#ignore my weird pose its so bad

[ceeceetumbles]

cosplay content rahhh

END ROLL!! memory girl (my sister) and russell (me)!!

no one recognized us :') but my sister did get asked a lot of times what her cosplay was from bc people thought it was cool!!

[barleyo]

Pollen.

Recom! Miles Quaritch X Fem! Reader

A/N: I finished this is 3 hours, so this might seem a little rushed, but I am obsessed with this man in a life-consuming, unhealthy, scary way. I just feel the need to share the goings on of my mind with you all via my writing, so prepare for a LOT of Miles Quaritch posts. When I say a lot... I mean it.

(PART TWO IS OUT)

Wordcount: 1.4k

TAGS: Age difference, phone sex, public masturbation, solo fem and male masturbation, mutual masturbation, voice fetish, sex pollen, phone sex with a stranger, interspecies relationship

Solo missions were not uncommon for Miles. Any one-man job immediately went to him, as a colonel he could hold his own, however, the forests of Pandora were not kind to lone wolves. Everything and anything out in the wild posed a threat, animals and natives. Plants.

He was confident in his physical abilities, and even though he didn’t like to admit it, he was ignorant to the flora and fauna of this world, so in his mind, everything was blended together into a pool of danger and death. Any sound in the still forest was a red flag to him, any leaf crunching or branch shifting caught his attention. That’s why he was so quick to turn around when a loud rustling of leaves sounded behind him.

“Ha!” Quaritch turned around, gun held up in defense, ready to shoot. He held the gun steadily as the sound continued. He slowly brought his gun back into its proper place, strapped over his bare, azure shoulder.

Just as his guard fell, a small wisp of color lunged past him, knocking him onto the forest floor. He looked up, not seeing the creature, whatever it had been. Pushing himself up, he noticed that he had touched a mushroom-like plant. It was bioluminescent, and left a powdery dust on his palm.

“This fuckin’ place,” he sighed, wiping the white dust off onto his cargos. His face scrunched up in discomfort  as an itching sensation ticked at his hand. He scratched at it to no avail. The feeling built quickly from a small itch to a flaming burn. 

The heat spread from his hands to his arms, then to his chest, and soon coated his entire body. It felt as if he were submerged into a body of boiling water like he was being cooked, simmered and stewed in a pot.

“What was that shit?” He groaned, feeling the slick of his sweat drench through his shirt. Quaritch dug through his pant’s pockets and grabbed his walkie talkie, speaking into the front of it. “Colonel to Blue Team, over.” The line was dangerously quiet, the only sound being the fizzing of the radio. “Blue Team? Lyle?” He cursed, not receiving a response. “Forgot how bad the connection was on these things.”

He smacked the device, hoping it would offer him a clear connection. With his slicked palms, he dropped the walkie talkie, muttering profanities to himself. He snatched it and held it to his ear as a final pathetic attempt to connect to his team. “Hello? Anyone there, for God’s sake?” 

To his surprise, there was an answer. Not just any answer, but a soft, clear one.

“Hello? Hello, are you there? This is (Y/N).” 

He shuddered. From relief, maybe, but the warmth spreading to his crotch pointed towards arousal. It confused him, this wasn’t the first time he’d heard a voice as beautiful as this one, but instead of dwelling on it, he frantically spoke back. 

“Yeah, ‘m here, Colonel Miles Quaritch, over.” His mouth was dry and his tongue felt far too large,

“Colonel? Uhm, well, what has you tuned into the lab department’s line? Can I help you?”

Such a beautiful voice, even for a science puke, he thought. “Damn radio won't connect to my team line, but I’m out in the middle of nowhere in this God forsaken forest. I fell on some weird mushroom lookin’ thing and now I’m so itchy and sweaty that I can’t even fuckin’ think straight,” he said into the device, “Hell, I can barely walk. It’s starting to hurt too.” He stretched the fingers on his aching palm, trying to soothe it. It did not work and the pain only shot through the rest of his body, just as the itching and burning had as well.

“Oh, Mr. Quaritch, I’m sorry to hear that,” the woman replied, urgency in her voice, “can you tell me what this ‘mushroom’ looked like more specifically?” There was a twinge of excitement in her voice that pissed him off.

“What’s that gonna do? Damn it, can you just put me on with my team?”

