#i was doing so good and then the last few days i havent been able to sleep more than 5 hours a night

[orcelito]

Despite all odds, I have arrived home safely👍

Turns out that the earlier goop was the better goop. The adderall goop. The adderall has worn off now though. So I am. Very incredibly out of it.

But I am home. And I will take my quick shower. And then I will climb into bed.

I do need to eat. But... later...

[shittyastroboydrawings]

according to one small part in the ova lol

[semiotomatics]

okay ive been awake for almost 23 hours now, what do you wanna bet ill sleep for less than 5 :/

[lightfulonion]

thank you @skijjiki for tagging me!!!! i love these types of tagging games so much!!

last song: Tokyo Calling by ATARASHII GAKKO! (pls watch the music video. its so good 😭) im kind of, sort of, obsessed with this and i have been listening to it non-stop like my life depends on it. anyway

fav color: hmm im really feeling brown right now (wow! that sounds awful! im not changing my answer tho. brown rules.)

currently reading: im able to read only fanfics at the moment because anything that involves a book and new characters feels like too much work for me for some reason and also like im cheating at my classes in university. both of these suck big butt and i hate being like this but it's true. anyway please read a million times along the way by starsqwub. its a bokuaka fic, it hasnt updated since 2022 and it made me cry every chapter. its about love, its about friends, its about being a weird person in a normal world and, more importantly, its about bokuto and akaashi. oh! also manga like chainsaw man and toilet bound hanako-kun!! and some webcomics as well too.

currently watching: the wall mostly but also dungeon meshi! and ive been trying to be up-to-date with the one piece anime!!

spicy/savory/sweet: sweet <3

relationship status: i was reading a bokuaka fic and i was crying. take a wild guess.

current obsessions: listening to Tokyo Calling and ATARASHII GAKKO! apparently and im starting to feel like reading the ending of Haikyuu!! which is probably a bad thing?? (im scared. i really dont want it to end :'((( )

tagging: @livingonyoghurtandspite, @horson, @clementinethekitten, @pierogish, @alcieside, @mars-matrix, @peachybeesplease, @mangatxt.

[nomaishuttle]

IM A LITTLE WORRIED THO BC LIKE. I DONT HAVE A LOT TO TALK ABT AT ALL..

[britneyshakespeare]

why does scheduling my work days give me so much stress and anxiety

[satoruhour]

oh my god, i dont know if you write for this specifically (feel free to disregard if you don’t), but I’ve been thinking about satosugu x reader,,, imagine kissing the both of them!! spending a nice summer day with them!! just being able to enjoy spending time with the two of them!! I dont know if its my love for both of these characters and their relationship, but i just like thinking abt that dynamic,,,

a/n: wrote this yesterday to upload today since it was a loaded day today ❤️ enjoy. hope it’s up to standard cause i havent written fluff in a long time! / 1.3k, poly!satosugu x reader

sleep-ins were popular amongst the three of you. before you, suguru had his own routine of waking up early to brew some tea for himself, to get the laundry going . .

satoru, on his own, was a light sleeper, sitting straight up at any hint of sound due to his sorcerer duties but after moving in with geto, he’s been letting the long-haired man to do all the work.

and here came you, waltzing back into their lives (and apartment) after teaching at kyoto for just a few months until you couldn’t stand gakuganji and headed right back to your alma mater.

it wasn’t difficult to maintain the dynamic the three of you had from your school days, except maybe unspoken feelings and lingering glances until the two men were gassing each other up to ask you.

you’re not even sure how you even got roped in — old feelings, a crave for the younger days, the allure of satoru, the wonder of suguru — but now you’re stick in between both of them wanting to pee so badly.

alas, your body is trapped under gojo’s protective leg and geto’s gentler wrapped arm, but you still feel your bladder about to burst, trying one last time until your body is slammed back into bed.

“hm . . what’re you doing?” is gojo’s first raspy call out to you as he curls his calf around you even more, and you sigh, turning to him to brush his fringe from his face.

“i need to pee, satoru.”

“no.” and you roll your eyes because he’s always whiny like that and you’d usually employ suguru to do your bidding but he’s fast asleep, still. this was another thing: both you and gojo have inextricably fucked with his routine because now he’s more inclined to sleep in than drink his morning tea. he realised this one day when he was doing laundry, in the afternoon.

“’toru, pleeaasee?” you pout even if he can’t see and like a good boyfriend, he senses your features pulled into a face specifically meant to make him feel bad, and cracks his eyes open.

“oh, youuuu—” gojo scrunches up his eyes and squeezes, and then steals you from geto’s arm, trapping you with tight arms wound around your middle, “stop it with the eyes!”

you giggle, using your free hands to relax the tightness in his brows, using that opportunity to forcibly open his eyes and then you hit him again — knitted eyebrows and doe eyes, and a perfect pout that has gojo grumbling under his breath. silently, you wiggle yourself just enough to reach his face so you can place a peck on his lips and he hums.

another, his eyes say and you indulge him, sinking into his embrace and letting him guide you back to his mouth. morning breath is nothing to the both of you, grinning into the kiss when satoru loses himself and his embrace starts to loosen. the kiss still holds you captive, though, the other moaning softly when you deepen it with some tongue.

“you’re just going to leave me hangin’?” geto’s voice calls out from beside you, and gojo’s excited suguru! gives you just that sliver of time to slip away from the two as they catch up but—

“you’re not going anywhere, missus,” gojo pulls on your arm and you’re falling back into your space in the middle of the both of them, greeted with geto’s lovely laugh and his gentle gaze.

“good morning my loves,” he says, arm draped over the both of you before he leans down to give you a kiss while gojo replies with a good morning as well, also giving a peck to your temple. “what’s on the agenda today?”

“lazing in—”

“i need to pee, firstly,” you pipe up, cutting gojo off and patting his puffed out cheeks. grabbing his face, you wiggle his head just to emphasise your point, “your man here has been preventing me from going to the bathroom.”

“ahem! our man,” gojo corrects, sticking his tongue out just enough to lick your hand and you shriek in disgust while his giggles only fill the room.

“satoru, c’mon, let her go.” and again, the other only cuddles you closer to him, long, lanky limbs trapping your body. geto has a hand on yours like he’s trying his best to console you.

“but— she’s so much nicer to cuddle! did i ever tell you suguru once hit me in the face with his arm?”

and you laugh while the other only sighs and chaos erupts once he stands up and says in faux disappointment — “okay, i’m making breakfast for myself only. guess i lost two partners today.”

“hello?! i didn’t even do anything!” you shout in incredulity, words muffled once gojo slaps a hand over your mouth and laughs, watching through the bathroom mirror at how he chuckles at the both of you. you lick gojo’s hand and he moans obnoxiously.

geto did end up making the both of you some breakfast after some convincing (it was mostly gojo yelling “pleasepleaseplease” in the bathroom and interrupting brushing teeth time), but he’s got around it with a sloppy kiss given to the both of you, sat at the wooden table you commissioned — large enough to bring friends over but small enough for it to feel intimate with your two boyfriends.

“on the real agenda, we need to go for some grocery shopping,” geto suggests, reaching diagonally to you to wipe off the bits of strawberry lingering at the corner of your lips and gojo shouts a loud oh!, running from the table to grab his phone that he’s left on the bedside table. naturally, he has become so enamoured with the both of you that he doesn’t even need his phone to entertain him that much.

“i made the list like you asked, sugu,” and you’re giggling when you see his eyebrow raise, positive that on the list, there was more of what the house didn’t need than what it did.

silently, you’re helping to clear all three of your plates that had coatings of maple syrup on it, apart from gojo’s who licked his squeaky clean. a smile spreads across your face when you hear them bicker, a common occurrence.

“baby, there’s more candy than actual groceries on here.”

“but suguruuuu . .” gojo pulls this all the time and it hardly works on geto any more, so the both of them invade your cleaning escapades to argue. like the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, satoru sucks up to your boyfriend, suguru appeals to you.

“should we listen to him?” leaning against the counter, geto rests his arm around your torso, sidling right up to your face who only gives him a small grin.

gojo follows suit. “sweetness, don’t listen to him. you know you love the sweets i buy, i’ll even buy you your favourite brand!”

here in this kitchen in the house that gojo had no problem expanding to accommodate the both of you were all that you know in this mess of a world, destined to exorcise curses for as long as you live, but it wasn’t so bad when you had the strongest duo beside you, talking over each other on whether meiji chocolate was more important than buying celery for tonight’s dinner. 

“boys.” turning off the tap, you shake off the water and turn around in their arms only to see what had escalated: geto ready to summon a curse, gojo crossing his fingers in his muryōkūsho pose, all the while keeping an arm around you like everything’s fine. and as chaotic dating the both of them were, you don’t mind putting both their hands down and calming the situation down.

with a laugh, you give one kiss to both cheeks. “let’s just buy both, okay?”

and satoru leaps to hug you, planting endless kisses on your face while suguru sighs, then smiles, defeated. “plus, we can just make ’toru pay for everything, can’t we?”

“and then make him cook tonight.” you suggest, not-so-quietly.

gojo stops, “hey!”

i didnt write the grocery shopping part since i alr rambled off about it here but maybe next time we’ll see :)

[thebibliosphere]

Hi there, ive come from your post about ADHD and emotional disregulation, firstly thank you so much for putting it into words, its such a complicated part of how i deal with emotions and i havent ever been able to articulate how to why.

Secondly, in that post you mentioned how you've used stress as a motivator and how eventually your stress regualtion broke, i was wondering if you'd be willing to talk about that? (If not, its not a problem)

I feel like the same thing has happened to me but until i read your post i had no idea that something had... snapped? I suppose? I struggle with motivation all the time and in the past id have a week or a few days left and id be able to suddently push myself very hard to complete whatever it is before the deadline, just barely making it in most cases. However now it seems that i can't find that motivation anymore, deadlines come and pass and i can't being myself to work on anything, and i just end up spiralling into shame and guilt. That motivation was the only thing that I was able to rely on sometimes for things like uni, and i conviced myself that it was just me growing lazy or trying to get out of responsibility as to why the "last minute panic-mode" doesnt work anymore.

Again, if you don't wanna tackle this can of worms or if it's something youd rather not post online i totally get it, its no biggie! thanks so much for making the original post as well, it means a lot

Hello friend, thanks for the message. I'm sorry you're also dealing with this.

The good news here is that I've already talked about this using the rubber band analogy my therapist gave me. (Stress is like a Rubber Band)

If you don't have the mental bandwidth to read all of it now, the tl;dr is "stress is like a rubber band; it can stretch to hold numerous things in place when you need to, but if you do it too often or keep adding more and more strain under the band, the elastic eventually becomes brittle and snaps, taking your mental and sometimes physical health with it too."

I've been in intensive therapy for this for roughly three years now, and trying to piece my brain back together after my last bout of stress-induced productivity gave me a total mental breakdown.

It's... odd not being able to use stress and having to actively avoid it to avoid a relapse. But it is doable. Medication would help, but alas, I've got weird health issues and am unmedicated at the minute.

(And just in case that sparks anyone to go, "Oh, you do all this unmedicated! Wow, that's so inspiring!" as sometimes parents do to me on here as they then tell me they don't want to medicate their kids, I've unfortunately also written a post about what that kind of success looks like from an unmedicated perspective and the kind of suicidal ideation I deal with on the regular because I cannot take meds. It is not pleasant reading, but it is necessary for some folks, specifically anti-med, "if you just tried harder" people.)

A book you may find helpful is Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. It was very validating for me to read about other people going through the same things, and made me feel less of a "this is a personal failing on my part" and more of a "Oh okay yeah, no stress literally breaks people."

It helped soothe some of my own internalized "I just need to try harder" and helped cement me on the path I was already going down with my ADHD therapist toward changing how I view myself and how I manage my ADHD.

I hope that helps! If you've got more specific questions or I didn't touch on something in my old post, I can try to answer them :)

[moonswolfie]

Princess of the commoner cafe

Oikawa, Miya twins, Ushijima, Hinata, Akaashi x fem!reader

ohshc AU!!

I've been watching a bit of ouran high school host club lately (still havent gotten very far but i am HOOKEDDDDDD) and i'm sure others have written something like this before but i wanted to throw my own hat in the ring and write this delulu ass scenario

also i apologise PROFUSELY if anyone is ooc it has been a WHILE since my last haikyuu rewatch

(btw i am working on your request anon dont you worry ;) )

Somehow, you managed to get into the prestigious Ouran Academy based on your academic success alone. Your parents were overjoyed to send you off, even if you felt embarrased about not even being able to afford the official school uniform. You stuck out like a sore thumb on your first day, that's for sure.

At first, you thought you wouldn't fit in with anyone here. Your hypothesis was mostly correct. Everyone in your class is always talking about their latest designer bag or bragging about their new lambo or bugatti. Needless to say, it's like they're speaking in a foreign language.

They quickly lost interest in you after you couldn't list your top ten designer brands (with reasons as to why you chose those specific ones!!!). Yeah, friends are kind of out of the picture.

So when your curiosity got the better of you one day and you visited the host club all the girls in your class keep squealing about you didn't expect things to develop like this.

"Are you gonna visit today too? Are you?!" Hinata, the boy from the other class attached himself to your arm and looked at you with sparkling eyes. "Of course I am." you smiled at him, a little giddy about returning to the club once more.

"We have a special theme today, just for you..." he told you that while wearing a mischevious grin but refused to elaborate. The boys at the club always go through great lengths to get you curious and draw you back into the club. Not just Hinata, all of them.

Let's just say you've become quite the sensation among the hosts of the Ouran High school host club. You aren't exactly sure how you managed to get yourself in this situation, but you aren't really complaining, either. You'd definitely take being adored by the 6 hotties of the school over being ignored by everyone for all your 3 years of high school.

All you did was visit the club a few times out of curiosity, far too afraid to actually openly interact with the hosts considering the crowd of girls always gathered around them. Not to mention you'd definitely get gawked at for your clothes, mannerisms and conversation topics (and not in a good way).

Akaashi was the first to take notice of you, and somehow that evolved into every other host becoming interested, too.

Anyways, Hinata seemed very satisfied with your promise to come visit once again and ran off, shouting that you have to promise to come visit him first.

Well, there's nothing to it but to do it, you suppose.

.

"Welcome, dear guests, to the host club!" all the guys greeted you and a group of other girls who also came as soon as they possibly could. They were practically pushing eachother in front of the door. Not that you can blame them.

As soon as you stepped into the room, you felt like you were standing at the local cafe located just around the corner from your house. It felt warm and homey. So this is what they went for this time. A strange choice, considering their usually extravagant themes.

"Heya, gir-" Atsumu's smug voice greeted you from behind and you turned around to see that he was about to envelop you in his arms. "Hey, ya lost the bet. I get her first." Osamu pulled Atsumu back by his barista apron before he could actually touch you. Atsumu grumbled something you couldn't quite hear, which you presume was some not so nice words directed towards his brother.

"Actually, I made a promise to Hinata that he'd be the first one I visit." you smiled at the twins apologetically. Neither of them seemed too pleased about the prospect of that, though. "Why? Ya like him more than us?" Atsumu placed his hands on his hips, glaring at you.

"Hahaha, a promise is a promise. I'll be back for you two right after, don't worry." you waved the twins off, winking. That seemed to soften their expressions a bit. But maybe it wasn't the smartest idea, looking back on it. They're definitely going to fight over which one of them you winked at later.

Hinata greeted you enthusiastically, looking overjoyed at seeing you. His cheeks blushed a nice pink color when he smiled at you. "Wait here, wait here." he held out an antique looking chair for you and you sat down behind one of the tables. Then he ran off somewhere.

You're always impressed by how lavishly they decorate their club. I guess being rich can really do wonders for club decor.

"Are you enjoying today's theme? I made sure to pick out some fitting decorations." Akaashi suddenly appeared behind you. You could have sworn you didn't hear his footsteps. Maybe you were just too absorbed in observing the theme, though. Haha, even all the hosts are dressed like baristas.

"Yeah..." you looked into Akaashi's eyes, admiring their color. You've always found him to have a calming presence, even if he can be mischevious at times. That just adds on to his personality, doesn't it? You think it's quite a shame that he isn't as popular as a certain someone in the club.

"It seems to me you're enjoying something other than the theme." you got snapped out of your thoughts by Akaashi's voice. Oops, you must have been staring at him again. You turned away, making a quick apology. You felt a little giddy all of a sudden.

"Oh, but when did I ever say I dislike the attention?" Akaashi gently grabbed your chin, turning your face back to him. Somehow, he seems more affectionate towards you than he does to the other girls who request him. Atleast you've never seen him grab other girls' chins. You were sure you probably looked awestruck in this moment.

"Hey! Stop hogging her to yourself!" Hinata was running back to the two of you, holding a fancy cup of (presumably) coffee. On his way to stop Akaashi from wooing you, he didn't notice a wire below his feet and he tripped over it.

...Which happened to spill hot coffee all over your shirt and shattered the cup to pieces. "Ugh... I'm okay, don't- AAAAH!" Hinata yelled upon seeing your shirt.

"I'll go get new clothes!" Akaashi seemed tense, quickly turning on his heels and running off.

Luckily, the coffee was cool enough to not give you burns. You aren't even worried about the shirt that much either, you've been on the fence about donating it anyways.

"Aaah, I'm so sorry. I'm so so so sorry." Hinata seemed almost dramatically apologetic, bowing down before you in apology over and over.

"What is going on over here?" you heard a smug voice that could belong to one person and one person only. The leader and self proclaimed king of the club, Oikawa, was now approaching the two of you. And he didn't seem very happy, mind you.

"Ah, Oikawa! It's, umm..." Hinata nervously whipped his head around to meet Oikawa's charming chocolate eyes.

"Hinata accidentally spilled coffee on me." Hinata looked at you sadly, like you just betrayed him. You gasped, realising you weren't supposed to reveal that unless you wanted Hinata to feel Oikawa's wrath. Normally he would just scold Hinata for his clumsiness, but when it comes to you specifically, he gets protective. Somehow, he even looks like a supermodel while wearing a barista uniform.

"He... Oh, that won't do. You should spend less time with clumsy good-for-nothings and spend more time with..." he tilted your chin towards him "...Me."

As much as you think Oikawa is an obnoxious jerk, he always manages to charm your negative feelings away when he does something like that. Gets you feeling all giddy like the main character of a badly written shojo anime.

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say, bro." you kept your face as cold as you possibly could in that situation. It seemed to you like the word "bro" was a direct stab to his heart, but he quickly recovered, putting on his best flirty face. "I will help you clean yourself up, my princess. We simply must get you out of that dreadful shirt." Oikawa shot poor Hinata a glare. You're definitely buying him "that one good commoner chocolate" (as Hinata likes to call it) later.

"Uh, Akaashi's already-"

"Now now now, what's goin' on here?" things are about to get a lot more complicated, you reckon. Because now the twins have showed up.

"We heard precious china shatterin' and wanted to see what caused it." Osamu added. A few girls were blushing a few meters behind the twins, probably too nervous to approach the two right now.

"Ya said you'd come visit us right after! And now yer here with this a-" Atsumu immediately stopped complaining when he saw your shirt. Both the twins shot poor poor Hinata a glare. (One "poor" for each twin.)

"See, I told ya I was a better fit for ya. I'd never spill coffee on ya." Osamu crossed his arms.

"What do ya mean "the better fit for ya"? Clearly, I'm the better one 'round here. And say the wink was meant for me while we're at it, won't ya?!" Atsumu's anger was now directed back at Osamu. (Akaashi would joke that it's back to where it's supposed to be.)

"I was kinda winking at-"

"Oh, please. Don't joke around with me. We all know I'm the best fit for her." Oikawa posed dramatically, which looked funny because of his not very prince-like outfit.

This always ends up happening. At this point you've given up on stopping it. The twins start bickering with Oikawa while girls on both sides squeal for them to calm down, tearfully inviting the boys back into their embraces.

You look behind you, where Ushijima is staring at you knowingly. You give him a relieved smile, knowing what's about to come. Whenever the other guys get into duels over who gets to recieve your attention, Ushijima is always there to pull you out of the situation.

