Newbery (US) and Carnegie (UK) Medals.

Some general info: I bought this book having read it before, and, knowing I liked the content, thus splurged on the hardcover with illustrations by Dave McKean (ISBN: 978 0 06 266703 8), which is an action that I would highly recommend. Age-recommendation-wise: It says ‘ages 10 and up’ in very small print on the upper left corner of the jacket. The thing is 4 cm thick though, so I’d maybe have a bit of a think before giving this to an actual 10 year olds, who, in my experience, don’t really have the attention spans needed to read a 300 page novel.

What’s this book about? As the blurb states, this book is about Bod, full name Nobody Owens, who’s childhood home is a graveyard. Bod was adopted my Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who are ghosts, the night his parents and older sister were murdered by the man Jack. As he grows up and learns more about the graveyard and its inhabitants, he also begins to realise the dangers that lie beyond the walls, and that he cannot stay with the dead forever. Also there is a giant conspiracy going on which is the real reason Bod’s family was murdered, there is a dead witch who can do magic beyond the grave, and the Sleer and the Indigo Man are way cooler and scarier than the blurb makes them sound.

How I came across this book: When I was maybe fifteen, I went to the library and, me being in the middle of my ‘edgy’ phase, checked out the only book in the y/a section that wasn’t a) pink, b) Harry Potter, or c) about some person being the chosen one and subsequently finding themselves in a love triangle. This book then sat on the arm of our couch for about two months and stayed there, untouched, until we got a notice from the library about outstanding fees and if we could maybe bring back the twenty books that were due back three weeks ago that would also be great. It was then decided that there would be a trip to town the next day and, naturally, that’s when I picked it up and fell in love. A thing about me: I have a terrible, terrible, memory for titles and names. A thing about the library in my town: Finding a thing once doesn’t mean you’ll find it again, it just means you might, if you’re lucky, have gotten a general idea of where to look. I didn’t see that book again for years. Skip forward to June 2017. I, having recently been gifted with about $ 50 worth of gift cards, am browsing the Thalia website and come across Good Omens, which I like so much I look up the authors. And lo and behold, what do I find? The long lost literary love of my life. Since that day, I think I have reread The Graveyard Book at least three times, recommended it to everyone who has ever asked me anything about books, and even gotten some of my family to read it at least once. Every time I open it, it seems as though I discover something new. It’s like a painting that you can look at for hours, just soaking in the details, and every time you tilt your head the whole thing changes. What never changes though is the special place this story holds in my heart. If there was a fire at my house this book would probably be the first thing I would grab.

The best things about this book are…

….the lovable characters.

….the subtle references to various folk tales and urban legends.

….how, whenever a new ghost is introduced, the first thing we get to know about them is what they have written on their tombstone.

….the unbelievably peaceful tone, despite heavy themes.

….the main character, Bod, who is... simply wonderful in every way.

How can I make my already phenomenal reading experience even better? Get yourself the illustrated edition (trust me, it’s worth it) and maybe give the author’s reading a go. Now, I’m really not one for audio books- once I’ve listened to someone else read a book I usually have trouble getting their voice out of my head when I’m reading on my own, and I’ve had a lot of books ruined for me that way. Also, my mother, who has probably listened to every audiobook there is, ever, and can therefore be seen as an authority on the subject, is strongly averse to author’s readings - she says most authors are better writers than they are readers. But this? This is the One Big Exception. Mr. Gaiman not only reads very well, he also reads with a lot of love for his story and his characters. The voices are amazing, the tempo is just right, and you get the feeling you’re sat around a fire with all the people you love, listening to someone tell the best story you’ve ever heard. That is, in my opinion, what all audio books and live reading should strive to be like.

#The Graveyard Book #Neil Gaiman #book review #Book Recommendations #book rec #book #books #bookblr #timeless tomes #reading

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swansvng · 6 years ago

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MUSE FACTS collection from old blogs .

some small jo facts:

she runs away whenever people become too important to her. she fears that she’ll ruin them or hurt them? she’s not above cheating tbh like if she’s upset, she’ll take comfort in anyone’s arms. she’s just a really sensual girl who enjoys intimacy and nsfw things??

Jo as a child was actually really emotionless . She was a perfect little soldier , never questioned her father’s orders . He’d aim a gun , she’d pull the trigger . No remorse , no hesitation was his teachings whenever it took to her job as a hunter . It wasn’t until after she started inheriting her grandmother’s machines that her soul began to fracture under the stress , causing her personality to warp and an almost dual-persona appear . Jo is a very carefree type of girl when her sister is alive . She’s able to be the brat of the family that blows off responsibilities because Ruth takes care of the household ? And all she gotta do is care for the siblings which she’s happy to do . They’re already wealthy so Jo basically works for free at a lot of places because she just ?? loves helping people After Ruth’s death , jo becomes more cautious . She becomes very defensive and a tad overbearing to her sisters ( because they’re all she has left ) . She matures quickly , much like she once was when she was a child . Her emotions are contained and her personal issues are hidden beneath a calm veil . She’s strict with the girls and pushes them to pursue education and every other dream they have .

frankie fun fact . his main chara song that I found would have to be “fools” by troye sivan .

because I can’t remember if I’ve made an official post about Jo’s verses or not , I’ll make one now . For DGM , there are 3 options : exorcist , neutral , noah .

for her exorcist verse , Jo may have the power of innocence , depending on the thread . otherwise , she sides with the exorcists in hopes of saving humanity . if she does inherit innocence , it’s a beastial type . her dragon , Golithe , is her weapon . more details will be developed later . for her neutral verse , Jo fights for all the beings that are thrown by the wayside in the holy war . she tries to find a way to save the lost souls . she fights for the monsters that lurk in the shadows : werewolves , vampires , ghouls , ghosts , && others . for her noah verse , Jo sides with the power of noah . she finds the order to be vile , full of corruption && definitely in need of destruction ( she aims to hunt down the higher ups , such as Lenny && the director Leviere ) . she pities the exorcists , && wants to save them from the order . here’s how she would be applied :

the world , before its creation , was made up of only two beings : light , and darkness . there was no life or death , no souls , no earth , no war . light eventually created the first world , which was later destroyed by the darkness . he tries again , && every time , darkness won .

until light created the world where the DGM universe existed . the light became known as God , a being that brought life to the world . first , he made the archangels ; Michael ( Jo’s father ) , Raphael , && Lucifer ( God’s favorite son ) . then , the darkness is sealed away within Lucifer , putting an end to the destruction of life . the four horsemen are born from Adam && Eve’s first sin , whereas there was no death or pain prior . grigori are born , then become corrupt due to the influx of sin ; around this time is when Big Mama , the creature that watches over Jo’s family , is born . she is a gryphon , regulator of souls && overseer of grim reapers ( who are born under Death’s hand ) . syrandrasti , born from the giants , are created alongside man . giants are beings now called nephiliam , half-human && half-grigori angel .

Big Mama notices the eventual ruin of man following the death of Abel && the damnation of Caine , Lucifer sealed away && hell rising . she chooses a human , who later becomes Josie’s grandmother , to help regulate the evil in the world . they are a chink in the world’s natural process : upon her grandmother’s death ( akin to that of Noah , where another soul inhabits her grandmother’s body while coinciding with her grandmother’s soul ) , her original soul is shattered . this becomes known as innocence .

following the fall of Lucifer , God leaves heaven in dismay . he tries to purify the world through the beginning of the crusade . Noah’s ark , the death of the giants , the first legion of angels are killed && the world is cleansed . but he lost control of the Noah , && over the innocence that won . he disappears , && leaves heaven to his first two sons , Michael && Raphael .

Raphael pushes support toward the crusade , believing that Father made himself to be “the heart” , so once the “heart” is found , then God would return . He cared little about the humans that would die , the souls that would suffer : he would do anything to bring Father home .

Michael is different . He is a soldier that awaits Father’s return , not wanting to become part of the crusades . He later mates with Josie’s mother , bearing children with her . Heaven is enraged , && in an attempt to appease his supporters , he pushes his children to become soldiers as well . To fight && live && die for heaven . To search for a solution to the crusades . To kill humans who become too powerful , to destroy monsters that may hinder the process of the crusades && finding Father .

