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skzsauce01 · 3 years

Text

Bird Is the Word

Synopsis: A series of drunk texts leads to one of the best and worst things that has ever happened to you. Or, Han Jisung is never going to let you forget the time you forgot the word ‘bird.’ College AU. Not a text fic but does include some texts.

Warning: alcohol, a lot of bird puns

Word Count: 8.1k

Pairing: fem!reader x Han Jisung

2:23 AM [Me]: sOS SOS SOS SOSOSOS 2:23 AM [Me]: I NEED HELPPPP 2:23 AM [Jisung Bio]: You okay?? 2:23 AM [Me]: YOU SMART HELPPPPP

2:24 AM [Jisung Bio]: Do you want me to call the police?? 2:24 AM [Me]: WHAT ARE THE FLUFFY ANIMALS THAT GO FLAP CALLED 2:24 AM [Jisung Bio]: Is this a code word? 2:24 AM [Me]: THEY GO FLAP AND EAT SEEDS 2:24 AM [Jisung Bio]: Do you mean birds? 2:24 AM [Jisung Bio]: Are you drunk?

2:25 AM [Me]: [blurry_photo_of_your_window.jpg] 2:25 AM [Me]: HERE LOOK 2:25 AM [Me]: YES BIRDS 2:25 AM [Me]: THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH 2:25 AM [Me]: LOVE YOUUUUU

In your defense, you were drunk. And when you are drunk, your critical thinking skills disappear and are replaced by pure, uninhibited stupidity. It’s like some twisted Jekyll and Hyde situation, but only when you drink, you transform into this other version of yourself instead of suppressing it.

You mostly remember the things you have done and said while under the influence. The most embarrassing ones tend to be fuzzy. If it weren’t for the grainy phone video taken by Seungmin and your own voice cheerfully declaring that you had an idea, you wouldn’t have realized that you were the idiot who tried to make a chalk mural at the four-way intersection in the middle of the night. You didn’t even have chalk, but that didn’t stop you from drawing on the asphalt with a broken pen you found on the sidewalk.

Good thing Seungmin had the foresight to drag you back to the crosswalk before a car could come speeding by.

However, that legendary act of idiocy doesn’t even compare to this new one. Forget the fact that you could have died.

Your biology class just went over survival of the fittest using Darwin’s finches as an example. How in the world did you forget about the word ‘bird?’ Why did you think it was a good idea to ask the cute guy in your bio study group about “THE FLUFFY ANIMALS THAT GO FLAP?” And why, why, why did you insist on telling him that you loved him? The ‘THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH’ was already enough.

Jisung is never going to let you live this down.

It’s fine. You’re fine. It’s not like you spent the entire Sunday morning knocking back glasses of water and wishing it was vodka instead. It’s not like you drafted about five different apology messages and deleted them all. It’s not like you have to see him in class tomorrow.

Really, you’re fine.

You go out of your way to make yourself as inconspicuous as possible, which probably means you are very conspicuous. Do normal people not wear hoodies and sweatpants to class now, or are you just overthinking everything? The two people in the row in front of you are wearing jeans, and the girl heading down your row has a polka-dotted dress on. A secondary glance at the girl tells you that it’s another member of your study group. Speaking of the study group, maybe you should find another one. Preferably one without Jisung in it.

“Morning,” Lia says as she takes the seat beside you. She sets down her purple water bottle on the floor with a light clink. “How was your weekend?”

Terrible, but you say, “It was fine. I finished up the readings and did some notes. How about you?”

“Those readings took me forever!” she groans. “I was trying to finish everything on Saturday, so I could go out on Sunday. Which I did manage to do, so it all worked out. I got a new dress!” She plucks at the bodice of her dress, and you finally take a closer look at the pattern.

They’re not polka dots. They’re freaking birds — swoopy doves with outstretched wings. Or at least you think they’re doves. Your lack of bird knowledge speaks for itself.

“It’s pretty,” you hollowly say. The universe seems determined to remind you of your texts. Lia’s face falters, and you realize your disdain came across as you lying. “No, it’s not like that! Just… bad experiences with birds. You look really nice in this.”

She brightens up. “Oh, thanks! What do you mean by ‘bad experiences?’ What happened?”

“Good morning, birdbrain!”

“That happened.”

Looking far too happy for a Monday morning, Jisung takes the other seat beside you. He has a cup of coffee stacked high with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle, and you wonder if his extreme cheerfulness is from the caffeine or from your impending public humiliation. Why did you have to pick this guy to have a crush on? Sure, he’s cute and smart and sometimes nice, but there are plenty of people who have those traits without his witticism.

Lia looks at you with more amusement than concern. “So what happened?”

You tell her about what really happened during the weekend, and Jisung laughs all the while, reenacting his facial expression when he received your first frantic SOS message. Meanwhile, you sink lower and lower into your chair, ignoring your tailbone’s cries of pain as you slide further down the thin cushion.

“You can’t hide forever,” Jisung remarks as he looks at your slumping form. “C’mon, it wasn’t that bad. And you were drunk anyway.”

Yeah, you were, but the whole thing is doubly embarrassing because of how much you want him to like you. The overenthusiastic, all-caps messages are normal whenever you text while drunk, but ‘I love yous’ and the even rarer ‘I LOVE YOUUUU’ are few and far between. Only six people excluding Jisung have received them: your parents, your best friend, and your statistics group project members because you accidentally sent the message to the wrong chat.

On the bright side, seven is a lucky number. It means absolutely nothing in this case, and it’s hardly relevant to how you’re feeling, but everyone copes differently. Yours just happens to be clinging onto any silver lining available for solace.

“Anyway,” Lia cuts in, saving you from replying, “you’re here early, Jisung.”

He shrugs and flashes her a playful smile. However, his eyes are focused on you when he says, “You know what they say: early bird gets the worm.”

You give him a pitiful attempt of a withering glare. “I hate you.”

“Okay, fine.” He tugs at the shoulder of your hoodie to motion for you to stop trying to melt into the ground and to help you up. “It’s ‘cause I knew you would be here early.”

You are calm, you are fine, you will not be flustered. He just teased you five seconds ago; you should not be this willing to forgive him under these circumstances. Nonetheless, you slide back up to a more normal sitting position and try to pretend that you are still mildly upset. His next sentences make that impossible.

“You guys want brownies? Felix was stress-baking again.”

One may call you easily swayed by food, and they would be right. Jisung lets you have a coveted corner piece, and you decide that he’s alright again. He stretches an arm in front of you to get to Lia, and you lean back to avoid bumping into him. It also gives you a clear view of his profile. Wow, is he pretty. Look at that jawline. Suddenly his eyes go wide, and his mouth splits into a familiar excited grin.

“Are those birds?”

“Yep,” Lia answers, looking over at you to check your reaction. She tries to hide her smile, but it’s clear as day. You’re not entirely sure what she’s going to say next, but you already know it’s going to involve your current least favorite animal species. “Pretty… dove-ly, don’t you think?”

At least you were right about them being doves. “I hate you both.”

Jisung laughs at her pun and holds out his palm for a high-five. “You know what they say: birds of a feather flock together.”

“I really hate you both.”

Your initial prediction that Jisung is never going to let you live this down is correct. When you meet your bio group again Thursday night to study for the upcoming quiz, Jisung brings lemon poppy seed muffins for seemingly no other reason than to tease you. His housemate is still stress-baking, and judging by the bird silhouette made of glaze, Felix is very stressed and very eager to indulge in Jisung’s ideas.

“They’re finches!” Jisung proudly announces as he sets one right in front of you. The stupid decoration on top mocks you, but the muffin looks and smells delicious.

Hyunjin, who does not know about your current plight but does know about Darwin’s finches, appreciatively coos at them. “They’ve even got different beak shapes! These are so cool. Man, Felix must hate econ right now.”

“No kidding,” you mutter as you begin peeling off the wrapper. Felix must hate you as well because one bite of this is almost enough for you to forgive Jisung again. It’s that good. How are you supposed to stay mad at Jisung when he gives you free delicious food? “Forget college, he needs to be in culinary school.”

He smirks from across the table, and it takes a lot of willpower for you to pretend you’re unphased. “What if I told you that I made these?”

“Then I would call you a liar.” He better be lying. You do not need another reason to justify your crush on him.

“And you would be right.” He slides his plastic container down to Lia, who has just arrived and is eyeballing the muffins like a predator. “But I did help him.”

“It’s really good,” you admit. You continue nibbling on it, determined to make the muffin last as long as you can. “What part did you help him out with?”

“The birds on top. Turns out drawing them with runny glaze is hard. I gave you the prettiest one, so don’t get mad about the whole bird thing. It goes with what we’re studying too.”

“Fine,” you sigh as you fold the wrapper into halves over and over again. “But only because these are amazing.”

Hyunjin leans in closer, effectively popping the intimate bubble you and Jisung were in. “What’s ‘the bird thing?’”

Fortunately, Yeji has finally arrived, which gives you the perfect excuse to stop Jisung from letting another person know of your drunk texts. You make a big production of pulling out your notebook from your backpack and rifling through your pencil bag for a pen.

“Should we get started?” you ask. Lia nods and uncaps one of her many highlighters.

“I’ll tell you later,” Jisung whispers to Hyunjin, winking at you. You could cry, melt, die. You could do a lot of things, but you opt to stick your tongue out at him. So what if you’re being childish? You can barely concentrate on the real world after that wink. To Yeji, he says, “There’s snacks, if Lia hasn’t eaten them all yet.”

“Hey!”

Hyunjin laughs at her notorious sweet tooth before turning to Yeji. “He gave Y/N the prettiest one, so there’s probably only his fails left.”

“They’re not bad!”

Lia has only had two, so there are more than enough to choose from. Yeji peers inside the container before selecting the one closest to her.

“Is this a plague doctor?” she asks as she suppresses a laugh. “It’s got a top hat.”

Jisung shakes his head and groans. “You chose the worst one on purpose. It’s one of Darwin’s finches. You would have known if you studied.”

“It’s not my fault you can’t draw.” Taking no notice of Jisung’s affronted expression, she takes out the textbook the five of you split the cost to buy. “Okay, plague doctor cupcakes out of the way, what are the four main theories of evolution?”

“They’re lemon poppy seed finch muffins,” he clarifies.

“That’s not an evolution theory,” Hyunjin cheekily replies, earning him an elbow nudge from Jisung and a laugh from everyone else.

You end up answering Yeji’s question and reward your correct answer with another muffin. Besides them being addictive, you’ll need some energy for the rest of the study session if all this talk about birds persists. You select the most plague doctor-ish one out of the box, and Jisung notices.

“Seriously?” he pouts. “I give you the best one, and this is how you repay me? I thought you said you weren’t mad about the bird thing.”

You ignore the last sentence. “What? You’re not proud of these?” you say, mock astonished as you give him a good view of the glaze on top. “They look exactly like plague doctors.”

“I hate you.”

You smile and shrug before returning back into the discussion about Lamarckism. Let him get a taste of his own medicine.

Unfortunately, as promised and as possible revenge, Jisung tells Hyunjin about ‘the bird thing,’ and Yeji overhears since she is only two chairs away. You try melting into the ground instead, but Lia holds you in place as the story continues, so you are stuck reliving the memory. You knew Jisung wouldn’t let you forget, but you didn’t account for everyone else in the group finding out and joining in on the torture.

But thanks to Jisung’s brilliant idea to bring those spectacularly decorated muffins, he doesn’t go unscathed either. It’s a mediocre consolation prize, but you’ll take it.

All around, it’s a productive study session, if a bit long, courtesy of everyone’s unrelenting shots at you and Jisung.

Your study group splits off in three separate directions once you’re all at the library entrance: Yeji back to the on-campus dorms where she’s an RA, Hyunjin and Lia to the off-campus apartments a few streets down, you and Jisung to the bus stop to your apartments on the other of campus. There’s a few people already sitting at the bench, so you and Jisung stand under the streetlight nearby. A moth intent on reaching the light source rams itself repeatedly against the glass covering, and you tiredly watch it. You yawn.

“Not much of a night owl?” he asks. With no clever reply ready, you gently shove him towards the bushes, but he only sways at your push. He throws his hands up in surrender. “Alright, I’ll stop for today.”

“I’m really sorry for sending you that,” you say. You haven’t touched the chat between you and him since the incident. “And for not apologizing earlier.”

“It’s alright. Although I almost had a heart attack when you sent me ‘SOS’ like five times.”

You grimace as you remember your frantic texts. If you think back hard enough, you remember furiously tapping at your screen, trying to get his attention as quick as possible because you really, really, really needed to know what the animal that landed on your windowsill was called. Your housemate was in the next room over. You could have asked her instead, but no, you decided that Jisung from bio was the best option. Not even the group chat, just Jisung himself.

“Sorry again,” you weakly reply.

“It really is alright. Finding bird puns is my new favorite hobby now.” He wryly smiles. “I have so many more to try on you. You’re gonna love it.”

Is that endearing or annoying? Living rent-free inside his head isn’t terrible, especially since he seems to do the same in yours. You’ll probably have to endure lots more puns from him in the future, but for now, you’ll decide that it’s endearing.

The bus arrives, and you sit in the back with him. The ride to the apartment complex is quiet; only a group of people near the front are speaking to one another in low voices. Jisung makes no attempt at continuing the conversation, and you are content to stare out into the neon lights outside the window. You can see him in the reflection on the glass. The empty container devoid of muffins sits on Jisung’s lap, his phone placed face down on the lid. If it weren’t for all the other passengers on the bus, you would be convinced that it was just you and him, enjoying each other’s company.

You’re almost sad when you reach your stop.

“Do you want me to walk you to your apartment?” he asks as you step down to the pavement. “Yours is farther down, right?”

“Isn’t your place right here?” you say. You’ve seen him walk out from this particular complex several times while waiting for the bus. That’s not stalking. “You don’t have to go out of your way. It’s just a block away.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely walking you home.”

You hesitate a bit, but Jisung is already taking small steps in the direction of your apartment. A little more time with him doesn’t sound too horrendous right now. “Okay.”

Just like the bus ride, no conversation, which suits you fine. Jisung seems more enthralled by looking into the windows of apartment residents anyway. You can’t blame him, especially when it appears that someone is having their own mini rave in their living room. Once at the doors to your building, you thank him and tell him good night.

“No problem and good luck tomorrow.” His voice is softer at night, or maybe it’s because he’s tired as well.

Your tone matches his as well. “You too. See you in class then.”

“Good night.”

A few minutes after midnight, just as you’re about to get into bed, a message from Jisung pops up. Not Jisung in the study group, just Jisung.

12:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: Hey, I know you’re not much of a night owl, so would you call yourself a morning lark? 12:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: You’re always an early bird to class 12:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: Are you emu-sed? 12:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: :D

Well, he did say he would stop for the day. It’s technically the next day. You reply with an annoyed face before burrowing yourself under your blankets. There are other things to worry about, such as your quiz in nine hours.

You dream of birds, namely finches, that night. Thanks, Jisung.

“This is why I tell you to never drink alone,” Seungmin laughs. He picks up the last slice of pizza from the pan and folds it in half like the heathen he is before taking the first bite. “Bad things always happen.”

“To be fair, Ryujin was home.”

“In a completely different room from you.”

You groan and supplement your exasperation with an extra aggressive tear on your crust. “Okay, fine. I’ve learned my lesson. The point is, he won’t stop with the bird jokes, and I’m going insane.”

Seungmin, having been collateral damage from your drunken mishaps before, is unsympathetic. He still hasn’t quite forgiven you for the time you tried to make a Molotov cocktail in his kitchen. Look, the clickbait video you watched online promised that it would be a fun and easy science experiment, and your other self decided that it was a fantastic idea. Nothing bad happened in the end though since you couldn’t find a lighter. So, Seungmin, it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

“You have a crush on this guy. Why are you upset that he’s flirting with you?”

“He’s cute until he opens his mouth and starts giving me grief about birds.” You sigh as you remember the last text he sent: a photo of the sunset from his apartment window with the caption, A bird’s eye view of the neighborhood. On one hand, you were thrilled to have received a non-homework related picture. On the other hand, bird joke.

“You would do the same.”

“I know, but it still sucks.” You wipe your fingers with a napkin and amuse yourself with spinning the empty pan as Seungmin (slowly) finishes eating. “No more Jisung talk. How was your date?”

Seungmin turns flustered, just like you knew he would. “It wasn’t a date! I’m just her photographer. This is a business arrangement, nothing else.”

“Sure, sure. Whatever you say.”

“Hey, is that Jisung over there?” he asks, nodding over your shoulder.

“I’m not that gullible,” you sigh, though you can’t say you aren’t tempted. Seungmin loves to make fun of you, and he probably wants to get back at you for teasing him about the girl he’s been spending a suspicious amount of time with.

“Gull-ible?”

“Not you too," you plead. It's already awful with one person. To deter him any further, you continue, "Anyway, back to your definitely-not-a-date date—”

“Hey, Y/N, is that you?”

Seungmin has his “I told you so” face on. After sending him a glare, which he promptly pretends not to see, you turn around, resting your forearm on the back of your chair. Jisung, holding a pan of oven-fresh pizza, smiles back at you.

“Hey,” you greet. He's wearing the same black and red sweatshirt he usually has on, but why does he look so much better in it when he's in a pizza place than in class or in the library? “How are you doing? How’s your Saturday so far?”

“I just woke up like an hour ago, so it’s been pretty good, I guess.” His eyes go to Seungmin, who is now sipping on his soda, pretending to not eavesdrop. “Is this your…”

“This is my friend, Seungmin,” you quickly answer. Other than the fact that you need to make it abundantly clear that you are available, there is no way you’re ever going to date Seungmin. Apart from the girl he claims to not be dating, he’s even more merciless when it comes to reminding you about your drunken ideas. You can’t pass the intersection without him nudging your arm. “Seungmin, this is Jisung. We have bio together.”

Seungmin nods like he hasn’t heard of Jisung before. “Hey, nice to meet you. So, do you guys learn about birds in bio?”

Jisung lights up like a Christmas tree, and you want to cover yourself with the pizza pan. Praying for the ground to swallow you up also sounds like a decent option. In the midst of debating whether hiding under the table would be too odd, you notice that Seungmin has finally finished his slice.

“We should get going,” you interrupt. You do not need Seungmin to start sharing other stupid things you’ve done. He’s about five seconds away from telling Jisung about the intersection chalk mural. “And you probably want to eat dinner.”

Jisung sees right through your act, but he lets it go. “Yeah, Felix is probably starving. See you on Monday?”

“Yeah, see you.”

You expect him to go to wherever Felix is, but he still remains behind you. With a lopsided grin, he asks, “Should I expect any quail-ity texts at 2 AM tonight?”

Seungmin laughs, Jisung laughs, and you stare at the ceiling, wondering what you did to deserve this. Surely there were other people you could have in your life besides these two jerks.

“Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” Jisung sings as you correctly answer his question. This week’s study session consists of a game show Jisung has created, and you almost want to believe that he put in all this effort just to say that phrase. “Another point for you.”

You sigh as Yeji slides a wrapped piece of candy towards you. It’s her turn to bring snacks, and though milk chocolate the size of golf balls are great, you’re still dreaming of those wickedly delicious cake slices Jisung shared with you yesterday. Hummingbird cake, he claimed, it was called. Bananas, pineapples, and pecans, all combined together to make a sweet treat. When you cheekily asked why his housemate was so stressed all the time — you really don’t mind. Sorry, Felix — Jisung cheerfully informed you that he made the entire thing himself. After you picked up your jaw from the floor, you stammered something about it being passable. Not nearly as good as Felix’s stuff, you said, lying through your teeth. Jisung, again, saw right through it but let it slide. See? Sometimes he’s nice. However, you did not need another reason to be attracted to Han Jisung, but here you are.

“Seriously, Yeji?” you mumble as you pull apart the blue foil. “You just had to pick the brand named after a bird?” It doesn’t stop you from popping the chocolate into your mouth though.

“They were on sale!”

While you and Yeji bicker about Dove chocolate and how the universe is conspiring against you, Hyunjin answers the next question correctly. Yeji absentmindedly pushes his reward towards him.

“No chicken dinner for me?” he asks.

Jisung shakes his head. “Your question was easy. You get a pheasant instead. Or a quail. Any bird smaller than a chicken works.”

“A hummingbird then?” you suggest. You really need to stop thinking about that cake. “But I hear those aren’t that great.”

“You already ate every single crumb of that cake I gave you!” Jisung says, but there’s not a drop of displeasure in his tone. In fact, he seems rather happy that you liked it so much that you remembered about it. “All my hard work gone in five seconds.”

“You made her a cake?” Lia gasps in disbelief, secretive note checking forgotten. She’s in last place with only six points, so no one cares too much about her cheating. “What about us? We’re your study buddies too!”

Hyunjin and Yeji chorus their agreements, and you realize that he only shared his cake with you. He followed you out of the lecture hall and gave it to you in a plastic container, so you assumed that he also hand delivered a few slices to everyone else. Never mind that he oh-so-conveniently had a fork with him. Never mind that he sat with you at a bench and watched you try a few bites before devouring it all. Never mind all that.