“Please, calm down. If I can figure out what you have interacted with, I can tell you how to fix it.”

He sighed. “I already told you, it was like a mushroom. It left this weird powdery shit on my hand.”

“Powder? Oh my,” she sucked in a breath, “Colonel, I’m going to ask you something, and I need you to answer me. Are you, uh, are you–”

“Miss, can you spit it out already? I don’t have time for this, if you’ve forgotten, I’m in the middle of fucking nowhere and sweating buckets right now.”

“Are you hard right now? Your– your dick, is it hard?”

Quaritch swallowed thickly, feeling the bulge in his pants twitch again.

“Yes, really hard. What does that have to do with anything?”

“The plant that you had touched, it is known to release pollen that arouses one to an extreme, if you do not satisfy yourself soon, the pain will be unbearable.” Miles could hear panic in the woman’s voice and the click of a door as if it were being locked. “You understand, don’t you, Colonel?”

“It’s already awful.” A groan reverberated in his chest as he spoke, “So I’m supposed to jerk myself off in the middle of the forest, right in the open?”

“I’m afraid so, please you must start now, the pain will be much worse without stimulation.” 

He nodded, even though he knew she would not know and unbuttoned his pants, pulled his boxers down, and freed his dick. It was striped, just like the rest of his Na’vi body that he was slowly getting used to. 

Miles nervously grabbed his own length. This wasn’t the first time he had touched himself in his Na’vi form, it was second nature to him now, but this was the first time he had done it out in the open, and the first time he had done it with a woman talking him through it. 

He pumped slowly, fucking his fist. He couldn’t help but imagine his hand being the warm, tight cunt of the woman on the other line. A trembling moan strained from his mouth as he picked up the pace, seeking more friction in his palm. “(Y/N)--”

“I’m still here, sir, don’t worry,” she said, comfortingly.

His face flushed with a purple tint, not realizing she was still there. Obviously she was still on the line, it’s not like she could just leave, he rationalized it in his head. “It still hurts so bad, darlin’, fucking my hand ain’t helping,” he groaned.

“Just try, you must do it. You must cum, Colonel, please. Do it for me,” she whispered into the walkie talkie, embarrassed yet aroused by her own words.

“Fuck,” he hissed, sharp teeth barring down. “Need ya’ to touch yourself too, not fair if it’s only me.” Pre-cum oozed from his fat, leaky tip, beading at his hole.

“O-oh, I’m not sure..” her hands rested on the band of her panties, undecidedly fiddling with the elastic. 

“Can’t cum unless you do it with me, missy, c’mon, need it bad.” His hips bucked into his hand again, moans catching in his throat.

(Y/N) hummed and slipped her hand into her pants. She slid the tips of her fingers through her wet folds, rubbing past her clit with gentle strokes. Focusing on the peaked bud, she drew tight, neat circles over it and felt her thighs try to close over her hand. “Oh, Christ, Mr. Quaritch, it feels good, mm.”

“I know, sweet girl, I know. Tell me when you’re ready, wanna cum with you.”

Lazily slowing down, Miles gave (Y/N) a chance to catch up with him. When he could hear breathy, needy moans from the line, he continued at his earlier pace, slamming his hips into his hand. Her whines were sweet to his ears, he could practically smell her, taste her. He threw his head back and huffed. 

“Close, ‘m really close.”

“Gonna cum, baby girl? C’mon, cum like you’d cum all over my cock,” he rutted into his fist, feeling his balls tighten and stomach coil.

“Yes, fuck, yes,” she drawled out a messy, noisy moan, “Cummin’ now, sir, ah–”

“Good job, baby,” he said through gritted teeth as he spilled his seed on the ground, fucking himself through his fading orgasm.

There was a long, comfortable silence on each line as they each caught their breath. Miles was the one to break the silence. 

“Thank you for helping out, bunny, but it just wasn’t enough. Still hurting. Gonna help me when I get back to base?”

“Yes, sir. Let me find some proper directions so you can come home.”

“Be ready for me when I get there, I wanna see you as soon as I get there, girl.”

