#i need to catch up in one piece. i need to read manga again | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

writingforatwistedworld · 1 year ago

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Hi! If requests are still open, can I request for a Reader who like prince charming in manga or manhwa? Like the reader is such a gentleman(or gentlewoman), treat the TWST guy like a princess, and even when the TWST guys fall the reader just caught them and say "are you ok, princess?"or something similar? For self-aware!Au and Leona/Malleus/Vil if possible? Thank you! Please take time to rest and feel free to delete it if it broke the rule or you are not comfortable making it! 😊

Self-aware au

I do not take any responsibility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNING: Yandere themes, neglect, family problems, stalking, taking photos without consent, invasion of privacy, violence, unhealthy relationships

Leona Kingscholar/Vil Schoenheit/Malleus Draconia-Player is like prince charming

Imagine this: Leona tripping over air, a most heinous thing hiding in plain sight, and then suddenly something catches him

If it weren't for your face being so famous he would have thought you were a student from RSA

“Are you alright?” Yeah, I think he is. Other than the fact that he stares at you like the red dot of a laser pointer is on your forehead, he is fine

What he didn't know though was how everyone else in the hallway was just staring at the two of you. Could be the stars and flowers surrounding you two but what do I know?

If Leona wasn't such a loner then he would have started a fan club or something like that

But since he can't he is more on the “silent screeching teenager on the inside” trip

Like, my man is hiding behind corners, snapping pics, trying to smell the slightest bit of your perfume

Ok, maybe he is a bit more intense than an entire fan club usually is but he is just trying to figure out more about his prince char- *ahem* you

And we wouldn't be talking about Leona if there wouldn't be the tiniest bit of that, you know, manipulating others

Ruggie once more gets a chance to make others have “accidents” but if it would be too obvious why he orders him to do that then he can also take care of it himself

You know, roughing up a few students who came too close to you. That kind of stuff

But oh, how much he wishes that you would pay most of your attention on him

Leoan might not seem like it but all the years of neglect back home had made him crave it

So he gifts you a lot of things

From simple things for everyday use to luxurious accessories

But why won't you accept them? Do you dislike him that much? What else does he need to do? Tell him. Tell him!

Dramatic violin chorus, Vil falling backwards from the stairs, heels caught in the carpet, one last desperate look into the air before a chorus of opera singers screams in despair to add even more dramatic flair to the situation

And then, nothing. A soft cello plays a soft tune as arms close around his waist, stars sparkling in Vils eyes as his gaze falls upon his savior

Birds are singing and warm sunlight falls upon the duo... until the two Pomefiore students who carried a mirror start to move again making the reflecting light which fell on the two of you break away once more

Five meters away Epel just stares at you two with an expression that can only be described as “Ugh”

Rook stops the music which played in the background, the piece surprisingly supportive of the situation

As if the moment needed even the slightest bit more to seem like an abridged version of a Disney film you even asked Vil if he was alright

One second later and Epel asked himself what the heck Disney is

But congrats, you have now what Vil would call “a troublesome fan”

Oh no, Vil wouldn't buy merch of you or something like that. He has an even better collection

If you were to push his clothing in his closet to the side you would see its wooden back littered with photos of you

Some are a few selfies the two of you had snapped together (it was just a nice memory. He totally didn't mean to use it in any creepy means) and other photos you were not aware of

Some of them are taken disturbingly in private moments like when you were cooking and somewhere buried even deeper is even one when you were starting to change your clothing...

Vil also starts to hog all your time

No more eating lunch with a group of students you deemed your friends. Oh no, now it's Vil, Epel and ,if our local harassments of overgrown house cats has behaved well, even Rook

Although Vil doesn't trust Rook 100% when something is about you. The queen knows after all that the hunter has his own sights on you and is more than ready to snatch you up at any moment

Should you try to distance yourself though I recommend wearing long sleeves, otherwise the desperate clawing of nails that are way too sharp will rip your skin to shreds, a desperate fan of yours hanging just as desperate as the fairest Queen was on her beauty on your arm

Do you hear that too? What you don't? Did I imagine the wedding bells just now?

When Malleus fell from his broom, most ungraceful, he was surprised when you suddenly caught him (although this tiny bit of hight wouldn't be able to harm him)

Even after he reassured you that he was more than just alright you still insisted to bring him to the school nurse just to be sure and even then you still treated him like he was something easily broken

Is... Is this how normal people feel when someone takes care of them?

The poor school nurse was almost screeching in fear when Malleus suddenly made a sound akin to purring

The situation is kinda as if the prince who fought against Maleficent suddenly apologized after striking her, making sure that she got better and then proposing to her

Ok, maybe he imagined the last part but he is just a lovesick fire spewing lizard in human form. Let him have his fantasies!

Malleus isn't your ordinary Fae though. Oh no. You are courted by royalty here but given his rather... unhealthy interest in you I am not sure if you could consider this a win or a loss

Gold, rubies, diamonds and much, much more is at your disposal. Don't tell anybody. Otherwise there will be break-ins

At this point it's a normal occurrence to see a scene from those clichè romance novels acted out in the hallways of NRC

But since Malleus has “Fae-prince-who-can-end-your-life-with-the-snap-of-a-finger” privileges no one dares to say anything

Malleus wouldn't be a good dragon if he weren't even the lighter bit hoarding

Only that it isn't just “a bit” but rather “hoards all the time” when something concerns you

And suddenly eh invites you to visit the Valley of Thorns

“Visit” haha, funny

Have you heard? There are rumors of Briar Valley soon having a second future ruler. Huh? Who? I don't know? But aren't you close to Malleus? Maybe he knows something

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slowlydifferentbluebird · 3 months ago

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Dreams come true - Aespa High school Au- Day one

Hey, long time no see people. This is dropping out of nowhere, but this afternoon I felt incredibly inspired so this is the result of some hours of works. I always wanted a long serie involving a gender neutral Reader X Aespa. I would define this as romance/slice of life. The idea is about an on going serie, but it depends but you people, so let me know what you think about it throw comments, asks, DMs, whatever, I just need a good feedback. Maybe in the next parts I will talk about this project more, but for now enjoy and good read🫶❤️

"Oh man, I can't believe you're finally here. Do you even know how much I dreamed about going to school together? This is so freaking dope!", Mark exclaimed, jumping around you, all excited and hyper about your presence. And indeed,it was a dream coming true for both. Mark has been one of your best friends since the childhood and, even if at one point you start living in two different countries, yours friendship never changed. Just when both of you already gave up on the idea of living in the same city again, a miracle happened: you won a scholarship because of your grades. So now here you are, in your new uniform, on the street, directed towards the first day of your new school life.

It was exciting, very pressuring, but definitely exciting, as a proper first day of high school should be. Meeting new friends, new teachers, maybe even love? All these thoughts were spinning in your mind and you were so thankful that your best man was there to make everything easier. Mark was an extroverted, funny and good-looking boy, so you were sure you would have been an easy way into the class dynamics. And well...you were right: you were not entered in class yet and he already introduced you to Taeyong and Johnny. They were so funny and you immediately clicked with them. You had the hunch that this year was going to be fun.

Your entrance in the building was eye-catching since day one: backpack kept on just one shoulder, hands in the pockets and three of the most popular boys chatting and laughing with you. More than a student looked at you confused, asking to each other who the new face was. On the hallway of the second floor, where your class was, you were telling Tae of that time when Mark was so scared of an horror movie that he almost pissed himself off, when suddendly someone started running in your direction. "Oh my God, you're finally here", a girl voice screamed in your ear, making you deaf for few seconds, while launching her arms to your neck, pulling you in the most affectionate embrace of the last years.

You had not to see her face to recognize that voice; the voice who kept you company every night, the voice who shared all her secrets with you, the voice that sounds like home to you. "Aeri, I'm happy to see you too, but please stop choking me", you chuckled against her torso, while she kept squealing and squeezing you. If Mark was one of your best friends, Aeri was the definitely the other one. Honestly you know her through Mark, because back in the days you needed someone as nerdy and appasionate about manga and anime as you, so for Mark it was natural to make you two meet, even if just online. Considering that it was your first time meeting in real life, the affectionate behaviour of the girl was more than justified.

"Oh, you're the usual tsundere, such an idiot", she commented, letting you finally go, but still showing her brightest smile. Of course this scene got attentions and reactions. "Man, I wish Giselle would squeeze me too against her ches-", the desire of Johnny was interrupted by a slap on the neck of Tae, a scene that already smells like routine. "Aeri? Did I hear correctly?", a petite girl with blonde short hair appeared from behind your best friend smirking. "Yes, Aeri. How am I supposed to call her if not with her name?", you answered her, confused, looking at the two girls like if you were missing a piece. "No, you're right, Aeri is her name, indeed, but apparently she's too cool for that, she prefers that we call her Giselle", the blondie explained, taking a good look at you. "Stop it!", the japanese scolded her friend, slapping her arm. "Don't listen to Minjeong, she talks like that, but we all call her Winter here", she added, introducing finally the name of the other girl. "Uh? Winter? Is that because you like the season?", you asked, trying to find a sense to that odd name. "No, it's just because she's a cold bitch", Aeri immediately replied making you wheeze and receive a slap back from Minjeong.

After all the chaos of the past minutes, you all went into the class, because the lessons were about to start. However another moment of confusion got you inside: no one was taking a seat or leaving their stuff. "You look adorable when you are confused", Aeri teased you, pinching your cheek. "Leave my bestie alone, it would be confusing for everyone. Listen to me, this school has a weird tradition: the first day our seats are decided through a draw, in this way we avoid fights for the best spots and we're encouraged to interact with new people or some shits like that", Mark explanation was totally in his stile but at least the concept was clear. It looks like your dream about sitting with one of your best friends was destinated to remain a dream. You shrugged, whatever, you were just happy of being in the same class and you wanted to make friendship with everyone anyway.

Miss Sunny, your homeroom teacher, arrived soon enough and after introducing you to the class quickly, she immediately started the draw. Every name called got a reaction from the whole classroom. The most fun part was when Johnny and Tae were picked to seat together, making both of them curse under their breath, it was the fourth year in a row as deskmates. Another interesting pick, probably just for you, was when Mark and Aeri became deskmates too; you for sure didn't expect them to sit together. But honestly you were too busy thinking about your own fate: all the people you met were already picked, even Winter was already called. "The next student is...drum rolls...oh! The new arrived!", miss Sunny exclaimed, making everyone fix their gaze on you. You were still acting cool and nonchalant, but all that attention was killing you inside. "Let me see, where can you seat? Mhh, even if you're acting all tough, you seem a good kid...alright, go seat in the third row, on the window side. I'm giving you a coveted place, so study hard to thank me", your teacher decided, smiling at you warmly. Everyone in the class seemed to love miss Sunny and you were starting to get the reason: she was solar, funny but not nosy. You can feel the affection and love she had for her students and viceversa, even a crazy head like Mark seemed to respect her.

You went to seat, letting you go on the chair lazily, already exhausted from those attention, but relieved that the worst part was gone...probably. That scene alone made Mark and Aeri chuckle and giggle, you were just so...you in their eyes, every action screamed your essence and personality. For example everyone attached their backpack to the back of the chair, but not you, you just left it on the floor. You didn't even think about it, you were just curious 'bout your deskmate, and it was about to be decided. "And next to the new student...drum rolls...Ningning! Finally our youngest came out!", Sunny announced, reading the piece of paper she picked from the box. A short girl with brown hair collected in a neat ponytail shyly walked towards you, holding tightly her satchel. She was clearly embarassed and she said nothing nor looked at you until the teacher went ahead with the draw.