Wait. Does this mean he likes you too?

You fold and unfold your discarded foil wrappers as you contemplate over this revelation, sneaking glances at Jisung all the while. He looks… normal. Infuriatingly so. Same carefree smile, same arguments with Hyunjin, same lackadaisical chair leaning even though he fell backwards that one time. How is one supposed to tell if someone actually likes you when said someone is the same all the time?

Jisung promises to bring something for the next study session to make up for not sharing his cake and continues on with the review game like nothing has happened. However, those thoughts are still in the back of your mind when the session ends. You have gained five more pieces of chocolate and no further information as to whether Jisung is actually into you or not. As per usual, you and he head to the bus stop together. It’s more crowded than last week since it’s only eight.

“Did you have a pheasant time today?” he asks, pausing next to a hedge.

You keep your eyes on the asphalt instead of looking at him. It’s much easier to pretend you’re calm when you don’t have vision of his face. “I see you discovered pheasants recently. And yes, it was fun. Thanks for making it.”

“You don’t want to crow about winning the game?” When you grimace — you did kind of want to point out how amazing your score was but now you don’t — he quickly adds, “Okay, okay. But you’re going to ace that quiz tomorrow.”

And you simply say, “I know,” because you are and because you have nothing else prepared to say.

It goes quiet, and with only the sounds of cars racing by, Jisung abruptly says, “This is a little awkward now. Or should I say… hawk-ward?”

You groan and break your staring contest with the road to give him an exasperated look. A mistake because he’s smiling so wide, squirrels would be jealous of his cheeks. He has no right to be so cute after those jokes. “Why do I feel like you searched up ‘bird puns’ online and are trying to insert them in every possible scenario?”

“Because I did and because I am.” He sighs in contentment. “Those were the best texts I’ve ever received. I’m never letting you forget it.”

You were right about that, and now you have verbal confirmation from the man himself. Another mediocre consolation prize you will gladly accept. But for now, you say, “Well, toucan play at that game, plague doctor Han Jisung.” The only perk of hearing all these wretched jokes is that you are now rather knowledgeable about them. Thank you, Seungmin, for making that one a few days ago.

“They looked just like finches!” he protests, but he’s laughing along, head tilted back. He sighs again. When he turns to face you again, his eyes are soft. “That was a pretty good one.”

“Seungmin came up with it.” There’s a warm feeling spreading across your chest, constricting your air flow and making all your blood rush to your cheeks. It was one compliment; why are you like this? What are you going to do if he keeps looking at you like that? You swiftly go back to the road, counting the number of cars that pass by. One, two, three, four…

And a gray bus pulling up to the curb.

“Bus is here,” you uselessly announce. Jisung follows you into the growing crowd surrounding the entrance. He hovers behind you as the two of you wait for the people in front to board, and his presence is more palpable than usual. “There’s a lot of people today,” you remark in a vain attempt to distract yourself.

“Yeah, everyone’s heading home for the day.” He pauses dramatically before adding, “The birds are all going back to their nest.”

The joke successfully snaps you out of your haze. “That’s not a real saying.”

“I think it should be. It makes perfect sense!”

“You’re—” As the line shuffles forward, you try to think of something bird related, but he beats to the punch.

“Cuckoo?”

It’s almost impressive how much time he has invested in annoying you. Does it make you fall for him more? No, not really, or so you try to convince yourself. It’s strangely endearing, just like everything about him. You merely answer, “Yes.”

He chuckles and nudges you forward up the steps of the bus.

Even though there’s a little bit of daylight left, Jisung walks you back to your apartment building. You’re not upset by this, but where was this chivalry two weeks ago after the first study session? You teasingly ask him about it, and he turns bashful. How unlike him.

“I thought you lived in my complex, for some reason. You were always at the bus stop before me, so I assumed you lived nearby. I didn’t know until I overheard you and Yeji talking about it,” he says, hiding himself with his collar.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” you say, stopping in front of the walkway to your building, “see you tomorrow then. Thanks for walking me back. Good night.”

The Jisung you’re used to seeing, is back with a mischievous smile and yet another joke. “Good night-ingale.”

You bite the inside of your cheek and try not to seem too amused by it. He’s not charming, not even a little bit. “That was awful.” It’s the smile, you tell yourself. No one should have one like that. It has too much power.

“Yet I can see you smiling at it.”

Remain calm. You can do that. You’ve faked this before, so why is your head not cooperating right now? Jisung really needs to stop looking at you with anything more than a neutral face. It’s bad for you, like really, really bad. No witty remarks at the ready is typical, but you can’t even think of anything to say.

After an excruciating five seconds, you manage to stammer out, “Good night.” Cheeks aflame and your heart threatening to pop out of you like a cuckoo clock, you roughly yank open the door and bolt up the stairs. You have too much adrenaline in you right now. Waiting for the elevator knowing that he could be observing your twitchy movements, would be too nerve wracking.

Ryujin asks if you’re alright when she sees you hunched against the kitchen counter, out of breath and muttering to yourself.

“I decided to take the stairs,” you say, which only partially explains your dishevelled state. “I’ll be alright. I think.”

“I’ll get you some water. You look like you're about to collapse.”

Then your phone chimes with a new message, and you decidedly won’t be alright.

8:22 PM [Jisung Bio]: Did my nightingale pun quack you up that badly? 8:22 PM [Jisung Bio]: Was it that ducking good? 8:22 PM [Jisung Bio]: :D

8:23 PM [Jisung Bio]: Anyway, good luck tomorrow. Sleep well and sweet dreams, morning lark

There is no food in the fridge. Well, no proper food. A bag of spinach that expired three days ago but still seems okay, does not count. The same goes for the half empty jar of peanut butter, but Ryujin would likely disagree with that. There’s a reason why the jar is half empty. However, if you actually want to eat something for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow, you need to go shopping.

For some strange reason, it does not occur to you that you can run into Jisung at the grocery store. Jisung belongs in four locations: the bus stop, the lecture hall, the library, and the pizza place you saw him at last week. Not the dairy aisle on a Wednesday night.

“Hey.” You stop in front of him, basket at your feet and hands folded in front of you like the world’s worst defense. Heart, stop beating so fast.

Jisung looks up from his phone to search for the owner of the voice and brightens when he sees that it’s you. “Hey, morning lark.” He has taken to calling you that ever since he sent that particular message. You wish it produced another reaction from you besides pure bliss, but that is the price you pay for pretending to be still annoyed by his jokes. That’s how bad your crush on him now is; you are increasingly beguiled by the puns. “Oh, did you need milk?”

“Yeah.” You grab a blue carton with a picture of a smiling cow from the shelf and place it in your basket. In the meantime, you can’t help but peer into Jisung’s. There is a bag of chocolate chips and a packet of gelatin. “Is this stuff for tomorrow’s study session?”

He nods and grabs the same brand of milk as you did. You get a rush of excitement, much to your chagrin. It’s just milk, and this is the most popular brand too. “Yeah. Felix is trying a new recipe, so you guys get to have some of the failed ones too.”

“What is it? Cheesecake?”

“You’ll see,” he mysteriously says. Then he adds, “You’re gonna love it,” which immediately gives away the theme.

“It’s something to do with birds, isn’t it?”

“You’ll see.”

And when you do see, you’re wrong. Library food rules ignored, at each seat, Jisung has set a slice of layer cake topped with chocolate ganache, no bird motifs of any sort. You take your usual spot at the end of the table and find that yours is slightly larger than the others. Well, except for maybe Lia’s. He has to placate her sweet tooth and her disappointment of not being able to have hummingbird cake.

“Did I not get a message or something?” Hyunjin asks when he takes in the over-the-top display. “Is this a dinner party?”

“Isn’t this against the library’s rules?” Yeji asks as she surreptitiously looks around for any librarians. The surrounding tables of fellow students won’t care.

Jisung elects to not answer Yeji’s concerns. “This is tonight’s snack,” he proudly replies. “Also, Felix wants feedback on it.”

You cut a section off with the plastic fork and marvel at the airiness of the cake. It’s unlike anything you have ever had. The frosting in between the sponge layers is so light, and the ganache is so dark and rich. “This is really amazing. It’s so fluffy. Wow. Tell Felix that he really needs to consider culinary school.”

“Wanna guess what it’s called?”

“Isn’t this just an extra fancy vanilla cake?” you ask. You take another bite, but other than the chocolate ganache on top, you can only taste vanilla. “I don’t know. The… vanilla fluff cake?”

“Nope.” He leans forward, face inches away from yours, lips curled into a smirk, and slowly says, “Bird’s milk cake.”

This can’t be real. Birds don’t even produce milk. “No way. You’re lying.” Even as you say the words, they sound false to your ears. Jisung has made it his mission to find anything and everything bird-related for you, so you doubt he’s lying.

“It’s called this” — he holds up his phone screen — “in Russian. It translates to ‘bird’s milk.’”

Ptichye moloko.

“You convinced Felix to make this, didn’t you?” you say. What are the chances that Felix conveniently wanted to make bird’s milk cake without any nudging from Jisung? Absolutely none. You have never even heard of this dessert before, let alone by it’s Russian name, and you’re willing to bet that Jisung searched up ‘bird cake’ or something of that nature just for this. Maybe that’s how he found out about hummingbird cake too.

“It’s all for you, morning lark,” he cheerfully replies, winking at you. He leans back in his chair again, precariously balancing on the two back legs. “I knew you’d like it.”

Jisung is really not making this easy for you. Forget subtleties, he’s just shamelessly flirting with you now. And in the sanctity of the library of all places! In a poor attempt to save yourself from this mess, you unconsciously begin to slide down the chair, trying to shield your hot face with your raised shoulders. Lia notices this — one of the perks having sat next to you for nearly four weeks during lectures — and grabs your forearm.

“No melting,” she reminds you, “or else you’re going to hit your head on the seat again.”

“I wasn’t melting,” you protest as you wriggle back up. Slowly dying might have been a better descriptor. That wink shot arrows into your already fragile heart. “We’re gonna get in trouble if one of the librarians sees this.”

“Guess we should get started then,” Hyunjin says. Yeji, the only responsible one in the group, begins pulling out the textbook, and everyone laughs at her eagerness. “Not what I meant, but that too.”

After you’re done with the cake and while the others are preoccupied about the timeline of human evolution, Jisung whispers across the table, “Did you still like it?”

“Yeah. No hard feelings about the name because it was good,” you whisper back.

“I thought it would turn out like this, morning lark. I know you love free food too much to be mad.”

The nickname again. You rest your cheek against your palm in a vain attempt to tamp down the growing heat. “Can I get a different name, plague doctor?”

He’s not at all phased by his own nickname, which doesn’t bode well for any future snarky remarks from you. “What, you don’t like birds or something?” He blinks so innocently back at you that you have to stifle a giggle.

“Yeah, well, that’s the—”

“Hey, lovebirds,” Hyunjin interrupts, making you profusely blush and Yeji lightly laugh at the expression, “we’re gonna move on to the next section now. Is that okay?”

“It’s okay,” you reply even though you are most definitely not okay. Jisung, who you notice is uncharacteristically sheepish, echoes your sentiment.

It’s difficult not to stare at Jisung during the remainder of the study session. It seems to be true the other way around as well.

You’re sober when you read the messages, but you don’t think Jisung was when he sent them. Oh, how the tables have turned.

3:02 AM [Jisung Bio]: Good morning morning lark!! 3:02 AM [Jisung Bio]: Winner winner chicken dinner remember? So yes or no?

3:03 AM [Jisung Bio]: Or maybe yes or yes? 3:03 AM [Jisung Bio]: I really want to go on a date with you 3:03 AM [Jisung Bio]: Not lying I swear

3:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: I can’t stop thinking about you. You’re always on my mind and every time I see a bird, I think about you 3:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: I bought grey goose because of you 3:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: [jisung’s_hand_holding_grey_goose_vodka.jpg] 3:04 AM [Jisung Bio]: I don’t even like it that much

3:05 AM [Jisung Bio]: You make me dizzy sometimes and I don’t know what to do 3:05 AM [Jisung Bio]: You’re probably sleeping so good night larky 3:05 AM [Jisung Bio]: Or morning

3:06 AM [Jisung Bio]: Fly high in your dreams!!!

He must have been wasted and under no responsible supervision because this is what you would have done if you were in his place. Does he not have a Seungmin in his life? Or a Ryujin? There’s a Felix, so where was he when all of this happened?

But forget about Jisung’s own problems.

He wants to go on a date with you. A real date, not a study date with three other people and fake quiz questions. If his words are to be taken literally, then one involving a chicken dinner. Possibly a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, but a chicken dinner nonetheless.

He can’t stop thinking about you. All those bird jokes had you charmed, and all those cakes were baked with you in mind. They weren’t just for show. They were all about you.

You make him dizzy, which is hilarious because he does the same to you. He smiles at you so brightly, laughs so easily, and flirts so shamelessly that you never realized that you could ever make him feel that way.

And “fly high in your dreams?” You’re practically soaring in real life. Han Jisung, cute bio boy, plague doctor, pun enthusiast, surprisingly decent baker, wants to go on a date with you.

You, you, you!

While you alternate between hyperventilating and forgetting how to breathe as you process all this, three gray dots appear at the bottom of the chat. You clutch your phone as you wait. Apparently, your body is on the ‘forgetting how to breathe’ cycle.

11:14 AM [Jisung Bio]: I am so sorry about that. I was very drunk when I sent that

11:15 AM [Jisung Bio]: You can just ignore them or delete them 11:15 AM [Jisung Bio]: Highly recommend deleting 11:15 AM [Jisung Bio]: Also sorry if I woke you up

Your fingers hover over the keyboard. Should you answer him over text, call, or in-person? Is in-person too dramatic though? You feel like something like this is supposed to be done face-to-face, but he’s probably hungover beyond belief.

11:16 AM [Me]: It’s okay. A morning lark is always up early anyway :) 11:16 AM [Me]: Were you serious though?

11:17 AM [Jisung Bio]: Can we meet up in an hour? At the bus stop? I want to talk to you 11:17 AM [Me]: Yeah. Me too

The bus stop is neutral territory or maybe just the closest meeting spot you and Jisung have. If it’s supposed to be neutral territory, it most definitely is not since his apartment complex is right behind it. Despite his close proximity to the spot, you arrive first, so you make yourself as comfortable as possible underneath the sign, standing in its shadow. It’s silly when you think about it, but you wish you dressed in something nicer than a hoodie. In your rush to leave the apartment, you threw on whatever, but maybe you should have worn something prettier for this confrontation. Make Jisung go dizzy and gain a little bit of power from that.

This is even worse than when you had to face him after you sent your drunk texts. At least then it was just a middling attraction and not a full-on crush.

“Hey, morning lark. You’re early. As expected.”

“Hey. You’re… alive.”

Jisung is strangely fresh-faced, not a hint of hungover clouding around him. Why can’t you look like him after a night of seemingly heavy drinking? Where are the pinched eyebrows from the blinding lights? The ghostly gray face? The haunted eyes as one remembers all the incredibly stupid things they did the night before? Unfair. Completely unfair.

“Yeah.” He’s wearing his usual sweatshirt, but his hands are stuffed into its pockets instead of being out and about. He rocks back and forth on his heels. “Well, uh, I meant everything I sent. And I’m serious about taking you to dinner, so do you want to go on a date with me?”

You anticipated this. Why does it feel like you have just finished running a marathon? “Yeah, I do. I really want to.”

He smiles so brightly, the sun would be jealous. Correction, should be jealous. You don’t think you’ve seen a prettier sight than this since he sat down next to you on the first day of class and asked if you wanted to start a study group. He pumps his fist in the air like he’s a movie character, and you hide your laugh behind your hoodie sleeve. You’ve never seen him so happy before.

“How are you not hungover?” you ask as he raises his face to the sky, taking in the afternoon light, basking in the moment. He’s really living his movie character dreams. “You said you were really drunk.”

“I kind of lied?” he says, sounding more wistful than you would expect. When he looks back at you, you finally see dark circles underneath his eyes, but he is still as jubilant as before. “I was more tipsy than drunk. So, when do you wanna get that chicken dinner, winner, winner?”

It’s amazing how shy, excited Jisung disappears and how the usual casual, teasing Jisung reappears. That’s his Jekyll and Hyde moment, you suppose. And the switch is all activated by his one-track mind of bird jokes. How wonderful.

“Next week, after midterms? I’ve got two this week to study for. I should be free on Friday night.”

He enthusiastically nods. “Sounds good to me.”

2:57 PM [Me]: I’m done with all my midterms! Are you free tonight?

2:59 PM [Jisung Bio]: Free as a bird :D 2:59 PM [Jisung Bio]: Also congrats on being done 2:59 PM [Me]: I hate you

3:00 PM [Jisung Bio]: So chicken dinner? The restaurant next to the pizza place just opened 3:00 PM [Jisung Bio]: I heard it’s really clucking good 3:00 PM [Jisung Bio]: A hen out of hen

3:01 PM [Me]: I might actually kill you during our date

3:02 PM [Jisung Bio]: Don’t you mean 3:02 PM [Jisung Bio]: [flock_of_crows.jpg] 3:02 PM [Jisung Bio]: Murder :D

3:05 PM [Jisung Bio]: I’ll see you at 6? 3:05 PM [Me]: See you then

You do not end up murdering Jisung on your date, though you do come pretty close after you audibly ask the ground to swallow you up when he compliments your egg-cellent outfit.

“Swallow?” he slyly says. “Like the bird?”

Instead of committing a crime, you kiss him on the cheek, effectively silencing him. You’ve been waiting to do both those things for some time now, and look at you now, killing two birds with one stone.

Jisung turns a delightful shade of pink and mutters something about needing to get to the restaurant before it gets too crowded. All of his bluster from just five seconds ago is gone. You merrily follow him down the pavement, feeling a little bit like the cat who swallowed the canary.

Yes, you did search up bird expressions beforehand. Jisung will be Jisung, and like you told him before, toucan play at this game. You will not spend your first date with him being humiliated by his large repertoire of puns. Besides, if he retaliates like you expect him to, you will have the perfect excuse to kiss him again.

See? No fowl play at all.

Then he takes your hand into his, his warmth enveloping yours, and everything suddenly isn’t fair again.

And based on his all-too-pleased grin, Jisung knows this as well.

~ ad.gray

416 notes · View notes

jungshookz · 4 years

Note

shy makeup artist y/n and her flirty client model!jk who she’s intimidated by but who is actually just as dorky and shy as she is but she’s so cute n awkward it makes him confident af she’s dabbing foundation down his neck and he unbuttons his shirt a lil more when her back is turned so she’s forced to go down his chest a lil and is tRYING to be profesh but wOWIE

➺ pairing; jeon jungkook x reader

➺ genre; model!jungkook au, mostly fluff, aLways comedy, it gets a little spicy at the end but not mind-blowingly spicy more like a tingly spicy

➺ wordcount: 3.6k

➺ what to expect; “if you wanted to kiss me, all you had to do was ask.”

➺ note; after ten whole years i have finally returned with a jungkook drabble!!! i loved this request with my whole ass!!! okay i’ll shut up now - happy reading!

(also i couldn’t find the original source of this gif but if u know who made it let me know and i can give them proper credit!!)

»»————-　♡　————-««

“why do we always have to have these shoots in the morning?” your mouth opens up in an obnoxious yawn as you arch your back slowly

you stretch until you feel a satisfying little pop in your spine before glancing over at taehyung, “in my humble opinion, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with an afternoon shoot. i’ll even take a nighttime shoot!”

“you know these shoots are arranged around the model’s schedule, right? not ours?” taehyung hums as he busies himself with his camera, “i told you before you started working with me that you’d have to get used to waking up early so i don’t know why you still complain about it after all this time…”

“it’s seven AM, tae-“ you groan quietly as you reach up to rub your eyes, “on a sunday! seven AM… on a sunday! i’m pretty sure it’s illegal to be up this early on a sunday-”

“mm, i hear ya… could you get me my air blower? i don’t know how my lens got so dusty…”

you look over at the cart stocked fuLL of tae’s tools before reaching over to rummage through the top for the little tiny turkey baster looking thingy

…

ah!

here it is

“also, i’m aware that i should probably know this crucial piece of information, but… who’s coming in this morning again?” you hand tae the air blower and shoot him a sheepish smile when he raises an eyebrow at you

sometimes he feels like he should’ve hired someone else and noT his little dummy of a friend

but you’re a decent assistant AND you do wonders with a makeup brush (two birds one stone!!) and you’ve never asked for a raise or a christmas bonus and the two of you have never gotten into an argument so there’s that too

“jungkook’s coming in this morning, remember? we were literally talking about this a week ago. he’s going to be modelling some button-ups… slacks…” taehyung shrugs, “i think some suits, too? i’m going to have to read jin’s email again.”

your eyes immediately widen

oh!

right!!

jungkook is coming in this morning!