The duels get so heated that you get to spend a few minutes alone with him before the others even notice you're gone. And so you follow the routine of letting him whisk you away to a lonely corner of the club room.

"Do you know why the theme is a commoner cafe?" he asks after a few moments of silence. He's looking at you with complete seriousness, but you don't miss the hint of a smile on his face. Enchanted by such a sight, you shake your head no dreamily.

"It was to impress you. Akaashi thought of the idea." Your eyes widened. Now you just feel giddy that Akaashi actually remembered that one time you told him you used to visit a cozy cafe close to your house with your parents growing up. It was all the way back when he first acknowledged your existence and decided to sit around with you for a few minutes, sipping tea from a cup that probably costs more than your phone.

"Oh... I like it. I really do." you smiled up at Ushijima. You could swear a bit of blush appeared on his cheeks. He silently put an arm around you, pulling you close to him. You like when he does that.

When all of the hosts are swooning over you like this while wearing barista uniforms, you feel like the princess of a commoner cafe.

[notiddygothgf]

1. Arrival in Tokyo

★ pairings: aki hayakawa x fem reader

★ ❝ Captain? Should I be calling you sir? ❞ ❝ Only if you want to. ❞

★ c.w.: aki being sexy a f (more content warnings and tags)

★ a/n: CHAPTER ONE IS UP AND RUNNINGGGGGG!! im so excited bc ive been sitting on this fanfic all fking summer like when i tell u i havent been able to focus on anything else. i have not known peace. ANYWAY im trying smth new w this story bc it was supposed to be a oneshot but uh... now its at 150 pages on google docs so erm... anyway! updates should flow quixker now that i have 90% of it written!! comment and let me know all of ur thoughts everywhere omg i love reading ur remarks bc u guys r so funny on my other ffs. ENJOY POOKIES! i love yall!!

★ w.c.; 4.3k

shameless ; chapter index

"SO YOU'RE LEAVING ME because the Tokyo division needs backup?" 

"I'm not leaving you," You sighed, though a playful lilt and a smirk followed your sarcastic remark. You and your husband were discussing work-related matters over a sushi dinner – your favorite. Perks of being married to your work partner. "I'm being summoned. I won't be long. Promise."

Your husband frowned, brows knitting together. His brown hair was tied back into a bun, baby hairs licking at his forehead, his cheeks. Tanimoto Yoshiro was a man of many virtues, but patience was not one of them. With a sigh, he began to toy with his salmon roll, prodding it with the end of his wooden chopsticks. "One whole week without that sexy ass of yours... What will I do?"

Your left eye twitched – slightly, hardly noticeable by the naked eye. You, for one, wouldn't miss the sex. It was, for lack of a better word... unfulfilling. It would get better over the years, you were sure of it. The two of you had only had the last few years to practice, after all. You wanted to wait until marriage (With him. You were no virgin by any stretch of the word.).

It was unfair of you to take your sexual frustrations out on him. It had been a tiring week for the both of you, is all. You barely had time for sit down meals like this anymore – whatever hanky-panky the two of you ever did indulge in these days was rushed, messy, and often... short lived.

Anyway, needless to say... You would be fine. It was you and your rabbit toy against the world, anyway.

"You'll be fine," You smiled. You loved him. He loved you. He was a great husband, and he took care of you. You had no reason to complain. "I'll be back before you know it." .

The Japanese countryside was a blur, rushing past the window of your train like pictures, like a movie. You hadn't noticed the train slow to a stop, in fact, until you heard the doors open. Popping your head up over the seat, you observed the train station. Which stop is this? People began filtering in from both sides, eager to find a seat before the train took off.

A shrill cry of your name roused you from your thoughts. 

You whipped your head around. A familiar-looking woman with black hair and an eyepatch was waving you down across the aisle. She was wearing a Public Safety suit and slacks. Himeno.

A smile crawled over your lips before you knew it. "Himeno?" You asked, a teasing lilt in your tone. "Is that you?"

Without asking if anyone else was sitting there, she took a seat in the one across from you. She leaned forward, perching her chin up on her hand. "Never thought I'd see you again. How the hell are 'ya?"

You and Himeno went way back. She had been in the same division as you back when the two of you were teens. She was the first person in Public Safety who had ever actually welcomed you to the division and the last person to say goodbye to you. You parted ways before ever being able to exchange information but, for what it was worth, she had made those gruesome, tedious missions more bearable. 

"I've been good!" You grinned. "I've been in the Kyoto sector with my partner. I truly did plan on coming back, but one thing led to another, and now..." You trailed off, waving your hands around like you were trying to find the right words. "Well, I'm married to him."

The train creaked and groaned before it began to move again. 

"So I've heard," Himeno licked her lips. She sat back in her chair, producing a carton of cigarettes – the kind she always used to smoke when the two of you were on missions together. "You mind if I smoke?"

No, but the conductor might. "Of course not," You answered. "How about you? How have you been?"

She sighed. "Been better, honestly. Devil activity's been crazy recently," Fishing a lighter out of her suit pocket, she sparked up. The end of her cigarette sizzled and smoked between her slim fingers. Holding it up to her lips, she muttered, "Just doing what I can to stay alive. What brings you back to the city?"

"My presence has been requested by the higher-ups," You shrugged. The scent of nicotine and smoke filled the cabin. It was gross but, frankly, familiar. "My husband wasn't too happy that he didn't get invited, so this better be worth it."

"I see," Himeno hummed, breathing out a puff of smoke to the side. She kept on looking out of the window after that, at the train station that was now far behind the train. "You're leaving your partner and I'm returning to mine."

"You're married?" You asked.

"God, no," She chuckled softly, pulling another hit from her cancer stick. "Wouldn't mind being with my assigned partner, though. He's a fine piece of ass."

It seemed like you couldn't help the way you burst into laughter at her crude remark. She hasn't changed one bit. "Is he cute?"

"Cute?" She repeated the word like it was a foreign object in her mouth. Her voice was muffled by the cloud of smoke that flowed out from between her lips. "He's drop-dead gorgeous," She took another slow, calculated hit. "Enough about me, though, how's the married life going for you?"

Could be better. You feigned a warm smile at the mention of your husband. "Good. Yeah, it's good."

Good was a bit of an overstatement. .

You and Himeno spent the rest of the train ride catching up. There was talk about marriage, sex, old coworkers, and new ones. It felt kind of good to be back – to be able to talk to someone who shared the same history as you. You would almost say that you missed it.

By the time the announced its next stop at the Tokyo station, you hadn't even realized how quickly the trip had gone by. You could thank your talkative companion for that. As the train finally eased to a stop, you turned to Himeno with a smile. 

"I need to grab my bags," you said, rising from your seat and straightening your clothes.

Himeno nodded, her smile warm but tinged with a hint of sadness. "Okay. Take care of yourself!"

Navigating the narrow aisle, you headed toward the luggage compartment. As you reached up to grab your suitcase, you collided with someone. Startled, you looked up to find yourself face-to-face with a man who immediately captured your attention. He was tall, easily over six feet, with broad shoulders and a powerful build that spoke of both strength and discipline. His dark hair was tied back in a neat topknot, accentuating his sharp, angular features. But it was his eyes that held you—their piercing blue depths seemed to look straight through you, filled with a seriousness that made you catch your breath.

"Sorry—" he began, his voice a deep, resonant baritone that vibrated through the narrow space.

For a moment, the world seemed to narrow down to just the two of you. The closeness of his body, the scent of his cologne—clean and subtly spiced, lingering just faintly on the collar of his suit jacket—the intense focus of his gaze; all of it created a bubble of tension that neither of you could ignore. You could see the flicker of surprise in his eyes, a momentary lapse in his serious demeanor, as if he too had been caught off guard.

Both of you paused. His gaze flickered down to your uniform for just a heartbeat before he quickly looked away, regaining his composure. Without another word, you continued in opposite directions, the silent exchange leaving you... well, a little breathless to say the least.

Stop it. You're a married woman. Surely, you would know how to control your impulses after being away from your husband for only a day.

Reaching up, you pulled your suitcase from the overhead compartment, the weight of it a familiar comfort. Setting it down on the ground with a soft thud, you turned back to your seat, only to find the handsome man still standing there, now engaged in conversation with Himeno. He was so tall that he had to actually lean over a little bit to fit into the cabin.

Fuck me. You thought. Wait, no, don't fuck me.

"Is this your partner, Himeno?" you asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Yes, I found him!" Himeno responded with a wide grin. "Captain Hayakawa, this is an old friend of mine," she said, going on to introduce you by name.

"Hello," he greeted, extending his hand. The deep, velvety timbre of his voice sent a shiver down your spine.

"Captain? Should I be calling you 'sir'?" you teased lightly, shaking his hand – and his grip was firm and warm.

"Only if you want to," he replied, "Hayakawa is fine."

Only if you want to.

Get your fucking head out of the gutter.

Your heart skipped a beat as you found yourself momentarily lost in his gaze. His eyes were a captivating shade of blue, intense and unwavering. The handshake lingered a moment too long. You could feel the strength and warmth of his hand – it was far larger than yours, and had calluses at the tip of the palm.

Despite his serious demeanor, there was a flicker of something in his eyes, a hint of interest that he seemed determined to keep under control. Reluctantly, you pulled your hand away, feeling the lingering warmth of his touch. 

His gaze remained locked on yours for a moment longer, a silent acknowledgment of whatever the fuck had just happened.

Himeno cleared her throat, breaking the spell. "Well, let me give you a big hug, dearest."

You embraced her fondly, the familiarity of her touch grounding you. 

"Here, give me your number," Himeno said as she pulled back. She flipped her phone open. "Let's keep in touch."

With a smile, you told her your phone number. 

She snapped her phone shut after she had finished typing it in. "Okay! Hopefully, I'll get to see you around."

"Yes, of course! We'll be in touch," You agreed. You bowed your head to her, then to her partner. "Hayakawa."

He nodded back. You dismissed yourself after that, turning on your heel and practically scrambling to get out of that tiny train cabin. Still, you couldn't help but glance back at Captain Hayakawa. His eyes met yours again for a brief, fleeting moment before you turned away, heart racing with something you hadn't felt in a long time.

You didn't want to stick around and find out what it was. The weight of your wedding ring around your finger was a reminder of that much. .

You hadn't been in Public Safety's Tokyo headquarters in years. It was bigger than you remembered it being. The worst part? All the halls looked the exact same. It took you about thirty minutes to find the office in which you were currently standing.

A woman who you'd been dreading seeing the whole way over there was perched on a leather seat in front of you, arms folded over the desk, pink hair braided the same way it always had been, feline eyes flitting over your body. It made you feel small – like prey trapped in a predator's den.

"How was your trip over here?" Makima asked. Her voice was smooth, uniform – calculated, just like everything else she did. 

"It was pleasant," You answered. "I came as soon as I could."

"We appreciate that," Makima said, a hint of something sinister in her smile.

She stepped out from behind her desk, pacing slowly around the room. "I called you here because we've recently suffered a great deal of casualties," she explained, her tone measured and controlled. "I'm worried we won't have the manpower to deal with all the sudden appearances of gun-devil pieces."

"I understand. Am I being formally stationed?" you replied, trying to maintain your composure.

"Not that I know of, no," she responded, her eyes narrowing slightly. "For now, we need backup on a particular mission involving a school in the area. There have been reports of peculiar activity there, and I want to send one of my teams to investigate. I haven't decided whether you'll be in the field or here tying up some loose ends—we recently lost one of our best workers, and we're very far behind as a result. I'll have a certain answer for you within the next few days."

"A few... days?"

"Yes, is that a problem?"

"No, not at all, no. I just—" you sighed, feeling the weight of uncertainty. "Yeah, okay, that sounds good."

"You've also been booked a hotel suite nearby. Your stay will be provided at no cost to you," she continued, her tone unwavering. "I'll reach out to you as soon as I have more details. Hang tight until then."

With a tight-lipped smile, you nodded. "Thank you, Miss Makima. Am I dismissed?"

"Yes, I'll have one of our drivers take you to your room so you can drop off your luggage," she said, her smile not reaching her eyes. "Where did you leave it?"

"I left it in the break room," you said.

"Very well. I'll have someone collect it," she replied, her eyes closing briefly as she smiled. "Get home safely."

With that, you turned and left the office, the tension of the encounter still lingering in the back of your mind. There was just something about that damn lady that never failed to send a shiver up your spine. You sighed, glancing down at the old floorboards, at your shoes.

The reality of the situation began to sink in. 

You had traveled all this way, navigating the maze of identical halls and sterile rooms, only to be told you had to wait. The thought gnawed at you— That sounds about right from her, you mused. It was typical of Makima, always keeping you in the dark, always one step ahead, holding the reins tightly.

The cool, clinical atmosphere of the headquarters only heightened your sense of displacement. The fluorescent lights overhead cast a harsh, unforgiving glow, making everything look stark and unwelcoming.

Lost in your thoughts, you heard a series of footsteps echoing down the hall, followed by hushed voices. The sound grew closer, and you recognized the voice immediately—it was the young lieutenant captain again, the man you had bumped into earlier.

You glanced up, and there he was, standing just a few feet away. He was a striking figure, his presence suffocating – commanding and enigmatic. He had a sharp jaw, chiseled and defined, the kind that could cut paper. His eyes, a moody blue, held a penetrating gaze, one that seemed to see right through you, making you feel as though you were laid completely bare before him.

His brow was knit slightly in deep thought. There was a slight furrow at the bridge of his nose. The tufts of inky black hair that framed his features only added to the boyish charm of his face. 

As he spoke to the other Public Safety worker beside him, his hands moved with purposeful grace.

Your eyes were drawn to him despite yourself, unable to escape the force of his presence. 

His gaze caught yours briefly, and in that fleeting moment, you felt an almost tangible tension in the air. It was as if time had stopped for a heartbeat, the corridor seeming to stretch and contract around the two of you.

The connection between your eyes was like a magnet, pulling you in despite your efforts to look away. The faintest flutter in your chest was enough to have you gripping the collar of your shirt.

He blinked first, his eyes breaking away from yours as he turned back to his companion. The conversation resumed, but the air seemed thicker now, charged with the residual energy of your brief encounter. 

"We need to re-evaluate our strategies for dealing with the increased devil activity," he said, his words carefully chosen. "The losses have been significant, and our resources are stretched thin."

You turned and walked in the opposite direction, the soft hum of the fluorescent lights overhead seeming to amplify the distance you were putting between yourself and him.

As you moved down the corridor, you couldn't shake the feeling that his eyes were still on you, as if the weight of his gaze lingered even after you had turned away.  .

You had just stepped out of the shower, the steam still clinging to the room and curling around the bathroom mirror in hazy swirls. The cool, clean air of the hotel suite met you as you emerged, a refreshing contrast to the stifling atmosphere of the Public Safety headquarters.

You took a moment to let the chill of the air sink into your skin, feeling the pleasant coolness against your damp hair and freshly washed face. You dried yourself off, the soft towel enveloping you in its warmth, and slipped into a comfortable set of loungewear—simple, dark gray sweatpants and a loose-fitting, white t-shirt.

You walked over to the full-sized bed, the crisp white sheets and plush pillows arranged neatly. You flopped down onto it, letting out a relieved sigh as you sank into the softness of the mattress.

Reaching for your phone from the nightstand, you dialed your husband's number. As the call connected, you propped yourself up on one elbow and stared at the ceiling, trying to shake off the exhaustion of the day.

When he answered, his voice was calmingly familiar, cutting through the distance between you with a comforting ease. "Hey. How's everything going?"

"It's been a day," you said with a soft chuckle. "I finally got here, but of course, they've got me waiting for more details. Typical."

"Sounds about right," he said, his voice tinged with a longing that you could almost touch through the phone, "I miss you."

You closed your eyes for a moment, trying to push away the brief flash of memories that drifted through your mind—blue eyes and raven hair, a fleeting image that made your heart skip a beat. An image of soft lips wrapped around the syllables, 'Only if you want to.'

You shook your head gently, trying to dispel the image from your thoughts. "I miss you too," you said, trying to keep your tone light and steady.

You heard the faint sound of his smile through the phone, a soft, reassuring sound. You had never been so happy to hear his voice. "How's the hotel?"

"It's nice," you said, shifting your position on the bed to get more comfortable. "Pretty standard, but it's got a good view of the city."

"I can think of one view I'd really like to see right now," he teased gently. 

Just as you were about to reply, your phone started ringing again. You glanced at the screen and saw the name of your old coworker. 

"Hold on, I'm getting a call," you said, your fingers hovering over the screen. 

"Ugh, okay," he said. "Bye."

"Bye," you replied, a smile tugging at your lips as you ended the call.

You took a deep breath before picking up. "Hello?"

"Heya, Hot stuff. What you up to?" Himeno drawled into the receiver.

"Just got out the shower," You answered. "Why? Is something up?"

"Nah. Well, yeah," She giggled. "Miss Makima's taking us out for drinks to celebrate the success of our last mission tomorrow. She rented out this whole space for us. You coming?"

You chuckled quietly, carding a hand through your damp hair. "I always feel dull at parties."

"You? Dull?" Came Himeno's retort. "This really the same person who used to take body shots off complete strangers back in the day?"

The mere mention of your past self had you laughing all over again. "Times change."

"Married life made you soft?" 

You winced. Sure, perhaps a somewhat-boring life in the countryside with your husband had made you a little soft. But there was something in the way she said it – something that made you tick. You were happy being a married woman. You had been happy since the two of you had eloped at 21.

You were happy, dammit. You just wished it was a little easier to convince yourself of that.

"I don't know..." You trailed off. "I won't be any fun."

"Noooooo... You have to come!" Himeno groaned. You could hear her pacing around in the background. "DENJI!" She called to god knows who. "Back me up here!"

The phone was handed over to someone else – a young-sounding boy. "I'm not gonna force someone to go to a stupid party."

"Tell her to come!" Could be heard very faintly in the background.

"Wait. She's a 'she'?"

"Not just any 'she', thats–"

"You should definitely come tonight," The boy decided. "Name's Denji, by the way."

"Hi, Denji," You sighed. "Could you hand the phone back to Himeno for just a moment?"

"Sure," He answered. "Bye, gorgeous. See you there."

Gorgeous. He hasn't even seen me and he's calling me gorgeous. You had to have been in the twilight zone.

"So, you're coming, right?" Himeno's voice chirped over the line.

"I don't know," You answered (again). "Who's going?"

"Aki's coming. Remember him? Partner? Total hottie?" She replied. 

Total hottie was an understatement. Again, the image of his pretty face flashed through your mind. You squashed the mere thought of it – like an incessant bug. "Yes, we met."

"I'm gonna get a smooch out of him by the end of the night," She giggled. "You can bet on that."

People came and went. Seasons changed. Himeno, however, did not. She was just as crude as you had always remembered her being.

"Just a kiss?" You teased.

"Maybe. Maybe more," She teased right back. "Can you believe he doesn't have a girlfriend? He's 20! That's gotta mean something."

He's five years younger than me... You picked mindlessly at your nails. "Something like...?"

"Dunno. Am I wrong for thinking he's holding out for me?" 

"Oh, to be young and naive again," You sighed. "I was engaged at his age," You trailed off, words hanging in the air for a moment after they had slipped past your lips.

Awkward. Did that slip out?

You leaned back against the headboard, feeling the cool pillows against your back while your mind drifted to the past. You had been so young when you'd gotten married, looking back. You loved him, you truly did. Sure, you had your issues, but didn't every married couple?

The two of you were happy. Still, a pang of jealousy surfaced when you heard Himeno speak so freely about her independence, her sexual prowess. In a way, you felt as though you had been deprived of that freedom far too early.

Your fingers traced the edge of your phone, your gaze drifting as memories flooded your mind. Himeno's laughter on the other end of the line seemed distant, a reminder of a simpler time, unburdened by the weight of responsibilities and commitments.

You were happy... weren't you?

"Hey, you still there?" Himeno's voice pulled you back to the present, her tone tinged with concern.

