#i’m talking about this now bc i’m trying to read iron flame

[halfagony-halfhope]

my toxic trait is that when i’m reading in english i refuse to search the translation when i don’t know the meaning of a word

[mythicamagic]

Fire and Brimstone: a Sesskag oneshot

For @harlecorn! ♥ Happy Birthday! 🎂

Rated T

A Hellhound remains bound beneath a church, waiting for the chance to enact revenge on his captors. His golden opportunity comes in the form of a blue-eyed woman. Sesskag AU oneshot.

You can read this on Ao3, Fanfiction.net and Dokuga

AN: This takes place in old-timey England. Think Witch Trial era - between the 15th and 18th century. However, I'm largely skipping the old language used in those times bc it would make dialogue feel awkward. If Kagome sounds weird it's bc I've had to lay off the modern talk a bit.

Warning: references to/implies torture

Fire and Brimstone

It was raining outside. Sesshoumaru could tell because a continuous leak somewhere had become his sole entertainment for several hours now. A thin sliver of water dripped from the roof between 10-second intervals, and he passed the time by counting them.

...Eight...Nine...Ten- drip!

A black nose twitched, picking up stale dampness lingering in the air. His body ached, but if he stayed still the wounds remained at a manageable dull, continuous pain rather than flaring white-hot agony.

How long had it been since he'd been dragged down into this dark place? He couldn't recall. Perhaps years. At the very least- months. He'd long since given up looking around at his prison, now laying in a dozing, frozen state.

Hearing something, Sesshoumaru's fluffy ear quirked. The blood inside his ear canal had encrusted, leaving sounds muted, but he could pick up distant footsteps descending stone stairs.

Have they returned to pray and bind me more tightly to their pathetic altar?

Sesshoumaru inwardly sneered, scarred paws remaining motionless. Though incredibly weak due to holy water- with his back and arms impaled with large iron stakes- a powerful, simmering rage in his chest refused to be tempered. His throat burned, belly scorching hot.

The church priest would pay, along with all his snivelling followers. One did not bind a Hellhound and live to tell the tale. Their foolish obsession with witch hunts and stamping out 'evil' within the land would be their undoing. They were fortunate they'd captured him while he'd been asleep.

Torchlight shone an orange hue behind Sesshoumaru's eyelids, but he refused to open them, playing possum.

"Still sleeping, are ye, unholy mutt?" a detestable, straight-laced voice reached his damaged ears, another torch being lit inside the room. "Good. Stay that way. Sleep until our heavenly Lord above casts you back from whence you came, down to Hell."

Oh this one will not be returning empty-handed, Sesshoumaru inwardly purred.

Remaining motionless, he looked for all the world unconscious. He couldn't lash out and tear into the priest as desired, due to a muzzle enclosed around his jaw. So, he bided his time. Rescue was out of the question. Dark creatures such as he received no aid from brethren. Sesshoumaru would just have to conserve energy for now.

The priest murmured a prayer that sent wrought iron hissing anew inside his flesh. Inwardly snarling, Sesshoumaru held himself still, refusing to show pain. His legs trembled slightly, giving him away.

Curse you. Curse you!

Wrath pumped through his veins, a siren song urging him to kill.

Satisfied that his work held strong, the head priest left; the sound of footsteps retreated up the stairs, leaving behind the lit torch.

At least that changed the scenery a little. Not that he had any reason to look upon it. Sesshoumaru panted hard the second he was left alone, sharp teeth clenching hard inside his jaw.

A quiet gasp caught his attention. Sesshoumaru froze. His nose twitched.

No scent?

Frowning, the Hellhound pried his eyelids open. Orange and black shapes shifted, blurry until someone's face came into focus.

Blue eyes gazed down at him. A woman with dark hair tumbling down her back slowly pried her hand away from her mouth.

"They really are cruel," she muttered, shocked features becoming grave. "I might as well refrain from asking if you're alright- since you clearly aren't," the stranger winced. "Sorry, that was insensitive."

Sesshoumaru blinked. What the Devil?

Her lips pursed, attention sliding to the iron stakes in his back. "I don't know how they managed to capture you. Surely that Priest can't have holy powers. He's about as pure as mud."

"...What are you?"

She paused, tilting her head and pushing dark hair behind her ear. "O-oh, that was rude of me, I didn't introduce myself, did I?" smiling, she straightened. "My name is Kagome Higurashi. Who are you?"

His question had been left unanswered, for he was largely uninterested in her name. He sneered, "Sesshoumaru."

"Nice to meet you, Sesshoumaru," she brought her hands together behind her back, smiling with only slight wariness. Her faded dress was slightly torn. Peasant wear. "I didn't expect you'd be able to talk."

"And I did not expect to be joined down here by a little lost lamb. Are you my dinner? They do not typically feed me." Saliva pooled in his mouth, drool pooling on the altar. His jaws parted, eyes glinting as they ran over her willowy form.

Kagome stepped away, huffing and crossing her arms. "While I sympathize, don't get rude. If you eat my soul then you really will be all alone- with no allies. You'll have eaten the only help you're going to receive in this place."

Sesshoumaru frowned as she walked out of his available sight, moving around his left side and picking up something from a shelf.

"You seek to give me aid? That seems counterintuitive for a soul as pure as yours."

He could smell it. The light radiating from within her. He knew her to be foreign from her features- and wondered how a priestess from a faraway land had arrived in such a miserable country rife with turmoil and evil; his hunting ground for the past few centuries.

She reappeared in his line of vision, holding a bowl of collected rainwater. She frowned, "I don't think 'pure' means 'doormat.' These men have caused a lot of harm. Harm should come back to them."

Red eyes cracked wider, interest lighting his red gaze. Kagome set the bowl down, resting a knee beside his jaw on the alter. "I'm trying to help you. Please don't eat me for it," with a wobbly smile, she reached for his muzzle.

Sesshoumaru held still, keen attention fixed on her every movement. Her deep blue eyes were pleasing, face quite beautiful in flickering torchlight. His dry tongue shifted within his mouth.

A Hellhound's purpose was to drag corrupted souls to the underworld. Kagome's radiated a strong, fierce glow.

The Japanese woman carefully grasped cool metal chains, pulling them off from around his face and tossing the muzzle aside.

Spittle-coated teeth immediately lunged- latching onto the coarse fabric of her modest dress, canines resting over her chest. Kagome gasped, hands grasping his jaw. Sesshoumaru tilted his head up, forcing her to lean over him slightly.

Crimson eyes glared up at her, growling lowly.

"What is your motivation, priestess?" a dark rumble growled inside her mind. "Tell me why I see black flames of revenge burning in the depths of your soul. A single blemish in your otherwise spotless self."

Kagome exhaled, and he felt her chest expand and fall with each breath. Gentle fingers ran over the silver fur on his face, cracking his eyes wider.

"The Dutch took me from my country a few years ago. Since then, I've been passed around to different places, picking up different languages. When I was forced onto a boat heading for this strange land- I didn't think anything more of it. I was to be the servant of a reputable house, but the priest of this church took issue with my foreign looks. After that, men dragged me here. You're not the only one who has suffered at their hands."

She withdrew her touch- and Sesshoumaru nearly tipped his head to chase it- unfamiliar with gentleness. Sparking holy powers then collected between her fingers, hovering close without making contact.

"I don't want to hurt you, in fact, I'd rather we were allies," the hushed words sounded genuine. "But I won't let you eat me easily either if that's what you're after. Let go."

Sesshoumaru searched her face, becoming entranced; Drunk off the sparking conviction there. What an odd, strong woman.

Letting out a breath of steam that whipped her hair back, Sesshoumaru relaxed his lower jaw, teeth unhooking from where they'd dug into the material of her clothes. He lowered her back to kneel on the altar, immediately diving for the water she'd provided instead.

Kagome caught her breath, holy powers fading away.

He lapped up every last drop, panting for more, wanting to sate the burning in his throat, but it would do for now. Sesshoumaru lifted his head, words firm with conviction as his chest rumbled.

"If you release me from my imprisonment, I will do your bidding for a time, woman. However, you should be aware of the consequences if you set me free."

She absentmindedly rubbed at the spot over her chest where his teeth had been, lips curving. "I know what'll happen to me, Hellhound," Kagome said quietly. "I accept the consequences."

Sesshoumaru bumped her leg with his nose, resting his head upon her thighs. “Then what do you command?”

"I want you to devour them," she murmured, gaze far away as she stroked mindful fingers through matted fur. "I believe in reincarnation, so I want you to prevent these terrible people from ever getting a second chance at life again. Eat them all- except the Head Priest. Him...you can drag home, to the deepest, darkest place available. Never let him be free from the shackles and iron bars you thrust inside him."

Sesshoumaru's breath shuddered. Their judgement aligned perfectly; and she'd spoken his desires aloud.

He had come across countless souls during his wrathful existence. He knew kind ones as well as those corrupted. This was one of the few times Sesshoumaru felt he'd witnessed a kind person pushed too far, beyond her breaking point. Now a deep well of dark emotion had pooled inside her, magnificent in its righteous fury.

Shifting, he dragged a hot, wet tongue up the length of Kagome's collarbone and neck, leaving a slick trail.

"Such pain...I can taste the ash on you," he purred, looking into her sad blue eyes. His voice hardened, incensed with renewed anger from her hurts and his own. "Free me, and it is gladly done."

Kagome shivered, before moving around his side. Gripping one iron bar embedded through his front leg that jutted into the alter below, she planted her knees wide.

"This is going to be a painful process, I'm sorry. W-will you survive the blood loss?"

The white demonic dog flashing her a jagged smile. "Just who do you think you are talking to?"

With a nod, Kagome steeled herself. Giving a hard yank that sent her stumbling backwards- the long, gruelling process began. Only when the agony died down would a monster with blood-red eyes emerge from the bowels of the church.

And all Hell broke loose.

-----

The church tower collapsed through the roof that fateful night. Bloodshed had begun, soaking the air with a coppery taste that quickly became dwarfed by fire. Earlier rainfall could not deter it- nothing stood in its blazing, enraged path.

White flames roared around the silver monster. He chased men down the church aisle in a frenzied hunger, catching them in his jaws. Of course, he saved the best for last.

The Head Priest trembled against a broken wall while screams pervaded the smoky air.

Sesshoumaru turned, panting. A red tongue lolled, snaking up to lick his bloodied maw.

With a yelp, the man tried to scramble away- only for his robes to be snagged on a broken beam. Heavy paws collided with his back, teeth latching into his clothes.

Within the burning depths of the church, a roaring inferno opened up. The Priest clawed and scrambled at blistering ground, cobblestone turning into scolding cinders beneath his palms. Frightened screams rang out as he was dragged backwards, Sesshoumaru descending with him down a winding, fiery path into the earth.

Everything collapsed inwards with one final groan of wood as structures toppled, the building completely caving into a burning wreck.

Kagome stood alone on a hillside, watching the entire thing unfold. She then smoothed her skirts, crouching by an unmarked, mass grave.

"I hope...you'll feel avenged now," she said softly.

She did not run nor scream. Instead, Kagome waited patiently to meet her fate, setting some flowers down.

A white dog demon covered in patches of ash approached silently. He sat beside her, neither acknowledging the violence he'd just committed.

"This is where you are buried?" he asked, gazing intently at her.

The ghost smiled wanly. "Buried makes it sound like we had a funeral. I was dumped in this hole with a few other women after we were sentenced as witches and burned at the stake. Nothing was left but my charred remains," her voice wobbled. Kagome made to wipe some tears- his sticky tongue licking them away before she could.

She gentled, touching his bloodied jaw. "H-how are your wounds?"

"All but mended," Sesshoumaru drew closer, humid breath fanning over her neck. "You know what must happen now."

Kagome laughed cynically. "Mn, because I'm a corrupt soul, you'll be dragging me to Hell too," she brushed a hand over the fur at his shoulder. Blue eyes hesitated for a moment, afraid of something entirely human.

"Will it...hurt?" she whispered.

If it were possible for a demon dog to ease his expression into something a touch less cold and hungry, Sesshoumaru managed to achieve something almost warm. He didn't answer at first, allowing a moment of silence to stretch between them. When he finally spoke again, his speech resounded inside her head as a soft grumble.

"No. Not for you."

"Oh, I'm glad to hear that," a breath rushed out of her dead lungs, arms wrapping around herself as she glanced at the grave. "I've had enough pain, thank you."

"Indeed, you and I both."

A lily-white hand was offered down to her, sliding into her vision. Kagome's gaze drew up to a tall male.

The yellow moon looming behind his head gave him a halo effect; its gentle glow lining his face and dazzling her. Silvery hair split down broad shoulders, hanging like fine royal threads fit for a King. He wore black robes that billowed like dragon smoke.

Sesshoumaru's inhuman face smiled in an unnerving fashion, though she could tell the intent behind it- the desire to reassure her despite evidence of death on his robes. "Shall we go?" he asked in rich, clear tones.

Kagome stared up at the demon's handsome features. Smiling, she grasped his clawed hand without fear, allowing him to pull her up.

"You didn't have to change into such a pleasing form. I was coming with you anyway."

"My form is pleasing?" thin lips curved, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm, Sesshoumaru strolled with her down the hill, a gateway opening up within the earth as a huge chasm, welcoming him home.

"Oh hush, you know it is," Kagome smiled tiredly, walking with the Hellhound away from the fire and brimstone burning behind them. "So...will I be punished down there?" her voice was almost lost, spoken so softly.

Glowing eyes smiled. "There is a place some call the Elysian Fields. I will take you to them."

She stiffened, blinking rapidly to expel the salty tears of relief and gratitude welling up in her eyes. Kagome stopped within the cavern of the underworld, causing him to halt with her. Drenched under harsh shadows of the earth about to swallow them whole, his eyes shone red like glittering jewels.

"I suppose I'll need a guard too," she said evenly. "To make sure I don't escape. I'm a very wicked soul, after all. A heretic."

Sesshoumaru flashed his teeth at her. "Hn, the worst kind. I will see to it personally since this one is best suited for such a difficult task."

Smiling with relief, Kagome willingly walked with him into the jaws of Hell.

End

[bobbimorses]

Hi ! I was sent your way by @clintbartoncomics ,regarding a comics question. I’ve read everything Hawkeye that I know of,and anything I could find with Clint & Bobbi, and now am trying to find comics where Clint and Natasha are together/dating. I know how they started out,but can’t seem to find much else,other than them being together in the beginning of Old Man Hawkeye. Would you be able to recommend anything? Thanks !😁

ok, let’s try to break this down-

clint and natasha meet in his first ever appearance, tales of suspense #57. nat pulls up in her car as clint flees a robbery he tried to stop. clint thinks “sweet! free getaway-wait i’m in love,” and nat thinks, “sweet! free lackey!”

they spend tales of suspense #60 & 64 fighting iron man; natasha bc her soviet handlers ordered her too, and clint bc natasha told him to. sure, he started out trying to be a hero, but it’s been a whole 5 minutes with nat since then, so he loves her. and when clint falls in love, he falls hard. he feels morally conflicted, but what’s a little treason for your poor gf when you are but a simultaneously overconfident and insecure carny?

unfortunately for nat, clint sucks at being a villain’s lackey, and joins the avengers. natasha pops back into clint’s life in avengers #29. it’s here that i should make it abundantly clear that clint is one of comics’ most hopeless romantics:

she shows up periodically through the range of avengers #29-76, during which time they’re dating. natasha’s a hero now, too! but she’s working with SHIELD, so things get complicated, as spywork does--at one point she rejects the avengers’ offer of membership, an idea championed only by clint, bc SHIELD says it’ll ruin her cover. hurdles like that meant sometimes they’d discuss a drive to the beach and sometimes they’d be held hostage in test tubes. clint spent many an issue moping about as the other avengers went “is...is hawkeye ok?”

it was all very tragic.

due to increasing complications, natasha breaks up with clint in avengers #76 by telling him she never loved him:

you know, like a liar

while thinking over her tragic love life and all the guilt therein, she sneaks a check-up on him in amazing adventures v2 #7:

some time later, clint very suddenly confesses his love to wanda maximoff, a pining that only ever occurred in his thought bubbles, but gets rejected as she’s engaged to a robot. again, hopeless romantic. he laments both tragic outcomes in avengers #109:

now doubly rejected, clint goes across the country in daredevil #99 to tell nat he still loves her and fight matt murdock, her new flame. nat isn’t impressed by his show of jealousy, and more importantly, the destruction of her beautiful bay window:

clint, obviously, sulks about her relationship with matt in typical hawkeye fashion in avengers #111:

after that, however, there was no tension whatsoever once clint returned to the avengers after his long absence. natasha and clint were now good friends. things went smoothly when clint introduced natasha to bobbi (who you know he married after knowing for 9 days, what with his propensity to fall deeply in love so very, very quickly) in avengers #239:

they basically remained broken up since that fateful issue in 1970. some series revisited the dynamics of that relationship, though-- whether it be in their reminiscing, like in thunderbolts #43, or hawkeye v3 #7-8, or in flashback form, like here in black widow: deadly origin #2:

nat, bobbi, and clint even work together, with clint now broken up with both of them, in widowmaker (2010)

at this point you’re probably thinking “geez, they’ve been broken up for 40+ years. where did this talk of dating again come from?” well, a movie happened.

as with most sudden marvel comics changes and additions around 2012 (clint’s costume turning bland, phil coulson suddenly existing in 616, hulk being a full avenger for the first time since 1963), natasha and clint’s place in 616 was shuffled around a little in an attempt to draw in new readers from those who had only seen the movie. cue avengers assemble (2012) #5:

them making out was the cover of the issue, i’m sure to draw in some movie folks, but they stop immediately because clint has a girlfriend: jessica drew. i feel like at this point clint’s relationship with jess, which was never really fleshed out/developed to the extent of his previous relationships, became another casualty with the new 616 status quo. remember, clint has always been fiercely loyal to whoever he’s dating at the time--but then there’s this kiss, and penny in hawkeye v4 (2012). by then, no one was really sure about the status of clint and jess’ relationship in any series.

anyways! clint and jess break up at some point. clint and natasha proceed to pop up in each other’s respective series, like clint did in a few issues of black widow v6, and frequently work alongside each other in other avengers titles. then, secret empire (2017) finally ends their newfound will-they-won’t-they tension:

and because of their own storied histories after all those decades, it’s an evolved dynamic, so it’s all very interesting--but oops, natasha gets immediately killed. comics!

(she was half right)

clint breaks down sobbing at her funeral. and then, once again because comics, natasha comes back and clint teams up with bucky to find/stop her in tales of suspense (where it all started!) #100-104

most recently, natasha had an appearance in hawkeye: freefall for one issue, and clint is currently showing up in black widow v8. no, they aren’t currently dating--it’s, as always, complicated.

[i-am-not-a-who-i-am-a-what]

there was a moment from yesterday’s episode that set off so many alarm bells in my head and i haven’t seen anyone talking about it yet so i’m going to get my thoughts out there. i’m putting the majority of this post under a readmore bc it got very long thanks to all the transcript quotes i pulled but i really want to know what everyone else thinks about the Implications™

BASIRA

Okay. So… what do we know about Hill Top Road?

ARCHIVIST

Not much.

BASIRA

Another blind spot?

ARCHIVIST

No, it’s – I could look at it, but it… it was… it was like a… a hole. You know that feeling you get when you look down from a, a great height, like you’re being pulled into the abyss?

BASIRA

Kind of?

ARCHIVIST

[Getting lost in thought] Well it was… was like that. Normally I can see it, see the… webs, and feel the power of The Spider emanating from it, but… as I would look… it’s like my mind…. follows the paths of The Web,

[STATIC RISES]

the strands going down and… out… [Catching self] It’s quite disorientating.

[STATIC FADES]

my first thought after hearing this exchange was “huh, that sounds eerily similar to the description of the table the not-them was trapped in.” here it is from mag 3 - across the street:

I’d become enraptured by the table on which he’d placed my tea. It was an ornate wooden thing, with a snaking pattern of lines weaving their way around towards the centre. The pattern was hypnotic and shifted as I watched it, like an optical illusion. I found my eyes following the lines towards the middle of the table, where there was nothing but a small square hole.

my first instinct was that this was some foreshadowing for jon meeting some kind of horrible fate, because well... remember what happened the last time someone got mesmerized by the table?

SASHA

Oh, hey. I’ve found… I’ve found that table you were talking about. Don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Just a… basic… optical illusion. Nothing special… just… just a… wait…

[Hushed and panicked] Jon! Jon, I think there’s someone here. Hello? I see you. Show yourself!

but then i started thinking more about why the table specifically would be referenced, and i remembered the earliest we see it used as artifact of the web, and where: with raymond fielding in hill top road in mag 59 - recluse:

On Sunday evenings, however, we’d all gather for the evening meal, and before we sat down to eat, he would remove the bright white tablecloth that covered it, and we’d gather around the dark wood. I remember it was carved in all sorts of strange swirling designs and patterns. It felt like if you picked a line, any line, you could follow it through to the center, to some deep truth, if only your eye could keep track of the strands that had caught it.

it was while i was checking the transcripts to find the above quote that i also remembered the hole in center of the table that the web pattern leads towards wasn’t always empty - it used to contain a box, and that box contained an apple.

again from again from mag 59:

The center of the table looked, at first, like it was simply part of the wooden top, but if you looked closely, as I did so often, you could see an outline marking the very middle as a small, square box, carved with patterns just like the ones that laced their way over the rest of the table. I don’t remember how long we sat around the table those evenings, nor do I have any memory of what we might have eaten.

...

I reached over and pulled the wooden square from the center of the table. On its own, it appeared to be a small wooden box, and the lid opened smoothly, as my hands moved in a practiced motion. Inside was an apple, green and fresh and still wet with morning dew.

I knew I was going to eat it. I could feel tears desperately trying to push themselves out of my eyes, but I instead decided not to cry. I placed the box down on the table, reached over, and picked up the apple.

the box from the center of the table makes its first appearance in the very first hill top road statement, mag 8 - burned out, where we learn that apparently the apple was full of spiders. 

considering the web’s predilection for filling it’s victim’s bodies with spiders (carlos vittery, annabell cane, the spider husks trevor encountered, the victim of the chelicerae website, the old woman in annabell’s statement, francis, etc.) i think this goes a ways to explain what happened to raymond’s other victims, and what would have happened to mag 59′s statement giver if he’d bitten into the apple:

They lay still now, wrapped in their sticky cocoons. Their bodies seemed warped and bloated in a way I didn’t recognize. But that’s only because at that point in my life, I had never before seen a spider egg sac.

more importantly though, we also learn that the box was buried under the burnt up tree in hill top road’s garden, the one whose uprooting was implied to be linked to agnes’s death: 

STATEMENT

At that moment I made my decision. It was easy, like destroying this tree was the only thing to do, the only path to follow ... When the tree lay on its side, uprooted and powerless, I gazed into the hole where it had sat and noticed something lying there in the dirt.

Climbing down, I retrieved what turned out to be a small wooden box, about six inches square, with an intricate pattern carved along the outside. Engraved lines covered it, warping and weaving together, making it hard to look away.

...

ARCHIVIST

Except… We cannot prove any connection, but Martin unearthed a report on an Agnes Montague, who was found dead in her Sheffield flat on the evening of November 23rd 2006, the same day Mr. Lensik claims to have uprooted the tree.

and keep in mind that the only reason the statement giver in mag 59 didn’t eat the apple, didn’t succumb to the web... was agnes’s kiss:

As the man in the suit told me to follow him in a clipped BBC accent, Agnes walked over, and gestured for me to lean down and listen to her. I did so, but instead of a conspiratorial whisper, she just gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, then ran off down the hall.

...

All at once, my cheek erupted in pain. It was like someone had pressed a hot branding iron into my face, and I could swear that I heard the flesh sizzle as I let out a scream and fell to my knees. I raised my hands to my face and realized in that moment two very important things. The first is that my face seemed to be untouched; I could feel no injury or burn. The second was that raising my hand had been a truly voluntary act. I had willed it myself, and whatever power had been gripping me, tugging me into its web, I was free of it.

at this point you’re probably wondering why i think all this is relevant in terms of what might happen with hill top road, and i have two potential ideas: 

my first idea has to do with the theory that agnes is lingering on as a ghost. this theory isn’t mine, i first encountered it shortly after mag 167 - curiosity aired through this post’s attempt to fix what bits of the timeline were thrown out of wack by the new info. if anyone has any other posts or general thoughts about this theory feel free to share them, i’d love to read them!

this theory is relevant to my speculation that agnes might finally make an appearance because she might have been the ghost seen by one of the statement givers in mag 100 - i guess you had to be there:

MARTIN

Right. Right.

[THROAT CLEARING]

Statement of Lynne Hammond, er, recorded 2nd of May 2017, regarding…

Uh, what, what’s this one about?

LYNNE

I saw a ghost.

MARTIN

O-kay.. Regarding a… a ghost. Statement begins.

who appeared as one of the cultists in mag 190 - scavengers: 

MARTIN

[Puzzled] Celia?

CELIA

Probably. The, um… place I was trapped in, they took my name. I never got it back. But I like Celia, so… yeah! Celia it is.

MARTIN

Uh… H-Hello… Celia.

and was recognized and directly confirmed to be the same person by martin in mag 191 - what we lose:

MARTIN

…

Hey, I meant to ask. Do you recognise that woman, Celia?

ARCHIVIST

Um… no, I, I don’t think so. Why?

MARTIN

I’d swear she gave a statement once.

having her only pop up in mag 190 would have just been a fun easter egg, but having martin directly call out her presence the next episode sounds to me like jonny telling the audience to pay attention, to remember that her statement had to do with the ghost of a young woman on fire who might have been agnes. 

my second idea involves web lighter.

over various statements throughout the previous four seasons we’ve been shown that the web and the desolation have been at war, and hill top road has been their battlefield. the best examples of this come from mag 139 - chosen and mag 149 - infectious doubts respectively. 

on the one hand we have agnes being planted in hill top road by the cult of the lightless flame in an effort to both control her powers and derail the web’s plans, which seems to begin the conflict:

The compromise we came to was Hill Top Road. We knew it was a stronghold of the Web, full of other children Agnes’ age. We would supervise from a distance, but were confident she would be in no danger. The Mother of Puppets has always suffered at our hand; all the manipulation and subtle venom in the world means nothing against a pure and unrestrained force of destruction and ruin.

and on the other we have the web binding gertrude to agnes, thus thwarting the desolation’s ritual, which also involved hill top road:

ARTHUR

Alright. Agnes. How’d you do it? Never did understand it, not really.

GERTRUDE

Ah. That’s a fair enough question. It was the Web. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, and I would call it an accident, but it never is, with them. It’s only after the fact that you can see all the subtle manipulations

... 