…

jungkook is coming in this morning?!?!?!

“…why do you look like you’re about to piss your pants?” taehyung nudges your side before holding the air blower out for you to take

you take it back gingerly before letting out a nervous chuckle, “no reason. i, uh… it’s just that i… jungkook’s coming in and i’m… not wearing my contacts today.” you reach up to tap your finger against the lens of your glasses, “i don’t wear these out that often because they’re a little geeky looking-”

“yeah, and the gaudy cardigan you’ve chosen to wear today isn’t helping either.” tae mutters under his breath and you let out a scoff of offence

hey!!!

this is a gREAT cardigan

it’s baby purple and there are daisies embroidered all over it!!!

“also, how do you simultaneously look like a toddler and a senior citizen at the same time?” tae reaches over to pinch at one of the space buns at the bottom of your head and you immediately whack his hand away, “it’s very impressive.”

“what time is he coming in??” you ignore his jab and check the time on your phone, “maybe i can pop back home really quickly and-“

“good morning, early birds!” you jump three feet into the air when the studio door suddenly swinGs open and tae reaches out to keep you steady

he treasures you dearly but good goD

you’re always so jumpy!!!

“y/n, my love, looking as cute as ever!” jin grins widely as he approaches you and you can’t help but grin right back

the two of you lean in to give each other quick kisses on both cheeks

(you learned from the very beginning that jin was a very affectionate person)

“how have you been? it’s been a while…” you hum as you pull away

“it has been a while! maybe it’s been too long… who allowed you to buy this?” jin reaches over to pluck at one of the green buttons on your cardigan and the smile immediately drops from your face

why does everyone hATE your cardigan???

“you’re certainly very energetic this morning!” taehyung laughs lightly before leaning over to peek over jin’s shoulder, “where’s our superstar?”

“he’ll be here in a minute or two, he just had to use the restroom. what’s the plan for today, mr. photographer?”

“pardon me- i’m just going to head over to the vanity to clean up my station a little bit.” you excuse yourself from jin and tae before quickly jogging over to your work station

okay

deep breaths

everything’s going to be fine!

but… maybe you should’ve wore your contacts today and maybe you should’ve rethought this cardigan and maybe you should’ve done something else with your hair

but other than those three things, everything is perfectly fine!

you look down at your neatly arranged brushes with your hands on your hips before letting out a breath

the last time you saw jungkook was like a month ago which really isn’t thAt long ago but still

every time you see him, you turn into this fumbling, slightly sweaTY mess!!!

and you have no idea why!!!

well, that’s not true

you have somewhat of an idea as to why you’re so intimidated by him

it’s literally just because he’s cute

and on top of that he’s very naturally charming and flirty and you just don’t have enough skills to reciprocate the charm or the flirtatious comments so your immediate instinct is to just shut up and stay quiet and keep smiling!!!!!

one time, you asked taehyung for some flirting advice and his little nugget of knowledge was literally just ‘i don’t know. just tell him he looks hot.’ and you were like ??? whA-

“those are a lot of brushes!” you spin around immediately and the brushes rattle on the counter when you bump up against it, “good morning, y/n.”

oh greAT

you didn’t even have time to give yourself a pep talk!

jungkook smiles sweetly at you and you feel your heart hiccup in your chest

oh boy

“jung- hi! good- hi.” you clear your throat as you quickly step away from the counter so that he can sit down, “good morning to you. as well, also.”

…what?

what are you even saYING

this is already going downhill

“you ready to make me pretty?” he takes a seat before reaching up to push some of his hair back

“well, i don’t need to do much, you’re already so pretty-“ you snort before immediately clamming up

hey, check it out!

a piece of your soul just left your body and is now leaving the building

yep

there it goes

right out the door

“okay, now turn your body to the left- yeah, there we go!” taehyung groans encouragingly as he continues to snap away at the camera, “look off to the side a little for me…”

you know

you would’ve thought that by now you’d be used to the constant flashing lights but to be honest you’re starting to feel a little queasy and you’re afraid you’re actually going to go blind somehow

like second-hand smoking but instead of inhaling someone else’s fumes it’s your eyeballs absorbing someone else’s light

you blink hard before reaching up to wipe away at a little smudge on your glasses lens

“hey-” jin pops up next to you and you let out a gasp of surprise

why does he always do that?!??

“what’s the matter with you, huh?”

“what? nothing.” you scoff before pulling a face and crossing your arms, “nothing’s- you’re the matter with you- nothing’s the matter with me-“

“good morning to you. as well, also.” jin mocks quietly and you immediately feel the tips of your ears beginning to burn, “oh, jungkook, you don’t need any makeup, you’re already so sexy-“

“i said he was preTTY-“

“you get so nervous for no reason it’s actually hilarious-“ jin hides a smile behind his coffee cup when you let out a squawK

“i don’t- it’s not that bad!!!!”

“just a little more to the side… yep, there we go…”

jungkook turns to the side before tilting his head upwards, keeping his gaze towards tae

“-so annOYING-!”

his eyes flicker over taehyung’s shoulder to you and jin for a brief second

a light chuckle leaves his mouth when he notices jin take your arm before waving it back and forth frantically at him

he resists the urge to wave back at you and instinctively takes his bottom lip in between his teeth when he notices you quickly averting your gaze from him

“no, no lip-biting. too cheesy!” taehyung waves his hand and jungkook immediately snaps back into it

whoops

his eyes flicker back over to you

all you’re doing is polishing your glasses with the sleeve of your cardigan but heck!!!!!

you’re so unbelievably cuTE

and he’s obsessed with your look today

the low space buns

the bright, fuzzy cardigan

everything’s just so cute!!!

you’re always cute whenever he sees you but today you’re just extra extra cute

he’s liked you for a while (and he’s been wanting to do something about that for a while) but the only issue is the fact that you seem to be terrified of him

and he doesn’t know how to make you noT completely petrified of him!!

the two of you met over a year ago and every time he comes to do a shoot you act like it’s your first time meeting him!!

you’re always so nervous around him and he feels awful that he’s the one making you drop your brushes and burn yourself on curling irons

and it doesn’t help that he knows about your crush on him (one would have to be blind to noT notice your crush on him) because it’s not like he can just corner you and be like you like me and i like you too!!!!! can we kiss?????

that sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen now that he thinks about it

anyways he tries his best to be friendly and sweet and charming and funny in an effort to make you open up to him but the most he’s ever gotten out of you was a giggle and a soft ‘you’re being silly’ (he ripped a slit into one of your old beauty blenders and stuck it onto his nose) ((honk honk))

with that being said

he certainly takes pride in the fact that he has the ability to make your knees wobbly and your cheeks go bright pink

one time he was doing an underwear shoot and when taehyung told him to look over his shoulder and not into the camera, he made direct eye contact with you instead and the whole time you looked like you were about to burst into flames

and he always makes the effort to give you a compliment whenever he can because he likes watching the tips of your ears go pink when you thank him quietly

you’ve actually gotten better at taking compliments!

you used to immediately clam up and try to change the subject but now you actually thank him befoRe changing the subject

he likes that he’s played a part in boosting your confidence :-)

it’s what you deserve!!!!

and he can’t forget about that one time you accidentally pulled his hair a little toO hard when trying to get a knot out of his strands and he said to at least take me out to dinner before pulling my hair like that, baby and your eyes widened to the size of saucers and you looked like you were about to pass out

the good thing is that you’re not aS nervous as you were the first time the two of you worked together

you actually respond to his flirty remarks sometimes and instead of greeting him with a respectful little nod, you always say good morning/afternoon/evening to him even though they’re still a little clumsy at times (“good morning to you. as well, also.”) and sometimes you even tell him about what you’ve been up to since he last saw you!!

jungkook’s happy that you’re obviously more comfortable around him but.,.,

he doesn’t know if this is going to make him sound like a jerk or not.,.,

it’s just that.,.,

can you PLEASE hurry up and just tell him that you like him?????

at first he thought that maybe he should make the first move, but then he decided that he wanted you to comfortable and that he wanted you to decide when you wanted to do something about the cartoon hearts floating around your head whenever he smiles at you

but for the love of god

you’re killing him here!!!!!

you’re basically dangling yourself over him and he’s always just out of reach

“…starting to cake up around your nose…” you mumble absentmindedly as you pat jungkook’s nose gently with a powder puff

he can’t help but stare at you as you continue to tap at the sides of his nose

you’re standing in between his spread legs (another indicator of you becoming more comfortable with him) and he resists the urge to reach up and pull you down onto his lap

you straddling him would probably be more comfortable for you!!

you wouldn’t have to bend down like this and have your poor back ache for the rest of the day

…what???

your posture is his number one priority!

there are no ulterior motives whatsoever

the two of you lock gazes for a millisecond and a smirk twitches at the corner of his lips when he notices the panic in your eyes before you’re standing up straight and turning to look down at the things on the counter

“so, um, i’m just going to apply a little foundation on your neck now.” you clear your throat as you pump some foundation out on the back of your hand

“sounds good.”

“tilt your head back for me, please?”

“mm.” jungkook places his hands on his lap as he looks up at the ceiling

he feels your fingers brush against his neck as you attempt to move the collar to the side a little bit and a little tingle rushes down his spine

“can i…” jungkook looks back at you and notices the apples of your cheeks growing pink, “can i undo one button on your shirt? both jin and taehyung would kill me if i accidentally stained the collar with foundation.”

“go ahead.” jungkook clears his throat, “…i could just take my shirt off, you know.”

“you-“ your voice cracks and jungkook bites back a cheeky grin, “you, um, you know, that is a very… creative solution! i think i’m just going to- just one button for now.” you let out a nervous chuckle as you bend down again and reach for his shirt

your fingers tremble slightly as you struggle to undo it and you feel your face growing hotter by the second (seriously??? it’s ONE button y/l/n pull it together)

“need some help?”

“yes, please…” jungkook reaches up and places his hand over yours and you feel his eyes on you as he undoes the button

yep

there goes another piece of your soul packing up and promptly exiting the building

toodle-loo!

“so, are your glasses new? i’ve never seen you wear them before…” jungkook trails off as you begin to smeaR some foundation on his neck with a brush

you smile lightly before shaking your head, “i, um, i was too lazy to put in my contacts this morning, so i had to come today wearing these bad boys.”

you reach up to push your frames up but they slide back down

“you should wear ‘em more often.” jungkook looks at you for a brief second before tilting his head back up towards the ceiling, “i like them.”

he does?????

hehe

your heart skips a beat for the trillionth time today and you let out a hum before chewing on the inside of your cheek anxiously

jungkook is fully aware of the effect that he has on you and you haven’t decided yet if you like it or hATE it

you stand up straight and lean back a little to see how the foundation looks

taehyung wanted dewy and this is looking a little matte

a droplet of liquid highlighter mixed into the foundation can fix this problem!

as soon as you spin around to look for the little bottle of liquid highlighter (it’s from coverfx and it’s one of your favourite makeup products ever!!!!) jungkook quickly reaches up to undo three more buttons to open his shirt up a bit more before quickly putting his hands back down on his lap

heh

>:-)

he clears his throat and puffs his chest out a little when you turn back around to face him

you pause and your sneakers squeak against the floor when you realise that you’re looking at a lot more than just his neck

what on god’s good green earth is th-

he really wants to kill you, doesn’t he??

you swallow thickly as your eyes trail down slowly from his neck to his chest, taking in every little divot and-

“something the matter?” jungkook asks innocently and you quickly shake your head before letting out a chuckle

“nope! i was just… nothing.”

wow

i was just… nothing

very smooth!

nice save!

you’re a professional

so be professional!!

you feel your heart working twice as hard to pump blood around your body as you continue tapping lightly at jungkook’s broad chest

wowiE

he definitely works out every day

“you can tilt your head back down if you’d like.” you say softly as you press the sponge into his beautifully sun kissed skin

you feel your heart practically fall out of your aSS when jungkook tilts his head back down only for him to be at eye-level with you

“oh-!” his nose bumps against yours and your hand jerks in surprise

the beauty blender bounces to the floor but that’s the least of your concerns at the moment because heLLO

you feel like you’re completely frozen in this position but you manage to pull your head back just a teensy bit, “i-“

“you know, y/n…” jungkook grins cheekily and you feel a little lightheaded when he leans forward to nudge his nose against yours on purpose, “if you wanted to kiss me, all you had to do was ask.”

!!!!!!!!!

…

okay, yeah, you want to kiss him

oh goD you want to kiss him so badly

and it seems like he wants the exact same thing because his eyes just flickered down to your parted lips

should you do it???

should you just go for it???

frick

you’re VERy bad at being impulsive

would it be weird if you asked him if you could put on some chapstick fi-

“you wanna kiss me, baby?” jungkook teases and you feel a little flutter in your tummy, “because i definitely want to kiss you.”

you feel like you’re under some kind of a trance as you nod eagerly

yes!!!

yes yes!!!!!!!

(and jungkook would be lying to himself if he said that seeing how eager you are to kiss him didn’t make his own tummy flutter)

you find yourself leaning forward and placing a hand on his knee to stay balanced

what’s happening to you?!?

whO ARE YOU

jungkook reaches up to where your hand is placed on his chest and wraps his fingers around your wrist as his other hand begins reaching for your waist

your eyelids flutter shut as y-

“you don’t get paid to make out with our clients-!” you immediately spriNG backwards when taehyung suddenly barks at you and you let out a little yelp when you end up stumbling right into jin’s chest

jin wraps an arm around your waist from behind before pulling you a couple steps farther away from jungkook

“and you don’t get paid to make out with the stylists-!” he scolds jungkook before pointing to you and wagging his finger, “off-limits!”

you wouldn’t mind if a black hole suddenly emerged to swallow you up whole because this is definitely one of the top five most EMBARRASSING things to have ever happened to yoU

“we weren’t making out!!” you snort before letting out a sound of disbelief, “we weren’t making out.”

“that’s not what it looked like to us…” jin lets go of you and you stumble back towards jungkook

“yeah, y/n’s right!” jungkook chimes in, “…we were just going to kiss a little-“

you slap a hand over his mouth and smile sheepishly when jin and taehyung share knowing glances

“can you two lovebirds at least control yourselves until after the shoot is over?” taehyung smiles sweetly and bats his lashes at you and you can already tell he’s going to tease you forever about this

it’s finE

just act normal!

act like you weren’t just caught about to kiss jungkook

“no problem at all!” you swoop down to pick up the abandoned beauty blender on the floor, “he’s all yours-“

“yeah, we’re going to need a minute or five because we’ve got a decently-sized problem down here.” jin whistles lowly and jungkook raises a brow in confusion

what problem?

he’s ready to dive back into the shoot-

jungkook glances down and his eyes widen in panic

he scraMBLES to grab the suit jacket off the back of his chair before tossing it over his lap

oopsies

help me help you make your wishes come tru (aka send me a request)

requested drabbles masterlist

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suf-lives-rent-free · 4 years

Text

Fragments

Everything below is just my opinion; I am in no way trying to say that how I feel about this is the one correct take or whatever.

I know a lot of people like this episode and what happens in it, but I don’t. I totally understand that some people just don’t want to see any negativity, period, but negativity is not inherently bad or wrong.

Negative opinions, even about something you enjoy, can be valid too - regardless of whether you happen to agree with them or not.

Also I get very salty near the end of this, and that might be entertaining to people who stan this episode?

I am aware that a lot of people – the majority, I’m pretty sure – think that the episode is a masterpiece. And on some level, I see where they’re coming from with that assessment.

The episode is boarded beautifully, the backgrounds – especially during the training montage – are stunning as always. The music is fantastic, and the performances are great too. In these respects, Fragments is a stand-out episode; I agree.

(Like look at this. Gorgeous.)

However, something that’s bothered me since I saw the episode is the writers’ decision to write it into the story that Steven shatters Jasper.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: I just don’t get it. I’m purposefully misinterpreting the story to say it’s bad. Steven brings her back to life; and it’s not like he meant to do it in the first place. I just don’t have the capacity to understand the sublime nature of the show’s storytelling. I’m an SU crit and all I want to do is make the real fans feel about themselves for liking it.

Uhhhh... no. Nah. That ain’t it chief.

It’s true; I am not a writer. I’m just a passive consumer of media. However, I do not agree with the viewpoint that in order to properly understand or critique a thing you need to have the expertise and/or experience in order to make something similar.

For example, if I were to put something I drew when I was 10 years old next to something I drew yesterday, it shouldn’t take a person who has had an education in fine art to tell you that the latter drawing is better-looking than the former.

That’s how I approach media consumption and criticism; when I criticise a writing decision, I am doing so as a consumer. I’m not saying I could write it better, or even that my opinion is objectively correct and the writer is wrong or bad. I’m just saying that I didn’t like a thing. Which, I would hope, is allowed?

Okay, defensive hedging over, back to the point; I don’t like that they had Steven shatter Jasper.

[I get markedly saltier from this point on, fyi]

Full admission of bias here: one of the things I really cherish about the original show is how they wrote Steven’s character; he’s a boy with interests that don’t rigidly conform to gender stereotypes. He likes ‘boyish’ things and ‘girly’ things, and that’s okay; thats just him. In cartoons when I was growing up, characters like Steven would be the butt of jokes about being ‘girly’ or thinly-veiled homophobia. I find him very relatable, and I want to acknowledge that yes, that is probably a significant part of why I have such an issue with this episode’s twist.

I am not trying to say that he’s a perfect baby angel or whatever; Steven regularly gets frustrated and angry. He does some pretty manipulative and dickish things to people around him (stop trying to make Larsadie happen, Steven. It’s not going to happen). He is a flawed character who fucks up sometimes. And he’s not 100% peaceful either; he acts violently when he defends himself against corrupted Gems and Homeworld Gems (and Crystal Gems on occasion *cough*Bismuth*cough*).

However, he has a pacifistic temperament; whenever it’s possible, he prefers that problems be solved without needless violence or hurt. And I like that; in most media, it’s rare to have a male protagonist who wants to solve their problems without jumping straight to punching things.

When he accidentally frees Centipeedle, he convinces the Gems to step off and allow him to try and rehabilitate her peacefully; he even notices that the Gems’ weapons are a trigger for her, and make them put them away. He frees Lapis against the Gems’ wishes because he recognizes that keeping her prisoner is wrong, and when she steals the ocean, he talks it out and heals her so she can leave Earth peacefully.

He tries to aid Jasper when she starts corrupting, fixes Eyeball’s gemstone when she’s cracked and tries talking Bismuth down when she attacks him with the breaking point. In all of these situations, his words and help are ignored or rejected; he’s forced to resort to violence. And it traumatises him.

We get an entire episode dedicated to the fact that he’s been struggling with processing these awful things that happened.

Even in Future, Steven shows hesitation about engaging in unncecessary violence; he gives into Jasper’s goading for a fight after what’s implied to be dozens of failed tries at making her come to Little Homeschool, and he spends an entire episode trying to keep Lapis from squashing the two rogue Lapis Lazulis.

The only time he hops into a fight willingly is after Eyeball and Aquamarine hold Greg hostage, and even then they pose a clear threat to his and Greg’s safety and have made it clear that they want to hurt him emotionally and physically. Even at that, he stops and switches tactics to talking them down as soon as they lose their focus and start bickering with each other.

(I mean, he fails. But it’s the thought that counts.)

I personally find it really jarring that the writers found it appropriate to write it into the series that this same character – over the course of three (3) days – goes from disliking mindless violence for mindless violence’s sake to happily engaging in the destruction of plants and animals* and has done a total 180 on his willingness to spar with Jasper, to the point that he instigates their rematch.

*(You best believe plenty of small mammals and birds – y’know, like the nest Steven saved in the first episode – died as he and Jasper felled tree after tree, not to mention all of those displaced by the destruction of their habitats, and the potential loss of food sources from some of those trees.)

You’re telling me that it’s a reasonable character beat for this boy to gleefully laugh like an anime supervillain at his sudden new-found joy in fighting, then pin Jasper in place, taunt her for helping him get so strong, and hit her so hard that she breaks into pieces and dies?

You’re telling me that that’s an in-character thing for Steven Quartz Diamond Cutie-Pie DeMayo Universe do to another character?

(And yes I am purposefully dancing around talking about the mental health stuff because if I did that I’d have to go on a whole other tangent about Growing Pains and fuck I just don’t feel like it right now lmao)

Going back to Mindful Education, another big thing we see Steven struggle with is the idea that his mother shattered Pink Diamond. This knowledge sits heavily with him; it makes him sympathetic to the Diamonds, even under the circumstances in which he sees them (escaping from the Human Zoo, and being on trial for said murder).

He sees their grief, and he feels awful. He questions who Rose Quartz even was. He knows, based on what Garnet said, that Rose had to do it; there was no other way to free Earth. But he still feels awful seeing the pain that Pink’s loss has caused Blue and Yellow Diamond.