[likeabulldigidigibombombombom]

sorry i think fake dating for felix not arranged marriage

Title: "Boyfriend"

This is a great request TYSM😻😻😻

I’m hoping that you’re a girl because I’m better at writing for fem readers

If you're not I'm so sorry💀

Pairing: Felix x fem!reader 

Trope/Genre: Fake dating, fluff

Warnings: They make fun of each other a lot, Felix is a bit of an ass for shits and giggles, its fine though because he can do no wrong, bad flirting, some suggestive comments at the end so MINORS DNI, Ignore my non-american English (It’s because I’m not from america🙀)

Felix is not an idol in this fic. 

1,634 words 

Summary: Your Mum assumes that you have a boyfriend. Since you are desperate for approval, you invite a friend to the family reunion to pose as your boyfriend. Shit gets wild. Turns out it was for the better.

For years, you’ve never been able to find a relationship anywhere. Guys weren’t interested, girls weren’t interested, absolutely no one has ever been interested in you romantically. Growing up, this wasn’t a problem, since your parents didn’t want their “Sweet little girl” to be dating. But you were getting older, and your house was slowly getting lonelier.

One day, your parents called you to organize a family gathering. “Oh and also!” Your Mum stated. “You can bring a date. I’m sure you’ve found someone by now! Hasn’t your best friend gotten a partner?” You sighed. “Yes Mum, all of my friends are in relationships now.” “So, when are we gonna meet him?” “Meet who?” “Your boyfriend, I’m sure you’re just hiding him from us because you’re scared of our reaction. I’ll assure you, we aren’t judgemental at all!” You rolled your eyes as your Mum kept talking. “Bring him to the family reunion! It’ll be fun!” As you were about to interrupt, your Mum continued. “Oh no! I have to go pick up something from the shops before it gets dark! I love you! Bye!” 

You pressed the hangup button. Your brain started to spiral. ‘How am I gonna do this? There’s no way I’m going to be able to find a boyfriend in time.’ Your eyes lit up. ‘What if I don’t need an actual partner? I just need someone to pretend to be my actual partner!’ You thought about all of your friends, trying to think of one that was single. Your brain instantly went to Felix, a friend who you didn’t know extremely well, but you knew him well enough that you’d be able to ask him for this favour without it being super weird. 

Both of you met at a bus stop. It was raining heavily. Sadly, the stop didn’t have a shelter so you stood there under your little umbrella. Felix was in the same situation as you, except he didn’t have an umbrella. He was getting drenched. When he let out a small “achoo” you decided that you had to work up all of the courage in your body and ask if he wanted to share an umbrella. His eyes lit up and he smiled. You thought it was the brightest smile in the world. His eyes looked like two perfect crescent moons. He stood under your umbrella and you started talking. The bus was 30 minutes away and you were both taking the same bus. Conversations between you two flowed easily. When he got to his stop, you exchanged numbers.

 You’ve hung out alone and in groups a couple of times with him and he at least knows what your family dynamic is like and how expecting your parents are. That is the reason why he wasn’t surprised when he was told to come to your house because of an emergency and he was told that he was now your fake ‘boyfriend’. 

“So when’s the family reunion?” “October 6th” “Oh I can totally come to that! This is gonna be fun.” “Fun? You know that we’re gonna have to make up stories and kiss and cuddle and shit right?” “I’m not totally opposed to that.” “Well that’s because you’re super cuddly, I’m not like that.” “Well, you’re gonna have to pretend now!” “This is annoying, thanks for helping though. You’re like, an insanely good friend.” “I’m not just a friend anymore” He made kissy faces at you and you felt your face heat up. “You suck.”

When you arrived, Felix grabbed your hand. You felt butterflies flutter around your stomach. He rang the doorbell. “You’re blushing.” “What?” “Never mind!” Your Mum swung open the door with a fake smile plastered on her face, her smile quickly became genuine when she saw your hand interlaced with Felix’s. “Oh my gosh! Hello! Come in! What’s your name?” “My name is Felix! Nice to meet you.” He and your Mum hugged as she led you into the kitch(ive😨)en where you and your other family members sat around plates of food.

You and Felix were being bombarded with questions at the speed of light. He was mainly the one answering them, since he was better at making up answers. You just sat there and wondered how this fever dream happened. “Felix?” One of your Aunts spoke up. “Hmm?” “How long have you and Y/N been dating?” He looked at you with a smirk and you realised he was gonna say something that would fuck up the rest of the conversation. 