So, I began researching what I thought was a counter-ritual of sorts. Like I said, I was young, naive. I somehow found just the right books, made just the right connections, and even got what I thought was a piece of blind good luck when I found a tin box in the ashes of Hill Top Road, containing some perfectly preserved cuttings of her hair.

wouldn’t it seem symbolic, fitting with the dream logic we’ve been working with all season (and that the fears have always tended to work with), if what ended the metaphysical war was an artifact touched by both the web and the desolation? 

say perhaps... a device that creates fire while being marked by a symbol of the spider? one that just so happened to be delivered to the institute at the same time as a certain table?

TIM

Er, what is it?

ARCHIVIST

A lighter. An old Zippo.

TIM

You smoke?

ARCHIVIST

No. And I don’t allow ignition sources in my archive!

TIM

Okay. Is there anything unusual about it?

ARCHIVIST

Not really. Just a sort of spider web design on the front. Doesn’t mean anything to me. You?

TIM

Ah no. No.

ARCHIVIST

Well… show it to the others, see what they think. You said there was something else as well?

TIM

Oh, ah yes, yeah, it was sent straight to the Artefact Storage, a table of some sort. Ah, looks old. Quite pretty, though. Fascinating design on it.

all signs point to the best hope of escaping whatever plans the web has for jon lying with the desolation, or at least with fire, and who should be waiting in hill top road than someone who’s been known to burn statements in the past... and someone who, as of mag 162 - a cozy cabin, was the last person to mention the lighter: 

MARTIN

So, should we destroy it? Before we go?

[THE CABIN CREAKS VERY LOUDLY.]

ARCHIVIST

I honestly don’t know if we can.

[HE SIGHS.]

MARTIN

Mm.

ARCHIVIST

Besides, there’s – far worse out there. Better to try and avoid it, I think.

MARTIN

We’re not even gonna try? Look, we’ve got your lighter; maybe if we just –

i haven’t even begun to touch on the multiple instances of spiral marked individuals interacting with hill top road, or the potential role of the rift leading from the world without the institute to the reality with the institute from mag 114 - cracked foundations, or the foreshadowing we’ve gotten throughout this season that the archive might be destroyed by fire and how it’s looking more and more like that means jon might die, or the significance of the tapes and what power might be behind them...

but it’s nearing five in the morning where i am and i’ve been working on this frankly gargantuan post since about midnight, so i’m going to let more meta-inclined minds take it from here. tell me what you think! where do you agree with me, where do you think i’ve gone astray? hell, tell me if you think i’m just spinning my wheels, this is the first real theory post i’ve ever made so i might be completely off base, at least i tried lol.

tl;dr: 

the call back to the imagery surrounding the web table and its long history with hill top road and the desolation is leading me to believe that whatever plans the web has in hill top road for jon, fire is going to have a significant role in whether or not the web gets what it wants; either agnes herself might finally make an appearance or the web lighter might finally come into play.

[janiedean]

Amazing how you can erase and twist everything someone says and not even bother to check things before launching in your 1000 words answer where you repeat the same things over and over again. When I say “Theon’s story is about destroying death”, I AM talking about his trauma and abuse. I’m not saying that Theon is a superhero, I’m saying that Theon’s story is literally about surviving and saying no to the dying of light, he’s always been trapped between life and death. How is that less meaningful than Jon being AA just because he’s special. Jon is stereotypical, not matter how much you deny it. He is the bastard son of the “good” Ned Stark that everyone seems to venerate, he becomes important, he’s actually a prince, and heir to the kingdom, he’s going to come back from the dead and apparently it’s not enough because he’s also AA. Also “I search for AA and see only Snow”, how is that not a red flag? Didn’t you think that it could be about Ramsay hiding Theon? I didn’t say that everything is about mythology and ancient literature, I said Theon has a lot of connections to it, connections that are hard not to notice, that actually make sense and are not taken out of nowhere like everyone in this fandom does. Theon’s story is about himself, not about Bran or any Stark, you’re just obsessed with throbb. Theon is connected to magic and to the gods, Theon is the rightful king of the Iron Islands, so why it’s so amusing to people when someone suggests that Theon has something to do. I’m not saying that Theon has to be important for his story to count, but why it’s so amusing to people the idea that Theon is an abuse and rape victim and at the same time he has something to do. When it comes to female victims, they want them to do great things, when it comes to Theon they constantly reduce him to poor say boy, but Theon is not like that, Theon is in pain and he wants everything to end, but he’s also angry and he wants to be free. I didn’t say that he has to explore the sea because he’s an Ironborn, you said that, not me. I think that that’s something Book!Theon would want to do if he survives everything. Because he would be free and he would go into the unknown. That’s not true Theon has no connection to the sea, the Drowned God himself wants him as king and he likes ships, there’s also the fact that he never learned how to use a ship because he was kidnapped at 10. Also what’s so wrong about him connecting with his culture? He could change things, he wouldn’t be a viking, he would be an explorer. The way you talk about it, it’s like dealing with trauma means closing himself in an house. And about the prophecy, what’s so amusing about saying that Theon has a lot that fits? I know that the prophecy is vague, but Davos and Stannis don’t come close to it as Theon does. Theon died in almost every possible way and managed to come back on his own. He keeps saying that he died in Winterfell. Read the last chapters in ACOK, it’s all there and it all happens at the same time, and still there’s so much more, so many things. And it’s like this HAS to be true, but you say no to everything, you don’t even think that he has something to do with the Iron Islands, you just think he has to “atone” to Bran, so how are you different from D&D? Theon doesn’t have to atone to Bran, Robb or anyone else called Stark, his story is about identity. And Bran is talking to Theon and yes, Theon took Winterfell, but it’s not the only reason their stories are connected, Theon taking Winterfell from Bran was a foreshadowing to them interacting in the future for different more important reasons, that was always clear to me

... anon never mind that I hadn't talked about this in ages so like you came into my inbox with some 500 words of replying at 8 am on a sunday morning and idk how *I* am supposedly twisting things when

you brought this out of nowhere

I hadn't talked about the AA thing nor anything wrt theon's ending in like... a year

you are basically making up half of what I said or didn't because like 'oh I didn't say he had a tying to the sea because he's an ironborn' but two lines later you say 'what's the issue if he reconnects with his ancestry' which.... means that he'd have a tie to the sea because he's an ironborn so what's the truth here

'you're obsessed with throbb' I didn't mention robb once in my entire answer nor throbb nor I have written throbb meta recently like... I ship throbb but I don't see how that has any relevance to an answer where I literally didn't mention it and I said theon's sl can't be just about the starks

idk why you seem to think I have great stakes re jon snow and 'he's stereotypical no matter how much you say he's not', I'm saying that for a chosen one archetype he's a deconstruction so he's not stereotypical in the way h*rry p*tter is or aragorn is or whatever and it's like objective text and honestly I have fic to write and stuff to do and I could have like completely ignored your ask and said 'I think you're wrong' instead yesterday I spent half an hour answering you like... you don't need to sound that aggressive or come at me with this entire block of text when I wasn't even the one starting this conversation

what’s so amusing about saying that Theon has a lot that fits?

anon I explained in those 1k reply or whatever all the reasons why everything theon has that fits is something every single other character has at that point dany has the exact same reasons for fitting it and I told you all the reasons why jon has extra things that fit that no one else has, like.... it's my opinion, I haven't changed my mind since 2012 on it, you aren't going to change it and no one is until grrm writes different, you don't need to convince me or look for me to validate your reading because you can have whichever reading you want and no one stops you, I just don't think it's correct, the end

The way you talk about it, it’s like dealing with trauma means closing himself in an house.

anon you keep on saying I say that but you are aware that if I say I want char X to get their little house in the village/woods/city of their choice and grow strawberries with their loved ones and be happy I'm not saying what you said and I'm talking abt endgame? jaime and brienne both also deal with trauma and when I say that I hope they get married on tarth have fifteen kids and never set foot in a court again I'm not saying having children is the only way to deal with trauma like.... one thing is the endgame one thing is how you get there, where did I say theon is gonna lock himself in a cottage in wow and stay there until ados? nowhere, like.... please a bit of chill here? you read a thing and arbitrarily decided it meant stuff it doesn't mean but I am the one twisting and erasing? like sorry but it sounds like you want a fight about it or smth and believe me fighting about who is AA is not on my list of to-do things for today, also 'I died in winterfell' is like... yeah, theon greyjoy died in wf then he became reek then he became theon again, it's metaphorical, jon literally died, also like if AA wasn't a main fiver then it'd probably be someone completely out of left field that no one gaf about and for that matter there's a character who has been dying and coming back to life who has a flaming sword since like acok, but do I see you telling me it's textual proof beric is AA? no, but that would make more textual sense than theon imvho so *shrug*

in short: anon sorry but it sounds like being that theon is your fave - which... I mean he's in my top three so I agree that he's a great fave choice - you want him desperately to have the main role in the main storyline which is imvho not the case and again... even if jon was stereotypical (which we can argue on but like... from your wording I think you hate jon ngl which fair enough everyone has their dislikes) it wouldn't make the textual evidence less evidence and like... idk how to say it nicely but not liking the protagonist is more common than not and if you don't whatever but that doesn't mean he's not and that the textual stuff indicating he has the mystical hero storyline doesn't exist, I'd suggest you make peace with that concept and with the concept that your fave doesn't need to have any specialness in their sl to be a legitimate fave, also like... in asoiaf everyone who is special™ has a shit life and when grrm says he wants a bittersweet ending like in lotr, do I have to remind anyone what was lotr's ending? samwise gamgee goes back to his little house and children and wife in the shire and says he's home and we're all happy that the dude who deserved it most got it great, if that's what he's aiming for I really don't think presuming everyone gets the magical great™ storyline is in the cards X°D but most of all: again, everyone who's had a sl being full of magic prophecies and shit in these books has had a crap life and hated every second of it that was related to those prophecies and I want theon to be happy at the end so in lack of any imvho text proof that says it's anyone but jon I'll stick with that because it means none of my faves is in line to hate their life, which is exactly what happens to jon if he's AA and exactly what I think is gonna happen and I don't particularly like that for him either bc I do want jon to have nice things but idt he'll get them, doesn't mean I'm trying to find any textual reason to decide on my own that AA is dany (a char I care a lot less about) so that she gets the brunt of it because that's now how it works, I made peace with it too X°D

[puppy-phum]

for the character ask...OUR FAV BOY LIU SANG

(*´∇｀*)/💖

i had to come answer this one bc!! my son!!!! aaaaaaahhhh!!!!!! so thank you sob now i can talk about my second sour grape boy,,, wait. ok well, hissy kitten  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  spot the difference (you can’t)

give me a character

(placing this one under a cut too bc oh boy. i have things to say about liu sang)

How I feel about this character

Good lord. I feel so many ways about Liu Sang. He is absolutely amazing but he also just drives me insane every day. No other character has ever given me such headaches, he must be proud. Finally someone suffers as much as him (because I bet those ears cause him a permanent migraine). I feel sorry for him. I’ll take this pain gladly if it helps him in any way. 

But well. As simply as with Jiang Cheng, I do love Liu Sang. I shouldn’t really be surprised (at this point) that I fell in love with him but back when I was watching Reboot, he hit me like a truck. Which,,, he probably drove that truck himself, judging from the way he was handling the car chase with Jiang Zisuan. Just ruthlessly drove me over. I never stood a chance, not in front of that arrogance and stubbornness and enormous puppy eyes. 

And with all of himself, good and bad, he makes me feel so many things. One of those, probably the strongest one, is protectiveness. He needs someone to protect him from himself because he has a nasty self-destruction streak going. Boy has not known love since he was born. He has gone through way too much to try handle it alone. I can’t even remember how old he is supposed to be in Reboot (maybe 29?), but that is way too many years of fighting a battle he was never supposed to win. But he pulled through. Cynical and prickly and absolutely terrified of any human contact but he fucking pulled through. I want to fight some battles for him now. He deserves to rest. He deserves some peace and quiet and unconditional care. I want to tell him that he doesn’t deserve all the pain he’s going through, all the pain he himself is putting his body through because he thinks he can only be used as a punching bag. I want to tell him he deserves friends. I want to tell him that it’s okay to trust people again. I want to... just protect him. And maybe this is why – because of all this fragile mess I’ve discovered from inside of him while trying to figure out who he is – I struggle so much with writing him. I feel like I’m bringing up things no one is supposed to see. I feel like I’m pulling out words from him like teeth. But at the same time, I know he’s desperate to tell these things. 

So I struggle because I love him. Willingly. But oh boy does he annoy me sometimes, under all that protectiveness and fondness I have for him.  

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I am quite sure at this point that I don’t really ship Liu Sang with anyone. No one clicks with him in my head so well that I could feel myself slipping into the proper shipping territory. But I haven’t minded any of the ships I’ve seen for him, not Pingxiesang (which makes me super soft) or him with Kanjian (which is so sweet) or even @kholran’s pool noodle Risang (which is very interesting and I will read your fic, friend, when I am out of my Pingxie pit! I just need to feed these beasts first). I am mostly just very intrigued by all these ships people come up with because it really plays to my wish to just explore his dynamic with every other character that is available for him. 

But to put it simply: Not one perfect match exists for him yet in my head. Let’s give boy some time to figure out freindships first. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Well, this one I love because! This is what he is all about for me, somehow. So I will mention three: Xiaoge, Bai Haotian, and Pangzi. 

First, like I already mentioned in my Xiaoge answer, I adore Liu Sang’s dynamic with his ouxiang. They are both so damn awkward. I feel like I’m following a train wreck happening in slow motion any time I see them interact but instead of death and flames and screeching metal, it’s. surprisingly soft and sweet? They are both very tentative when it comes to people so they somehow get each other? Even if Liu Sang is a mess when it comes to Xiaoge which I totally get because I have once in my life met a person I consider a celebrity and who I look up to a lot and I was just shaking. And giggling. And acting dumbly. So I don’t blame Liu Sang for any of that; I’m actually quite proud that he’s keeping his cool so well and despite the rough start, manages to be a huge asset to his ouxiang. I am so happy that he gets to have this budding friendship with Xiaoge because they both need it.

Then! Bai Haotian. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately and the more I rewatch some of their scenes together, the more I notice that they really develop a bond during Reboot. They are in a very similar position: brought in because of their idols, young, sometimes overlooked, struggling, and usually falling behind. And oh, definitely in need of some saving and with tragic backstories. They could be such amazing friends, and I think they come to trust and care for each other during their trip to Thunder City. Bai Haotian is so caring by nature and then Liu Sang is just right there. And Bai Haotian is so lowkey about her care; she doesn’t push if people don’t want her to, which works so well for Liu Sang. She’s there when needed. She doesn’t ask too much. She knows how it feels to look up to one of the members of the Iron Triangle and then curl your own life around them. (She also knows how it feels to have a crush on that same member and then notice that crush will never lead you anywhere, though I guess Bai Haotian comes to realize that during their trip instead of years before but well, details.) She doesn’t judge Liu Sang and somehow Liu Sang comes to rely on her a lot. 

And last but not least (never the least!): Pangzi. God I adore these two to bits. Their banter is just *chef’s kiss* and when I look at them, all I can think about is a big dog trying to pat a hissing kitten with its paw. Which then turns to the kitten play fighting the dog’s big paw. And then getting tired. And falling asleep. While the huge dog just curls its body around the kitten to keep it warm, and maybe the kitten swats at the dog slightly for show but actually it enjoys it. Because it’s nice and soft and very warm. So yes, I love it how Pangzi and Liu Sang start off as enemies but come to care for each other. I cry about the peanut scene every day. Yes please adopt this poor stray kitten, he deserves a loving home ;; Give him food and a blanket and maybe he will hiss a little less (Pangzi also gives great hugs and Liu Sang deserves a dozen. For starters.) 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Once again I am at a loss with this. I don’t really know what this fandom thinks about Liu Sang? I feel like our tiny Liu Sang hyping corner here on tumblr is very much unified with the opinions. We all love him a lot and want the best for him, case closed. So maybe I’ll just talk about my hypersensitivity headcanon for him? Let me do that for fun haha

So, I know he’s sensitive to sounds. Understandable, with his skills. And I feel bad for him for that because it must be horrible at times (we get introduced to him through him vomiting because he can’t handle a train station with all the noise, christ) but I also somehow relate to that. I get sensitive to sounds sometimes too. A simple click of my mouse can be annoying at times. I require absolute silence quite often, and this intensifies if my emotions are on the negative side. So, somehow I’m taking things from that. Touch hurts when he’s feeling bad about himself. Noises annoy him when he’s angry or scared. Lights look too bright or he feels like he can’t focus his gaze when he’s sad or panicking. Smells and tastes are intensified when he’s stressed. I dunno, just simple little things. Him feeling through his senses. Him just generally being sensitive with his feelings because this world is a demanding place and pushes you into feeling things. And I feel like a lot about him is already tied to his hearing so why not his feelings too? I’ve read so many nice takes on him which somehow support this so I feel like this just fits right in. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

Liu Sang joins the final celebration!! Him just disappearing doesn’t make sense at all!!!! Let him get hugs!!! Let him be happy!!!! Oh my god. I was so mad about that and still am because no way did he just leave and not join his new friends for this final evening!!! Dammit. No matter how much he feels like he doesn’t belong and like he’s just “a hired talent” among them, he’s not that dull!! He got those damn peanuts and some hugs and shoulder pats from people, he was there saving the day, he managed to create bonds!!! And god, knowing Wu Xie, he would never allow Liu Sang to think that lowly of himself!!!! He would be there to offer Liu Sang the world if he wants it!! Gaaaahhhh

So yeah, give Liu Sang his moment with his new family or I am throwing something, for fuck’s sakes

thank you again for sending me these asks ♥ i’ll answer the rest during these next few days! you’re amazing!!

[plush-anon]

Happy Halloween Scooby Doo! Review

Muahahhhahahhahahaha! Thanks to the Walmart tradition of stocking movies for sale weeks before the intended release date, I have myself a copy of what claims to be Scooby Doo’s FIRST Halloween adventure!

…in spite of movies like Witch’s Ghost and Goblin King, holiday specials like WNSD’s A Scooby Doo Halloween (which had a haunted Scarecrow too…), BCSD’s EL Bandito (for Dia de los Muertos - obvs not the same, but most companies act like it) and Halloween, The NSDM’s Halloween Hassle at Dracula’s Castle, and the DTV short film Scooby Doo and the Spooky Scarecrow (which, ironically enough, did NOT take the opportunity to feature Dr. Jonathan Crane). 

So let us take a look now at Happy Halloween Scooby Doo! and see whether this film will be a graveyard smash of a treat, or a black licorice bomb of disappointment.

Full review (and SPOILERS TO GO WITH IT) are below the cut in my new review format; if all goes smoothly, I’ll go with this for future Scooby films.

WARNING: This review is very long.

One minor note before we begin: the Special Features actually include BCSD’s Halloween, WNSD’s A Scooby Doo Halloween, and PNSD’s Ghost Who’s Coming to Dinner

...so they were AWARE this was not the first Halloween adventure of the Scooby gang, and yet still use that tag line. Hm. 

Still, kudos for including them - this’ll help boost the reasons to keep this movie, if it turns out to be a real Milk Dud of a movie *ba-dum tish* :D

-----------

The movie starts off rather abruptly, actually - no slow pan over the setting, just WB Animation credit and BOOM, we’ve cut to a Halloween parade and Elvira is talking. 

I’m of a mixed opinion including Elvira on top of having Bill Nye and a Batman Rogue - while she most certainly fits the Scooby aesthetic, it doesn’t feel as grand an impact after her weird little cameo in Return to Zombie Island (ugh) and I’m not sure how well the movie will balance her in wait a minute

wait just a

WAIT A MINUTE

Did - did that parade float skeleton just sing Crystal Cove as the town’s name?

oh no. 

Oh No.

....also their song is terrible and they should feel terrible.

-------

Fred: We got him! Banh Mi Shop, second floor!

me: the heck is a Banh Mi Shop? *mild googling noises*

So I guess Jonathan Crane really had a craving for a Vietnamese sandwich before he enacted his Halloween scheme.

...you think he’s a lemongrass chicken type of guy or a BBQ pork guy? It’s always hard to guess at these things, esp when coffee and pumpkin spice aren’t on the table (as per fanon, of course)

-----

Velma: We have a flawless track record!

So I guess WB is just gonna ignore the past few DTV retcons established in 13 Ghosts and Return to Zombie Island?

I mean that rather defeats the purpose of them existing at all, but fcuk YEAH I can get behind throwing that retcon garbage out of canon!

And STAY OUT!!

------

Shaggy, talking about ghosts being real: I’m like the boy who cried wolf - I keep warning you but like, you won’t believe me until I finally get eaten!

Yet again, Warner Bros makes a wolf reference to Shaggy. Yet again, I am torn asunder between wanting werewolf!Shaggy in a new Scooby property, and fearing for the appearance of werewolf!Shaggy in a new Scooby property. 

-------

Velma: Point is, being afraid is a waste of time!

Scarecrow, LITERALLY EXPLODING THROUGH A BRICK WALL three buildings away:

------

He’s floating through the air and t-posing to assert his dominance 🤣🤣🤣

Gods bless animation 😁

------

Daphne @ Shag and Scoob locking themselves in the van: Are you serial?

Me: wait, SERIAL? *re-reads captions* yup, that says “serial”.  

Is this an editing mistake? I don’t think that works here…unless that’s supposed to be a joke on how they always do this. But then why would that be an irritating surprise, they literally do this EVERY episode 🙄

-------

Oh hey, Red Herring’s Party Screams truck has Red Herring running out of it

Could this be a hint to how the story goes? The villain appearing on a literal Red Herring?

Naaaaaah, WB’s not THAT smart

-------

So if we take @captainbaddecisions​​ crack theory on Jonathan Crane being Shaggy’s uncle seriously, does this mean that Jonathan is using magic to fly, float fear toxin orbs around himself, and making things explode, a la the family trait of Crack Theory A? 

Logically he’s probs using wires or magnets or some shit, but it’s a fun thought to entertain 😁

------

Welp, we finally get the opening credits! … with Jonathan Crane smashing through the Mystery Machine’s windshield, set to a slow poppy song straight from the 60s, and spewing the title of the film out in glittery pink mist.

All the while Scooby and Shaggy throw candy at each other, deliberately obtuse to the cloud of fear toxin enveloping their friends and the townsfolk, the steady destruction of the Mystery Machine they’re laying in as multiple cars crash into it and send it spiraling, and the general mayhem and destruction that Scarecrow is causing

Never change, guys, never change

--------

I just choked on my lemonade

There’s an article plastered to the roof of the Mystery Machine titled “Talking Dog Confounds, Ignites Ethics Debate Over Dog Labor”

ahahahahaha

-------

Annnnnnnnd there goes the Mystery Machine, tumbling in the air and over the roads with Shaggy and Scooby still inside without seat belts. Will they perish in this horrible road accident? Will Death finally come to claim them at last?

Of course not. This is Shaggy and Scooby we’re talking about - I’m almost positive they can survive anything up to and including a nuclear bomb. This is child’s play to them.

-------

So they “capture” Scarecrow… by pinning his cape to a tree with crossbow bolts. 

And they do not try to at least tie up his arms or his hands in ANY capacity. 

JUST the cape. 

...you know, Velma, for a team with a “flawless” track record, you guys are making a hecking TON of mistakes in facing against one of Batman’s ROGUES GALLERY, ESPECIALLY with no Batman in sight, good freakin’ grief. 😩

------

Yaaaaaaaaas, this Scarecrow design is LUSH

He’s got the lank, the height, the BTAS costume colors, the elongated face with beaky nose and pointed chin and angular cheekbones, the eyebags like Gucci, the furrowed brow… honestly the only thing missing is the more reddish color hair, and even that isn’t mandatory. I love 😍

Not to mention the HOT DAYUM voice he has - low and velvet rough and so godsdamned particular in a way that could either tie in to obscuring a southern accent as in fanon or just as a stringent academic, oh my yes. He’s voiced by someone called Dwight Schultz, who’s most well known for playing Captain ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock in the OG A-Team show, and someone called Reginald Barclay in Star Trek TNG and Voyager, if any of y’all know that character in particular. 

And of course, the first line he says is a delightfully wry “Oh, but I AM getting away with it,” with the sort of smirk that absolutely lends credence to why he’s a threat to Batman, and not some simpering wimp that can be defeated with some crossbow bolts in a tree.

I think I’m going to enjoy this movie at least somewhat, so long as we get to see him 🥰🥰🥰

(tho on a side note: Daphne why on EARTH are you trying to film Crane saying the meddling kids line? Do you have a video compilation of past villains who’ve done that, and you hope to add his to it? Was your phone damaged when you went up against the Riddler a few DTVs ago and you want a second shot at recording a Gotham Rogue saying it? Bc I don’t think a Gotham Rogue would be too pleased with seeing himself as a Mystery Meme on the Youtubes, you get what I’m saying?)

-------

Okay, so the floating orb things are explained away as fear toxin bomb drones somehow… despite looking nothing like the other drones and being much smaller with no visible propulsion, while also flying unassisted through and around objects to explode against places once flung…

(tho interesting note, none of them are aimed directly at the crowds, just behind them - odd, that)

But how did he heckin’ FLY at the beginning?

Yeah, they show him wearing wrist-mounted grappling hooks at the end of the intro song sequence, but they are NOWHERE IN SIGHT at the beginning - and I do mean in sight, since he emerges against a backdrop of flames. There was nothing there (see the T-pose above for further evidence), and nothing there when he FLEW THROUGH THE MYSTERY MACHINE’S WINDSHIELD AND FLEW BACK OUT AGAIN. And these things are pale silver, which stands out like crazy against the darker backgrounds, so no hand-wavy ‘they were always being used’ bullcrap we’ve seen in other movies. 

Hmmm *scribbles in notepad* note to self, add notation concerning Crack Theory A on magic!Shaggy to “Uncle Crane” theory files - evidence denotes that Crane is able to fly (or at least hover in mid-air unassisted) for terrorization purposes. May boost strength of CTA by family association, lending credence to magic inheritance along the bloodline...

------

“Avocado Toast Generation”? Crane, I honestly don’t know if you really mean that, or if you understand just how much that phrase gets under any Millennial/Gen Z kid’s skin. Having seen multiple variations of your character, it really could swing either way (tho kudos on the dead switch idea - very nice 👍🏻) 

Although this does lead to an interesting stand-off: Fred, upon seeing the town threatened with 3 days worth of fear toxin, immediately moves to let Crane go, while Velma stops him and refuses to consider compromising if it means Crane escapes.  They both look legitimately frustrated at the other for taking the stance they do. 