"N-nice to meet you...I'm N-ningning, but you can call me Ning if you want...I'm the youngest of our class so please take g-good care of me", she introduced herself with a soft voice, stealing glances of your figures at the end of every sentence. For some reason that made you feel at ease, it's not like you were glad about her embarassment, but meeting someone more shy than you gave you like a sense of peace. "The pleasure is mine...Ning. Let's be good friends from today, alright?", you spoke with a soft tone, offering her a kind smile and that had probably a good effect on the younger girl, because immediately seemed to have less difficulty in looking at you, furthermore the tiniest smile appeared on her lips. "Oh, wait, your name...you have to be the friend of Gigi", the tiny girl commented, realizing that your name was too familiar to be a case. "Gigi? Oh, you mean Aeri, I already forgot that here she is called this way...however yeah, I'm her best friend", you nodded, stealing a glance of your bestie, who seemed interested in your convo with Ning, even if you doubted that she could hear anything. "That's very good know. I'm very close to Gigi too, so any friend of hers is also a friend of mine", she concluded, finally showing you a proper smile, and damn if it was cute.

The first few hours of lesson flew away easily, it was more an introduction of the programs of the various subjects and some news regarding the school in general; for someone like you who was used to take few notes, you didn't even have the need of opening your backpack. Your antics surprised someone in the class, they made also raise more than an eyebrow, but probably they just had to get used to you. Talking about the class in general, you were not a lot of students, 15 to be precise, and in a way or another you already met and talked to like half of them, it was definitely a good number for your first day, at least in your standard. Ning was cuter and more comfortable with you at every chance of conversation, Winter, even if introduced as cold, was actually very funny, she always had a ready answer; Johnny and Tae were a constant show, always bickering and making the class laugh, meanwhile Aeri and Mark got you covered in every occasion, you just needed to look at them and the problem was already vanished.

One person though catched your eye fast enough: it was a beautiful and pale girl with long and black hair; despite her good look, it was not that the reason of your interest: you actually got her looking in your direction more than once. Now, you were not the type of person who starts to talk with strangers, but you had to ask her if it was all good. So, during the first moment of pause, you got up and walked towards her, gathering all the courage a shy ass like you could collect. "Ehm...hi, sorry to bother you, but I noticed that you looked at me frequently, so...do you need something?", you asked, trying to sound as nice as possible, you didn't want to be rude or anything, you were just curious. "Oh, I...", the girl looked at you, completely surprised, almost shocked by the fact she got caught. "...I was not looking at you, I just want your place", she blurted out, trying to escape from the embarassing situation. "Do you want...to sit next to Ning?", the tone of voice during your question was clearly disorientated by her reason. "What? No...I meant your place next to the window: I like to watch outside during the classes so...", the pretty girl explained herself, letting out an embarassed laugh at the end. Why does she always have to end up in these situations?

"Don't mind her, Karina is just a loser in a hot girl body, you'll get used to her soon", Aeri reassured you, while sitting on a table of the cafeteria. "She's actually one of my closest friend here with Minjeong and Ning. I wish that you could have met her in better circumstances, but it's fine, it's still pretty normal for her standards", she shrugged, taking a bite of her lunch. Somehow that info made you feel a tiny bit guilty, you didn't want to make her life harder or similar, maybe later you could have tried to apologize. "Winter, Ning, Karina...how many best friends you have, I guess my best friend role is pretty common", you teased her with an evil smirk. "Yah, you dummy! That's not true, you know that you're special", she scolded you, starting to hit your shoulder lightly. Now that you were finally living her, you were noticing how much she physical and affectionate she was; she has always been sweet and kind online, but this was a different level. However you were not complaining about it.

"Aww, the special friend, you could have said that best friend meant girlfriend", Winter joined the teasing squad, while joining your table with Mark. "Oh, shut up! We are just best friends, I told you", Giselle complained, throwing a bit of food to her friend, to hide how hard she was blushed. "Excuse me? Best friend? That person right there is MY bestie, so please keep your dirty hands away, thank you", Mark said, making Aeri gasp, indignant. "Shut up too, Mark Lee! You may even be the person who made this friendship born, but now our connection is way stronger and deeper. And what have you said about my hands? No, because I'm about to smack your dumb face with these and then...", the war of the best best friend was already started and you playfully rolled your eyes back, knowing that this discussion would be part of your daily life from that moment. "This is all your fault", you accused Winter, pointing your plastic fork towards her, while laughing. "Divide et impera, my dear", the blondie laughed back, before winking at you.

On your way back to class you let the other three go ahead, you stopped to a vending machine, buying a snack for apologizing to Karina. With poor nonchalanche. you placed it on her desk, coughing to get her attention. "So, yeah...this is for...before...because...you know...". Why was apologizing that hard for you? You just had to say sorry, and instead you were there blocked, looking like a complete idiot. "Thank you", Karina said smiling, interrupting your rambling, "you didn't have to, it was my fault, but I really appreciate it", she added with a calm tone. In that moment the loser was missing, it was the hot girl talking to you. "Oh, well, let's just forget that silly episode and become friends", you proposed, looking down to hide your red cheeks. "Friends? Sounds good to me, call me Jimin then", she accepted, caressing softly your hand as proof, and you really used all your will to not scream. Jimin really shocked you, you didn't expect her to have this deadly dualism, your heart was definitely beating faster.

You returned to your seat, still recovering from that unexpected interaction. And yet it was not the moment to relax, because Ning was looking at you with a demanding stare. "Well? What about me?", she asked, making you mind go blank. You started to blink your eyes non-stop, giving her the signal you had no idea of what she was talking about. "What about my snack? You took one for Karina but not for me, your deskmate?", she asked, scoffing and crossing her arms. "No, Ning, wait, I-", your explanation was interrupted by the fact the Ning suddendly stood up and that really made you panic, you didn't want to create a case your first day. "No, Ning, listen, it's not as you seem, it's because first it happened a thing, let me just explain-", you were interrupted again, this time by her laugh. Ning seated again, laughing so loudly that the whole class turned their heads in yours direction. "Oh my God, look at your face, the fear in your eyes is so funny", she said, holding her stomach. You looked towards your two best friends, searching for a sense of all that: Mark just shook his head while Aeri mouthed "she's a bit crazy". "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, it was just a little prank, you are not mad at me, right?", she asked, whiping away her tears and honestly you were about to give her a lesson, but then she leaned towards you and put her face on your shoulder, giving you puppy eyes. You sighed, giving up: her cuteness made you weak, maybe soon or later you will be able to resist to pretty girls.

It was long and tiring, especially on a mental level but your first day of lessons got to an end. Your social battery was so low, you just wanted to go home and rest. Mark and Gigi proposed you to hang out after school but honestly they knew so well that you were going to refuse, but it was still worthy to give a try. They at least got permission from you to take you home, or better, to the small apartment you were going to live for the next year. All the people you met that day were funny, interesting and shit but it was nice to spend your time with just your best friends. They brought till in front the door of your apartment and, after trying to enter without success, they finally went home too, but not before a last hug: Mark hug was very brotherly, while Aeri just squeezed you again. You went in, plopping on the small couch and looking at the rooftop. It was just the first day and you were already exhausted, but why then couldn't you stop to smile and be eager for the next day?

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foryouthegays · 1 month ago

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my plan for the manga is like. i wanna take my time with this im not gonna Rush .but also oh my god i want to be caught up so bad i want to know whats happening in elbaf im so jealous of yall who r caught up

guess whos entirely fucking caught up on one piece babieeeeee

#i feel like i could theoretically read like. egghead on and be reading the newest chapters While i catch up. but thatd get confusing and #annoying so im not gonna #AND i still have some of the movies to watch #gonna watch film red tomorrow (for my birthday :3)#ohhhhh and i gotta rewatch baron at some point #and ofc g8 .whichll be my .third time watching g8 #but thats fine its fine to rewatch g8 as many times as u want because it is silly #at some point i think ill rewatch thriller bark as well bc i did not enjoy it v much the first time but idk. im curious about it #same w skypiea #me: i just finished catching up to one piece!#me: time to rewatch every arc but out of order :D #i skipped a few eps in enies lobby but they were just the ones where it was Entirely Flashbacks #and i was like bestie i watched this like one (1) month ago i dont need to watch it again #anyway #any recs for how to read the manga online esp formats that are mobile friendly bc oh boy oh boy id love to read on my phone

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eleni-cherie · 5 months ago

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a thief's origin✨ || bts • kth - prologue

"you're afraid I won't wait." "I'm afraid you will."

a criminal and a doctor should be as different as the sun and the moon - but unexpected things happened every day. like him finding his safe haven in her.

»»»

masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburn, mutual pining, strangers to friends to lovers s2f2l

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY

»»»

age 22 // medical intern

25th March

Munich, Germany

»»»

It was way past midnight when Cassandra finally managed catching a break. Her one obligatory night shift had only started a little over three hours ago, but attending physicians from the previous shifts had passed their patients to the night shift, half of the senior doctors were at a national conference and her supervisor was running around and taking care of everything - which meant Cassandra, as one of her interns, was also running around and taking care of everything she could.

After documenting and assisting at a catheterization and an intubation done by one of the attending seniors, she finally found her first free five minutes.

Stepping out into the fresh night air, she leaned her arms on the railing of the ER entrance. Tying her coppery curls into a ponytail before fiddling out a protein bar from the pocket of her blue scrubs. Having to suppress a moan when taking a bite from it. Not even minding that she once again hit her elbow on the railing, nothing new for her anyway.

The night at the hospital was rather tranquil, at least compared to the workload during daytime, and she had time to go back to her paper work.

So much paper work..

It was her own fault, though, volunteering to assist her supervisor in a presentation about pulmonalis purpura but she needed these bonus points. Extra tasks like these always earned them bonus points, credits and also looked great on a CV after graduation.

With a sigh, she unwrapped the last piece of the protein bar when muffled voices disrupted the peaceful silence, coming from the direction of the parking lot.

Her eyes tried to find the source when spotting two young men with a third one between them, his arms draped around their shoulders as they carried him towards the entrance. And her eyes shot open when realising the one in the middle was beinf practically dragged, seemingly unconscious.

Stuffing the rest of the bar into her mouth and shoving the wrapper into her pocket, her instinct kicked in, despite being still in training, and she rushed towards them. Immediatelly spotting the dark liquid on the side of the guy's face from up-close.

"What happened?" she asked after swallowing the rest of her midnight snack.

The other young men struggled to answer and she decided to press one more time.

"There was a.. minor explosion. Something hit his head," one of them finally answered and she nodded. A possible concussion, she concluded. "Ok, we'll take care. I'll call the attending phy-"

"No!" the other, rounder-faced guy exclaimed with evident panic in his voice, taking her aback. The second guy quickly taking over with an uneasy smile.

"Look, Doc, we'd prefer if that stayed between us. You see.." He chuckled lightly, his lips curving into a smile that could convince anyone to anything. And Cassandra's guard went down for a second. "..people are looking for us. Not that nice people." His eyes giving her a look of appeal. "So we'd appreciate it if you took care of our friend in.. let's say, secret."

She folded her arms then in an attempt to look confident, when really all she felt was nervous. If she understood the signs correctly, these guys knew the hospital stuff had to inform police about a potential explosion-injury and they clearly didn't want that. Meaning something was off about them.

They might be looking quite young, around her age or a bit older with way too friendly looking faces to be mobsters, but you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

She was afraid of them trying to intimidate her in some way. The pure possibility making her heart anxiously beating faster.

Much to her surprise, however, their expressions softened instead and genuine concern was written all over their flustered faces.

"Please, don't inform the cops about our friend."

He wasn't demanding it, he was asking or rather pleading for it. And frankly, Cassandra hadn't expected that.

Clenching her jaw, she swallowed.

It wasn't a warning her gut sent her. No, it wasn't trying warning her of potential danger. And yet, she could tell they still were trouble. That she was sure of.

However, their request went beyond her responsibility. She was a mere intern. She knew she should persist onto calling one of the attending doctors. Or even an assistant one. Or at least a nurse. Literally anyone with an actual medical license.

Her eyes fell onto the unconscious one of the three then. And the fresh blood gracing his temple and cheek under the fringe that was covering his closed eyes. He definitely couldn't wait any longer for medical attention. Who knew how long he d been unconscious. The longer they waited, the severer the potential damage.