In Steven Universe, shattering is clearly equated with execution/death multiple times. When Pearl and Garnet fret over the crack in Amethyst’s gemstone worsening. When Blue Diamond threatens to break Ruby. When Bismuth introduces the breaking point, and Steven recoils at the sight of what it does. If you want to take the fact that Gem shards are sentient and desperate to become whole again into account, you could even argue that it’s a fate worse than death. This particular act of violence is treated very, very seriously.

When we find out that Rose shattered Pink Diamond, there is a season and a half long arc unpacking the implications and consequences of this one action, and how this knowledge forever alters Steven’s mental image of his mother. And she didn’t even kill anyone. It was a lie!

In Steven Universe Future, Steven shatters Jasper 4 episodes before the end of the series. And it’s only brought up twice; once for a big *gasp* moment during his breakdown in Everything’s Fine, and in I Am My Monster by Pearl, when she has to fill-in Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot. Notably, it is never discussed around or by Jasper. Y’know. The person who actually died.

No indication of how (or even if) what Steven did is affecting his own self-image after his initial breakdown, how Jasper feels about what she went through beyond falling back into the Era 1 and 2 mindset. No inkling of how the knowledge that Steven killed somebody has affected how anyone in his life thinks or feels about him; when Pearl brings it up in I Am My Monster, she seems to not even really believe it’s true.

If there are any consequences or talks about this incident, they’re skipped over between I Am My Monster and The Future, and we’re expected to assume that Steven and his therapist are dealing with it, I guess?

And yes. It was an accident. He did bring her back to life. But it still happened. If you hit someone over the head and they stop breathing, just because the paramedics are able to resusitate and stabilize them afterwards doesn’t mean you never hit them.

But here, it’s shoved aside because dwelling on it would take far too much time, and risks framing Steven in an unsympathetic way when he’s meant to be on the cusp of a breakdown.

It just feels like careless writing to me. They really, really wanted their big action scene with Steven and Jasper, but didn’t think (or maybe weren’t interested in thinking) about the seriousness or consequences of what Steven shattering someone would entail.

In my opinion, Steven shattering Jasper is one of the cheapest, laziest things they could have ever done with his character (and hers, for that matter). To me, the entire thing feels entirely out of character. It’s pure shock value; nothing more.

So yeah. That particular writing decision just does not work for me. And if you disagree... well that’s fine? It’s fine. We can agree to disagree? I’ve read a lot of defense/praise for this episode, and honestly even after processing all of those opinions and all the time my thoughts about this plotline have been stewing in my brain, I still feel the same way.

#steven universe #steven universe future #negativity #cw death

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theanimeview · 4 years

Text

Theory: The True Voice of Yusuke Urameshi

By: Casea Mhtar, @madamekrow

Yu Yu Hakusho is ultimately my favourite anime, to the point where I can’t bear the thought of liking an anime more than it. For example, Berserk (1997) will be my “number 1” while Yu Yu Hakusho has exceeded the list altogether because its pedestal is just that high. That is the length I must go to secure a strange sense of balance for myself and stave off yet another identity crisis for a different reason. So you can probably imagine how much chaos was thrown at me when I found out that Yusuke Urameshi’s voice actor is completely different than the one I vividly recall when I found myself rewatching the series a few weeks ago. I have a memory of my sister and I watching a single episode she had taped on VCR and we would specifically watch the credits nonstop. We were trying to memorize the song (with great success, I might add).

At the time, there was still no means of listening to the ending theme anywhere other than its source. YouTube wasn’t really a thing, and even if it was we didn’t have access to the same databases we have today. So we watched that part over and over and over again. I remember etching each image into our minds, every lyric into our internal roster of songs as it played on repeat. The names kept popping up just as they did before the last and the voice actor of Yusuke Urameshi, my favorite character, was none other than Yuri Lowenthal.

I distinctly recall thinking “Yuri, that’s a cool name” to myself as his name came up again and again. Not to be rude, but “Justin Cook” just isn’t exactly a name that would elicit such a thought from me and, indeed, never came to mind since I am certain it wasn’t in the credits of my beloved Yu Yu Hakusho VHS.

So, in my rewatching of the show, present-day me had the initial assumption that what was going on here was a perverse version of the Mandela Effect. However, looking into it now, I feel that completely waters down my experience and doesn’t actually explain what happened.

I mean, I can’t simply ignore my recollection as being a false memory, as every Mandela Effect is reasoned away with. No. I needed to find true reasoning for this madness.

For the sake of convenience and for the lack of a better theory, I will settle on there being an unexplained dimensional shift. Certainly, any reasonable person could argue that I made a mistake. I simply misread the credits, maybe even pulled that name from somewhere else. Or perhaps Yuri was Yusuke’s voice actor from a different dub! But that isn’t the case as seen in this YouTube video comparing EVERYONE who has voiced Urameshi.

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youtube

So... Let’s say this was all a misunderstanding on my part. BUT THEN it didn’t just end with me incorrectly reading names in the credits over and over. I didn’t wrongly perceive the Funimation dubbing as being someone else and then call it a day. I was validated in my belief for a long period of time by outside sources.

.Hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth (2006)

The overall series of .Hack// is a subject I will certainly indulge in more in the future, but for the purpose of staying on-topic, I shall restrain myself. The reason I bring it up now is because in 2006, when .Hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth was released (I will always say it in full!), the protagonist--Haseo--sounded so familiar. I couldn’t quite figure it out until I saw who was credited with the voice acting. Out loud, in front of witnesses (if you count my birds), I said, “Yuri Lowenthal?. . . Wait, is that the voice of-”

I looked up his name to find he was-at that time-credited as the voice of Yusuke Urameshi. Quite a mistake that is since officially he is unlisted in the series yet multiple people around the world think otherwise, the same as me. Not only that, but updating all of Lowenthal’s pages to be credited with Haseo in addition to Urameshi. Many people had to review those pages, many people happened upon those pages and never bothered to correct them. That’s what really gets me. Sure, if my Ego was backed into a corner then yes, I can perhaps admit that my eyeballs had failed me and that’s all you’re gonna get out of me! Yet there is no copy I can find of him voicing the character online.

Could this be an example of lost media instead then? Well, no. Apparently not. Most anyone I’ve told about this believes I am confusing him with someone else. They may not remember “Justin Cook” at the top of their heads, however they are adamant about Yuri Lowenthal never, ever voicing Yusuke Urameshi. Because he didn’t... in this dimension.

Perhaps I truly am mixing him up his voice with a different character? Yuri Lowenthal is also famously the voice actor for Sasuke Uchiha in the english dub of Naruto. An extremely popular character from an anime that is surrounded by an enormous and ever growing fan base. The problem with that is, I’ve never watched Naruto. I didn’t even know Lowenthal was in any way a part of Naruto until I was somewhat adjusted into adulthood. When explaining my entire theory to a friend, I asked them if they can imagine the essence of an other-dimensional Yusuke within the voice of Haseo.

“All I hear is Sasuke from Naruto,” They bluntly said.

I’ll be honest... That hurt more than it should have, but I swallowed my pride and looked into it since I’ve never actually heard what Sasuke sounds like.

What I begrudgingly find is that my friend was right. Again, this was the first time I had ever heard Yuri Lowenthal as Sasuke and I didn’t know that he was the voice actor until a few years prior. This entire ordeal leaves me feeling unnerved that there are so many loopholes being found in the False Memory Theory. It can’t be completely dismissed as large scale misinformation or misremembering. That is why I had to settle on the theory that there was some strange dimensional shift, even with how outlandish that sounds.

The Discovery

I don’t know when it occurred and I’m not sure how I missed it, but it happened. You would think being thrust out of your prior dimension, or being crammed into a different one, would have some sort of impact. Maybe that’s why I developed back problems during my teenage years, I can’t really say. All I can recall is the feeling of my stomach hitting the floor through the bottom of my feet when I finally found out. I was watching the DVD box set of Yu Yu Hakusho that my friend lent me and I could immediately tell something was not right. Yusuke didn’t sound anything like I remembered, the voice--the tone--was weird, his inflections were way off, it was all wrong! WRONG, I TELL YOU. So, to the internet I went only to find someone else being credited...

“Justin Cook this” and “Justin Cook that” appeared all over. There was even a video of him yelling “spirit gun” for a fan and I was still in disbelief! There was no way! This wasn’t possible!

Apparently, in this dimension it is though, and that is a fact that I will have to live with for the rest of my life... or until reality throws me back to my own dimension. The knowledge that I will look crazy whenever I tell this story, as well as the reality that there could be more dubs out their with voices unknown. Not just voice actors, but entire animes—maybe video games, even people I thought I knew! Who knows what was left behind with Yuri Lowenthal as Urameshi! I don’t care to think about it too much. My heart is wounded enough I tell you. I already have a crippling fear of one day finding out my whole life is a lie—I don’t need to rack my brain about all of this as well.

In Conclusion,

Yuri Lowenthal was fantastic as Urameshi and I wish I could somehow put my memory into an audio clip for everyone to hear. Not so much to prove that he was better, but to solidify why my experience is very real to me. Though, if you did hear the Yusuke that I knew, I truly believe you would think it was pretty good at the very least. (Not that Justin is bad... just that it feels wrong to my beloved memory... sorry Mr. Cook.) On the bright side, Lowenthal is plenty successful and I am always rooting for him regardless. Sure, Justin Cook is my “number 1” Urameshi in this dimension, but the Yuri Lowenthal rendition that doesn’t exist in this world has exceeded the list all together in my heart. His pedestal is just too high.

What about those of you reading this? Do any of you have a similar experience? Maybe you also remember Yuri Lowenthal as Yusuke Urameshi! Let us know! (Let ME know! Please--I beg someone to find a copy if one exsists in this world. 😭)

Happy Wednesday. I guess. Bye.

#yu yu hakusho #naruto #justin cook #yuri lowenthal #voice acting #voice actor #anime dub #dub #anime rant #anime #yusuke urameshi #analysis

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blu-eh · 5 years

Text

when kingdom comes calling

Words: 7,545 | Chapters: 1/1 | AO3 | Fanfiction

Summary: the Ghost Zone population assumes that Phantom took the crown with dignity. What they don’t know is fifteen year old Danny Fenton just wants to graduate high school, is constantly ready to throw hands with an army of eyeballs, and absolutely will not be crowned the Ghost King without a fight.

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

Danny is fifteen when the first Observant appears to completely ruin his life.

He wakes up with the feeling on the sun on his face and the birds chirping from outside his window. It’s peaceful, really, with his blankets being warm and his pillow soft. He feels more than a little well rested, which is a first considering his usual night-time activities, and thinks that maybe (just maybe) he can make it to school before the first period bell rings.

Belatedly, his ghost sense goes off.

Danny’s expecting it, really. It doesn’t stop the swirling aggravation as his good luck comes to an end. The day started out abnormal simply due to the fact that he had not once woken up at some ungodly hour in the morning to beat up a wandering ghost and send it back to the ghost zone. As per Fenton luck, his morning is ruined before it even has the chance to begin.

He groans, rubs sleep from his eyes, and comes face to face with the giant floating eyeball.

“Holy shit—” Danny turns intangible out of sheer surprise, falls through his bed, and is left grasping the sheets in order to pull himself as far as he possibly can away from the wayward Observant that is conveniently floating in his room. The Observant looks at him without blinking and its long cape flutters around its pencil-thin figure.

For a moment, they simply stare at each other. Danny, on the floor in his space pajamas, and the Observant hovering a few feet from the ground with its weird, unblinking, green eye.

“What are you doing in my room?” Danny says, slowly, and picks himself off the ground. He settles into a familiar fight stance and readies himself for a confrontation; space pajamas, bed head and all.

His previous encounters with the Observants and their weird time-council have not always been pleasant.

The Observant blinks at him, once, and says, “I have come to collect you for your coronation.”

“My what?”

“Your coronation, Daniel,” the Observant says with a sigh (which is really weird considering they don’t have mouths or, well, anything other than their eyes and hands). “It is time for you to take the throne and rule the Infinite Realms.”

Danny stares at him, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.

The Observant sighs again, “Please, come. There is much to do before you are crowned.”

Danny rubs his eyes just to make sure he’s not in some weird hallucination. He doesn’t think he’s fought any ghosts that could trap him in some freak alternate dimension or some sort of weird dream, but one can never be too careful. It would explain the situation more than whatever the Observant is trying to tell him, at least.

The Observants hate him. As if his own self-loathing isn’t enough to cover that base already. They’ve made it perfectly clear that should he ever mess up, should he ever become anything like Dan again, he would be destroyed and the council would not spare him pity for being a fifteen year old halfa.

Danny doesn’t remember doing anything bad or anything that could potentially cause his evil-future-self to come about and reign destruction and carnage on the earth, but then again Danny doesn’t have temporal clairvoyance like Clockwork and the rest of the Observants. Maybe he slept through one too many classes? Maybe he shoved the wrong ghost in his thermos?

Not like it matters, anyways. It doesn’t change the fact that Danny promised he wouldn’t turn into that and he isn’t just going to take whatever scheme the Observants dished out for him without a fight.

Danny holds up his hands, “Alright, okay. Listen, you had me going there for a little bit. I gotta admit that I was pretty surprised and kudos for the creativity but if you’re going to come up with a plan to kill me, at least make it believable.”

The Observant narrows its beady eye, “The council does not like it any more than you, child, but even we cannot directly disobey the Ancient Code of Rights.”

“The what?”

“Do you really not know?”

Danny’s irritation bubbles to the surface and he throws up his hands, “Its not exactly like any of you hand out Being a Ghost for Dummies book! Ghosts don’t tell me anything unless they’re trying to post-mortem murder me!”

The Observant blinks at him again, “You bested the previous king and his army in single combat thus earing the rights to the throne, the Ring of Rage, the Crown of Fire and the position of King of all Ghosts. I am to lead you into the Infinite Realms where we shall hold your coronation and crown you king. From there, you shall lead the Realms as did Pariah Dark in his prime.”

“King of all Ghosts—” Danny spluttered out before taking a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Alright, ignoring literally all of that for a second—why didn’t I get this position, oh, wow, I dunno, right after I defeated Pariah? It’s been a year now.”

“You did not even know about your own core,” the ghost says, sounding miffed. Danny thinks if anyone should be sounding aggravated right now, its him. “A ghost—rather, a halfa in your case—that does not know his own power cannot take the throne. The council made a decision to wait until your powers were under your control and you have learned more about the Infinite Realms and the power you possess before taking your rightful place.”

Irritation bubbles to the surface as Danny tries to ignore the painful fact that he knows very little about ghost culture and ghost politics. He doesn’t dare tell the observant this, though, because he doesn’t want the power and he certainly doesn’t want to be king of some stupid dimension. His parents shoot at him enough thinking he's a normal ghost. There’s no telling what they would do if they ever were to find out he’s the ghost king.

Ectoplasm sparks to life in his hands as he tries to keep his emotions in check. He’s angry and confused and worried because why couldn’t things just stay simple?

Notwithstanding, it still doesn’t change the fact the Observants have tried to do something worse than kill him on several different occasions.

“You tried to have me obliterated.”

“Yes,” the Observant says simply. “That still would have been the preferable outcome to this entire situation.”

Danny blasts the floating eyeball out of his room and doesn’t once feel bad about it.

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

There’s an eyeball in his locker.

Danny glances around at the nearly empty halls and hisses out, “What are you doing here? Go away before I make you!”

The Observant hardly looks rattled at the threat. If anything, the thing seems even more determined to get Danny to go through with this absolute bullshit plan to make him, someone who is half human, king of the ghosts. “Follow me to the Infinite Realms for your coronation. You are under obligation to meet the council at Pariah’s Keep where you shall receive the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage.”

“No,” Danny snaps. “I have an English test next period with Mr. Lancer.”

“This is no time for your silly human games—"

Danny slams the locker in its eye. He turns to look at his friends, feeling deader inside currently than when he’s in ghost form.

“Huh,” Sam says and blinks in surprise. “When you told us this morning, I thought you were kidding.”

The locker rattles behind him and Danny casually leads against it when people start looking his way. The Observant could easily use intangibility to escape, but, for some reason, doesn’t. Danny’s not going to question it. “I wish I was.”

“Kinda cool that we’re friends with royalty,” Tucker says.

“You’re not,” Danny says. “Because I’m not taking some stupid crown and I’m not ruling the Ghost Zone where I am constantly in danger because ghosts hate me. I’m perfectly fine out here, with my family, and away from all of them.”

“Frostbite doesn’t hate you,” Sam says. Danny shoots her a look but she continues on like she hadn’t seen him. “Neither does Dora or Pandora, I think. And Cujo and Wulf.”

“You gotta admit, dude,” Tucker says and slings an arm around him before meandering away from the rattling locker. “The whole Ghost King thing is pretty cool.”

Danny’s so tired.

“Tucker, honestly, I just want to get to college and maybe not fail at life,” Danny says. He has a horrible feeling in his gut that this is only the start of what might be the end of his entire future. “And I have a very bad feeling that my future is not going to be as normal as I want it to be.”

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

Jazz figures out the entire situation by the end of the first night when she sees a floating eyeball hovering in front of Danny’s bedroom door. She ends up yanking him in her room and forcing him to tell her everything. He tells her, albeit reluctantly, but he does have to admit it feels pretty good to get it off his chest.

It still isn’t a fun conversation for any of them considering Danny’s future hanging by nothing more than a flimsy string.

Life still goes on. Mr. Lancer assigns him an absurd amount of homework. The school gets shut down at least twice a day because of Observant sightings. Unfortunately for Danny, school doesn’t stop just because a bunch of ghostly eyeballs have taken to haunting the school corridors.

Besides, by the third day and seventh missed class, Danny makes it exceptionally clear that the Observants should not—under any circumstance—enter his school and disrupt his classes. If they do, then Danny hasn’t been scared to use force in the past and definitely isn’t scared to punch a giant eyeball in the face should he see them wandering the halls or loitering in the windows.

The Observants learn very quickly. So, instead of bothering him in the halls, they wait outside in the parking lot until he’s let out of class at the end of the day. From there, they float around him (along with an unwilling Sam and Tucker) and try to convince Danny to enter the Ghost Zone and become a king of a realm he doesn’t even totally belong to.

“—Your coronation ceremony awaits you in the Infinite Realms. The council has requested your presence.”

Danny breaths through his nose, shares a sideways look with his friends, and tries not to do anything drastic. The Observant is just lucky that the streets are currently empty because, otherwise, Danny would not be putting up with the constant pestering. “Do you have anything new to say?”

“Should you not come then the council will be forced to do things outside of prior tradition.”

At least it said something new, Danny thinks even though he doesn’t necessarily like the tone the Observant is using. Out loud, he says, “Does that mean you’ll leave me alone and find a new king?”

“No,” the Observant says.

“Damn,” Danny says. “Anything else profound?”

“The Infinite Realms is in need of a ruler—"

“I said anything profound?”

The Observant actually looks a little offended by that. Tucker hides his laugh behind a cough while Sam doesn’t try to hide hers at all. He gives them a wry grin when he thinks the Observant isn’t looking and all three of them burst into laughter.

The Observant narrows its eyes at the group and says, stiffly, “Very well. If this is your choice.”

It disappears in a puff of smoke. Danny glances at the spot where the Observant once floated and shrugs because, well, it’s not like he can do anything about it now. It doesn’t stop the sudden feeling of apprehension that washes over him.

“Do you think they’re actually going to leave Danny alone?” Tucker asks.

“No,” Danny says. “I think it’s just going to get worse from here.”

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

“I’m not coming to the stupid coronation,” Danny snaps the moment he sees the eyeball in his bedroom. It’s a new one, of course, because the council apparently never sends the same Observant twice.

This one is definitely different, though. It's holding something close it its chest in its green, clawed hand. Every couple seconds, Danny catches sight of a flickering green light despite not being able to make out the object’s shape.

“Since you have made your refusal to enter the Infinite Realms for your coronation, then we are forced to bring the coronation to you,” the Observant answers. It opens its hands and presents the object; small, black and flickering in a eerie green flame with a smooth bottom and tiny points at its top. He can’t help the small sense of familiarity as he takes the object in.

Danny feels his heart stop.

“Wait, what—this that the CROWN?”

“Bow your head, child,” the Observant says. “And we shall get this over with.”

Danny backs up so fast he hits the opposite wall before the Observant can move a single step closer. He drops into a fight stance. “Yeah, uh, no. I’m good, thanks. Please go back to the Ghost Zone and literally never come back here again.”

“You do not yet hold power over the council.”

Danny shifts to into his ghost form and charges up an ectoblast. The combination of its flashing light and the fire from the crown cast an eerie green glow on the walls of his room. “Wanna bet?”

The Observant takes a step forward. “This is cumbersome—"

“Oh, wow, I’m sorry,” Danny snaps and spots his thermos right behind the giant, floating eyeball. He mentally makes a quick plan in his head. “Next time you try and make my life a living hell I’ll make it easier for you!”

The Observant makes a move as if it were going to place the crown on Danny's head but Danny's faster. He dodges, rolls out of the way, and blasts the stupid ghost in the side. It doesn’t make a sound, but it does narrow its eye further.