Fascinating~

------

Hmmm

Crane honey, I don’t know if your drones are made of flash paper and hope, or if Scooby and Shaggy are using the reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally old candy (the stuff made about ~3 years ago most neighborhoods give out to the teenagers that knock around midnight on Halloween) to shoot them down, but either way you may wish to speak with the manufacturer about this

Then again, this IS Shaggy and Scooby - they probably could’ve spat marshmallows at the drones and brought them down with equal success and explosions 

(and good on them for shooting those down! Atta boy 👍🏻)

-------

Aw dang it

1. They still have Crane captured and now in handcuffs (despite having… you know… NOT been bound by anything except cross bolts in his curtain cape thing)

2. Dwight Schultz has decided to pitch his voice higher and more nasally than what he has. Hopefully this is more of an incredulous sort of pitch than something that sticks for the rest of the movie, ugh.

Also, I think they’re framing the movie to be more Velma-centric this time around - she’s the one explaining to Crane how they tracked him down, apparently through a piece of fan mail he sent Elvira (is that the only reason she’s there? Also why was Velma examining random pieces of fan mail for toxins, Elvira probs gets hundreds a week irl) and it looks like they’re framing something up on how fear isn’t something you can pretend isn’t there. neat!

------

whajit

53rd? 

53rd?!?!

ONLY 53rd?!?!?!?!

Boooo, Scarecrow’s WAY more popular than that! I call foul

---

Okay why is Daphne’s schtick so far to spit laaaaaaame slang after every sentence Velma says

I would rather this not be her schtick

Actually could she go back to filming mystery stuff, bc at least I can pretend it’ll build into the OG Zombie Island Daphne

----

Phew, his voice has returned to its low, raspy goodness

also, Crane needs to learn about personal space, good grief

(interesting clue brought up tho - Crane only steals tech that CAN’T leak his toxin, ergo it can’t be tracked until he releases it. Sensible use, given that Batman probs tracks it if it does.)

----

Velma: I’m not afraid of you, Crane. Fear is an illogical reaction to an imagined threat. 

Crane:

-----

Crane: Fearless, then. Intelligent. Proud and stubborn. You remind me very much of the one person in this world I care about. 

uhhhhhh

Yourself? Harley? Edward Nygma? Ichabod the raven? Idk, I’m honestly curious as to where this thread will go 🤔🤔🤔

-----

Fred, leaning against the Mystery Machine: Guys, it’s gonna be okay. She told me!

O_o

Fred? Honey? Are you sure you weren’t supposed to join Crane in the transport vehicle back to Arkham? 

----

OH SWEET JESUS SHAGGY GREW YAOI HANDS

WHAT THE HECK 

THAT’S WAY MORE UNNERVING THEN YOU GUYS NOT BEING AFRAID ANYMORE

(although the fact that they’re both unsettled by NOT constantly shaking or having their heart racing is honestly kind of heartbreaking. Y’all need therapy, good grief)

----

Shaggy and Scooby just chewed up candy (wrapper and all) to make themselves a Halloween costume of… what looks like barfed-up candy (ew)

Before then proceeding to dance so well that everyone around them also starts dancing in a 60s-70s era rainbow light show and giving them candy

I worry for these two sometimes - that kind of power seems to be getting to their head 😬😬😬

---

Oh hey, acid green toxic waste is spilling from an 18-wheeler onto the Fear Toxin drones and emitting a purple pink haze that envelops a pumpkin patch! That won’t do anything suspicious at all I bet!

(wait is Poison Ivy going to come into this at some point)

(also major kudos to the music here - very 80s horror synth, I like)

----

So the Pumpkins have grown faces, limbs, consciousness, the ability to fly and a lust for human flesh

And they appear to be led by the Pumpkin King of the Pumpkin Patch mentioned in the Charlie Brown Halloween special

He’s not as friendly as I pictured him being, sadly 😕

---

Why is this random ass cop coming up to FD&V to say that they’re in over their heads… AFTER the mystery’s been solved?

Like dude, you’re only making yourself suspicious at this point, go home

----

Huh, interesting - the gang are being interviewed for a tv news network while they’re considered the town heroes

Why am I getting bad vibes from this…

Eh, it’s probably nothing

----

Velma: {Shaggy and Scooby} are, um… REALLY into the Halloween spirit. 

Shaggy: THIS ISN’T COSPLAY, VELMA!

I’m dying 😂

------

Holy Shit

Velma just snapped and went off on Shaggy and Scooby for acting scared and doing nothing to help wrap up the mystery

(even though these guys are the ONLY reason that the gang didn’t have to choose between setting Scarecrow free and poisoning the entire town for 3 days straight, but hey, what do I know - I’m just writing an in-depth reaction post to this movie and taking note of details like this, clearly I know nothing *eye roll*)

Last time I saw Velma critique the guys’ usual mystery solving shenanigans, it was much more low-key and without knowing they were nearby

But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence

------

What the

Bills?

Bills?!?!

Fred just mentioned that fixing the Mystery Machine was going to leave a hefty bill and that they may need to get dishwashing jobs to earn money

Which is more of a job you might expect a high schooler to get on the go and yet

They actually have to pay bills 

How old are they here??!

------

wait a tic

THIS is how they introduce Bill Nye?

He just calls up Velma with no explanation other than Velma saying “Oh hey, it’s Bill Nye!”

I just - what?!?!

How do you know him so well that he can just pull up your number and call you, and then geT YOU A NEW FREAKING CAR LIKE

WHAT?!?!?!?

Was there a Scooby episode with him in the past two years where the fcuk did this come from

------

Also the car is dressed like Bill Nye

And he can talk to the gang directly as the car

So that he can solve mysteries with them whenever he wants

This… this was not what I was expecting to come about from the Bill Nye cameo 

(alas, poor predictions of being Crane’s roommate, you will not come to pass this day) 😔

-------

Ooooo, purple haze throbbing on the horizon! That’s always a good sign of things to come! 😀

------

 And now Daphne’s… asking Elvira to mentor her fashion wise. And Elvira’s taking her on as her unpaid intern/personal assistant.

Yooo, movie, can you pick a direction and stick with it for Daphne? You’ve gone from her spewing outdated slang to wanting a costume for trick-or-treating, and now this. 

-------

Welp, now I can say I saw a giant pumpkin dog vore an old woman

I didn’t WANT to see that mind, but I guess I can say it now 😐

------

OH SHIT NO

IT TURNED HER INTO A FLYING PUMPKIN SHAPED LIKE HER FACE

ABSOLUTELY UNSETTLING, 0/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND

-------

At least we get a nice scene of Daphne kicking the pumpkins’ collective butt

Something normal

------

Elvira: WOW! You’re a regular Mary Sue!

*falls over cackling*

------

And now there’s a giant purple fissure opening up in the concrete to swallow the town of Crystal Cove whole 

(good, i whisper softly into the darkness of my living room. Let it fall)

--------

Man, I feel so bad for this single father right now

He’s gotten wrapped up in all of this nonsense with his daughter, and he is just Distraught at being chased by Jackal Lanterns, having the town collapsing under his feet, and having to gorge jump in his sedan to get away from the worst of it

It’s okay, Mike Dad - we would feel the same way in your shoes

-------

Hologram Bill Nye is wearing Cat ears and cat whiskers/nose, and is cleaning his hands like a cat cleans its paws

Why was this the movie we found out Bill Nye was a furry

Why Warner Bros 

Why would you inflict this upon us in a Scooby Doo-Scarecrow mystery

-------

Hey, can Jonathan Crane return now? The movie needs its dignity back. 

------

A clue on the whys here - the town was built on top of a MASSIVE lithium deposit, with the talks to mine it being scrapped due to environmental concerns. That’s actually a decent lead in for why some 

-------

Welp

The Jackal Lanterns just went full Mad Max with the Halloween Parade floats and cars

No, I don’t have any idea why either, just roll with it

-------

Nice, they confirmed that Fred’s full name is still Frederick Herman Jones XD

Also a great little action sequence with Daphne - while there’s not much movement, they frame the scene dynamically, with some good quick wordplay. Very nice. 

--------

Velma has a mind palace

Aight

--------

Velma: Shaggy, I could kiss you!

Oh, to hear this as a child, when I still hardcore shipped Shelma *sigh*

------

Oh thank gods we’re going back to Scarecrow again

------

Shaggy ate some Scooby Snacks, leapt out of a moving vehicle, and onto the backs of two flying pumpkins that he promptly reined in to fly to Crane’s prison transport

...yet again, I am amazed at the sentences I am led to type for Scooby Doo DTVs

------

Ah, how very Hannibal Lector of you, Jon 

Man, he actually looks very meek in normal clothes - red long-sleeved shirt and grey slacks

-----

Hmmm

So Crane ISN’T behind the Jackal Lanterns - in fact he’s outright befuddled by them. This means his whole spiel to Velma earlier about both of them being caught in the same trap was… metaphorical? The breakdown doesn’t actually go into WHY he thinks they’re in the same trap - Crane’s whole schtick is tied to accepting fear, not denying it, so why would they be the same?

Either way, someone is using both him and Mystery Inc to do something to Crystal Cove (please be Red Herring, please be Red Herring, please be Red Herring)

Actually, that reference at the beginning really WAS a red herring - they framed it as being Jon the whole time when it wasn’t. Kudos!

Additional kudos to having Jon be seen more out of mask than in - he is a looker, and I aim to look as much as I can ;)

-------

Annnnd Daphne’s now trying to convince Elvira to switch clothes with her

I don’t get it - how on earth did we get from Daphne trying to find a good costume for trick-or-treating to asking Elvira to switch oh there it is nevermind.

-----

There is literally a scene where a giant buzzsaw is slicing towards Crane

and he just

stares at it

going “huh, that’s different”

And I LOVE IT

------

And here we have another fascinating scene: Velma going to free Crane from his cell, as Daphne tells her to just leave him to die by pumpkin

I’m wondering if they meant to draw a parallel between the two here - Velma starts by reciting a nursery rhyme, then overcoming her fears in order to release madness to take control. It’s not done very cleanly - mainly bc we barely have any time with Crane in this movie - but I wonder if they meant to insinuate that Crane was like Velma once, where he refused to acknowledge he was afraid, which caused him to lose focus on his initial goals

Idk, ignore my ramblings

---

Crane, smirking: I’ll need my personal effects - extenuating circumstances.

Me, fanning myself: I’ll need you to remove yours first

(i am not even kidding, Crane is an absolute DILF in this movie and it flusters me. Stupid sexy animation)

---

YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS

SCARECROW TO THE MOTHERFCUKING RESCUE BABY, SCYTHE AND FCUKING ALL!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

----

FCUK YEAH THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

HE HAS A DANCE LIKE QUALITY WITH SOME OF HIS FIGHTING MOVES

VIOLENT DANCING BRINGS THE GIANT JACKAL LANTERN DOWN BABY

THEN HE BACKFLIPS AND GYMNASTIC SWINGS INTO THE VAN

ROCK IT SCARECROW FCUKING ROCK IT

(minor note here, but the subtitles show Dr. Crane instead of Scarecrow - unsure if that’s more that the movie calls him Dr Crane or if it indicates he’s acting more heroic than villainous)

---

GODDAMNIT

THE GIANT PUMPKIN SNUCK VINES INTO THE VAN AND STOLE HIM BACK 

WHEN CRANE WAS... wearing a seatbelt before, but isn’t now.

...

BOOOOO

---

Yet again, we find a Scooby movie that attempts character development, but with Velma

Unlike Shaggy’s Showdown however, I’m mixed on how successful it is.

For starters, Velma hasn’t been this cocksure in other DTVs we’ve seen, so it’s a bit odd to see it now. While not 100% out of place - after all, the gang DID capture one of Batman’s Rogues Gallery on their own - it still feels a touch forced. Compare that to Shaggy’s Showdown, where Shaggy has ALWAYS been a coward (one that, in more recent years, writers have had willing to abandon his friends for safety), so the character development there feels more natural. 

The progression of events with Velma actually work somewhat okay - but again, here’s where past DTVs come to bite them in the ass. The past handful have had the gang be wrong, have had them fail, or catch the wrong guy. This makes Velma’s attitude here at odds with the other films, something that sticks more due to a character that’s appeared in the past few films as a minor inconvenience - a Sheriff who keeps telling the gang not to interfere, they’re doing things wrong, etc. If this had been a character who was completely wrong in the past AND SHOWN TO BE WRONG FOR HIS OPINIONS, while the gang never guessed wrong, this would work much better. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and here we are. 

I think it would have flowed better if Velma’s cockiness came solely from catching Crane on their own. Have a random cop character or reporter or whatever (just not the recurring cop), insinuate that the gang is in too deep with Scarecrow, that he should be handled by the adults or professionals or whatever. Velma could bristle, overcompensate, and THEN fall from her pedestal like we see, reach out to the gang and commiserate over feeling scared, and grow. Again, it’s not too far to reach for, but they handle it poorly; as a result, the outcome feels a little more shoehorned in. 

It’s an honest shame, bc we haven’t had a Velma centered story since Frankencreepy, and we all remember what a hideous fcuking mess THAT was *shudders*. Still, it somewhat gets its point across, I guess.

---

Fred why did you rip your shirt off

Actually better question why do you not have nipples

--- 

Awwwwwww

Velma just apologized to Shag and Scoob for snapping at them earlier, and admits how she doesn’t appreciate how much they make Mystery Inc what it is

Also she eats a Scooby Snack with them and admits they taste pretty good

----

Huh

Velma’s mind palace is the Mystery Machine driving through space

Also Shaggy and Scooby are able to telepathically follow her in and communicate with her

Literally, they actually followed her into her head telepathically, and show her their memories of things she hasn’t gotten to see tonight (while also possibly enhancing her ability to remember things, given how much DETAIL she captures perfectly of things that she would maybe have glimpsed in a millisecond AT MOST)

...another tally for Crack Theory A of magic! Shaggy and Scooby *scribbles*

-------

Fred, be very very thankful that there are no people operating those pumpkins in person cause uhhhh

Those traps would be spraying red instead of orange

------

Another weird music choice - the gang goes up to fight the Jackal Lanterns, but the music is the same 60s bubble we heard earlier 

Not terribly atmospheric, really

(wouldn’t a Smashing Pumpkins cover of Scooby Doo be more appropriate, or did you guys spend all your money on hiring Elvira and Bill Nye?)

------

Dang

Velma just admitted her fears and jumped into the mouth of the Mega Pumpkin, before getting Fred to use the app from earlier to shut it down, revealing it to be a giant drone surrounded by smaller pumpkin drones

This feels… counterintuitive, but I’ll try to explain at the end

---

Okay

I’ll admit it

The Whodunnit is actually pretty decent in concept

There was a sprinkling of tidbits that could be assembled for the final conclusion and still make a decent amount of sense, all to find the sheriff doing it 

Only he isn’t a sheriff

He’s a former Tech CEO who was also busted by the gang years ago in a case the Sheriff kept bringing up throughout the movie - due to his prison sentence, he lost more than half his wealth and the opportunity to expand it further with the Crystal Cove Lithium deposits

He was also someone who sold tech to Crane for his fear toxin distribution, where he got the idea to frame him for it

(tho on a side note, Crane is an absolute dork and a terrible liar - just look at the email he sent XD and that profile pic, my gods)

He deliberately picked at the gang for the past few DTVs (specifically 2: Return to Zombie Island and Curse of the 13th Ghost) to fracture their confidence, undermine them, etc - all so that in one fell swoop, he could retake his fortune, frighten everyone in town away from the mines so they couldn’t interfere, frighten away the gang (while also ruining their reputation as mystery solvers), and take Crane off the docket so he couldn’t identify the CEO when he pretended to be the sheriff

This… is actually a pretty damn good plan, for a Scooby villain. He was patient, manipulative, and clever, learning how best to tie up loose ends and win back what he lost. A clever revenge story that came so close to coming to fruition, and could have honestly been sold convincingly… 

...if it hadn’t been done so much better in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. 

Yeeeaaaah, this movie basically lifts the rough framework up from that one - past mystery villain comes back to attack the gang and ruin their reputation (tho this one decides to also make his fortune back and tie up loose ends with former criminal contacts, a la Crane). Gang is embarrassed in front of the news folk, another villain is framed for it (like Old Man Wickles of the Black Knight fame), and the gang must reconcile to foil the villain for good.

Although it also??? Merges elements of Frankencreepy in it?? The movie is focused on Velma, who is struggling to admit when she’s wrong (which ties into her fear, somehow… I’ll think on that point a little) and things purportedly go haywire when she won’t bend. This… isn’t illustrated as well here, since there’s very little direct cause-and-effect from Velma’s actions that would prove this point - that insisting her way is the right, best, and therefore only way to go ends up making things worse.  

As much as I despised Frankencreepy (and I DESPISED IT), it did do that part well - showing that refusing to budge on something can lead to you hurting your friends (literally, in that one), and that admitting you were wrong and need help isn’t the end of the world. 

(that movie also had former villains returning to gain vengeance upon the gang using psychological warfare, hm - may need to go over that one again, unfortunately).

It’s a shame, too -  the basic elements for this plot are all here, they just need to be polished and reworked a bit to make a really fascinating movie. 

------

Anyways, back to the asshat CEO who just… faked being a sheriff. Because white people can get away with that so long as they have the outfit and the car *throws up hands* (the sad part is this is probably something that actually happens)

As he drives away we see a familiar silhouette looming in the cornfields, watching him approach

Velma had Bill Nye on speaker, so he could record the entire confession for the federal officers nearby (who were taking Scarecrow back to Arkham), and track the phone signal to his exact location

And right as his holographic call cuts out, we see the shadow of a Scarecrow looming over him, causing him to scream.

When the feds arrive at his final location, both his body and the money have vanished. The car still sits, engine running, before the crows leering over him from the field vanish into the sky. 

-------

Now that he’s dead, the gang walks and finds themselves at a Halloween party, with friendly faces and good food. The mystery is solved, though the culprit may never be found again. 

Then Daphne admits to NOT trying to steal Elvira’s costume for Halloween, but instead trying to steal Elvira’s identity and replace her. 

Something that she’s apparently nearly gotten away with on past mysteries working with Phillis Diller

*sighs* movie, why couldn’t you just stick to the costume schtick? This is just… so much worse. 

-----

From there, Elvira walks off to wrap things up, reveal the monster face on the back of her head sans wig (which was also a monkey), and start the credits, where we see the gang working to bring the Mystery Machine back to its former glory a la Frankenstein pastiche. 

This movie… this movie is a hot mess, but at least it’s an OKAY hot mess. 

It really does feel like someone started writing a decent Velma-focused movie concerning the Scarecrow and a past Mystery Inc villain interfering, but was bogged down by notes from higher-ups: Wait! Write in Elvira! Also write in Bill Nye! Hey, let’s have a Mad Max car chase with the Jackal Lanterns! And have Daphne obsessed with literally becoming Elvira! Also make reference to things that we’ll insist be explained this way instead of a way that makes sense! Great!

(seriously tho, we never find out who Crane cares about most that reminds him of Velma, what the heck?)

It’s like two or three different scripts were smooshed together without being cleaned up - stuff is said that doesn’t get resolved, the celebrity guests don’t get to breathe much and feel squished together, and the build-up for the villain feels… less impactful, even knowing that he’s been in the past two films. 

It might have worked if he’d been in… let’s say like 5 or 6 DTVs in a row, speaking roles for dissing the gang growing in each (ex start with “Good job kids! But maybe next time, leave it to the professionals, okay?” and growing more bitter from there), but only 2 feels kind of meh. Still, I do appreciate the clues we got to collect together, and they all work in the final breakdown of the scheme - some DTVs can feel like they pull stuff completely out of nowhere, so kudos there. 

I appreciate what they wanted to do with Velma - give her a character development arc similar to Shaggy’s in Shaggy’s Showdown. Unfortunately, it wasn’t set up quite so neatly: they blended her ‘refusal to admit fear’ with her overconfidence that she was always right, and it led to a weird conclusion. To face her fears, she leapt into the Giant Pumpkin, which… proved that she was right all along about it being fake, and that solves things somehow. It doesn’t address how she can get something wrong sometimes, it doesn’t really address what she’s afraid of (which is honestly quite good: she’s afraid of failing in a way that allows bad guys to escape justice and in a way that hurts her friends), it’s just a bit of a mess. Points for aiming the focus the right way (and in a way that DOESN’T sexualize the underage teenage girl, unlike some DTVs cough cough Frankencreepy cough cough), but it’s very very messy how it goes about it. 

The movie actually balanced pretty well for the whole gang - no excessive focus on one leaving the rest in the dust (too much at least - Fred was a touch underdeveloped, but nowhere near as annoying as past iterations have been. Shaggy and Scooby were kind of meh in some places but great in others, while Daphne was just odd. I think they were trying to recapture the BCSD Daphne characterization, but they failed. Still, she did spend some good time kicking ass with the pumpkins, so that was fun.

Now for the Rogue, Jonathan Crane. If you like Crane, this movie gives you: maniacal Scarecrow, calm and creepy Crane, a brief glimpse at fanboy!Crane (he admits in his own awkward way that he’s a fan of Elvira, and later tells her he loves her work - it’s fun), and (best of all for me) a heroic Crane - one who helps the protagonists and ends up kicking ass pretty damn well, brief as it was. And while DILF Crane is always a treat, he feels underutilized in this. In comparison, Scooby Doo/Batman Brave and the Bold really utilized a lot of different aspects of Riddler, to the point he actually does feel pretty menacing by the third act. It’s a shame we don’t quite get that with Crane, but I do love seeing him 1. More out of mask, and 2. Acting as a good guy (in his own way), so he’s enjoyable on the whole. 

I kind of wish that the whole movie was spent more with Crane, but again, the script is a bit of a mess on this part - the fact that he’s not completely screwed over is a goddamn miracle. 

Elvira was… okay. She didn’t have much of a purpose beyond getting the plot started and giving Daphne some hooks to play off of. Bill Nye (abrupt as his introduction was) did provide some necessary elements to the mystery, as well as the tech; he wasn’t too bad by the end. (still a touch bitter we didn’t get ex roommate Nye, but hey, what can you do)

Humor was… mixed. Some good, some meh, but very few long enough to feel painful. Some bits felt extraneous at times, but they did help to build to the conclusion, so points for effort.

At the end of the day though, I’m probably keeping this more for Jonathan Crane than anyone else. It does have a lot of fanfic potential tho 🤔🤔🤔

That’s all from me tonight, folks! Hope you enjoyed my own little breakdown of the movie. 

[bookworm-2692]

About a week ago I finally finished bookbinding @airdeari‘s beautiful Zero Escape fic The First Nonary Game. It took about a month (between all the waiting for glue to dry and also several days each week when I was unable to work on it), and was so much fun! It’s so satisfying to just... hold this book in my hands. 

Details about how I made it, along with additional photos (and commentary) below the cut.

So I came across this post on Tumblr, which immediately inspired me to try bookbinding myself. I spent a few days watching so many tutorials from the youtube channel linked in the post (I’ll link the specific tutorials I used in this post), and googling how to actually manage to print pages so they form proper signatures, because the inbuilt booklet creator in Word doesn’t exist in my Word apparently so that’s fun.

Anyway, once I started, I asked @airdeari for permission to print and bind his fic, and he immediately said yes, so that was good. Then I spent a good couple of days copying the entire fic into a Word document, and fiddling with formatting so it would look like an actual book (section breaks, page numbers, headers with the fic title on the left page and chapter title on the right page (this took ages to work and I kept on stuffing it up), and making sure things just... looked nice. I added in the art After The War that @keycrash created specifically for the fic (third pic above), and an “afterword” containing credit and links and the author’s notes from AO3 (because even if I’m the only one who will ever see it, it still feels weird to not add the credit stuff in so it’s there).

I then saved the document as a PDF, and used CheapImposter to correctly shuffle (impose, hence “imposter”) the pages so when folded into signatures, each page would be in the correct order. This program was the first free one I could find, and was great because you could specify the number of sheets you want per signature, rather than stuck with a default. I chose to have 11 signatures of 6 sheets of paper, since that was the amount that would have the least blank pages and the end of the book. The file was 261 pages, so with two pages per side, and two sides per sheet, you divide the number of pages by 4 to get 66 sheets of paper

I then printed. There was only one (1) paper jam in the process, which was great. Unfortunately, I realised after I printed that one of the headers for one chapter was wrong (I hadn’t properly disconnected the two chapters), but fortunately that only involved reprinting 4 sheets of paper.

I used the following tutorials to make the books: DIY Textblock, a general “how to make a textblock” tutorial; DIY Kettle Stitch, a specific look at the stitching for a textblock, since the first tutorial doesn’t focus on this; DIY Book Cloth, since I chose to use fabric for my cover; and DIY Hardcover Book, how to put all those pieces together.

So then I started folding all the signatures. I was watching so much Brooklyn Nine-Nine during both the folding and stitching sections, since it was repetitive actions I didn’t need to concentrate on that lasted hours.

It was at this point that I sliced each signature one by one to make the end smoother and less pointy. In future I recommend not doing it at this point - wait until the very end. Instead, move straight onto stitching. 

I don’t have any photos of the stitching portion, since my phone died the morning I started the stitching, and I wasn’t able to replace it until after all the stitching was done. In fact, originally all the photos from before the stitching were lost too. It was only about two days ago that magically the My Photo Stream thing kicked in and brought back all the photos - if it had worked two weeks earlier I would’ve had more. As it is, all photos from September to January are gone forever, unfortunately. But that’s another discussion entirely.

The above is the first book photo on my new phone, so as you can see, all the stitching was completed, the spine was glued, and the purple paper attached. I couldn’t buy two A4 sheets, so instead I had to buy one A3 sheet and cut it in half. Which was difficult cycling home from the city with an A3 sheet that didn’t fit in my bag on account of being A3 and not A4, but oh well.

I don’t have a book press, so I used a pile of DND books and my brother’s weights instead, as shown below.

I then had to re-slice the book after this point bc my first go wasn’t even, on account of slicing each signature separately. Next time definitely I’ll just do it at the end like this. I then also sanded it to make it smoother. It’s still not perfect, but it’s something that’ll take practice and patience so.

Next I made the book cloth, which involves using appliqué sheets to combine cotton fabric and tissue paper. But first I want to talk about the fabric I chose for the cover, because I’m quite proud of it. I spent ages wandering around the shop, trying to find something that fit the feel of the book. Spoilers for the content of the fic if you haven’t read it yet, and also for the source material (999/Zero Escape). I was thinking about some sort of blue swirl thing, because of the Gigantic sinking. I found that, but hesitated because it didn’t fully fit, and my favourite colour is blue so I always pick blue. I also considered flames/fire because of the incinerator thing, but couldn’t find any. I can’t remember if I just couldn’t find any four leaf clover fabric, or if I’ve just since thought about that as a cover. But instead I chose the butterflies below. They fit in several subtle ways that I’m proud of. The colours of blue and pink(/red) matching the receiver and transmitter coding all throughout 999, as well as the moments of purple as well (I don’t think I need to get into that, I’m sure it was analysed to hell and back when the game first came out). The butterflies also point towards the butterfly effect, and in turn the different timelines present in the series. So together it just works. /spoilers over

It’s also just a pretty fabric.