"If I don't accept you'll try at another hospital, right?"

"Most likely," his friend replied with a bashful, almost apologetic smile.

Exhaling deeply, she released her arms and let them fall onto her sides. "Alright, but if it's something I can't handle you will let me call for additional medical stuff."

"We-"

"That's non-negotiable. Otherwise good luck trying finding another idiot like me who's willing to help you. And while driving around town to look for one, your friend might bleed out or worse."

She was exaggarrating of course, even with no license yet, she could tell it was probably just a mere concussion and laceration with no actual threat of bleeding out. Although the unconsciousness was worrisome. So she bluffed in hopes they'd agree.

And seeing them exchanging an uncertain look, it looked like it worked.

The one with the charming smile glanced at their friend who they were propping up, feeling his weight growing heavier by the minute.

"Tough negotiation but okay."

Content and a little proud of herself, she nodded and started walking towards the emergency room entrance. Waving them over her shoulder. "Let me check if the coast's clear."

With an uneasy feeling, she went inside. Seeing no one but a man with an icepack on his shoulder in the waiting area. He was facing the wall, back turned towards the entrance. Meanwhile, the nurse on duty was currently nowhere in sight, missing from her position behind the glass of the counter. Having probably gone to the restroom or to get something.

Cassandra huffed internally. Not understanding why there weren't two people on duty in case someone with a serious emergency came in and wouldn't find anyone. But right now it was practical in her case, so she didn't complain about the buget cutbacks.

Giving the waiting guys a sign, they quickly followed her in. Passing by the man who didn't really pay attention anyway, preoccupied by his own injury, and hushed past the counter and through the double door.

She led them to one of the currently empty exam rooms, watching them carrying the unconscious man to the examination table. And she pulled out her small flashlight, opening his eyelids to check the pupil's reaction.

Normal, thankfully.

No indication for increased cranial pressure. So far medical stuff wasn't needed. Or well, they would be but not necessary yet, since these guys wanted to go undocumented.

She untangled her stethoscope then, making sure his cardiac cycle was normal as well.

The patient was stable, but still unconscious.

She couldn't, however, perform a CT scan, MRI or any other medical test - neither had she learned how nor was she qualified yet. So she decided to proceed with trying to make him gain consciousness. And if he didn't react, then she'd persist in calling an actual physician.

Remembering her training so far, next in line was inducing different stimuli like tactile. So she began applying light pressure to his face like the eyebrow bone or the jaw joint to cause adequate discomfort. Observing his features turning into a grimace of annoyance, indicating he felt the pressure. Good. She firmly pressed his knuckles up and down the sternum then, his fingers contracting.

"What's his name?" Her sudden question pulling the other two out of their absentmindness while watching her perform.

"Huh?"

"His name. Start speaking to him for verbal stimulus to help him gain conscience."

Seemingly hesistant first, the silent one with the rounder face and smaller eyes spoke up then. "Taehyung. It's Taehyung."

"Taehyung," she repeated firmly, tapping Taehyung's cheek just the right amount of harsh to ensure he felt it for a noxious stimulus, "Can you hear me?"

His head moved away from her touch, the expression on his face shifting to a frown when a whine of pain left his lips. "Hey, come on, wake up. Your friends here are worried!"

She was about to give his cheek another light slap, when she got stopped mid-air by his hand gripping her wrist firmly.

His eyes shot open then. And a pair of mesmerizing dark irises suddenly stared back at hers, causing Cassandra to freeze.

She knew it was medically impossible to knock someone's breath out of their lungs. And yet, in this moment she wondered if it was possible to develop at least a sudden dyspnea - a shortness of breath - without any prior cause or trauma at all, just by locking gazes with someone.

Their eyes were of similar colour, it was the first thing he noted. The very first thought that crossed his mind. The same deep brown shade as his own, and yet so very different. He didn't think ever seeing more beautiful warm brown eyes than hers before. As though he was looking at her through the sight of a sniper rifle, zoomed in all the way, the world pausing for that tiny span of time between the pressing and release of the trigger.

They held each other's gaze for a second longer, until the sense of his throbbing head caught him out and he had to screw his eyes back shut from the pain. Letting go of her wrist.

At this, Cassandra blinked and took a step back, her blank mind slowly getting flooded with thoughts again.

His friend approached then, giving Taehyung a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. "Hey man, you hear us?"

With a scrunching face, a light groan escaped his lips. "Yoongi?"

"And Jimin!" the other one chirped in, shoving Yoongi away in excitement, "You're awake!"

Another groan followed.

The young men started talking energetically, relieved and happy seeing their friend having gained his consciousness again, not noticing Cassandra standing there. For some reason unable averting her eyes from Taehyung.

She had been so focused on making him gain consciousness again without screwing up, she hadn't paid attention to anything else. But ever since seeing his wide almond eyes, something had shifted. And she felt herself breathing irregularly.

Blinking her eyes repeatedly, she forced herself to eventually look away and re-focus on his treatment.

Patient was conscious again, that was good. This meant she could pay attention to the source of the blood now.

"Would you step back and let me check his wound?" she quietly asked then. Jimin and Yoongi immediately obeying and giving her space. Taehyung blinked an eye open through the throbbing when hearing her voice.

"How do you feel? Are you fully awake now?" she carefully asked him then, avoiding his eyes the best she could while inspecting the cut at his hairline.

"Yeah.. but I wished I wasn't. My head is.. aching pretty badly."

"That's normal." She couldn't legally give him anything but Ibuprofen 400, perhaps there was some in one of the cabinets. She'd check later. Right now some other things were more important. "Do you remember anything? I mean, do you know your name, age and what happened?"

"You're asking if I got amnesia? I don't," he said with a hollow laugh. Eyes closing shut again.

She hummed, grabbing a pair of disposible gloves from the counter. "Where am I though?"

"The hospital," Jimin explained with a sigh of disapproval. "You didn't leave us much of a choice, man. You were unconscious and had blood on your face. Like.. damn. For a second I was actually scared."

Taehyung snickered tiredly at his friend's whining, attempting to prop himself up when Yoongi pushed him back down. "Just lay down for a moment, you were out of it for quite some time."

Pushing his hand away when his face contorted due to another wave of pain. "I'm fine, don't worry."

"You don't look like that though."

"Listen to your friend." Cassandra's stern voice making him perk up. "And besides, you probably need some stitches first."

"And you are..?"

"Cassandra," she said unfazed while holding up a sterilized needle. Motioning to the other two who had huddled over him in the short moment she prepared her stitching utensils, "Now, if you could move, please."

"No offence but.. how old are you?" Yoongi asked then with sharp eyes narrowing at her. He had noticed her young-looking face before as well, but he hadn't cared much back then considering Taehyung's condition. Now, however, she was holding a needle in her hands, about to patch up his younger friend.

The crease between her brows deepened. "Turning twenty-three soon, why?"

"Are you even a doctor?"

She straightened herself as she took a few steps closer to the actual patient among the three, the one on the bed with the laceration.

"Oh, now you suddenly care?" Her lips tucked into a sarcastic smirk aimed at him, seeing him fold his lips. "I am an intern - if you must know."

"So technically n-"

"God, Yoongi, who cares?" the injured one scowled, followed by a groan, "I'm dying here! Just let her do her thing already!"

"Aw, don't be so dramatic, you won't die," Jimin rolled his eyes. Launching for a pat on the shoulder before remembering Taehyung was in pain.

His attention turned to Cassandra then. It wasn't the first time she had to encounter overly noisy and worried relatives. With her signature smile that was more a habit of politeness, but which she genuinely felt like doing when seeing Jimin's friendly face, she nodded. Trying to reassure them that yes, he wouldn't die.

"I'll take care of it," she said then. The two standing guys exchanged a glance, looking down at their friend who was screwing shut his eyes.

"You sure you can handle that?" Yoongi asked, this time his voice holding genuine concern as he peeked down at Taehyung.

"Yeah, don't worry. My orange was the best stitched one, so I'm pretty confident," she waved them off.

Her proud announcement only earning her puzzled looks from them though. "Orange?"

She nodded with a wide grin. "Yeah, one of the senior surgeons showed us how to do stitches and we practiced on oranges. And mine was the best."

Yoongi couldn't help but look at her in disbelief. "Are you for rea-"

Not letting him complete his sentence, Jimin began pushing him aside. "We're gonna let you do your job now, don't worry." Cassandra didn't miss Yoongi suppressing a wince on his face, but she brushed it off in that moment. Letting out a breath.

"Don't mind them, they're noisy but mean no harm."

She turned around, facing her actual patient who was flashing her a weak smile before his face turned into a grimace once again. And she gave him an apologetic smile.

"Grit your teeth, okay? It'll sting."

He only inhaled deeply and nodded. Allowing her to clean the wound and apply an antisepticum, making him flinch as expected, before she got to work on the actual stitches. As she had done the first one, she cleared her throat. Peeking at him nervously. After all, this was the closest she'd ever been to him. And she also pitied him. Doing this without a local anaestheticum was most likely very uncomfortable.

"So.." she began and felt his smile on her.

"It's Taehyung-" He paused, she assumed because of the wound. Not noticing him nervously folding his lips.

"Yeah, I know," she smiled absentmindedly, focusing on stitching which was a whole lot more nerve-wrecking when two other pair of eyes were staring at her from above. Definitely didn't have that issue when it was only an orange. She huffed a laugh then, peeking at the two who quickly retreated to the far back. "Shouldn't you guys actually use pseudonyms in front of a stranger like me?"

"Oh, should we?" Taehyung weakly grinned.

She shrugged with a shippish smirk. "You clearly are on the run, considering your friends wouldn't let me inform anyone about you. Who knows, I might still get the cops.."

"Nah. You won't." He said it so matter-of-factly that it astonished her quite a lot, the faith he had in a stranger like her.

"Why not?"

Jimin appeared next to her all of a sudden and stooped down to tilt his head at her with his award-winning smile. "'Cause we trust you, so you wouldn't do it. Right?"

"Trusting a stranger, huh," she giggled more to herself than anything, focusing back on the stitches. "Isn't that quite naive?"

Unexpectedly, he laughed out at this, bemused instead of feeling offended.

"You must know," Yoongi spoke up then with a crooked grin, motioning his chin to Jimin, "He's pretty good in analysing and looking through people. So if he deems you trustworthy, you most likely are."

"He's right," Taehyung mumbled. Unable to add much more due to the additional stinging he felt from the needle, as if his headache wasn't enough.

In all honesty, if he had it his way, he'd have preferred lying to her.

Not that he wouldn't feel bad. She seemed nice after all, but she had a point. It was risky revealing real names. Not only for them but also for her.

And it was already bad enough Jimin and Yoongi had to bring him to the ER because he'd got injured like an amateur. Risking them getting caught because of his own mistake.

And her, an innocent bystander, knowing would probably cause more trouble. However, he also understood why they had to let her in to some degree. Right now, they depended on her help after all.

Cassandra only gave him a brief glance and hummed before quietly continuing the stitches.

She tried being trustworthy, but did she also look so trustworthy for strangers to include her in their secrets? Did she perhaps seem too trustworthy?

"You're an intern. So.. a student, huh?" he began then in an attempt to distract her mind in case it was still lingering over the cause of his injury.

"Yup, doing one of my internships right now," she explained, not minding the little exchange.

Frankly, she hadn't chosen that path for the prestige or money. She was one of the few ones in her year who genuinely did it for helping people. And therefore, she didn't mind interacting and talking with patients. Especially not cute ones with big brown eyes and an endearing smile. Those were pretty rare, at least in her two months there. And someone with a potentially questionable lifestyle - considering he got involved in explosions and had 'not nice people' being after him on top of it? No, that definitely didn't happen every day.

The stitches were done and she cut the thread before applying an adhesive plaster on the wound. She got up then, about to remove the gloves when she caught a better view of the other two. Only now taking an actual closer look on them with her not being on alert anymore because of Taehyung. In the hospital lights and without any distractions, she saw they didn't look too good either. Clothes torn on the edges, abrasions and splashes of blood gracing their skin.