“If you put that thing on my head so help me—HEY, I said don’t. I don’t want your stupid crown or your stupid throne!” Danny tries to keep his frustration under control as the observant moves to place the damn thing on his head again. He lunges to the other side of his room, fingers curling around the familiar metal of his thermos. “Find someone else and leave me alone.”

The Observant slinks back, crown still in hand. It glances at the object before meeting Danny’s eyes. “I see this will not be easy.”

Danny doesn’t give it a chance to move. Before the Observant can even react, he opens the thermos and sucks the thing up (crown and all). The green glow of the room vanishes and Danny is left standing, alone, in the lightly damaged remains of his once-clean bedroom.

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

He finds a new Observant in his fridge with a certain flaming crown in its hand. He slams the fridge door shut without a single word.

Unfortunately, Observants are ghosts which means they have ghost powers and this one is much smarter than the locker-Observant. It phases through the fridge and attempts to place the crown on his head without a single word.

At least they were past formalities now.

“I’d say give it to Plasmius but we all know how that would end,” Danny says and dodges the hands that attempts to pin him down. He’s stuck in human form for the time being seeing as his parents are just a room over and he doubts they would be happy to find Phantom floating in their kitchen with Fenton missing. “Don’t—hey! If you don’t stop, I’m going to blast you, I swear to the ancients—"

“We are the ancients, Daniel—"

“Oh my god, shut up. Please, stop talking.”

“This is your destiny—”

“Has it ever occurred to you or your council that forcing a fifteen year old to become a king is really fucked? Like, seriously, I haven’t even graduated high school yet. I’m barley passing history, I don’t know anything about politics, I can’t even vote in human elections and you want me to become a king?”

Footsteps come from the room next to him. Danny meets the Observant’s eyes as he realizes the fact that there is a ghost in a ghost hunter’s house. There is absolutely nothing good that will come from this.

“Danny?” His mom’s voice calls out. Danny slams a pillow over the Observant and sits on it just as his mom rounds the corner. She looks around the room, once, and doesn’t seem to notice how Danny’s awkwardly sprawled out on the couch in a desperate attempt to keep her from seeing the Observant. “I thought I heard yelling. Is everything all right?”

Underneath him, the Observant squirms in clear discomfort. Danny hopes he elbows it in the eye.

Danny laughs nervously and plasters on a smile that’s just a bit too wide. “Nope, no yelling. I didn’t hear yelling. Everything is fine, mom. Nothing to see here.”

He feels a hand creeping up his back and he whips around to grab the clawed green appendage before it can force the crown on his head. Unfortunately, in his effort to resist being crowned, he forgets all about his ghost-hunting mom who has definitely saw the ghost beneath the pillow.

Danny likes to think that his life is just one string of disasters after another with absolutely no end in sight.

“Is that a ghost?!” Mom says and, oh boy, her gun is already out and pointed at the Observant.

Danny shares a slightly panicked look with the Observant, still holding it’s hand with the crown away from his own head. It might be the stupid eyeball’s fault in the first place, but Danny doesn’t think anyone really deserves to get handed over to his mom. Or get ripped apart molecule by molecule. That would almost be as bad as Skulker skinning him and hanging his pelt on the wall.

Danny scrambles off the couch, “Okay, this is all just a big misunderstanding—"

Mom’s not listening to him, though. Her gun whirls with power and she takes a step forward. “Step away from my son, you ectoplasmic fiend!”

The Observant either wants to die again or is stupidly brave because it stands up, billowing cape and all. “He is to bear the crown and the ring as seen by the council and take his place as the rightful ruler of the Infinite Realms in order to—”

Mom blasts the Observant before it can say another word. Danny has never been so grateful for his mom’s trigger happy finger in his life.

His mom turns to look him over and Danny shrinks back and says, weakly, “I think they have me confused with a ghost.”

The Observant floats back into a standing position, the crown flickering in his hand. Unfortunately, one blast is never enough to force an Observant to leave. Danny should know. He’s blasted them enough times to figure it out.

Danny hates floating eyeballs with his entire being.

“Daniel James Fenton,” the Observant says and dodges the next shot by his mom. It tries to approach him, yet again, with the crown outstretched. “You must take the crown and the ring in order to rule the Infinite Realms as it is your right—"

“Shut up,” Danny throws a couch pillow at it. The pillow bounces harmlessly off the ghost but his mom shoots it a second later so he feels rightfully validated.

“Don’t touch my son!” his mom snaps.

She blasts the ghost enough to send it backward, into the kitchen. The crown goes skidding out of its hands and rolls right to Danny’s feet. Danny meets the Observant’s eye. Then, out of pure spite, he kicks the thing as far away from him as possible. The Observant narrows its eye.

Mom has a ectogun to the Observant’s face before it can protest. Danny tries to hide his smile, but doesn’t do a fantastic job if the look the Observant is giving him is anything to go by.

“Listen here, you odd manifestation of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness,” Mom says and leans a bit closer. “You are going to tell me exactly why you are here and exactly what you were trying to do to my son.”

The Observant doesn't even look at her.

“Another time, then,” the Observant says but it’s glaringly obvious that it is not talking to Danny’s mom. It stares at him with its weird, beady eye.

Mom notices and shakes the thing with her fists. She looks a second away from decking it and, if it had been any other situation, Danny might have let her. He probably would’ve even laughed. This situation, however, is not one Danny finds much humor in.

The Observant gives him one more look before both it and the crown disappear in a puff of green smoke. His mom’s face twists into one of furious frustration but she doesn’t seem wholly surprised. The house plunges into a irreversible quiet and, sitting on the floor of the living room, Danny feels a familiar twinge of apprehension in his gut.

It’s incredibly apparent that the Observants have no qualms about secret identities.

Not a second later, his dad bursts into the room with a gun in hand. “GHOST?”

“You just missed it, honey,” Mom says, fuming, before dropping to her knees and pulling Danny into a hug. “Oh, Danny, I’m so sorry. That must have been so terrifying for you. I know how much those nasty ghosts scare you. I promise that we'll work on the ghost shield and nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Luckily, his mom seems more concerned about the fact that a ghost got into their house and tried to attack their son than to pay close attention to the words the ghost has spoken. It doesn’t stop the rush of guilt that holds his very core.

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

“Take the crown, Daniel.”

“Can’t,” Danny says, tightly. “I have an algebra test tomorrow that I haven’t studied for because someone keeps trying to put a crown on my head when I’m sleeping so, as you can see, I’m trying not to be stressed about that. Can we please schedule this for another time?”

The Observant gives him a look. For a floating eyeball, the thing is shockingly expressive.

Danny shifts into a fighting stance. “Right, of course. I forgot nothing is easy with any of you.”

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

Jazz catches him shuffling down the stairs to the basement at four o’clock in the morning.

“Danny,” she says slowly, “How many of those eyeball ghosts are in that thermos?”

“Twenty seven,” Danny answers and tries not to fall down the stairs in pure exhaustion.

It’s more of a game at this point—try and get as close to the ghost kid as possible to put on the crown and the ring before he blasts them. Danny thinks the game sucks and he wants out.

“You don’t look very good.”

Danny narrows his eyes. “Thanks, Jazz. I hadn’t realized.”

Danny can tell from her face that she’s trying to psychoanalyze him but he likes to think that he’s actually doing pretty well considering the sheer number of Observants that try to force a crown or ring on him. It’s been almost a week and, well, he’s still not the Ghost King so that has to count for something. Danny is holding off hope that the council will get the message and fuck off.

“Don’t be sarcastic, Danny, I’m just worried,” Jazz says and follows him down the stairs. “How are you holding up?”

“My life is a nightmare,” Danny answers. “And my nightmares manifest in the form of lots of floating green eyeballs.”

He takes the last couple steps into the basement and places the thermos in the release shoot. There’s no point in keeping them in there—Danny knows because he’s already tried. No matter what he does or where he keeps them, both the Observants that he’s captured and the crown vanish from the thermos. Then, they show up the very next day and the cycle begins all over again.

“That’s very specific,” Jazz tells him. Then, “If they keep popping up like they have, it’s going to be very hard to keep your secret from mom and dad for much longer.”

“Jazz,” Danny says and tries to keep the worry out of his voice (even if he knows it's a losing battle). “If this keeps going then I’m not going to have a secret to hide from anyone anymore.”

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

There’s yelling on the streets and an ectoblast whizzes past his ears.

Danny’s in ghost form, fresh out of a battle from a rogue ghost, flying high above the streets with his parents following behind him in their assault vehicle. They’re yelling at him, like normal, and trying to blast him out of the air. Had it been any other day, Danny could’ve lost them in mere minutes but he’s exhausted from the fifteen observants he’s been avoiding and the two ghosts that he’s fought just this afternoon.

Another blast comes dangerously close to hitting him.

His ghostly tail flicks in irritation and he turns, just for a moment, to yell out, “Stop blasting me!”

He almost gets an ectoblast to the face in reply.

“Hold it, ghost kid! Listen to me when I’m talking to you!”

Danny races through the streets, the RV curving dangerously on the road behind him. A shot fizzes by his ear and he drives to the right, towards the school. He makes it a good thousand feet when an Observant pops, literally, right in front of him with the crown in his hand.

Danny shoots the Observant on principal.

Unfortunately, Observants are freakishly strong for only being a giant floating eyeball and, sure enough, he had a grand total of three different pursuers behind him. The only thing that could make his day better is if Valerie shows up to join the party.

(He really, really hopes Valerie does not show up to join the party. Danny doesn’t think he can handle his parents, the Observants and Valerie well enough to keep the crown off his head and his secret intact.)

Too add to Danny’s extreme luck, he can only take so many ectoblasts before even he needs to land lest he be forced to transform back into a human. He lost the Observant someone a couple blocks back, but, sadly, his parents will not be bound by important things like traffic laws and speed limits. His parents end up cornering him in some wayward back alley where they stand at the mouth, blocking the entrance. Both guns are trained on his grounded form.

His dad aims his ectogun right at Danny’s face and shouts, “Freeze, spook!”

Danny really, really doesn’t want to fight his parents but he also doesn’t want to be caught and dissected, so he powers up his ectoblasts anyways and waits for a good enough opening to fly away without being shot out of the sky for a second time today. His mom watches him with a wary caution that he matches. Out of the two, she’s definitely the more dangerous one.

“Come quietly, Phantom. You’re trapped,” his mom says.

It’s then that the Observant decides to make its appearance directly next to his parents at the mouth of the alley, holding out the crown. His parents jump at the sudden arrival of yet another ghost but the Observant pays them no mind.

“GHOST!” Jack yells and hoists his gun to the newest arrival.

“You’re the ghost that was in our house the other day,” his mom says with a sort of venom in her voice. She looks mad—like, actually pissed off—which is something Danny’s glad he’s never been on the receiving end of (yet). She seems almost conflicted, like she wants to aim at the new ghost but cant't since her gun is currently trained on Danny's chest.

The Observant hardly reacts, holding the crown out further. It meets Danny’s eyes and Danny has half a mind to blast the thing, despite his parents being there.

“Please do not make this more difficult than it already is,” it says.

There’s a split second in Danny’s mind where he almost considers turning himself over to his parents. Surely, it would be better than whatever awaited him should the Observant actually manage to crown him.

“Listen, guys,” Danny says and backs away. He holds up his hands, placating. “This has been fun and all but I’m very tired and I don’t actually want to deal with this so if I could, like, leave, that would be great.”

His mom’s eyes snap back over to him and she lifts her gun from where she had lowered in during her surprise. “You aren’t going anywhere, spook!”

The order actually got a rise out of the Observant. It turns to his parents with its single eye narrowed. “You have no jurisdiction over Phantom.”

“Phantom is in our town,” his mom snaps right back. The gun unwittingly moves more towards the Observant and less towards Danny. "Therefore we decide what is and is not fit!”

“He is the rightful king—"

“King?!”

"Ghosts don't have kings—"

Through the bickering, no one notices as Danny sinks into the floor, slips out of the alley and vanishes.

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

“Please, don’t,” Danny says.

He’s in ghost form, hovering about two hundred feet off the ground. It had been a normal morning for him so far despite the distinct lack of Observant appearances. Now, with a sick feeling in his stomach, Danny understands why.

In front of him, the Fright Knight stands in all his terrifying, ten foot tall glory. “You must bear the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage in order to take your place on the throne."

"Cant we talk about this, maybe?" Danny says, a little leery and more than a little pissed off. It's one thing to deal with a bunch of annoying, flying eyeballs but it's another thing entirely for said flying eyeballs to recruit the ghost of nightmares.

"I apologize, my prince, but there is no option here.”

Behind the Fright Knight, ten or so Observants loiter in the air. The one in the middle holds the familiar flaming crown and another holds the ring. They surround him in a semicircle, looking expectantly at the Fright Knight.

Danny’s life really just sucks.

“Oh, there’s an option alright,” Danny snaps. If there's one thing he hates, it's not being given a choice and while this is going to hurt (it’s so going to hurt), Danny is not going to let the Observants or the Fright Knight get that god-awful crown on his head. “I beat you once and I can do it again!”

The Fright Knight tilts his head in recognition and draws his sword. “Perhaps, but I am not playing to win.”

Has Danny ever mentioned that his life sucks? Because his life sucks.

“Should we help him?” Tucker asks Sam from where they stand below. Danny can just barely make out the words they’re saying with humming of his core and the rush of adrenaline that shoots through his system.

“I don’t think they’re planning on hurting him?” Sam answers back. “Besides do you have anything to go up against the Fright Knight?”

“Point,” Tucker says.

(Danny has great friends.)

“We would rather have done this the easy way,” one of the Observants says. The others bob their eyeballs in agreement.

Danny whirls on them, eyes narrowed. “You forfeited your right to have opinions on what's easy when you brought the Fright Knight into this!”

“It’s for your own good,” the same Observant answers. “The Fright Knight serves the king and the king alone.”

“For your own good,” Danny grumbles under his breath, mockingly. His hands light up with ectoplasm. “We’ll see about that.”

The fight doesn’t take long.

It’s as the Fright Knight said; he is not fighting to win. The knight is not below a few dirty tricks to hold Danny down for just a few seconds. Danny puts up a good fight but he's running on three shots of espresso and maybe a sum total of six hours of sleep the entire week thanks to the constant threat of observants trying to put the crown on his head or ring on his finger. Safe to say, he's not in his prime condition.

The Fright Knight ends up pinning him down in the middle of the destroyed street. His friends rush forward to help, but two Observants hold them back. Danny thrashes from where he’s pinned but he can’t do much more than move his head around. The Fright Knight and his horse are, unsurprisingly, very heavy and apparently very well trained in holding down slippery, intangible ghost-teenagers.

The Observant holding the crown approaches him slowly. Danny tries to bite it’s long, claw like hands out of spite but the Observant goes intangible before he can make contact. It slowly lowers the crown towards his head.

Danny’s eyes flash a dangerous green. “I swear, if you put that crown on my head I’ll—are you kidding me?!”

The Observant drops the crown on his head. It hovers just a few centimeters above his hair and Danny immediately feels a heavy sort of energy expanding throughout his body. The crown flares to life, changing from a small flicking fire to a roaring flame as power gathers in his very core.

“You could have come to your own coronation, however, we were forced to make drastic measures,” the Observant that crowned him says.

Boy, doesn't that just set Danny off.

With a snarl, Danny uses the new energy to twist and blast the Fright Knight off his back. The crown follows his movement, flaring brightly whenever he uses his powers. Instead of fighting back, the knight merely bows and disappears. Danny waits a couple moments, tense and ready to fight, but it seems the Fright Knight has done what he came here to do.

The crown feels heavy on his head.

He blasts the two Observants holding Sam and Tucker, too, just because they’re annoying. They rush over to him, but he holds up a hand and motions for them to wait. There are, after all, still ten ghosts and a ring that Danny needs to avoid.

Danny turns to the Observants, fights clenched and eyes narrowed. “Okay, congrats! You win. The crown is on my head. Please get rid of it now.”

“The Crown of Fire is your right,” one Observant says. “It belongs to you alone.”

An idea suddenly comes to mind.

“Cool,” Danny says, slowly. He takes the crown off and is surprised how little it resist. The fire doesn’t even burn his hand as he holds it by the rim. “Then you won’t mind if I do this.”

He throws the crown as far as he can, watching it sail above the homes. It flies for a hot minute before flicking out of sight. Danny feels strangely satisfied when he turns to the Observants with a grin on his face. However, the Observants don’t look nearly as worried as Danny expects them to. In fact, they look unbearably smug for what is, functionally, a giant floating eyeball.

The looks he's getting ring as very bad in his mind.

Something heavy settles back on his head. Danny’s smile drops and feels a sinking alarm in his gut when he reaches up to touch the flaming crown that he had, just mere seconds ago, thrown across the entire town. The same power settles in his core once again.

“No,” Danny whispers, horrified.

“Holy shit,” Tucker says from across the street.

Danny turns and catches Sam’s eye. She mouths what is going on? at him. Danny wishes he knew anything about what’s happening but, as always, he’s clueless and confused and no small part of him is very, very angry.

The Observants merely stare at him. One steps forward and says, “The crown is yours by right. Hold out your hand and we will bestow upon you the Ring of Rage. Then your coronation will be completed and we shall leave you and return to the Infinite Realms to continue our temporal duties.”

Danny’s flare a brighter green. Ectoplasm pools in his hands and he readies for another fight. He doesn’t know it at the time, but his crown flickers to life. Suddenly uneasy, the Observants back away slowly.

“If you try and put that ring on my hand I will cut off my fingers,” Danny says.

“You won’t,” another Observant says.

“Wanna bet?”

They get the ring on his finger but, by god, Danny doesn’t go down without blasting all ten of them into the ground first. They pin him just like before, in yet another crater in the middle of a street with the crown on his head, the ring on his finger and unimaginable power flowing through his veins.

Apparently satisfied, the Observants let him up and quickly retreat. Danny stands, grumbling all the while, brushes off the remainder of dust on his suit and turns to the Observants. He's staring at the group, wondering just how he should get rid of them after they ruin more lives when all ten of then fall to their knees.

Danny takes a step back in alarm.

“All hail King Phantom,” the Observants say together. Their voices echo across the quiet streets of Amity Park. “Defeater of Pariah Dark and ruler of the Infinite Realms.”

People come out of their houses, peeking and staring up at him in horrified awe. Children point to his crown and laugh while the eyes of the adults reflect unseen amounts of terror. Danny can already see whatever good reputation he had dying like a snuffed out flame due to a single announcement. Danny meets Sam and Tucker’s eyes and wishes for nothing more than to flicker out of existence at that very moment.

Instead, Danny is forced to stand there, arms crossed and pissed off, with a burning crown floating on his head, a heavy ring on his finger and the weight of the entire Ghost Zone on his shoulders.

It’s quite possibly the worst day he’s ever had in his entire half-life.

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

The ghosts coming out of the portal over the next couple days to congratulate him almost make the situation worse.

It’s Johnny 13 who comes out first, gives him an exaggerated bow with a grin and says, “Hope you have a fun time being king, kiddo. I don’t envy you.”

Danny, who has had the worst two weeks of his life, simply rolls his eyes and mutters a sarcastic, “Thanks.”

“Kitty sends her regards as well," Johnny flashes him a lopsided grin and gets on his bike. He raves the engine before suddenly looking back. "Don’t expect the current peace to last.”

Danny watches him go, hands in his head. The crown flickers in the dim light and ring glows. He’s still not quite sure what a normal king is supposed to do; much less king of the Ghost Zone.

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

“The crown looks good on you, dipstick,” Ember says, later, when he’s out flying and trying to clear his head. No matter what he’s tried, the crown and ring simply won’t go away. He's been forced to wear an assortment of hats and gloves in order to keep his parents from finding out. They're pissed enough that Phantom was crowned the Ghost King as it already is.

“I hate this,” Danny tells her. “I want the crown and the ring gone.”

The other ghosts are definitely enjoying his absolute misery, even if they were all on somewhat friendly terms. As it turns out, a lot ghosts tend to play suck-up when confronted with unimaginable power.

Ember's smile widens and she says, “Well they’re your crown and ring. You can do what you want with them.”

Danny wants them gone. Then, he realizes something and stares at her in surprise.

“Was that advice?” Danny asks. "Did you just give me advice?”

“Did I?”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Right now, I pity you more than anything,” Ember tells him. “It’s whatever, babypop. You’re the king now and you’re no Pariah Dark so even if you do get in the way of my plans, I’d rather have you be king than go back to his rule.”

“That’s a very low bar to set,” Danny mutters under his breath. He stands, the crown flaring as he does so. He tries to hide his scowl. “Don’t cause trouble or, I dunno, try and brainwash the entire human population, and you can stay.”

He disappears into the air, content to head home for the night. Behind him, Ember calls out, “Think about what I said, dipstick! It’s your own power. You just have to learn how to use it.”