Now the making of the book cloth. I had to make it twice, because I was too impatient the first time, so the iron was too hot and it steamed, which wrinkled and warped the tissue paper, so the fabric was all wrinkly too. The second time took ages and was a worse quality appliqué sheet, but worked well enough anyway.

(My parents: did you have the iron out? what were you ironing? you never iron)

And then I cut the book board to size, using the measurements from the tutorial video. I’ll repeat them here: front and back cover: width = width of textblock minus 3mm, and height = height of textblock plus 6mm, and spine width = width of textblock spine, spine height = same height as covers

I then glued the board onto the book cloth, and put it under the book press. The dnd books are not large enough to cover the whole thing, and also I really wanted the board to stay flat and not curl, so I grabbed way more dnd books and way more of my brother’s weights. I also accidentally started putting the glue on the wrong side of the board (bc one side is smooth and the other is rough), hence the colour difference as well.

The corners were cut and folded and glued over...

And then the textblock was glued in, and put in my book press for a whole weekend. I added a sheet of paper to absorb the glue so the pages wouldn’t become wrinkly, but instead the sheet I added was fine and every other page in the book is wrinkly. So I dunno what happened there. After the weekend I took it out and looked at it, and then put it back for another week to be sure.

And then the complete book is shown at the top of the post!

As I was starting I was talking a lot about it, like about the process I had to go through, or how I was going to obtain what I needed, etc. Mum asked if she could read the story. I froze, like a deer in the headlights... because this is a fanfic. She saw my fear and immediately backed down, explaining she only wanted to read it because if the story was that important to me that I was going to literally turn it into a book, she wanted to read it to yknow like know me better or something? Which makes sense. And when I got over my initial reaction, and remembered that indeed it was technically my dad who introduced me to fanfic, and thought about it more, I said okay. Because since the fic is technically a prequel to the first game, and most of the characters are technically OC’s (like, from the first game we know that all eighteen children must exist, but most of them don’t have names or anything so they are effectively OC’s), then knowledge of source material isn’t strictly necessary. This fic can probably be enjoyed on its own. I mean I’ll probably have to explain the concept of morphogenetic fields, and the last four chapters might not make sense? But I’m okay for my mum to read it. So when she’s less busy at work I’m going to download the epub onto her phone for her - we’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, this fic is a masterpiece, extremely well written and I highly recommend it. As said, most of the characters are effectively OC’s, and yet they are all given such rich histories and personalities. All of them have access to the morphogenetic field, so I’m just so glad that @airdeari​ explores nine unique relationships with the field - nine unique sibling dynamics, and esper powers and abilities. It’s just so good.

[weraceasone]

Hi elle, regarding your response to Max anon. I think Max is just an easy person to hate. Because he's harsh, he's just bluntly honest and he has an i dont care all attitude. He has a foul mouth, and he does things without thinking. I agree with you, that he definitely deserves a lot of the heat he receives, but to the extend that people will hate him for breathing?? i don't think so. Its important we criticise him for the bad things he's done, but i see people apologising for even posting about him, get death threats for supporting him. They don't only hate Max, they hate people who support him and I feel its all gotten out of hand, no?

He's aggressive, you're right, in both driving and during the times we can see him (i wont say off track bcs idk Max so idk how he is); but Charles is also aggressive in his driving, he's gone for a gap that's not there so many times and no one says he's a shit driver like they did Max—Of course, Charles just has to mature in his driving, evidently Max is now less rash and reckless in his driving, its something you learn over time. He's aggressive when he kicks the car, the wall, when he swears on radio when he loses a pole or his car isn't working, I agree. I hate that he is too. He swears a lot especially to GP, but GP still has a good relationship with him. Daniel has destroyed his and Max's driver's room in anger and I haven't seen any criticism for it. Drivers have told their engineers to "fucking shut up" when they're racing and no one cares. Your analogy, is terrible, forgive me, because if Max actually hits someone (im aware he's pushed Esteban) no one would say that.

And thing is, Carlos has done equally (or even more) worse and he doesn't get flamed on for every word he says. (Im talking about the chinese restaurant video) why? because he's charming and he's pretty and "he's so funny when he's when lando!!" It's easy to forgive Carlos, to say, oh it's a one off, when he clearly still supports far right wing political parties.

Infact, you dislike Kimi because he is cold and straightforward or always being blunt at his engineers. Ever wonder why that is? Is it because he's unlikeable or because he fails to meet the standard of expectation of pleasantries? Plus, this is just what the media show of him, its his persona, its the "Oh, Kimi" thing people will eat up. Are u justified to dislike it, yeah, but does that mean Kimi is a shit person? no. If anything, it shows, we as humans, are biased to our own opinions. You dislike Kimi because he's not a person you would gravitate to in general (sans the iron cross thing), evident from your rant. No one has a problem with that because u disliking one person doesn't hurt anyone. ((People hating Max, and in turn, hating people who don't hate Max, hurts other people, but thats not something i blame you for))

This is very long but I just dont like the inconsistency, i think you're free to dislike whoever you want, to not support them, to criticise the dumb shit they do (which there's a lot for Max) but you have to be consistent to everyone, no ? Im not just saying this bcs I like Max, infact, he isn't even a fav of mine, and i can easily say he can be such a piece of shit and at times is a piece of shit but its only him that gets this treatment. Maybe think about why that is.

(for anyone wondering about the context for this ask, go here) hey Anon! I’m going to be really honest with you; I’m honestly not too sure what you’re trying to tell me. you said you agree with me on the fact that Max deserves a lot of the heat he receives, but I never said that. that’s an assumption, because when you read through the answer, you can see I never said that. I do agree with you that it’s gotten way out of hand and that people shouldn’t get death threats for supporting Max, that’s just ridiculous and I agree with you on the fact that that’s gotten way out of hand.

“he’s aggressive, you’re right”, I never said that. I use the word aggressive when talking about myself, but never about Max. the anon who asked me the question did mention Max being aggressive, but I didn’t. in the whole answer I never talked about the way Max drives, because I was talking about his character. telling me that Charles drives aggressive too… what is that even referring to? I never mentioned driving. (and if you want to know, drivers driving aggressively is fine by me, most of the time they only mess with their own race by doing that, so honestly… be my guest). if Daniel destroyed his and Max’ driving rooms, then of course I don’t approve of that. but the reason you’re not seeing any criticism because of that is probably because it happened years ago. the only thing I mentioned in the answer was Max saying slurs, I didn’t even mention him pushing Esteban and the reason I mentioned Max saying slurs was because it happened half a year ago. “if Max actually hits someone (im aware he's pushed Esteban) no one would say that.” say what? I don’t know what you mean by this. “Carlos has done equally (or even more) worse and he doesn’t get flamed on for every word he says”, first of all: I think everyone should decide for themselves if Carlos has done worse or not. second of all: I’m not the only person in this fandom, am I? you’re constantly switching between ‘you’ and talking about the fandom in general, why are you shifting the blame onto me? I’m not the spokesperson for this fandom. I mentioned many, many times before that I believe my opinion does not weigh more heavily than other people’s opinions do. “Infact, you dislike Kimi because he is cold and straightforward or always being blunt at his engineers. Ever wonder why that is? Is it because he's unlikeable or because he fails to meet the standard of expectation of pleasantries?” yes, that is literally why I dislike him. because he has characteristics that I do not like in a person. “Are u justified to dislike it, yeah, but does that mean Kimi is a shit person? no.” I never said that. literally, never ever said that. I never talk about Kimi, ever. the only reason why I mentioned I didn’t like him is because somebody asked why I never post about him. somebody asked, so I gave my honest opinion. I didn’t “rant”, I literally answered a question. I’m sorry, but what you are saying doesn’t make any sense. with “the inconsistency”, what do you mean? like I said before, I literally ignore drivers that I don’t like. somebody asked me a question about Max, just like somebody asked me a question about Kimi, and I answered it in an honest way. that’s all I did. “i think you're free to dislike whoever you want, to not support them, to criticise the dumb shit they do (which there's a lot for Max) but you have to be consistent to everyone, no ?” yes Anon, I’m consistently ignoring them. and saying that I’m allowed to dislike a person and then saying you don’t like me being inconsistent while I am being consistent, doesn’t make any sense. am I only allowed to be consistent if that fits your agenda?

“your analogy is terrible, forgive me”, I forgive you Anon, because you’re allowed to think that. but maybe your interpretation of it was terrible too, cause half of the things you mention I never said, but are based on assumptions you made. maybe this sounds like I’m a bit pissed off, and that’s because I am, cause you’re putting words in my mouth that I never said, you’re judging my character wrong and I’m sorry Anon, but I really don’t appreciate that, that honestly upsets me.

you know, we should probably just leave it like this. we clearly aren’t having the same conversation. I do hope you’re having a good day!

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 17

and we’re back!

phew I had to take a hiatus to work on other projects but now that those are done I'm baaaack

god I'm SO fucking excited for this arc, I fucking love it 

OH NO TAILGATE...I almost forgot...this poor little dude

REMAIN IN LIGHT BABEYYYYY!!! I fucking love that title, talking heads is probably my favorite band Ever, and that album is one of my favorites, so when I first saw it here I was super excited lol. it’s such a good title, both for the album and for this arc

tailgate goes right to cyclonus ;_; hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

also...I just love the way milne draws cyclonus, he’s the perfect mix of terrifying and handsome, and also goth

ohhhhh I forgot about the framing device used here, with rodimus in jail later on in this arc, narrating retrospectively 

cybercrosis, add that to this list of amusing robo-puns, as a play on (I'm assuming) necrosis, aka tissue death

oof, ratchet saying that tailgate ‘lived a full life,’ which is fucking brutal because we as the readers know that isn't true :( 

tg is right tho, it seems v uncommon for tfs to die of old age. that's some shit luck right there, espec bc tg is basically a baby who was asleep for 6 million years 

ratchet talking abt pharma and looking at his hands...I See That

ratchets bedside manner leaves a bit to be desired hvbhjdsubfjsd jesus dude

and then there's cyclonus, whos also pretty terrible at being tactful

AUGHHHH and then cyclonus, like the emotionally repressed icon he is, goes and claws his own face up in grief rather than express any emotion to tailgate :( I'm in physical pain thanks

rodimus is like, wait...informing my crew about my actions? lmao? uhh what quest...oh yeah we’re on a quest. yeaaaah whatever man

the portal helllllll yessssssss

poor tg drinking away his impending death

oh man, chromedomes weird fucked up skeleton arm

rodimus hhvbhjaudsfbjaskdf he’s like yeahhhh I'm not even gonna pretend to indulge in democracy, we are GOING thru that giant ass space portal whether you fools like it or not

AND THERES THE MFING MOON BABEYYYY!

luna 1!!!!!! they found the missing moon BY ACCIDENT, fucking iconic 

still cant believe rodimus’s office is HOT PINK with a FLAME DECAL around the door. unreal

awww I love percy 

rodimus, in a shocking show of maturity, admits that rung was correct to be harsh with him about the whole overlord thing 

the squad gettin together ayyyy

rodimus reminding us all that this ISNT just a party ship full of frat boys, people have DIED

when you see tg and realize that that was cyclonus’s request ;_; 

aughhh and cyc saying ‘never hope. hope is a lie.’ that kills me man aughhhh

like, cyclonus clearly doesn't want to deal with the emotions he’s feeling over tg dying so he’s trying to make sure that tg accepts death and doesn't hope for a cure, bc that would hurt cyclonus MORE, and he’s already unused to all these ‘emotions’ n shit

I'm sorry but the MARBs just look so fuckin dorky bvhjakbdfhsf beep beep here comes the dweeb squad!!! lmaoooo

cd being like ‘can’t we just drive’ and perceptor is right there like :| LMAOOOO 

also I love cd saying ‘sometimes I wonder why we even have alt modes’ bc I feel like that's such a witty dig at the fact that in this series about robots that transform into cars, we rarely get to seem them actually DO that

its especially interesting when you consider how important functionism is in this story - alt modes are super important in that context, but we still rarely get to see them. hell, we literally NEVER saw megatrons alt mode, which is still crazy to me

ohhhh man I love that panel where the whole moon lights up, that's just amazing

congratulations, rodimus! it’s....a shitton of babies!

also broooo I ufcking love the fact that you barely even notice that rung ALSO hopped down onto the moon at the same time as rodimus...brilliant

god now I need to go find that ‘am i pragnent?’ video lmaooo

why....why did you have to use the word ‘fertilized,’ jro. why....

cold construction lore time!

do I wanna do my big biology speech here? I'm trying to figure out where it would go best...I think ill save it for later in this arc

god I fucking love brainstorm. his entire little speech about how he ‘went to marches’ for cold construction rights and whatnot is so funny with the added context that he’s an MTO and wasn't even around for that

skids, don't just sit in the spooky oil reservoir, alone, after you just went thru a mysterious portal, you should be more genre savvy than that 

what am I saying, this is the guy who wants his memories back even though he’s been told multiple times that it’ll probably traumatize him to death

brainstorm with the 0.1%er spark [eyes emoji]

I love percy just being horrified at the lack of proper scientific conduct from brainstorm like, all the time

I see the cons have their own edgy, weaponed-up version of the MARBs

MINIMUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love him aughhh I'm so excited for the stuff w/him this arc

also I totally forgot that you’re supposed to see him introduce himself as ‘ambus’ and be like whoa wait is that dominus????? or someone adjacent to him????

skids vs legislators: part 2!

P H A R M A

DR THOT HIMSELF.....back and immediately making a hand pun, with his chainsaw arm displayed in full glory....amazing

cant believe jro named this one ‘the fecund moon,’ which forced me to google what ‘fecund’ means, which led me to go ‘oh good lord jro WHY’ lmao 

I do love that we don't see the ‘part 1 of 5′ til the end - that's a great small reveal that hey, we’re in an arc now!

so there's the end of issue one of remain in light! aughh, I'm so fucking excited for this arc. my first two readthrus this was one of my favorite arcs (my other fav being the time travel arc), and I'm excited to see if its still at the top for me 

I feel like the first time I read thru I like this arc a lot cause I actually understood most of it hbvhadjkfbaksjf unlike all the previous stuff, where I was a bit more confused - at this point I at least had a decent grasp on the characters and relationships, so that helped a lot

also apparently one of the songs of this issue is ‘heaven’ by talking heads which AUghhH that song makes me wanna float in the ocean and look at the stars. idk. also I find it a little ironic that that song isn't off the album remain in light lol

either way I love this issue, strong start to the arc with lots of intrigue and worldbuilding, and clearly some incoming status quo changes...cant wait!!

[meg-black]

A choice between good and easy (Mysterio x fem!Reader)

(The title is not the best but couldn’t wait to post it so…)

Feel free to tell me if you've liked it and what could be improved! Don't forget to reblog if you've enjoyed it, it would mean the world to me!

Wordcount: 5,073

Warnings: mild swearing, implied smut (kinda?), angst (?) Don't really know tbh), otherwise just fluff bc I’m a sucker for it.

Reader is implied to be asexual.

You were making your way through the lab, trying not to bump into anyone. The place was buzzing, and now was not the time to trip and scatter your papers all over the place. You had followed your dad, who was a SHIELD agent, in Prague, to run some tests there. You weren't actually working for SHIELD yourself, but you decided helping your dad was the best thing to do. It had only been eight months since Thanos was defeated, so the world was still a bit hectic. That, plus the new threat of element monsters wrecking havoc. You had seen it on TV. A giant water monster in Italy. He had been stopped by an unknown hero, nicknamed Mysterio. As if you really needed that now... Another world wide threat. You knocked on the door of your father's office, and made your way inside. He wasn't there. You sighed, thinking about how you were gonna need to run around the place, again. That is, until you found a small piece of paper on his desk. He had been called by Fury, and was in the basement. Which was on the other side of the building. Sighing again, you made your way to it, almost bumping into someone carrying test tubes containing a weird substance. She glared at you as you apologized, and continued walking. You soon found yourself in the basement, and you saw your dad.

'Dad, I have the papers you asked for!'

By the look on his face, he was having a rather serious conversation with Fury, but when he heard you, he stopped and gave you a huge smile. He would've given you a hug too, if you two had been alone. 

'Amazing, thank you.'

As you smiled back at him, you felt someone watching you. You turned around, and were met with a man wearing what looked like a superhero suit. And right behind him was...

'Spider-Man?'

'Yeah that's me', he said nervously. 'You can call me Peter by the way.'

'It's so nice to finally meet you! I'm Y/N! I'm really sorry for your loss. From what I understood, Iron Man was important to you.'

'Yeah he was...' he said, smiling sadly.

'Miss Y/L/N', said Fury, 'this is a rather important conversation so if you could...'

'Sir please', interrupted your father. 'Y/N has been helping us a lot these past weeks, and she already knows about what happened in Italy. I think she should stay.'

'Only if she can help us', said the mysterious man.

You widened your eyes. You had finally recognized him.

'You're Mysterio! Thank you for stepping up in Italy, you saved a lot of people there.'

'And I hope I can do the same here.'

'Here? Is there one of them here?'

'Unfortunaly. We need to stop it before it destroys the Earth.'

Great, you thought. Another apocalypse.

There was a beautiful sunset when you got out of the lab. It was still pretty hot out there, so you had decided to take a well-deserved break to read a bit. Sitting on a nearby bench, you took your book out. You had only been reading for about five minutes when a shadow prevented you from seeing the words on the page. You looked up, seeing Mysterio studying you.

'You seem a bit young to be working here', he said abruptly.

You scoffed, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

'And since when is age a symbol of capability?'

'That's not what I meant', he argued, softer this time. 'Why would you risk your life like that when you're so young?'

'I don't really work here actually. I'm just helping out my dad when I'm not at uni.' You paused, swatting a fly passing by. 'But I like being here. After everything that happened recently, it's nice to spend time with my dad. The risks don't really matter.'

'That's what I thought too. Before the elementals destroyed my world.'

'So it's true uh? You're from Earth, but not this one?'

'Yeah', he said, sitting next to you while fidgetting with the golden band on his finger. You hadn't noticed it earlier. 'It cost me my family.'

'I'm sorry to hear that', you whispered, putting your hand on top of his own. 'I can't imagine how hard it must be to go through it all over again.'

'This Earth won't fall. I promise.'

There was so much sincerity in his eyes that you felt your heart swell.

'I don't see how it could fall. We have a kick ass team after all.'

After that evening, you and Mysterio (you had learnt his name was Quentin), spent a lot of time together. You were trying to help as much as you could, but you also wanted to learn about his Earth. How similar was it to this one? How different? You nearly had had a heart attack when he had told you that on his Earth, there was pineapple in burgers. Upon seeing your disgusted face, he had laughed, saying he was just joking.

'We did have pickle and pineapple pizza though', he had added.

You had spit the water you had just been drinking, which had only made Quentin laugh harder.

As you watched him talk with Fury and Peter about how they should attack the fire elemental, you thought that you were lucky enough to see this other side of him. Not the serious soldier preparing for battle, but the funny, kind and caring man. Sure, Peter was seeing a bit of this side too, but Quentin was acting more like a father figure than a friend. And you couldn't help but think that with you, it was different. You hoped it was different. You didn't want him to see you as his daughter. Because you certainly didn't see him as a father figure. You had tried to ignore how your heart was racing everytime he looked at you – you had more important things to focus on. But it was getting harder and harder to do so. Not that it was your fault. It was like he knew what you were feeling, and he played with it like a dog would with a toy. Just as you were thinking that, he looked at you, his gaze fixed on your eyes. You swore you could have seen him bite his lower lip, but it was so brief you might as well have imagined it. You gulped, but you didn't lower your gaze. If this was some kind of staring contest, you'd make sure to win. He was the one to break the eye contact, thanks to Fury, who was still talking to him. That caused you to smirk. If he really wanted to play that game, he'd find you were quite a worthy opponant.

Later that day, as you were walking to your father's office to eat lunch with him, you saw Quentin again. He was alone his time, and he smirked as he looked at you.

'What was that earlier?' he asked, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

'I don't know what you're talking about', you said innocently.

'Don't you now?' he raised an eyebrow, coming closer to you.

He grabbed your arm and ran his thumb over it, sending shivers down your spine. You blushed and got out of his grasp.

'I need to go', you whispered. 'My dad's waiting for me.'

You turned around and walked away, your footsteps and heartbeat faster than usual. He was good at this. Too good. You really needed to focus on something else. Whatever you do, don't think about his eyes, you thought. Or his lips. Or him in general.

As it turned out, not thinking about him was harder than you'd wished. You were involved more than ever with the SHIELD, and with Quentin, as the fire elemental's presence felt more and more dangerous. Everyone knew it was a matter of days before the battle. Or hours, as you learnt when you woke up this morning. Though 'got woken up by a loud bang at your door' was more accurate. It was your dad, and you didn't need to ask any questions to know what it was about. You followed him in the basement, where Fury, Quentin, Peter and several other people were going through datas. Still groggy, you managed to understand that the elemental's activity had increased, to the point where they'd been able to determine where and when it would strike. Where being at the carnival and when being tonight. Peter was worried, since his classmates were there, but Fury told him he would put something together so they would be safe. When you found out that something was an opera concert, you couldn't help but laugh. Imagining a bunch of teenagers dying of boredom while classic music was playing in the background was just hilarious.

It was a lot less hilarious when the fire elemental struck. Peter and Quentin both had earpieces which allowed them to communicate with each other, as well as with Fury. You stayed in the basement, your father at your side, as you waited anxiously for any news. Only good ones you hoped. But because nothing ever went the way you wanted, things got worse. The fire elemental got bigger and bigger, as he absorbed more and more metal. You bit your nails, something you hadn't done in years.

'They're gonna be okay', your dad assured you.

It didn't make you feel any better. It had been a while since you had heard from any of them. You feared the worst had happened. But then you heard Peter. They had defeated the monster, but needed help to control the remaining chaos. You started following Fury and your dad, but he stopped you.

'Sorry sweetie, but you're not coming.'

You huffed.

'I'm sorry? I'm a part of this, of course I'm coming!'

'I know you worry about him but we don't -'

'Dad, I love you, but you won't make me change my mind.'

He sighed, but let you come. You followed the small group, heart racing. He had noticed. Shit, you thought.

When you arrived at the carnival, you realised that chaos was an understatement. Everything was destroyed, flames were still raging here and there... You spoted Peter, who looked fine. Unlike Quentin, who was still on the floor. You ran towards him. He was still breathing, but had gotten roughed up pretty bad.

'You've looked better', you whispered, a small laugh escaping your lips as you felt tears prick at your eyes.

'No shit.' He tried to chuckle, but it sounded more like a cough.

'You okay? Do you think you can stand?'

He nodded and you helped him up. You offered to patch him up, but he refused, stating that it was a minor injury.

'I need a drink though.'

You reluctantly watched him leave with Peter, and helped the agents clean up the place. That man will be the death of me.

Quentin and Peter had been invited to a convention in Berlin by Fury. Quentin had accepted, but not Peter. That's the first thing your father said to you the next morning. Right after, he told you you were also going in Berlin, and you didn't miss his innuendo. Blushing furiously, you shook your head, telling him it wasn't like that.

'I know sweetie, I know. Can't blame a father for teasing his daughter though.'

He winked, stroking your hair.

Since you were leaving the following day, you went back to your room to pack your stuff. Looking at all the clothes in your closet, you sighed. You always had the tendency to pack way too much stuff. Putting some music on your phone to give you strength, you took out all your clothes.  It took you the entire afternoon, but finally, you were done packing. Looking proudly around, your blood ran cold when you saw a giant spider next to your desk. You screamed, and got up on your bed. You could manage small spiders, but this one... The door flung open, and Quentin came in, a distressed look on his face.

'What's happening?!'

You pointed your finger at the hairy beast. You thought he was going to make fun of you, but he didn't say anything. He approached the spider, gently took it in his hand (you were disgusted, but still wished you could be the spider at that moment), and opened the window. He put it outside, and closed the window.

'And the damsel in distress is saved', he teased.

'I'm not a damsel in distress', you argued.

He rolled his eyes.

'Whatever you say.'

'Not all of us can be badass superheroes all the time you know?'

'Indeed', he said, raising an eyebrow.

You threw your pillow at him, which hit him in the face. He looked at you, shocked, and you stuck out your tongue at him.

'That's how you reward me for saving your life?'

'You were being an ass', you replied, shrugging.

'Need help climbing down your bed as well?' he smirked.

You threw your other pillow at him, but he caught it this time.

'See? That's what I'm talking about', you exclaimed. 'You're so... infuriating!'

'So that's why you keep staring at me then? Because I'm so “infuriating”?'

'Exactly!'

Half angry, half amused, you went up to him, and put your hands on his torso, pushing him towards the door.

'Now get out!' you said, almost laughing.

He threw up in hands in surrender and winked at you, before leaving your room. You closed the door and shook your head. I'm so screwed.

The airport was buzzing with people. You were taking a SHIELD private jet, but your lab was too small to receive a plane, so you needed to take off at the capital's airport. You had made it past security and were currently waiting for the boarding to begin. Quentin was nowhere to be seen. Not wanting him to miss the flight, you decided to go looking for him. You told your father you needed to use the restroom, which wasn't a lie, because you really did. You just didn't want him to know your real purpose. You didn't need him to tease you more than he was already doing.

You didn't find Quentin on your way to the bathroom, but you didn't worry. He couldn't possibly have lost himself, could he? You were going back to the group when you got your answer. You heard a voice, which sounded exactly like Quentin's, coming from a nook in a wall to your right. You got closer, careful to not look suspicious. The man was talking to someone in a hushered voice.

'Everything is under control', you heard him say. 'The animations, the suit, everything was perfect. They all believed it. Get ready for the final phase. I have the glasses, but we'll need more drones. I want something bigger. Something worthy of the Avengers. The whole world is looking at me after all.'

You didn't want to believe what you had just heard. So it was all an act? Animations made thanks to drones? No, impossible. Maybe it wasn't Quentin. Just someone with the same voice. You leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the man. Someone with the same face too apparently. So it was him. Your heart was racing, your mind going at full speed. Why was he doing this? Not only was he deceiving the SHIELD, he was deceiving the whole world! Your heart in your throat, you went back to the group.

'Is something wrong?' asked your dad, after seeing how upset you were.