"Are you guys injured as well?"

They shook their heads.

"Nah, just some scratches," Jimin ensured her, while Yoongi remained quiet in his seat on the chair at the corner of the room. She eyed him suspiciously as she noticed he had been absentmindedly rubbing his right shoulder until he caught her narrowed eyes on him. Making him squint his eyes in irritation.

"Is something on my face?" he tried joking, his laugh quickly dropping when she stepped in front of him. Her face softened then and she shook her head.

"No, no.. just, would you be so nice and get me that box of gauze from the shelf up there? I'm too short to reach these shelves."

He followed the direction her finger pointed at and nodded, not questioning why she wouldn't ask Jimin who was already standing. Getting up instead to walk to said shelf. As his right arm stretched for the gauze, however, he abruptly stopped. Jaw clenching. He lowered the arm again slowly, only to face her with a forced smile.

"That one, yeah?"

She nodded. Her lips tucked into an innocent smile as she anticipated his next move. And he reached out again, but with his other arm this time instead.

Caught you.

"Here ya go- ouchh!" The box almost slipped from his grip as his muscles jerked away from her finger pressing onto his shoulder. Turning around, he came across her knowing look.

"You're also injured, aren't you?"

"Wh-"

Taehyung and Jimin's eyes grew wide when observing the scene. Understanding now how her request was on purpose. And yet, they remained confused on how she had actually noticed in such a short time.

"What? You're also injured?" Jimin questioned then with worried eyes, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Am no- Ouch! Can you stop doing that?" Yoongi whined and stared bewildered at Cassandra as she had pressed it again.

"Just let her take a look already."

He only let out a quiet grump at Taehyung's suggestion. A look of defeat crossing his features then as he saw Cassandra's victorious smile. "Fine."

Unbuttoning his shirt, he pushed off the fabric to reveal the shoulder. The shirt was black so no one had noticed the dried blood from the lengthy cut.

"The fck."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

He gritted his teeth, looking away in shame. "It's nothing."

"That's not nothing," Cassandra huffed at his light description of an already inflamed puncture, shaking her head in disapproval as she prepared a new thread. Pushing him into taking a seat again. "I doubt that one was also caused by an explosion," she said as she began cleaning the wound and Yoongi avoided their concerned eyes.

"No, that one isn't from tonight. It's.. whatever. I was distracted for a second. That's all."

Truth was he'd got distracted over a backfire two days ago. He hadn't fully paid attention to his surroundings, something that never happened, and one of those jerks from a local gang had taken advantage of it. Mainly Yoongi's ego and pride felt bruised, if anything.

Finishing those stitches up as well, she pressed a tube of antibiotic gel into his chest, which he hesitantly accepted with a raised brow. And she finally removed the gloves.

"Next time you get stabbed you'll get immediate treatment, got it?" Her tone was stern and lecturing, remininiscent of a mother's and Yoongi had to stifle a chuckle. Biting back any sarcasm threatening to leave his lips and smiled at the shorter woman. "Sure, 'Doc'."

She nodded contently. Whether he genuinely meant it or not, she didn't care. Facing the other two then who had watched in amusement as their older friend got scolded.

After rummaging through the drawers, she managed finding a pack of nonprescriptive painkillers, which she handed to Taehyung as well. Receiving a bashful 'thank you' from them all.

"And no more explosions, alright?" Her voice softer now as she smirked. "Heard they're dangerous."

The three men exchanged a look then. And they grinned. "Explosion? Did we say that?"

Cassandra frowned, irritated by their grins. "Uh, yeah, you.."

"Are you sure we did?"

A look of appeal in their eyes as they tried emphasising Taehyung's question.

And her brows rose, beginning to understand. She pursed her lips, huffing out a laugh eventually.

Her pager went off then, her supervisor probably wondering where she had wandered off. Sighing, she slipped it back in.

"Whatever. You can stay here for a couple of hours to ensure your friend is completely fine, if you want. But just so you know, if any stuff members catch you here, you don't know me. Alright?"

"Never seen your pretty face before, got it," Jimin winked and she felt her cheeks heating at his unexpected compliment. She coughed then, straightening herself. "G-good."

Taehyung only groaned annoyed, before chunking down two pills from the pack. "Stop flirting with every woman and let her go already."

"Alright, alright, releasing you from your duty now," he chuckled, flashing her a smile, "Thank you again."

She reciprocated Jimin's smile and with that, she left the room after ensuring the corridors were empty and no one saw her.

As she made her way to the ground floor, she already laid out a perfect explanation in case someone did catch these guys and found out she, an intern, helped them without notifying any medical stuff or official documentation.

She'd simply say they threatened her. Yes, the perfect explanation why she had done it. There wasn't any other option left for her after all without facing severe consequences for her studies and future.

It wasn't too far from reality anyway. Sure, they hadn't actually threatened her. But they could've, in case they were petty-criminals or worse.

Shaking her head, she laughed at her paranoid self. Realising it wasn't like she'd done something ethically or morally bad by treating them. Sure, she hadn't graduated yet but as an aspiring doctor she also honoured the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence.

With a deep breath, she calmed her rising anxiety before entering the staff room where her supervisor had called her to. Reminding herself that even if everything came crushing down, she was just an intern with no legal responsibilities.

Thankfully the reason her supervisor had called was to assign Cassandra to another task. To keep an eye on an operated patient who needed to be checked every few hours and notify her if needed.

So the young medical student made her way back to the elevator across the entrance area to head to the patient's floor, looking forward to the rest of her night being uneventful. Her eyes catching three men standing at the reception then.

Their attire sparkling her interest more than anything as it was the opposite of how the three lads downstairs at the ER looked like. Long coats over what seemed to be suits, neatly combed back hair and their tone serious as they spoke in a hushed voice to the receptionist.

Not paying any more attention, she headed to the vending machine, deciding to get a chocolate bar first for some extra energy when the men left through the double doors behind the reception. Her eyes narrowed while following their hasty steps. Perhaps she was just high off the adrenaline of doing something basically illigal, but without hesitation and a lot of curiosity she walked up to the receptionist.

"Who were they? They look important."

The receptionist, a woman in her early thirties, glanced around as if to make sure no one would eavesdrop before she bent over with a bored expression.

"Cops or something. I didn't quite understand, to be honest."

Cassandra's heartbeat dropped at this. "C-cops?"

"I don't know, yes and no? They said something about interpol."

Fck. She tried her best not to let the woman notice her panic. "What would they want here?"

The woman leaned back into her chair. "They're looking for some criminal, I guess. Were asking if any young korean men with brown hair and eyes got possibly committed here tonight."

"I see.. And what did you tell them?"

"There wasn't anyone in the system committed tonight who fits the age or description," she sheepishly laughed out. "And I didn't recognise the name or photo they showed me, either. So they said they'd check themselves."

Check themselves? Did they plan to go to every station and look into every room?

"That's.. interesting." Cassandra faked a laugh and then pretended going back to the vending machine only to hurriedly enter through the door beside it to the staircase.

That wasn't good, not good at all. Interpol? She thought some goons or maybe the cops would be after them tops. But interpol? That was international. That was way bigger than local police.

She sprinted down the stairs to the lower level where ER was located as fast as she'd ever sprinted in her life, reaching the bottom completely panting but still pushing through and making her way through the station. Tripping over her own fit and even bumping her shoulder at a corner out of hurry. She sneaked her way past the nurse station then, the nurse having returned by now but luckily preoccupied with organising some files.

So far no sight of the interpol agents. She genuinely hoped the guys had already left the room and were long gone. But when she opened the door was greeted by three familiar and startled pairs of eyes.

With a swift moved she shut the door behind her, pressing her body against it with heavy breaths.

"Some interpol agents were asking about recently hospitalised young korean men with brown hair and eyes. You don't think that sounds familiar, do you?"

Taehyung's thick brows rose and he swallowed hard. An apologetical grin playing on his lips then. "Well, you see.. funny story.." His hand went to scratch the back of his neck nervously. Unable to come up with a decent explanation to why an interpol agent was in search for someone looking like him. The only logical sounding thing his mind could come up with was that it was a simple coincidence, but something told him she was way too smart to fall for such an obvious lie.

Much to his relief Jimin took over instead. "Was one of them tall with broad shoulders and a trenchcoat?"

"Well, y-yeah. I guess? Don't they all look like this?"

"Hm, was he also handsome?"

She blinked, taken aback by their seemingly apathy of the situation. Shouldn't they be worried? Appalled even? "I don't know, I didn't see any faces. You know him?"

"Well," Jimin mused, "If he's tall, handsome with broad shoulder and a coat, it's pops."

"'Pops'?!" Confusion was quickly replaced with bewilderment on her face.

Taehyung rolled his eyes, sighing. "Agent Kim Seokjin, one of the interpol agents assigned to us. We.." His voice trailed off, as he was fidgeting around his words. "We.."

They all grew quiet, uncertain glances being exchanged between them and Cassandra slowly became fed up with their secrecy. Her head spinning by now.

With quick steps she stood in front of Taehyung who was avoiding her inquiring glare. She propped her hands on either side of him on the bed as she leaned in with a look so eery and penetrating that evoked a gulp from him.

"We're thieves," Yoongi deadpanned then from behind her, so casually as if he had just announced they were common vendors. "We work internationally, that's why interpol is after us."

Jimin only sighed in defeat and nodded, followed by a light chuckle. "Cat's out of the bag now I guess."

Her brows arched at this.

Thieves. Actual thieves?

They didn't look like it. They might be lying, but then again, how would she know what thieves looked like.

Without letting her guard down, she instead narrowed her eyes at Taehyung in front of her who was giving her an insecure grin.

"If you don't want me to go up there and tell the interpol guys about you, you better tell me the whole story."

Yoongi clicked his tongue. "Why does it matter?" he wondered out loud, folding his arms.

"So I can determine what kind of thieves you are."

They were stunned by her confident attitude and he eventually nodded with a sense of respect towards her. "Alright, just tell her then," he said, motioning to Taehyung who was still quite perplexed by her fierce eyes staring daggers at his. "She'll read it tomorrow in the papers anyway."

"And don't even think about lying," Cassandra whispered, her face mere centimetres away from Taehyung's. "I got a sixth sense for that."

She didn't and Taehyung could tell her bluff, but he still decided to be honest with her. He didn't know why, but when she glared at him with those big angry eyes, trying to look intimidating but failing miserably and instead looking adorable as hell, he melted just a little bit and wanted to tell her anything she wanted.

"Ok, fine," he groaned in pretend-annoyance, looking away, "We're thieves, you know this much. We broke into the archive of an auction house to get an illegally-obtained figurine. But a gang that was also after it, showed up and one of these idiots triggered the alarm system. We escaped, but - again, those guys were brainless - they shot at us, we shot back. And one of their bullets hit the building's gas line then."

She inhaled sharply. "That caused the explosion.."

He gave her a nod, sighing. "And something hit my head.. and that's how we ended up here. Satisfied?"

She ponded over his words. Glancing at him contemplating. "This figurine was.. illegally-obtained? By the auctioneers?"

"Yeah. They bought it off from someone who stole it from its actual owner. And we're helping her to get it back as it also has a high emotional value to her, besides the obvious monetary one."

She hummed. Again, this guy could be lying his head off for all she knew and yet, something inside her told her he was sincere by the way his eyes were looking straight at hers instead of avoiding them.

A figurine from an auction house. That.. wasn't too bad. Was it? It could be worse. They could've been stealing old people's money.

She was probably a naive idiot, but she believed him. At least she wanted to. And yet, she didn't want to get fooled that easily in case it was a lie after all, which most likely was the case.

"You might lie," she pressed as to ensure her gut feeling. But his expression remained persistent. Holding her glance with certainty.

"I might. But I'm not."

"He told you the truth," Jimin smiled then, gently placing his hand on her shoulder and making her back away from his friend. "If you don't believe us, fair enough. Me and Yoongi can still escape with ease. But Taehyungie here wouldn't be able to due to his dizziness and headache. So I'll still beg you not to inform pops."