Later that night, he floats on his bed an concentrates. His own power bubbles to the surface and, in a fit on control, he wills his ring and crown to disappear. The objects flicker once, twice, before vanishing entirely. They’re not completely gone, of course, because he can still feel the power in his body but hidden is better than nothing.

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

Technus gives him some weird ghost device as a congratulations present. Danny’s pretty sure it’s not going to explode and/or capture him, but he can never be certain with a ghost like Technus. He ends up quietly shuffling it to Tucker when the technology-themed ghost isn’t looking.

Youngblood, Spectra, the Box Ghost, Lunch Lady, Desiree and even Vlad (holy shit) come and give him (begrudging) congratulations. Half of them think it's hilarious that he’s the poor sucker who gets the bear the burden of the crown while the other half think it’s too much power for his tiny halfa body to handle. Luckily, Danny now has a much easier time sending them back to the Ghost Zone if they get too rowdy.

Vlad gives him an especially vindictive look when he corners Danny in their human forms. Danny returns his look by secretly flipping him off since he can’t exactly shoot the mayor with an ectoblast in public.

Vlad leers over him in what's supposed to be intimidating. “I doubt you can hold on to that crown forever, boy.”

Danny might not want to be king but there’s absolutely no way that he would ever let the crown or the ring fall into Vlad’s hand.

He pushes Vlad away and clenches his fists, eyes narrowed. “Are you going to try and take it from me, fruitloop?”

“Perhaps another time,” Vlad says with a smile. Danny holds his fists to his side to keep from punching him in the face. “After all, a crown is a heavy burden for a child to bear.”

Danny grits his teeth. “I think I’ll manage.”

“We will see, little badger,” Vlad says and turns to leave.

Danny glances around, just to make sure no one is looking, before creating a tiny ice patch right in front of Vlad. He tries to keep his laughter muffled (but definitely takes pride) when the billionaire-asshole slips and sends him a particularly nasty glare. He gives Vlad the most innocent wave he can muster despite the grin on his face.

Danny thinks he probably needed that meeting with Vlad. While he still doesn’t want the crown, Danny finds that spite is one hell of a motivator to keep the crown as far away from Vlad as possible.

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

Skulker comes last. To Danny’s horrified surprise, he bows low and says, “Congratulations.”

Danny stands in his pajamas at three o’clock in the morning and feeling slightly overwhelmed. “Alright, this is more than a little weird.”

“It’s custom to greet the new king,” Skulker says and straightens back out. Danny’s half waiting for a gotcha! and some missiles but Skulker doesn’t do much more than observe him.

Danny narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. “Do you have to be weird about it?”

“Don’t get me wrong, whelp,” Skulker says as he turns to leave. “This will not last. I hope you realize that just because you are king does not mean I will stop hunting you. Your crown just makes you that much more valuable to mount on my wall.”

Danny shifts between feeling touched and a little relived at the normalcy of the situation and the normal disgust that comes with Skulker threatening to skin him because, really, it’s just gross. Despite his words, he still hears the silent message Skulker is trying to convey.

Just because your king doesn’t mean anything will change.

And that? That’s more than a little relief off his shoulders. For the first time since he was crowned, Danny lets out a genuine bark of laughter and a grateful smile comes to his face.

“Thanks,” Danny says. “I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

#i wrote all 7k of this in one day so Thats Neat #anyways theres too much angsty in the danny phantom fandom so im making it my lifes mission to write not-angst #danny phantom #phic #phicc #i think thats what this fandom calls fanfiction uuuhhhhhhh #danny fenton #danny phantom fanfiction #my fics #phandom #idk what else to tag this as so just take it #do readmores even work on mobile or is tumblr like. broken.

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lotornomiko · 4 years

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A Random Valkyrie Profile WIP

Been trying to revive my muse...mostly just randomly spinning from project to project, trying to find something to inspire me long enough to write more than one chapter...and then in the midst of that, got this idea in my head...but I’ve struggled with it, just cause it could go nowhere and just be a pointless one shot, OR! I could make it the prologue to an attempted caged bird rewrite. Problem is I can’t decide either way, so it’s stalled for now...but I like the short bit of what I do have, so want to share...Lezalenne centric, am now eyeballing my RUAli fic to see if I can’t write the next chapter of Sacrificial Maiden...

It’s mostly work safe unless you don’t like written scenes of death and gore....though those massacred were all faceless entities...no actual character death thus far from the games...

It started out as a whisper, one lone voice standing out among the thousands of Creation, that muted whimper of pain a plea so foreign and strange a sound amid the peace and tranquility that had come to perpetuate the many realms. That unwelcome buzzing in her head was joined by a second, and then a third, a suffering so immense and overwhelming, it had nearly staggered the Goddess in place, the hurt there a summons Lenneth could not turn away from or ignore.

That suffering would only worsen, the whispers becoming louder and louder, as more screamed out their pain. The rising agony of so many more then rolled through her, the damage done these people twisting, taken to new levels of a depravity that only heightened the desperation felt. It was a herald of the dying in fact, that tortured wail an unending chain of suffering, each soul that did finally die, replaced by another, and another, their pain this litany of fear, of confusion and anger, even of hate. Her heart broke with that acknowledgment, with the betrayal expressed by those slain. They felt alone and abandoned, some even damning the Goddess with the last of their breath.

She’d shoulder at least part of the blame, the atrocities committed this day, having been done in her name, every last body felled one piece of a message personally crafted for her heart alone. The ringing of it echoed through her, piercing deep inside her own soul, and Lenneth’s wings just couldn’t fly fast enough. Not to stop the massacre at hand, the Goddess arriving to a scene straight out of a nightmare, the horror that greeted her eyes, a far too fitting match for the agony screaming within.

There was so many dead. So many broken bodies strewn about, blood and other things splattered across the pavement. She’d close her eyes to such a sight, trembling with a barely suppressed urge to do her own brand of screaming, this seemingly senseless brutality an abomination that had no right or reason in her universe. It was blasphemy against everything she had ever believed in, and broke truce with the promise that Lenneth herself had bestowed upon the people of this world. It made a mockery of the paradise she had granted, this one sliver of evil twisting everything into something horrible and profane, this perversion both intolerable and unacceptable, a cerulean blue gaze snapping open, that color blazing with the righteous fury of not just the Goddess, but of all those who had been killed on this day.

It was an anger that boiled in the depths of that cerulean gaze, all the pain and the suffering combined with the horror of this senseless havoc, and the utterly lost and confused feelings of the how and the why of such a thing having been allowed to have happened at all. With it came guilt, a part of this her fault for allowing the chance of, her kindness twisted and spat back at her feet, this violence a proverbial slap from the one whose hand had set off on this murderous rampage.

She trembled with the force of her many emotions, both hers and that of those who had died, Lenneth understanding that this massacre made a mockery of her compassion. Of it, and of her mercy, the second chance she had given, the human who had been awarded such consideration in the first place, done so for a favor once owed. A debt that had needed to be repaid, the world saved through the actions of a selfish and utterly lustful man.

A blasphemer by birth, this was just the latest, and most unforgivable of his crimes. This cruel blood shed and torture an act she could not let him slide on, not now, not ever again. The monster that he had proven to be, the true colors that he had yet again shown, a single act of good could no longer free him of the fate that only the most depraved of sinners earned, that soul of his not bound for the heavens or for the hell, but instead set to be removed so completely from the cycle of rebirth so as to have him face the ruin that was the entirety of his being’s utter annihilation. Only then would this world, her paradise, truly be safe, cleansed of the last---the only source of its sin, all that evil and greed an otherwise corrupting force on that of her Creation.

There was no hesitation in her now, the decision made. Not just by her, but by HIM, his reckless ways no longer able to be tolerated for ANY reason, he had tried the last of her patience, the favor owed no longer able to overlook any more of his vile antics. He had used it all up, every last bit of good will and gesture, and with her eyes blazing that bold color of emotions, the Goddess reached for and drew out the sword from the scabbard on her hip.

She took careful step forward, not about to desecrate the remains any further, stepping over bodies and parts, sometimes slipping on pathways made slick with the blood and the gore. It was horrifically cruel, the amount of dead staggering, stretching out farther than she could see, forming a trail that would lead her deeper into ruins. The Goddess already knew for certain just what awaited her inside, could feel that mad pulse of that vile energy beckoning her in, that pulsating thread of a life most perverse and powerful in its own right, daring Lenneth forward. He knew she was there, had in fact counted on her to come, this bloodshed and brutality all done with the intent to gain an audience with the Goddess. He had wanted her attention in fact, and by all she has held holy, he now had it, though the man wouldn’t be reveling in it for long.

Sword in hand, she continued down that pathway in that careful manner, the screaming of the souls for their vengeance nearly deafening her to the sliver of what else awaited her in the deepest part of the ruins. There was not one but TWO threads of life within, HIS, and a much fainter beat, that of a mortal struggling with and losing the battle to hang on.

“No.” Her first instinct breathed out of her on an angry gasp, power coursing forward, to try and bolster the life that was rapidly faltering. With a miracle of love, light, and healing, she sent reassurances to the one in danger, such encouragement needed, the soul that had been so close to slipping away completely, instead redoubling their efforts, fighting to hang on for just a little longer.

She heard a wild and masculine laughter in response, but that monster who played at being human, made no overt gestures toward his one remaining victim now. He was in fact toying with them both, the innocent and the Goddess who would protect all, Lenneth starting to move, faster and faster, until her feet all but left the ground, her wings shuttling her forward the rest of the way, mixing gleaming white feathers into the trail of bodies and blood, the pathway lit up with her radiance, and brought her ethereal form out into a large cavern of a room.

#valkyrie profile #lenneth valkyrie #lezard valeth #wip #work in progress #one shot #no name yet #fanfic #fanfiction

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underthewestway · 5 years

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Rose Quartz Was Always Pink Diamond: An Essay

Wowie! What a bundle of information we got regarding Rose after A Single Pale Rose aired...yet I've seen a lack of discussion/writing on it around the Internet. This is most likely due to the fact that SO MUCH was given to the fans, especially during Change Your Mind, an hour long special, that it was easy to shift focus onto other, new things, like RQ 2.0, WD, and Pink Steven.

However, being as sad as I am, I am completely enthralled by Rose's character in the series, and also at how well written she is. I can safely say that I have rarely seen this character archetype displayed on mainstream television during my lifespan so far, therefore I thrive in analysing and piecing together information that the show gives us about her...and let me tell you, we got a LOT in those bunch of recent episodes. More than we can handle. It is particularly odd and refreshing that, after a wide stretch of seasons with a severe lack of context/detail on the Crystal Gem leader, all this explanations are thrown at us near the end of the fifth season. So, lets talk about it!

In Now We're Only Falling Apart, Pearl explains why Rose held her identity secret forever, and why she decided to rebel and reinvent in the first place. We find out her intentions were not those of malice, or as a twisted 'game', like Sapphire suggests, but rather impulses and eagerness for freedom. There is no denying Rose greatly cared for the Earth, we see her and Pearl playing around in the environment and admiring its inhabitants, until she realises they were here before gems, and the gem's colonization is going to impact them greatly. Rose's almost irritable excitement and glee for a new colony turns to large regret, guilt and maybe self-loathing. This is a new thing we learn about her, her emotions and actions tend to be that of wide extremes, rushing to go to the Kindergarten, hurriedly grabbing Pearl, jumping around, happily playing along with the new quartzes-like a child. Fans never came to this conclusion before because we were never shown this aspect of her, Pearl never mentioned that she could be reckless and erratic, and because Amethyst was scolded so coldly for it by Pearl herself, it was never a thought that someone she admired so highly could act the same, maybe even worse due to her power.

After, Pearl states PD fought relentlessly with Yellow and Blue, trying to reinforce this idea that this method of expanding their colony was wrong and damaging to innocent species of life. Now, this already known fact about RQ protecting Earth is under a new light. Her determination could somewhat be fuelled by guilt, as well as a moral feeling. Pearl too. Another new fact is that Yellow and Blue, although loving and caring to Pink, do not respect her at all. Maybe this is Pink's fault, maybe it is theirs, or maybe both, but in their eyes, she is a kid, and not an admirable leader of anything.

I really, really love this, because the representation of Rose is a COMPLETE 180 degrees flip of that viewpoint. RQ, as seen by others, was a magnificent leader, brave warrior, and selfless mother figure, winning a war, who was all-knowing and largely respected by CGs, and detested by Homeworld. On the other hand, PD, as seen by others, was a selfish, reckless dictator, cowardly failing a colony, and a mindless child in the eyes of her Authority- never taken seriously and admired repetitively by other Gems on Homeworld only for her status, and not her actions.

Rose's intentions for saving Earth then morphed because of Garnet, learning that gems of two different types CAN fuse, a desire for experimentation and discovery of gems fuelled within her, and she wanted to now fight FOR gems, and for all life, to be free of judgement and conformation. This idea is a beautiful one, but for the idea to become reality, there were some reprocussions, as we learnt in A Single Pale Rose, and additionally with Jasper, Bismuth, Eyeball, the Diamonds...countless people were affected by PD leaving the empire and starting a war. In fact, the Great Gem War had a lasting impact on every character it seems, even those who were born/created after it. So, Rose had started a major bad influence in this story, as well as a major good one. Which can leave many feeling largely conflicted on how to feel about her.

Furthermore, in the Diamond Days Arc, we discover that Pink was hugely oppressed by the other Diamonds for behaving the way she does. As punishment, they would lock her away in a chamber, until she said sorry. Now we are given reason to why she began keeping so many secrets, and resorted to being overly flippant and ignorant of other gems/humans real feelings, as suggested in We Need To Talk. Her family has encouraged this method of bottling up any true feelings or thoughts that could upset/shock/confuse someone, and could also risk changing someone's viewpoint of their character and ideals. The Diamonds are the ultimate figure heads, idols, leaders, striving to fit one ideal, and Pink just was never meant for that ideal. White herself, saying ''You're a part of me, a part I always have to REPRESS'', strongly infers Pink was created as a form of all White's, or a person's, faults and hidden behaviours. So it only seems natural that she would feel like an outsider, I mean her peers are many feet taller for goodness sake, she was literally always looked down upon.

White took this enforcement of controlling Pink even more when she mind-controlled Pink Pearl, and took her away from PD permanently. I feel as if though this forever left a mark on Rose, and may explain the complexities of her and Pearl's relationship as well. Also, this explains why we never see Rose or PD even mention WD in flashbacks, she speaks of YD and BD- never White. Her determined avoidance of White is highly likely to be because of what she did to Pink Pearl, and her anger/shock towards this may have been the final straw to no longer being open and honest towards the Authority. We see she is completely furious and DONE with being repressed and mistreated in Now We're Only Falling Apart, and her willingness to utterly lie to them with the new Pearl and abandon her previous life is a bit more understandable.

In 'Familiar' it is found out that PD kind of lived in a sort of 'limbo' of toxicity, and my oh my was she BORED and FRUSTRATED. Like Steven in early episodes, Pink was left on her own a lot of the time, and always eager to impress her parental figures when they were briefly around her. Except, unlike Steven, this never changed, and the Diamonds never let her grow out of it, because it is a stigma that gems aren't supposed to grow. It is hinted Pink most likely wanted a change of pace with having her own colony, and killing two birds with one stone, she could also prove her worth to them by doing what they do. Although, with the issue of giving Pink so much time to herself, she began to reflect and think a lot, and become obsessed with doing something new, to the point of begging the Diamonds to give her something to achieve.

This is ultimately really tragic, and relatable for those who constantly are wanting to impress their peers in a repetitive environment. Pink seemed to never be allowed outside of Homeworld without another Diamond, and anywhere she goes outside her rooms is to be with an escort, and the pressure of being a figure. This pent up fascination of freedom, new things, and expression is everything Rose Quartz represents as a result of this.

This follows up to my main point about Rose - her obsession with ideas, which is highly ironic due to the fact that everyone who remembers her is enthralled based on purely the idea of her, and seems to forget her faults/other aspects. Most likely because of the Authority's encouragement of such a thing, Rose's interest in other people seems solely based upon the idea they support, rather than them as a being. A great example of this is Greg. When Rose met Greg, she loved the idea that his song represented, freedom and being a lonesome rebel. She then states in We Need To Talk, ''That's what I love about humans, you're all so funny!'', to which Greg shuts her down upon, claiming she isn't talking like a real person. This is because she is trying to live up to her name and reinvention, and be this happy, loving Quartz, who knows the most about humans and is the most caring of others, which we know she isn't.

It is very clear with Greg that Rose understands very little about humans, and it is very clear with Pearl that Rose understands very little about being empathetic. However, it is displayed with Garnet that Rose was interested in learning about fusion and love, and with Amethyst, Rose experimented with the idea of bringing up a gem without the prejudice of Homeworld's society, and the fluidity of growth. In the end, Rose chose to be with Greg, and give up her physical form to give gem life to Steven. Personally, I believe this is because RQ was utterly enamoured with Greg's, and most humans, capability of empathy, love and persistent reinvention, which is everything she wanted to have - at least the IDEA of Greg's relatability towards others. Rose was achieved a respectable status because of her well-known SYMPATHY for comrades during battles; sympathy and empathy can be completely different emotions under different perspectives. In RQ's case, she evidently possessed bountiful sorrow for hurt loved ones, although I see it as something she could never relate to, being as strong as a Diamond is, or at least, she wouldn't be willing to share her own sorrow.

Throughout her journey, we begin to see her transformation from a selfish alien dictator, to leading a damaging war, to wanting to settle on Earth and become a better person. We even see this through her design, as PD she possesses vibrant and hot pinks, lots of magenta, as well as with almost-impossible hair, and a princess/jester outfit.

As she shapeshifts into RQ, we see she has peachy/pale skin, more natural curly hair, sad walled eyes and a dress with many dark layers... with soft, pastel and earthy tones in her palette. It is very much apparent that she wanted to fit in with humans, no longer be alien, and kind of BECOME an organic being.

Yet, with being a Diamond, she severely struggled to empathise and relate to gems, let alone humans, because she was brought up to put herself first. Consistently, she tried to be loving, tried to understand, maybe a little too hard, and I don't think she ever got to learn some people don't want to be understood. I see Rose as one of those people who tends to sympathise with loved ones, and feel strong pity for them, but they cannot ever relate or realise the depth of the experience that person is going through.

So her solution to making people feel better isn't like Steven, which is helping people by talking and facing their problems, it is avoiding them. This is why she left the Diamonds, even after the Corruption, and left the Corrupted Gems in bubbles forever, and left Bismuth in a bubble; she literally tended to have 'lived in a bubble' of a farce life, being extremely flippant and ignorant to the underlying problems she faced within herself and with others. All the wrong actions she had caused originate from this issue.

In conclusion, it is very difficult to decide whether you like RQ as a character or not. She is very much morally gray, and created a major amount of conflict within the show's story, however, her ideas and values were those of moral good and happiness for all life. Rose was different, and complex, and very determined, yet she was still always Pink, just out of reach of humanity, and repetitively trying and changing, which I think a lot of people liked about her, she asked things gems never usually ask, and viewed all gems as equal. On the other hand, she lied, all the time, creating fake rumours of herself, convincing CGs that a Diamond could never love, or listen to them, so therefore they never tried doing that, resulting in full blown war. What ever way you feel about her, her impact was lasting, and there would be no Crystal Gems without her.

But what she did to Pearl really sucked.

Like - seriously a douche move, Rose.

#steven universe #rose quartz #pink diamond #pearl #greg universe #amethyst #garnet #Rebecca Sugar #essay #Change your Mind

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colitisandme · 5 years

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‘I’m tired’ is something I have heard a lot. From colleagues, co-workers, angry toddlers, parents, family, friends and yep even myself have muttered those words from time to time. Pre IBD, I had no appreciation or concept of true fatigue. Before, if I was tired I would find a soft spot, lie down and snooze for half an hour or so until I felt rejuvinated and refreshed, ready to take on the world with joy and care free abundenment. Tiredness can be cured by napping, getting a massage, going for a jog, taking a bath, enjoying a shower or enjoying a well deserved spa day. Fatigue, I mean true bones hurt, eyes propped open by matches, white noise, blank spacing out, must sit down or sleep or I will cry is not like that. Fatigue is different.

Before IBD I loved naps. There was nothing better than a Nana nap. Even at Uni, me and my best friend used to schedule time to nap. We would put on a Disney film, cutch up under a blanket and just have a snooze, until we were awakened by the credits and a pillow covered in drool or mascara. It was my happy place. A way to unwind and escape the stresses and strains of life and just dream happy dreams. It was wonderful. A blissful way to spend half hour and then carry on fresh as a daisy.

Fatigue is like you are wading through syrup whilst having weights strapped to your body. As you try to move the syrup gets thicker, and stickier until eventually it’s up to your eyeballs. And you can’t see or inhale and you are desperately trying to keep moving by putting one sticky foot in front of the other, no doubt pursued by a group of bugs, all wearing little napkins around their necks, clanging knives and forks whilst hanging their tongues on the side their mouths, drooling over themselves and you, trying to lick your ankles, knees and anything covered in stickiness.