Jo NSFW trivia that nobody asked for

she’s not a virgin . sorry to break it to you , but she’s a rather promiscuous girl. she had lost her virginity rather early - maybe too early , to a girl a few years older than her . she doesn’t honestly practice safe-sex - normally , no condoms are used . she basically assumes she’s infertile ( on account of several miscarriages ) or unable to carry a child full term . in modern verse , she’s on the pill . she does not have diseases : she’s been lucky thus far to not contract anything and she does not carry anything either she’s very demanding , and sexually adventurous . she has a very high libido that few partners can keep up with . she enjoys ‘ surprise ’ sex – when she’s asleep , if her partner begins rubbing against her , she’ll likely be ready to go right into it . her breasts are her most tender part of her , and most of her stimulation comes orally through pleasing her partner ( oral sex is a m u s t for her or she will ditch her partner ). another soft spot is her shoulder blades , where her wings rest . when she orgasms , her wings will appear and spread out when she cries out her partner’s name she loves mood music , candles , rosepetals - but she’s not afraid to do it basically anywhere ?? and she’ll instigate it , especially if her partner is uptight about their sex life . she’ll honestly hop in bed with people she’s attracted to - she’s the sleep on the first date type . no shame in that , but if her partner is disappointing then she’ll never call back lmao . she’s done anal before ?? didn’t care for it much but if her partner likes it then she’ll be down ?? to please them ?? 99% of the time she’s wearing lingerie under her clothes . another thing she does is go commando every so often - even in dresses . she loves going without a bra or stockings so if anyone saw her then wel p they’re getting a sho w . she’s a sexual performer on the weekends !! she enjoys stripping and just PERFORMING for other people . she loves leading people on , make them quiver for her . in the early stages of relationships , she’ll tease the HELL out of her partner like ?? cuddle her ?? she’s braless ?? spank h e r for being naughty and teasing you so heartlessly . she’ll probably call her partner some sort of nsfw nickname like d.addy or m.om.my. don’t test her - she’ll do it and not feel ashamed honestly Jo is just a sexual creature and there’s ?? no shame in that . she loves performing and pleasing her partners to the MAX . just try to keep up with her sexual needs and she’ll m a r r y you .

Jo has four elder siblings: Theodore (”Teddy”; age 30), Walter (”Wally”; age 28), Charles (”Charlie”; age 25), and Minerva (”Minella”; age 22). Then comes Ruth (”Raci”, in reference to her middle name being Iracebeth; elder twin), Jo (”Mirana”, in reference to her middle name; younger twin). Finally are the two youngest, Hunter (”Honey”; age 6) and Maxine (”Max”; age 3). Teddy, Wally, Charlie, and Minella are all deceased. Teddy died from prolonged illness, Wally and Charlie died from the war, and Minella was murdered by her fiance because she tried to leave him (he was abusive and an alcoholic, believed women were property and didn’t like being the bad guy - Jo later murders him when she was thirteen). Jo and Ruth still struggle from their deaths, as do their mother and father (who are both absent from the girls’ lives). They take care of their younger sisters. Shortly after Minerva’s death, their mother Lucilla leaves the dukedom. Their father never left heaven afterward, only sending projects for Jo to complete through messenger angels. Ruth, as the elder twin, became the successor to the dukedom. She was raised like a flower child - taught how to play piano, sing, write poetry, and embroider. She wasn’t bred for hard work; that was left for Jo. Ruth’s prime weapon would be guns and knives, both of which are strapped to her thighs at all time. She’s also taken most of her power from her mother, a witch. Her voice is enchanted. Jo was later taught how to hunt monsters and kill, learned how to heal bodies, and perfected her soul-capturing abilities. She was discouraged from learning any form of feminine activity, but she still plays violin and practices ballet. Her prime weapon would be archery and swordsmanship, though she can be a talented sharpshooter. Jo later becomes the doctor and hunter for the dukedom, abolishing any pests (like banshees, demons, or ghosts, ect.,) from disturbing the tenants. Because of the constant strain of power spewing from either twin, they get sick very easily; Jo’s heart is very weak and is susceptible to blackouts. Ruth will often get horrible migraines, suffer from muscle weakness, and bruises easily. Jo is losing her memory and her body is dying quickly; Ruth is desperately searching for a way to keep Jo’s body from completely failing her. It is suspected that Jo will not live past her nineteenth birthday.

she has two sets of wings : one large set , and a smaller set underneath the top set . Her wings expand outwards and are quite large in comparison to her body . but they are soft , silky , and sensitive . she never reveals her wings to just anyone : she must really trust the person if they can see them . she’ll let them touch the wings , but it’s a very intimate act for her. she’ll feel the slightest graze of fingertips as if her skin was being touched . her wing pattern is unique to only to arch angels .

Winny’s voice claim will be Troye Sivan , especially whenever he sings .

Frankie’s voice claim is possibly the Lumineer’s lead vocalist , Wesley Shultz .

jo’s sister’s trivia:

her sisters are more human , mainly taking after their mother . they have powers like their sister , Ruth . Hunter’s main power lies in that she can shapeshift into a kitten , later into a full grown cat as she grows up . whenever excited , she’ll shift by accident . she also uses this form to comfort Max whenever she’s upset . Max is known as a “soundproof” , a person who cannot hear the voices of living beings . she can hear music , instrumental versions , and singers who have passed away . but once she hears someone she knows , she will throw a fit . Max is haunted by the voices of the dead , causing her to stay up for days and nights , throwing fits because the voices she can hear aren’t very kind , and they’re very scary Hunter’s other powers lie in her fingertips , her blood enchanted just like Jo’s . her voice is not quite as charmed as Ruth’s , so she can have childish fits where she’ll tell people to go away and they won’t be harmed . Both girls take after Jo as a child , and look very similarly to her as well . Hunter has gotten into fights with other girls in her school before . Hunter likes to protect and watch over Max , who she says she is responsible for .

AT NIGHT , JO WASN’T SUPPOSED to leave the house alone . For the first few years of life , she never could go outside at all . She could only watch the weather from her windows , up high in a tower with ancient sigils marking the walls . Ruth would read to her novels about magical places , about the sky , about mankind and how they will never fully belong . And oh , how she ached for it all .

When Ruth fell asleep , the younger child sneaks outside , quietly creeping through the halls until she reached the door , opening and shutting it behind her . All around was the garden she adored , the flowers blooming in the early spring and the air was still chilly . She wore no shoes , only her night dress . All around her , small orbs began to form , souls drawn to her essence . Some took shape – children with ruddy faces , older men with kind eyes , mothers with gentle smiles .

And she’s drawn away , into the woods , to follow these spirits as her voice began to sing for them . She went missing for a few days , until she was found in town by some demons . Friends’ of her mother had found her , protected her from being stolen away or killed . But she wouldn’t apologize for any of it . Frankie: DEATH . IT WAS SUPPOSED TO mean the end of everything ; however , with his death came life , and a rather happy one at that . Now he had a family , sisters to watch out for , an annoying kid brother ( Winter ) to help train for combat . He had a darling love interest , he had it all .

But Frankie could never shut down the feelings that haunted him , the voices that greeted him upon dying the first time . When he closes his eyes , that comforting sensation washes over him . Death was finalized , it was peaceful and no one but him could understand it .

He’s learned through the years that death meant different things for different people . For some , it was heaven . For others , hell . Purgatory . Limbo . But for him , it meant vast emptiness . Just a cool , black void where there was no pain or thought or sound . Just a vacuum in space . And there were others , like he was in the middle of space and they were all stars , they were a sight for him to focus on , like he was sky gazing .

Clearing his throat , Frankie is unable to meet Alyss’s eyes . Instead , he focuses on the marble flooring of the house , one hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck . “ … No . I don’t want to die , ” he was lying .

A pause .

His lips purse , his head turning to look behind him . When confident that it was only him and her , he turns back to her , his voice lowering . “ Actually … I do . I died once , a long time ago , and I shouldn’t be standing here today if it weren’t for Josie . However , ever since then , I could never shake the feeling I had when I did die . I can wait for it , because its an eternal promise for me , and that’s comforting . When it is the end for me , I will accept it wholeheartedly . Until then , I’m staying alive for my family . ” jo trivia;

she is a cheater. point blank. she will have affairs with other people while in a relationship. often, its because she’s not getting something she craves (attention, love, sex, ect). but its so hard for her to actually /end/ relationships. more often than not, she won’t end the relationship – she’ll just disappear completely. she won’t call back, she’ll change her number. she’ll change her address. she’ll move towns and completely leave them behind. it hurts, but she can’t bring herself to end it completely.

some angelic trivia ;;

before the creation of heaven and hell , there were 3 beings : Light (God), Dark (Amara), and Gray (Mama) Mama helped create both God and Amara . she was there for their creation , watching over them and lovingly helping them form physical beings Mama takes the form of a gryphon , and she primarily stays in the clouds . Mama controls the flow of souls - sending them to heaven , hell , purgatory , or leaving them on earth beneath her are the Four Horsemen , who promote Death beneath Death are the shinigami or grim reapers the rest of this can be found on a different post lma o

fun fact ; when Jo dies , she’ll cease to exist completely . any surviving memory of her will disappear as if she never was born .

if someone prays to Jo , she will hear them and come straight away .

Josie’s powers are very unique. She is one of the few beings (other than reapers and deities, angels, and demons) that can see souls. She can see the approximate length of time that they live or die, but its flexible as fate is flexible as well. One minute, your lifespan is 80 years and the next, its 5 minutes if you piss a guy off in a bar.