She was an idiot, most clearly because to her they sounded sincere and it even warmed her heart a little how much they cared for their friend. Indeed, they could easily escape. They didn't even have to bring Taehyung there in the first place, it was a potential risk and yet they'd done it.

That told her enough about them for now.

She might regret it later on. Maybe the next day. Maybe in a week. A year. Who knew what consequences her complicity tonight might have.

But then again.. she was just a medical student doing one of her many internships there. She didn't have any responsibilities.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself off the bed and looked at the anticipating guys.

"Alright, follow me," she plainly said then, observing their postures relaxing.

"You won't snitch on us?" Yoongi asked, brow arching in doubt. Caution evident in his voice.

She rolled her eyes with a little giggle. "I'll probably regret it, but no. I'll try my best to keep your little secret between us. But perhaps you wanna change these clothes.." She wagged her index finger at their partially torn, burnt and bloody attire. "If anyone else sees you, I can't promise they won't."

"And what would you suggest, Doc?" Taehyung asked then with a curious smirk, to which Cassandra could only shrug cheekily.

"I may have a plan."

»»»

next chapter: 0.1 here

Don't forget to like, reblog & leave feedback!♡ It motivates me to keep writing :)

taglist: @lilanyxta @memna234 @tetehion

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neil-gaiman · 2 years ago

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Hey Neil. I wanted to thank you.

I was an avid reader as a kid. When I was a teenager I got into comic books and manga and read a lot of those. Classics like FMA, Deathnote, some Dragon Ball, Naruto and One Piece. Then I gradually worked my way into western comics with The Boys and Transmetropolitan and others in that vein. But I shied away from the Sandman despite the insistence of a good friend back then. (The covers put me off, bad reason) My enthusiasm for reading then sharply declines as I "become an adult".

Then this year, as I inch closer to 30 years I pick up the first Sandman issue from my public library and in a matter of months I blaze through all the Sandman I can find there, completing the main storyline along with the prologue book, collection of short stories and the one you did in the japanese folktale style. I loved it all. And I catch that bug full force. Stardust is next, which I devour, amazing in its entirety. Then comes Norse Mythology, a book whose subject matter I am intimately familiar with, being Icelandic. I love it, by the way. I've started reading again. The Turn of The Screw, done. Currently reading Frankenstein and Douglas Adams' lovely Hitchhiker's Guide series.

But none of this would have happened had I not shied away from The Sandman as a teenager and rediscovered it as an adult. It sparked the flame inside me again. The flame that tirelessly devours books.

So thank you Neil. Thank you for reigniting my passion for reading. And know that I've made it my mission to read as much of your amazing, beautiful prose as I can. Thank you for writing it. Sending you love.

-Guðjón Jósef Baldursson

TL:DR: Your work helped me get back into reading. Thank you.

P.s. I'm sorry for the long post. It kind of got away from me. I appreciate it even if you only take the time to read, let alone reply to it. I just wanted you to know this.

And it makes me happy. People often find the books and stories they need when they are ready for them.

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larkistin · 10 months ago

Text

I kinda really wanna come back here more often. Just need to revamp my experience and settings, since I haven‘t really been on here since like 2018. 😅 I‘ve only dumped the odd art piece here and there, never even checked the timeline. Gotta follow some new people. Especially since I‘ve heavily gotten back into anime and manga again this past year. It feels like coming home tbh. I‘m still heavily into SciFi, Marvel and stuff, but I really missed things like One Piece and Lupin in my life.

I‘ve been on a One Piece rewatch/watch for the last couple months to catch up on what I missed these past few years. Haven‘t had this much fun in ages and so many awesome convos with friends about it as well.

I used to only post my art on here, but I‘ve decided if I do come back here more often, I’ll reblog things here now as well. So if you‘ve been following me only for my art and suddenly you see other posts too, it‘s okay if you unfollow me. We shall see where this goes.

Anywayyyy, rambling over.

Whoever has been reading this, I hope you have a good day wherever you are. 👋🏻🩷

#personal

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haleigh-sloth · 6 months ago

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Are you holding your thoughts back for now on this current chapter? I know I should wait until next week, but I still feel like this chapter feels very off and incomplete. Even for it to be AFO's send-off in the story, it still feels unsatisfying to me.

I really wonder if this is a fake-out, then how will Hori execute it because Eri's rewind theory is out of question since it's been used on Deku's arms.

Well, I've more or less been checked out from the manga for a while anyway. I don't have much thoughts in general these days because the pacing drives me nuts to an extent that it's not worth it to follow it closely for me at this time. I'd rather just binge it all at once. I do follow the leaks but I cannot say I have a 100% accurate understanding of all the minute details because it's been a hot minute since I read a full chapter.

For this though, I just don't know what to say. Is it possible he's genuinely dead? I mean yeah. It's always a possibility. But I can't say I'm convinced, just because Kurogiri's last words indicate that um...he needs to come back so he can have a reunion with his friends. And the thing is he never actually CAME BACK. Like not once since the war arc was he himself. So I cannot see how this can actually be his ending.

There is a break next week which is more telling to me than anything because Hori literally ALWAYS does shit like this, so another reason I'm just....eh...for now. Also, all of the LOV members have been untouched and left in states that hint at them being dead for multiple chapters now...so I mean. Tomura following suit doesn't surprise me. Then there was the info dump right at the end about his quirk, about the overhaul quirk and how his had the restorative piece left out of it. I mean, it does feel like that was mentioned intentionally. And almost everything in this manga that is mentioned comes back with a vengeance in some way.

There's also the lackluster incompleteness of his character with this chapter that doesn't feel like it can possibly be his ending. Him ending on a note of "tell my friend Tomura Shigaraki fought to destroy until the very end" just literally negates everything that happened prior. Like that's not the legacy or parting words his character was built up to having. His character is meant to evolve beyond the destructive mindset, not just be like "yeah well, I was committed to the bit til the very end!" Like no. Lol. I do think Hori is better than that. Especially for this character. Also him using "Tomura Shigaraki" feels intentional as well, seeing as how that's not his real name. And he literally just acknowledged that he really was a crying boy all this time. Which is Tenko.

Then....idk. Midoriya's biggest "save" ending up being dead? Just...yikes. The thing is, I don't have any doubt in my mind that Toga and Touya and Spinner are fine. For the main character to lose his biggest challenge while his friends successfully completed theirs is certainly an odd choice. So therefore I just am not convinced. For all the reasons.

Regarding AFO, until the Tomura stuff is resolved I can't spare a thought toward any other character right now. That is also one of the key points of the manga I've just been tapped out of by not reading full chapters. I can't give much serious commentary on AFO yet.

But yeah I mean I guess I am just holding back for the most part. I am kind of at a point where I feel like the only way I can genuinely feel joy from this manga again is to wait until it's completely finished and then read it all at once. Do I have that self-control? Not sure, I've been able to almost completely detach for almost a year at this point so I will probably lean hard into that and seriously remove myself from it until it's time to catch up. I love this story, I do trust the author and am putting faith in him even if right now that faith is wavering. I want to finish the story and like it for what it is. I do have my hopes and am not letting them go until I have no other choice.

#bnha asks #bnha spoilers #anonymous

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beewitcher · 1 month ago

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♡ - Late night worries

☆ - A short Farcille drabble (one shot..?)

♡ - Summary - Marcille has a rough time after Falin is revived and can't sleep, so Falin helps her to calm down and makes a promise

☆ - Author's Note - this is my first time posting my writing in 3 years, I hope it doesn't suck, i wasn't sure how to word the ending. I just love farcille and was thinking about this for a while. I'm an anime only (plan to read manga soon) so sorry for any mistakes or inconsistencies in character!

All Marcille wanted was to finally relax. She hadn't been able to properly rest since the red dragon initially fought their party and ate Falin. But Marcille thought that after they rescued her, she wouldn't have anything to worry about anymore.

Now, late into the night, Marcille was wide awake trying to tune out the sound of her friends and their snoring. Friends... would they still be her friend after what she did?

She didn't regret using forbidden magic to revive Falin, and Marcille wouldn't ever consider what she did wrong or evil in any way. But did they think differently? Would they be afraid of her? of Falin? Marcille couldn't stop herself from wondering if this would break up the party.

Thinking about Laios' helped ease her mind, he had agreed almost immediately to her methods of resurrection, anything that would save his sister. Falin was important to him, surely he would understand more than anyone why Marcille did what she had to.

Another restless thought crossed Marcille's mind. What if she had failed to put Falin back together correctly? Marcille couldn't lose her again. So, for the hundredth time since they rescued her, Marcille examined Falin as best as she could in the dark, to make sure everything was as it should be.

Marcille spent her time that night ensuring she had pieced Falin back together exactly as she was before, and a sigh of relief escaped her when she couldn't find anything wrong.

Now she was gazing at Falin for a different reason. This wasn't the first time Marcille had found herself getting caught up in admiring her close friend, and maybe that's why she had been successful in rebuilding her so perfectly. Not a bone or feature out of place.

She found herself reaching toward Falin's hand that rested on the pillow, and she slid her own underneath. Marcille was surprised when they locked together, and she heard a quiet but sharp inhale in front of her.

Falin blinked sleepily as she woke, bringing her free hand up to rub at her blurry eyes. That didn't help much, since it was dark and her eyesight was not the best to begin with.

"...Marcille?" She whispered, squinting in an attempt to see her elven friend in the dark. Marcille was surprised, she hadn't meant to wake Falin, and was quick to apologize.

"oh! I'm sorry, you need rest! I shouldn't have..." Falin gently squeezed her hand and smiled.

"It's alright." Her smile dropped a little when she noticed Marcille's expression. Her eyes were glassy, dark circles had begun to form beneath them, and her brows were furrowed.

"Marcille, is everything okay?" Falin lifted her head from the pillow and leaned in close with worry. "You need sleep just as much as I do, have you been awake this whole time?"

Marcille looked away, embarrassed that she had noticed. The last thing she wanted was to bother Falin with her problems, especially the ones related to dark magic.

"Yea." She looked back at Falin and couldn't help but let a tear spill over onto her cheek. "Emotions are just catching up to me y'know? This entire journey I've been so scared that you were too far gone, and that I'd never see you again." Marcille wiped at her cheek, deciding that she'd at least open up about one of her worries.

"But we actually killed the red dragon... we actually saved you..." She was having a hard time believing it was all real, not another dream like the ones she had during their rescue mission. Marcille would dream about reuniting with Falin, healing her, making sure she was all in one piece, before another monster came and took Falin again. After those kinds of nightmares Marcille would wake up afraid, and heartbroken all over again.

Marcille wasn't able to stop herself from crying, and her shoulders shook as she gave in. "Please don't leave again, I don't want to worry about your safety anymore... sniff... I just want you to be here, and be okay."

Falin wrapped an arm around marcille and tucked her into her chest, smoothing her hair in an attempt to soothe her.

"Don't cry Marcille..." Falin spoke gently and hushed her, but let her continue to sob. Marcille held onto her, clinging to the fact that she was real. "I'll try my best not to get eaten again, so don't be sad okay?" Falin smiled when Marcille lifted her head to look up at her. She moved to wipe Marcille's tear before it could fall onto the pillow and let her hand stay on her cheek.

Marcille sniffed and tried to get a hold of herself before nodding. The two laid in silence for a few minutes while she calmed herself down, distracting herself with the sound of Falin's steady breaths and beating heart.

The beating heart she had focused so hard on forming, the pattern of breathing she had spent so many nights falling asleep to.

"Thank you." Marcille's words came out sounding slightly squished because her cheek was pressed against Falin's chest.

"Thank you Marcille." Falin returned the words. "Brother told me how hard you worked to bring me back. How you put aside your disgust for monsters and dug through the dragon's remains for me." She hugged her closer, before making a promise.

"I won't leave you again, I don't want you to worry about me anymore."