Fatigue is like having your loved one tell you the best news in the world or it’s like watching them run around you whilst on fire. And in both scenarios you just are not processing any of it. During an episode of chronic fatigue, my husband could be screaming at me, running around in circles, smoke pouring from his nostrils whilst spectacular flames dance on his head, trying to get my attention by swearing and setting fire to the curtains. He could be firing balls of lava out of his ears, sporting smoke rings around his eyes and doing an excellent impersonation of a dragon during a stampede, and I would be in my own little world, whilst he runs around screaming, trying to stick his head under the water faucet. It’s not because I don’t care. I really do. Honestly. I would much prefer a non alight partner, or endure the inconvenience of witnessing an aflame man trying to jump in the bath to try and put the fire out. But during my worst episode of fatigue, I wouldn’t be able to react or help or support and so it’s not hugely helpful. In fact I have no doubt that I may completely bypass the evenings entertainment, and instead question him in the morning about the singed hair and smoke rings on my pillow and ask why we only have half a curtain in our kitchen. Fatigue feels like you are living underwater, listening to white noise while at your bones scream at you to just lie down and sleep. Or it’s your body screaming at you half way through a simple task. Sometimes just taking a shower or getting dressed or walking to the bus feels like you have climbed Mt Everest. Napping is not gonna help. Not half hour anyway. Half hour dream fest whilst watching Disney does not work anymore sadly. It’s more like an unconscious 2 hour black out, and when you wake up you feel like you haven’t slept, and very much think you have been put through a mangle, wrung out and are now hanging up in someone’s back garden, being s**t on by birds. It’s so beyond tiredness. It’s exhaustion.

Thankfully, the periods of pure unthinkable, unexplainable, un-describable exhaustion, come fewer than they did at the start of this journey. At the beginning it happened every day, or every other day and my body would try and lull me to sleep by screaming lullabies at me until I co-operated, but they do still occur. Most recently it’s happened over the past week when my husband has been chatting away and my brain travels to the scene in the Simpson’s, when Homer goes to snoozetown and his car turns into a bed. Occasionally I know he can tell I have gone to that wonderful place, and waits until later to continue his conversation with me so I can respond correctly and not envisage him as a giant, talking pillow. During these moments my mind literally ‘goes to lunch,’ well it actually vacates on holiday where my mind thinks it is sipping on sangria, by the sea, getting sun creamed up by handsome lifeguards in tiny pants, and has to be gently encouraged to re join reality again.

I have a total new appreciation for tiredness. And there are so many who deal with this level of exhaustion and higher on a daily basis. A statement from these brave people like ‘My god I am sorry, I am just so tired’ actually means ‘If I don’t lie down, I will fall down’ and should not be taken lightly. Chronic fatigue is not sleepiness it is body and mind exhaustion and those who experience it know that it may mean, they zone out of conversations, or may mean they miss parties or functions or workouts and won’t improve by lazing away on a retreat, taking time off or indulging in a Nana nap. It’s just something additional we have to live with and should be understood. We aren’t being rude, we aren’t ignoring you and we are certainly not lazy. I have literally had people roll their eyes at me when I said I was tired and it’s maddening and incredibly hurtful. So when somebody who lives with chronic fatigue says ‘I am sorry but I am just too tired to come out today’ please be gentle. Believe me we are just as disappointed as you are. Disappointed in ourselves and disappointed in our unco-operative bodies. Maybe during those times, your friends can come to you instead of you going to them. Living with IBD and having other invisible illnesses can be incredibly isolating, very lonely and scary. Believe me we miss out on a lot, even though we try to be there for as much as we possibly can. So maybe during those most exhausting moments we should all get together, put on a Disney film and enjoy a scheduled nap and then carry on with the rest of our day together to make it less lonely and take the stigma away. After all, who doesn’t love a group nap?

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oliverphisher · 4 years

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Josh Donellan

J.M. DONELLAN is a writer, musician, poet, and teacher. He was almost devoured by a tiger in the jungles of Malaysia, nearly died of a lung collapse in the Nepalese Himalayas and fended off a pack of rabid dogs with a guitar in the mountains of India.

A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India By Josh Donellan

His debut novel A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India was released in 2009. Josh was a state finalist in the 2012 and 2014 Australian Poetry Slams and a national finalist in 2015. His play, We Are All Ghosts, was performed as part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival in 2014. He also co-wrote the Theory of Everything, which completely sold out its entire season at the 2015 Brisbane Festival. Josh has spoken and performed at numerous festivals around Australia including Sydney Writers’ Festival, TEDxBrisbane (twice), the Wonderland Festival, and various not-entirely-legal warehouse parties in an array of secret locales.

His children’s fantasy novel Zeb and the Great Ruckus was described by one child as ‘the best book ever, but it should have had Dr. Who in it.’ His most recent novel, Killing Adonis has received rave reviews from numerous magazines and newspapers, both here and in the USA, including a Kirkus starred review. His poetry collection Stendhal Syndrome was released in 2016 and will soon be followed by his forthcoming collection of poems for kids entitled 19 ½ Secret Spells Disguised As Poems, which is definitely not a book of spells (unless you are a kid reading this in which case it is definitely a book of spells). In 2018 he collaborated with choreographer Liesel Zink to create the spoken word/dance performance Inter. Josh also writes and directs the podcast fiction series Six Cold Feet. He’s done a bunch of other stuff as well but honestly this bio is long enough already and no one likes a braggart.

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?

1. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as kid and I have a distinct memory of thinking ‘Well, that’s it for me. I want to be a writer. Why the hell would you do anything else?’

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set By J.R.R. Tolkien

2. I read Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart at university and I loved the way it completely obliterated my previous notions of how a story should work and reinforced the very important idea that a book really can be whatever the hell you want it to be.

Sputnik Sweetheart: A Novel By Haruki Murakami

3. More recently, I read Jennifer Egan’s ‘Look At Me’ and it felt like stepping into another world. I think about that novel at least once a week. It exists on a whole other plain of reality for me.

Look at Me: A Novel By Jennifer Egan

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?

I bought one of those armbands to put your phone in while exercising and recently got back into running for the first time in years. I forgot how happy it makes me, for someone who sits on their butt staring at the screen a good chunk of the day exercise is hugely important, not just for the body but for creativity and mental health. I think of depression as a physical nemesis I have to fight to keep at bay, and running feels like wielding a magical sword at the great black dog.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

I think the first time you really crash on stage is such an important learning experience. Once you’ve lived through that you know what it looks like and you realise that while it’s not fun, it’s also nowhere near as bad as your anxiety was promising it would be. Even better if you have a truly catastrophic public appearance early on, because then all subsequent failures aren’t as bad in comparison.

Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

A long time ago my friend and I went to see a local play where the audience was forcibly pulled on stage and made to feel really uncomfortable. I love immersive theatre, but this was a very unpleasant and unwelcome experience. Afterwards she said to me ‘I don’t think that director loves his audience. You have to love your audience.’ I think about that every time I sit down to write. Bear in mind, love doesn’t always mean doing the easiest or most immediately satisfying thing, it means ultimately doing what you believe is best for someone, even if it’s difficult in the short term.

What is one of the best investment in a writing resource you’ve ever made?

Scrivener. I am weirdly evangelical about that program. I swear I’m not getting paid endorsement money or anything, even if I do occasionally grab a megaphone and run around writers’ festivals yelling “Oi! Are you lot using Scrivener? It’s the BEST!”

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

My favourite animal is the mantis shrimp, the most absurd and beautiful creature to ever walk the earth. It looks like a technicolour hellbeast and it has the most complex eyes of any living organism. It’s weird how much I love that animal.

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?

I used to think that the ultimate form of writing was a novel, and that everything else was just auxiliary formats. These days I’m writing across theatre, podcasts, video games etc. and I’ve really learned to love the nuances and possibilities of each medium. The novel is ideal for exploring a character’s inner world; the podcast is perfect for drawing the listener in with subtle, non-verbal sound cues; theatre has an incredible capacity to tell the same story in a whole new way with each performance. I’ve really enjoyed learning to embrace that.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore?

I think the main thing is to realise that figure out what your process is going to be is a good chunk of the job. So many writers make the mistake of trying to study the process of their idols and replicate it verbatim, but it’s really about finding your own path. Maybe that means going on a vision quest, maybe it means drinking six cups of coffee and listening to Mogwai on repeat, maybe it means writing in your underwear while the sweat cascades down your fingers and hoping it doesn’t fry the battery in your laptop (that one might be Queensland specific, it’s very warm here).

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession often?

There’s a weird idea in the writing community that if you don’t study creative writing at university you’re not taking it seriously, which is not only a heinously privileged perspective but also one that seems anomalous compared to other art forms. So many directors, actors, musicians, painters etc. are self-taught or learn from a mentor or take private courses and I think for many writers this can work as well. If you want to study creative writing at university, that’s fine and it might be great for you,but I definitely don’t think it’s a necessity. In fact, David Foster Wallace (himself a creative writing teacher) once pointed out that some MFA programs churn out students whose writing is impossibly pristine, complex, and elegant, while also being utterly indistinguishable and thoroughly forgettable.

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)?

I’m still not great at saying no, in general. I think being a curious person is an important quality for a writer, or any human. However, I have gotten better at saying, “I’m really interested, but maybe give me a month to wrap up this other project I’m working on,” and that’s been a really helpful improvement. Doesn’t always work out though. The other week I went straight from a conference in Melbourne to the launch party for Six Cold Feet season 2 on a Thursday, then the theatre premiere of a dance show I wrote some poetry for the following night. I am now actually dead from exhaustion and it is my ghost writing this.

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

Branding should apply to two things; products and cattle, but apparently people can now have ‘personal brands’ and corporations can have the same legal rights as a person. You’re a writer, you’re telling stories, not making bespoke booties for chihuahuas. Make art, not book-shaped pre-landfill.

What new realizations and/or approaches have helped you achieve your goals?

I try and have at least two projects going at any one time, I work intensively on one and then when I start to get bored and/or overwhelmed, I flick straight to the other. The grass always looks greener on the other side, and this way I’m jumping from one patch of very green grass to another. Instead of moving between writing and procrastination, I move between two types of writing.

When you feel overwhelmed or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?

There’s a little reservoir up in the mountains about fifteen minutes drive from my house. I like to go out there and stare at the water until one of our famously bloodthirsty Australian birds attempts to swoop me and peck out my eyeballs. The transition from serenity to extreme adrenaline is very stimulating.

Any other tips?

Be part of your community. Writing can be a very hermetic practice, which is fine at times, but it’s important to go to people’s readings, buy their books, write reviews, share recommendations, and just be nice to people. I know that it sounds obvious to remind people just be generally friendly and kind to each other, but you’d be surprised how many writers can’t manage this basic benchmark of human interaction and end up burning bridges before they’ve even been built.

________

Enjoyed this Q&A? Want to discuss in more depth? Join Community Writers. You'll get access to 100+ exclusive writing tips. Q&As with successful authors, an exclusive ebook on building an audience and much more. Sign-up for free as a community writer here

source https://www.thecommunitywriter.com/blog/josh-donellan

#Writing WriteMotivation WritingAdvice

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theolddarkmachine · 7 years

Text

Must Love Cats- Chapter Five

Levy hadn’t planned on being a pet sitter when she’d moved into the city. She also hadn’t planned on pet sitting for a sex god either, but here she was.

AKA the one where Levy is a pet sitter, Gajeel is her client, and Lily is the glue that binds them together.

I’M SO SORRY THIS IS LATE Y’ALL! Like I said, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in getting ready to move. I leave next Friday so I’m hoping not to have any setbacks next week given everything will be packed up and I won’t really have anything to keep me from being able to write. But life is crazy so you never know. So yes, sorry this is late! Also, thanks for the feedback on Kingdom! I am def gonna move forward with that one as well, but that won’t be happening until a couple weeks from now because once I do get home I wanna give myself about a week to settle in before I hop into writing two stories lol As always, thank you guys so much for sticking around and reading and for your support! (Also, if you haven’t seen Almost Famous I 100% recommend you do cuz it’s one of my fave movies ever.)

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

Gajeel’s pen tapped loudly against he cover of his writing notebook as he stared out the window of the tour bus. The band he was currently touring with were all asleep after a night of partying after their gig the night before, leaving him alone with his thoughts and the scenery of Ireland whizzing by. Luckily for him, since he’d just joined the tour that day, he’d managed to miss out on the excessive drinking that had taken place that would have inevitably landed him in some sort of trouble. Especially with a certain blue haired woman whose number in his phone kept him more than aware of the lack of message notifications he received. Not that he’d really expected Levy to keep up conversing with him after her wrist got better, why would she? They’d talked a couple times in the three weeks that had passed since, but it always started with a question about her wrist, then would lead to something completely random-- his favorite being her tangent about how she distrusted bird people-- before she would quickly cut off conversation saying she was sorry to have bothered him. It never was a bother and he did try to let her know that, but it never really seemed to matter.

He sighed loudly and continued to tap his pen on his journal. With the time difference, she’d be arriving to his apartment for Lily’s first visit. That damn cat is such a lucky little bastard, he thought to himself. Gajeel really hoped she hadn’t found it weird that he’d specifically requested her for the visits this time around. The fact he was completely enamored by her aside, she really was the best with Lily and it did help ease his worry knowing that his best friend was in good hands. He was only on this tour for three weeks, which was short compared to some of the tours he’d been on recently, but that didn’t mean he didn’t absolutely hate leaving the little dude behind for so long. Not that Lily must mind at all. He was a cat after all, and while a loyal cat that sometimes made Gajeel question if he was actually part dog, a cat nonetheless.

His eyes flickered from the scenery outside to his phone that he had on the table next to him. The screen remained dark as he stared at it, almost willing it to light up. It stubbornly stayed black and he sighed again, turning his eyes back to the window.

“Ya got yerself a woman?” A thick Irish accent interrupted his thoughts and causing him to jump. The singer of the band asked as he walked passed Gajeel to the mini fridge at the front of the bus to grab a water.

“Excuse me?” Even to his ears his tone had sounded full of bite. The Irishman laughed before taking a swig of water.

“Down laddie,” he said smiling as he walked back towards the bunks that he’d come from. “Only a man waitin’ on a woman stares at his phone like that is all.” As quickly as he’d appeared, he’d vanished back into his bunk. Good thing Gajeel was nothing but professional or he’d tell the singer where to shove his presumptions. No, he wasn’t waiting on a woman. Of course not. Especially not one he’d met twice and talked to a total of five times. Because that would be weird. No. He was not waiting on a woman. He’d almost gotten done convincing himself of that fact when his phone went off and Levy’s name flashed across the screen.

***

It was technically Levy’s day off, and honestly, if it had been anyone else that had requested her services only, she probably would have said no because she really liked having one day a week where she was able to focus completely on herself. That being said, when her manager had texted her a couple of days ago asking if she’d be okay working on her days off to see Lily because Gajeel had specifically requested her and her alone she’d happily taken the job. (In a very calm, and cool way. Definitely not in a way that involved squealing and excited dancing.) Admittedly, they hadn’t really talked all too much since the Hotdog incident, mainly because she felt like a complete and utter creep for texting him even if he had been the one to give her his number. She’d managed to milk her busted wrist for all it was worth, but contacting him about anything else just seemed like it violated some sort of unspoken pet sitter rule. The one where you weren’t allowed to be into your client. That didn’t mean, of course, that she didn’t feel a bit like she was returning home as she unlocked the door to his apartment. Well, maybe not home, because that was weird, but definitely some place safe and welcoming. Lily hopped off his pillow on the couch as soon as he saw it was her and meowed as he headbutted her shin.

“Hey, cutie pie,” she cooed as she stroked his head. “How about we get you some breakfast, huh?” Levy went on autopilot as she headed to the kitchen to get him his food and nearly missed the handwritten note and DVD on the counter. Stopping in her tracks, she backpedaled and locked eyes with Kate Hudson and her blue lensed sunglasses.

Hey Lev,

I really can’t get over the fact you’re a movie girl but haven’t seen this. So at the risk of sounding like a prick of a client, I also request you give this a watch. I swear you’ll love it, or I’ll owe you one.

-Gajeel

She stared at the DVD, surprised by the fact he’d even remembered something so little as the fact she hadn’t seen Almost Famous. It wasn’t like they’d actually really talked about it or anything. He must really love that movie if he’d thought to leave it. Chuckling, she snapped a picture of it and attached it to a new message to the cat owner.

First you make me work on my day off, and now you make me watch a movie too? I might have to charge you extra for the time :P

It was a bit more flirty than she’d normally make it, but she was in a good mood so why the hell not. Hitting send, she put her phone on the counter and walked away to get Lily his food, vowing not to ignore him for his owner. She barely had any time at all to grab a can of wet food from the cabinet when she heard her phone buzz with his response. Fighting the urge to look at it, she opened the can and put it in a bowl before taking it to Lily’s feeding area at the other end of the kitchen before she picked up the phone.

trust me when its over ull be thankin me for makin u watch it

A short bark of laughter escaped her as she shook her head. Someone had high expectations.

And what will you owe me if I’m not impressed?

Placing the phone back on the counter, she escaped to go scoop Lily’s litter box. Honestly, it was the only way she would be able to keep herself from being too eager if he responded quickly again. She wasn’t shocked to see a new message on her screen when she was done.

whatever u want

Her heart stuttered as she reread his text. She was sure it was just a cheeky way of him just trying to prove that he was so certain she’d like the movie that he could promise her anything without too much worry about having to follow through. That didn’t stop her from wondering if her heart was going to leap out of her chest.

You?

She stared at the word she’d typed out, wishing she really had the balls to send it. Shaking her head, she deleted it quickly before typing up her actual reply.

You have a lot of faith in Ms. Hudson

u seem to have no faith in kate. trust me shrimp. watch it and report back to me.

At this point, Lily had hopped onto the counter and rubbed his head against Levy’s arm. Absentmindedly, she stroked his fur as she tapped out a confirmation that she would, in fact, watch it tonight and give him her full report.

“You’re going to have to get your owner to stop, Lil,” she whispered as she put her phone in her back pocket and turned her full attention to the Bombay. “He really is something else.”

***

Levy was tucked into the corner of the couch in her shared living room with her big fleece blanket wrapped around her shoulders. After a full day of taking care of Lily, working on her current script and doing all those other menial tasks that come with being an adult with one day off a week, she had finally been ready to watch Almost Famous. At least, she thought she had been. That was until Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane brokenly asked Patrick Fugit’s William Miller why Billy Crudup’s Russell Hammond didn’t love her as she was overdosing on quaaludes and she found her vision blurry with tears. Honestly, up until that point she hadn’t really felt anything for Penny, but that moment was when every preconceived notion of the character changed. Her vision stayed that way through the end of the movie as Led Zeppelin lead the film to blackness before the credits.

“Dammit,” she sniffled as she wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands. Even if she didn’t love movies and seeing the care that was put into the scripts, she would have to admit she still loved that movie. She pulled her phone from the folds of her blanket and pressed on his text thread.

That was terrible, I can’t believe that’s your favorite movie.

The credits were still running as she laid her head down on the arm of the couch. She let the music wash over her as the names of the cast and crew crawled across the screen. The fact that that was his favorite movie really did speak a lot about his character. The film was so heartfelt and looked at the rock lifestyle in a genuine way that saw more than just the sex and drugs. She wondered if that’s what it was really like. Maybe she’d ask him sometime. As she kept her eyes trained on the credits, they started to blur together.

***

She awoke with a start as her phone vibrated on her leg. The TV showed the DVD menu and it was pitch black in the room. Staring at her screen, she saw that it was 2:03am, and knew she’d hate herself when her alarm went off at 6:30am for her to get up for work. More importantly, she clicked on the message that had awaken her.

liar

It took a moment for her to realize why Gajeel was accusing her of lying before she remembered what she’d originally said.

Fine, you got me. It was amazing. I was just hoping I could still get whatever I wanted :P

Pressing her fists into her eyes to wipe the sleep away, she got up and walked to her DVD player, ejecting the disk before turning both it and the TV off.

ur a tricky one lol dont think u get to steal my movie short stack

Levy pulled her blanket tighter around her as she shuffled into her room before falling down onto her bed and tapping out a reply.

And if that wasn’t what I wanted?

Awake Levy would hate Sleepy Levy in the morning, but right now she didn’t even care.

then id say i would have to see what i can do bout what it is u do want

She felt her cheeks grow hot as she stared at the screen, her eyelids drooping against the sleep that was threatening to end their conversation for them.

You

Levy’s finger hovered over the “Reply” button before she erased it again. Now would be a good time to feign sleep, she thought to herself. Almost as if reading her mind, another text came in.

its late get some sleep

Her eyes were fluttering closed as she took in the words on the screen, watching the speech bubble as Gajeel continued to type.

goodnight lev

“G’night, Gajeel,” she whispered to her phone as she drifted back to sleep.