'It's nothing... Just two girls in the toilets being obnoxiously loud about their sex experiences. I think I'm scarred for life.'

He chuckled, shaking his head. You offered him a small smile, and sat back next to him. You could've told him the truth. You should have. But you didn't want to. Not yet anyway. Not until you had tried to do something to stop this thing before it got out of control. You knew it was stupid, but you were trying to convince yourself it was the best solution. Quentin and you had grown quite close, so maybe you could make him change his mind. Or had your closeness been an act too? You sighed. You couldn't possibly confront him now, but you'd make sure to do so once you were in Berlin. Taking out your phone, you decided to use the remaining time before the flight to conduct some research on Quentin.

If you were already feeling nauseous, you realised your misery was not over when Quentin sat next to you in the plane. Sure, it was a private jet, so there weren't many seats, but really? Not wanting to talk to him, or even look at him, you turned on your laptop, plugged in your earphones, and put on a movie. You tried to act normal, but it was difficult to ignore his gaze going from you to the screen, like a neverending dance.

The flight seemed to last forever. When you arrived in Berlin, you were exhausted. Physically and emotionally. The trip to the hotel seemed even longer. Luckily you weren't in the same car as Quentin. You didn't want to face him now. You needed time to process everything and think about what you were going to say to him. However, you knew you couldn't wait for long.

Arriving at the hotel, you flung yourself on your bed, without unpacking. You stayed there for a good twenty minutes before you heard a knock on your door. Groaning, you went to open it, and found yourself face to face with Quentin. You sighed internally, but let him in.

'Are you okay?' he started.

'Yeah, why are you asking that?'

'Well, you've been ignoring me the entire flight.'

You gulped. Obviously he had noticed.

'Look, I know these past weeks have been exhausting for you. They've been for all of us. But now that the elementals are gone - '

'The elementals?' you snapped. 'Oh like the threat “worthy of the Avengers”? Cut the crap. I know none of it is real.'

His eyes widened for a split second, but then his expression changed completely. He no longer looked like the caring man you had grown to like. His face was twisted by anger, and he looked dangerous. Deadly even.

'How?' he almost growled.

'I overheard your conversation on the phone. At the airport.'

He sighed.

'And to think you were the least annoying out of all of them.'

He then pulled out a gun, small enough to fit under his t-shirt without it being seen. You immediately put your hands up.

'Woah, what are you doing?'

You tried to not panick. He wasn't really going to hurt you. Right?

'Can't let you run around and tell everyone my secret, can I?' he purred, sending chivers down your spine. It could've been a pleasant feeling, if only there wasn't a gun pressed to your forehead.

'Well... I haven't said anything so far so...'

The pression on your forehead lessened.

'Why?' he said, tucking his gun back in.

'Why?' You scoffed. 'Because I'm a silly girl who thinks she somehow can talk you out of this madness.'

You hadn't meant to be so honest, but you were so angry that the words had gotten out anyway. He too seemed surprised by your outburst.

'I won't let your cute face get in my way', he hissed.

'Get in your way?' you repeated, not registering the compliment. 'Oh you mean your vendetta against someone who's already dead?'

Seeing that he didn't respond, you continued.

'Yeah I know you worked for Tony Stark. I know my way around internet, and I found a bunch of infos on you. I get that you'd be pissed at him you know. But we've all had shitty bosses, and it hasn't turned us into psychos! And he's dead for fuck's sake! What are you trying to prove?'

'I want the world to listen to me', he said, his jaw clenched. 'I want to be THE Avenger, so they acknowledge me as a powerful being.'

'Okay... And has it never occurred to you that you could become that by I don't know, fighting actual threats? Instead of going through all the technical difficulties of creating one?'

His eyebrows were furrowed, like he seemed to really think about what you were saying.

'You're a genius, and your drones are amazing. I know that, because we all believed in the elementals. Can't you use that for the greater good? I mean I know the Avengers defeated Thanos, but it doesn't mean there won't be another threat. A real one this time, with real consequences. Consequences that you could prevent. You want to be the hero the world needs? Well you need to make a choice between what's good and what's easy. Because right now, you're doing complete shit and it's gonna get you killed.'

Quentin's eyes were fixed on you, and you could've sworn you saw a flicker of something going through them.

'And what if what I want right now is neither good nor easy?' he whispered.

'What?'

'It's not good because she's a lot younger than me, and it's not easy because she hates me.'

You blinked. You certainly weren't expecting that. This was completely off topic.

'I don't hate you', you whispered back. 'I wanted to when I found out the truth. But I can't. Because I know you're not evil. You can still get back on the right path.'

It was his turn to blink. He then scoffed.

'You really think I'm redeemable?'

'You'll find I have the tendency to see the best in people. You're not evil Quentin. You're a hurt man who doesn't know how to handle his resentment.'

You took his hands in yours, and he brought you close to his body. Your heart began to race, as his face got closer and closer. Just as you were about to close your eyes, there was a knock on the door. You both jerked away from each other, a blush creeping on your cheeks.

'Come in!' you said with a wavering voice.

The door opened, and you saw your dad, along with Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

'Mr Beck, we were looking for you', Fury said.

'Were you? I was just talking to Y/N about the elementals.'

'Well that's why we're here. Should we expect them to come back? Or are they gone for good?'

You looked at Quentin expectantly. What he was going to say next would change everything. For you at least.

'No. They won't come back. We're safe.'

You released your breath, relieved.

'Good. I think this calls for a celebration party', said you father. 'Care to join us Y/N?'

You looked at Quentin again. He was looking straight ahead, as if you hadn't almost kissed a minute ago.

'As long as there's food', you finally said, forcing a smile.

The party was great but you didn't really care. You were never one to drink a lot and big gatherings made you uncomfortable more than anything. You sighed, looking at your empty plate. You had already gone to the buffet twice, but there wasn't a lot you wanted to do besides eating. And staring at Quentin. You kept thinking about what he had said earlier, about what had almost happened, and his unfazed expression afterwards. Did he care for you as much as you wanted to? As much as you cared for him? You sighed, taking your head in your hands.

'Are you alright Y/N?'

You looked up to see your father looking at you, clearly concerned. You smiled weakly.

'Yeah, I'm just exhausted. Is it okay if I leave?'

'Of course sweetie.'

You smiled at him and bid him goodnight. As you made your way out of the hotel dining room, you didn't notice Quentin had gotten up as well, and was following you. It wasn't until you were in the corridor leading to the bedrooms that you heard someone else's footsteps. You started walking faster. Please don't be a drunk creep, don't be a drunk creep, don't be...

'Y/N!'

You stopped, heartbeat increasing. It was him. He caught up with you, and you prayed he wouldn't see the blush creeping up your cheeks.

'Sorry if I startled you. Do you mind if I walk you to your room?'

You opened your mouth, but nothing came out. You cleared your throat.

'No... it's fine.'

You started walking again, not saying a word to each other. While the silence was not awkward, it wasn't comfortable either. You soon (too soon? Not soon enough?) arrived at your door. You opened it, and headed inside.

'Want to come in for a bit?'

The words had gotten out on their own. You silently cursed yourself. He didn't say anything, but you saw him nod his head before following you. As soon as you closed the door, he pushed you gently against the wall.

'I do believe we got interrupted earlier', he said, his voice low and husky.

Your breath caught in your throat. Your cheeks grew hot, but you still found it in you to reply.

'No we weren't,' you said, trying to keep a serious look. But as Quentin's eyes grew wide, and a hurt look shone in them (or was it just the light?) you couldn't hold it. You smiled and then full on started laughing. Quentin seemed taken aback, confusion written over his beautiful face.

'That was a joke!' you exclaimed, still laughing.

Quentin shook his head, a smirk forming on his lips. He got closer, his breath fanning over your face.

'Wait!'

Quentin growled, clearly annoyed that he got interrupted, again.

'I just... I don't...'

Come on Y/N, you thought. It's now or never. You took a deep breath.

'Look. I don't know where this is gonna lead. I don't even know if you feel something for me. But I do. I... I really like you and I don't want anything to happen if you don't feel the same way. Or if you just want a one off thing or something not serious. Because I'm not into those things.'

He clenched his jaw, a stern look on his face. Of all the things he could've done next, what he did shocked you. He got away from you, and without a word, he left your room, closing the door loudly.

You sat on the floor, your back against the door. What the fuck just happened? In the worst case scenario, you had expected him to laugh at you. Certainly not to be angry. You had made a mistake. You had lost control of your emotions, and... No. You weren't the one who had tried to kiss him. Twice. Sure, you had been flirting. Or attempting to. You had shown him you cared about him. He had let you in, let you see a glimpse of the wonderful man he could be. What just happened was not your fault. You closed your eyes, feeling tears run down your cheeks. This wasn't your fault. After some time, you got up and decided the best thing to do was going to bed. Going after him wasn't an option. You'd see things clearer after a good night. As soon as you had decided that, someone knocked on your door. Sighing, you rubbed your eyes, trying to take off your ruined mascara. You opened the door, and didn't have time to say anything before you felt lips crashing on your own. Shocked, you tried to break free from the embrace, before you recognized the person's smell. There was only one person who wore this cologne.

'I'm sorry', Quentin said breathlessly, breaking the kiss. 'I shouldn't have reacted that way.'

'Well,' you said, trying to regain some kind of composure, 'this wasn't in my top 10 reactions, that's for sure.'

'You made a list?'

'Didn't have anything better to do.'

You both laughed at that. Realising you were still in his arms, you blushed. You got out of the embrace, running your hands up and down your arms.

'So... Does that mean you feel the same?'

You mentally face palmed yourself. Was it even allowed to be this awkward? Quentin looped an arm around your waist, his other hand resting on your cheek.

'Was that not a good enough answer?' he whispered.

'I suppose it was only average.'

'Only average? How rude.'

He kissed you again, softer this time. You melted into the kiss, your hands going up at the nape of his neck.

'No more lies', you whispered.

'The only lies I've told around you were about the elementals.'

'Is that so?'

'Even I couldn't lie to such a beautiful girl.'

'So smooth,' you mocked, grinning wide.

You yawned, and suddenly became aware of how late it was.

'Am I boring you?' he asked, looking falsely hurt.

'You could never. But it is getting late. And I've had quite an exhausting day.'

He broke out of your embrace, a soft smile gracing his lips.

'I'll see you tomorrow then.'

He kissed your cheek and went to the door. You followed him and grabbed his arm. He turned around, a questioning look in his eyes.

'I never said I wanted you to leave. My bed is big enough for two you know.'

You blushed, and he smirked. You playfully hit his arm.

'Not like that, you idiot.'

'I didn't say anything', he said, putting his hands up.

'As if you needed to!'

He laughed and you took his hand.

'Now, come to bed instead of saying stupid shit.'

'I told you I didn't say anything! You're the one imagining things!'

'I thought we agreed on not lying anymore', you teased, pulling him with you on your bed.

He shook his head and turned off the light, as you laid your head on his chest. He put his arm around your middle and kissed the top of your head.

'Sleep well love. We'll talk tomorrow about this “no lying rule”.'

You hummed in agreement, sighing as he caressed your side. Everything was going to be okay, you were sure of it. He proved he could get better. Be a good person. He just needed to be surrounded by the right people. There's hope for him, you thought. There's hope for us.

Aaaannnd that’s it folks! You made it to the end! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. You have no idea how much I’ve refrained myself from writing fanfics/imagines because of how much I feared it would be shit and ooc (hopefully this isn’t too much)

Let me know if you want a part 2 or something like that. Also I may write a Wanda x fem!Reader thingy soon (love her so much!). This will be an occasional thing though, so I’m not taking any requests (though if one of you has an idea they’d like me to write, I’ll try to if I’m feeling inspired/like the idea. Not gonna have a schedule though)

Taglist (basically all the people who liked/commented my post where I talked about writing this, love you guys soo much): @crayolanicola @arsenie-poo @sheogorathdaedricprinceofmadness @superheroforrent @citrussaurus @piratekingfoxx @jake-gyllenhaal-lover @martina9400 @soft-cowboy1899 @alienkid97 @permanently-tired-pigeon @itsapparel @fan-grell-411 @aquahogcodes @sorrowful-bitch @maggiesimpsontheimmortal @kmoyer99 @pixelhollow @eleventhdoctorsangel @chaotic-gyllenhaal 

[jjkfire]

Sweet Saccharine; pt. 2

Reader x Jungkook // sugardaddy!AU // 11k words

Summary: Trying your best to stay afloat in a ruthless city, you decide to join the sugar bowl. Who knew the sugar baby business would be this exciting?

Genre: Fluff?

Part 1 // Part 3

A/N: bro it’s been months since the first chapter and I am so sorry like lmao does anyone even remember that this fic exists??? anyway told myself to keep the fic simple but my brain was like uhhh heck no 

Previously...

Oh, if only Jungkook knew what he was getting himself into, if only he knew who you really were. He would’ve avoided you like the plague, he would’ve been running for the hills, anything to get as far away as possible from you. It was in this person’s favour however that Jungkook didn’t. An evil smile graces the lips of the dark figure, dressed in all black.

So begins the takedown of Jeon Jungkook.

So begins the end of Jeon Logistics.

Now

So, what are both you and Jungkook doing in the middle of a long, empty, straight road, one would ask? The answer would be Jungkook has no fucking clue.

“Do you trust me?”

“No… not really,” Jungkook gulps as he looks over at you in the driver’s seat.

“Aw, come on,” You laugh. “Live a little why don’t you?” You turn to him to raise an eyebrow, an evil smirk on your lips.

He hears you rev up the car engine, its signature roar resounding in his ears and usually he loves the sound but right here, right now, he’s not so sure. What he knows though is that letting you take the wheel was a horrible, horrible idea.

Earlier

[02:28] You: Hey friend saw you in a magazine today [02:28] You: Image sent

Jungkook’s fingers scramble to swipe at his phone to open up the message. He breathes out a sigh of relief to see that the magazine had chosen a rather flattering photo of him standing next to Yoongi and Taehyung, his two closest friends.

The three of them grew up basically attached to each other considering that their grandfathers were best friends who had all established their own logistics company around the same time, building it from the ground up with their very own hands. Everyone thought that their friendship wouldn’t last, that eventually, friendly rivalry would turn ugly but the three old men still got together at the Jeons more than once a week for a casual game of poker.

The Min, Kim and Jeon family are often referred to as the 3 greats of the logistics industry, but they were more than just that. The comradery between the 3 families has lasted for generations now. Jungkook doesn’t even remember a day where he didn’t have Yoongi and Taehyung by his side when he was growing up and even now, they’d at least see each other once a week, be it for a casual coffee or the occasional supper. The three of them seem like an odd combination, so different from the other yet somehow, it worked. Perhaps it was the fact that they carry the same burden, the pressure of having to take over such a huge company one day or perhaps it was the other 101 things that they had experienced together that helped shape what is seen as an unusual friendship.

Jungkook stares at his screen, unsure of what his reply should be but sure of the fact that he wanted the conversation to move forward. He wasn’t quite sure where he stood with you yet but the two of you had been texting day and night since he had dropped you home that evening and maybe it was because you were a lot more comfortable over text that he found himself being drawn towards you, wanting to know more about you. Perhaps it was your crass humour or the way you sent him the weirdest memes, a sign of real friendship you had told him one day but he finds himself waiting for a text from you for a greater part of the day but your busy work schedule meant that they were few and far in between until the end of the day comes and suddenly he’s sat there texting you for hours on end, way past his usual bedtime.

Talking to you seemed real because for the most part he knew you didn’t have a hidden agenda, he didn’t have to worry about your intentions or any of the sort because the deal the two of you have has taken care of that and if this felt like a job to you, it never showed and for that, Jungkook is grateful. You speak to him as if you’ve known him for years, not boring him with stupid small talk that he hates but you dive head in, skipping the part where you awkwardly try to get to know each other, instead choosing to talk about that midnight movie you snuck into that day or even your thoughts about the government, fully uncensored of course and boy were you brutal. It’s a breath of fresh air because Jungkook doesn’t remember a conversation he’s had as of late that didn’t have to do with who was boning who or who just got a new car or mansion because frankly, Jungkook could give less of a damn about all those superficial things. He just wanted for once to have a conversation that mattered, one where he left feeling like he learnt something, a good sort of conversation that left you feeling in some way or rather, fulfilled and that he got whenever he spoke to you.

Perhaps the reason that conversations with you seemed so interesting was that you had an entirely different perspective on life, one he assumes is because all his life, all he’s known is the North, the isolated dream island of a city that is separated from the bottom half of the city and the rest of the mainland, the only connecting factor between the two pieces of land is a less than impressive bridge. Jungkook doesn’t know much about his country other than what was taught in school and he has a feeling that much of what he’s been taught has been watered down or altered because after hearing you speak about the provincial parts you had grown up in, everything he has learned doesn’t seem to make sense anymore.

All Jungkook really knew about his city, was that there was a long river that runs through it, dividing it in half, and for years now, the people from the North and the South had lived entirely different lives. The North, where Jungkook was from had the bright lights, the fancy restaurants, the good schools and hospitals. It had everything it needed to be classified as a dream city while the South on the other hand had quite the opposite. It had the crime, the poverty, the dilapidated apartments and ironically, it also had the backbone of the city’s wealth, the port.

Over the course of a week and a half, he has learned a fair bit from you about his country and to his surprise, his very own city because although he doesn’t like to think about it, the segregation is real and he has never had the chance to know about the intricacies of the part of the city his very own company depends on, until he met you of course.

[02:30] You: you know

[02:30] You: i’m a little sad because in the interview portion, you mentioned that you were happy to be there

[02:30] You: because all your friends were there

[02:30] You: but you know who wasn’t there?

[02:30] You: your most important friend

[02:30] You: aka the one you’re paying for

[02:30] You: aka

[02:30] You: me

Jungkook giggles at that, shaking his head at you. For someone who was so shy in person, you were surely pretty brazen over text.

[02:31] Jungkook: are you using your phone at work again?

[02:31] Jungkook: you’re a horrible employee

[02:31] Jungkook: how have they not fired you yet?

Rude, you mumble out loud. It was 2 am and the last customer had walked out about an hour ago. You’d be bored out of your mind if you didn’t use your phone from time to time.

[02:31] You: nobody wants to work the graveyard shift so I mean…

[02:31] You: also, hello, please don’t change the subject Mr. Popular

[02:32] You: frankly, I’m offended that I did not get a special mention

Jungkook scoffs at your text because you sure were a fickle minded person.

[02:32] Jungkook: wow

[02:32] Jungkook: okay

[02:32] Jungkook: I visited you at your workplace last week and you tried to shoo me away

[02:32] Jungkook: said you were afraid people would associate me with you

[02:32] Jungkook: and here you are wanting to be associated with me

[02:32] Jungkook: make up your mind pls

You plonk your head on the table, a slight brush creeping up your face as you remember Jungkook strolling into the convenience store you worked at after you specifically told him not to come. The look of shock on his face after you pushed him out the doors made the situation all the more worse but really, things could’ve gone wrong if he stayed.

[02:33] You: omg that was bc a bunch of paps always hang around outside the store

[02:33] You: waiting for the celebs to leave the clubs on the opposite side

[02:33] You: i clearly said paps when I shoved you out the store

  [02:33] Jungkook: who cares if the paps saw us hanging out?

Who cares? Who cares?! Everyone cares. You’ve seen it all play out, seen how someone’s life goes up in flames simply by having had their picture taken with the wrong person at the wrong time.

  [02:33] You: i’ve seen the magazines okay

[02:33] You: i know what it’s like when they see someone of your stature

[02:33] You: hanging out with someone like me from the south side

[02:33] You: bad press

[02:33] You: I’ll be labelled your south side hoe

[02:33] You:  and then there’ll be a scandal

[02:34] You: then your company’s stocks will plunge

[02:34] You: so really, I was trying to protect you ok

Jungkook laughs at your text because god, you were so gullible. Half the content of the magazines you read were in some way scripted. Usually, the paparazzi are called beforehand by their PR Team so that pictures could be taken of them leaving the trendiest place or hanging out with the in crowd. Of course, he wanted to tell you that the paparazzi had no interest in him of all people considering that his mother had always made sure that any unapproved pictures of him would never make the stands because she’d make sure the magazine would never be able to publish again but you seemed to rather enjoy those magazines so, he didn’t want to ruin that for you.

[02:34] Jungkook: aw, you care

[02:34] Jungkook: that’s cute

  [02:34] You: of course I care

[02:34] You: you’re my source of income

  [02:34] Jungkook: wooooow

  [02:35] You: wait, I mean

[02:35] You: of course I care

[02:35] You: you’re my friend

  [02:35] Jungkook: unbelievable

[02:35] Jungkook: all you think about is money

Of course that was all you thought about. Maybe if you were as rich as Jungkook, money wouldn’t even be something that would be on your mind on the daily but you were you, struggling to even find enough cash in your pocket to pay for a sandwich.

[02:35] You: well I’ve got bills to pay my friend

  [02:36] Jungkook: fair enough

[02:36] Jungkook: speaking of money

[02:36] Jungkook: when are you free?

[02:36] Jungkook: at this point I’m starting to think you’re trying to avoid me

Jungkook had asked to hang out twice so far and you had turned him down, citing work as an excuse and he’s not so sure he believes you. That’s why he decided to pay you a visit while you were working and okay maybe he felt a little bad for doubting you because he saw you at the cash register, scribbling away at the inventory log. He could see the dark circles under your eyes, the way your shoulders were slouched forward, the frown you wore and he didn’t know you too well yet but in that moment his heart ached for you.

[02:36] You: i’m not, i swear!

[02:36] You: i was called in to pick up an extra shift that day

[02:36] You: and that other day as well…

[02:36] You: But i’m free tomorrow night!

  [02:37] Jungkook: nice

[02:37] Jungkook: i’ll pick you up for dinner at 7?

 A free meal, you smile. Heck yeah you were in for that. If it weren’t for the fact that you had to pick up two extra shifts, you would’ve already had 2 free meals, good ones at that.

  [02:37] You: in your Lamborghini?

[02:37] You: you know i only agreed to this deal bc i dream of sitting in your lambo one day

  [02:37] Jungkook: nah

[02:37] Jungkook: you were so flustered the day i met you

[02:37] Jungkook: i know you said yes bc you’re secretly in love with me

 Jungkook laughs as he remembers the way you had rose to your feet the instant his chair turned around, how you had dropped all your belongings onto the floor and you were scrambling to stuff everything into your purse so you could run. Adorable, he laughs. He loved seeing you flustered and he knows if he had said what he had texted to you in person, you’d be a sputtering mess.

 [02:38] You: nice try

[02:38] You: but

[02:38] You: FALSE

  [02:38] Jungkook: hmm

[02:38] Jungkook: i clearly recall you saying something along the lines of i love Jeon...

 You didn’t say that out loud did you… You’d rather die than live knowing that Jungkook knows you’ve had a crush on him ever since you saw his picture in the newspaper when you were 17. He mustn’t know.

  [02:38] You: what?

[02:38] You: i never said that?

[02:38] You: but I mean

[02:38] You: i probably said I love your grandpa maybe

  [02:38] Jungkook: so you’re into old people?

[02:38] Jungkook: like a reverse pedophile???

[02:39] Jungkook: a gerontophile…

 How does he even know that term? God, you meant you admired him. For a second, you’re not sure what to type back and you wonder if this is why Jungkook has to pay you to be his friend because if he’s like this with everyone, you can imagine why he didn’t have anyone to hang out with.

  [02:39] You: wth

[02:39] You: i didn’t mean it like that…

[02:39] You: you’re so…

[02:39] You: wtv

[02:39] You: anyway okay see you at 7 tomorrow

[02:39] You: in your lambo

[02:39] You: bye

  [02:39] Jungkook: wow I have to pay you to hang out with me

[02:39] Jungkook: and you still make demands???

  [02:39] You: what can I say

[02:39] You: i’m a difficult woman

[02:39] You: also a customer just walked in so gtg bye!

Jungkook sets his phone aside, shaking his head as he laughs, a common sight whenever he texted you. Truth be told, talking to you has become something he’s become quite fond of, perhaps even one of the best parts of his day.

Jungkook picks you up from work like he promised, parking his car two blocks away like you asked because apparently you didn’t exactly need to be seen getting into a car you’d never be able to afford. Actually, he didn’t even pick you up because you had told him to wait in his car and that you would find him but he bargains with you and you relent, letting him wait for you a block away from the convenience store you worked at.

From the moment you see him, you’re already giddy, for him, he wishes but he knows you’re only this happy because in a few minutes, you’ll see your dream car right in front of you. He watches as you sprint towards it when it comes into your view, the car in all its matte black beauty, elegant and poised. Before he can tell you that the car doors open upwards, you’re already diligently sitting in the passenger seat, waiting for him which surprises him because the best part about watching people get into his car was to see them struggle with the door. He’s impressed obviously that you seem to know more about luxury cars than you had initially let on but when he gets in the car, he sees you admire the interior, fingers softly ghosting the plush leather interior, a sign that this was a rare occurrence for you.

He expects the car ride to be awkward seeing as to how you’ve always had trouble with small talk but you bombard him with question after question about the car he’s driving and he doesn’t think he’s ever met anyone so interested in this car and everyone before you who had sat in this car couldn’t even pronounce the car model’s name right but here you are asking about the CC of the engine, if he liked the automatic double clutch system and the car’s top speed. In fact, if anything, Jungkook feels embarrassed because he couldn’t answer most of your questions because all he knows was that it looked good in the show room and that alone was a good enough reason for him to buy it.

“How much do you have to pay monthly?”

“Monthly?” Jungkook quirks his eyebrows. What do you mean by monthly?

“Yeah, you know… for the loan?”

Cute. You thought he had a car loan.

“Shit, you paid for it in cash?” You gasp, finally realizing why he didn’t understand your question.

He only nods his head, laughing at the expression on your face.

“Damn, what a concept,” You exhale, wishing that you could do that too, walk into a showroom and pay for a car in full right there and then. Well actually, you wish you even had a car to begin with. Amazing, you sigh to yourself. You knew the rich kids had it good but you didn’t know they had it this good.

“So, what’s for dinner?” You question as your stomach growls, the sandwich you had for lunch already long digested. “How many Michelin stars does the restaurant have?” You grin, already conjuring up an image of what dinner was going to be like.

“You’ll see,” He smirks and the smile on your face is unmatchable, pure joy radiating from you as you picture your soon to be meal.

The two of you stand in a modest store and you frown when you don’t see any chairs, no fancy tablecloth or anything of the like for La Table, is the name of the place and zero is the amount of stars the place has because it wasn’t even a damn restaurant.

“Alright everybody, put on your aprons!” Calls the woman from the front of the room.

“Are you serious Jungkook?” You groan, the emptiness in your belly becoming unbearable. “We’re here for a cooking class? This is our dinner?”