After reassuring Marcille that she would stay by her side, the two fell asleep. As time passed, they stayed in each other's embrace, and got the rest they very much needed.

Until something woke Falin for the second time that night, and she couldn't stop herself when she slipped from Marcille's arms and left the room. Something had called for her, and there was nothing she could do to resist whatever was pulling her outside.

......

♡ - @stewedlycan

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #falin touden #marcille donato #falin x marcille #marcille x falin #farcille

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theragethatisdesire · 1 year ago

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hello bb and congratulations again 💗💗💗 i’m so happy and excited for you hitting such a major milestone 🥳 so well deserved!!

could i please request “do you trust me?” w geto? 🥺 no preference on fluff smut or angst, just whatever speaks to you

tytyty in advance 🥰 luv u~

HEY TIFF thank you so much!!!!! i just adore you mwah you're the BEST. i can absolutely do that for you my lovie dove WHERE are all these geto asks coming from rn i have another in my inbox ?!?! i didn't know all u geto girlies were hiding in my followers like hello....ANYWAY i am not a manga girly so i have no idea how geto's actual storyline goes so i went with a modern!AU as is my tendency

It's been a rough day. You're three tequila sodas deep, nuzzled into the wood of your favorite dive bar, and trying to ignore the tears continuously threatening to well in your eyes. Your phone sits on the counter, buzzing continuously and likely irritating the other patrons, but you're beyond caring.

Your cheating, piece-of-work, now ex-boyfriend knows no bounds apparently, sending text after text groveling and begging you to pick up. You have no intentions of doing so, but watching the screen light up over and over again, reading his begging, is giving you a sick satisfaction. Bastard.

"Excuse me?"

A voice floats over your shoulder, deep and pleasant. You turn, fully ready to bark at whoever dared interrupt your misery, but your mouth shuts as soon as you catch sight of the man behind you.

Tall and broad, with long dark hair tied into a neat bun, two little pieces framing his angular face beautifully. He's gorgeous, but something about him disarms you in a way you wish he wouldn't. Your woman's intuition is whispering that something more lurks below the innocent, friendly smile on his face, something dangerous, but you swallow it down, intrigued.

"Yes?"

"Is this seat taken?"

You're surprised; sweaty, fresh out of work in your little waitress uniform, face blotchy with the remnants of spilt tears, you absolutely aren't looking your best. You shrug, nod, and gesture towards the seat, unsure of what exactly this guy's playing at.

"You seem to be drinking alone," he observes after allowing a few quiet minutes to stretch between you.

"I am," you confirm, wincing at the popping sound your straw makes, the last bits of your cocktail struggling to make it up to your mouth, "I try not to make it a habit, but it's been a bit of a day."

"Hm," he nods thoughtfully, reaching a beckoning hand out to the bartender. After he orders his scotch, he orders a drink for you, nailing the combination perfectly: tequila soda, splash of lime juice, with an orange slice. Your eyes narrow in suspicion.

"How did you-"

"I overheard you earlier." That same friendly, disarming smile graces his face, warms your core and sends alarm bells ringing in your head.

"Have you been...watching me?"

"No," he waves a nonchalant hand through the air, sliding a black Amex across the counter to the bartender, "not watching. I just tend to keep an eye on a beautiful woman when I see one."

You blink. Should you be creeped out? Intrigued? Ashamed of the lusty electricity buzzing through your veins at his compliment? All three?

"T-thank you," you stammer, unsure of what else to say.

"Speaking of beautiful women," he turns towards you, cheersing his glass against your own, "what are you doing drinking on your own?"

"My boyfriend sucks," you mumble around the little plastic straw between your lips, "ex that is."

"He must not be all that bright, then," his eyes trail over your figure meaningfully, something in his smile growing darker.

"I just want to forget about him," you admit, shamefully vulnerable in front of a total stranger. You realize you don't even know his name, but when he lays a hand across your thigh, high up enough to be far from friendly, you feel a familiar heat spark across your skin. It's enough to forego the details, you need plenty of things from this mysterious stranger, but not his name.

"I know a thing or two about forgetting someone," his tongue darts out to wet his lips, yours mirroring it unintentionally, "would you like...some advice?"

"I don't know," you chuckle, "what kind of advice?"

"Well, it's more help than it is advice," that smile deepens into a smirk, one eyebrow raising in a silent challenge, "do you trust me?"

"You're a perfect stranger."

"I am," he inclines his head in admittance, but doesn't lose his stamina for a moment, "do you trust me?"

And maybe it's the tequila, maybe it's his strong neck that looks like it would give so deliciously under your teeth, maybe it's the insistent little circles his thumb is rubbing into your thigh, but you feel freer, more daring than before. It escapes your mouth in a whisper, desperate and trembling in the air between you.

"Yes."

#dflajkdfa i don't even know what this is #i feel like do you trust me should have been angsty #but all i could think of was toxic geto hitting on you at the bar?!?!#maybe i got too confident throwing geto in my lineup of men #whatevs #HERE IS UR DRABBLE TIFF MWAH ENJOY #i hope it even makes sense #ragehits1000 #geto suguru x reader

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wuahae · 1 year ago

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hey cat!! i've been good~ i binged all the chapters of the spyxfamily manga in a day and it was wonderful 😌 i would love to see hoshi + meeting for the first time in college! shy hoshi meeting strangers 🤭 hope you've been well too!! sending lots of love~ -prom anon

I LOVE SPY X FAMILY....i haven't read it in a really long time but i'm waiting for my animanga phase to come back before i catch up to it again haha

hoshi + meet cute

soonyoung thinks he's been sitting on this couch for an hour. or maybe it's only been half an hour. or... he knits his brows. to be honest, he really doesn't know. time passes strangely when he's drunk.

he knows a few things though—they've played at least three more rounds of beer pong since he first sat down on this couch, the cheap frozen pizza mingyu barely managed to make edible has started to taste less like cardboard the more drinks soonyoung's gotten in him, and he knows if he gets up to pee he might not make it out of that bathroom in one piece. or at all.

there's a loud cheer as joshua and vernon win another round of beer pong on the table behind him, a dip in the couch as someone sits next to him.

"hey, you okay?" a cold water bottle pressed to his cheek. a slow blink and turn of the head.

oh, here's another thing soonyoung is certain about. the person that just sat down next to him is really, really, really cute.

“uh.”

“soonyoung, right?”

"...uh huh."

"great!" you give him a cheery smile, handing him the water bottle. "jihoon said to give this to you. said you'd need it."

"thanks," soonyoung responds, just a little dumbly. you are just so cute. he can't feel his face.

“so you’re jun’s friend?” you ask, taking a chip from the big bag on the coffee table. “from college?”

soonyoung nods, sipping on the water. “we took psych 211 together freshman year.”

“the sex class?”

“yup!” as loose-lipped as he is, soonyoung is not about to admit he almost failed psych 211: diversity of human sexuality. “best easy A ever.”

“but i don’t think i’ve seen you here before?” soonyoung asks. he might be an absolute mess drunk, but he doesn’t think he could have missed you if you were at one of these parties earlier this year.

you nod enthusiastically. "i don't go here, actually!"

"oh really?"

"yeah!" your flannel slips a little from your shoulder as you reach for another chip. your knee brushes against his. soonyoung's pretty sure his mouth is gaping. "we're actually friends from high school," you explain, eyes bright and wide from what he hopes is the alcohol. he really hopes he isn't making a fool of himself to someone completely sober.

and under normal circumstances, soonyoung would ask for how long? does that mean you were friends with jihoon and wonwoo since high school too? not to mention the dirt he'd try to fish out of you regarding the three to use later.

but right now, soonyoung is still recovering from the three lost rounds of rage cage, his tongue can't seem to work right with the blur in his head and the ringing in his ears and fuck, he wants to make a cool first impression on you and maybe show off that he's a key part of the university dance team but all he can really think of is how he still really, really needs to pee.

"cool," he utters, more than a little dumbly this time.

your eyes crinkle as you laugh a little, leaning over. "you're cute, soonyoung. talk to me later when you're more sober, okay?"

soonyoung blinks. what?

someone—he thinks it's jun, that damn cockblock—calls your name and announces a declaration of war against the new reigning champions of beer pong.

"oh look at that," you tease lightly. "duty calls." nudging soonyoung before you get up, you gesture vaguely at him. "can i have a sip, by the way?"

soonyoung nods before he even follows your gaze to see what you're gesturing to, but before he realizes it, you take the water in his hands and screw open the cap, tipping back the bottle to drink.

"thanks! see you later!" you say cheerily, handing it back to him before turning around to join jun in defeating seungcheol and jeonghan (who is most definitely cheating).

and between the increasingly raucous noise of the new beer pong game starting up and the pounding in his head that threatens to send soonyoung into the bathroom to do more than just pee, he has a single, striking thought.

holy shit... soonyoung is definitely in love.

#THIS IS SO UNSERIOUS BTW IM SO SORRY JSFLKDJSD #i hope you've been doing well too <3 #trope ask game #hoshi x reader

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littleragondin · 8 months ago

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9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better:

I have been tagged by @my-rose-tinted-glasses and @troubled-mind, thank you both! (っ˘ω˘ς )

3 Ships You Like: Currently, I am still basking in the warmth and kindness of Kasuga and Nomoto from She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat (probably going to be stuck there for a while ngl).

I am also still quietly invested in Zorro x Luffy from the One Piece Live Action, in a way I haven’t been since I read the first two dozens volumes of One Piece about… twenty years ago …

And I have restarted Khun Chai so the itch is back for Tian and Jiu.

First Ship Ever:

Not sure about first ship ever, but I saw something about Peach Girl the other day, and I was reminded of how hard it was for me to decide if I wanted her to end with Toji or Okayasu lol (this and Evangelion were my first manga ever)

Otherwise in the first ones, there is GaaLee from Naruto I guess. I think that’s the first story where I really started shipping/writing and reading fics/and swapping the characters around.

Last Song You Heard:

youtube

It's a Fry and Laurie kinda evening. Gosh, I still know the lyrics by heart...

Favorite Childhood Book:

I used to read so much (where has all that reading time gone etc…) so it changed often. But I was a huuuuge fan of Artemis Fowl (he was a genius! And a villain! And he loved his mom!! and Holy was so badass!).

There was also a french SF series for kids, Kerri et Megane, that I loved SO much (they were ‘orphans’ who in the first volume hide in a spaceship to try to find Kerri’s parents), and it had gorgeous illustrations and I was obsessed.

Currently Reading:

I am in a terrible reading slump I’m afraid. I need to finish Love in the Big City (part 3 kinda broke my heart so I’m having trouble getting back on the saddle), as well as Flux by Jinwoo Chong, and I have started Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins. So instead of reading any of that, I restarted Escalier C by Elvire Murail – that I have read a dozen times already but what can you do.

Currently watching:

Same thing, I guess. Things are going slow here too. Week to week I am keeping up with Sukiyanen kedo do yaro ka and 23.5 degrees (yes yes there is only one episode out but it still counts). I am also slooooowly catching back up on Ossan’s Love Returns, Kamen Rider Revice, and Pale Moon, as well as working my way through Leverage (I’m halfway through season 4). And I am binging Khun Chai again right now, for comfort.

Currently consuming:

I just finished a cassoulet (sponsored by my brother who seems to always worry that I will forget the taste of French food and sent me home with cans of food this year) and am eating a yogurt to top it off.

Currently craving:

Some sushis (unattainable) and some mango ice cream (more attainable once I go grocery shopping I guess).

If you feel so inclined (but of course no pressure) I will tag @benkaaoi @sparklyeyedhimbo @petrichoraline @gillianthecat @bengiyo @isaksbestpillow and also @scienceoftheidiot and @coquelicoq .｡.:*☆

#tag games #start of the year has been so busy with work #(which sucks)#and on top of that I keep getting sick #(also sucks)#so my media enjoyment has been put on the backburner I'm afraid #(it mega sucks)#but that's where we stand as of today lol #Youtube

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wevelocityteampresents-blog · 3 months ago

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Pokémon Pocket Monsters HG SS Volume 1 - Chapter 5

Red challenges each of the Johto Gym Leaders to a rematch so he can re-earn all the Gym Badges that will allow Entei, Raikou, and Suicune to battle for him.