“A year.” He replied. Gasps could be heard from around the room. “And you aren’t living together yet?!” Your grandma asked with a horrified look on her face. “We’re actually moving in together soon, she’s packing right now.” “Are you moving into her house or is she moving into yours?” “She’s moving into mine since mine is bigger.” “You need to tell us your address once Y/N moves in! We would love to visit. We can also help you pack!” Your Dad said. Felix’s hand was sitting comfortably on your thigh as he looked at you evilly. ‘This is gonna go badly’ You thought.

Once you and Felix got into his car he immediately bursted out laughing. “Oh my god, they actually believed it!” You spoke up. “Why did you say I’m moving into your house?” “For fun.” “You suck. I’m actually gonna have to move in with you now because my parents want to visit.” “I’ve been wanting a roommate.” 

When you got home, he asked if he could stay over and discuss everything further. You hesitated, but you realised that you really needed to set some ground rules, so you let him stay. “You’re so scared of PDA it’s funny, it’s like you think you’re gonna fall in love with me if you hug me.” He said. “I’m not afraid of hugs, you’re just annoying.” “You are so mean.” “Says the guy who purposely screwed me over in front of my family” “Are you actually mad at me? I’m so sorry we can stage a fake break-up if that would make you comfortable! I didn’t mean to annoy you-” “Felix, it’s fine! Chill. I can move in with you and we can stay in separate rooms. Even though it’s a huge fucking process just for my parents to think that I can get bitches.” “There’s one problem with that.” “Oh no, what is it this time?” “There’s only one bedroom.”

4 weeks later

You were sitting in the living room while Felix brought you some hot chocolate. Living with him wasn’t as bad as expected. Some days he slept on the couch and some days you slept on the couch. Felix’s shitty flirting wasn’t ever too much of a problem, because he made up for it with his sweet personality. You had spent one night playing board games with him, and you looked at him and he looked perfect. Like everything you ever wanted, until he made you pick up eight cards in UNO flip. Your parents had come over a couple of times to check on you and spend time with Felix. They liked him more than they liked you honestly. He was kind and charismatic which made his parents fall in love with him. 

“You know what we should do?” Felix said. You put down your phone and took a sip of your hot chocolate. “What? “We should practice kissing.” You choked on your hot chocolate as Felix affectionately rubbed your back. “What?!” You yelled. “You seem too scared to kiss me, and I don’t want to break any boundaries. So I thought we could practice for the first time in the privacy of our own home.” “Oh.” “Are you okay? Do you not like kissing? It’s obviously fine if you don’t, I just think it would be a good way to sell our relationship” As Felix took a sip of his own hot chocolate, you said, “I’ve never kissed anyone before.”

It was his turn to choke. You laughed at him and he looked at you with wide eyes. “You’ve never kissed anyone?!” “What do you mean by that?” “I mean, someone who looks like you has never even kissed someone?! You’ve got to be kidding! I mean you’re super hot, cute, pretty, and stunning. How has no one kissed you?!” You blushed at his words, earning a smile from him. 

“I don’t know, I guess I just haven’t found the right person.” “What if I’m the right person?” He moved closer to you and his pinky interlaced with yours. “Can I kiss you Y/N?” You nodded. 

Your eyes closed as you felt soft lips meet yours. You could feel his heart beating in his chest, which was comforting because you could tell he was as nervous as you. He brought one of his hands up to your head and started to play with your hair. It was so cute. He was so cute. Everything about him was cute. The kiss was gentle and short, but you didn’t want it to end. He pulled away, and his face was flushed. “You’re so fucking cute.” You said. “I was gonna say the same to you.” There was a pause in the conversation until you spoke up. 

“You have really tiny hands.” You held his palm next to yours and laughed at the difference. “That’s true, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to use them.” He smirked at you and the tips of your ears turned red. “Stop flirting with me or I’m gonna start thinking that you actually want to be my real boyfriend.” “Maybe I do.” 

That night, when you complained about how uncomfortable the couch was, Felix offered to let you sleep in his bed with him.

 You took the opportunity immediately.

Author note: Thank you so much for the request! I loved writing this so much! Like always, constructive criticism is wanted! If you liked this, please follow me for more fanfics like this one <3 Thank you!