#Levy McGarden #Gajeel Redfox #gajevy #Gajeel X Levy #must love cats #fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #IM SORRY THIS IS LATE #OKAY IM LIKE REALLY SORRY LIFE IS CRAZY RIGHT NOW

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bubblepop-32 · 8 years

Text

Skyfall - Angoscia [A KHR Fanfic] Chapter 2: The Pillars of Vongola

Tis Bubblesss! XDD Welcome to the second chapter of Skyfall – Angoscia!

KHR does not belong to me; it belongs to the awesome Akira Amano!

- Beta'd by chewybillabong~~

Now snuggle up and enjoy!

Tsuna's heart thumped uncontrollably in his chest like a jackhammer on steroids. Tsuna swore he heard a crack from one of his ribs directly in front of his racing heart. "R-Reborn?!" He gasped in utter surprise. He did not expect him to answer his hails at all, and yet there he was, joining in the group screen meeting. Well, not exactly because he was audio only.

Both Takeshi and Hayato shared similar reactions, but their hearts were beating more like rubber hammers rather than jackhammers against their ribs. Their eyes expanded double their size, mouth agape with surprise and shock. Tsuna hoped that their eyeballs wouldn't suddenly roll out.

And then another voice came through; "Uncle? How does this game work?" a feminine voice asked, most likely asking Reborn.

Tsuna immediately recognised the voice, the voice of a girl that produces the same sky flames as him, the Decimo of the Giglio Nero Famiglia, the girl that sacrificed her life in order to revive the deceased Arcobalenos in a parallel world. "Y-Yuni-chan?!" Tsuna gaped at the audio.

"Hmm? Is that Tsuna?" There was the sound of a faint ruffle, and miraculously it could be heard over the brain-rattling background noise. "Uncle, are you calling Tsuna right now?" Yuni asked, piqued with curiosity when she heard a small voice from her Uncle's earpiece.

Reborn spoke up. "Yes, we are." He answered lightly. "I was hoping to keep our promise today, but a troublesome ex-student decided to hold an important meeting."

'After all the other meetings that I asked - pleaded you to attended, you finally decided to join!' Tsuna huffed internally. He was very annoyed and slightly angry at Reborn for ignoring all his previous calls, where all of them were as important as the one he's holding now.

Yuni's voice travelled out from the speakers again. "It's okay Uncle, you can always teach me how to gamble another time. Plus, gambling doesn't seem like my kind of thing, but it is pretty fun." She replied, completely happy to let Reborn participate in the Vongola meeting. "You've already made this a great birthday, Uncle!"

Tsuna was already shocked enough that Reborn finally decided to partake in this, and now, from what he's heard, he's introducing gambling to this little angel?! As if Gamma would allow that to happen! But then again…he hasn't heard Gamma's voice from the audio just yet.

"Reborn! Why are you letting her gamble?!" His voice rose whilst he fussed. "We all know gambling can turn into an addiction and is she even old enough-"

"Maa maa Tsuna, I'm sure they have their reasons." Takeshi cut in before they all got an earful of Tsuna's complaints about mental health and all sorts, probably moving onto something off topic along the way. He gave a quick smile for effect. He was relieved that Tsuna was still awfully wary about everyone's health, even after all these years of being in the cold and ruthless mafia world, and he was thankful for that. He hoped that his caring and kind nature won't disappear… "But teaching Yuni gambling sure is peculiar."

"Oi, shut up baseball idiot. Juudaime's right." Hayato retaliated, defending his dear boss, in which he (thinks) already wrongly offended today. He wanted to somehow compensate for his shameful actions, and keeping a sword freak quiet was one way of compensating.

A small giggle chimed from Yuni as she listened. "Tsuna-san, I'm eighteen already, and don't worry," she informed, "I'm only trying gambling because I am finally old enough to do these things." She purposely left out the fact that she's already tried a small glass alcohol earlier on too, just in case Tsuna doesn't start worrying his head off.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry Yuni-chan! I forgot that today was your eighteenth birthday." Tsuna exhaled. He pressed his right hand to his forehead and rubbed it slowly. "I guess my memory's starting to degrade too." ��'I need to now shake the rust off both my HDWM and my memory.' He was going to say that he should retire, but remembering Hayato and his little episode of drama beforehand, he decided to keep quiet.

Tsuna's phone, which was placed on the table, vibrated. The screen displayed a text message from Lambo. Tsuna had previously told him that if he had any tests for school during the designated time for the meeting, education should always be his priority.

Coincidentally, being at the nostalgic age of twelve, he had many grading tests, and toady was one of those days where almost every period had a goddamn test.

Lambo: frikkin test day today. Can't join. Whatever you're thinking, go with your gut. Don't worry, I'm not texting u during a test, it's 5 min break rn.

Tsuna exerted a small sigh and placed his phone aside. "Lambo's busy." He announced to his group. 'Go with my gut feeling, huh?'

"Stupid cow." Hayato muttered in distaste. 'Idiot! Juudaime's rarely holds a meeting with all his guardians, and you don't attend!'

Before Hayato could go on a rant about how lazy and idiotic Lambo is for not joining the meeting, Tsuna averted to another topic whilst they waited for the others to appear-

Just on cue, another part of the screen flickered on, sparing Tsuna from probably going off topic. A serene scenery appeared, and a very familiar yellow bird flew from somewhere outside of the screen and landed on a shoulder.

Who's shoulder?

A voice, cold and toneless, slithered ominously out from the speakers. "Herbivore, I will bite you to death when I come back." It growled dangerously low. The person, who's wearing a black yukata, glared murderously through the screen and right through Tsuna's soul.

Tsuna felt a shiver run down his spine. "Hibari!" Tsuna exclaimed in surprise.

Indeed, it was the one and only tenth generation cloud guardian of the Vongola Famiglia.

'Does Hibari usually introduce himself with a threat?' Tsuna questioned himself. He has long grown out of shaking in fear whenever Hibari appeared. This was possibly due to the fact that Hibari has already lost countless times to Tsuna when sparring with him, maybe also because he's already been with him for more than seven years. During those years, he's seen a lot of his guardian's raw emotions, including Hibari's (which Tsuna promised not to tell anyone).

Though a certain storm guardian was not going to take that threat lightly. "Bastard! Did you just threaten Juudaime!?" Hayato vexed with anger. "How dare you!" He clenched his fists tightly and took a firm step towards Hibari's screen.

Takeshi overlooked the situation with slight amusement. He always does. "Gokudera, calm down." He called, but Hayato refused to listen. Hayato continued the glaring competition with the independent cloud.

Hibari glared death at Hayato's advancing figure. "I will bite you to death after I bite that herbivore to death." He seethed with vicious threat.

"Like hell that's going to hap-" Hayato was going to shoot back a sharp reply, but immediately fell silent after Tsuna commanded him to stop, almost like an obedient puppy.

"Gokudera! Shh!" Tsuna hissed, but gently. 'Why is my family still so hard to manage, even after all these years?' sighing, he thought about how synchronised Dino's men are compared to his. His guardians are like barbaric animals compared to them. "Ah, um… Hibari, why do you want to bite me to death…Do you not like the mission I gave you to go to Japan?" He asked, voice ending higher to signify that he was diffident about his question.

Tsuna swore he heard Reborn stifle a laugh. He was missing something important.

There was no reply, so instead, he continued elaborating. "Did something happen? Did I forget something-" That seemed to strike something. The muscle under Hibari's right eye twitched slightly with annoyance.

Takeshi observed the background to Hibari's screen carefully, then gave a small laugh as he figured something out; possibly why Hibari wanted to bite Tsuna to death. His lifted his eyebrows in amusement. "Ahahaaa~!" He laughed heartily, "It's been so long since then Hibari-san! Are you still-"

Hibari's now frightening gaze immediately snapped towards the rain guardian, as if telling him to shut up or else things were going to happen. And those things would be painful.

Sad thing is that this is a video conference and each of them were in different places around the globe, so he couldn't slip out his tonfas and start beating some proper discipline into those disobedient herbivores. But since screen travel isn't in fully working order yet (Giannini's actually inventing the device – though it's probably going to be very dodgy), he spared one last murderous look towards Takeshi.

Never did the group know that a pair of secretive mists were already watching all this action from the very start. "Ara ara~ never knew this skylark still cowers from Cherry Blossoms~" A tall, lean person with the signature midnight blue pineapple hair-do gracefully emerged from a purple mist behind Tsuna's seat and stepped into the open. He trailed a hand possessively around Tsuna's shoulder and under his chin, smoothly skimming his neck with brisk fingers. "Heh~"

All Gokudera could see was a long whisk of dark blue hair that trailed from a figure dressed in black, before finally realising that his dear boss was taken hostage by a damned old pineapple. "What the fuck!" He unintentionally swore from shock.

Tsuna wasn't exactly surprised that his mist guardians travelled back from Russia via their handy mist travel, in fact he already knew they were in the room through his Hyper Intuition. But for Mukuro to suddenly wrap his arms around him almost like a protective python? Oh hell no.

"M-Mukuro!" Tsuna gasped because of the hand that was touching his neck, then his mind wondered off to what Mukuro mentioned- 'Hibari doesn't like Cherry Blossoms?-' Then he remembered the time when Mukuro was still their enemy and how Hibari got injected with Cherryitis. 'Oh…I forgot…and it's April too…Oops.' He grimaced, 'But I'll deal with that later!'

His eyes flickered down and saw a trident's tip advancing towards the exposed skin on his neck, dangerously accurate. Without hesitation, he grabbed the hand with a firm hold and smashed it harder than anticipated on the table in front. If his hand didn't immediately pin Mukuro's other hand against the table, he would have been pricked by his small trident, which would mean that Mukuro would've successfully possessed him.

"Oya~ I thought I was going to succeed this time." The mist guardian purred. "You're getting stronger, young Vongola, and that just makes me want your body more~" He gave a satisfied smirk and hopped back, freeing his arm in the process.

Hayato's fuse finally broke. He failed. He was a failure as the right hand man to the world's boss of the strongest mafia Famiglia. "YOU BASTARDDD!" He broke into a run, charging with pure hatred and rage towards the idiot that dared to touch his boss, and he didn't care if he was the mist guardian or not.

The room wasn't that big, and with the speed of a professional Mafioso, he could've tackled Mukuro in less than a second. But Tsuna was definitely not going to let that happen, considering how much of a pacifist he is. And he simply hated his guardians hurting each other. He never really liked this mafia business from the very beginning, but since Primo's blood was flowing through his veins, it made him awfully good at all this even if he didn't like it.

Tsuna kicked back in his leather chair so that it wheeled right between raging Hayato and smirking Mukuro. Hayato, of course, couldn't react fast enough to stop, but Tsuna expected that.

Just as the silverette was going to ram into Tsuna who was calmly sitting down in his chair, the brunette grasped the other's arm with soft precision. Using his other hand, he gently palmed Hayato's stomach which, adding to the momentum of him charging, caused him to flip into the air, his legs forming a graceful arc. In a split second later, Hayato changed from a raging storm that was going to beat the crap out of Mukuro, to a stunned octopus standing upright on the other side of Tsuna's office chair.

Hayato blinked. He was sure he was going to bang right into Tsuna, yet he was standing still, completely balanced, next to him. "Gah." He felt as if he went to heaven and back for a moment. 'JUUDAIME JUST DID SOMETHING AMAZING! A-and…woah…' He swayed on his legs before staggering forwards, slumping against the wall next to the loathed pineapple. His resentment for him hasn't ebbed away just yet.

"Juudaime, why do you still trust this guy? He might turn out like Daemon." He fumed. "He's going to grab your body and betray us." Hayato has been extremely touchy about this subject ever since Daemon's 'visit', and no one really blamed him for suspecting Mukuro, but that doesn't mean they agree with him either.

Tsuna glanced at Hayato, unhanding Hayato's arm as he previously staggered away, and smiled slightly. "Gokudera, it's ok. Mukuro isn't Daemon." He stated firmly. "I trust him, like I do with all of you too."

Hayato side-glanced with minor embarrassment, forming a small pout on his lips. He was Tsuna's all-knowing right hand man yet his boss was indirectly pointing out his flaws. He pressed his brows down, forming a flustered frown. Instead of wallowing in his discomfiture, he averted his attention to Mukuro. "Tch, If only I can punch you in the face for what you've done."

"Please, no violence." Tsuna exclaimed wryly, "Hibari, I'm sorry for making you go to Japan. So please calm down." He wheeled himself back to his table and rested his elbows on top, a boss-like posture.

Hibari indeed did look like he was going murder the entire population of pineapples, face twisted into a ruthless growl, mouth pulled into a line as taught as a drawn bow. But the hunter instincts in him clicked, telling him that if he doesn't settle down he will be the one hunted instead.

Tsuna held the video conference as a meeting, not a simple gathering and he's about had enough of the drama. As nice and caring as he is, his years as boss made him somehow relentless.

"Chrome, we'll discuss your trip to Russia later on, but for now, please come out. I need your opinion on this matter too." - 'Because we're a family, after all. I can't leave you out even if Mukuro's already here.'

Reborn gave an impressed grunt, and Yuni could be heard 'wowing' in the background at how boss-like Tsuna acted just then. It was like Tsuna had finally turned into a decent boss. They seemed to have moved from the noisy casino to a place without all the interfering cacophony.

A female appeared out from a cluster purple mist, similar to Mukuro's, and nodded her head with acknowledgement towards everyone. "Bossu…we're back. The information we received was odd." She informed briefly. Chrome, dressed in her light purple spring casual wear, took her respective place next Mukuro.

A few seconds of impregnable silence passed, but Takeshi broke it. "Hmm," he hummed, leaning back in his comfy and spacious first-class seat. "I guess it's only Sasagawa senpai now." He indicated unobtrusively.

"Tch, stupid turf-top." Hayato rested a leg across the other and crossed his arms. "Keeping us waiting." He muttered.

"Well, he is the busiest out of all of us, being the 'healer' and all. He's been travelling to places to people in desperate need of being healed." Tsuna defended his sun guardian righteously. Ryohei was indeed the busiest out of all of them, excluding Tsuna of course. Tsuna was busy, but just not in a way where he used his flames excessively until his body gave out.

As if coincidences have graced the Vongola for the day, Tsuna's phone rang, buzzing obnoxiously loud on the table. He instinctively reached out for his phone, thinking, 'whoever is calling my personal number…something must've happened to them.' He nearly dropped it when he saw that it was Ryohei calling.

This meant something bad. His guardians would only call him in the case of extreme situations, and when he means extreme, he means fractured bones, internal and external bleeding, things aren't going as planned, war or possibly even a kidnapper bantering for something in exchange for a hostage – i.e, one of his guardians.

He was almost afraid to pick up, but if he didn't he would possibly be putting a life in danger. Ryohei's life. Tsuna would rather jump off a cliff all chained up rather than putting his guardians in danger.

His family is everything to him, his treasure, his pride, his hope, his life.

Before the phone would fully slip out his hand due to how weak and shaky it got all of a sudden, he pushed his finger resolutely down on the big, fat, green button, almost like the judgement swing of a gavel. He brought his hand up hesitantly, pressing the phone lightly against his ear.

The guardians may seem completely uncaring towards each other's wellbeing and hardhearted, not considerate and being complete assholes when someone did something they didn't like (excluding Tsuna himself, Ryohei and Takeshi; they were always cool with each other), they were quite similar to Tsunderes. They may look constantly pissed on the outside, but inside, they really do care.

Despite everyone's stern expression, each of them fidgeted slightly in some way when Tsuna reached for his ringing phone.

Tsuna opened his mouth, hesitating and taking in a breath before shakily breathing out, introducing himself over the phone. "H-hello, Sawada Tsunayoshi spea-" But before he could finish it, a voice erupted from the phone, cutting in.

"Ah! Good afternoon to the EXTREME Sawada!..." A belated, flamboyant and loud voice shouted louder than needed. "I apologise for calling you instead of EXTREMELY finding my laptop-" a stifled loud yawn rang through, breaking the sentence. "I'm feeling too EXTREMELY tired right now…to even keep my eyes open."

Hearing the voice of his energetic sun guardian being completely fine (only a little tired – actually, maybe very tired), and not writhing in pain, lifted ten tonnes from his shoulders and heart. He sighed, eyes fluttering to a close in pure relief.

Though, he wasn't particularly glad that Ryohei was tired to the point where he can't even keep his eyes open, considering how much of a lively and energetic person he is.

"It's…it's fine. Oh god Ryohei, you gave me a huge scare just then." Tsuna let your breath out of relief. He slouched back into his chair, shaking subsiding a little. "I'll connect you to the interface, give me a sec…"

With great effort, he heaved himself from his seat and walked over to a slick black box with cables protruding from it. He found the cable that could connect with his phone and plugged it in. Within a few milliseconds, the link was secured and an audio-only interface appeared on one of the monitors.

The guardians calmed down too; Hayato took in a slow breath, then exhaling just as slowly, body relaxing against the wall. Hibari leant back and propped back a hand, looking his usual 'Don't annoy me' resting face though his gaze was still sending death threats to the idiotic long-haired pineapple. Mukuro only smirked, as mysterious as ever. Takeshi gave a distinct sigh before putting on a smile again.

"Ahh…Sorry for being late guys, I just arrived at the hotel EXTREMELY tired." Ryohei exclaimed stridently, though obviously sounding very weary. There was a faint ruffle, the sound of a wooden chair being dragged then a 'plop'.

"Ok, well then." Tsuna returned to his seat, gracefully sitting down and finally taking out the envelope after nearly half an hour of waiting in his inner breast pocket. "Gokudera. Come here." He called imperatively, holding out the letter out to him. "The meeting is now starting."

Hayato pushed himself from the wall and uncrossed his arms, slipping out his reading glasses. He stood sternly next his boss and took the letter, briskly taking out the letter from the envelope. The room was no longer filled with its previous clatter of triviality, instead, the atmosphere did a 180 and it was now saturated with formality.

And Hayato started reading.

It was around 6 PM when Ryohei woke up again, and by then the meeting had finished ages ago. Streaks of elongated light which had found its way past the curtains marred the carpet, almost like fresh scars against skin. The sun guardian found himself slumped on top of the roll-top desk which he sat at just after he called Tsuna.

Ryohei uttered a small groan as he lifted his head up, and it felt like lead. "Ahh…I must have EXTREMELY fallen asleep during the meeting..." he pointed out to himself. He could feel himself dozing off again, back to the wonderful realm of sleep, but he wasn't going to let that happen just yet, not until he checks his phone for important messages.

Slapping his bandaged hands to his face with force, he made sure his cheeks stung enough to keep him awake. Tiredly reaching out a hand, he slowly reached out for his phone and reeled it back in as if his hand was a fishing rod that has caught a big and adamant fish.

He sluggishly manoeuvred his fingers around the edge, searching for the power button, and when he finally found it, he pushed. The screen immediately burst on, streaming with blinding light.

"Gah! Too bright!"

He squinted and indeed, there were messages. Quite a few messages from Hayato about the content of the meeting which he missed half of, and surprisingly, one from Takeshi.

Takeshi never texts. He usually doesn't have much to say, and if so, he would use some other sort of media.

'Well, this better be something EXTREMELY interesting…'

He selected Takeshi's message, inputted his million letter long password, and then read.

I have a bad feeling about Tsuna going to the meeting. Get back to the Vongola mansion as soon as possible. I think we need a doctor on site just in case…

'We need a doctor.' Was the first thing Ryohei noticed. He was definitely confused. But over the years, he's learnt that Takeshi had the potential as a hitman, possibly even as strong as Reborn, and he's possibly even more observant than an eagle.

Touché! I get that organised early tom morn.

Before his eyelids' muscles were going to give out, he put one last effort into pressing 'send' and as he did, his head helplessly clashed with the table top, returning to his long, tiresome journey of replenishing his flames.

Depending on how much I write, next chapter will be quite eventful ;P It will take about 2 – 3 weeks, as assignments are drowning me.

Shoutout #2

- Human Burrito buddies for life!

Have a shoutout? Pls add it to the end of your comment.

Fanart…? Nah…I'm asking too much from you guys '/3/' Please do email them to me at [email protected] ! Anything is fine (Maybe a depiction of me…actually nah, for some reason I imagine me as a bubble popping and meeting the end of my short bubble life DX)

Comments and thoughts on this would be absolutely great!

-Bubblesss

#vongola decimo #vongola #sawada tsunayoshi #gokudera hayato #yamamoto takeshi #katekyo hitman reborn #giotto #Skyfall - Angoscia #not bothered to do the remaining tags

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oliverphisher · 4 years

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Josh Donellan

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?

1. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as kid and I have a distinct memory of thinking ‘Well, that’s it for me. I want to be a writer. Why the hell would you do anything else?’

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

What is one of the best investment in a writing resource you’ve ever made?

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore?

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession often?

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)?

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

What new realizations and/or approaches have helped you achieve your goals?

When you feel overwhelmed or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?

Any other tips?

________

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