At first, I thought Red wanted to take another shot at the Johto League so he could become champion of that region after losing it in the GS series to some other character. (It's probably Gold, Silver, or even the Crystal of Pokémon Pocket Monsters. But if it isn't, I'll take a bet that Lance is the Johto champion.) But after reading through this chapter again, Red only took on the Gyms so he could get the legendary Pokémon to fight for him and truly become his. Which means the stuff at the beginning wasn't unnecessary filler.

Alright. First off, where did these restrictions with badges come from? In every other series in this manga, all the Pokémon Red catches do stuff for him regardless of how many badges he has. Most of the time, Red either doesn't have any badges or has at least half of them and the Pokémon still listen to him. So why do Entei, Raikou, and Suicune get a pass?

Second, it's weird how Pokémon levels are brought up in a piece of Pokémon media outside the games in 2010. I'm sure the anime mentions Pokémon evolving at certain levels or needing more experience to reach a higher level. But after the original series, mechanics like levels were never mentioned again. It felt kind of nice to see a tie to the video games after such a long time.

Red doesn't even keep the legendary Pokémon for that long anyway since Clefairy blasts them off into space. They were in this manga for like 2 chapters before getting booted off in favor of more wacky shenanigans. It's a bit disappointing if you ask me.

Despite my ranting, there's a lot of things this chapter does right. The lore of the manga is expanded upon with the badges and how they relate to gaining a Pokémon's trust (even though it's still pretty stupid...) and there's a lot of action that keeps the story from becoming uninteresting. The action is also great because it allows Red and his Pokémon to get back on track with their training. If it wasn't for the wasted use of Entei, Raikou, and Suicune and that ending, this could have easily been one of the best chapters in Pokémon Pocket Monsters. From what we were given, though, it's a good 8/10.

Now that the manga's gotten the serious stuff out of the way, it's back to your regularly scheduled gag manga nonsense.

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sommerregenjuniluft · 1 year ago

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TRICK OR TREAT LUNE !! 🎃👻

CASS<3 it's been months maybe even a whole year since i last properly wrote this but have some iwaoi nonetheless (it's a swimmer au, kind of. oh, and it also plays in italiy!)

His arms flare out to regain his balance when he plants his feet into the ground mere centimeters away from Hajime’s before he leans back again, clasping his hands behind his back.

„Buongiorno!“, he says with a cheery voice, tipping his head to the side making finer, stray pieces of hair fall out of place and giving Hajime a practiced smile.

There’s the slightest hint of an accent swinging with the three syllables that Hajime can’t quite categorize.

The boy is a little taller than him, 5 centimeters at best, but even so Hajime has to tilt his head back with how close they’re standing.

His eyes are just as brown as his hair, probably, given that hair always looks darker when wet. Up close he doesn’t look as pale but he’s still lighter than Hajime and there’s a faint splutter of freckles layering the sunburn on his nose.

A voice in the back of his head forms the word pretty, that’s when Hajime realizes he has yet a word to say but definitely a point to make, so he shoves the unwanted commentary of his unconsciousness back for later and tries to focus.

“You cannot do that here,” he says in lieu of a greeting.

“Mmh, yes I can,” the strange boy retorts, tilting his head back straight, smile forgotten, replaced by a pouty frown.

“No, you can’t. It’s prohibited and it’s dangerous.”

“I didn’t see a sign,” he replies, making a show of looking around as if that’d make one magically pop up.

“It doesn’t need a sign, it’s common sense! Do you see signs around here telling you not to steal?”

“It’s not the law here, I checked. Capitano Mizoguchi tried to make us stop, but failed, obviously,” he circles a single finger around in the air lazily, “so he told us to beat it to where it’s not his responsibility anymore. He didn’t want to call the cops on us so he sent us off. This ain‘t the beach, so we can do whatever we want out here.”

He barely gives Hajime enough time to process all the information of his excuse before continuing, this time with a smile again. “And since you’re apparently new here, ’cause I haven’t seen you around before—and believe me, I would have noticed a face like yours—I suggest you check in with your superiore first before trying to interdict something again, alright, bagnino-kun?” he leans even further into Hajime’s space at the last words and, to Hajime’s absolute horror, tabs his pointer finger to the tip of Hajime’s nose.

Completely baffled, the only thing he seems to grasp in the clutter of thoughts whizzing through his head is that Hajime has read enough Manga in his early teens to realize the intent behind the nickname.

He sputters at the audacity of the opposing boy which only results in this one’s grin turning into a shit-eating one, completely abandoning his innocent façade.Before Hajime remembers how to say don’t call me that in a way that doesn’t make him sound like a petulant 5-year-old having a temper tantrum he’s cut off by the once again returning roar of cheering teens at the head of the cliff.

The next big enough wave brings two more boys up with it drawing his attention back down, one Hajime doesn’t recognize catches himself with his hands on the ledge and twists his body at the waist to land on his butt, the other swings one leg up to plant his foot near the ledge and almost topples forward with a laugh when the wave pulls him to the ground.

A laugh Hajime recognizes.

The boy jogs the excess momentum off before straightening his torso and coming to a halt a few paces beside them.

He whoops and starts snickering again before finally turning his gaze to Hajime and his laughter dies, and so does the annoyance that had been simmering under Hajime’s skin just a moment ago.

“Really, Hanamaki?” he deadpans.

trick or treat fic writer ask game

#fic: ocean teal #iwaoi #lune writes

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eleni-cherie · 3 months ago

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a thief's origin✨ || bts • kth - chapter 1.1

"you're afraid I won't wait." "I'm afraid you will."

a criminal and a doctor should be as different as the sun and the moon - but unexpected things happened every day. like him finding his safe haven in her.

»»»

masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburn, mutual pining, strangers to friends to lovers s2f2l

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

»»»

14th February

Barcelona, Spain

Cassandra never had a reason to pay attention to any holidays or celebrations which didn't concern her. Valentine's Day being one of them. She was so used not to pay attention to it or not think too deeply about all the commercials, that when she spotted a package at her return from work, her first thought was that it was for her next door neighbour. Mistakenly placed at her doormat instead. Only when reading her name in a familiar messy handwriting, she realised it was for her. Excitement filling every fibre of her as she carried it to her living room.

Inside, the package contained a blue rose along with a velvet box and a card.

"For my favourite sweet tooth :)

Wished I could be there.

- Love, T"

Giggling softly, she opened her locket. Eyes lingering on his photo smiling back at her. She made a mental note to text him later, letting him know it'd arrived before proceeding with opening the box. Finding it filled to the brim with different kinds of chocolate. Her eyes instantly lit up and she tried one. And another. And another. Happily humming and smiling to herself while losing count of how many pieces she ate that evening.

For the first time, she cared about this day.

»»»

28 // 4th year - assistant physician

13th June

interpol branch office Madrid, Spain

"So Miss -"

"Cassandra is enough."

The interpol agent arched a brow at her before laughing under his breath.

"Sure, Cassandra then," he nodded with a bright grin, "I'm agent Kim Seokjin. These are agents Kim Namjoon and Jeon Jungkook." He gestured to his colleagues.

"Should I get a lawyer?" she asked. Her tone flat and nonchalant.

"Do you need one?" the other Kim shot with a curious brow to which she straightened again. Her inner tension returning.

"I haven't done anything illegal, if that's what you imply."

The tall man gave her a dimpled smile at that, holding some kind of irony which only hightened her suspicion. "Good. You know why we wanted to talk to you then?"

With a quick shrug of her shoulders, she sat back in her uncomfortable chair. "I can think of a reason or two.."

"Or three?" Namjoon countered, making her fold her lips.

"Or three."

"Very well then," Seokjin nodded, taking the lead back in the questioning, "Makes it easier for us, right, JK?"

Her eyes followed his gaze that was directed to the young colleague who had remained quiet all this time, currently busy browsing through a file. Hearing his nickname, however, he stirred and looked up like a deer caught in headlights. "Huh? Uh, yeah, yes." His round eyes found hers and she mimicked them.

Her tense shoulders relaxed at their subtle but warm demeanor. Frankly, she couldn't imagine those three in intimidating situations despite their profession. Perhaps that was their secrete though, lulling suspects into comfort to get them spilling all their secrets. So Cassandra stayed on guard, not falling for their friendly eyes. Even if many years had passed, she did recognise Seokjin and Namjoon from that night back in Cologne after all. Despite not catching any glimpse of their faces, she was certain from their tall statures and voices that it'd been them at the reception the night she'd met Taehyung and the guys.

"So-" agent Jeon - or otherwise known as 'JK' - cleared his throat, "You know you're here for your connections to Park Jimin and his gang."

The young physician sighed, gathering an attitude of calm. "Yeah, wasn't hard to guess since my only other illegal activity would be downloading mp3's as a teenager. And I doubt interpol cares about that."

At this Seokjin bursted out laughing, being genuinely amused by her put-on confidence. He could tell she was nervous, of course she was. Everyone who wasn't used to getting interrogated by police let alone interpol, would be - whether innocent or guilty. However, he definitely had to give her credit for not only acting confident, like many others did as well, but also being comedic while doing so.

"You're right, we don't," he grinned then, folding his hands in front of him on the cold table top, "We'd much rather want to know what exactly is going on between you and the guys."

Her brows rose. "What do you mean?"

Namjoon flashed her a sarcastic grin. "I think you know what he means."

"No, please enlighten me," she retorted instead with her most innocent smile.

Seokjin scoffed, nudging Jungkook then. "Yah, we got a sneaky one here."

The younger agent only hummed with a light scowl, visibly less entertained by Cassandra acting dumb than his older colleagues.

The file in front of him contained photos collected from around the world over the years. While majority were grainy and shot from further away with less quality, taken by some cheap security cameras of neighbouring buildings or traffic cameras, one was clearly showing Cassandra and Taehyung together. And considering the gunman and / or his accomplices had been identified on majority of the others, it wasn't unreasonable to assume the photos with the shorter feminine figure that wasn't Arabella Valentine, was her. Perhaps not in all situations, but at some at least.

"You and Kim Taehyung.. He spends an awful lot time with you," Seokjin pointed out then. But Cassandra remained unimpressed.

"Oh really, is that so?"

Jungkook frowned beside him. "You're together, aren't you?"

The two older agents shot him a surprised glance at his unexpected conclusion.

"And if so?" she deadpanned, feeling their eyes shifting to her now. It felt like watching a tennis match.

"You know he's a criminal."

"His friend is a thief and he helps him."

"That still makes him a criminal though."

Cassandra, however, remained quite unfazed by that, much to Jungkook's lasting irritation.

"I'm not willing to discuss my personal or love life with you," she countered then. A bit of an edge in her voice and Seokjin felt the need to quickly step in before they upset her and she closed off completely.

"That's understandable and we don't want that either," he assured her with a cheery smile, "We're just here to do our job, you know? Our job is to catch these guys and to do so, we also need to gather information and follow every clue. And, unfortunately, that involves having to talk to you as a person so close them."

Folding her lips, she nodded. She knew she had to remain calm and collected in order not to mess anything up and get her boyfriend in any trouble. So she swallowed down her ego.

"I understand," she slowly said.

"Look," Namjoon spoke up then, trying a more diplomatic stance, "We get it. They're not crude jackasses like other offenders. We know that ourselves. And certainly, they're not as bad as drug dealers or commit atrocious crimes. But, they're armed criminals, nonetheless. The number of crimes go from robbery on a grand scale, to identity theft, to unauthorised hacking, to-" His listing of criminal records was abruptly interrupted by the pen he was holding, slipping from his fingers due to his animated hand gestures. Flying across the table to which Cassandra flinched in fright, causing her knee to hit the table. And she winced in pain.