"Yeah, sorry," you replied, shaking off the melancholy that had crept into your thoughts. "Just got lost in my head for a moment."

"Don't we all," she sighed, her voice softening. "Look, just come down tomorrow. It'll be fun. We can catch up, have a few drinks, and maybe you can even be my wingman for the night."

You chuckled, the sound more genuine this time. "Alright, fine. I'll come. But no promises about playing matchmaker."

"Yay! It's at five," Himeno's excitement was palpable, and it was contagious. "I'll see you then. Hopefully, you can loosen up a little bit. Relive the good days."

"Yeah, maybe," you said, a small, half-assed smile playing on your lips. "See you then."

You ended the call and set your phone to the side. 

Loosen up a little, You thought. Yeah, you could definitely stand to do that.

a/n: shortie but a goodie! i already have most of the story written (so this one doesnt wind up like my 25,000 other unfinished projects), and this was the only way i could think to cut this chapter off hehe. ANYWAYYYY i hope yall enjoyed and are prepared for the TENSION AND SPICEEEE. omg its so tasty i cant wait. stay tuned! its gonna be so amazing. please comment and whatever to let me know your thoughts, wants and desires for this story! or just smth fun. i love reading yalls comments hehe comments + reblogs are greatly appreciated!!

credits: UNKOWN ATM. I found it on pinterest unfortch. If you know the artist, please let me know, so I can credit them properly for their work!!! This is NOT MY BEAUTIFUL DRAWINGGG. I obviously do not own csm or anything related to it. please do not reproduce, copy, or translate my works anywhere. dont fk w me im a bruja.

also: come find me on my wattpad if u wanna interact more!

taglist: @mitsuyeahhh , @sleepysnk , @enneadec , @noaabean , @em1e , @drakensdarling , @bertholdts--butt , @satanlovesusall666 , @mitsuwuyaa , @noctifule , @scaraphobia , @ask-the-insect-hashira , @lovingranchturkeyweasel , @bontensbabygirl , @slvdsjjk , @novacrystalli , @hanmastattoos , @kodzuksn , @hqtiny , @ohmaiscool15 , @redlittlequeen , @leivane , @goldeneagles-posts , @yeahblahlame , @no-oneelsebutnsu , @cookiesandcreammy , @cawwn , @the-haitani-baton , @littlelovebug98 , @armani78 , @mindurownbussines , @kokos-property , @violetmatcha , @hp-simp505 , @acethebrave , @mitsuyeahhh , @sleepysnk , @enneadec , @noaabean , @em1e , @drakensdarling , @bertholdts--butt , @satanlovesusall666 , @mitsuwuyaa , @noctifule , @scaraphobia , @ask-the-insect-hashira , @lovingranchturkeyweasel , @bontensbabygirl , @slvdsjjk , @novacrystalli , @hanmastattoos , @kodzuksn , @hqtiny , @ohmaiscool15 , @redlittlequeen , @leivane , @goldeneagles-posts , @yeahblahlame , @no-oneelsebutnsu , @cookiesandcreammy , @cawwn , @the-haitani-baton , @littlelovebug98 , @armani78 , @mindurownbussines , @kokos-property , @violetmatcha , @hp-simp505

wanna join the taglist? | shameless ; chapter index

[naturesapphic]

Hi! First of all, I wanted to tell you that I think you are one of the best writers on tumblr. Second, I have a request. Would you be able to write another Jade WestxFemReader story? I had an idea for stories where Jade and reader like each other for a long time, but both are afraid to make the first move. They're at Cat's girls' sleepover, it's late at night, and the topics of conversation are getting more intimate. As a result of the conversation, reader embarrassedly confesses that she has never kissed or been in a relationship with anyone. Jade listens carefully but pretends to be uninterested. A few days later at school she drags reader to the janitor's locker and kisses... Please I'm desperate for more Jade stories heh

Sleepover success

Jade west x fem!reader (romantic) cat valentine x reader (platonic), Jade west x cat valentine (platonic)

Warnings: fluff :)

You were outside of cats house nervous to go inside. The only people who were going to be there would be you, cat, and your long time crush Jade west. You were beyond nervous and that was because of her, she could just look at you and your heart melts. You’ve never felt this way toward someone before and you are scared, but hopefully this little crush will be over soon.

You walked up to the door and knocked on it three times. The door swings open and cat stands there’s squealing. “Hi y/n! I’m so glad you are here! Jade is inside cutting up paper with scissors while we tell each other our deep dark secrets!” Cat said innocently and you walked inside her home with Jade doing just as cat said she was doing. “Hey Jade.” You shyly greeted her and Jade gave you a small smirk, noticing how nervous you are. “Hey.” She said as you sat down on the floor near her with cat sitting on the other side of y’all.

It was around midnight as the three of you were telling each other embarrassing things. Cat kept telling stories about her brother and Jade was telling about stuff she hates and witnesses. It was your turn and you thought nothing of it when you said “I’ve never had a girlfriend before, let alone kiss anyone.” You shyly said and cat gasped loudly at you while Jade kept staring at you. “WHY HAVENT YOU KISSED ANYONE?” Cat exclaimed shocked and you just shrugged your shoulders “I guess I haven’t found the right one yet.” You said, dropping the new gold secret about you.

~ the next few days ~

It was after third period where everyone went back to get their things, you walked back to your locker to get your textbook, folders, etc. When all of a sudden someone is dragging you somewhere and you looked up to see Jade dragging you by your arm. “Jade? What are you doing?” You asked her but she stayed silent as she kept dragging you to what seemed like the janitors closet. She swung it open and locked the door behind her. “Jade what are we doing he-“ you try to say but her lips softly colliding against yours stopped you before you could ask what was going on. You stood frozen for a few seconds until it hit you that your crush Jade west was right here kissing you.

You immediately kissed her back even though you don’t think you were doing it right but Jade hasn’t pulled back quite yet so maybe you were doing good. After a few moments you were the one to pull back first. You looked up at jade and saw her green eyes staring back softly at you. You’ve never seen Jade like this, so soft and not terrifying. Jade took your hands in hers carefully and held them “how was that for your first kiss?” She asked you and your face was already blushing from the kiss. “It was really good….” You admitted to her and she smiled cockily. “Are you sure you’ve never kissed anyone before?” She asked you and you nodded your head yes. “Yeah I’m pretty sure.” You giggled and Jade chuckled. “Well for your first time that was really good.” Jade explained with her smirk and you gave her a grateful smile.

“I hope that’s not our last kiss thought Jade…I really like you…” you said as you kept talking you got quieter and quieter. Jade gave you a small smile “I like you too y/n…a lot actually…when I heard you’ve never been in a relationship before and have never kissed anyone before I know I had to take my chance. Y/n…go on a date with me.” She slightly demanded you and you giggled. “I would love to.” You stated shyly and she gave you a smirk as she unlocked the door and had her arm around your shoulders as y’all walked out, heading to the same class.

A/n: I hope the anon who requested this enjoys it and I hope that y’all enjoyed it too! New years request are open for all the characters I write and remember to stay hydrated and to rest. I love y’all!

[floydsglasses]

𝙒𝙖𝙮 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 - Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia (A Quiet Place AU)

Pairing: Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia x AFAB Black!OC/Jasmine

SUMMARY: Monster's aren't the only thing that survivors of the quiet world have to worry about now, the people though they are hunted are the biggest threat of all. Two survivor's out of options agree to help each get out of the vacant city to safety.

Tags: Mention of blood/wounds, post apocalyptic setting, use of ASL, Alien creatures. Drug Use,mentions of death, Stranger's to lovers, Implied Smut, Angst, Swearing, Fluff,

A/N: I based this loosely off the Lord Huron Song, Way Out There, check it out when you can its so good.

WORD COUNT: HAVENT COUNTED

⏁⏁⏁

ALONE,That’s how he felt. Everything was gone and he is one out of many survivors, sometimes he thinks he is the last survivor. He will be walking through an abandoned neighborhood, seeing the ruined car’s and nature taking over it will make him miss everything he had taken for granted, and being able to make a sound.

He missed people, talking to them. He was a person who thrived off social interactions. Always finding a way to include people in the conversation even if it was a small conversation. The only thing he talked with now was the voice in his head, which sometime’s was loud enough that it made him think that it was someone there.

He had no real plan, he just wanted to make it to the next sunrise. Having been living in anywhere that seemed stable till he got bored or had to move. It was lonely spending each day wondering and not having any idea of what to do.

Today was a ‘moving day’. He left a motel six he had been walking since the sun had risen, he thought it would be nice to try and live in one of the high rise’s by the marina. He passed the turned over car’s, vine’s growing into the tire’s and out of the engine.

That was a nice car, he thinks. He bet if he went back to the naval base the F18’s will be overgrown with nature. He looked down sadly, he missed his job, and his RIO. His flat shoes crunched softly, the bottom’s worn out from the use.

CLINK!

He stopped, his hand resting over his knife holster. His brown eyes scanned around him, his heart racing in his ear’s searching for the cause of the sound.

CLINK! He panted as he ran to the other side of an overturned car, his back pressed firmly against the hood of the car, he unsheathed his blade from his leather holster. He inhaled deeply to slow his heart rate. The clinking noise came again.

He bit his lip, hoping that whatever made the noise stopped soon. He didn't know what exact noise the monster’s didn't like. He licked his lip’s gulping. A few minutes later, the noise had gone away at least he thought.

He stepped on the sidewalk, continuing his walk past abandoned shop’s and firm’s, not sure which part of San Diego he was in. He could see some factorie’s, he guessed that he was close to the sea from the gull’s crying.

A sharp pain shot throughout his entire body. He gasped as he fell back into the brick wall, clutching his shoulder, he pant’s stifling a scream that desperately wanted to leave his mouth. He snapped his head, a short black stick with a neon green end stuck out of his shoulder.

“Shit.” He mouthed.

CLINK, he snapped looking up. Two men wearing bandanas covering their faces carrying crossbows in their hand’s look at him. He grunted holding his shoulder as he started to run.

The tip of the arrow dug deep into him as he bolted, their footsteps not far behind him. His backpack weighed him down, slowing his escape from the masked figure. What did they want from him?

He turned a corner down an alleyway. He gasped as he forced against something, a clothed hand clamped down over his mouth, he grunted against the stranger’s hold on him. Stop it, they whispered.

His shoulder ached as he moved his arm’s. A cold metal touched his temple, his brown eyes widened at the circular pressure against his forehead, the stranger's grip on his mouth tightened as the two men ran past.

The warm body of the person behind him warmed his back, what were they gonna do with the gun? Shoot him, or shoot up leaving him as monster bait. The stranger grunted as they removed the cold metal from his forehead, their hand clamped tight over his mouth.

They leaned to their left moving him with them, their free hand gripped a glass bottle tossing it down the alleyway with a shatter. His eye’s widen as a inhuman roar filled the air. Sorry for this, the stranger whispered in his ear before his world turned dark.

⏁⏁⏁

A MUFFLED sound filled his ears. He groaned softly as his eye’s slowly opened, his arm still ached with a sharp pain. He could make out he was surrounded by brick’s, a factory-like place. He grunt’s softly grabbing at his shoulders. 

“Shit thought you were out longer.” A voice grumbled in a whisper. He pant’s in fear as he move’s his arms, a hand stops him.

“Don't move.” They whisper to him, he grabs at their hand. Their face covered by a floral bandana, their hair tucked inside of a baseball cap. Their brown eyes being the only part visible to him.

“Ow.” A female voice muffled by the cover say’s. 

He raised his brows. “How?” He signed, she pointed up at the ceiling.

“Three foot concrete they cant hear.” She signed her motion’s fast, he only knew basic asl. 

“What?” He signed, she shook her head.

“They can't hear,we are too far underground.” She whispered to him, she moved his jacket sleeve off his arm. He furrowed his brow. 

“What are you doing?” He whispered, she didn't answer. He shook his head irritated, his finger’s pulled down her bandana. Her eyes widened at him.

She glared at him as he stared at her for a moment. He hadn't seen another person in so long it was comforting to see someone, especially someone as pretty, what he did not expect was the look of anger. 

“Am I gonna have to handcuff you?” She fumed, she pulled his hand away from her.

“Sorry.” He apologized, she pulled out a needle,thread, alcohol,. 

“What are you doing?” He asked her again, and she looked up at him. “Sewing you up.” She says bluntly, she leaned over grabbing a white rag, his hand pat around his shoulder where the arrow used to be. 

“You removed it?” He asked her. She shrugged, soaking the rubbing alcohol into the rag. 

“Yeah now I'm gonna have to sew you back up.” She  tells him. His brown eyes widen in fear.

“What.wha sew me up?” He stammered. 

“Yes, Unless you would prefer to bleed out.” She joked with a dry laugh, he shook his head. She grumbled under breath, she at him. 

“You don't happen to have vodka on you, do you?” The girl asks him.

“What?” He said, confused, she shook her hand. “What about bleach?” She ask’s. He shook his head. 

“No, What are you talking about?” He wonder’s, she bit her lip, she poured the alcohol into a plastic butter container.

“I'm almost out of alcohol so look’s like I'm using the rest on you.” She says to him. 

She set the thread in the liquid, leaning over to him. “Can you roll this out of the way?” She asks him, gesturing to his gray long sleeve shirt. 

“You want me to do it for you?”She wondered. He shook his head. He groaned as he slowly pulled his sleeve down, lifting it up over his head, his black curl’s falling back down. She flicked on her bright pink lighter with a duck on the side. 

She removed the sewing needle from her bag, moving the flame under her needle. “What are you doing?” He asked, his heart racing. 

“Sterilizing it.” She state’s, he leaned back. He wasn't sure what he was even laying on, just that it was safe for him to talk.  “If blood loss doesn't kill you, infection will.” 

“No offense but.” He gulped as she threaded the needle. The sharp end made his heart drop to his stomach. 

“Your bedside manner suck’s.” He chuckled weakly, she rolled her eye’s. “My exe’s might think differently.” She mumbled under her breath, she got on her knees to his side. 

She inhaled deeply.”I'm gonna tell you now this is not gonna be pretty.” She warns him, he nodded his head. 

“You can hold my hand if you want.” She suggests to him, he whipped his head looking at her. She picked up his shirt, wrapping it tightly and handing it back to him.

“Bite down on this.” The girl ordered him. He pants, taking it from her, putting the gray henley in his mouth, gritting his teeth against it. She grabbed the warm needle hovering over his wound. 

“Take a deep breath.” She says, she closed her eyes as she prepared herself. She winced as she began to thread through his skin. He screamed in agony, his cries muffled from the cloth against his mouth. 

Hot tears escaped his eyes flowing down his face,she winced at the man in pain. His finger’s gripped against her free arm as she continued to work to patch him up. 

⏁⏁⏁

HE PANTED, staring at the concrete above him. The pain in his shoulder diminished thankfully, though he could still feel it. She walked between the wood table set against the wall, she pulls out a shirt from her milk crate. She walked back over to him.

“Should fit.” She tells him, lightly tossing him a dark green henley shirt. He grabbed at it, slowly sitting up against the carseat, he groaned pulling the shirt over his head, being mindful of his patched up wound.

“Who were those guy’s?” Mickey wonder’s, she pulls her plaid shirt close to herself.

“San Diego bandits.” She answers. He furrowed his brow’s. “Who?” he ask’s.

She sighed irritated. “You don't know do you?” She says, she crossed her arms turning around to look at him.

“Their a group of radical’s killing anyone in the city who makes a sound.” She explained to him, he raised a brow. “Why would they do that?” He wondered, she shook her head.

“Because they think that by silencing anyone, they are appeasing god and that he will take the monster’s back.” She explained.

“So that’s why they tried to kill me, to stop me from making noise?” He ask’s her, she shrugged.

“That or they were gonna auction you off.” She says, his heart dropped. “Auction me? Like fucking cattle?” He ask’s, she shrugs.

“In a way, yes.” She answered. She puts her hand on her hip’s. “Some people they keep alive, other’s they drag out, and leave them as a sacrifice.” She explains.

He shook his head. “How do you know so much about them?” He wonder’s

“Because I used to be one of them.” She tells him. She sighed leaning back. “That was two months ago.” She clarifies. His brows furrowed.

“I've been in the city for two years, and never met them.” He tells her, and she shrugged again.

“They did not form till a year ago, and they didn't become violent till six months ago.” She informs him. He shook his head in shock. He was lucky they hadn't found him yet. They could have killed him at any chance.

“And I have some bad news for you.” She speaks up. He looked at her, she inhaled through her nose. “This thing isn't over for you.” She tells him.

“What? What are you talking about?” He ask’s her.

“When they dont silence someone, they will do everything they can to make sure you don't come back.” The girl explained to him, he ran his fingers through his curly black hair, his heart began to race.

“Are you serious?” He ask’s her, she nodded. He swore under his breath as he began to pace back and forth. “But.” She started, he crossed his arms looking at her, not expecting something good.

“I won't let them get to you…if you help me.” She says to him. His mouth parted agape. “Is that why you saved me?!” He wondered, he took a step forward.

“Just because you need someone to help you?” Mickey ask’s, she shakes her head.

“I saved you because I'm not an asshole.” She state’s bluntly.

“Really?” He says with a brow raised. “So you holding a gun to my head makes you less of one.” He remark’s rolling his eyes. Her jaw dropped, shaking her head.

“You mean me holding a car lighter to your head.''The woman tells him. She shook her head again.

“Baby the closest I have ever gotten to being violent with another human was when I held my hand over your mouth.” She declared, he wiped his mouth, regretting his choice of words.

“Look if you wanna go back out into that city and risk the chance of actually losing your life.” She sneered, she gestured up. “Be my guest.”

She step’s forward, her eye’s darkened as she glared at him. “But if you wanna get out of this god forsaken city..then you will help me.” She stated.

He takes a deep breath, collecting himself. “Fine.” He conceded.

“Okay then.” She smirked, she turned around grabbing a small blue book in bold font, San Diego County Map, tabbed with different colors. She placed the book on top of metal table.

“A month ago, I went down to the old coast guard sector, I tried to get on one of their boat’s to work.” She explains opening the small book, opening a map part of the book, pointing at the word’s in sharpie.

“As you can see it clearly didn't work, and I sure as shit dont know the first thing about fixing boat’s.” She admit’s with a weak laugh. “And what makes you think I know how to fix a boat?” Mickey wonder’s.

She reached into her front pocket, a jingling of metal peaked his interest. From her finger’s dangled a chain with a small metal plate at the bottom. He held out his palm as she placed the cold misc on it.

He turned the plate over, reading. Mickey Garcia, Fanboy. US NAVY.He looked at her in shock. “You went through my bag?!” He exclaimed in anger, she shook her head.

“It fell off your bag.” She says, she shook her hand. “You were in the military? So you have some type of knowledge about mechanic’s right?” The girl wonder’s.

He stammered for a moment. “I mean yes, I flew onto boat’s I didn't.” He stuttered, she shook her head.

“Yes or no, can you help me?” She asks him. He sighed, rolling his eyes. “Yes I can help you.” He tells her, her lips formed a thin line.

She extends her hand out. “Shake on it.” She ordered.

“I always shook hands with client’s, it's a sign of trust.” She explains to him, he nods his hand. Gripping her hand in a hand shake. “You have a name?” She ask’s. His brow rose.

“Don't you already know it?” He wonder’s, she shrugged. “I do but you should tell me it yourself.” She admits.

“Mickey.” He tells her. She smirked, impressed. “Jasmine, my friend’s called me J.J.” She says to him, she takes her cap off her head, her curly pixie cut shaking it off.

“I'll take you to the depot in the morning, it's about a three mile walk.” She list’s off to him, she bent down to the plastic crate by her legs pulling out a can of beefaroni. “I'm gonna heat this up,and you.” she points at him.

She rummaged through her pink crate, pulling out a red book. She grunt’s tossing it over to him. He read the title. Sign Language for Everyone: Basic Course.

“There is a safety shower in that back corner, it has only one setting that is lukewarm, I have another hammock you can set up.” JJ tell’s him.

“Oh I don't wanna be a bother.” He told her, and she shook her head.