For the Kuro verse, I’m still tinkering around. What I have thus far, however, is this: once a reaper loses their “job” or retires, they cannot revive or retrieve souls. Their sythe stops being as effective, allowing them to SEE people’s cinematic record but they’re unable to do anything about it. They can’t collect the soul, revive the soul - nothing.

Currently, my idea is that Undertaker has too much time on his hands. And he loved the Phantomhives so much. . . so he’s trying to mimic Jo’s technique without asking her. What he thinks she does and what she actually does is a mystery to reapers and angels alike; its a secret that has been hidden from public view for thousands of years when her grandmother would perform it.

This is where things get a little graphic, so continue at your own risk.

Alright, so here’s how Jo does it:

First, she finds a dying person. The person has to fear death, and want to continue living either subconsciously or consciously. This could be someone who was recently shot and she’s operating on them, or it’s a human who has died a little while ago but hasn’t been collected yet. Then, she gathers the body and takes it from the scene, using her grace to transport her quickly from point A to point B. She opens the body if there’s no obvious cause of death (like if it was a heart attack) and repairs it using metal. She is calm, emotionless, and diligent. Her eyes are a slate gray, perhaps even bursting to flame. She’s incredibly strong at the moment, so few people want to be near her in this state. She peels away the flesh and muscle, reconnecting the bones with metal parts. She carefully sews it back up, ensuring that the body can begin breathing again. Here is where it gets a little hairy, where she won’t reveal her secrets… but she uses her own blood to replace the blood that was lost. She then retrieves the soul, sewing it back into the flesh and wires via magic. If the soul takes to the body - the person is alive, but both of them are weak now. Jo has now given the sacrifice: a piece of her own soul, a shard if you will. Now, a shred of an angel’s soul is maybe worth a bit more than a human’s soul, but she doesn’t get all of it. She gets pieces of the human soul, putting bits of herself into it to make it whole again. Even then, this isn’t guaranteed to work. It takes hours of work, but if it was successful, the person wakes up. They’re scared, screaming ( its logical because people scream when entering the world when they are born, so they may scream when they’re leaving it - even if it is silent and soft ). It hurts, everywhere. The shock of being dead and suddenly being alive again is immense. She’ll greet them, calmly. She’s exhausted, hurting all over ( like she’s given birth… because she sorta does give life ) and possibly bleeding. However, she’ll clean up for her client, not wanting to scare them. Now that they are connected physically, emotionally, and spiritually, they can sense her pain and her fear. They will know she is exhausted, and she will know how they feel. Memories of their death should not be present after waking up - this is important. Once they wake up, they will act like they hadn’t died. That their death was a nightmare, and Jo is the nurse caring for them. Over time, she will tell them the truth: over time is the key phrase. If she tells them immediately, the shock may rip the soul from the body. They may overreact and become hostile and angry, becoming a monster ( which she will have to later dispose of ). They will have questions, but they will be sleepy. They will be hungry and tired and so, so… everywhere. They’ll have to go to the restroom, will feel minor discomfort as their body adjusts to the new parts. She will bat away the fears, comforting them. There should be a warm connection of safety after a while. The connection is weak. She cannot go more than ten feet from them or else they will start to remember and hurt - over time, they can be farther from each other. This happens over a time period of months or even years. It isn’t immediate. Should the person pass the threshold, their most painful memories will return. The agony of their death, like loss of feeling in their fingertips to feeling cold from blood loss: everything will be ten times more overwhelming because the soul is freshly mended and recreated. The body will feel like it is falling apart, and if the wound is worse enough, then it will fall apart. Loss of humanity comes next. Pain is still present, agony is present: but they stop caring. The things they enjoyed, the people they loved… they will become bitter, and cruel. They will want to kill them, everyone. They will want to kill Jo, too. At this point, if she lets it go this far, Jo will kill them. She does not get those pieces of her soul back, but she will remember their memories more than she will her own. Final stage: death in its cruelest degree. The body will stop responding, the soul will begin to detach itself. The person will feel fear that they are being failed, their bloodlust turning into bittersweet envy. They will damn Jo, cuss her out. They will feel their bodies begin to melt away. They will die, and be fully conscious of it. Old wounds will return ( like if they were stabbed, the wound will open up again ) and they will die a second time. But Jo cannot wake them after this… all she can do is bury them and mourn. Now that Jo has given them a large chunk of herself, if successful, they can see into her. They can feel her when she’s hurting, when she’s scared. She can feel their emotions too, when they are hurting and when they are hungry. It is like a tunnel has connected the two souls because it literally is.

For those who are unruly and violently angry, Jo will do whatever she can to keep them safe. If not careful, the person will become a monster, one that loses their humanity. Loss of humanity means loss of love, gratitude, compassion. They could kill anyone and anything in their path, much like a Bizarre Doll or a Soulless on Supernatural.

Jo does these things because she wants to help them, because she loves them, because she knows she can save a life. She willingly surrenders parts of herself for others, wanting them to live with her. And, after a while, without her. When she finds the next Machanique, she will pass them on before fading to ash. It will take decades, maybe centuries, before she finds the next heir.

Update: if the person hates Jo afterward, it is fine. It is if they initially hate her is when things are concerning. They do not need to love each other - they need to tolerate each other. They should be comfortable with one another, its like having someone to share your deepest feelings with. Its a connection that few will understand but those who do will enjoy it, even if they aren’t on the best of terms.

Jo is actually quite flexible, in her modern verse being a cheerleader. She was a flier, could do tricks mid-air, and complete a full split. Jo sleeps with other people for her comfort, she hates sleeping alone. When she does fall asleep, she’s holding onto their hands and completely cuddles into them. She waits for them to wake up before she leaves, patting their cheeks gently until they rise. Jo often sleeps beside Frankie, actually! The two share a bed quite often. He knows she needs someone to hold onto, so he volunteers. While they snooze, her sisters Max and Hunter crawl into bed with them. Ruth is married: Jo is not. Ruth has been married for about 2-3 years now, after Jo had left for war. There was no ceremony, just vows exchanged. They are waiting to have a real wedding. Ruth later leaves to join the war in search of her sister and is enlisted to document the monstrosities ( she’s a journalist, a published author, and is avid about documentation ). Ruth remembers everything that Jo doesn’t remember, which is a lot. Jo is prone to running away. She will join circuses for a few months, perform with them, and then she’ll run off to do something else. She enjoys being part of the lower class - she finds them less rigid than nobles, more interesting. She also paints on people a lot, on walls, inside of carriages, on animals… she will paint on anything and anyone that she comes across. Its her favorite thing to do when stuck inside. Jo went to a private school while Ruth was tutored at home ( she would come attend small classes, like art classes or journalism, but no core subjects ). She later quits school, much to Ruth’s chagrin. The two argue incessantly about her going back ( she’s already raised to be a doctor and a prothstetician, she doesn’t understand how learning about math will help with it ).

Trivium; Edalina

Eda is a creature known as a Swanette, a species of human that can become birds. She has the ability to turn into - you guessed it - a Swan. Her feathers are completely white, and she looks extremely elegant while in that form. She can manipulate time and create small pockets in between the fabric of time and space - these are called “nests” or “loops”. She was supposed to succeed her mother, a Swan who runs an orphanage of peculiar children, but she rejected that life and ran away. Her parents are both extremely wealthy and never spent time with her, so why should she care for people who loved abandoned children more than their own?

Eda has a severe attitude problem, as many have seen in their interaction with her. I blame this on the idea that Swans are very well guarded and seclusive animals ( this is just my idea of them, not backed by anything legit ). Eda is rather small for her species, and her body is quite soft and smooth. Her hair is soft and feather-like, but full of volume and thick. She doesn’t have thin hair by any means.

Internally, she’s very kind. She used to be a child who was very sickly and kept indoors where she would prepare things for her mother when she came home. These things always were overshadowed by the demands of work and her affair ( yep, that’s right, Eda was born in a broken home paired with two parents who didn’t love each other and argued constantly in front of her ). Eda was raised primarily by her grandmother, who fostered the idea that Eda was a special little girl.

At an early age, Eda loved photographs and ice skating, dancing and the arts. She would write plays to perform for her parents ( who never actually watched her, just patted her head after looking up from their books or phones and said ‘good job honey’ ). She was taught that love doesn’t exist, and if you show that love ( like her Grand Mammy would show affection toward her emotionless daughter and be later mocked for it ) then you’re pretty much asking for abuse.

She’s a very smart and bright girl, raised with the STEM ideals with a heavy focus on math and science. But she didn’t care about either of these things; she wanted to be in the liberal arts field and enjoy life. This… did not go over well with her parents, or her Grand Mammy. After a semester in a highly esteemed college, Eda drops out and bolts, leaving her home completely. She never returns their calls, and keeps using the family bank card to fund her actions.

Her parents don’t know she’s gone, but her Grand Mammy does. She’s sought desperately for her granddaughter until she fell ill one night and passed away. Eda doesn’t know this yet, but she also knows. Its one of those instances where you are aware of a certain outcome without being told about it, and once it is actually said aloud then it will be more painful.