“I thought it’d be fun,” He shrugs and the glare you give him makes him laugh.

“So welcome everybody to tonight’s advanced class! Tonight’s segment is called Date Night: Passport to Paris!” The chef smiles and you look over at Jungkook in shock only to find he has the same look on his face.

“Advanced? Wait, isn’t today just the umm… Essential Skills for Beginner Cooks?” Jungkook asks one of the assistant chefs making her rounds, his voice full of panic.

“That’s next week honey,” She smiles before sauntering away, going to check up on the equipment on the other benches and Jungkook’s heart drops.

“I mean Jungkook, if you wanted to change this arrangement from platonic to romantic, you could’ve just told me,” You tease. “I don’t need some big gesture date night cooking class.”

“No that’s not— I didn’t—”

“Calm down,” You laugh. “I’m just teasing.”

“No, Y/N, you don’t understand,” He frowns. “I can’t cook. Like I’ve never tried… before and now we’re going to— What if I mess up?”

He genuinely looks so worried, so afraid that you can’t help but laugh.

“Chill, Jungkook. If we mess up, then we mess up,” You shrug. “I’m not great at cooking either but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. If you burn the dish though, we’re going for supper.”

“I mean whenever you’re involved, isn’t supper a given?” He laughs because whenever he texted you late at night, even on days you weren’t working, you always seemed to be having supper. A new habit of yours thanks to the deal you had struck up with Jungkook because now, you could afford two meals a day, that being lunch and supper.

“That’s true…” You murmur. “Are you trying to say that I eat too much, punk?” You frown, throwing playful punches at him to which he dodges with a laugh.

The class begins as everyone shuffles in, taking their respective places at their benches. Everyone else in this class were obviously couples because duh, it’s date night and truth be told, Jungkook envies them, envies the way they stared at each other like their significant other were their entire world and he often wonders when he’ll find that, if he’ll ever find that. It’s an odd thought to have but his mother has always had a tight grip on all aspects of his life and sure he has had a few flings here and there but word travels fast in the upper echelons and the moment one of the women says I heard your son’s been seeing (insert name here), it would be game over for him. You have to focus on the company, she would say. Women are only distractions, she would remind him and Jungkook would sigh, knowing what he would have to do the very next day.

All his life he’s felt restricted, the only friends he had were ones she approves of and he really couldn’t care for the most of them, the only actual company he enjoyed was that of Min Yoongi and Kim Taehyung. Though the 3 of them were best friends, they were entirely different people, none of them ever interested enough to do the things Jungkook wanted to. Technically, he never asked them because in truth, he was shy to and he didn’t really have to ask them anyway because he knew Yoongi would much rather be at home during his free time and Taehyung would much rather be out and about, attending parties, drinking expensive wine.

Jungkook doesn’t like to admit it but with his new found freedom, he’s come to realize just how lonely he was, not that he had a problem with being alone but… he’d much rather have company with him whenever he wanted to go on one of his odd little adventures. He really had tried everything, searched high and low in his inner circle of friends, he had even put up a Craigslist ad to find friends but the only responses he got creeped him out so, when he saw that sugarbaby conference ad in the newspaper, gears started turning in his head and when he saw pouty you hanging out at the back of the room, ploughing through glasses of champagne, his interest was piqued. Just by how you spoke, Jungkook could pick up on the fact that you weren’t from the North side and perhaps he was drawn in by that, by how he was told his entire life that those from the South weren’t worth his time and yet he felt like you were the only person in the room he had clicked with that night.

Jungkook’s mind drifts in and out of the class, not really daring to do much despite you giving him plenty of chances to try doing something other than washing the vegetables but he insists he was fine with doing just that.

“Come on,” You laugh. “All you have to do is push the bacon strips around the pan!”

Jungkook only shakes his head vehemently and you let out a snort.

“Typical, rich men,” You shake your head. “Always wanting all us Southies to do all your work for you,” You snort, teasing him.

“That’s not what I—” He sighs, choosing not to complete his sentence. “I just don’t want to mess anything up,” He frowns and you can tell that for some reason or the other he feels genuinely afraid to even actually attempt to cook.

“Jungkook you’re going to have to at least try,” You offer an encouraging smile, handing the spatula to him.

“Next dish,” He murmurs, shaking his head and you nod at that, smiling at him.

Jungkook doesn’t know how to explain to you that he had an inexplicable fear of failure and of trying new things. The very fact he’s here with you, trying something new is in itself, a miracle. Ever since Jungkook could remember, his mother had quite a temper on her and if there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was when Jungkook had failed at something. If Jungkook really thinks about it, he’d grown up fearing his mother more than loving her and it’s sad of course but even at the ripe old age of 23, Jungkook still feared her. She never hit him, no, but she never had to because her words hurt him more than anything, her words had the power to break him. That being said, he still loves her, he does. After all, she had single handedly raised him and he’s more than grateful to her. He assumes the way she tries to control everything, to keep everything in order is her way of coping with the loss of her husband or at least that’s what Jungkook thinks. He wonders from time to time what his life would be like if his father was still around, if Jungkook and his mother would be a lot happier instead of how they both feel a giant gaping hole in the middle of their chests that never seemed to heal, not even with time.

Everyone looking from the outside in sees Jungkook as the young boy groomed to perfection and genuinely, that’s what it is. Every single decision in his life up until recently has been made by his mother and unluckily for him, fun and rest, were not part of her vocabulary. From the get go, it was extra tutoring to piano classes to ballet classes to swimming classes and then topped off with even more tutoring. To say he had a fun childhood would be a great big fat lie because he remembers being wildly unhappy but not having any power to do anything about it. He always told himself to hold on, to tough it out because maybe when he’s older, he’d be able to have the life that he’s always wanted

Yet, in everyone else’s eyes, his life just as it is now is what everyone wanted. The nice cars, the fancy clothes and the big family mansion is everyone’s dream life but Jungkook honestly feels like all of it is a sham because that isn’t who he is, in fact far from it. Because Jungkook hates the piano, hates ballet, hates swimming, hates all things his mother had coerced him into doing but among the elites that’s what he is known for, his exceptional piano skills, his gracefulness as a dancer and his medals that he collected over the years at all those swim meets. Perfect, perfect, perfect, that’s what he is. The picture of success, happiness and elegance, that’s what he had to be but sometimes it all got a little too much for him to keep up with.

For most of his life, he felt like he was playing a role, that he was his mother’s puppet but not too long ago, he took a stand, moving out of the family mansion in favour of a comfortable apartment. His mother had picked it out obviously, it was the only way she had let him leave. He told her it was to show the world that he was independent, that he’d be seen as a more reliable soon to be CEO of Jeon Logistics and to his surprise, she agrees. It was a sudden realization that dawned on him, like a mid-life crisis or probably quarter-life crisis in his case that he had actually never done anything for himself his entire life but rather lived most of it trying to please his mum. So, his rebellion started out small initially with him moving out of the Jeon estate and gradually, it moved on to things like eating at Mcdonald’s regularly, something his mother had never let him do because she was convinced it was bad for him. But he didn’t stop there, the small form of disobediences giving him enough confidence to continue so, it casually turned into hitting all the clubs with Taehyung, which his mother was furious about but at this point , Jungkook could care less. Then finally, came you, the biggest defiance of all. If his mother found out he was hanging out with someone like you… Jungkook shudders at what his mother would do, wishing not to think about it.

You are quite probably her worst nightmare because you’re from the south side which by default meant that you were of a lower socio-economic status and essentially to put it in simple terms, you would never belong or come close to where the Jeons stood and if there was one thing she hated more than Jungkook's failures, it was when he mixed with people outside of his class. He had learned that at a very young age when he tried to befriend the help around the house, a lesson he has yet to forget. Yet, here he was with you, and quite honestly, he’s regretting it now because you’re forcing him to chop up green beans and frankly he’s never held a kitchen knife before.

“Oh god, Jungkook, no!” You yelp as you watch him haphazardly chop the vegetables. “You’re gonna cut one of your fingers if you do that.”

“I, uhh…” He mumbles, his voice small and shrunken because just like always, he couldn’t even do the small things right, he sighs. There’s a large frown on his face and it makes you feel horrible for reprimanding him like that. You step closer to him, a light laugh escaping you as he steps away, letting you take over but you pull him back to his spot. “No, no, you’re not going to make me cook and do prep too,” You laugh.

“Relax your hand. Tuck your fingers slightly inwards and place it here,” You instruct, taking a hold of his wrist, placing it a quarter length away from the tips of the beans. “And the knife,” You try to reach around him for his other hand until you realize that your arms were simply too short so, he laughs taking a small step back from the counter to make space for you. You stand snugly between him and the counter and he’s not sure this is the best way to teach him how to prep the vegetables but he keeps his lips tightly sealed. This was oddly getting a tad bit too domestic for Jungkook but what’s worse is that he feels he rather enjoys having you this close to him when he really shouldn’t because after all, you’re supposed to be just his friend as in platonic, with a capital P so he tries his best to shove aside whatever feelings that seem to be stirring deep down in the pits of his heart. “And don’t hack at them, just slowly slice through them like this,” You continue, hand on top of his, gently guiding it, the gesture making it difficult to concentrate on what you were saying.

“R-right, thanks,” He murmurs, as you turn around to smile at him before ducking under his arms to step away and Jungkook can feel a tingling sensation in his chest when your soft hands leave his. Did his heart just skip a beat? Probably… but it shouldn’t have though. This was all only happening because he’s still feeling rather flustered from his vegetable chopping mishap, he reasons. He’s usually much, much better with girls but he doesn’t know what it is with you that has him feeling so out of his element.

Jungkook feels slightly accomplished when he had chopped all the vegetables on his own and also with your help, cooked the chicken breast in the tarragon sauce. Like with the vegetables, you guide him through the whole cooking process slowly, your hands over his trembling ones as you make sure he stirs the sauce thoroughly and maybe this time he purposely asks for your help just so you would stand close to him again. But, every time he makes a small mistake, he feels like shrinking away, like when you had asked him to put in some pepper and he had obviously put in too much but instead of screaming at him, you only laugh saying that if anything, you could dilute the sauce if need be. There’s a sigh of relief that escapes him because unlike all his other teachers, you’re patient and Jungkook finds a sense of comfort in your presence. For the first time, he feels like he’s with someone that didn’t expect him to be perfect.

When it comes to the final dish of the night, the dessert, Jungkook has grown confident, perhaps a little too confident because he says he thinks he can make it better than you.

“Challenge accepted, Jeon,” You grin.

Though Jungkook doesn’t get very far before he’s asking for your help and you abandon yours in favour of helping him. You can’t help but think that he looks like a lost little puppy the whole time and maybe it makes your heart twitch a little when you see him pout. It surprises you obviously, the fact that he seemed quite timid because he was always painted as a confident, charming man in the magazines, but you’ve only seen him as a quiet, shy boy all night tonight. When you finally take the dessert out of the oven, Jungkook smiles so widely that you almost feel like reaching over to pat him on the head endearingly.

“So with all of that done,” The chef announces. “It’s time for you to plate your dishes.”

Both you and Jungkook can’t seem to come to a consensus when it comes to plating because the two of you have totally different ideas on what looks good and somewhere along the line it turns into a competition. If anyone looked around the room, they’d see cute couples working together, quietly drizzling sauce on their plates and then one look at the last bench and they’d see you and Jungkook throwing insults at each other over your respective artistic choices, screaming and laughing at each other as a raw vegetable goes whizzing over either of your heads. Young love, the other couples sigh. It was always so refreshing to see couples that were just starting out. Ah, but little did they know…

“Your hands are shaking.”

“Shut up, Jungkook,” You snip at him, trying to stop your hand from trembling as you attempt to smear the sauce artistically like you had seen on the cooking channel that one time.

“Am I making you nervous?” He smirks, standing so close to you that you could practically feel the heat radiating off him.

“No…” You mumble. “Just stop staring at me!” You grumble and Jungkook laughs, closing the distance between the both of you until you could feel his breath fan across the back of your neck, an involuntary shiver running up your spine.

“I know it’s hard to concentrate when the man you’re secretly in love with is standing this close to you but relax, Y/N, it is date night after all,” He grins smugly and you can feel a blush creep up onto your cheeks but no, your dignity as a chef is on the line so, your response is an elbow to his abdomen. Jungkook backs away laughing as you mumble under your breath, sauce all over your plate now thanks to him.

As per Jungkook’s request the chef comes around to look at the dishes to pick a winner among the both of you and in your mind, you know you’re going to win hands down because your plate looked 10 times better, in your opinion.

“Im going to have to go with, Jungkook,” The chef smiles, a dreamy sigh escaping her lips. “It’s simple, clean and looks great!”

“What the f—” You bite your tongue, cutting your sentence short. “Of course it looks clean, there’s barely anything on his plate!”

“It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality and I’m a fan of minimalism.”

“Quality, my a—” Once again, you purse your lips, swallowing the rest of your sentence. “The chicken on his plate is smaller than the size of a baby’s fist! How are you even supp—”

“Alright, thank you so much for helping us decide,” Jungkook cuts in when the chef looks remarkably horrified at your small outburst and you grumble as he pulls you away from her.

“She’s biased,” You pout. “I demand a rematch.”

“No, no,” Jungkook argues. “I won that fair and square.”

“Oh come on, she was shooting heart eyes at you from the front of the room the whole time,” You groan. “Of course, she was going to pick you.”

Had she? Jungkook hadn’t noticed. In fact, he hadn’t noticed anyone aside from you the whole session.

“You’re just a sore loser.”

“Am not. I want a rematch, punk,” You jab his chest with your finger.

“No can do, babe,” He smiles, before turning to dig into the salad that you had singlehandedly made and you pout, sinking your fork into the vegetables as you mutter to yourself.

You eat your meal with a perpetual frown on your face and Jungkook finds it absolutely adorable how you’re so upset over something so menial. He tries to make conversation, but you purposely ignore him, feasting on the extra bacon strips that you had fried over the course of the session. God, you’re so cute whenever you pout and he wonders if that fluttering feeling in his chest had to do with you or perhaps he had an underlying heart condition that he needed to get checked because it’s been happening a lot as of late. Much to Jungkook’s dismay, nothing he says seems to catch your attention and he’s stuck in a one-sided conversation with himself until he mentions supper and suddenly, your frown fades, replaced with a bright smile instead.

You insist on saving all the leftovers even when Jungkook tells you that you shouldn’t because it tastes mediocre at best and you only sigh, shaking your head at him because he didn’t understand that you’ve been having sandwiches for lunch for a straight month now and you’ll take anything you can get at this point. So, he relents, watching you stroll down the street with a massive paper bag in hand and the widest smile on your face.

“What’s that?” You question, stopping in your tracks to point at a store, baffled by the queue that went around the block considering that it was nearing 10 pm.

“That’s Glazed, you know… the donut shop?”

“Ah,” You smile. “I’ve seen it online. Best donuts in the city or something,” You scoff, as if it was untrue and Jungkook feels mildly offended because he loves their donuts.

“They are the best,” He defends and you can see the way his eyebrows are furrowed, as if you had personally attacked him.

“Nah, the south side does it better.”

“Have you tried them?”

“No…”

“Then how do you know it isn’t the best?”

“I just know,” You shrug and Jungkook looks at you in disbelief, his features coloured with a tinge of annoyance before he’s storming off into the store, completely ignoring the long line.

In a matter of minutes, he returns with warm donuts in hand and you have to admit that they smelled heavenly, yet you feign disinterest, only taking a bite when he prompts you to. He watches your face closely to judge your reaction but you keep a blank face, not wanting him to know that okay, they tasted good, better than you had imagined.

“Mehh, the south side does it better,” You shrug, taking another bite of the donut.

“Of course they do,” He rolls his eyes.

“Seriously, they do and it’s a whole lot cheaper too,” Your words muffled as you attempt to speak without choking on the donut piece you just swallowed.

“Says the person who’s almost finished the donut now,” He laughs and you look away sheepishly, licking at the sugar on your lips.

“Look, donuts are donuts and I don’t discriminate,” You smile, reaching into the bag for another one.

By the time the both of you reach the car, the bag of donuts have disappeared and if Jungkook remembers correctly… there were 4 of them in there and he hadn’t had any of them. He doesn’t say anything though, only watching as you admire his car again, running your finger around the exterior of the car.

“You want to drive it, don’t you?” He questions.

“N-no, Maybe… Yes...”

“Here,” He tosses you the keys and you lunge forward to catch them.

“A-are you sure?”

“Why? Will I regret it?”

“I don’t know… will you?” You smirk, a single eyebrow lifted as you slide into the driver’s seat.

The answer is yes, yes he will regret it because you’re driving at a speed he didn’t even know his car could go at and he feels like tonight might just be his last night on this Earth and he squeezes his eyes shut, clinging onto whatever his hands could find purchase on. The car ride in all honesty had started out fine, the car cruising at a leisurely speed until you crossed the bridge over to the south and you found a stretch of road, dimly lit by the streetlights and you stopped the car to ask him an innocent question. Do you trust me?, he remembers you asking and the rest was a haze to him because it all went wrong from there on.

“Lighten up,” You laugh. “What’s the point of having a beast like this if you don’t drive it at top speed?”

The point was, Jungkook explains, that the car looked flashy and that when he drove, he would at least leave the car knowing he would have all his limbs still intact. You laugh at that, shaking your head. The people from the north side of the city were always so timid, so afraid. Without warning, you slam down on the accelerator pedal harder and Jungkook doesn’t want to scream but he can’t help it not when you’re driving at this speed. You take a hard right into an empty parking lot and he can actually hear the tires of his car skid across the asphalt, his heart stuttering along with it.

“Are you ready?” You ask but he has a feeling you’re not looking for an answer because before he knows it, he’s sitting there watching as the car speeds off before everything goes blurry and he clutches onto anything he can grab on as the car spins around in tight controlled circles.

“Let loose! Just enjoy it,” You shout and Jungkook opens his eyes to look at you, the biggest grin he had ever seen on your face and he relaxes the grip he has on the seat. Maybe it was the fact that he was doing something so rebellious that has his heart pumping but soon his fear dissipates, replaced with pure unadulterated joy instead. He realizes now why he enjoys his time with you so much, be it in person or over text. It was the fact that you didn’t try as hard as everyone to try and impress him or put on a show but that you were just unapologetically you, doing what you wanted, saying whatever you wanted without regarding the fact that he was Jeon Jungkook because when he was with you, he felt like he was just him, just Jungkook, without the family name tied to him, without the expectations of what he’s supposed to be hanging above his head.

The two of you sit there, laughing as the car finally comes to a halt and Jungkook doesn’t want to admit it but he had enjoyed that more than he should, considering that what the both of you just did was technically illegal.

“Where’d you learn how to drive like that with a car like this?” It’s a genuine question because as far as he knows the intricate gear-changing systems are only found in cars that quite frankly, you couldn’t afford but you had worked his Lambo like a pro.

“When I first moved into this neighbourhood, I may have hung out with the wrong people,” You laugh. “Long story short, I’ve driven a few expensive cars. Stolen, of course.”

“Like you hot-wired them?”

“Does it look like I could walk into a neighbourhood here and hot-wire a Ferrari?”

“Well…”

“We either bribed the custom guards or straight up stole them from the port,” You mumble, referring to the port on the south side of the city. “Well, I didn’t. I never got that far into it. I just got to take the occasional drive.”

“You were one of them,” He gasps. “I think it was a year or two ago but Grandpa never got the Ferrari he imported in.”

“The Ferrari 458 Speciale, was it? I remember that one,” You laugh, the cherry red car still fresh in your memory despite the time that has passed. “Don’t tell him it was me…” You smirk and Jungkook can only laugh at that.

“Where is it now?”

“Somewhere in some gang leader’s estate in the provinces maybe,” You shrug, the details are a little fuzzy to you because you had tried your best to be aloof whenever the plans of where the cars were going was discussed.

“Do you still do it?” Jungkook asks and you can hear the apprehension in his voice, not wanting to sound like he was judging you but he totally was.

“No, not anymore.”

“What made you quit?”

“I just realized that I had come to this city so I could find a better life, not get sucked into all of that,” You exhale, as if you had almost wanted to say that you didn’t want to get sucked into all of that again but you had opted to leave that last word out but he doesn’t know why. Jungkook can tell that there’s something more that you weren’t telling him and he wishes to ask you a myriad of questions like what your past was like? What exactly it was that you were running from, but he knows it’s not his place to ask and he guesses you can sense that he had these questions burning in the back of his mind because you’re speaking before he can ask you anything.

“You ready for some donuts?” You question and he nods. “Well, you’re driving… and you gotta drive fast,” You smirk, getting out to exchange seats with him and Jungkook gulps in fear as he makes himself comfortable in the driver’s seat.

“Okay, Jungkook,” You begin, as the car sat in the middle of the empty road, like it has for the past 5 minutes. “You just have to slam the accelerator pedal. Don’t think, just do.”

“But…”

“If you’re worried about the cops… don’t be,” You laugh. “They have far more to worry about than two delinquents speeding down an empty road.”

Jungkook lets out a heavy sigh, unsure as to why he was letting you talk him into this. You were supposed to be someone who was to follow him along on the stupid, mundane things he wanted to do, not get him into trouble. Jungkook looks over at you and you only quirk an eyebrow at him, challenging him. God, his mother would kill him if he picked up a citation for reckless driving and yet, here he was, his foot flooring the pedal, his car going twice, maybe thrice the normal speed he drove at.

The car jerks forward, his body pressed to the seat and Jungkook feels the excitement, the adrenaline rushing through his veins and you were right, it was a lot more fun being in the driver’s seat. By the time he reaches the end of the road, Jungkook makes a U-turn, begging you to let him do it all over again and you laugh at how he asks for your permission because after all he was the boss and this was his car. So he takes off more confidently this time, driving at twice the speed limit, whizzing down the street and in and out of tight roads until he reaches the donut store you had guided him to, the dilapidated store with its broken neon sign buzzed above it. Shame, he was genuinely pretty excited but looking at it now, it seemed like it held little promise.

Jungkook waits with his car parked further down the street like you had asked and just as he steps out of the car, you’re bounding over with a large brown paper bag. You continue walking, beckoning him with a finger and he hesitates, not wishing to leave his car in the open like that… especially not if the same car-stealing gang you were once a part of are roaming the streets.

“Don’t worry,” You laugh. “Your car’s not going anywhere.”

“How do you know that?”

“Just trust me,” You smile and he lets out a sigh, reluctantly joining your side as you pass him a donut.

The two of you take a seat at the bench that looks out upon the water, the calming sound of the soft waves lapping up against the bank echoing in your ears. The bright city lights twinkle before you as you take in the view of the North, a spectacle you never got tired of seeing and you let out a light laugh as you watch Jungkook marvel at the scenery, his eyes wide open and filled with wonder. He stands up to wander around, whipping out his phone to take a few too many pictures, as if he feels like he would never see any of this again.

“What’s all the flowers over there for?” Jungkook questions as he takes a seat on the bench again, pointing at the corner a good distance away from the pair of you.

“It’s in remembrance of those who were lost in the fires a few years back.”

“Fire…?” Jungkook furrows his eyebrows in confusion, unable to recall anything about a fire in this city but he remembers seeing smoke fill the air a while back, but not bothering to figure out what was happening as long as it was south of the bridge.

“Yeah, it was maybe 2 years back,” You recall. “A huge fire started by a leaky gas line running through one of the apartments a few blocks back.”

“I-I’ve never heard of this.”

“Yeah, the mayor swept it all under the rug because the residents had been complaining about the leak for days before the fire happened,” You sigh. “That’s the worst part you know? That it was entirely preventable.”

“How many people…” His voice trailing off in the end, unsure if he wanted to know how many had perished.

“Hundreds,” You mumble. “No one knows for sure,” You shrug and Jungkook can only let out a deep exhale, one filled with sadness.

“It’s funny how we do so much for this city but we’re treated like second class citizens,” You laugh. “They said that all that separates us is a bridge, that we wouldn’t need emergency services on this side if we were only a bridge away,” You smile sarcastically. “But they watched our buildings burn from across the river, sitting on stacks of money that we helped them make.”

Jungkook sits in his seat, guilt bubbling within him because he didn’t know and possibly everyone across that very bridge didn’t know that this was the reality of those who lived just a drive away from them. Perhaps it was the propaganda that was thrown at him at school but from what little he has seen of this side of town, it wasn’t half as bad as what he has been told. Before meeting you, he had only gone to the port and back and he won’t lie, he had many a times seen the occasional broken window, the walls filled with graffiti and the shady men hanging out on the street corners. Everything seemed to be in line with the image that was painted of this side of the city but seeing what you’ve shown him, the vibrant community of late-night food stalls, the cute little mom and pop bakeries, to this lookout point, perhaps it was true that the government was trying to hide something by convincing everyone else that the South held no promise.

“They criticize the gangs that roam the streets here but you know who the first to respond on the scene were? The gangs,” You exhale, tucking the brown paper bag that held the donuts, by your side. “It didn’t matter whose territory it was or who had beef with who. Those men risked their lives, running into burning buildings to save those who were trapped inside, which is more than I can say about the cowards in those glass buildings that constantly tell us we’re not worth a damn thought.”

He’s never seen you so emotional before, your face stern, your voice filled with so much resent that he could almost feel it cutting him, though he hopes he isn’t a target of your resentment towards the rich.

“I’m sorry, I got a little carried away,” You frown. “It’s just… I know what people like you think of us, how you’re so afraid of us but there’s so much you don’t know about that goes on here. I would go so far to say you’re probably one of the very first North person to even venture this far into the South,” You laugh, digging into the bag for a donut.

“Probably,” Jungkook laughs in return. “And, you’re right, but in my defense, it’s only because of what I’ve heard about the South... about the gangs and the violence,” He mumbles. “And the fact that they always attack our shipments,” He whispers the last part, not wanting to downplay the atrocities that the government and by extension the North has committed against your side of the city but maybe that was why Jungkook has come to fear and to some degree hate the South so much.

“The gangs,” You scoff. “My question to you though is who essentially created the gangs? Who created the circumstances that forces us to feel like the only protection that we can get is if we have armed men running around protecting certain parts of our city, our country? That the main requirement of a regular 9 to 5 job, of getting into a university is not merit, no, it’s your postcode.”

Jungkook wishes to argue and to say no, that it was because the Southerners enjoyed the rough-housing, the illegal activities, that they enjoyed living off of his taxes, for that’s what he’s been told over and over but maybe hearing your reality, hearing you speak makes him think twice about the bubble he’s been living in.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” He frowns. “The South has always been like a mystery to me and I guess, it’s not really my place to say anything or judge the way you live.”

“Jungkook,” You smile, shaking your head. “Do you think any of us here want to live like this?”