“Trust me you dont wanna sleep on that seat.” JJ say’s to him. “Okay then.” He says, she smirked turning around, grabbing a chisel popping the can open.

⏁⏁⏁

THE BOAT gently rocked back and forth. She sat at the back of the response boat, gripping her large knife. She covered her face with the bandana again, her short curly hair hidden away in her green baseball cap.

Her brown eyes scanned all over for any threats. Conversation between the two was limited, only because he didn't know ASL as well as she did, and that he was busy fixing up the mistake she had made with the boat.

When she first found it she had tried to find the owner’s manual, she guessed the military didn't leave that out in the open. She sighed bored, she claimed she was an introvert, she usually preferred the comfort of her underground fortress.

Even before the world ended she was happy to be left alone in her crowded apartment. There were point’s where she practically thrived off of how quiet things were now, before the world was to be overrun with noise.

Now actually talking with someone after so long, made her think. A soft grunt’s pull’s her out of her thought’s. She looked up at him, his curly black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

“How is it?” She signed fast. His lips parted as he thought of what she might have said. She shook her head standing up carefully getting up walking inside the cabin. She grunted unhooking a whiteboard.

Day’s without an incident, 28 days. She quickly wiped away the black dry erase getting on her purple windbreaker.

“How is it?” She write’s down, he nodded his head taking it from her, wiping away her previous words.

“Should be fine. Some parts are missing though, do you know where I can get parts?” He asked her, and she bring;s out her book from her jeans pocket. Flipping through finding a directory.

She takes the whiteboard from him. “There’s a hardware store one mile up the road.” She tells. She pretends to write on her arm.

“Make a list.” She sign’s, he nodded his head understanding, he took the whiteboard from her, holding it back up.

“Did you break something in there?” He ask’s.

Her eyes widened, embarrassed. She leaned over taking it from him. “I got mad and kicked the panel.” She write’s.

He covered his mouth to stifle his laugh, She rolled her eyes at him. “I'm sorry.” He signed to her, she shrugged.

“What did you do before this?” He asks on the whiteboard. She smirked, taking from him, drawing a stick figure of a man with a gavel and robe.

“You were a judge?” He write��s.

She shook her head. “Lawyer.” She corrects him. He nodded his head, so that’s what she meant when she said client’s. He thinks’.

“What were you?” She asks him, he smirks, taking the whiteboard from her. “Fighter Pilot.” He tells her, she nodded impressed.

“Have you ever shot a plane down?” JJ asked him, he took the board from her quickly writing down. “I have.”

“How did you get the name ‘’Fanboy’?” She wonder’s, he rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the cabin of the boat.

He take’s the whiteboard from her. “I will tell you later, I can't explain this way.” He says, she shrugged.

“Cool, are you almost done for the day?” She asks him, he leaned back thinking. “A few more checks, should be good.” He write’s.

“Get to it.” She signed, he furrowed his brow at her signing.

She sat up pointing to the cabin again, he nodded his head standing up walking back inside. She sighed again. She glanced over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of his henley slowly moving with his muscle’s. She cleared her thoughts quickly looking away.

⏁⏁⏁

THE BIT OF stray sunlight shines above the steel mill, the small amount of lights dim lit the basement. She marked off on her notebook, sitting on the bottom half of a bucket. She kept a mental note of which tool she would have to take with them tomorrow.

He laid down on the car seat, boredly reading through his ASL book. He had at least memorized ten word’s, the silence air between the both of them was gnawing at him. She wasn't the most talkative person, he could tell.

He sighed loudly. She shook her head, as she returned her attention to her writing. He dropped the book on his chest, dropping his head looking at her. She drops her pencil, turning around looking at him.

“Alright pretty brown eyes, what do you want?” JJ teases him. He resists a smirk at her nickname, he sits up closing his book.

“I'm bored.” He says bluntly.

She shrugged. “Find something to do.” She gesture’s around, he shakes his head.

“Do what? I don't know what this place is,or even who you are.” He point’s out, she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Look I just..want something to do, and I will leave you alone till then.” He proposed.

Her brows furrowed as she thought. She sighed defeated. “Fine, you want something to do?” She repeated his answer, he nodded.

“Follow me.” She orders him, standing up quickly at a fast pace down the hall.

“Come on pretty boy.” She urged, he got to his feet following her down a hallway. She unclipped the flashlight from the wall as the light from above faded away. She pulled her arm’s closer to herself as they kept walking.

“So what is this place?” He asked her, she inhaled.

“Ryan & Edward’s steel mill, founded in 1939, at the tail end of the depression when World War || was starting.” Jasmine explained to him.

“Ran until 1988, Steel Crisis shut them down for good, and it didn't help that the place was a walking death trap at point’s.” She explains, he nodded listening to her smooth voice. She stops at a room with cabinet file’s and a desk.

“If it’s such a death trap why are you here?” Mickey wonder’s leaning against the door frame. She chuckled weakly.

“I don't think I really care if inhaled spores kill me, it would be better than..well you know.” Jasmine admit’s, she shivered as she walked in the office.

She walked over to the desk, pulling on the cabinet with a tug. She grunted, it didn't budge. She peaked over the desk.

“Can you help over here?” She asked him, he dropped his arm’s getting next to her, his grip on the desk handle tight.

“Ready?” He asked. The both of them grunt in effort, the draw came unloose. She stumbled back against him, she put her hand against his chest stopping herself, she cleared her throat turning around, getting on her knees digging through.

“What are we looking for?” Mickey ask’s, she holds the flashlight in her mouth, mumbling to him.

“What?” He ask’s, she rolled her eyes pulling it out.

She wiped the back off, handing the tool to him. “I came in here a month ago, it was late and found these old journal’s down here.” Jasmine tell’s him.

“I found a lot of thing’s down here too, kid’s used this place as a hangout so there is stuff littered here from each decade.” She explains to him, her arm’s covered in goosebumps as she rummages through the drawer.

“Look in one of those file cabinets, you can find some old stuff.” She tells him, he nodded his head, he easily opened it digginging through the past.

“You don't mind me asking.” He speaks up, he looked over his shoulder at her.

“How do you know so much about this place?” He wonder’s.

“Well on top of being a partner with a law firm, I had to study up on lawsuit’s.” She recall’s to him, he furrowed his brow.

“What happened here then?” He asked.

“Funny enough, it was a guy smoking, and reading a porno magazine on his break, he fell over the railing breaking his leg, and he sued his foreman.” She tells him, he shook his head with a smirk.

“That is so dumb, how did it end?” He ask’s, she shrugged again. “They settled out of court for 6, 000, which in the 1950's was a lot I guess.” She chuckled.

She pulled out a bundle of photos, and a journal. “Find anything?” She asked him.

“Old magazine’s, couple photos and…. no way.” He gasped in surprise, he pulled out a plastic baggy with green twigs and dirt, she raised a brow as he smiled in excitement.

“How old do you think that is?” Jasmine ask’s him. He flipped the bag examining it. “I don't know.” He is excited.

“You wanna find out?” He challenged, she shook her head, his shoulder’s slump.

“Oh come on, please.” He pleaded with her.

“It's probably not even good.” She tells him. He steps forward, a cockeyed smile at the edge of his lip’s. “Won't know till we try it.” He says.

“Oh so it’s we now?” She wonder’s. He shrugged, with a soft grin. She inhaled looking away from his stare.

“Okay, if I find paper, we can roll one.” She tells him, he smirks. She turned around, opening the sliding desk top. Basic supply’s of an office, a rectangular object catches her attention.

“Huh?” She says out loud. Mickey raised a brow.

“What is it?” He wonder’s leaning against the filing cabinet, she holds it up. On the paper line of the tape written in faded marker. Hollywood’s Classic Mix, and some more. she smirked.

“I found a radio.” She says to him.

Oh fuck yeah.” He agreed, she chuckled softly at his excitement. He walked out of the room with an extra step in his pace. She picked up the journal and photos following him out of the room.

⏁⏁⏁

THE TWO OF them laughed, after she had cooked up an old can of beef broth with carrots, the both of them rolled a joint sharing it. She scrunched her nose as she slowly inhaled the plant, she no doubt knew it was gonna stink up the space they occupied with their cots. 

“Ugh this stuff suck’s.” Jasmine coughed, leaning over handing it back to him. He chuckled at her reaction. 

“So where are you from?” Mickey asked her, she chuckled looking down at her feet in her Tom’s.

“West Virginia.” She answered. He nodded his head. 

“Alright, how does a girl from West Virginia get in a place like this?” He teased, she smirked, she messed with the coils at the back of her neck. 

“My parents.” She says. 

“Were they lawyer’s too?” He wondered, she shook her head. “Mom was a doctor, Dad was an auto mechanic.” She tells him 

“Yeah really broke the mold on that one.” She remark’s, he inhaled the joint. Coughing holding his chest as he handed it back to her. 

“What about you, pretty boy? Where are you from?” JJ asked him, he smirked. 

“Florida.” He answered. She scoffed. “Not surprising.” She tells him. He raised a brow. 

“What does that mean?” He wonder’s, she shrugged. “You seem like the kind of person who lived in ‘Happier State’.” She states. He smirked, his cheek’s growing warm. 

“Right there.” She point’s, his smirk turned into a grin at teasing.

“What?” He ask’s between his laughs. 

“That..that..your million dollar smile, like how do you do that?” She wonder’s, her lips parted trying to stop her smile. 

“The world has ended, and you still are smiling like everything is good.” She admits. 

He shrugged. “I don't know..I just always smile.” Mickey guessed, she shook her head. 

“They may have taken our sound..but they can't take away our smile’s.” He state’s, he chuckled lightly. 

The soft glow from the barrel fire illuminated an orange hue on his face, his teeth practically shining in the light. Her lip’s formed a soft smile as she gazed on him, on his face she could see smile lines at the edge of his lip’s. 

She looked down. “You're kind of right on that one.” She mumbled, she inhaled on the joint again letting out the same cough.

She leaned over the car seat to him, giving him the joint. She shivered, bringing her arm’s closer to herself. It was March outside, the cool would creep down on some night’s from the shaft above that gave access to the soundproof basement. 

She gasps from surprise at the sudden feeling of someone hand on her skin, goosebumps flooding her arm’s as warm cloth wrapped around her. On both of her shoulders, a navy blue zipper jacket laid unzipped. She glanced at him, he smiled softly.

“Thank you.” She whispers while signing to him. He moved hand back and forward, and away from his chest. Jasmine smirked impressively at the man.  Your Welcome

“Your signing is better.” She commented, he looked away as his face no doubt became redder at her complimenting. He looked down at the joint in his hand. 

“Are you even feeling anything from this thing?” He wondered, looking at her brown eyes, she looked down at herself. She shook her head.

“80’s weed sucks.” He remarked, he tossed it into the fire. 

The both of them leaned back in the car seat, the soft sound of the fire cracking blending with music that slowly played from a radio beside her feet. She closed her eye’s, she fought against the tiredness in her body desperately, she couldn't sleep, she needed to take watch. 

“Fuck.” She mumbles, rubbing her eye’s. He glanced at her, the warm light bringing out her dark features. “What?” He whispered. 

She shook her head.  “I'm trying not to sleep.” JJ admits her voice is quiet.

“Why?” He whispered, she looked over at him. Her dark brown eyes soften.

“I’m supposed to be on watch, remember to protect you.” She tells him, he sits up. 

“You can sleep, I’ll take the first watch.”Mickey reasure’s her, she shook her head.

“No, you're my responsibility.” JJ state’s, his heart skipped a beat at her determination. 

He shook his head. “Well you can't protect me if you are tired.” Mickey chuckled, she shook her head no again. 

“I'll be fine.” She reassured him, stubborn. She stands up to her feet, walking past him. “Jasmine.”

He says, his calloused hand reaching out grabbing her wrist. Her stomach went wild at the warm contact from his hand, his touch gentle as he looked up at her. 

"Sorry.” He apologized, her breath hitched in her throat as she looked at him.

“You've done enough..just sleep.” He says to her in a whisper. Her heart began to race as he pleaded with her, his soft brown eyes practically beginning to concede. She pant’s nodding her head. 

“Okay.” She says. She grabs at the jacket around her shoulder, handing it to him.

“No, you take it for tonight.” He assured her. She smiled softly. 

“Um..good night then.”JJ say’s to him, tripping on her word’s. She walks away slipping her arm’s through the hole’s of the dark clothing item. She lays on her cot that is laid across from his, she brings her nose to the navy fabric of the jacket.  

Deeply inhaling the scent, she could smell hints of the earthy and bit’s of what she thought was apple, she smirked against the cloth as she nuzzled herself into her sleeping bag. Her mind raced with many thoughts.

⏁⏁⏁

SHE STUCK her arm out bored as she walked along the dock. The last two days she had been playing guard to him as he fixed the coast guard boat. She was also doing the most she could to not share the same room with him for as much as she could.

She had been wrestling with herself over the obvious crush that was forming. She knew exactly why she was growing feelings so fast and she hated it. The world had ended and she had been starved of human contact for so long, and clearly anyone who was as lonely as she was would enjoy the company of someone happy like him. 

She spun on her heels, walking back. She twisted her wrist with a knife. The boat rocked back and forth as he walked out of the cabin. He leaned over, lightly tapping the wood making her turn around to face him. 

“What’s up?” She sign’s, he smirked, glancing back into the captain’s cabin. She raised a brow at his grin. He was always smiling. This time was different.

“Is it done?” She asks him. 

He nodded his head. She put her knife back into her sheath, she excitedly walked back to him, being mindful of the noise her feet would make if she jumped onto the boat. She reached out her hand for him to help. 

He guided her onto the docked boat. She gasped as her foot slip’s off the edge, almost touching the water. She sighed in relief, thankful he had a hold of her arm’s. She glanced up at him, quickly looking away as the heat rushed to her face. 

He led her inside. “It should work.” He signed slowly, she nodded impressed.

He reached out to touch the ignition key, her eyes widened as she gripped his hand tight. He whipped his head around, confused at her action. 

“Too Loud!” JJ signs, his lips parted nodding his head. “Sorry.” He says she released her grip on him. 

“Tomorrow.” She promises him.

“We leave tomorrow.” She swears, he nods his head. 

“Let’s get out of here.” JJ signs, he furrows his brow again. He watched her leave, picking up her backpack as she pulled herself back up onto the dock, he smirked to himself. 

They quietly walked next to each other, looking around at the desolate San Diego. She looked down sadly passing by shop’s that were overgrown with vines and leaves. She had moved to the city when she was fourteen, she hated her parents for it. 

She couldn't stand the crowdedness of the inner city, and she hated how close they were to the ocean. Did Not help people made fun of her for being from the south, and how she looked. She guessed the joke’s on them now since she is still alive. 

He tap’s her shoulder. “You okay?” Mickey asked her, she nodded her head. 

“Just thinking.” She signed slowly, gesturing to her head.  “About?” He ask’s her, she shrugged. 

She grabs the whiteboard from her bag, writing with the expo quickly. “How everything is gonna change soon.” She writes. 

He took the whiteboard from her. “Where are we going?” Mickey wonder’s. She bit her lip at the use of we, sighed, taking it back from him. 

“There is an island, rumored to be filled with survivors, about five mile’s south of the marina.”  She wrote in bold, his brows furrowed at her explanation. 

“Is it true?” He write’s, she shrugs, taking it back from him. “I don't know.” She admitted. 

“We are gonna find out right?” JJ asks him, her question mark on the end big for him. He smiled warmly at the use of we. “Yes.” He signed to her. 

⏁⏁⏁

SHE DUG THROUGH her bag, rolling her eye’s frustrated, they had finished off the final can of spaghettios she had. He looked up from his book over at her, his brow rose. He sit’s up placing his book on his knee. She grunted frustrated, as he kept digging.

“What are you doing?” He ask’s her, she looks over her shoulder at him. She sat on the dirty floor showing her backpack.

“I'm looking for something i was saving for a rainy day.” JJ tell’s him.

“You have better weed in there?” Mickey teased, she rolled her eyes playfully.

“No pretty boy, I have alcohol in it.” She says bluntly, his eyes widened at her snark.

“I was saving it for when I.” She stops mid-sentence, she pat’s her leg. “When I got out of here.” She stammered, he nodded his head.

She looked at her plastic container on the ground, she could see the orange lid covering the top of the brown liquid. She smirked.

“Found it.” She whispered. She ripped out a bottle of whiskey, the labeled ripped half way that he couldn't tell what brand it was.

“I thought you were kidding.” He laughed at her, she shook her head.

“No, I've been saving this bad boy for two month’s.” She says excitedly.

“Bad news is we have to share it, so don't expect guests.” JJ tell’s him. She grunt twisted the cap breaking the seal of the liquor. She leaned her head back as the ripe fruity taste went down her throat.

She scrunched her nose up. She pulled the dark green button down closer as she walked over to him, sitting on the opposite side of the car seat, handing the drink bottle over to him.

The radio softly played the mixtape she had found. Occasionally a voice would play from the tape, saying who requested what song and why it's there.

“Ill take my chances.” He tell’s her, he leaned his head back taking a swig of the fruity drink. His nose scrunched up closing his eyes. “Wow.” He say’s.

“How old is this?” He ask’s her, she shrugged taking it from him. “How far into the apoulpse are we?” JJ ask’s him.

“Two years.” He guessed, she smirked. “Two years old.” She remarks, she laughs as she takes another drink.

She gagged, holding her mouth. “You know what, don't know why I thought this was a good idea.” She grumbled, handing the drink back to him.

“So Fanboy.” She speaks up, drawing out his callsign. He perked up

“Enlighten me, how did you get a name like that?” She ask’s, he rubs the back of neck licking his lips.

“Thought you would have figured it out?” He says, she shakes her head, running her fingers through her curly hair.

“I'm not that smart.” She admits.

“Bullshit!” He exclaimed with a laugh. Her face grew red at his compliment. “Sorry.” He apologized to her.

“I kind of have a tendency to get loud.” He explains, she raised a brow.

“Like I'm the one who gets everyone hyped up.” He tells her, she smiled nodding her head.

“That makes sense, I mean you can't even talk up there, and you say so much.” She say’s to him, she furrowed her brow. “Hope that makes sense.” JJ mumbled.

“It did.” He says. He leaned his back again taking a swig of the alcohol. He groaned holding his mouth. Jasmine laughs at him.

“What about you?” He ask’s her, her heart skipped a beat. “What about me?” She wonder’s, he sits up handing it over to her.

“What were like before this all started?” Mickey wondered, she shook her head.

“I was quiet, I never really went out, I only hung out with some friends.” Jasmine recall’s.

“Actually, funny enough my favorite people to hang out with were my parent’s.” She chuckled warmly, biting her lip.

“My dad was always good with people and my mom, she was funny.” She recall’s.

“Aren't all mom’s?” He wonder’s. She shook her head.

“I guess but they weren't my mom.” She says to him, she looks down as her arm’s become cold. She sighs heavily.

“What about you? What were you like?” Jasmine wonder’s, she takes the drink from him, taking a swig from the alcohol.

“How was your family?” She asks him. He laughed and leaned back against the car seat. The Radio playing a soft rock song filling the air.

“Honestly..I wish I was able to stop, like there were point’s everyone told me to shut up.” Mickey admit’s. He sighed, his eyes looking down at the cold concrete.

“But I didn't used to be that way.” Mickey says to her, she listens intently at his confession.

“Believe it or not, I wasn't everyone’s favorite person in middle school.” He recall’s.

Her eyes widened at him. “No way.” She says, he nodded.

“Yeah I was either too loud or too quiet, it really messed me up.” He says to her. She looked down sadly.

“And girl’s didn't want to go to the dance with the boy who rode the bench all year.” He recalled.

“My a’ma though, you would have liked, she was always good with people, and making them happy.” He smiled softly. Her lips began to form a smirk at seeing him, a glint of a tear in the corner of his dark brown eyes.

“She had this crazy horse laugh, and she was so tough but she always meant well.” His voice broke at the end, his breath shook as he leaned over taking the alcohol from her. His face mute as he took a swig from it.