#❝ ﹣♕ 🇪��🇦🇱🇮🇳🇦 - 🇹🇭🇪 🇸🇼🇦🇳 .#❝ ﹣ ☆ 🇪🇱🇮🇴🇹🇹 - 🇹🇭🇪 🇨🇴🇸🇲🇮🇨 .#❝ ﹣ ♚ 🇫🇷🇦🇳🇰🇮🇪 - 🇹🇭🇪 🇸🇴🇱🇩🇮🇪🇷 .#❝ ﹣ ℂ 🇯🇴 - 🇹🇭🇪 🇸🇭🇦🇹🇹🇪🇷🇪🇩 .#❝ ﹣ ❅ 🇼🇮🇳🇹🇪🇷 - 🇹🇭🇪 🇫🇮🇬🇭🇹🇪🇷 .#❝ ﹣ ᴛɪᴠɪᴜᴍ .#( group trivia )

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kenkamishiro · 7 years ago

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re:quest [tension] - chapter 5

This is the last chapter of “tension”. It’s been lots of fun translating it, and though it’s been difficult, I’ve learned a lot from it. The next short story I’m planning on translating is “quinquies”, the short story featuring Saiko and the Qs. It’ll be a while before that story will be out though because of my schedule. Anyways, thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoyed “tension” as much as I did!

For those who haven’t read “tension”, the short story about the CCG art festival, you can read chapter 1 here. Enjoy!

(Thank you @tokyo-ghoul-out-of-context for proofreading.)

Today was the day of the art festival. The convention centre located in the same ward as the CCG main office was showing a turnout unseen in previous years. All sorts of paintings, sculptures, pottery and the like were on display, with the outstanding art that had won awards organized based on the colour of their attached ribbons.

In the midst of it all, Urie was gazing at the red ribbon for the highest honour that was attached to his own painting.

“...(Of course it would go to me.)”

Urie, who had been an Academy scholarship student and had graduated top of his class, was continuing to pile on achievements. The people around him had been praising him for being outstanding even in his hobbies. Though he had been furious as to why all the Qs had won some sort of award, but he was the only one who had been able to win the highest honour that so few could achieve.

“...Urie.”

“...(So you’re here.)”

Everything that Urie had done was to show the overwhelming difference between him and this man. He turned around and faced Takeomi.

“Congrats on getting the highest honour.”

“It’s not really a big deal. (Take that!)”

“No, what you said was absolutely true. Art isn’t something you can just make in a day,” Takeomi said to Urie as he observed his painting.

Usually Urie would get irritated whenever Takeomi complimented him, but today was different. Takeomi was a human who couldn’t appreciate anything related to art. He just couldn’t compare to Urie, and that made Urie feel good.

“So, how did you do? (Do you even get an award for participating?)” Urie asked nastily.

“I got an honourable mention,” Takeomi said.

“...honourable mention?”

A sense of dread filled his chest for a moment from his unexpected words.

Honourable mention? You of all people? How?

It’s just an honourable mention, Urie told himself. There was no reason for him to care about it. But his heart continued to race.

“It was all because of your advice. Thanks.”

“There’s no need to thank me. (I don’t remember giving him advice. What the hell is he talking about? Did he just try to copy me and paint something?)”

He felt a sense of discomfort crawling along his body like a bug. Takeomi, with no knowledge of how Urie was feeling, said, “I’ll see you later then,” and prepared to leave.

“Bujin, I just saw your art! It’s so cool!” a lively voice jumped in. Itou Kuramoto, whose eyes always appeared to be closed, ran in, followed by Michibata Shinji, whose notable features were his sideburns and lower eyelashes. Those two men were in the same squad as Takeomi as his seniors, and it looked like they had just seen Takeomi’s artwork.

“How’d you transport that thing up here!? But first I wanna hear about how you got the materials for it!”

“...(How you transported it? Materials?)”

It seemed that Takeomi had made something quite unique.

“I took my father’s car and went up to the mountains.”

“...!? (Mountains!?)”

Why did he have to go the mountains?

“When Kuramocchan looked up at the thing you made, he was just starin’ at it with his mouth gapin’ wide open!”

“...(Looked up at!?)”

“Ignore him! It reminded Micchi of sports festivals, and he was so excited that he wanted to climb the thing!”

“(Sports festival!? Climb!?)” Urie thought as he watched Takeomi being complimented by his two seniors.

“(No, this doesn’t mean anything, they’re in the same squad...it’s like getting compliments from your family…!)”

Thinking about it, Urie didn’t think he could stand being there any longer. He began walking quickly away from Takeomi and his squadmates toward another area of the hall.

“(What the hell did you make, Kuroiwa Takeomi? You don’t have an inkling of what art is supposed to be. There’s no need for me to worry about this. Yeah, I’m just going to look at your crappy artwork so I can laugh at it…)”

And then Urie heard voices saying, “Did you see what Kuroiwa made?” The voices didn’t belong to Itou and Michibata, but to investigators that Takeomi didn’t interact with. Urie chased after what those investigators were looking at.

“...!?”

Despite the crowd of people surrounding the artwork, Urie could clearly see it.

“A totem pole…(a totem pole)”

It was around three metres tall. From the rough carvings it was obvious that it was made by an amateur, but it still left a huge impact on everyone. Realizing that his jaw had dropped, flabbergasted at what he was seeing, Urie closed his lips in a fluster.

He thought about why Takeomi would have made something like this, and then he finally remembered.

...instead of using a delicate tool like a paintbrush, why don’t you make something out of wood instead?

Despite Urie having said that sarcastically, Takeomi had taken his comment to heart.

“Just like I expected from Kuroiwa.”

“He really is different from everyone.”

Appreciation for Takeomi was entering Urie’s ears, which was what he hated hearing the most.

“(This is why I hate that bastard!)”

Urie gritted his teeth and left the hall.

After Urie had left, two women were standing in front of the totem pole.

“Madam!”

Recognizing one of the women, Gori Misato, a tall investigator with a beauty mark on the middle of her forehead, rushed over to her. Misato had worked under Special Class Investigator Kuroiwa Iwao and had participated in the 11th ward Special Countermeasures Unit created to deal with Aogiri, and the Owl Suppression Operation in the 20th ward.

“Hello, Misato-san.”

The woman who gave Misato a smile was Iwao’s wife and Takeomi’s mother. She had married at a young age, so she didn’t look like someone who would have a twenty-year-old son. Her appearance was a contrast to Iwao’s, whose bulk and stability made him look much older.

“It’s been a while, madam.”

“Thank you for always helping my husband.”

“Don’t mention it! Your son’s efforts are quite remarkable.” Misato looked up at the towering totem pole.

“I’ve also heard about your great efforts from my husband.”

“Oh dear...I don’t really have much though.” Misato was happy that her boss that she respected so much said that about her, but she decided to act humbly.

“Did you come here to see what Special Class Kuroiwa and your son made? Special Class Kuroiwa’s platter was quite splendid.”

Iwao had lost his left arm, but he was still working as an investigator. She couldn’t imagine how he had made the platter with just his right hand.

“No,” Kuroiwa’s wife said, shaking her head. “I came here today to meet Shinohara-san’s wife.”

Misato saw the woman standing next to Kuroiwa’s wife. The wife of Shinohara Yukinori, who was also known as the “Indomitable Shinohara”, showed a smile strong to the core.

“You are...Special Class Shinohara’s wife?” Misato bowed her head.

“I heard that Juuzou’s art was being exhibited, so I came here to see it.”

Shinohara had collapsed, and it had been a long time since he had regained consciousness, but to this day his wife and Juuzou continued to interact.

“I believe Suzuya Juuzou’s art is at the centre of the hall. It’s next to Mikage Miyuki’s crop circle made of origami cranes.”

Shinohara’s wife contemplated Misato’s directions. “I was trying to find it, to be honest. Thank you,” she said gratefully. And after a few more words, Misato split off from the two women.

“...”

As Misato stared at the retreating backs of the women who continued to support their investigator husbands, she let out a breath, having remembered Amon Koutarou, the man she had long yearned for.

Amon had a strong sense of justice, was outstanding in his work and had a promising future. However, he was said to have died in the 20th ward Owl Operation, though his body hadn’t been found. Misato still didn’t think that he was dead.

“Misato.”

She had been thinking about Amon so intensely, that she jumped when someone called her name.

“What’s with you standing there and spacing out?”

Mado Akira was the one who called out to Misato. Akira was younger and had graduated later than Misato, but she always spoke to Misato in an informal manner. This hadn’t changed even after Mado surpassed Misato in rank.

“...I was talking to Special Class Kuroiwa and Shinohara’s wives just now.”

“They’ve come here? I should greet them.”

Some things hadn’t changed, but there were some things that had, such as Akira’s concern for her surroundings. Misato didn’t know if it was because she was in a position where she had to lead her subordinates, or if it was because Sasaki and the Qs that were assigned to her had made her like this.

“I’ll be off then.”