It’s a rhetorical question of course but he finds himself answering anyway, shaking his head solemnly.

“I know you think this is bad, but you haven’t seen what it’s like outside of the city, in the smaller provinces on the mainland where I grew up,” You sigh thinking back to your childhood. “Ask your grandfather, he would know. He briefly lived in one of the worst provinces in this country.”

It’s a subject his grandfather never enjoys talking about. His childhood almost a complete mystery to Jungkook as he’s learned not to bring it up, watching his grandfather’s face turn sour every time he had questioned him about it. The south, the provinces, the gangs were all hush hush topics, never to be mentioned around the house and Jungkook has a vague idea that they’re all tied together, that his grandfather had some experiences he wishes he could forget. We should do something about the gangs, a member of the board had brought up during a meeting, referring to how their shipments were being ambushed every time it left the port or was bound for the port because what was a logistics company if they could never deliver the goods? Jungkook remembers the way his grandfather had glared at the man, his cold piercing stare making even Jungkook shiver even though it wasn’t directed at him.

If you know what’s good for you, you’d leave them alone.

His voice a clear, loud warning to any who had conjured up ideas of how to curb gang activity. The meeting continued on, the final decision being that decoys would be sent out and the actual packages were going to be transported to and from the port through smaller unassuming vehicles. All of this made no sense to Jungkook because it incurred extra expenses towards the company and made them less efficient at delivering on time when it could have been easier to strike a deal with the gangs or simply just clean them out, both solutions that were much cheaper and convenient but who was he to say anything… He was still learning the ropes.

“Maybe someday,” He murmurs. A certain doubt stirs within Jungkook because to his knowledge, his grandfather has never made public where exactly it is that he had grown up.

You take the short silence as a chance to start a new topic, steering the conversation towards something lighter, like that new Marvel movie that’s slated for release later in the week, letting Jungkook do all the talking for a change for you were still trying to get yourself to calm down. It was hard for you to keep your emotions in check whenever you spoke about the South, about the gangs and about the government, especially when you were speaking to someone who comes from a privileged background. You know like most of the North, Jungkook saw nothing wrong with the state of affairs of the country, completely blind to the injustice but you guess that’s only because he saw no reason to be aware or he’s been brainwashed to think that there really was no injustice in the first place. After all, Jeon Logistics is one of the biggest supporters of the current government’s campaign, the only thing about the company that you absolutely hated and it baffles you as to why his grandfather would do that, would align himself to such evil men when he’s seen how bad it is in the provinces, having grown up in the mainland like yourself. Perhaps it’s for survival, you reason, that maybe if you were in his position, you would do the same. It’s a dog eat dog world after all and it was the cronies at the top in the North that have the upper hand so why would anyone align themselves to the losing side?

As the minutes pass and the conversation flows effortlessly from one topic to another, your anger dissipates as you laugh the night away with Jungkook. He tells you stories about his childhood, ones that leave you wishing that you had something close to what he had. He tells you stories of his first day on the job at Jeon Logistics, how he had been so nervous at the board meeting that he left 3 times to go to the toilet to pee. He tells you about the one time he had a disaster of a date, throwing up all over his date after having had one too many drinks and you laugh, telling him to remind you to at least keep him at an arm’s length distance if the two of you ever went to a bar. His stories make him feel real, approachable and it’s a dream to you that you’re getting paid to be his friend. Little did he know, that you would gladly do this for free, after all who wouldn;t want to be his friend? He doesn’t know but like him, you don’t have too many friends, because well you only have one... two, counting Jungkook... maybe three if you could count the chef at the noodle store you frequented. Though his tales are warm and friendly you can’t help but notice that there’s a huge chunk that’s missing in his stories and that’s obviously his family but you don’t ask because honestly, you don’t want him to ask about yours. It would make all of this far too complicated, you sigh, your thumb rubbing at your inner forearm, a tick Jungkook has seemed to taken notice of and you quickly busy yourself with the donut bag, nervous that he’ll ask.

You don’t remember the last time you’ve lost track of time while talking to someone, the only other person capable of keeping you occupied for that long is Wendy, your best friend whom you’ve been meaning to call up for days now because she keeps giving potential sugar daddies your number, which isn’t entirely her fault since you had given her the green light to do that when you last saw her at supper after the sugarbaby conference. You thought about how you were going to have to tell her you’ve managed to land one on your own, a platonic one at that and that your sugar daddy was none other than Jeon Jungkook but alas, the last part has to remain confidential as the contract between you and him had requested for you to keep it so. It ate you up inside, having to keep a secret this large from her and maybe that’s why you’ve been dilly-dallying, telling yourself to call her tomorrow except tomorrow never seems to come. You know with a few prods, you’d probably break, the secret spilling out of you because who else would understand better than her that one of the most eligible bachelor’s in the country was paying you to be his goddamn friend and the best part was that you’ve been dreaming of meeting him since forever.

Meeting Jungkook is a lot less magical than you had imagined it to be and there are no sparks or hearts flying around but you can’t deny that his presence stirs something within you, a feeling you want to deny because technically, he’s your boss and also, why put yourself in a position where you’ll end up crushed because in a year and a half when the contract ends, you don’t want to be hopelessly in love with him while he walks away, in search of a girl that could match his stature, one that he would probably end up settling down with. You’re thinking far too ahead into the future but maybe that’s the only image that can stop you from letting his passing flirty remarks affect you, from blushing when his gaze lingers a little too long because sure he can toy with you and you can do the same with him but you always have to remember that there’s an invisible wall between to two of you, one you would never be able to break and maybe in the end, you’re only attracted to the idea of him and not Jungkook himself but after getting to know him a little bit better now, that reasoning seems to be falling through the cracks. He would always gaze at you warmly when you spoke and for some reason it felt like he was tuning the world out just to hear you speak, something you’ve barely been able to experience, ever, considering that half the Northern guys you’ve met look at you like you’re stupid or not worth their time and if they were interested, it was only because they wanted to get into your pants. But, you remind yourself that you aren’t here for love or anything of the sort because after all, the end game of all of this was the money wasn’t it and not anything else?

Those are thoughts you push aside in favour of enjoying the rest of the night, telling Jungkook a little too many hours after that you actually have to be up early tomorrow for work but that’s a lie because at this point there was no point in sleeping for you’d be starting your new job at the port in approximately 3 hours now. The pair of you eventually leave the bench to move towards his car and Jungkook is a little worried that his car wouldn’t be there at all but as you had promised, he finds it where he had left it, not even a scratch on it.

“See, I told you it’ll still be here,” You smile.

“But you told me over text the other day that a car like mine would go missing the instant I let it out of my sight.”

“Not here it won’t.”

“What’s so special about this place?”

“It’s a crime-free zone,” You answer, snickering at the literal question marks that were floating above Jungkook’s head. “I think you’ve heard enough about politics tonight,” You laugh, walking around to the passenger seat of the car. “Maybe I’ll tell you some other night,” You huff before getting into the car.

“It’s like every corner of the South has its own story,” Jungkook laughs, shutting the door. “Maybe, you’ll tell me over donuts sometime this week?”

“Let me take a look at my schedule first,” You mumble and it makes Jungkook laugh because usually he’s the one saying that line.

“What?” You grumble and he shakes his head, letting you carry on as you figure out in your head if you have any free time this week. You eventually tell him that you’re too tired to think, that you’d text him later.

The car ride to your apartment is a little too short for Jungkook’s liking and although he’s spent his whole night with you already, it still made him slightly upset when he pulls up to your apartment. Again, like the first night, he wants to tell you that hanging out with you made him feel alive if that made sense but he decides against it, not wanting to sound dumb.

“So, now you have to tell me,” You unclick your seatbelt turning towards him. “Who does donuts better? The North or the South.”

Jungkook purses his lips before he grits his teeth, not wanting to let you know that okay, maybe he was wrong about the donuts in the North.

“The South,” He sighs, letting his head hang low as you let out a light laugh. “But you totally cheated,” He grumbles because by donuts he thought you meant just normal glazed ones but when he dug around the bag for another one earlier when the pair of you were on the bench, he found a powdered donut. The moment he bit into it to find a custard filled centre, he was sold. “How did you know that custard filled donuts are the way to my heart?”

“The custard ones were for me,” You frown. “You weren’t supposed to have them. They’re my favourite.”

The custard donuts were for you, yes and you lied because yeah you love them but you also bought it with the intention of offering him one. You remember reading in a magazine somewhere that it was his favourite, that if there was something the city was lacking, it was a donut store that knew how to do custard-filled donuts well. You’re just not looking hard enough, you sigh as you read the interview. You swore that if you ever met him, you’d take him to the donut store and that you did.

“Well it appears that we are soulmates then,” Jungkook grins as he winks at you and you roll your eyes at him but he can see your cheeks begin to flush a light pink.

“Alright, soulmate,” You laugh. “I’ll see you soon?” You ask, reaching for the door handle.

“I don’t know, you tell me, Mrs. Let me check my schedule,” He teases and you scowl at him.

“I’m a busy woman, okay?” You glower before laughing. “Thanks for tonight though. It was fun,” You smile.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” He smiles in return. “Oh and how much were the donuts?” He questions, reaching into his inner pocket for his wallet.

“Ah, Jungkook, don’t worry about it really,” You push away the cash he had in his hand now.

“Y/N,” He sighs. “Do you still not understand that I’m supposed to pay for everything?” This oddly seemed reminiscent of the last time he dropped you off. Why do you always pay for supper even when you’re strapped for cash? The part where he pays for everything was what he thought would be any sugar baby’s favourite part of the deal but you seem to think differently.

“I know, I know,” You mumble. “But, I just… Take it as a form of an apology for having to hear me ramble tonight.”

“No, Y/N, I—”

“Goodnight!” You shout, as you scramble to exit his car, not letting him argue with you. “I’ll see you around, friend!”

“Soulmate!” He corrects and though you’re a good distance away from him now, he can still see you scowl at him to which he only responds with a laugh.

Jungkook knows that tomorrow, he’ll probably receive an angry text from you, one that demanded he takes back the money he had slipped into the takeaway bag while you were buying the donuts because he had a feeling you were going to refuse his money by the end of the night. The amount he had left paid for the donuts and a lot more because he felt like you needed it and maybe he rather enjoyed the thought of you using it to spoil yourself, though he knows if anything, it would go to paying off your debts. He knows through all your texts that you have far more on your plate than you can handle and he wants to help you, even if you didn’t want his help. 

I don’t want to be your personal charity case, Jungkook, is what you had told him when he said he could help with your debt but that’s not what he meant for it to be like. 

I can get you an entry level job at my company, he had offered but you turned it down vehemently. Jungkook, that’ll only put you in a tough spot. I don’t want to get you in trouble... People will start asking questions, you had warned him and that was true, he admits. He later realizes that he wants you as far away from his mother as possible too.

He hasn’t told you yet but he admires you greatly. He wonders how you’ve been able to survive so long out here in the city without your parents, how you’re still standing after all the odds that have been stacked against you, how you still remain so kind, so caring even when life has been nothing but cruel to you. Looking at you, he truly realizes how unfair life can be because from his brief conversations with you, he can tell that you’re a genius, and he’s not going to lie, he may have asked for your help in trying to solve a few company dilemmas that he was tasked with, a few too many times. You’re an asset he wants at the company, and he can see the similarities between you and his grandfather, it’s almost uncanny, he laughs. But, just like his grandfather, you have an air of mystery that surrounds you, things he can’t seem to figure out, the top one being where is your family and why did you clam up whenever he asked about them? But, Jungkook guesses, he has a few skeletons to hide in his closet too, his family, his father, a main topic he has yet to discuss with you. Perhaps he was making mountains of of molehills, that you didn’t have anything to hide and that you simply just haven’t told him yet but with time, he hopes, you’ll clear the doubt in his mind. You couldn’t quite possibly have a hidden agenda could you? If you turned out to be yet another one of those girls who were hoping to be able to destroy his family’s company with dirty schemes, he wouldn’t hesitate to crush you, even if he’s grown fond of you.

He shakes his head, trying to get rid of the sour thoughts that try to take root in his mind because tonight was far too good a night to be ruined by his habit of overthinking things. Perfect. Tonight was perfect in Jungkook’s books. He drives home feeling rather joyous, using the remaining distance before the bridge as an excuse to drive his car at way past the speed limit. Who knew he’d learn how to cook, break the law, have the best donuts he’s ever tasted and have a conversation ranging from politics to that new video game release, all in one night? This was something that was probably only capable of happening when he was with you. He feels like he’s going to plough through his bucket list that he’s had ever since he was 12 as he spends more time with you, your brilliant self adding onto his list things he never knew he wanted to do.

Alive. That’s how he felt whenever he was with you or talking to you. It’s stupid, because he’s often acknowledged by the inner social circle he has, everyone admiring the fine young man he’s grown up to be but he always felt like they didn’t really care about him, they just care about who he is, about who he’s going to be. You on the other hand, made him feel like he matters, like you enjoy having him around because he’s just simply... him and not because of what he has or what he’s achieved.

The night ends with all parties feeling overjoyed; Jungkook delighted with the unpredictable adventure that was tonight, you elated with the fact that not only had you laughed your ass off tonight but that also for the first time in weeks, you’ll be eating something that was not a sandwich for lunch, but perhaps the hooded man sat inside his car, opposite of where Jungkook’s was just seconds ago was the most content of the three. Happy didn’t even begin to describe what he’s feeling as his plan is coming along just nicely, almost too perfectly and he smiles, admiring the pictures he’d taken of tonight. Mrs. Jeon surely would enjoy seeing these pictures, you and him together, he sighs to himself. But no, it’s too soon for that. There’s still much that he’s waiting for you to do. A perfect night indeed, he smirks. 

A perfect night indeed.

[sophisticated-angel]

Christina

Character: Dean Winchester

Warning: None

Word Count: 1,767

Request:  U should do a littlest Winchester imagine we're like dean is trying to have a normal apple pie life with Lisa and Ben and one day deans baby girl gets dropped off on there door step bc u know dean is the guy that messed around a lot and I find that idea cute idk y

A/N: So this isn’t a Littlest Winchester story because it didn’t fit the premise of that collection, but it is super cute so I made it into a stand alone. Also Lisa and Ben aren’t in it. Hope you like it!

Story

   She’s so beautiful even with rat’s nest hair and wearing only the white slip she wore under her wedding dress. The blankets are wrapped around her body, yet only one leg is covered; her arms clutch her pillow, and her other knee has been poking Dean in the side for most of the night. There’s a drool spot on her pillow, and she’s snoring and taking up most of the bed. God, he loves her. Smiling to himself, he presses a kiss to her temple and strokes the soft hairs around her ear. With a sigh, she stretches her legs and blinks at him.

   “Morning,” he says.

   “’snot morning. Jus’ cuddle.” She scoots over until her nose is pressed into his shoulder.

   “I wanna make you breakfast.”

   “Breakfast in bed.”

   “I want you out there. I wanna spend every waking moment with you, baby girl.”

   “Why’d I marry a morning person?”

   “Because you pity me.”

   “That’s part of it. Gimme ten minutes to shower.”

   After another kiss, Dean rolls out of bed. Right outside the bedroom is the living room, to the right is the kitchen and dining room, adjacent to that is the bathroom, and that’s it. That’s the whole apartment. They both found that, after a lifetime spent in motel rooms, spacious living conditions made them feel vulnerable and wasteful. This place is small, but they’re happy, Sam lives down the hall, and for now it’s all they need.

   By the time Dean plates eggs and bacon, his wife has emerged wearing sweat pants and one of his shirts. Yawning, she pushes her damp hair back from her face and sits down at the place he’s prepared for her. They don’t talk much. Instead, Dean tosses an occasional wink her way, and they play footsie under the table.

   When the doorbell rings, neither one of them gets up right away. Whatever’s on the other side of the door means to disrupt the bliss of their still-young honeymoon phase. But they do get up, and on the other side of the door they find no one there. The stairwell is empty, and the main entrance to the complex is closed.

   “Did we just get ding-dong-ditched?” Dean rolls his eyes.

   “No,” (y/n) answers quietly. “Dean?”

   Dean sees her crouch down, and when he follows her with his eyes, he does the same. Somebody has left a baby on their doorstep. It’s so small, dwarfed even by its car seat, and is still holding that balled-up position characteristic of newborns. The sight of the tiny thing tugs at his heart, and he finds himself reaching out to take it in to his arms. (y/n), however, has put her attention on the note left on top of a cardboard box beside the car seat. The look on her face goes from concerned to something akin to stunned, and she numbly passes the note to him before going back inside.

Dean, This is Christina, she was born March 4th. She’s your daughter.

*    *    *    *    *

   You didn’t expect any wedding gifts. The wedding itself was a small affair with only yourself, Dean, Sam, Cass, and a couple of close friends attending. Gifts weren’t asked for, although everyone felt compelled to give you something. At the end of the day, you came home with a couple of miscellaneous items and a waffle iron from Sam – an inside joke between the brothers to which you aren’t privy – but a baby was definitely not on the list. Once you’ve taken her inside and looked her over to make sure she’s alright, you go back to the note.

   “This has got to be the worst joke in the world,” you say, “or else whoever left her made a mistake. I know your dad didn’t exactly practice abstinence. Maybe she’s your half-niece or something. We could get a blood test.”

   You’re so set on this new goal that you’ve tasked yourself with that you get dressed to go out before you realize Dean hasn’t moved at all. He’s just standing in the living room and gazing at the one-week-old cradled in his arms.

   “Dean, come on!”

   “We don’t need a blood test.”

   “Why not?”

   “Because I know where she came from.”

   “And where would that be?”

   He pauses before asking, “Do you remember that last big fight we had?”

   “Yeah.”

   “I ran into an old flame after that, a woman I met on a hunt years ago and . . .”

   “You slept with her? We weren’t broken up for two weeks!”

   “It was bad. I didn’t think we’d make up. I needed comfort, you obviously weren’t going to provide that, Sam was on your side, and I . . . I was spiraling out of control, okay? But I swear I didn’t know she got pregnant. I haven’t seen her since that night.”

   “Does Sam know?”

   “Yes.”

   “So you told Sam but not me?”

   “I didn’t want you to freak out.”

   “Alright, you know what?” You grab your coat from the back of a chair and slide it on. “I’m gonna go out. I’m gonna spend a little time processing that you have a kid and that you married me without telling me about a major choice you made. We’ll talk when I get back.”

   “(y/n), I didn’t think-”

   “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

   You thought you would walk for ages before settling down, but most of your steam has blown off after a brisk fifteen-minute walk. Slowing to a more normal pace, you give yourself a tour of the outskirts of the downtown area, but you don’t soak up many of the sights. Dean had a point about that fight. That fight was terrible, and afterwards you didn’t have that deep down feeling that everything would be okay. But his rebound reaction happened absurdly fast, and now it’s costing not only him but also you. It’s affected your day, your marriage, and imposed upon you both the role of parent, not a role you dismissed but one for which you certainly aren’t prepared. All of this you contemplate for the better part of your cool down phase, and when that ends, you happen upon a coffee shop and decide that a hot drink is exactly what you need. When you open the door, someone behind you holds it open.

   “Sam. How’d you find me?”

   “You forgot to turn off location services.”

   “Oh.” You wander over to the back of the line with Sam beside you. “Why are you here?”

   “Dean’s worried you’ll get lost in thought and get run over.”

   “I suppose you know what’s going on?”

   “Christina’s a pretty name.”

   And with that, you fall into silence until after you leave the shop carrying the drinks Sam insisted he pay for. He doesn’t try to start a conversation, and you know he won’t talk you into anything or bestow any insight unless prompted. For a while you just walk with him, warming your hands with the cardboard cups. Then you ask, “Why’d he do it?”

   “Panic. Things were bad with you, and he freaked.”

   “Hm.”

   “He didn’t realize what he’d done until after he’d done it. He literally slunk back that night, he was so ashamed. It was so bad, I was afraid he would hurt himself.”

   “If he felt so bad, why didn’t he tell me and apologize?”

   “Like I said, he was ashamed of himself. And he was terrified you’d leave him for good.” Sam stops at a parking meter, and you realize he’s led you to his car. “(y/n), there are a couple of things I know for sure. One, Dean loves you more than anything. Two, he won’t give up that baby, so he needs you now more than ever. Come on, I’ll drive us home.”

   Perhaps for your benefit, Sam takes the long way home, and he makes no other comment about Christina or where she came from. He parks the car and walks you to your front door before heading down to his own. After you’ve entered your apartment, you realize you’ve done that action as quietly as possible as if already the goal of not disturbing the infant has become an unconscious behavior. The space is as quiet as when you left, but Christina’s car seat, her box, a box of diapers, an armload of unpacked grocery bags, and a mess on the kitchen counter make up for the clutter you didn’t have. Dean sits on the sofa with Christina in one arm and a bottle in his other hand, gazing down at his daughter with a look of gently adoration. He spares a moment to acknowledge your return with a glance and a smile.

   “Is that mess in the kitchen your doing?”

   Dean shrugs. “Making formula is an art.”

   “She doesn’t seem to mind what you made. She’s a quiet little thing, isn’t she?”

   He chuckles. “You missed the party. Nothing but tears to the store and back.”

   By now you’ve wound your way over to the couch, and carefully you sit beside your husband and observe him set the bottle down once the baby has finished it off. She fusses for a moment, tiny arms reaching for nothing, and immediately Dean responds by shushing her and bouncing her gingerly. Scrunching her face, she seems set to complain until someone reads her mind.

   “Can I hold her?” you ask. Dean hands you the little girl, and you assume the position that comes naturally. For as tiny as she is, her body is a substantial presence in your arms. She continues to fuss, letting out a stuttering whine. “What’s the matter, sweetheart? What’s goin’ on?”

   Christina’s complaining is cut off suddenly by a yawn, and from there her descent into sleep is faster than flipping a switch. She dozes off with her cheek tucked in to the crook of your elbow.

   “She likes you,” says Dean.

   “I’m a likeable person.”

   “Nobody knows that better than me.” He leans forward, kisses your cheek, and touches his forehead to your shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

   “I know.”

   “You’re right to be mad at me. I’ll take whatever punishment you wanna give me as long as you don’t . . . don’t leave me.”

   “Dean, I’m not leaving you. You’re stuck with me.”

   His relief is almost palpable. “Whatever I can do to make it up to you . . . anything.”

   “Tell you what. You’re on diaper duty for the rest of the month.”

   Dean laughs. “I think I can do that.”

   “We’ll see. And one more thing.”

   “Yeah?”

   “We’re gonna need a bigger apartment.”

@pureawesomeness001 @27bmm @jarpadandjensenaremyheroes @super-not-naturall @gabriel-themightysugaraddict @mogaruke @mrswhozeewhatsis @hexparker @kdfrqqg @little-castiel13 @18crazybutcutealsopsycho @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester @thing-you-do-with-that-thing

[spacyparker]

Unborn part 2

PART ONE

MASTERLIST - PROMPT LIST

Request : “If you’re still taking requests could you do 27 and 33 with Tom?”

  + “Hey can you do a fic with #5 and #10 from your prompt list where Tom is the reader’s hubby and away on a press tour or something and she realized that she’s pregnant so she starts wearing his shirts he left bc she doesn’t was the media to find out before him?“ @karamelblobber

+ “ooh prompt 10 with Tom?“

»  “Does he know about the baby ?“ part one

»  “You’re paying a small price compared with what she’s going through.”

»  "Is that my shirt?“ part one

Characters : Tom Holland x pregnant!reader

Word count : 3.3k

A/N : Ok IVE FINALLY FINISHED IT OMG !!!! You don’t need to have read part one to read it but if you want to check part one. I took like a whole week to write it wtf, I hope you’ll love it, and don’t hesitate to tell me what you thought of this !!! Love you all, thanks for reading me !

His jaw clenched and he couldn't hear anything around him, even his bestfriend yelling at him to calm down. Tom couldn't believe his ears, he couldn't believe you lied to him again, you were always pushing him out of your life when he was away, you never told him about the important things as if he wasn't concerned. He remembered this time there was a flood and you had to live for a few days at your parents' house, you took care of the incident all by yourself never mentioning it to him. He was upset this time. Like the many other times.

“Fuck it Tom, you're not focusing on what's really important there.” Harrison groaned. The blonde boy couldn't believe it either, but he couldn't believe how his best friend was reacting to the news. Tom was going to be a father, his wife was pregnant, their dream was coming true, and all he could think about was the fact she waited to tell him ? “You know what, I'm outta this. I'm sorry for Y/N.”

Tom was raging out, if Harrison was against him then everyone else would be, but he didn't understand why they weren't standing by his side. He was the one being lied to, he was the one being the fool. “Fuck off !” He yelled at Harrison even if he had already left the hotel room. Tom punched the wall with his fist, his knuckles whiter than ever after he hit it. All his blood seemed to have gotten to his head, he was red, red of too much anger.

Tom was just tired of you lying to him, he knew deep down you didn't tell him most of the important stuff you had to go through because you didn't want him to worry while he was away and already too stressed, but he was your husband after all, away or not. Maybe it was also because when you told him everything, he would ask his mother to come check on you, or his brothers, and as much as you loved his family, it was overwhelming to feel that assisted.

Hearing the punch in the wall Tom just had done, his eternal co-star Robert entered the room furrowing his brows. “What the hell kiddo ? This isn't your lovely house, this isn't yours, you can't do what you want.” He took his fist in his hand but Tom quicky pulled it away. He didn't want people to talk to him, or tell him he was overreacting, he needed to break everything around him, make the room as messy as his mind was.

“Oh please, take care of your own business.” He groaned between his teeth, turning his heels.

But Robert wasn't willing to let him get away, he grabbed Tom's shoulder and made him turn to him once more, his jaw now also clenched. Robert walked closer to the father-to-be making him step back until he was caught up between the legend and the wall. “You're my business, you always have been. Don't make it like you only take advantage of it when it's for good reasons. Now you calm down, and you stay polite. It's not because you're an adult now you can talk to people the way you want.”

Tom knew how it was wrong from him to have talked to Robert this way, but he couldn't help himself. When he was angry, nothing remained under his control, he was mean to everyone and didn't care being an absolute asshole. He looked away, still being pulled to the wall by the Iron Man who looked intimidating. “She's pregnant. She didn't even tell me.” Tom mood suddenly changed once these words fell off his mouth. Of course he was still angry, but his bottom lip started to shiver and he tried his best not to start crying. “I sould have been aware, Robert. I'm deeply concerned. It's my baby.”

Harrison was back in the room, leaning against the door, he shared a worried look with Robert, and they both nodded. Without a word, they both knew what the other one had in mind. “You need to take a break and go home, Thomas.”