"Oh, no - Sorry, I'm sorry," he was fast to reach out with an apologetic look, only to hit his elbow against the table and wince as well. Both sitting there groaning in unison. She surely hadn't expected to meet someone as clumsy as her there.

"It's alright. Co-continue," she assured eventually, the short pain having subdued by now.

And Namjoon cleared his throat with burning cheeks, pretending as nothing had happened and continued. "Like.. like I said, they've committed numerous crimes all over the world. As well-behaved and genteel they might be to you, they need to face consequences for their actions."

Jungkook stared at him in complete awe and Cassandra was certain they all agreed with him. Catching Seokjin also adding a quick nod.

She was the only unimpressed one.

"I genuinely don't believe I could be of much help though," she simply countered, seeing them perk up and facing the person of interest in front of them again. "See, Tae would never tell me any details of their heists or any plans. Purposely so for, I guess, situations like this one right now. He -" She abruptly paused, realising that mentioning her not even knowing when he'd visit her next would be too much information. They might not even know that he kept visiting her regularly. "He really doesn't tell me anything," she finished instead, not to raise any suspicion of her cut off sentence, "So if you hoped for any insider info, I must disappoint you."

Three pairs of bewildered eyes stared back at her and she purposely held their gazes to ensure they would believe her. She wasn't lying after all, it was facts but she couldn't risk her nervousness making her look like a storyteller. Because in a sense, she was guilty after all.

And if she wasn't guilty of committing a crime, she was guilty of loving a criminal at least.

"So you don't know where exactly they're located right now or what their next coup is," Jungkook confirmed, even more taken aback when seeing her shake her head. His lips shaping a small 'o' when mumbling something inaudible and taking notes before raising another suspecting brow at her. "And you're not lying?" he pressed, just to be sure.

"Nope," she confidently said, "You can search my apartment or wire me to a polygraph or whatever. I don't know anything about what they're up to."

"That's fine," Seokjin ensured, looking way more perky than Jungkook or Namjoon. Latter hiding his pensiveness behind his folded hands. "Never had Taehyung for a big secrets-spiller anyway. Although.. quite disappointing that he won't even tell you, his girlfriend, where in the world he is right now. Isn't it?" He paused for dramatic effects, eyebrows furrowing in fake empathy. "Must be.. sad, I imagine. Are you never worried?"

Her jaw clenched unintentionally. She instantly knew what the lead agent was trying to do and she wouldn't let him succeed. "N-no." Dammit, she stuttered. She swallowed, her voice becoming firmer. "No. It's okay, he only does it to keep me safe."

He nodded and his lips pressed into a straight line, pondering. "Is he though?"

Taken aback by his rhetorical question, she blinked. Unsure of what he was implying. "What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing, nothing. Forget it," he only waved her off and Cassandra felt validating in her gut-feeling of not underestimating their friendly nature because right now, she could feel their interrogative glares piercing through her soul.

After a dragged out moment of silence, Seokjin averted his eyes from hers to take out a note and Cassandra unintentionally exhaled in relief. "Could you perhaps do us a favour then?" He eyed her briefly before scribbling down on the note with a shiny pen.

"If you want me to rat them out, no."

"Hmpf, please," he said dismissingly with an offended huff, "I'd never try such cheap tricks." He held the piece of paper out for her then, a wide smile returning to his attractive features, "I just want you to hand this to Taehyung the next time you see him. That's all."

Her eyes narrowed at his request, eyeing the note for a second before accepting it and shoving it into her bag.

"You're free to go."

After hesitating for a moment, she eventually stood up. Bidding goodbye to the three agents and walked out.

A tired sigh left Seokjin's lips then when facing Namjoon. "I believe her, she doesn't know. None of them is the type to drag an innocent person into it by letting them know too much."

Namjoon hummed. He might've been eyeing the position for department manager of special victims, but after spending years chasing after those thieves alongside Seokjin and Jungkook's predecessor, Hoseok, it had become a personal matter in some sense.

"Perhaps, but he already got her more involved than he should have."

"Mh, let's hope we'll be the only ones she'll meet from this part of his life."

"Aish," Jungkook exclaimed then when abruptly snapping the file shut, catching their attention, "But we know she must've been involved more, don't we? Even if we can't proof anything besides that she knows Taehyung."

"Yah, Jungkookie, don't be mad." Seokjin nudged his younger colleague who was pulling a harried face. "Just keep an eye on her from now on. Okay?"

To this, Jungkook's face instantly found its colour back. Giving his supervisor a confident nod. "Will do."

»»»

Cassandra wasn't naive, she always knew there was a risk when being around people like Taehyung. Even if he tried his best to shield her from his world, she knew something like that interrogation would inevitably happen sooner or later. Still, she wanted to believe she'd managed going through with it quite gracefully. As gracefully as she was able to for an unexperienced person.

Leaving the airconditioned interpol offices and entering the afternoon heat, she made her way towards the bus stop. Ensuring to walk down the street as casual and nonchalant as possible, while occasionally looking behing her in case someone was following. She couldn't let her guard down just because she left.

The bus ride didn't last long before she got off and took a look around again. The streets were empty except for two teenagers sitting at a kerbside outside of a convenience store. The sun standing high, the concrete burning. When deaming the coast clear, she walked straight to the car with the tinted windows parked away under an oak three. Sliding into the passenger's seat, she dragged out a breath when feeling the soothing coolness inside. A smirk spreading onto her lips then at the sight of the mop of honey-coloured waves beside her.

"This long hair suits you." Her delicate fingers lightly tugged at the strands at the back of his neck then and leaned in, pecking Taehyung's cheek. She'd only seen him with blond hair once, years back, but it was a different shade back then - cool ash-blond, if she remembered correctly. Quite different from the warm brown-blond that adored his head now. "Makes you look quite dangerous and wild."

His lips parted with an amused scoff. "Am I not dangerous and wild enough for being a criminal?" And the way his almond eyes went round made her stifle a laugh.

"Mh, maybe a little," she smiled and planted another peck on his cheek before sitting back. Recalling the piece of paper Seokjin gave her then, he observed her rummaging it out of her handbag.

"What's this?" Arching a brow when she held it out for him, he took it from her grip and began reading it carefully. His fingers unintentionally crumbling its edges. He didn't even notice how his jaw briefly clenched, before loosening again as he mused over the handwriting with a hum.

It was a riddle clearly meant for Jimin.

With a sigh, he folded the note and stoved it into his pocket. He sat there in silence then, causing Cassandra to wonder why he wouldn't drive off. She could tell by the way his bottom lip was slightly pulled out and his brows set in a mild frown that something was occupying his mind. And she was about to inquire when his lips eventually parted.

"Cas, what are we doing?"

His voice was unusually hoarse. His throat felt dry.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

Heaving a sigh, he locked gazes with her. "You just came back from an interpol interrogation. Because of me," he began, shaking his head. And she started to understand what he meant. "Tae-"

"I should've known you'd get on their radar sooner or later," he interrupted her, his palm hitting the steering wheel in sudden frustration, "I should've known.. No matter how hard I try to keep you away from it all, it'd never be enough."

The last sentence breaking by his cracking voice and Cassandra couldn't help but swallow. She hated how he blamed himself. Always blaming himself. She touched the heart-shaped pendant around her neck, a habit she'd picked up over the months, before her hand embraced his. And she intervined their fingers, squeezing it.

"I'm not naive," she quietly began, her voice gaining confidence then,"I knew what I was getting myself into when letting you into my life. And I don't regret it."

The ghost of a smile crossed his lips when he glanced at her fierce eyes, only to shake his head. "Not yet," he breathed then with a sad smile.

However, Cassandra only scoffed. "Why would I? And as long as I don't do anything illegal myself, they can't do anything anyway. Because as far as I know, it's not against the law to be in love with a thief."

The corner of his lip twisted into a cheeky smirk. "In love, huh?"

Her eyes widened for a moment before laughing. "Don't act like you didn't know."

"I just like hearing you say it." His fingers squeezed her hand back and he placed them both in his lap. Looking at them quietly while deliberating before speaking up again. "But you forget you helped us. Helping a criminal is against the law just as much as breaking it yourself is."

Cassandra contemplated his words. It was true, she hadn't thought about her assistance in some cases. And Jungkook had implied something like that. She sat up straighter. "But if they could prove that, they'd have said or done something by now, right? And if it comes to the worst, I could still say you coerced me and I didn't have a choice. They can't prove me otherwise."

She was grinning smugly and Taehyung laughed under his breath, stunned by her unshakable and almost cocky faith and confidence. It seemed like her guilty plessure of being a fan of the crime genre was paying off, she'd picked up a thing or two. Still, he wasn't convinced it was indeed so easily. He decided to know better and not argue with her about it though. At least not now.

"You know I love you, Cas. That's why I'm worried and regretting getting you in this situation."

"I know," she eventually sighed, "But you need to accept that it was also my decision. You didn't force me to be with you. I'm here because I want to."

"And I don't get why, " he mumbled. Brown irises wandering out at the sunlit buildings. He knew he didn't deserve someone like Cassandra in any way, she was way too good for his sorry self. And he knew bubbles were meant to burst sooner or later.

An annoyed groan left her lips and she frowned at him. "I told you to stop that. I'm not a saint. And you're not a demon."

He smiled. "You're an angel to me, though."

She huffed and looked away, masking her blushing cheeks. "S-still," she mumbled bashfully.

"But even if my profession wasn't the problem, I'm not a great boyfriend anyway.."

At this she shot him a puzzled glare. "How so?"

"I mean.." he swallowed. "I'm never there when you need me, am I? I'm all around the globe. You could've someone better, someone who can always be there for you. You'd deserve that."

He felt her fingers clutching more around his hand, nails digging harshly into his skin before unclenching. "You are there for me though, despite travelling the word you're always there for me." Her hand let go and she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "And I don't want anyone else but you. So why do you make everything we have sound bad and meaningless now?"

Her sudden change of tone startled him and he looked at her with wide eyes. "Cas-"

"No, I won't just sit here and let you talk about yourself or our relationship like this." She was clearly upset now. "It hurts me hearing you say all this, don't you get it? It sounds like you're questioning my judgement. Like I was a naive kid."

"You're the smartest person I know, you know that," he said calmly, "I just fear.. your love for me might blind you."

She pressed her jaw together. Cassandra was too agitated to even form any more coherent sentences in her mind. Seconds passed before she calmed herself enough not to snap at him. "Look," she began slowly, "If you're willing to just throw everything between us away because of a simple questioning - then fine. Go ahead. But stop saying you'd be doing it for my sake. I can make my own decisions."

Silence settled between them once again. Taehyung was unsure what to counter to her words.

Part of him, the rational one, warned him not to become the one blinded by love and reminded him that he was just endangering her. That interpol might not be a threat right now, but they could turn into one later, along with other things. The part which always kept telling him that a criminal and a doctor could simply never work out on the long run, got louder. They were both just deluding themselves.

However, the other part in him, the selfish part, agreed with her. Of course he'd never want to lose her. He was too madly in love with her to imagine a life without her. And he knew if Seokjin had anything against her, they wouldn't have waited for so long and already arrested her. No, they didn't need to be concerned about interpol. For now at least. Maybe she was right, maybe he was just looking for excuses because he was scared. Even though, if he was scared, it was for her.

He knew, though, that she was stubborn. More than anything else. No one could force her into doing something she didn't want to. She always stood her ground, which was one of the things he loved about her. She'd always call him out, whether it was him being a coward or him patronising her.

"You're right," he eventually said then and leaned towards her. Gently capturing her chin between his thumb and index finger, urging her to look at him. "You're more than capable of making decisions yourself. And I trust your decisions, I always do. So if.. if you're certain -"

"I am," she said. And Taehyung nodded when seeing the determination and certainty in her lovely brown eyes.

He wanted to believe her. He needed to believe her. He wasn't ready yet. His selfish side wasn't ready to give up on her or their relationship. She was the only good thing in his life besides his friends and he wanted to cling to her as much as he could.

"If you are, then so am I."

»»»

next chapter: 1.2 here

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