“Yeah…”

Akira turned her back on her. It was a delicate back carrying heavy responsibilities.

“...Mado Akira.”

“Yeah?”

Without realizing it Misato had called out to Akira.

Akira was an excellent investigator with a deep knowledge of quinques who always kept calm. From now there would be more future female investigators who would look up to her. But Misato knew that underneath her calm exterior was a torrent of emotions. She knew because Akira had cried for Amon Koutarou and her classmate Takizawa Seidou.

“...”

Previously at the Auction Cleanup Operation, a mysterious ghoul had suddenly appeared and wreaked havoc on the investigators. No one in Misato’s vicinity talked about that unexpected incident, but it left behind an ominous feeling.

“...Misato?”

Akira had been stopped, and she watched as Misato was unable to get her words out. “What do you need?” she asked, tilting her head. She scoffed, putting her hand on her lips as she watched Misato.

“You don’t have anything to say, yet if you have the time to stop people, lead me to where the Special Classes’ wives are. I’ll show you a delicious curry shop as my thanks.”

In a convoluted way, Akira had invited Misato for lunch.

“How does that sound?”

Akira smiled. Misato blew air from her nose, and stood next to Akira.

“Follow me.”

“My pleasure.”

People were cheerfully looking at the exhibits, walking and laughing with their colleagues. These people, who fought as investigators, had looks of enjoyment on their faces.

Hairu was weaving through these people, slowly, walking alone.

Highest honour, high honour, honourable mention. The artwork that had won these awards had ribbons attached to them. She stood in front of her drawing that she had carefully coloured with her coloured pencils. She stared at the blue ribbon next to her name. A ribbon for high honour.

“And I thought I was gonna get praised a lot for it too.”

Hairu hadn’t gotten the Special Adjudicator award, the only award that was chosen by Arima. She entwined her hands behind her back, and blew a raspberry. Even though she had received the high honour award, it was meaningless to Hairu.

“Figured it’s better to take down ghouls. Tons of them.”

That was the easiest way, she thought while staring at her art. However, something caught her attention, and she turned toward it. The people in her surroundings began to stir.

With his silent gaze behind his glasses, just the sight of the man walking left goosebumps in everyone.

“Arima-san, I wanted to win the Arima award,” Hairu called out in contrast to her noisy surroundings. Arima stopped next to Hairu.

“Do you mean the Special Adjudicator award?”

“It’s called the Arima award, ‘cause you’re the one giving it out,” Hairu declared. Arima closed his mouth.

“And I spent so much time and effort on it.” Hairu pointed to her own drawing of a teenager and a young girl standing within the beautiful flowers.

“...it was disqualified from the award,” Arima said bluntly.

“Huh?” Hairu’s cheeks swelled. Arima kept staring at Hairu’s drawing.

“Because that scene is nostalgic and brings me back.”

He had memories of that place.

Whether human or ghoul, there a was a rule that forced them to never talk about this secret, of this moral contradiction and the place where they had been brought up - the Sunlit Garden.

That was where she had met him.

Hairu giggled. They shared this memory, and she couldn’t help but feel giddy because of it.

“Shao is going to join us starting next year.”

“Shao! I want her to clean my ears again! It felt so good!”

“Yes, please treat her well,” Arima said, and then he left. It seemed that he had to go somewhere. Most likely it was related to Haise.

“Hairu!”

Hairu, who had been gazing at her drawing alone, now had someone else standing next to her.

“...Koori-senpai.”

“So you got the high honour award. That’s amazing,” Ui said while looking at Hairu’s art.

“Koori-senpai, but you got the highest honour award.” Hairu began walking away from her drawing, Ui following close behind. Ui, who would always lecture her not to walk behind each other during work, didn’t say anything about it this time.

“The Special Adjudicator award is a joke. Though it really is like Arima-san to pick that kind of drawing.”

In the end, Arima had chosen Yonebayashi Saiko’s work titled, “My vision of the strongest investigator”. It was a drawing of a very muscular investigator holding a quinque that looked like a gold club that ogres would carry around. It appeared to be modelled after her squadmate Urie Kuki.

“Apparently he chose it because it was the first time he’d even seen something like that. Even though there were tons of others he could’ve picked from.”

Ui was known to complain a lot whenever Arima did something weird.

“Sasaki-kun’s gingerbread castle is really popular, plus that painting full of circles is just plain disturbing. The Qs are such a strange bunch…”

“Koori-senpai,” Hairu said, interrupting his tirade.

“What?”

“Let’s get to work.”

It didn’t matter who had won what award.

“...but I’m on break.”

“So am I. But we’re here together now, aren’t we?” she said to Ui’s unamused face, continuing to smile.

“Isn’t this great? We have tons of things to do. It really does fit us better to be holding quinques instead of pencils and scissors, don’t you think? But if you don’t wanna, I’ll just go by myself,” Hairu said and headed toward the venue’s exit.

I have to hurry.

So she could be praised by Arima.

Because we don’t live long.

Whatever reason they had been created for, why they had such a fate imposed on them, none of it mattered. As long as she could get that hand to gently stroke her head again, just like when she was little.

Ui let out a loud sigh behind Hairu, but he quickly raised his head and passed by her.

“We’re going,” he turned around and instructed.

“‘Kay!” Hairu answered.

Previous chapter | | End!

#Tokyo Ghoul:re #Tokyo Ghoul:re[quest]#tension #Translations #my translations #Urie Kuki #Kuroiwa Takeomi #Gori Misato #Kuroiwa's wife #Mado Akira #Ihei Hairu #Arima Kishou #Ui Koori #my heart hurt so much at the ending #felt like i got stabbed in the heart by ishida T^T #anyways i hope you guys enjoyed the story!#it was a lot of fun and had some great moments :)

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jungnoir · 7 years ago

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college boyfriend!joshua

a/n: special thanks to @choco-seventeen for giving me the idea of barista!josh which ended up being the best idea ever,,, get rdy to die yall

here it is, our long awaited gentleman of seventeen!! requested by this darling~

i’ve never written anything for josh (which is appalling) and seeing as he’s now,,, like a bias,, i mean i kinda have to don’t i

i’m going to pretend that a straight week of searching for joshua scenarios did not help encourage this

so, lovely josh has always had a love for animation

ever since he was a baby, he’s always found a joy in watching cartoons, so his parents always put on some colorful children’s movie for him whenever he got fussy, or when he’d wake in the middle of the night from a terrifying dream and he’d need some calming down

this kind of comfort of seeing characters of all colors, shapes and sizes gave joshua an abundant imagination as a child. he always found he liked the fantastical feeling of animation that live action didn’t really provide him

anything could happen in animation, and anyone could be anything and look anyway that they liked, which was part of the appeal for him

as he got older, he was exposed to anime (lol) and he found that he enjoyed the more mature animation just as much as the kind marketed for children

and he didn’t discriminate either! he could watch anything from tokyo ghoul and death note to your lie in april and haikyuu!!

but his favorite kind of animation lied in the love of studio ghibli films

something about the wonder of each film enthralled joshua so much as a teen, bringing him the nostalgia of his childhood that he loved so much

to all of his friends in high school, they had always expected joshua to get a stable, lackluster office job and stay in california with his family, which, originally, was the plan

but the films had inspired him to take a leap, so after applying to a few universities in seoul and getting accepted to the good majority, josh finished up two years of college in california before packing up everything he had and all the money he’d saved from odd jobs through his high school/college career and booked a flight straight to seoul, south korea

he obviously wasn’t flying completely blind, as he did have a friend living there already by the name of vernon

long story short on how the two met, bonding over xbox live can lead to long-lasting friendships ok

after a few years of friendship, countless nights of Skype calls and planning to meet one day, joshua had taken the first step and vernon’s family were more than happy to let joshua stay with them until he could get onto his own two feet (not that there’s any rush!! vernon totally doesn’t mind having an older brother around)

joshua was no stranger to korea either, having been taught korean since a young age by his parents, so he was pretty much set to start his new life in korea, even if his parents were pretty sad to see him go so far and so soon

they knew joshua had been a good kid his whole life, and he was making sure every connection and plan he had for his new life was laid out just right so he wouldn’t make things hard on himself and his family, and that was all they could really ask of him

for the summer before school started in korea, vernon takes to making sure joshua is settled in and at least semi-good at making his way around seoul without a problem

there was that one time,,, where he did get lost for like five hours and showed up back at the chwe house with an assortment of baked goods and sweets and exclaiming that “this stuff is so much better than the stuff in california!!”