Tom's heart broke hearing his full name coming from his best friend's lips. He never called him that, never. “I can't take a break, I'm Spider-Man.” Robert let go of Tom and he directly went to sit on his bed. “I'm tired of being away.”

Robert shook his head, the kid was being really selfish there. “You’re paying a small price compared with what she’s going through.” Tom nodded, making them think he finally understood. “Take a break, I'll arrange everything with the directors.” And soon he was being driven to the airport.

The flight allowed Tom taking some time to think. He couldn't get his mind off you and the big news, he wondered if he was really overreacting as Harrison and Robert were thinking. His head was a bomb ready to explode at any minute now, it refused to shut off. If he decided to open his social medias, he would be flooded by the newspapers articles, and all his fans freaking out about him being a father, or not having told them. Everyone knew how Tom was the master of telling everything to them, he'd make an instalive with a friend or you, and announce all he could. “Hey guys, I broke my nose.” “Yop fam, I'm filming Spider-Man 4.” “Guys, meet Hayley, Harrison's girlfriend.” “Well hello guys, Y/N has burned the chicken so we're going out.” Everything, fucking everything.

On his phone were also many, many notifications from you. After a few radio silence, you tried again to reach him, you wanted to talk to him to explain yourself again and again, not stopping until he'd understand why you did what you did. He never picked up. Tom's mom also called him a few times, but still he didn't picked up, he knew what it was all about, he knew she discovered it too. He felt dumber, everyone knew about the pregnancy before him : his fans, his family... Tom had always wanted to surprise everyone with such a big news, he had organized a plan in his head for it.

He would have invited his whole family for dinner, with Harrison but he was obviously part of the family since the beginning. Tom would have prepared his father's favorite scotch , his mom favorite's plate, the twins' favorite dessert, and ice cream for Paddy. He would have made a toast before the dessert, raising his hand with a glass of champagne, the bubbles of the adult dinners. “Mom, dad. You parenting had always making me want to start a family. You loved us so much I wanted to experience it myself, and I couldn't be happier that the woman I'm going to have a family with is Y/N. And I'd like to thank you for everything that you have both done for me, for each one of us actually. You're the best family I know, and I'm now picking up the torch, since, well... Y/N's pregnant.”

Tom groaned at this thought. His first child, their first grandchild, and it was spilled out this way. What about the romantic ways of living, what about the non exposed life he wanted to have ? He clenched his fists again. A few more hours before landing in London, God. He sighed seing his lockscreen, a photo of you and he, of course, cuddling. He remembered Harry taking that picture, standing by a fire a couple months ago in your backyard. It was a lovely memory, where no one dropped the steaks into the flames, and you all played music and sang. Far away from the pressure you were all living with, happiness wrapping everyone.

Tom turned his head and looked at the sky through the window. It was blue, unlike is grey mind. Under was those unknowns, he wondered how many of them had pregnant wives, how many of them were living away from their family, how many of them were alone. “Fuck !” He mumbled, and the mother sitting beside him furrowed her eyebrows, hoping her son didn't hear the swear word. Tom pinched his lips, was he already a bad father ? “I'm sorry...” He murmured looking down.

It took a few hours to finally arrive to London, and Tom had called his mom to pick him up and drive him home. The first thing he did when he finally saw her was crying. “Mom !” He yelled running into her arms. He suddenly was the little boy, again, the teenager who had no real strenght to face life without getting help. Nothing else came through his mouth after this simple word, and Nikki took it from here.

“I know baby...” Her fingers were going through his fresh cut curls, she put her head on his shoulder, a calm voice accompanying her moves. “It's not the end of the world, darling. It's nothing. You know how she is, you know she didn't mean bad.” He nodded as a response. “You want to go see her ? I mean, I'm not forcing you, you go when you're ready, but you go anyways.”

The new little boy pulled out his mother's arms from his neck and rubbed his swollen eyes full of tears. “I want to see dad, and the guys before.”

In the car, there was no sound, no voice talking, just the radio playing some songs sometimes way too happy for Tom's mood. He was looking outside at the landscape, urban life, trying not to think of you, but there were no way he could nail it. No way.

Once home, everything remained silent however everyone was home, they were all standing in the living room, staring at Tom. They waited for him to say something, but he didn't. He couldn't. So Dom took the talk. “I'm happy you're home, son.”

And he couldn't help but start to cry again. Sam was the first one to run to him, wrapping his body around his arms. When was the last time he had seen him in such a bad state ? “Fuck Tom, I'm going to be an uncle, you'll be a father. You should be proud of you.”

“Things are not that simple, buddy.” He sighed, pulling his tears off.

Harry was the one who seemed the more mad at his brother. His jaw was clenched and he anxiously played with his fingers. “You're screwing everything again !” He admitted. Dom was willing to take the talk again but Harry wouldn't let him, he wasn't done. “She's done it for you, and you can't even understand that ! You're litterally all she has ! Do you know how alone she feels when you're gone, do you know how sad she becomes ? Sometimes you only see your own needs, she's your fucking wife !” Sam stepped back, letting Tom who looked down to what his brother said. It was harsh, but he knew Harry was right. “Do you know I check on her every week, to cheer her up, to let her know she's not useless ? You want me to sum you up her days ? She goes to work, then she comes home, she sleeps and everything starts again. I have to force her to go out with me, she's always so... empty. And she tells you nothing because she doesn't want you to worry, she wants you to fucking focus on your fucking job ! You can't even understand all this little things she does for you.”

Paddy didn't say anything, he left just after Harry's monologue. He didn't really want to publicly take a side on this war, he wanted everybody to be happy. He ran up the stairs and no one heard from him before the day after. Harry's face was red, meanwhile Sam was taken aback. “Hey, let him breathe a little, it's hard for both of them. When he's far from her, she's far from him too.” Sam tried to defend his older brother.

All Tom could do again was crying, it seemed he was perfect at the job recently, a little too much. “Stop it, don't fight ! I don't wanna provoke any family war.” He passed his fingers through his hair, trying to calm himself but he exploded in a throb. “I don't know what I'm doing.” He finally admitted. “Everyone keeps yelling at me, they keep reminding me I'm the bad person. I don't wanna be the bad person.”

Dom got up and reached his son's shoulder putting his hand on it. He had tears in his eyes seeing his love crying. “If you wanna do good, Thomas, you need to go see her instead of staying here with us. It's between you two, we'll be here supporting whatever you'll decide.” Harry glanced at his father, he wouldn't support anything going against his ideas. No one answered, Tom nodded and Dom took him outside to drive him home.

You didn't know Tom was back in England, you didn't know he was on his way to see you, all you knew was he wasn't answering any text or phone call. You were on your bed, and you haven't eaten at midday, you couldn't. You knew it was bad, but you just had lost appetite. You closed your eyes hearing someone ringing at the door, you ddin't want to get up from your bed but you knew you had too, you needed to check who was there at least. But you hadn't reach the front door, you heard a key opening it. “I'm home.” Said a voice lightly. A very recognizable voice.

Your heart dropped, you ran to the hall and there he was, with red puffy eyes right through yours. “I thought... I-I thought you... You were in Ca-california.” You had trouble saying. Fuck, you wanted to go into him and cuddle for a hundred years, but you were afraid of how he would react. When he was angry, he didn't want any physical contact and would repulse your tryings.

“I'm home.” He repeated. He then put his keys on the dresser and pressed his lips together. He didn't really know what to say, but he knew he had to talk before you'd do it, or else he'd break and give up. “This was the one time too many.” Suddenly your heart seemed to want to get out of your chest, it was beating so fast cause you were afraid, afraid of what he would say next. “I can't- I can't bear it anymore, Y/N. You can't hide things from me, I need to be aware of these things as soon as possible, I need you to fucking consider me !” He took a pause, putting his hands over his face to rub his eyes. “I'm your husband, and we're together for better or for worse, remember that ?! You said 'I do', Y/N, you said 'I do', you know what that means ! That means we're supposed to be a team, that means you tell me everything, that means I have to be here for you !” The more he talked, the more he yelled. You haven't move from you spot, and you were now happy you didn't come close to him, even if he wasn't abusive when he was angry, you couldn't face anger. “Answer me, do you remember that ?!”

Tears were widely falling from your eyes you could barely see around you, blurred vision. You nodded, of course you remembered what being husband and wife meant, but sometimes life was tougher than you expected, sometimes it was hard to live alone having a travelling husband doing God knew what. “Y-yeah, Tom, I re-remember. I'm sorry, I-I know I should have to-told you but... It-it never felt like, like the right time.” You sobbed. He shook his head and clenched his jaw. “Tom, don't be mad, please honey, please, I just need a hug, I need support and love. I don't want to get into a fight.”

“And I needed you to be honest.” He walked past you and entered the bedroom, slamming the door and making you jump. What did you do, why did it seem like you had the super-power to create drama in your marriage.

You put your hand on your belly, it had already grown a little since the beginning of the pregnancy, and you liked this new baby bump. The only idea you got to calm Tom down was taking your, well or his, shirt off. There were already few stretch marks on your skin, so you also took off your pants for Tom to see it all. You went in the bedroom half naked, Tom immeditely raising his head to see you. He didn't pay attention at the changes of your body at first, too angry to think straight. “What ? You think we're going to clear it by having sex ? It's not happening, Y/N, you should put some clothes on.”

“No...” You answered, getting closer until you jumped on his lap. He went to get you off him but stopped when he understood, when he saw the magic happening in your body. His gaze was now fully focused on your belly, and he couldn't help but put his hand on it. His warm touch felt warm, home. It had been a long time since you last touched his skin, you missed it more than you thought. “Meet our baby, Tom. Say hi.” And he started crying again, but this time it wasn't from anger, nor sadness. This time, it was different, this time he understood what being a father was, he was able to be close to his child, almost touching him thanks to you. You put your arms around his neck. “Please, babe, forgive me.” You murmured. “I know... I know I'm not perfect, but I'm really trying my best. I don't wanna be a needy wife who can't male it without her husband, I know I fucked up real bad this time, more than I've ever had, but I'm really trying here, it's been hard without you.” One of your hands came to Tom's cheek and you started rubbing his cheek with your thumb. Your eyes locked on his, you both could feel all the mix of joy and sadness you shared, you felt connected again. “We're gonna have to talk about too many serious things, but the first one I want to talk about is me quiting so I can always be with you, what do you think ?”

He nodded, leaning in for a chaste kiss. His hand couldn't get away from your baby bump, and you were happy he seemed softer now he had seen it. “I love the idea, but I thought you didn't want to quit...”

You shrugged. “I changed my mind. Everything will be different, now. I'll come with you til the end of the pregnancy, but then I'll be forced to give birth in England, and stay here a while, newborns can't travel, and... And then when he or she will go to school... I mean, same, I won't be able to travel with you anymore. Let's take the few months we have left.”

Tom nodded, and kissed you once again, in a rougher manner. He couldn't admit it, but he was still heart broken, he realised that, in a few months, not only would he be away from his wife, but from his kid too. He already felt like he abandoned them. “I promise you Y/N, when our little love will be born, I'll work less, I'll be there for you.”

Then there was silence. In the room, it was just two parents-to-be sharing looks of love and complicity. After all this time separated, it felt like a reborn through the unborn.

[your-heroes-imagined]

Dabi reacting to his s/o dying slowly in his arms bc they protect them from a mortal hit, causing that the half-dead body fell in his arms and his s/o used his last moments to tell him that they are in love with him (sorry for my bad english btw)

Just… just trust me on this one…! [Part 1]

Warnings: Angst, Descriptive Gore at the very end.

Word Count: 2,354 (I’m sorry this is a monster of an imagine)

The press didn’t hold back. Who would with such a greatscoop?

Mysterious Hero isFinally Unmasked in Brush Against  Leagueof Villains

Her battered and charred face was plastered on everynewspaper, TV, tabloid, and magazine for the world to see. It was a story thateverybody and their mother gobbled up, which caused her fame to spiral upwards.If [Name] had been and up-and-coming hero before, today she was The Hero of thetimes, the latest fad in her gossip even.

It was both a blessing and a curse. Sure, her pay increasedand it was sure nice to be stopped on the street by the young children thatadmired her. Yet, the demand for her work was high and the interviews werestarting to get annoying. They got nosy about her work fighting against,ironically, the other biggest trend in the villain world, her beauty routines,and, worse, her love life. She answer the questions to the best of her ability:she had to give vague information about her work by telling them that she wasworking to the bone to apprehend all of the villains linked to the League; herbiggest beauty secret was moisturizer; and, currently single. The host wouldalways seem to clap her hands and coo, “you heard it here, ladies andgentlemen, she’s looking for a sidekick, if you know what I mean.” Our unmaskedhero always clenched her hands tightly on her lap as she remembered about thosecertain nights. It was nights when she just couldn’t reconcile any sleep thatshe would feel those dark flames licking the flesh of her arms and legs again,and worse, sometimes she felt them reaching into her chest and eat away at herheart when she recalled that look on Dabi’s face.  

Still, she managed to drag her way through life. It’s notlike there was a lot of time for her to think about anything anyways. Crimerates were rising and at an all-time high that had not been seen in decades.Worse, after she was unmasked by Shigaraki and Dabi, the useful intel that keptthe League at bay was gone which gave rise to a paranoia in the hero community.Every single one of them was now on their toes, and patrols of pro heroes andeven of studying heroes were more common now in larger cities, especially thosewhere the League had shown the most activity. All of these developments, [Name]used as a justification for her behavior. Infiltration, spying, deception,betrayal… they were all villainous traits but… were they really that bad whenshe was preventing this chaos? Don’t bestupid, a little voiced nagged at the back of her cranium, you’re a piece of shit and you’re alwaysgoing to be a piece of shit. You shouldn’t even call yourself a hero. Sheswallowed the large lump in her throat and pushed herself forward. It was forthe greater good, it was justified; he was a bad person anyways.

It was one of those days nothing was working out for [Name].Even if she had woken up tangled up in the arms of her lover, she had woken up late.She somehow managed to jump out of bed without waking up Dabi, and left forher work, except, the subway ran late. She missed her meeting. She was scoldedby the heroes around her. She spilled hot coffee onto her white shirt. Sheforgot her wallet at home. She had a long report to write on an empty stomach.She left work late. She missed dinnerwith her friend. She missed her train home. Departing the station, the rainstarted to pour. She got home drenched, dirty, tired, and hungry; just feltabsolutely miserable. There was nothing more for her to do but toss her tiredbody onto the couch, not even bothering in calling for food delivery thatnight. As she lay on her face, she heard the window facing the fire escape. Dabi.

“Hey, you didn’t even kiss me good-bye,” he announced to theapartment, unsure of her current location. He heard a muffled apology comingfrom the large sofa, and approached it slowly. “[Name]?”  She mumbled something unintelligible as shefelt a weight right next to her hips. “Rough day at work?” She nodded.  A pair of hands landed on her shoulders andstarted applying pressure with his thumbs, working out on knots she didn’t evenknew she had. She sighed into the couch as she felt her body relax under histouch. He was halfway down her back when she pushed herself up, swiveled, andwrapped her arms around his chest. Her movements were too quick for Dabi to beable to react to, so she caught him with his arms held up which allowed her tobury her head into his chest. His arms slowly fell down, though, and wrappedthemselves around her as well. “Again… just let me know when you want me toburn that editorial building down. I’ll do it with pleasure.” He joked as hestroked her hair, feeling his shirt soak up her warm tears.

She felt those dark flames swirling around her heart again,and she quickly stood up from her chair, leaving her dinner half eaten. Maybeit was time for a run.

Her lungs felt raw from how long she had been running, andthe cold night air did little to ease the pain. She wasn’t sure why she pushedherself so hard during nights like that, although she wondered if it was hersubconscious punishing her for her crimes. The buzzing on her arm was the onlything that made her stop, though. She pulled the phone from the armstrap andread the message from one of her colleagues, one that knew about herinfiltration of the League of Villains.

Got wind of operationof LoV. Suit up and meet us ASAP.

Not even a second later, she got his location. The nauseahit her as soon as she had the time to process the information on her way back.Operation of the League of Villains… doesthat mean I’m going to run into…? She didn’t allow herself to finish thethought as she burst through her apartment door. Her hands were shaking as shepulled on the tight bodysuit, and wondered if it was a good idea to bring herhelmet along. Unlike the former melted model, this one had only slightly tintedglass so her face was still visible—just perfect for the unmasked hero.

“Mark my words, [Name]. I will make sure to not miss nexttime. I want you fucking dead.”

She opted to take it, and forced her queasy stomach to just have to just bear it for a while. Was she really going to die tonight? You deserve it, taunted that littlevoice. You deserve to die and to diealone. No one mourns the wicked. Her lip trembled and she shook her head.There were more important things to focus on right now than her love life. Hercolleagues needed her.

How had this happened?

The last few minutes had been a complete blur. She hadgotten just fine to their meeting point, exchanging short greetings with therest of the heroes present. They were all briefed about the situation, dividedinto small groups of three heroes at most, with one of them having had areasonable amount of experience with fighting the League. The groups wereformed to scout out a couple of the buildings that were supposedly serving asheadquarters to find and apprehend as many of the villains as possible. Theirintel had been vague at best, but they realized this was one of their bestchances to really frustrate the League’s plans.

[Name] was paired with another two heroes that wererelatively new to the case; at least, she had never had the pleasure of meetingthem before. They briefly talked about their quirks to create a strategy: Literawas a tall, imposing man whose entire body was wrapped in a long papyrus scarfon which he could write and invoke a handful of spells from the power of words,while Will-o’-wisp was also a heavy-set woman with the ability to manifest andlaunch balls of her own energy. Will and [Name] were going to lead them as theywere an attack and defense heavy, while Litera would give them support frombehind them.

If everything had seemed to be going perfectly, so why wasshe lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood? She closed her eyes tightlywhen she felt someone trying to scoop her up in their arms.

The hero group moved slowly through the building, listeningintently to try to distinguish people noises from the occasional creaking thebuilding made as it settled down for the night. It didn’t settle either of thehero’s nerves. Out of nowhere, a wave of black fire hit them. All of themreacted and moved to dodge it, except [Name] who used her supersonic punch topush the flames back towards its attacker.

“Well, seems like I wasn’t able to keep my promise.” Thegrowl sent shivers down her spine.

“Just give yourself up calmly and we won’t harm you,” shetried to keep her voice from cracking.

“Who says I’m afraid of you,” Dabi’s fist lit up with flamesas he launched himself at her.

They say that when you’re a real hero, your legs will movebefore your mind can even realize what’s happening. Is that what had happened? Butthe deep wounds that oozed with her blood, with the skin burn around the edges…Those weren’t from Dabi’s attack. She had somehow manage to avoid the dark firethat had been propelled at her. No. This was someone else’s power that hadwound her when she—

That’s right.

Will-o’-Wisp didn’t hesitate in the fight. What kind of ragehad consumed her, no one was too sure, but she had put a decent amount ofenergy into the attack she had sent directed towards the fire-wielder. At thatmoment, he had only had eyes for [Name], consumed too much by his own hatredand sadness to be paying attention to any of the two other heroes. Except[Name] wasn’t. Her legs didn’t move fast enough, her punches did as she launchedherself towards him. He raised his fists before realizing, she wasn’t targetinghim but just passing by his side. The energy ball hit her straight into thechest, cracking the plastic adornments and burning through the fabric without aproblem. The woman fell and tumbled across the ground from the inertia of theattack.

She opened her eyes as she stared up at the distressed faceof her former lover. “[Name]! What the fuck!?” Was all he managed to say asWill-o’-Wisp screamed. She watched as he whipped his head at the heroes, “don’tyou get any fucking closer, you miserable pieces of shit! Calling yourselvesheroes and—and—!”  His voice begancracking as he looked back down at her. “Fuck, why did you take that hit?! Youshould’ve fucking let me die.” He was just blubbering as he held her tightlyagainst his chest.

She could barely breathe from the pain that was spreadingthrough her body, but his hold put a small smile on her face. “I’m sorry… Mylegs just… moved.” Her eye sight started to get a little blurry, but she feltwarm tears fall down on her face. The fallen hero willed her hand to liftitself up and gently placed it on Dabi’s cheek. One of his hands clutched hers intoplace. “Don’t cry… don’t cry for the wicked. Am I really a hero… if I protect avillain?” She laughed gently but all that did was manage to wrack her body withcoughs, blood spluttering out of her mouth and onto her chin.

“Stop talking!” The raven-haired man yelled down at her. Hereye sight was slowly darkening.  “Whatabout you fucking two! Call someone, get her help!” He was interrupted as thehand on his cheek pushed him to look at her again.

“Hey, Dabi… I love you.” She took a deep breath, which onlymade her lungs scream. “I hope you forgive me someday. But I love you so much.So much…” Her words escaped from her lips as her hand slipped from his grasp.

“Goddamn it, [Name]…. You can’t say that shit to me rightnow…” His voice became garbled as she slipped from consciousness.

Her eyes struggled to open from just how bright the whiteroom was. Where was she? She tried to sit up but the pain in her chest made herfall back into the bed, gritting her teeth. Slowly, her eyes adjusted to thebrightness and she could tell that she was in a hospital room. She couldn’tbelieve she was alive, and almost, that was disappointing in itself. Now shehad to deal with the fact that Dabi had never really nor would he ever forgiveher.

She turned her head and her eyes fell on a singular red roseon her bedside table. There was a small piece of folded paper right next to it,a miracle considering the window was wide open. Biting her lip to suppress someof the pain, she reached her hand out to both of them.

[Name],

I can’t forgive you for taking such a hit forme, and for almost dying in my arms. But that kind of self-sacrifice, that’swhat makes you a true hero. You saved my life, when you shouldn’t have. I loveyou, [Name], I have loved you all this time. I love you so much it hurts. But Ican’t forgive you until you get better. I’ll be waiting for you.

It wasn’t signed by anyone, but she was more than sure sheknew who it was. She pressed the letter against her lips closing your eyes.Tears rolled down her cheeks as, for the first time in a very long time, she could breathe without pain.

[timeforalongstory]

@there-goes-all-the-cotton-candy​ asked: “So for when u awaken: #1, 7, 8, and 14 for The Marriage Bargain, and also #1 for heirs bc...im never over heirs. or trevilieu. i think i almost cried about armand a few days back but that's not important”

...i think that’s pretty important bb but we will discuss how we can feed your trevilieu flames later

The Marriage Bargain

1 What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me?

I talked about this once before and I’m going to quote myself:

“My experience of writing is usually that my ideas come from a new spark colliding with something I stored away in the back of my mind years ago, which then merge and grow into something new. In this case, the spark came from the supernatural kink meme. (I don’t watch the show, but damn, that’s the best porn on the internet.) There was a prompt (link) where J1’s family owed J2 a huge debt and J2 demanded that J1 marry him in lieu of the debt, which they otherwise couldn’t pay. Well, as I said, I don’t watch Supernatural, so I would not have been able to write that exact request. But that seed landed in the back of my mind, and by coincidence it happened to land right near where I store my love of Lee and Miller’s Liaden Universe. If you’re not familiar with those books, the Liaden characters organize into clans around bloodline, and your bloodline and your social status are pretty tightly linked. That immediately struck me as a way to make the arranged/compelled marriage and marriage debt more nuanced, and it metastasized rapidly from there. (Now feels like a good time to mention that exactly zero of the social details or social system in the marriage bargain come from the LU book series. To pick the most major difference, marriages in those books only last a year and are explicitly for the purpose of making babies! What kicked my brain into gear was just the notion that your bloodline and family were more significant than your individual achievements as far as Society was concerned. Everything else is entirely from my own head.)”

7 Were there any major decisions I made about the fic that could have made it go a whole different direction?

I think I've mentioned before that Eobard and Barry were originally supposed to get married much earlier in the fic, and that there was originally no employment contract. But then I came up with the employment contract and it was so much BETTER and smarter and gave them more time to fall in love, and also let me introduce Malcolm as a threat BEFORE the marriage, which was just better in every way, so I'm very happy with the result :)

8 Was there anything I only learned about the fic after I had finished it? (themes, motifs, symbolism, etc)

Ugh, yes - I way undersold Barry's emotional journey for anything other than Malcolm and falling in love. To be fair, those were Big Deals to him, but when I was writing his little mental Coma Safari Grand Tour at the end of the fic, I basically tripped over all these other issues that Barry was lugging around that had never been raised or dealt with. Like resentment over the Wests' inferior financial situation, which Barry hated even feeling, because that's a jerk way to feel, but nevertheless he did feel it, and shoved it in a closet and tried not to deal with it, where it festered. The result was that I had to raise and then deal with those issues really fast at the end of the fic, which meanwhile putting everyone else into a holding pattern for much longer than I meant to while waiting for Barry to wake up. To this day I wince when I read those coma sections. It's my Queen Of All The Witches (TM) moment (looking at you, Robert Jordan) and the biggest thing I need to fix in a revision. Either the issues need to be raised earlier and dealt with throughout the fic, or they need to have been resolved by Barry before the fic proper begins. But I can't just cut the text and ignore them, because they are foundational for how Barry acts throughout the fic - I just didn't dig them up and hold them to the light until way, wayyyyy too late.

14 If I were to write a sequel to this fic, what would it be about?

It would probably be the Hartley/Cisco Four Weddings And A Funeral fusion. Romance novels don't usually do 'true' sequels, but they will go off and take one or two other characters who were more minor in the first novel and give them their own romance novel. So that's what I'd do here.

And since someone is bound to ask: there are two reasons that fic hasn't happened yet. One is that I've been working on converting TMB to original fiction in my spare time, which is a slow, agonizing process that is nowhere near done, but makes me leery about writing Hartley/Cisco instead of writing in the 'new' orig fic universe. And the second is more of a technical writing problem. Unlike Barry/Eo, whose love story was told in a fairly linear fashion from A to B over a continuous span of time, Hartley and Cisco have a story with a lot of false starts, false stops, and interruptions, told over a period of most of a decade. That's much harder to write and I'm still trying to get the issues ironed out. (Which is basically a long, drawn-out way of saying that I haven't found my spark yet, because I only obsess over writing technicalities when I'm not inspired :p)

Heirs

1 What was my inspiration for this fic? How did it come to me?

The prompt. It was completely the prompt. There wasn't even the slightest wisp of this fic in my head until I read the prompt. That's really unusual for me, usually I have little bitty headcanons and fragments tucked away in my brain and then something like a prompt comes along and electrifies a few of them and they all fuse together and come out as a fic. But in this case it was entirely from the prompt - which had no Trevilieu at all, but the minute I read it I was like okay, but what about the Trevilieu, and WHAM I was writing. I wrote like 10k in that first week. 50k in the first month. These days that's more typical for me but at the time it was insane, I'd never been so productive before. The prompt just GOT ME. So you all owe heirs to Elenduen!