“You know what fucking suck’s about this world now?” His voice grim, she looked down at her finger’s as cold wash over her body. He shook his head as his lip’s formed a thin line.

“I have never felt so alone in my entire life.” He admitted, turning his head to face her.

“This world is so goddamn lonely… it’s suffocating.” His breath shook at his last word’s.

She hadn't thought about it. How it must have been for someone like him, to go from having everyone to having no one. Living in a world where you once thrived off social interaction and now all that’s left is living to die.

The radio scratched over as a voice began on the other end.

“This next song Slider suggested, who knew he was the romantic type?” A male voice teased, static on the radio play as grunt is heard on the other end.

“Shut up Hollywood.” Another voice scolded me.

“I'm just saying you have taste, don't be so harsh.” The man proclaimed. A soft piano began to play as the voice on the other end faded out. A soft old motown song she recognised from the moment she heard it. Bring It On Home To Me.

Jasmine look’s to the man on her left. His smile was gone as he stared down the bottle in his hand. She sighed, getting to her feet.

“Dance with me.” She says to him, her voice clear. He looked up at her, his brow’s furrowed.

“What?” he asked, confused. She took a deep breath. “I'm giving you what middle school you didn't get.” She says to him, extending her hand.

“Now get your ass up.” Jasmine teased him. He sighed in defeat, extending his hand, she pulled him up from his spot. He sat the bottle down.

She smirked, placing her hands behind his neck. His hand’s practically engulfed both sides of her waist, her heart raced in her ear’s as the blood rushed to her face at his actions. The both of them began to sway gently to the music.

it didn't seem like danger was near. It was just the both of them,that what only mattered was this moment with the two of them. The heat of the barrel fire illuminated their shadow’s onto the factory pillar’s. The figure’s on the wall are copying their slow movement’s.

“So this is what I missed out on huh?” He teased in her ear, vibrating against her skin. She scoffed softly.

“More or less.” She whisper’s.

He removed one of her hand’s from his neck, taking it his own. Leading their dance away from her control. She could swear her heart almost stopped.

“Alright Swayze, you got move’s.” Jasmine teases him softly. She chuckled, the feeling of his finger’s laced with her own sent shockwaves through her. Smile peaking through, radiating with a sense of peace.

“Oh I've got a lot move’s, baby.” He flirted, she bit her lip shaking her head. He took their tangled hand, spinning her around. A laugh left her as she twirled back to him.

“You are so lying about not going to a dance.” Jasmine say’s between her laugh’s. He shook his head.

“I didn't say I stopped dancing.” He point’s out, their chest touching as the song slowly began to end. Their brown eyes locked, Her breath hitched in her throat as goosebumps flooded her body.

His eyes glanced at her lip, his gaze so soft it made her stomach flutter. His hot breath peppered her face as the gap between them started to diminish. She panted as she slowly pulled away.

“Should be sleeping.” She whispered to him, clearing her throat. The heat rushed to her face as she rubbed the back of her neck. His black brow’s furrowed, puzzled.

“Long boat ride tomorrow.” She chuckled weakly.

“Yeah.uh, I should get to it.” Mickey say’s, copying the same false laughter as her. She picked up the bottle from the ground, putting it back in her crate.

You are such a coward, she scolded herself. She shook her head as she put away stray objects, and grabbed her knife from her holster. She changed her clothes in the corner she deemed her makeshift closet with her clothe;s hung to dry. She slipped her black shirt over her head, pulling her adida’s sweatpants that had been ripped at the knee.

Of course a guy who clearly wanted to kiss you, you didn't even kiss him. Her eye’s closed as she shook her head. She walked back to where both of their cot’s lay near one another, their sleeping bag’s unmade from the night before.

She sighed as it creaked with the weight of her body, she tucked herself into a sleeping bag, holding her arm’s close to herself. Still wearing the jacket he gave her, basking in its sweet earthy smell. She closed her eyes as she tried to shut her brain off.

The sound of light scratched across the floor fill’s the dead air, the familiar creaking of the cot made her heart race in chest. Heat began to rise against her spine, the warmth made her shiver. She turned her body over, her brown eye’s fluttering open.

They stared at each, neither daring to state the obvious between the both of them. His hand caressed her bare arm slowly trapsing to her face.

Her heart dropped as she finally leaned in, closing the gap between them. His hand gently held the side of her face as their lips moved with one another.

Jasmine inhales deeply as her fingers toy with small hair she could feel. His hands began to wonder at her body .

She ran her fingers to the hair tie that held back his curls. His hands gripped both sides of her hip's, pulling closer to him.

She finally pulled away, panting as she tried to catch her breath leaning her forehead against his. She could feel him smiling.

Jasmine looked him in his eyes, his hot breath peppering on her face. She unzips her sleeping bag, crawling over to him.

His hand holding her as her legs staddled his waist, he sits up the cot creaking with their weight shift. She inhaled deeply as she continuing to kiss him, their body's rocking with each other.

Jasmine's hand snagged the tie in his hair pulling it out with on hand. Running her fingers through his dark curls, gently pulling at them.

His hot breath grazed her as his lips began attacking her neck. She gasped closing her eyes as he held her with both his hands.

Her fingers ran down his back down to the hem of his grey t shirt, trying pull it over his head, he pulled back for a moment removing it for her. She contained her shock at his shirtless appearance.

She had seen him without it before, only she tried to be respectful as she was trying to patch up his wound. She caressed his face as she brought lips back to his.

Her heart raced in her chest. She bit her lip stifling a moan he worked down her neck, sucking on the loose skin of neck, for sure leaving a hickey.

His hand snuck under her shirt, his touch sending shockwaves through her. She pulled back, quickly as she could pulling her shirt over her head, leaving her in a purple brallete.

He looked her up and down. His brows furrowed as he looked at a dark pink fragment on her side. An almost perfect bullet. She panted glancing down seeing where is eyes were looking.

"How..did? He whispered, she shook her head. "it doesn't hurt." She reasures him.

His thumb grazed across the scar. "Are you sure..I don't wanna do if you-" She cuts him off by bringing her lips to his.

Quickly pulling back. "I'm okay." She says, him. His brown eyes are dark with a glint of danger.

"Just don't stop." She orders him with a mischievous smirk. With the go ahead he followed her commend. The fire still illuminated their shadows.

⏁⏁⏁

THE SUN gleaned down at the entwined couple. He held her from behind with his arm draped across her waist, his grip had been iron tight before he fell asleep. She had been awakened before he was, her mind racing with the night’s event and what was happening today. She sighed.

She moved her hand to remove his from her waist, trying to roll to her own cot. He mumbled into his pillow, she pulled his arm off her again as she tried to get away again. His grip tightened as he pulled her back to him.

“Five more minutes.” He mumbled. She shook her head, her finger’s grazing him. “The Sun is out.” Jasmine whisper’s to him.

“So?” He asked, his voice vibrating her shoulder. She bit her lip.

“We are gonna lose daylight, and that's not good.” Jasmine say’s, he grumbled some word’s into her shoulder.

“Why do we have to leave now? Can't we just stay here?” Mickey wonder’s, his voice deepened from sleep. She sighed sadly. “Not if you're being hunted, remember.” She says.

He sighed defeated. “It's a nice thought though, but this isn't a home.” She reminds him.

“Make it one then.” He suggests, she shook her head, she took his hand in her own, kissing his knuckles. “You are kind of cute like this.” She comment’s.

“Kind of? What is that supposed to mean?” He teased, his hand snagged the end of her hips, she flinched from the tickling of his fingers across her bare skin.

“Stop please.” She begged between her laughs.

“Mick, I'm serious.” She playfully elbowed his chest. He groaned. “Fine.” He whispered in her ear, she grinned as he kissed her shoulder.

The weight of the cot shifted as he got up, she could hear him shuffling around, the sound of his clothes being pulled over him. Jasmine brought her nose to his pillow, inhaling his scent as much as she could from the cloth. Her skin felt like it was buzzing from the nights event’s, she had gone a while without the comfort of another human it was like she was awakened.

She sits up, shuffling around for her bra and underwear. She pulled her henley over her t-shirt, her black sweatpants slid up over her legs. She looked over to her makeshift table, he stood over the wooden table, his shoulders tense as stood looking down.

She stood up, holding her arm close to herself as she strided over to him. “Are you making breakfast this time?” She ask’s him, he didnt respond.

Her brow’s furrowed. “Mick?” She speak’s up, chuckling. He didnt speak up, simply sighing deeply.

“Mickey?” She ask’s, he turns around leaning against the table. His face stone cold as he stared her down, his brown eye’s dark in anger.

“You lied to me.” He spoke, his voice flat. Her heart dropped at the venom in his words. He holds up a single piece of paper, in the middle was a hand drawn image of herself with the word’s underneath. Wanted Dead or Alive, Murder.

Her heart sank to her stomach. His breath shook as he lowered his hand, his jaw tensed.

“Mick, I can explain.” She stammered, he shook his head.

“Who did you kill?” He demanded, she lifted her hand’s up. “I.I didn't kill anyone.” She stuttered.

“Then why does it say that? Why is your face on a wanted poster?” He asked, his voice angry. She shook her head. “Have you been lying to me this whole time, who is looking for you?” He ask’s.

“My ex-fiance!” She exclaimed, his mouth parted agape at her answer. She crossed her arms as her body grew hot.

“The leader of the bandit’s.” She tells him.

“What?” He whispered confusedly, she nodded her head. “Yeah…and the person I ‘killed’ ..he was the one who did it.” She confessed.

“So yes, I am a liar.” Her voice was flat with anger.

“Sorry to disappoint you, pretty boy.” She smeared. She turned around to walk away.

“Wait!” He says, she stopped at the sound of his voice breaking.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered to her.

“Tell me everything.” He says, she turned around facing him. His face had softened as he gazed at her.

“Please.” He pleads with her, she sighed as her arm’s tightened. They both walk over to the car seat that serves as a couch. She sat opposite side of him, her breath shake as she runs her fingers through her hair.

“A few months ago my parents and I found this group of survior’s lead by a preacher.” Jasmine starts off, she leaned back against the seat.

“And it was fine, we all lived in this nice community of people, we were happy.” She recall’s.

His brows knitted as he listened to her. “Until the man leading it began to say that the alien’s were sent from God, and that we failed him.”

“My Fiance, before this world he was someone who was easy to anger, and he proposed the idea of appeasing them.” Jasmine admits, his brows furrowed.

“Appeasing.” He say’s.

“You mean sacrificing?” He corrected, and she nodded her head. His heart skipped a beat as his blood ran cold.

“I thought he was just saying it because he was terrified, saying what he thought would be right.” She tells him, her chest heaved as her heart dropped.

“The leader of the group refused, and the next day, Ronan found him hanging in the courtyard.” She tells him.

“Did he do it?” Mickey ask’s, she shakes her head.

“Honestly I don't know.” her voice shook.

“Ronan became the leader, and he started making good people do terrible things, corrupting them and twisting their mind’s.” She says, her brown eyes grim.

“They started to round up survivors, some they would take and auction off, people would become a part of the killer’s, some entertainer’s.” She tells him, she licked her lips, wiping her face.

“Other’s they would take out and leave for bait, drag them out to the river, and force them to scream so the monster’s would hear them.” She sighed, he blinked in disbelief.

He was counting himself lucky he never met them before she saved him. What they would have done to him if they found him.

“That's awful.” He says, shaking his head. She wiped away a tear. “I wanted to leave, and so did my parent’s.”

“And I didn't fully agree with the idea of leaving until he…auctioned off a child to become a sacrifice.” Her voice broke, his fingers laced with her as he held it in comfort. She gulped as she counted on.

“My parents rounded up a group of survivors, and we left in the middle of the night heading for the marina. My mom had heard talk of an island run by a naval man.” She recounted.

“Right when we got to the water, Ronan and his cronies found us, he forced my father and I on our knees.” She looked up at the dirty ceiling, the sunlight reflecting the tears that were starting to fall.

“He forced my mother to choose between us, if she chose my father then I would be forced to stay with Ronan and be compliant with everything he asked of me.” She bit her lip, making it bleed. The copper tasted filling her mouth.

“Or choose me, and my dad would be auctioned off, mostly likely as a sacrifice.” Her heart pounded as a lump formed in her throat.

“And my mom she was always so selfless.” She recall’s, the past tense of her word’s made chill’s run down his spine.

“She turned around and told everyone to run before she..” Her voice broke again as tear’s stained her brown cheek’s. She licked the blood away from her lips.

“Before she screamed.” Mickey’s jaw dropped agape. She covered her mouth as she held back the tears that flooded her.

“That’s not even the worst part.” She croaked.

“Me and another girl, we were running together away from him, and he shot her with an arrow right through the heart.” Jasmine’s pant’s as her mind flashed with image’s.

“He shot me too, but I got away after I made a noise.” She wiped her eye’s again, the tear’s didnt stop. “So they aren't hunting you Mickey.” His name rolled off her tongue.

She turned to face him. “They are hunting me.” She admits.

His arms wrapped around her bringing her into a tight embrace. His finger’s held the back of her curl’s as another arm held her shoulders. His body radiated with warmth as he whispered soothingly into her ear. The tears fell from her face dying his shirt.

“I’m so sorry.” His voice says softly in her ear. She sniffled, Ronan had not shown her that comfort in so long, she had forgotten what it was like for someone to care about her.

“That's why you need to leave.” She whispers to him. His brows knitted in confusion. “What?” He pulled away holding her shoulders.

“You should leave me, take the boat, leave me to deal with Ronan.” She state’s, he shook his head.

“Not happening.” He declares.

“You stay with me, you will die, and I can't let another person die because of me.” She stated, he shook his head.

“Jasmine I'm not leaving you.” He says to her, he is filled with determination.

“I made a promise to you, I will get you out of here.” He stated.

“I swear on my life.” Mickey start’s.

His hands running down to arms.” Nothing or nobody will fucking lay their hand’s on you.” He promised her, her lips parted as she embraced him once more. Both holding each other as the morning sun shone.

⏁⏁⏁

THE BOTH OF THEM WALKED next to each other, their backpacks filled with everything they could carry. She carried most of her own thing’s to make it easy on him. He writes on the whiteboard hold it up to her.

“How was it?” It read, she furrowed her brow’s in confusion. “What?” She asked.

He smirked, writing down more. “What we did last night.” he wrote, her face grew red.

“The sex?” Jasmine asked him, he nodded his head. She rolled her eyes at his question.

“That’s really what crossed your mind?” She jokingly asks him. His brows furrowed

He write’s again. “Good or bad?” He wondered, she shook her head. She takes it from him. “You're a dork.” She write’s. He smiled, taking it from her.

“It was that good then.” He Jokes, she rubbed her face. She fought the smirk on her lips. She was almost thankful he found her wanted poster, the weight on her body was gone and she didn't feel like she had to hide again.

She took it from him. “Dork.” She wrote in bold letters, his face grew red as he took it from her.

Before heading to the boat they needed supplies from a boat shop right by the marina, only a swim from their boat. She wasn't sure how much gas was in the boat. She knew it would take a good amount of gas to get to the island.

Her feet scraped to a stop, the water rocked softly against the concrete. Jasmine turned to look at him, taking the whiteboard again.

“Look for anything that we can use.” She orders him, he nods his head.

“What about you?” He signs, she smirks in approval at his signing.

“Find what I can.” She says to him, he nod’s walking inside. She walked on the other side of the garage letting her hand traipse across.

He grabbed a bottle of lighter fluid, tucking it away into his bag. Items left behind were still on the shelves. He guessed that people didn't really care about supply’s in the apocalypse, he hoped that he could find a type of radio to play music for her again. Seeing it was something made her happy, he liked seeing her smile at least.

A creaking sound pulled him out of his thought’s, he looked around him, his finger’s grazing over the leather of his knife holster. He slowly walked into the store, the hair’s on his neck raising as light footsteps patterned around him. Didn't sound heavy enough to be Jasmine.

He unsheathed his knife, looking down at the concrete, the shadow of someone casting through the isle’s. He pant’s as rounded the corner ready to face someone. His brown eyes drifted down to a smaller teen, their face hidden behind their long hair. Holding their knee’s close to their chest as they rock back and forth.

Mickey’s brow furrowed in confusion. They whispered to themselves continuing to rock. He couldn't ask if they were hurt, he sat his knife back in his holster. Bending down to their level.

“Hey, it's okay.” He whispers softly, they didn't look up. He put his hand on their shoulders to comfort them. “Are you hurt? He wonder’s.

Their blue eyes meet his, a smirk paint’s their face. He gasped for air as something around his throat restricts his breathing. He clawed at his neck as a tight scratch object tightened more and more forcing him up.

Jasmine’s ears perked up at quiet choking noise. She bend’s down hiding behind an aisle, seeing silhouettes casting above onto the metallic ceiling, the choking growing closer to her. She rolled onto her knees, sliding across the floor.

Hiding against a rack of scent tree’s, she peaked her head around the corner. Her heart stopped as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. His neck wrapped with a rope, being held back by three men, another circling him like a lion to its food.

He grunted against the rope. Jasmine turned around, holding her heart as it raced in fear. She looked around her fearfully. Mickey panted as his brown eyes widened fearfully, the three men’s mouth’s covered by bandana’s hiding their identities.

“Where is she?” Red Bandana asked him, he could only understand the last half. He shook his head pretending to be confused. He could see the fabric move from a smirk underneath.

“Ronan isn't gonna be happy, you and his wife.” Red tell’s him, he grunted in anger at the last word. She wasn't anyone's, not even his.

“What do you fella’s say we do?” He asks the three men, they look at their hostage and their mock leader.

“Kill? Or take it to the boss.” He asks them.

“He laid with his woman, he won't take that.” Blue banana sign’s. He towered over most of them, holding the rope tightly with one. Yellow bandana raised his hands.

“What use is he then?” He wonder’s. Red bandana shrugged in response. “Fucking nothing, we kill him, find the wife.” He order’s.

“How?” Blue wonder’s, red look’s to the water behind them, he gestured with his hands around the post. He nod’s as he pulls the black haired man to the ground, Mickey grunted as he fought against the tightrope that drug him to the water.

Blue wrapped the rope around a post. He picked up the former pilot by his shirt collar. He smeared at his helplessness. Mickey grunt’s as he leaned his head back colliding it with the head of the man who held him back. Blue stumbled back holding his nose as crimson flowed from it.

A bottle rolling on the ground catche’s their attention. Yellow furrowed his brow, walking over picking up the bottle examining it. A Hiland milk bottle, the white liquid beginning to fizz up in his hand, furrowed his brow.

It pop’s for a moment, it combusts in his hand with a boom sending him back, yelling in agony as his skin burns, his crie’s cutting with an inhumane cry that filled the once dead air. Blue bandana stumble’s back holding his eye in pain, in his blind stumbling he colluded with the tied up man, he yelped as he fell back into the cold water.

He grunted as he flayed his arm’s in the water, he choked as his lung’s ached for air. The sound’s above are muffled from the water. He panicked, kicking against the water, his chest aching as he fought desperately to kick to the surface. Pain shot through his entire body as the rope dug deeper into throat, he jolted as the strength began to leave him, slowly the sunlight that reflected on him disappeared as the world turned black.

⏁⏁⏁

MUFFLED GRUNTING fills the air, he could feel a pressure on his chest, plea’s from a person. His eye’s shot open as he coughed up water, gasping for air. He coughed water as the world around him began to form. Metal that rocked softly back and forth.

“Your okay, your okay breath.” A voice soothed him, she sat him up. Her curly hair soaked with water, her henley clung close to her body. She glanced back and forth between him and the cabin of the boat.

“Don’t move, I'm getting you out of here.” Jasmine order’s him, she grunt’s holding her side as she stumbles to stand up.

“Are you hurt?” he whisper’s weakly, she groans in response walking back into the cabin. JJ grunt’s as she fumbled with the gear’s of the boat, putting it reverse. Holding her side as she got herself out of the bay as fast as she could, she grunted as she turned hard.