vernon: you realize that we all thought you were dead right

josh: *blink blink* hm? :)))

but i mean before vernon knows it, joshua is freakishly adapted to life there and he’s suddenly like a local, making friends with literally everyone he meets because everyone is so fascinated by the american boy!! yet it’s funny cause the way josh saw it, vernon was v similar to him in a lot of ways, so he was a lil overwhelmed to find all of vernon’s friends were like !!! a foreigner !!! tell us everything

and sure, vernon hadn’t been to america since he was about five except to visit family, but they were all sooooo excited to hear about things from joshua’s perspective compared to the younger boy’s

so josh obliged, always talking about his experiences overseas and the other kids would be like :o or :D because!!! to josh that was all just boring everyday stuff to him but to them this was all so cool and interesting, and the way they felt about america was the same way josh felt about korea tbh

after a year in college in seoul, joshua was well settled down at the school

since he’s like,,, one of the best english speakers in school (save for a handful of other students who were bilingual their whole lives, foreigners, or just really good at the subject asjdijisa) he’s always willing to help his friends out with english class projects and he coaches them by speaking to them in english at random intervals

like they’ll be having a completely korean conversation and then all of a sudden josh is like “explain the plot to howl’s moving castle in english” and they’re like o shit here we go

but it’s really helpful??? they all get amazing grades bc of his pop quizes

all hail english professor hong jisoo

but, ok, everyone is so confused because that’s….. not what he goes to college for

like he’s verbalized that he loves learning and that being an english teacher in korea would be great for him bc he loves to show people the joy of learning! but animation was his first love

he’s v passionate about it, and he’s made several short films where the characters were stylized after his friends and their experiences (with their permission of course)

he actually did one on jun’s story of coming to korea for the first time as a chinese transfer student and entered it in a small film contest and won!! and jun was so happy that he cried ok

joshua was on skype with jun to jun’s family back in china and they were all gushing about the film after josh emailed it to them

basically if joshua ever needs to flee to another country, jun’s home is open jun’s mom said joshua has privilege of jun’s room before jun does

despite being really good at animating though, joshua is actually kinda shy about showing his work. he’s even shy showing it to his friends with the exception of vernon and jeonghan, the latter of which passive-aggressively convinced joshua to do it and is now joshua’s biggest hype man

“jisooooo. jun got a movie and I didn’t??” “…what would a movie about you even be about? you don’t do anything but sleep” “it could have been about how much you love me!!”

to placate him joshua showed all the lil drawings of chibi!jeonghan joshua had done over the year and jeonghan wouldn’t stop smiling and hugging josh all day jfc

jk jk tho jeonghan is super supportive and whenever people ask him (or don’t. they usually don’t ask but whom the fuk cares jeonghan says) about joshua, jeonghan just guuuushes about the boy and all of his great art and shows them joshua’s v tentative instagram page of his art. there’s only a few pics of outlines and some small clips of films he puts together, but jeonghan will gas his boy up so bad you’d think joshua already had an oscar

on the side, joshua has a job at the campus coffee shop

and like,, idk if you understand just how much of an accumulator of revenue that boy’s face is??

joshua is pretty humble so whenever his friends tease him and say that most of the customers that come to the coffee shop are there for his face, he downright refuses

but i mean,,, it’s true,, the majority of customers come during joshua’s shifts

and if josh isn’t working, it’s like a funeral home

it gets so bad the school is like “do u wanna like work here forever bc we’re totally down with that”

josh is like “lol no”

but he’s really good at his job and not many ppl notice that!! some jealous dudes think the only reason ppl even buy coffee from the shop is bc josh is serving it and they’re deluding themselves into drinking it, but josh is actually an amazing barista

u kinda get creative with coffee when you’re living off of it to graduate ajsiodha

he’s also king of latte art don’t fight me on this

he was playing around in the back one day on his break when he got an idea to make some art in a latte, bc he was at a creative loss with his art on paper, and he just made this v simple couple of hearts here and there, and then suddenly he was making all kinds of designs that ppl loved

his favorite is a little cat design that is so friggin cute ok. everyone loves it

everyone except you,,, who had no idea this was even a thing

between classes on certain days, you have about two hours of free time to yourself, so you like to escape to your favorite coffee place to study and relax

you usually didn’t like to go during this certain time in the day bc the shop was always bustling with customers and you really rather preferred to be in a smaller crowd. so basically, you’ve never seen joshua

you haven’t even heard of him bc you’ve always been pretty in your head when it comes to your studying time

u basically zone out the minute you can smell the coffee beans

but a friend of yours held you up in your last class, so your two hour break diminished to fifteen minutes, and you still hadn’t had your coffee

you practically bolt toward the coffee shop, but your eyes bug out of your head when you notice that for once, there’s a huge crowd of students there, something that never happens when you’re there

so like, groaning internally, you force yourself into line before anyone else can get in front of you and delay you even further

but like… the line is moving at snail’s pace

you can barely see up front, all you know is that someone is taking their sweet time making coffees

in fact, 70% of your time is swallowed up just waiting for the line to move up

you’re jittery, knowing class starts soon and you already don’t have that much time to book it to your next class at this rate, but you have to have your coffee

finally,,, you reach the front….. and….

“hi there! what can I get you this lovely afternoon?”

in the words of jeonghan again, whom the fuk-

“u-hhuhhhuuu hhh ????”

windows has shut down unexpectedly

this beautiful specimen of a man is smiling down at you without a worry in the world, blinking softly with the longest, prettiest eyelashes you’ve ever seen on a guy

his hair is short and well kept, roots dark and colored with highlights of chestnut throughout

he’s in the uniform but that’s really only black slacks and a half apron; he’s wearing a really nice baby blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and his collarbones are just slightly exposed with only two buttons undone at the collar- !!

“do you need a minute?” he asks, looking concerned at your vacant expression

that seems to snap you out of it (or maybe the frustrated swears from behind you do), and you sheepishly apologize, spitting out the first thing that comes to mind, which is definitely not your usual order, “small latte, please”

his eyes light up when you answer, “would you like the art too?”

you furrow your brows and he stares at you for a good moment before he realizes,, wow u really don’t know about his latte art? that’s literally all ppl come here during his shift for

but he does notice he’s never actually seen you during his shifts before

hmm. interesting

“i… i do latte art. it’s kind of… sort of a thing? i don’t know, um, would you like me to make you something in particular?” he says, suddenly a little flustered

you know. you know deep in your heart that you have zero time to spare and that you really shouldn’t be late for this class… but also,,, why the heck not

“surprise me!” you say softly, letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding

joshua perks up and he nods (probably harder than he should have) and quickly puts in your order for your latte

you quickly scoot to the side and another boy takes over in his place as he turns to make your coffee, and you can’t help but watch his calm, gentle hands as he prepares it

there’s no rush in him, no sloppiness detected, and you can tell he takes pride in his craft

he pours the steamed milk with no difficulty, pouring it with such smooth precision that it hypnotizes you, even as he’s half turned from you and you can barely see what he makes

it’s only when he’s done and handing over your coffee with a smile that you realize,, you’re holding a mug

you forgot to ask for a to-go cup!

but like,,, if you put it in a to-go cup now, it’ll ruin his art

yet, you’re so late for class already……..

he looks at you with even more concern when he just catches you staring at the small tulip etched into the surface of the coffee, and he’s about to ask if you’re alright when you suddenly smile at him and say “you’re beautiful”

in ur mind, you’ve just told him the art he made in your coffee was beautiful

it takes u like,, eight seconds to register that is not what you said AT ALL

but by the time you realize your mistake and wordlessly try to motion to the cup he’s already laughing gently behind his hand, eyes locked on yours, and when he’s done he says “i’m sorry, i’m not making fun of you… you’re just… very sweet. i hope you enjoy the coffee”

part of u still wants to correct yourself, maybe save some of your pride, but instead, you simply sigh and accept his compliment that low (high) key makes your heart beat a little faster, and you quickly whisper a “thanks again!!” before skedaddling

and josh just watches with a soft smile, and can’t seem to get the strange new customer out of his head even after his shift

he doesn’t even mention that you’ve stolen the mug when his co-worker asks about it in bewildered confusion

“just say I broke it” he tells him, and goes back to work like nothing happened

the next day, you come in much earlier and find that the shop is void of a crowd, much to your relief and quieter dismay

holding in your hands the mug that you had washed and stared at in disbelieving horror the whole night in your dorm, you walk up to the counter and hold out the mug to the cashier, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion when you start to ashamedly explain exactly how you had snuck out one of the mugs

but before you can even get anything out, josh suddenly appears from the back, tying his apron just as he spots you and he goes “oh!! hey, mug stealer”

your face flashes in mortification

“i swear it was an accident-” “don’t worry, no hard feelings. I already covered for you so I mean, it’s practically yours anyway. you didn’t have to bring it back”

but you still hold it out, sighing “it made me feel bad, ok? i can’t look at this shame cup anymore”

joshua snorts bc

shame cup

ur too fucking cute for him

“ok, well, let’s make it not so shameful” he says, carefully taking the mug from you and going over to the coffee machine “latte, right? same as usual?” he throw over his shoulder

the girl at the cashier actually knows you, has served you for the last few years, so she shakes her head and tells him that’s not your usual, which makes him a little surprised and he apologizes, saying that he’s since switched around shifts with someone else so he’s still adjusting, so he’s about to ask you what you usually get when you blurt “latte’s fine!”

and ok, yeh, you’re not getting a latte for him of course

obviously

he just smiles that beautiful smile and gets to work, and the cashier gives you a small, very indiscreet wink much to your chagrin

you shuffle to the side and watch joshua work again, smiling as he gets ready to pour the milk, when he asks what kind of art you’d like

“can I have… wait, what are you good at?” “hm, well, my favorite is a kitty” “kitty it is!”

he quietly makes your kitty, lip tucked between his teeth and you can tell he’s working hard

he sets the cup before you (this time in a foam cup, just in case you have to run and didn’t remember to tell him again), and watches with pride as you beam at the art, your eyes shining

before you even think about it, you’re whipping out your phone and snapping a photo of it for instagram, before you realize you don’t simply want to credit “random handsome campus barista” for something as beautiful as that

“what’s your name?” you ask, and joshua tells you, and you quickly type down his name in the caption before tapping the photo to add a tag “do you have a instagram?”

and though he rarely ever uses it unless jeonghan prompts him to, joshua spells out his username for you and you tag him successfully, posting the photo just as joshua’s back pocket vibrates with a notification

“thank you so much, joshua. you’re really good at this you know”

and josh hears it from everyone a lot. all of his customers and co-workers compliment him often so it’s not like he’s unaware of his talent

but there’s just something about the fact that you complimented him that makes him blush, but he just bows a little at you and thanks you softly as you depart to find a table to start studying

of which,,, u do not do lol

even tho it’s barely 10 posts, you spend quite a while looking through joshua’s instagram

they’re mainly shots of his art, of which you soon find out that his major is animation and film development

the captions are v minimalist, but in the comments to his friends and others who’d found his insta, he’s cutely gushing with lots of exclamation marks and the like about how his work is coming along, having casual convos about the others and how their lives are going, and responding to compliments with v heartfelt thanks

because he doesn’t post much, you check the posts he’s tagged in and see a bunch of candid, secret pics of him from all kinds of funny angles, most from students and some parody ones from his friends

by the time you decide to check how much time you have left until your next class, you find you’ve got about a half hour to cram whatever you were going to study within two hours into half of one and get to your lecture on time

so as fast as your legs will allow, you quickly hit follow on his instagram and stuff everything you have back into your bag before sprinting out, missing joshua’s small goodbye and wave in your haste

he smiles anyway, and later when he gets off his shift, he checks his notifications and finds he has a new follower… you

he totally misses everything his professor says looking through your instagram for a good hour and a half

so it goes on like this for a while, you getting your coffee from josh now that half his adoring fans are usually in class when you go to see him, and the two of you casually chatting about this and that

he talks about his major, you talk about yours, and a pure friendship forms

with josh, you really feel like you can talk to him about anything and he understands

he speaks slow, soft, uses pretty words but they’re never overrated. he talks to you with the utmost respect and attention, 100% focused on you whenever you’re around. you’re honestly surprised no one has snatched him yet, what with how much of a catch he is

and like,, you know that anyone would kill to date him because not only is he talented and beautiful and a certified dorkozoid, he’s considerate, kind, feminine…. he almost feels untouched by this world and everything in it

maybe that’s why, you usually think. he’s a catch. anyone would be lucky to have him and you’re having regular chats over coffee and you can tell ppl are jealous

but he just feels too good for you. for anyone

you can’t think of one person on campus that would be good for him. not necessarily that there isn’t anyone… it’s just… who?

as months pass and winter gets colder, you find yourself feeling the effects of being single ten times more

so your friends are like!! are you still head over heels for that barista?? let’s set you up on a blind date to get your mind off it!!!

you’re only like 60% against it

because honestly, even though you’d do anything to work up the courage to date joshua, you wouldn’t mind getting a little dolled up for someone and having fun on a date

so your friends set you up with some guy who’d meet you at this italian place in the city on friday, and you anticipate the day, even telling josh about it when he has time to listen

“ahh… heh, a blind date? you must be super excited”

instantly you can tell something is off with the way josh talks, but he still keeps that pleasant smile, even tho it doesn’t quite reach his eyes

for the next few days leading up until friday, josh feels a little more reserved to you, not as open as usual and somehow always a little out of it when he talks to you

even when you ask, he just smiles (and it is nothing like his real smile) and tells you he’s fine

so come friday, you’re all dressed up and you happen to walk past the campus coffee shop and see joshua going in for a late shift, so you wave to him on your way and

fuck

he can’t even manage to say anything, completely speechless as he sees how absolutely stunning you look

and how he wishes you’d turn into the shop, grab his hand and tell him you were excited for your date

but instead, you’re meeting someone else, and all he can hope is that they care about you half as much as he does. even half was a feat

he suddenly catches up to you before going in, grabbing your hand, and you blink up at him in confusion when he says “be careful. text me when you get there please? so i know you got there okay. and… and text me, or one of your friends on your way home, please. you don’t know who this guy is or what he might do. just… have fun. be careful.”

you look at josh, his eyes showing such worry and concern for your well being that you pull him into a quick hug, smiling into his chest as he lets out a sigh, “of course. i’ll be good. plus, i have a pocket knife and a full can of pepper spray just in case he tries to get one over on me”

he chuckles, feeling a lot more relaxed as he hugs you back, “let’s trust you come back with that can still full and that knife still clean, alright?”

eventually, he has to send you off, and you head to your date

you arrive by 6:55, having been told that he’d be there by 7, and so you anxiously look around, knowing you were supposed to be on the lookout for a guy in a navy blazer

but… all the guys in navy blazers are there with someone already

by the time it’s 7:30, the waiter has come by twice, asking if the other member of your party is coming

and by 8, you’re sure he’s not

so you begrudgingly order dinner, eat it in angered silence, and don’t even bother to text your friends he didn’t show. you get your leftovers boxed and order one slice of strawberry cheesecake and leave, your eyes stinging and your heart hurting, but you get back to the school just fine

and at first, you were going to just head back to your dorm.

but you walk past the coffee shop, and you look through the windows to see it’s still open and josh is still inside, cleaning up and shutting down for the night

before you can think, you’re rushing inside, glad he hadn’t locked the doors, and as soon as josh looks up in surprise to see you, he’s shuffling out from behind the counter and scolding you with “you never told me if you arrived or not. why are you back so early? you look sad, (y/n). what happened? what did that bastard do-” “I have cheesecake. you want some? take it or leave it”

you look hurt, but you keep up the stony expression and he just quietly nods, following you to a booth in the very back

he says nothing as you take out the cheesecake, says nothing as you go into the back and grab two forks and hand him one, says nothing as you take the first piece and sigh, over-exaggeratedly praising the dessert

he says nothing because he knows better. instead, he just listens as you begin to babble about the day, about how excited you were for today all week, how your friends had gassed up your blind date so much and how you had spent two hours eating by yourself, too embarrassed to cry or even tell your friends

he watches as you quietly struggle to pick up a strawberry, the sauce drenched fruit slipping off your fork as your hand trembles with words unsaid

so, he slides out of the booth and into yours, slips an arm around your shoulders, and makes you put it down

“it’s okay. i’m here” he says softly into your ear, and you let it all out into his shoulder

all of your tears and makeup stain his shirt but he couldn’t care less, his only priority in holding you close and comforting you

he wants to beat up your blind date, make them feel terrible for ever passing up an opportunity to spend a night with you because gdi, you were amazing and lovely and he wished he was in that bastard’s shoes

you guys stay like that for a while, you simply relishing in his comfort and joshua wishing he could help you feel better, yet not knowing how

but then he gets an idea

“do you want me to show you how to make latte art? you mentioned you were interested once”

at first, you’re kind of like??? now of all times?? but you also can’t help wanting to get your mind off things, so he helps you slip out of the booth and leads you to the back in the kitchen

there you see his sketchbook and laptop up, seeing he had been working on something before he’d gone to clean up

he goes to get some coffee together while you look over his work, smiling when you see he’s intricately drawing a character at a booth in what looked like a coffee shop, but as you look at it longer, something starts to click

“josh?” you ask, and he hums, filling up a cup with some coffee “Is… is this me?”

he glances back at you and his eyes widen some when he sees what you’re looking at, but he turns back around to play it off before you can say anything “ah, yeah. i needed to warm up so… i thought of you and drew”

“this looks way too detailed for a warm up” you say with a smile, tracing your fingers over the drawing, half of it colored in, the other half still white parchment paper and blending in to the colors where they end

josh snorts, making his way over to you and closing the notebook, “look at you. you know me too well, it seems”

you simply nudge him and he places the coffee cup before you before handing you a metal cup of steamed milk, “so, we’re going to start out with making a simple heart. it’s really important how you guide your hand. i don’t expect it to be perfect, so just try, freely”

he hands you the cup and you nod, turning the spout toward the cup and trying to carefully pour in the shape of a heart, but it becomes a deformed swirl too soon

josh still smiles, telling you to attempt to fix your mistake, but you continue to find it hard, somehow making the swirl more prominent