The wind whipped against the boat as she got further away from the city. She looked at the mirror seeing him leaning back against the seat. He coughed as he looked up at the sky that raced away. He held his side trying to catch his breath.

“Come on, Come on.” She mutters under her breath. The city began to fade from her view, she sighed thankful. She removed her hand from her side looking down at her hand’s, her fingers covered in blood, she grunt’s placing her hand back.

The boat began to sputter. Her brown eyes widened in annoyance. “No, No no please no.” She begged for the machine. It groaned and sputtered coming to a stop, Jasmine exclaimed, hitting the wheel.

She limped out of the captain cabin, she slid next to him. She groans holding her side as she let out a sigh of relief.

“What happened?” He ask’s her, and she blinked slowly. She looked over at him, her chin cut up with blood leaking.

“They tied you up, I made a bomb.” She recall’s, his brow’s furrowed. “You made a bomb?” Mickey asked her, and she nodded her head.

“I took AP Chem for fun, it came in handy now.” She chuckled weakly. He shook his head, pounding from the impact of falling in the water. “Are you okay?” He ask’s her.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” She assure’s him, with her free hand she laced her fingers with his. Leaning on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.” she whisper’s.

“I didn't know they were watching us, we should have filled up yesterday.” Jasmine says to him, he shook his head. “You didn't know, it's okay.” He tells her.

“No it's not because we are now stranded.” She points out, gesturing to the boat. “Better than dead.” He reminds her, she scoffed.

“Well you were technically dead.” Jasmine tell’s him, his heart dropped at her words. “What?! I was dead?!” He exclaimed.

“You were under the water for a whole minute.” She tells him. His mouth parted agape, he couldn't recall much after he passed out in the water.

“The alien’s took two of them out, and tried to get me when I was getting you.” She explains, he looks over to her side, her hand held tightly on her side. Bit’s of crimson shining off of her hand.

“Did they hurt you?” Mickey asked in concern, she shook her head. “Its a flesh wound.” She grit’s, he shakes his head.

“You're bleeding, you're not okay.” He says to her, she shakes her head again. “I've been through worse.” She assure’s him.

“We..we shouldn't be far from the island, I think.” She mutter’s, she shuts her eyes as she slowly sits up straighter. “We can fire a.” She sway’s,

“Jasmine.” He says in concern, she lets go of his hand, standing up slowly. Holding her side tightly. “I'm fine.” She lie’s.

He stands up watching her, she grunt’s limping into the captain’s cabin. Pulling out a white first aid box, removing an orange gun.

“Fire the flare gun.” She mumbled, her eye’s rolling in her head as she swayed around. He quickly got to her side, catching her as she fell over. Gently laying her on the chair, he takes the gun from her hand.

“Jasmine you got to stay awake, okay, eyes on me.” He soothed her, her eyes opened and closed, struggling to keep up. “It’s okay.” She whisper’s.

He grabbed the first aid kit, pulling out gauze and wraps. He lifted up the hem of shirt, ripping off the cover. A long straight gash the size of his middle finger, blood leaking down staining her jeans. He holds the cotton to her wound, holding it tightly.

He takes her hand putting on her own wound. “Hold that there.” He says to her.

“Okay, how did you know that bomb was gonna work?” Mickey asked her, she leaned her head back, her eye’s on the verge of closing. “Hey!” He speaks up, his voice clearer.

“How did you make that bomb?” He wonder’s, she grunt’s. “It was milk and chlorine.” She answers. He chuckled.

“You just carry that on you?” He ask’s, she shrugged.

“Doesn't every girl.” She laughs weakly. He grabs the medical tape, ripping it off with his teeth. Placing it around each square of the bandage. She groaned, gritting her teeth in pain, he looked her up and down. She panted, closing her eye’s.

“Hey, don't do that.” He soothed, lightly patting her face. She shook her head, he smiled softly at her. “You don't get to die on me not now.” He declared, she smirked faintly.

“Didn't plan on it fanboy.” She tells him, he nodded his head. She squinted her eye’s looking out at the water. He turned to see what she was looking at, a faint shadow in the distance, the silhouette of what seemed like two people.

He grabbed the flare gun from her side, taking three of the flares placing one in his pocket.

“I’ll be right back, keep pressure on that.” He ordered her, he brought his lip’s to her forehead. He stood up walking back outside. He aimed the orange weapon up at the sky.

As he pulled the trigger it popped as the flare launched high in the sky, illuminating the midday overcast. His brown eye’s fall to the shadow in the distance, two bright light’s flash in his direction. He smirks. He turned around, getting to her side holding her hand as the shadow slowly got closer to the two survivors.

NO PRESSURE Tagged: @cowboysandpilots @bobfloydssunnies @sugarcoated-lame @sorchathered @fairyheart @swiftsgirlfriend @nouis-bum @senawashere @cottagecori @sebsxphia

[heymeowmao]

2024.04.29 - https://weibo.com/l/wblive/p/show/1022:2321325028561374544131

I'll stream for a while then go~~

bgm: 落了白 (Falling White) - Jiang Xue’er

LYN: Hallo everybody, good evening. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning. Welcome to my livestream~ Long time no see. I feel like I haven’t seen you in a long time, so I wanted to have a nice chat with you before my next drama starts airing. C: Act more normal. LYN: I’m not acting abnormal?? Are you starting to have something against me, now? Is it that you havent seen me in too long so I feel unfamiliar? I’m being very normal right now, and you want me to “act more normal”? What counts as “normal”? C: Ning-ge, you’re so gentle. LYN: In your hearts am I a very fierce and cruel person? Or do I normally have a bad temper and I yell a lot? No, right? I’ve always been this gentle.

C: The sound is much lower. LYN: /speaks directly into the mic/ Is it too low? I just need to pull the mic closer. 

C: You haven’t eaten, so you have no strength? LYN: No, I’ve eaten. I had a meal before starting the stream. I ordered some takeout. Otherwise I was afraid I would pass out in the middle of the stream. I ate something before I started.

C: Don’t be so gentle. I feel uncomfortable when you’re not backtalking at me. LYN: Are you sadistic? You need me to backtalk you in order to feel comfortable? That’s weird. 

LYN: I don’t know if I’ll have the time to stream once filming starts up, because shooting a drama keeps me pretty busy. My last drama ZLYM- I actually didn’t have that many scenes. I had very few, and I didn’t have time to stream. I’ll have more scenes in this drama (SJYM/A Dream Within A Dream), so if I had to predict then… I would have even less time to stream. Today’s stream is a preemptive measure- so that you’ll be aware that my future streaming schedule will not be very frequent. Please understand.

bgm: 狂風襲來 (Fierce Wind Raid) - West Out of Yumen/Parallel World OST

LYN: I have a lot to do. If I were only an actor I would probably have more time. But I can’t let go of music, and there’s also the streaming so… I don’t have enough time. I guess I’m also getting older, too… C: You also have variety shows. LYN: The Truth is almost finished- I’ll go one more time and we’ll be done shooting for it. After that, I’ll stay in the drama crew a while. I just need to go to shoot The Truth one more time- a two-day session, then it’s over. LYN: It’s a variety show I like a lot. I went to the first season, and the people there were great. Honestly, I rarely make friends. I can only make some if I’m working with them, shooting a drama or variety show together. I made a lot of friends after shooting season 1, and I’ve made a lot of friends after this season as well. Of course, some of those friends are already old friends. Zhou Keyu and Bai Yu, for example. We shot the first season together. I’m close with Reba, because we’ve worked together twice already. This variety show counts as our third partnership. Now there’s Zhang Linghe and Xun-ge. Xun-ge, I actually did work with before, but that was just roughly. Jin Jing also came to film with us this season. It’s nice to be able to make some friends. It’s a happy thing. Later I will be properly focused on shooting the drama and I won’t have much of anything else going on. 

LYN: There are people making fun of me for being scared. Friends. You already saw how scared I got when we shot the prologue. Friends- you might not understand. I was pretending on purpose. Honestly, I wasn’t scared one bit. I wasn’t afraid. I was pretending. Pretending to be cute. I was thinking since my face is so old, if I acted a little cute, would it make the viewers like me a little more? I was just pretending. You can see my performance in the later episodes. I stop pretending, then. I come clean. Don’t believe in what you see, I was just pretending. Pretending to be scared. What’s there to be afraid of? It’s not scary. Just watch me in the later episodes- there’s not one shred of fear in me. Yeah… really. Believe me. C: I can’t believe you at all. LYN: Believe me. I’m not afraid at all, later. You’ll see. 

LYN: The second season should be a pretty good watch. We could tell when we were shooting it- it’s actually very interesting. We’re a good group of people and we had fun together. The other thing is that I don’t record variety shows often- I don’t much have the time, and there are few I want to be on- so when I am on a show I’m always very happy. I’m happy and relaxed. When I’m not too busy with work, I can find a fun project. While I’m playing, it also counts as work which is nice. I was happy to record this variety show. LYN: Every time I go to record for a variety show, I- 

bgm: Truthfully = A1 Trip/DOBI

LYN:  When I go to record for a variety show, when the time comes for it to end, I feel like I don’t want to let it go. I feel like I only just got close with my new friends and we’d only just worked out how to get along. We’d only just reached the point where we could rely on each other, so having to part with them makes me sad. So… the last time we recorded, I had asked the producer, “Will this program have a season three?” They said, “There will be.” I told them, “I remember the last season, I asked you this same question. You made me wait three years.” /sigh/ And then I asked, “What about the third season?” They told me the third season would come quickly. I replied, “Does it depend on how well this season rates? If KSTLB2 flops, would a third season be hard to pull off?” They did not respond. They used silence as the answer. LYN: The moment they lowered their head I understood. I saw clearly the truth of the situation. The cruelty of it. So, friends, when KSTLB2 starts airing, I hope that each one of you here can promote this very good variety show, this easily consumable variety show, this show that makes you think, this show with a group of youthful and good-looking men and women- to your parents and elders, and brothers and sisters. Okay? Thank you, everyone.

C: I’ve watched the whole first season and can tell you all about it from memory. Looking forward to S2. LYN: There’s a problem with S2… wait- would saying this be bad for the program? /laughs/ The gameplay of the second season is different from the first. Our trust will be on thinner ice. Our mutual trust in one another- that friendliness and closeness one feels upon first meeting- will come back to hit us in the face. For example, when we first see each other: “Good morning! How did you sleep? Not bad? Let’s see what we’ve got for us today. I hope we can solve the mystery quickly.” We’re smiling and everyone’s faces are full of… kindness. But once this game starts- there are five fixed players and each week we’ll get a guest sixth- there’s a murderer among the six of us in each episode. So… the whole process is just us suspecting one another. Indiscriminately suspecting, indiscriminately provoking, indiscriminately attacking. Which leads to…

LYN: Last week, I know you saw me wearing a red wig, right? I’m telling this to my fans, since they would probably follow the spoilers about me- I recorded an episode in a red wig. While we were recording that episode, BY kept singling me out. He kept saying, “LYN’s not normal today.” “Liu-ge, you’re not normal today. This is too out of the ordinary. I have a feeling you’re the murderer.” I asked, “Why?” He said, “Because you’re not talking. This is too different from normal. You haven’t spoken a word all day.” I replied, “It’s not that I don’t want to talk, it’s because my hair is being pulled too tightly. The wig is too tight and it’s affecting my ability to think and respond to people normally. Those functions have disappeared. They suffocated.” Half an hour with that wig was okay. Over an hour and it’s a headache. I feel like it was leaving stress marks on my skull. I filmed with it for several hours. After that day I felt like my soul was squeezed out. I was trying to explain to him, “My wig hurts too much. It’s so uncomfortable. I know it looks good, but the cost is too great. It hurts so much.” He said, “I don’t believe you. We’re all adults. How could a person as smart as I am be tricked by your excuses? I’m right. You are the murderer.” Of course, I can’t tell you if he guessed right or wrong. :) LYN: You can imagine- The wig starts from here, and it’s wrapped around your whole head. All that’s left is a mouth. XD It separates your brain from your mouth- do you know that feeling? It’s like a barrier in the middle. Your thinking, logic, and speech is no longer under your brain’s control. 

C: What are you drinking? LYN: Tea. It’s uh... some tea.

C: How many episodes is KSTLB? LYN: It should be around 10 or so? I think it’s 10, and they’re spilt between part 1 and part 2. I’m not sure. Are parts 1 and 2 aired on the same day? I’m not clear on the specifics. They only gave ten episode’s worth of pay. XD I’m guessing how many episodes there are based on how many episode’s worth I was paid for. 

C: How much do you get paid an episode? LYN: /whispers/ What’s it to you? Does it have anything to do with you? LYN: Also- they pay you for this variety show? I had to buy tickets to get inside. It’s a restricted area and you normally need a ticket to get inside. I bought tickets. They pay? I didn’t know! The production team didn’t tell me. Next time I’ll ask the other guests if they were paid to come on the show. At the time, they told me that if I wanted to be on the program I’d have to send the producer a 200rmb red envelope. I thought about it for three days and in the end I didn’t send it. They were supposed to give me money? Wasn’t it that I had to pay to be able to be on it??

C: If I give 400rmb, can I go in and be a ghost? LYN: You want to be an NPC? You want to PAY to be an NPC? I don’t think you can do that.

C: Is Zhuo Bufan coming? LYN: I saw online that Heroes (Tian Xing Jian) would air on May 4th. I think it’s fake news. I saw the posts- someone online said that TXJ would air on 5/4 and many of my fans were discussing it, saying, “Waa~ ZBF is coming!!” I think it’s fake news. Why? Because they only send me the OST yesterday. They send me the OST yesterday, and I need to go record it. Think about it- the OST isn’t even recorded yet, so how can it air?? So that’s… probably false.

LYN: Later when I’m not doing this job anymore, I can… become an yxh that knows more accurate information than any other yxh. C: Ning-ge, it seems like you would be happy to do it. LYN: No- I’m just saying some nonsense!! It looks to me like being an yxh is really easy, is all. If I want to do it, I’m sure that I could be successful at it. I could be big. Even a media company. I think I can make it. You’ve just got to think of different paths. Being in more than one industry is useful.

- /hears some banging from upstairs?/ LYN: ??? - C: Let us know when you’re looking for employees. LYN: Ok. - C: What’s that sound? LYN: I think the upstairs neighbors are fighting. I don’t know who lives up there, but sometimes in the middle of the night I’ll hear things falling on the floor. There are always some sounds that rouse me. But it’s okay because I always make noise for other people, too. I can sit here in the night listening to music and no one complains about me. So if other people bang and drop things on the floor, I won’t complain about them either. But these past few days I’ve gathered that the people upstairs are playing mahjong. The sound is of the tiles hitting the floor. I’m guessing that after the machine shuffled the tiles they accidentally drop the tray of tiles on the floor. They were probably about to win, got excited, and their tiles dropped.

bgm: 天光 (Heaven Light) - Chongzi OST

LYN: I went to record a song the other day. It’s one I sang with another person, and it should probably be released in a few days. It’s… you’ll know when you hear it. It was a pretty good job, so when it comes out please pay it some attention. I’ve sung a song with someone, and it’ll come out in a few days. I’ve actually done a lot of things in secret.   

C: I’ve finally caught up to a fresh stream. LYN: Alrighty. A “fresh” stream is nice.

C: Lao-da, talk about your music variety. LYN: The thing on Jiangsu Satellite TV? (音乐潮计划/Music Wave Project) We’re still in talks about it, but if there’s any progress I’ll let you know.

C: When is KSTLB officially airing? LYN: This, I really don’t know. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. So don’t ask me. You can just wait for the news. It should be soon, because I know the first couple of episodes are already made. There’s a… song that we recorded and they’ve sent that to us to listen to as well. 

----- Bodhi Seeds > Walnuts

C: I saw the walnuts. LYN: Lately I’ve gotten into polishing walnuts. I don’t know if any of you are like me- once you start with something, you start also thinking about how you can apply it to other things. One thing at a time, you start buying more and more. The more you see, the more easily you buy it. Are any of you like that? There’s just more and more. I can’t stop myself. In the past two years, when I first got into it, I was handling bodhi seeds (passionfruit hashplant). I kept buying them, of all sorts of different varieties. After playing with those for a couple of days, I didn’t find it fun anymore and gave them away to my friends and staff. At a certain point, I had enough of playing with the bodhi seeds. I started playing with Xingyue bodhi. I kept buying them, of all sorts- /describes the types/- and when I was done with them I gave them away. Then I spent a little more and started playing with the Fengyan bodhi. Fengyan bodhi are- to my understanding- the more expensive of the bodhi types. The pricing is actually a little ridiculously expensive. You see me wearing a strand around a lot. (People comment on the price of them, and he just wants you to know they’re a more expensive/higher grade.) Don’t call then cheaper than they are. LYN: At first I bought a 9mm-108 strand, but no matter how I handled it, I felt like they were too big so I gave them away. How did I do it? I separated it into three sections, and gave the two smaller sections to friends. There was a longer strand and the last time Da Fei-ge came for the Carnation Music Festival, right? When they came, I gave Ah Zhuo a strand of Passion Bodhi seeds. Then I gave a larger set of Qilingyan- a lot of you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. I gave him a set of Qilingyan, but he also wanted a set of smaller ones so I gave him that longer section of the Fengyan. After that, I started playing with the 8mm, not 9mm. Now I’ve moved on to the Jingang bodhi. It’s not particular, and I can play with it however I want.

LYN: And nowadays I’ve set my sights on walnuts. I’ve bought a bunch like the baishizi, guanmo, hamatou, and whatnot. I kept buying them, so now I’ve started to polish them. 

C: You’re a health and wellness streamer. (?) LYN: I’m not. But if I brought you my box of beads to show you, you would really think I am. C: Show us. LYN: Nah. - /makes a comment that he really shouldn’t be playing anymore because it’s a waste of money and it’s addicting./ - [t/n: I got lost, so this is the best I could do.]

LYN: I think I’m going to stop at walnuts, though. One day I was recording for the show and I told ZLH I was starting to polish walnuts. When we’re there, both as guests, isn’t it a good thing to try and find common topics of conversation and get some screentime? Friends- in your life and work, if you want to get closer to a person you have to find a topic of conversation that the other person enjoys talking about. For example, if they like talking about skiing, you can ask them about it. Through this topic, you can speak more to each other and understand one another better. So that day I struck up conversation with him, “ZLH. I’ve started to polish with walnuts lately. I heard it’s also a hobby of yours?” But it wasn’t because I knew that he polished them that I started! I just coincidentally saw that it was related to him, so I asked him about it. But he said, “I don’t polish them.” I said, “Oh?? Then…” It was a little embarrassing. “I heard that your fans are called “Walnuts”? I thought that because you liked to play with them, your fans started calling themselves that as a linkage.” Because people who like to play with the walnuts polish/rub them, so I thought his fans called themselves “Walnuts”. But… (that’s not the case). It was pretty awkward. C: Why would you make that connection? LYN: Because a lot of you tell me to stop playing with the beads and to play with you instead! I thought it was some preference for fans to adopt the name of the thing that their favorite artist likes. For example, some artist likes driving cars, so their fans would call themselves “Little Cars”. I don’t know if that’s actually a thing, though? Like, “Don’t drive cars, drive me instead.”?? 

C: Ning-ge, then we are called “chuan” (串)]! LYN: This name isn’t really good… C: Then from now on we will be called “chuan-jie”. LYN: No, no. It’s not a good name. “Chuan” isn’t normally used to describe humans. It’s used to describe… other things. So please, friends, don’t stick yourself with nonsensical labels. 

bgm: Young Captain队长 & ODD Chen Sijian - 超感 (Super Sense)

LYN: Some of you don’t get what “chuan” means, right? It’s used to describe small dogs. I’m explaining because you don’t get it, I don’t mean to insult you. It’s just that someone asked me what it meant, so I’m letting you know. “Chuan” is typically used to describe animals like small dogs. Let’s say you have a dog and it’s a golden retriever. If it has a pup with a samoyed, that mixed-breed would be called a “chuan.” If I say it like that, do you get it now? It mean it’s a mixed-breed. Yeah… That’s how people usually use the term. 

-----

C: We’re called “Yang Di.” LYN: XD I saw your comments on that. Did it air yesterday or today? I forgot. Hello Saturday. Oh, it was the day before yesterday. I was partnered up with YD and there were some activities that required me tohold on to him. And then- - LYN: Wait- hold on. I just saw a comment that read, “Did you do cosmetic surgery again?” Hey- where do you think I look good? :) Do you think that I am better looking in some way? Where? Tell me. Say it out loud. Tell me. I want to know. Someone just asked if I had cosmetic surgery, so I want to know where they think I look nicer. Hm? - *clicks his tongue* C: Your eyes look prettier. // You eyes are bigger. LYN: Did I get double-eyelid surgery?? I opened up the corners of my eyes? C: Your skin looks more exquisite. LYN: No- that’s because of the beauty filter. LYN: I didn’t get surgery. I wouldn’t have the time to recover. Also I don’t think that cosmetic surgery can save me. If I want to change myself- change this face- I’d have to change my whole head. A project so small as cosmetic surgery can’t save me anymore. - LYN: Continuing on with YD, for the game I had to hold on to him, right? I saw there were some of you who wished you could become him. You really… Did you know in fighting there’s this method called- called… /has to do the action to get the word/ a headlock? Normally, I think a person would pass out within five seconds if they were really subject to one. 

LYN: It’s kind of hot. Let me turn on the AC. I’ll go turn on the AC. Watch a video first, and I’ll  use the restroom while I’m up. Let me find something. There are a lot of new videos but I haven’t saved them. I’m sure you’ve already seen enough of the ones I already have. 

---------- Break #1 - 52:35-52:45 Daimi Time! LYN: Is this what they mean when they say “so hot you become a dog”? “Hot like a dog”. Is this what they mean? /to Daimi/ I’m talking about you. It’s okay- you can open your mouth to pant. It’s okay. Continue. LYN: She just got back from a bath. My ge sent her back. She just went for a wash so now she's excited. We’ve given her a blow-dry so her fur is fluffy. C: She looks quite heavy.

LYN: Yes. C: How many kgs is she? LYN: I think she’s about 14kg now.

C: The mic receiver is too good. LYN: Yes, nowadays mics are really good.

LYN: Let me sing a song! What do you want to hear? I’ll sing it. LYN: This song is good. Let me gift it to all of you and I hope that if any of you are lost in the dark and can’t find your way, you can find you light in the darkness. This song is for you.

-- 黑夜一束光 (Praying)

LYN: I heard a song the other day I really liked, so I want to sing it. /looking it up/ Oh, that’s what it’s called. … There’s no arrangement for it. I was thinking I would sing it for fun, but there’s no track for it. LYN: ??? Why is there so much white noise?? /troubleshooting/ Let me turn off the AC. LYN: /testing/ Oh, whatever. I don’t care. Let there be white noise. It’s not the sound of rain.

bgm: 世世 (Lifetime) - The Legend of Shen Li OST

C: I want to hear 啊默契 (Till the End) LYN: Okay. I can sing that. - /starts/ /stops/ LYN: Hold on. Sorry, let me start again. -- 啊默契 (Till the End)

bgm: 撞地球 (Earth Collision) by Yu Er Qi

LYN: Let me drink some water, hold on. C: 昨日少年 (Youth of Yesterday) LYN: /sings(?) it/

C: When will you get a new drama? LYN: You- you must not be my fan. Of course, it’s okay even if you’re not my fan. There’s still a chance- a slim chance that you could still become one. My next drama starts filming tomorrow. Today is night before recording starts and I will officially start my new role tomorrow. 

C: Use that style of singing to sing 奉上 (Offer). LYN: /does it/ LYN: I usually sing just like this, and what you hear when it’s released is what they’ve fixed during editing and production. This is how I usually sing. LYN: /sings more/ LYN: Isn’t it nice? It’s perfection. -- 奉上 (Offer) - A Journey to Love OST (tone deaf ver.) -- 奉上 (Offer) - A Journey to Love OST (ft. Daimi)

-- 一念关山 (A Journey to Love) by Richie Jen LYN: ?! Is it going to keep playing? 

-- 立剑 (Establish A Sword) by Zhang Jie Daimi: /barking/ LYN: /to Daimi/ Have you gone crazy? Huh!? What are you barking for?? LYN: I don’t really know this song ^^; Also the key is too high. It’s too high. I remember there was a previous stream in which I swore I would never sing Zhang Jie-laoshi’s songs again. Because they are too high. There’s no need to make things difficult for myself, you know?

-- 别梦寒 (Don’t Dream of the Cold) LYN: This song tires me out. I don’t really have the strength to sing this one. I can’t sing it. 

LYN: I can sing OSTs today! Let me see what OSTs LYN has sung… C: 拂晓 (Dawn) LYN: The one that just came out, right? Harbin 1944 (In the Name of the Brother)? -- 拂晓 (Dawn) - Harbin 1944/In the Name of the Brother OST LYN: Thank you. C: This song is amazing. LYN: When I received this OST, the main reason I accepted was because I haven’t released this type of song lately. I haven’t had this style of song, and it was quite nice sounding, so I accepted it. 

LYN: Am I trending? For real? I’m such a small-fry artist, but I have the honor to be trending? I don’t believe it. Let me find another OST… LYN: Hold on… there’s no rush… - /hums a little of 如果爱还记得 (If Love Still Remembers) - Wonderland of Love OST/ LYN: I know what to sing. I should sing this, shouldn’t I? By all means, I should sing it. (bc LYT is the lead ) -- 朝暮 (Morning and Evening) - Warm on a Cold Night OST LYN: Thank you. C: What song is this? LYN: I can’t believe so many of you are asking what song this is. My fans all know it, right? If you don’t know, then I think that’s also okay, because I release a lot of songs so if you can’t remember them, that’s fine.

C: Trending in the Entertainment tab at 32. LYN: It’s all positive, right? What I mean by that is no one is in there hating on me, right? “What gives LYN the right? When he looks so ugly??” It’s nothing like that, right? What are the contents of the trending topic at 32, friends? It’s not a new “melon” that says I’m in a new drama and who I’m acting alongside, and the comments are all people asking “What gives LYN the right?”, right? C: It’s positive. LYN: Oh, okay. Then it won’t get a very high ranking. I’ll drop off of it in a bit. C: It’s “LYN_Livestream”. LYN: That’s okay, then. I’ll drop off of it later. Usually all the topics that are hating on me rise up in ranks quickly. But for a small-fry like me, just being trending is thanks enough. I’m thankful to have you.

C: I want to hear 愿光 (Wish Light). LYN: Let me see if I have it. I really haven’t sung this live before, have I? I can’t sing it, because it’s not on this platform… Forget it. I won’t sing it, then. I won’t open the other app because it’s complicated to go between them.

LYN: There is one song I really like! I don’t think I’ve sung it before. Sometimes I don’t sing them live because I’m afraid that I won’t be able to. There are some songs that I know while I’m recording them are so difficult to sing and record. When I look back on them, I’m afraid to sing them because I’m afraid I won’t be able to pull it off. Oh, but there isn’t a track for this song. - 隐侠 (Hidden Hero) - 赘婿 (Zhui Xu/My Heroic Husband) Donghua Opening Theme LYN: Let’s forget it, since there’s no track for it.

LYN: This works, right? It’s also an OST. If I’m remembering correctly it’s for the Palace Museum, right? An OST to promote the Palace Museum… I really like this song. It’s about the inheritance of our national treasures. -- 传承 (Inheritance) - Palace Museum Cultural Relics Promotion Song

C: 千里江山 (The Vast Land) LYN: I can do that.

C: 一生有多远 (How Long is a Lifetime) LYN: How does that one go? It’s one of my songs, right? /looks it up/ Oh, it is my song. You know what is suitable for this song? If you have a cup of coffee- oh, no. Coffee doesn’t work. It’s a more nostalgic song. I don’t think I’ve ever sung this live. Let me give it a try. Actually I don’t remember if I have sung it or not. I forgot. I can try. - /misses the timing/ LYN: The mic just broke. There was just a little problem with it. Excuse me. It’ll be good in a sec. Let me make adjustments. Sorry. Yeah, the stream froze. - /water asmr/ LYN: Let me try that again. Apologies. - /Daimi starts barking & growling/ LYN: ?!? LYN: She’s trying to steal my limelight. /sigh/ - /walnut asmr/ LYN: Is the sound of them loud? D: /growl/ LYN: Shush! -- 一生有多远 (How Long is a Lifetime) - The Curious Tale of Mr. Guo LYN: Sorry- I’m not really familiar with this song. I’ve already forgotten it; it’s been too long. Next time I’ll learn it properly and sing it for you. Sorry. /keeps apologizing/ C: It froze! LYN: It didn’t freeze, I just forgot how to sing it. It’s been way too long! And I haven’t ever sung it. Sorry.

LYN: Let me see what else I have… what other OSTs. /types in “OST”/ Oops. I meant to type “LYN”. /sigh/ - 专属蓝天 (Always Be With You) - Dance of the Storm OST - 烟火星辰 (Fireworks and Stars) - You Are My Glory OST LYN: This will do. - /narrates/ -- 莫问前程 (Don’t Ask About the Future) - White Cat Legend OST LYN: Thank you. How awesome is this song?!

C: 向死而生 (Live to Die) LYN: I don’t think I can sing it live. I’d have to be in really great condition to be able to pull it off. When I finish singing that song I “want to die”. (向死 (towards death) vs 想死 (thinking of death) - homophonic joke) I really like the song, I really do. But it kind of makes me “want to die” when I sing it. Let me see… How about I give it a try? -- 向死而生 (Live to Die) - Burning Flames OST - /cracks at the chorus/ /clears his throat/ LYN: The mic broke a little just now. It’s super unstable. Let me try again. -- 向死而生 (Live to Die) - Burning Flames OST [take 2] - /pulls off the chorus this time/ /clicks his tongue/ /finishes up with minimal difficulty/

C: Let’s chat. LYN: /nods/ Ok.

-----------

bgm: Fall in Love

LYN: I want to thank everyone who is watching my stream right now. If at this moment you have not subscribed to my weibo, please do so. Thank you. I know many of you might be watching my stream for the first time. It’s nothing special and there’s no particular uniform. I just come when I have some time and chat with my fans, sing a few songs, and help everyone relax a little. That’s all.

C: How do I send presents? LYN: My presents are closed, here. This stream is a benefit for you all. You don’t need to spend a dime for it. But I hope that one day when I have a concert, you have enough money to buy a ticket and see me live. Okay? Thank you.

C: Ning-ge, when will you start filming? LYN: I start tomorrow, but I don’t know when the official “start” date is. I’m not sure because I don’t really care about that type of thing. As an actor, all I need to do is work on pulling off my scenes well. As for promotion… /trails off/

C: When you were being interviewed didn’t you tell us “Just you wait” because you were going to scare us? LYN: I wanted to at first, but I thought about it and decided to forget it. I thought about scaring you by telling you I was going to stream tonight, and then not streaming. Do you think that type of scare is big or not?

C: Why didn’t you sing this song on Hello Saturday? LYN: Right- because I needed to sing a song with a “beverage” in the lyrics, right? “Whiskey and ice, my music and you.” You’re right. I didn’t think of it. There were too many songs, I couldn’t react quickly enough. 

LYN: The thing I like about streaming on weibo is that it is always upgrading with new functions. Many of you have the special effects, when you type. You can also turn the special effects off, so it won’t affect your typing. In the menu, you can select to turn off the special effects.

C: Ning-ge, will  KSTLB still have a press conference? LYN: The Truth… press conference… we recorded it already, that day. There are spoilers online, aren’t there? Of us wearing school uniform-style? That’s the press conference and it will probably be aired later. I don’t know. I’m sure it will at some point. The program prepared a huge amount of content. Other than the main episodes, we recorded a lot of… other stuff.

bgm: 万物盛开法则 (The Law of Everything in Bloom) - Da Zhangwei

C: Is  KSTLB2 scary? LYN: It’s terrifying. But I was not afraid. This time around I show a very manly side to myself. I’m more firm this time, because I’ve already seen through all of the program’s tricks. LYN: I was only scared into crying, is all. LYN: It’s okay. You can watch when it comes out. It’s quite fun.

C: Lao-da, please I’m begging you to flip me. LYN: I’ve flipped you.

C: Tell me, is Reba really beautiful in person? LYN: /laughing/ Why are you spamming that? There’s really no meaning in you doing that. There’s no point. Other than someone who’s “250” (a fool or someone who doesn’t take things seriously) like me, no one else would dare to respond. LYN: The way I see it, if you only think of a girl in terms of “pretty” or “not pretty”, then I think you’re really shallow. Do you understand? My stance is that if you only care about her appearance and not her mind, then you’re a little shallow.

LYN: My hope for KSTLB2 is that- Ive said before that it’s a program that I really like. We had great time shooting the first season. When it aired us cast and viewers had a great time watching. There was a great atmosphere around it. I hope that this time the atmosphere will be equally as good. Because… when you record together for a few days you start to develop this inexplicable group cohesion. I hope that when you’re watching- to my fans, at least- you don’t watch with a competitive eye. You’re not watching to compare who is better looking or smarter than the others- it’s not that type of show. We’re watching for entertainment, and relaxation is the key. If you’re watching with any intentions in mind, you won’t be able to “see” anything. 

C: You look a little like LYN. LYN: Really? I get that a lot. 

C: Did you have fun playing with water on Hello Saturday? LYN: It was quite fun, actually! Last time I went to Changsha I had the time to shoot two episodes. The crew is really great. If there’s any ever plans for fun content for the show, they will contact my studio to see if I have time and am interested in going to play. We’re having fun. I’m pretty close with the group, too. Before, I was always in the drama crew and didn’t dare to go. But this time I happened to have two day’s worth of time, so I asked them how many episodes they were planning to record for. They told me they were recording two episodes, so I asked if I could do both. I was going to be in Changsha anyway, so if I could record two eps in the same trip, wouldn’t that be great? They agreed, so I went and got shot with water. It was pretty tiring, though. And I… didn’t come out of it uninjured. I was pummeled. LYN: You saw the episode the other day, right? The part when we needed to grab the flowers off a player’s back? I was able to grab it and then fell to my knees, right? And then I started heading for the goal- C: Face breaks. (when he was intercepted and scooped up by Yu Yang) LYN: No, not the face break. It doesn’t have to do with that. I was on my knees and the pants- they’re like exercise pants- they rubbed off a layer of skin on my knee. When I went to Disney later my knee hurt. It straight removed a layer of my skin. It’s okay now, though. /shows us his knee/ It was fierce. I gave it my all. LYN: I thought it was a lot of fun, though. I used the time to relax. It’s nice to be able to record for a show and have fun doing it. The guests were all great and we had fun playing together. C: In the end the flower was stolen by someone else. LYN: It’s okay. I’m really just gong there to have fun. Some variety shows are like a vacation for me. I don’t consider them as work. Hello Saturday is one of them- I only go to play.

C: What’s the scar on your left hand? LYN: Huh? There’s no scar. What scar on my hand? I don’t have one. Do you really think I’m so fierce? I used to have a nickname called “Knife Scar Liu”. /laughs/ I am the “Boy with Knife Scars”- I have scars from knives on my hands. Super fierce.

C: /commenting it’s their b-day/ LYN: Is someone celebrating their birthday today? What a coincidence. Since it’s your birthday and I’m streaming, I’ll wish you a Happy Birthday. Okay? Happy Birthday~ 

C: It’s my 13th marriage anniversary, and I hope to get your blessing. LYN: You have my blessings! I’m jealous that you have such a happy marriage. 13 years today, is it? Then, I’ll gift a song about love to you. What’s a good song to celebrate your 13th marriage anniversary with? And don’t you joke with me, saying 分手快樂 (Happy Breakup). A proper song. Something that wishes people health and happiness. Is there any song like that? C: The Song of Tui Town (KSTLB S2 Theme) -- The Song of Tui Town

LYN: Not that! I was just kidding. What song is there? C: 甜蜜蜜 (Sweet on You) LYN: … C: 给你给我 (Give You, Give Me) LYN: Alright, let’s do it. All of his songs are on the other platform. I’ll give it to you and open it up… LYN: Let me find the lyrics. I just wanted to try, to see if I could sing it in this key. // There are no lyrics, here. It’s okay- let me look them up on my phone. LYN: This is for the friend who is celebrating their 13th year marriage anniversary, and for all of you who are celebrating your 10th year marriage anniversaries. I hope your marriages are all full of happiness and fulfillment. I’m happy that you’re able to be together. -- 给你给我 (Give You, Give Me) by Mao Buyi LYN: That’s about enough. But since I’ve opened this app I might as well look at what other songs I can sing.

LYN: Okay, forget it. They don’t have it. That’s enough, I guess. I couldn’t find it. C: 愿光 (Wish Light) LYN: Oh yeah. Well, since I have this app open, I might as well look it up. LYN: There’s no track for it. There’s really no track for it. - /hums along instead/ -- 愿光 (Wish Light) - The Legend of Anle OST

----------- Break #2 (the neighbors are fighting) bgm: 如果爱还记得 (If Love Still Remembers) - Wonderland of Love OST

C: What is the story of SJYM about? LYN: I don’t know. I’m not even in that drama. I told you last time, didn’t I? The account followed me because they want me to sing the OST. How would I know what the story is about? I’m not qualified to look at the script. C: Didn’t you accept the OST? LYN: Yeah, but do I need to read the script to find out the story in order to sing it? You must be joking. Do you think there are no rules in this industry? C: Ning-ge, you lied. You’ll gain 10kg. LYN: I didn’t lie. How would I know what the story is about?

bgm: 黑夜一束光 (Praying)

LYN: Maybe it’s because we had made a prior agreement, that they would let me go cameo in a role. We’ve worked together before, so maybe I could cameo for them. The agreement was a song and a cameo. I agreed and told them that if I had more time, I could cameo in more than just a few scenes. I could show my face and it’d count  as another project with them.  

C: What are you doing tomorrow? LYN: … I’ll be filming with a drama crew tomorrow. I have my own scenes to do. We start filming tomorrow and I’ll have to log off later and do my homework. I’ll be starting in my new crew tomorrow. What about it? C: What drama is it? LYN: It’s a secret right now, I can’t tell you. The project is too large-scale. I need to keep it secret. LYN: Fine, I’ll tell you. It’s called- Rebirth: I am an Alien. Its a scifi drama. Ill be joining it tomorrow.

LYN: Some of you have been asking about “Chang Ling” since I’ve started streaming. I’ve never heard of it. It’s not that I’ve bever heard OF it, but just that I haven’t heard from my studio that this project has ever looked into me. Maybe they were looking for someone else, and you’ve misremembered? I haven’t heard of this project coming in.

-----

C: Lao-da, are you not off on 5/1? LYN: Ever since I started working, I’ve never known what it is to have a “holiday.” I used to be in the bar singing and and in a restaurant as a waiter. Back in those days these holidays are the days I was the busiest. Dadong is a tourist city, too. So when I was a waiter back then it was my busiest times of the year. I’ve never had a job with consistent holidays like that. C: Did they give you 3x salary? LYN: No, we didn’t get any bonus pay. You don’t see that very much in the service industry… or, I don’t now- maybe because my city was smaller. There was never any 3x salary on holidays. I’ve never heard of it.

C: Have you had 五险一金 (five types of insurance and housing provident fund)? LYN: Never. I’ve never worked in any official enterprise. I was working in restaurants and bars- there’s usually no guarantee and you don’t sign any contracts. It’s just a verbal agreement of work. Usually, like when you go to work- - D: /starts barking/ LYN: Shush! D: /growling that sounds like an engine revving/ LYN: Are you pretending to be a motorcycle?? Are you getting ready to take off? - LYN: - I’d never been in any standard job. Many of you are in college now, right? All of you who are in college or grad school will likely move on to work in a company, and those places will have the insurance and standard pay. People in the servie industry don’t have that. Most of the time we’re in verbal agreements with no official contracts. They’re afraid of you walking out or stealing a piece of rib. This is why most places will make you give a deposit. For example if you get 1200rmb for the first month, they’ll keep 800 and let you take home 400. When you want to quit, theyll return that deposit to you. When you want to quit you have to let them know one month in advance so they can find another worker, and then they’ll return the deposit to you.