“josh, please help me” you whine with a small smile, and he nods with a laugh, reaching his arms around you

and,,, you’re caged against the counter, his hand coming to rest above your own where you hold the milk, and his head leans down to whisper into your ear how you should pour, murmuring “it takes a bit of practice, but once you get it, it’s satisfying”

you can’t even focus on the damn coffee bc he’s so close sasjhnasi

he keeps whispering in your ear, helping you try to fix your mistake, and then he grabs a toothpick and starts to trace the swirl into something of a shape, looking a lot better than before

“see?” he whispers by your ear, smiling even as your heart beats so hard you bet he can hear it against your back “not so bad”

you turn your head slightly, only able to move so much with his arm around you and body behind you, keeping you practically pushed up against the counter

he just looks at you for a moment when he sees the look in your eyes, mouth going a little dry

it must be the moment, or maybe the mix of emotions you’d released earlier, because you can’t find the nervousness from before anywhere near when you knead your fingers into his shirt and pull him in to kiss

his lips taste like coffee and stolen sweets, and he moves his body only to turn you around for better access to your mouth, his large hands closing around your hips and squeezing

he’s careful but he is not shy. he kisses you like he’s been wanting to all night, and if you asked him, he’d tell you he had

you get so caught up in his heady kiss that even when he lifts you onto the counter and pulls himself between your legs, you don’t stop to laugh or marvel at his strength you didn’t know he had. you just thank god that he’s closer

after a few moments, he ends up pulling away, your lips chasing his with a frustrated whine that has him nearly buckling under his weight “my boss will kill me if we make out in the kitchen”

“then let’s take it somewhere else, dummy”

joshua has never locked up the coffee shop faster

after that day, he finally asks you out, and of course, you say yes

your friends apologize to you, feeling absolutely terrible for what happened with the blind date, but you honestly couldn’t care less bc if you hadn’t been stood up, you may have never gotten the chance to kiss joshua

everyone, and i mean everyone can tell there’s something different about josh come monday

he’s so much more peppy, so much more friendly, he’s practically beaming like a ray of sunshine,, like more than usual

and it’s so obvious why when you come in, stealing a kiss from him when he gets your coffee to you before you leave

josh’s co-workers are like??? is this allowed?? wtf is this allowed????

joshua’s boss doesn’t care cause it’s FRICKIN CUTE

a majority of joshua’s suitors back off when they find out he’s taken, but of course they continue to come bc josh is amazing at making coffee and no one is petty enough to stop coming just bc he’s taken lol

if joshua was an amazing friend, he’s an even better boyfriend ok

turns out that one drawing of you in the coffee shop was not the only one

he draws you often, and his favorite you to draw is a cute lil chibi version which he swears is so cute bc like,,, u small

boy literally giggles whenever he thinks about it

you: it’s really not that funny josh-

joshua: YOU’RE SO SMALL

actually made a chibi ver of himself and animated your chibi selves to kiss

he sent you the video and you look at it before you go to sleep every night bc it’s so cute

is always hyped for animated films and you can never get him as excited for live action films

he goes absolutely nuts for disney and stuff but he’s also a fine tuned indie animated film connoisseur of course

sometimes he’ll be like “so i watched this film last night called blah blah blah and it was about blah blah blah and…” and you don’t know wth he’s talking bout sometimes but you just listen to him babble bc u love him

scolds u if you haven’t seen a particular movie/anime/cartoon and then proceeds to force you to watch it

but you actually end up liking them?? and some of them become your comfort movies just because they remind you of josh

will send you animated couples and be like “this is us”

even if you two have nothing in common with the characters? it could just be a cute scene and he’ll link it back to you two

jeonghan LOVES you…. and also will fight you for joshua’s attention but he still loves you

he prides himself on being “joshua’s best friend” but then you meet vernon and vernon is like “he was my best friend first” so you go from a love triangle to a love square

if you added in all of joshua’s admirers it’d be like a love…. enneacontakaipentagon

(that is a thing)

since it’s a lot to go back to america to meet josh’s family, you instead meet vernon’s family in place of them, who despite only knowing josh for a year feel like he’s their second son

they gush about how much they love him and his influence on vernon and vernon’s lil sister and it’s just,,, so precious

but you can tell he gets homesick sometimes, and when family holidays come, he gets particularly sad

vernon’s family works hard to make it easier on him so they set up a skype date with his family every holiday and you watch josh as he talks about how his graduation is coming up, how he can’t wait to visit them, how he misses his mom’s home cooking and how nice life is in seoul

he introduces you to them over skype as well and they’re so kind and lovely!! they absolutely spoil you with love and attention and only have lovely things to say about you

then one day, you get a call from vernon’s mother

she tells you that secretly, they’ve been setting up for joshua’s parents to come visit, and they want you to keep it secret, as well as keep joshua out of the house the day they arrive so he doesn’t catch on

which,, proves harder than you expect

even on spring break your lovely boyfriend only wants to stay in and catch up on shows with you so you have to literally drag him out of the house to hang with jeonghan and vernon at the mall

while you’re all out, joshua just happens to see a shirt while you’re all shopping

it’s a tank top with the word “california” written across it

and usually, josh would just ignore little things like that, but as he stands there, he starts thinking of home and his family who he misses like crazy

it’s not like him, but a few tears slip past his eyes before he wipes them away, attempting to hide it before one of you saw

you did, but you don’t say anything, instead hooking an arm with him and leading him elsewhere, practically bursting with the need to tell joshua what was awaiting him at home

you manage to keep it secret though, even as you smile wider than ever on your back to vernon’s house

of course,,, josh is highly concerned

“why are you smiling so much? what are you hiding?” “dang boy, can’t a girl just smile a lil bit” “not like that. your smile is too big. it’s creeping me out”

if you weren’t driving you might’ve socked him in the arm

you carefully pull up to the house and joshua’s eyebrows furrows when he notices vernon’s parents’ car is parked somewhere different than it was when you all left

“v, did your parents go somewhere?” he asks, but vernon simply shrugs and follows a grinning jeonghan out of the car, leaving just you and him alone

he stares at you for a bit, the smile still on your face, and then looks back at the house, the wheels turning behind his eyes

“what are you waiting for? i don’t know about you, but I wanna meet the hongs sometime this week, thank you”

his eyes widen a little bit and you’re laughing as he tumbles out of the car, rushing toward the front door as you trail behind, hearing a chorus of elated screams before you enter the house

when you do, you see josh all wrapped up in between his parents, all three of them crying into each other as jeonghan, vernon, and vernon’s family watch with smiles just like yours

for the rest of the day, you spend it with josh and his family, catching up on all that they’ve missed along with getting to know the hongs personally

they’re just as sweet in person as they are over skype, and they absolutely love poking fun at josh to you whenever they get the chance

the sound of josh’s embarrassed “mooooooom” in the background as she tells you about josh’s anime phase and how she’d seen an episode of one of those shows and had to have a talk with him afterward

you: what were you watching, josh?

josh:… i have since refined my taste

by the time the night ends, you’ve got enough embarrassment fodder to last you months

“please don’t take anything my parents said seriously okay. they live to make my life terrible” he tells you over the phone that night, after vernon’s family told you it was getting far too late and you should be heading home

highest of keys, josh was hoping you’d stay so late that they’d let you sleep over but knowing he had two (2) sets of parents in the house now, they’d probably make vernon sleep between you two and that’s the closest you’d get throughout the night

“i don’t know about that. those baby stories were comedy gold” you grin into the phone, laying on your back and smiling up at the ceiling

he scoffs, “just wait till i meet your parents. they’ll tell me all the crazy stories and i’ll have so much blackmail i won’t even know what to do with” “isn’t it funny how i met your parents, who live in california, before you met mine who live here?”

he smiles into the phone, “’s okay. makes us a unique couple. i was starting to think we were far too daydreamy. almost feels like a movie.”

“i’m surprised you haven’t turned it into one, actually” you say, playing with your shirt hem as sleepiness starts to creep up on you and you let out a yawn

“i promise one day i’ll make a movie about us. now go to sleep, i’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

you yawn again but oblige, and you say your goodbyes before hanging up and laying down to fall asleep, a content smile on your face

but then your phone vibrates under your pillow not twenty minutes later

confused, you pull it out, and find a video message from joshua

carefully, you open it, unsure of what you’ll expect, but find a seemingly quickly drawn stop motion video of chibi!you and chibi!josh kissing each other’s cheeks

you smile tiredly, shaking your head at the boy, but as the video comes to an end, a speech bubble appears above chibi!josh’s head, his eyes turning into hearts as he speaks to chibi!you “i’ve been debating on when to say this for a while, but i’m proud to be the first of us to say it: i love you”

the video ends, and you giddily dial josh’s number once more, the boy picking up just as quickly as you had called

“yes?” he says softly, voice tinged with slight worry

but you just chuckle, “jerk. i wanted to say it first. now let me go to sleep… i love you too”

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