C: They keep more than half of your month’s salary? LYN: Just about. C: It should be regulated now, right? LYN: I doubt it. I don’t think it’s totally unregulated, but- not like I understand it very well. When I was in the bar a few years ago, it was still like that. That’s just the way the industry is. It’s not very formal to begin with. There are no contracts, just agreements. There’s a high turnover.

C: Ning-ge, did you ever want a 9a-5p job? LYN: I don’t know. I think it’s more stable for sure, but ever since I was little I wanted to be a celebrity. So I probably decided early on that there was no way that I’d be in a 9a-5p job at some company. You all know that I’m not very highly educated, either. After high school I went straight to culinary school to learn how to be a cook. Of course, a lot of people use my education to ridicule me, saying “LYN is uneducated.” That’s why I admit to it. I’m jealous of those of you who are good at school. Many of you are in college or graduate school, learning to become doctors and professors. I’m happy for you and jealous of you. You’re all very great, so keep doing well in school. I’m sure that you’ll be doing even better than I am in the future. LYN: If you really wanted me to work 9a-5p, I don’t think I would be used to it. I have a break out personality. (does not want to be constrained)

C: Making something you like into your job is the greatest thing. LYN: It’s fun at first. Um… everyone has their own difficulties. No matter what industry you’re in, what you’re doing, or what position you hold, everyone has their own hardships. It’s just that the hardships are not all the same thing. For example, I like to sing. After I made singing into my profession, there were bound to be things I didn’t want to do. You’ll find out that things aren’t as nice as you thought they would be. Taking something you like and turning it into your job to be able to make a living IS a happy thing. But once you actually start doing it you’ll find that it’s not as happy as you thought it would be. You’ll start to feel like you’re losing something you once enjoyed. 

bgm: 我只愿朝着光 ( I Only Wish to Face the Light) - BYOL OST

C: Lao-da, I hope that you are happy. LYN: I am very happy. I’m very happy now. I’m very happy. I’m not unhappy. I’m very happy. Right now I’m… extremely happy. - [t/n: why does it sound like he’s trying to make himself believe it??] LYN: Why wouldn’t I be happy? What right do I have not to be? I have so many people who like and indulge me. I have work and people who support me. Why wouldn’t I be happy? There’s not reason to not be. Really! The reason is because “happy” or “not happy” are not important to me anymore.

C: What is important? LYN: What’s important? Of course, there are things that are important to me. That is… Wow, forget it. Do we have to talk about such deep topics?? I don’t want to. Let’s not go there. I don’t want to talk about it. Weibo is a public platform. If I speak too much on it people will say that I’m pretentious. No one will think I’m being transparent or whatever. They’ll only think I’m being pretentious. What’s there to say? Everyone has it hard. No- it’s not hard on me. Everyone has their own way of living and their own life. Our experiences are not the same. There’s no way to have empathy, so I don’t see the need to share too much. It’s all okay.

-----

C: When you were recording for KSTLB, did you have nightmares? LYN: No. It’s actually not that scary! I already told you I wasn’t afraid. Honestly! I wasn’t afraid. Not one bit.

LYN: There are more people in the comments saying, “Lao-da, I hope that you are happy.” I’ve never presented myself as a weak/vulnerable little boy, have I? I don’t need it. I’m already a man who’s into his thirties. I don’t need you to comfort me. I can get by on my own. LYN: There’s nothing wrong with me! I don’t know why, all of a sudden, the mood has taken this turn. You’re making it seem like I’m very sad right now. I’m not! I’m very happy!! If I dropped off the trending topics, I would be sad. Have I dropped? Have I dropped off the trending topic ranking, friends? Am I still there? If I am, then I won’t be sad. If I’ve dropped, then I’ll cry right away. C: You dropped. LYN: /sobs/

C: Lao-da, I want to see you act as a dominating CEO. LYN: Dominating CEO? ~ You mean to say, that you wish to see my shoulders carry a whole business empire? Alright, no problem. I want to know who the girl that posed this comment is. Get me all her information within three minutes. ~ ~ Later you can find my butler to discuss the details of our collaboration. Remember- this isn’t a discussion. It’s a notification. ~ C: That’s so greasy. LYN: How was that greasy? Aren’t they all like that??

C: I want to be the butler. LYN: ~ You wish. ~

C: Dominating CEOs themselves are greasy. LYN: That’s bs. How are they greasy? Aren’t the really popular dramas lately of the dominating CEO variety? Maybe I was overexaggerating a little bit in my demonstration. That’s the type of performance you’d see in mini dramas. But honestly… aren’t all the characters in dramas right now the dominating CEO type? They’re just not modern drama CEOs, but historical drama CEOs instead. Right? In guzhuang dramas there are the kings or whatever- aren’t they all the dominating CEO? It’s all the same, we’ve just changed the identity. The model is all the same. The guy who would rather fail the world than fail this one girl. Isn’t that the dominating CEO’s M.O? LYN: ~ Look. Ahead of you are the lands I’ve won for you. From now on, you will be my only empress. If anyone dares to touch you, I’ll have them beheaded in front of the masses. ~ LYN: Aren’t guzhuang dominating CEOs like that? It’s all the same! LYN: ~ Look. This is a hall I’ve purchased for you. You can go in and take whatever you want from any of the shops inside. ~ LYN: It’s all the same, isn’t it? Your dominating ceo is just showing up with a different identity in a guzhaung drama, is all. // A lot of warlords are the dominating ceo type. So when you tell me to act as one, I actually already have. 

C: Then, how would an alien dominating ceo act? LYN: /laughs/ Ohh, is that how it is? I was telling you that tomorrow I’ll be starting a new crew, for a drama called Rebith: I Am an Alien. How does an alien dominating ceo act? Hmm… LYN: ~ You want the Earth? Okay. I’ll take down the Earth for you. From today on, you are the lord of this planet. ~ LYN: ~ What was that? You want the Sun? Alright. I’ll order my army to move the sun over for you. ~ LYN: It’s the same. The content of the dialogue changes, but the status and aura doesn’t change.

LYN: It’s about time. I should log off early today. I’ll chat a little longer, then leave. I need to shower and then do homework for tomorrow. I’ll really be starting to film tomorow. Rebirth: I Am an Alien. I hope that when this drama airs- Since I’m just starting filming tomorrow and it’ll take about four months, so if you’re new to my stream, just passing by, or maybe you came in because of the trending topic, I hope you can subscribe to my weibo. Okay? Thank you, everyone. Tomorrow I’ll start filming for a drama called Rebirth: I Am an Alien. I hope that when it airs, you can support my drama. Okay? Now I’d like to sing a song for all the people who are watching my stream for the first time today. This song is especially for the first-time viewers, okay? Um… what should I sing? -- /tries to play 刀剑如梦/ LYN: There’s actually no track for this song. Oh my goodness. - /looking for a suitable track/ LYN: Let me pull RJL’s version, then. -- 刀剑如梦 (A Life of Fighting is But a Dream) LYN: Sorry- I didn’t get the beat right. And I don’t have any props. Let me bring my sword and it’ll have more of the right feel. Wait for me a sec. -- 刀剑如梦 (A Life of Fighting is But a Dream) [take 2] - /misses the timing to start bc he was playing with the sword XD/ - /LYN: Why is this interlude so long??/ - /EDM remix???/ LYN: I didn’t think the arrangement would be like this.

LYN: Anyways, sorry. It was a gift for new friends but it was a little rough. Let me switch to something else. What’s another song that’s very jianghu-esque? Is there any? 走天涯 (Zou Tian Ya)? 让酒 (Rang Jiu). Let’s not do Rang Jiu. 剑魂 (Soul of the Sword)... there’s probably no track for that. -- 剑魂 (Soul of the Sword) [jaunty ver.] LYN: When I sing this song It’s like I’m self-helping my back problems. If you are experiencing shoulder discomfort you can exercise it with this song. It’s great.

LYN: What other song has that feeling of the jianghu? Let me look up something from my Qi-ge. (死不了/天涯). Hey wait- why do I want to move my shoulders to every song I hear? See, this works too! It works. This has already become one of my- C: 寻一个你 (Finding You) LYN: Who sang that? /looks it up/ Oh, WHD’s song. XD -- 寻一个你 (Finding You) - Love Between Fairy and Devil OST LYN: /sigh/ That’s about enough. So if you haven’t subscribed to my weibo yet, please do so.

C: Why did you stop moving your shoulders? LYN: I started sweating. D: Friends, I really think that move has a practical function. So if you’ve got nothing to do, you can practice it. It could help straighten your spine. Or... flex your joints, or something to that effect. 

C: I hope the filming for your new drama all goes smoothly. LYN: Okay, no problem. It’s alright this time, because I’m acting as an alien. I’ll be wearing an alien’s grey skin most of the time. You pretty much won’t be able to see my face, in this drama. I’ll wear a suit. The directors chose me mostly for my height. After they add something to my shoes I’ll be more than 2m tall and I’ll look even less like something from this Earth. 

C: I look forward to your alien. LYN: Okay. You can. No problem. Don’t worry. C: Does the alien talk? LYN: I have lines. Because normally when aliens talk to you, they’ll translate it to Earth language. So I’ll be speaking Chinese like normal. LYN: ~ You foolish Earthlings! ~ C: Standard Mandarin? LYN: No, with a Northeastern accent. LYN: ~ You dumb Earthlings. I’m your alien overlord. ~ C: Does the alien have emotional scenes? LYN: Um… yes. Think about it- for a story about aliens, if you ONLY talk about aliens there’s no way you can shoot a 40 episode drama. You’d never make it. There have to be emotional scenes. Maybe he’s just wearing the shell of an alien to fall in love. A lot of dramas do that, don’t they? This one is the same. The alien and scifi aspect of it is just to draw in an audience. Mainly it’s a love story between a man and a woman.

C: Will you be alive in the end? LYN: Maybe not. Friends, it’s like this: for roles that I’ve played, you can- From the moment I started acting until now, of the roles I’ve played…staying alive was an accident/unexpected. For roles that I play, as long as they’re alive, the reaction should be, “OMG, he’s alive! He didn’t die!!” I’m sure you’d be surprised. But for most of the roles that I’ve played the death rate is extremely high. Very high. Maybe I didn’t have a good start. The very first drama I ever shot- I died. C: Jiang Junhao in BYOL didn’t die. LYN: You want me to die in a slice-of-life drama, too?? That’d be too cruel. I meant in guzhuang dramas. In those, my death rate is about 80%. In 10 roles, 8 of them die. 

bgm: 热辣滚烫 (YOLO) - YOLO Movie OST

LYN: Alright, it’s about time. Thank you for your company and support. Tomorrow I’ll be entering into my new drama crew. I hope you have a fun 5/1 break, okay? Thanks for keeping me company and for your support. It was great to have you tonight and I hope you enjoyed it. Let’s meet again in the next stream, okay? Even though I don’t know when the next time I stream will be! LYN: Goodnight, everyone!

[messrsrobyn]

Ok nobody I’ve asked seems to give me a direct answer so I figured I’d just voice all my concerns with you? You don’t have to answer everything 😭😭

When it comes to fandom friends how do you move from just being moots to being friend friends? I saw a video you made about it when somebody had asked you a similar question but I’m really struggling with getting them to feel like friends and not just random accounts in my phone.

I’ve seen videos people have made and you guys are sharing jokes in the comments. I saw video of 3 girls that said “Us when anyone hates on mesrsrobyn” and you said like “Fan behaviour” which obviously shows that you’re actually their friend and you’re just teasing them.

Also how do you find people who are ok with you not responding all the time (😭😭😭) I’m just genuinely not active very much on any forms of social media. I was in a marauders gc and I was really happy thinking I was gonna make fandom friends but because I wasn’t active all the time they had a bunch of inside jokes I didn’t get and I kinda felt like an outsider.

Most of the people I see you interacting with online seem really cool and fun, so I’m just wondering where to find people like that. Just genuinely from posting?

I’m sure I’ve worded all this so strangely but honestly I’m sad because I’ve been in this fandom for 3 years in November and I have made no real lasting friendships. I feel like you yapping so much LOL

IK THE VIDEO 😭 my besties yup !!

this is long so i'm putting the lil dashy line thingy

i have v limited advice actually bc i don't think i've initiated many of my friendships in fandom?? despite how little i stfu, i'm a shyyy person. i get scared to text first.

my BIGGEST bit of advice is take. it. off. the. app.

i try to get discords mainly (bc i use it most) but once you take it off of tiktok or wherever you met it feels so much less like mutuals. like yes, we met in fandom but now we are discussing our plans for the day and getting to know each other as Robyn not Messrsrobyn.

i made most of my friends from posting !! i made my account as a whole to meet people and (ive been flagging a bit recently actually but) i always try to reply to EVERYONEEE. so most of my friends were just people that commented that i replied to, their name kept popping up in my notifs? boom. friends. one of them said they loved crimson rivers so next time i found an edit i sent it to them.

ALSO !! i'm so bad at replying.

servers im more active in i think, but just... dms? not very good at all. anyone that doesn't respect that or gets mad? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ i dont want them as a friend.

like it's frustrating i know! i hate the amount of lil red bubbles i have on every single app but it doesn't mean i value my friends any less and they all know that <3 we don't always have the time or capacity to reply and that's okie.

i tend to get it out the way immediately and test the waters. just a lil "btw i'm really sorry for my reply times! i'm not the best at it but feel free to double text me as much as you want" and always make sure that i follow up on everything that's been said whilst i wasn't replying.

im rambling a bit i fear but the right friends won't get mad at it, or make you feel less important bc of it. it might just take some time to find them but You Will.

i feel like i havent actually given much advice?? i'm genuinely so so so lucky to have found the friends that i have but i did nothing. i think i said in a few of my tiktoks rightttt at the beginning that my dms were open for friends and then i think? hope? that i've kept that energy going of like someone that anyone can message and i'll get back to them (at some point 😭 my tiktok dms are a mess but thats an issue for future robyn) so i've been able to just sit back and naturally find them.

i live by the motto of "the worst they can do is not reply" every time i send a comment or dm to a new person

we're all just losers reading fanfiction !! we all want lil friends to talk to about it so interaction and reaching out gives us that BUT it's the taking it off of the app that takes it from mutuals to friends imo.

this is UNNECESSARILY LONG omg. i never know how to answer these ones but i hope it helps a lil? <3 social interaction is NOT my finest point. potentially my worst i fear.

[carmenpeach]

i love just opening my amv and watching it it makes me so happy i cant wait to make more <3 for years ive made amvs in my head and can just visualize them but never had the means/ motivation/ mental or physical functioning to really do them, and i was making this like pressure on myself making my amv cause it was finally happening but i desperately needed it to be good and so i would get stuck in my head with it a lot. and ive got something or other wrong with my body all da time especially lately so im like fighting for my life for the 20min a day of functionality i have lol but its really such a weight off my shoulders now <3

i have a good chunk of shadow amvs rolling around in my head and an elfen lied one (its funny cause a few years ago i looked it up and got really distressed when i couldnt find it thinking it got deleted but no i just see it so clear in my head i forgot it wasnt real lol) me and soren are gonna work on a vegeta amv together next though ^-^ ive been all beat up over the fact i havent been able to make art as much because of my (insert mysterious unknown disease here) but ive started making simple doodles again too and theyre kinda hard to do but its a start ^-^ its really funny being into dragon ball cause ive never learned how to draw masc guys and so now its like great. thats what i like right now. but i think itll probably be quite a while until i get the last chapter of my sonic comic out but im hoping im on an upward slope on life... i can mostly function for like 3 days at a time and then im just unable to really move at all for a few days but im learning how my body is working and i will work with it best i can ^-^ ive also started reading again and i have a ton of books stacked up ive been wanting to read for years so who knows maybe on my down days i can get that gone through too lol

[maliabakerenthusiast]

who

soo i saw this idea i will tag in comments and i got writing its all overthe place bc i havent writen in like 5 months.. but 865 words

Third person 

“I hope you won't disappoint red, you do this and you will make me the proudest mother ever. Fail, and the kingdom will see as I personally punish you.”

Red despised her mother; she didn't want to kill anyone. She knows her mother is crazy.

“We leave in the morning, now be a good child and wear something respectful that outfit is offensive. 

“Yes mother”

That night, I couldn't sleep. To think to have to kill someone made red nauseas 

But she has to do it so she can't fail her mother anymore. 

Reds pov

The whole bride to auradon prep was terrifying .

“I'm only sending you here to kill her completely and we shall rule together. Do not get distracted.” 

I just nod not trusting my voice. To say I'm scared is an understatement.

We arrived at auradon prep and it was huge. I mean not as big as my moms castle but still. It looks amazing.

As were walking in i hear someone call the name bridget towards us? Whos bridget? I look the way it came from and I see the princess I'm supposed to murder and her mom? 

As my mom and the blue haired woman talk i draw my attention on the young blue haired girl 

“Chloe , Chloe charming” she puts out her hand for me to shake. I just look her up and down. “red “ i say coldly 

“Oh your the princess of hearts from wonderland right? Oh how I've always wanted to go there since I was able to read about it. What is it like there?” she said rambling 

“Oh i wouldn't know the queen keeps me locked up in a tower.” i say with a smirk

She looks at me puzzled before shes being called to her mom

My mom suddenly towers over me 

“I'm leaving this excuse of a school now. Don't forget or there will be consequences.”

After the principal does this annoying singing, we get it your name is uma, we have to go to a table to see who our roommate is. 

“Red hearts?” i  hear someone calling my name i walk over

“This is your roommate chloe, i hope you two can get along” she smiles disgustingly happy

Well at least this will make it easier 

Third person (again IM SORRY)

Over the next few weeks red and chloe have been getting closer and as much as red is in denial she knows deep down she loves chloe. But she has to kill her, she has no choice once the day came red had not slept the knights previous. It was noon and Red was in their shared room a complete mess. She couldn't think of killing the only person she loved romantically, she couldn't even see herself living without chloe.

Chloe knew something was up when red didn't show up at lunch, then her next lesson that they had together. She slowly walked up to the girls shared room opening the door slightly. The blue hair girl's heart shattered at the sight of the princess sobbing in her bed.

“Red?”

Redf swiftly got up and wiped her tears

Her eyes puffy and red

“chloe “ she trails off with a shaky voice 

“Red are you okay” her voice laced with worry

The red princess couldn't bring herself to look at the other princess in the eyes as her hand clenched around a knife she had stolen from the kitchen 

And slowly walked over to the princess in glass boots

“Im sorry chloe” she sobbed out

“Red you don't have to do this” she said finally catching on the what's happening

“You don't understand i have to my mom shes” she trailed off

“Red what do you want? I know this isn't it” she says with tears in her eyes

“I don't but cant you see i'm destined to be like her, i love you chloe but i can't save us”

“ you can stay don't do this she cant hurt you here, please” she says begging

Both of the girls crying at this point 

With a shaky voice “chloe i'm sorry” that was the last thing she said before darkness overtook her

Chloe ran down the halls calling for uma 

“UMA HELP PLEASE ANYONE HELP”

“Red stay with me please”

“Please princess dont do this to me”

“HELP”

TIME SKIP BC I'M A HORRIBLE WRITER LMAO

25 YEARS

Chloe's pov

I look her in the same hospital bed ever since that day 

She made a curse to sleep for eternity with no remedies 

fouc=tnly she messed up a bit and fairy godmother was able to help it but it still would keep her curse for 25 years

So that's where i am now waiting for her

“Hey princess it's me again, i still don't know if you can hear me, but i'd like to think you can.they say you should wake up soon so that's great. I hope you still love me.”

Just as i finish the machines start beeping rapidly 

“Doctor, come quick!”

She gets up with a large gasp

“RED!” I say as i start to get emotional

“What happened, where am I, who are you?”