Masterlist

[foolsocracy]

i wanna know how you learned how to render, it's so yum 😞💔

thank you!!! I'm glad u like it. I can try my best to explain my process but its very much a 'feel it with my heart' experience. This is gonna be long and incomprehensible but I'm gonna try:

If we're talking about the (above) garth & baby arthur jr pic or the bloody pete pic, I'd say i started to actually render like that in maybe high school art class (they were much worse then ofc because i have years more practice now)? Obviously my process now is different than it was back then, but before I actually started physically painting canvases with acrylics I usually just did line art and color without the blending-painting pizzazz.

Thats actually where I get my weird random interspersed colors in my coloring as well. Acrylics dry super fast and a high school art class is like 45 minutes so I'd have to totally mix a new pallet the next day. Not that I couldn't color match, but its annoying and having variations with colors or just mixing something up to fill in gaps looks neat if you get it right. If it looks bad just paint over it, but its worth it to try.

My process with these is almost exactly like my non painterly rendered ones, just with steps after. Also, you can get away with a lot when not fully rendering, but when i do render PHOTO REFERENCE is to die for. Specifically for the lighting. I can't emphasize this enough. By the time i'm done with a drawing my search history should be like "knees. Knees sitting. Knee anatomy. Harsh light photography. Curly hair. baby. J. C. Leyendecker new year baby" + 8 pictures of u doing whatever pose you're trying to do.

Anyway, the process for me is usually: vague sketch > carve out the lines/neater sketch > flat colors > basic shading/rendering > color adjusting sketch lines (usually from black to dark red) > collapse everything into one layer & get to WORK

I know the 1 layer thing is scary, but thats life. Its easiest to adjust things that way (for me). No need to worry about layers and blending modes cause its all right there. I usually duplicate the layer the drawing is in before I start on something crazy just to reassure myself that if I fuck it up I can go back. So a lot of the time my layers in procreate are progressively more rendered stages of the piece lol.

Now that Im here trying to explain this im blanking on how to actually express it. Lets see. I can run through some general stuff:

For both of those artworks (baby & pete) they're 100% made with HB pencil on procreate (a default brush! I've never downloaded any new brushes cause im lazy). I actually made a brush explanation for someone a few months ago I can put that right here:

hopefully those are readable. sometimes tumblr flops lmk if my writing is illegible

the eraser tool is your BEST FRIEND!!!! The way I get my lines and shapes and whatnot is by making big ass strokes and then erasing until whatever I'm looking for reveals itself. Here's a video of that process from the aquababy pic. Ignore the jerky pauses lol. also there's the reference photo!:

rendering itself is really hard to describe. Basically just throw color at it until it works out. (just tried to add a video but tumblr says only 1 video allowed

I hope this is helpful somehow! Just threw a ton of stuff at you. If you want anything more or the actual video or smth just let me know!

[eleni-cherie]

a thief's end ✨ || bts • myg - chapter 1.8

"so eager to be in a headlock again?" "only if it's by you."

he thought he was done with the criminal life and ready for some peace and quiet. but his plans collapsed in the form of a strange girl who was in trouble. © 2023 | eleni_cherie

»»»

masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburn, mutual pining, strangers to lovers s2l

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

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

»»»

a/n: SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG! But it's 6.6k words so I hope it'll make up for it :')

»»»

Seoul, South Korea

"Oh, I also got ice cream! You want ice cream?" Soyeon snickered, giving in at her grandmother's constant asking of whether she wanted to eat something. It made the old woman happy whenever she accepted her offerings and besides, she wouldn't say no to ice cream. "Sure, why not." Her eyes wandered around then, remembering the main reason she had decided to pay her a visit after only a few days again. "This photo there, where was it taken?" She pointed at a frame hanging next to the tv where a muted news resport was playing.

Her grandmother followed her finger, squinting at it while trying recalling its origin. "Not sure, your grandfather sent it from one of his trips," she recalled then. "Perhaps its written behind the photo." The younger woman stood up and walked to the frame, carefully taking it from the wall. The reason this photo had caught Soyeon's attention was because of her grandfather posing in front of a big and impressive looking gate she didn't recognise with another man. A friend, she assumed as they were both looking happy.

With a hum she returned to her seat and turned the frame to open it. Only for a piece of paper to fall onto her lap. Her heart beginning racing as she picked it up with curious eyes. Only for her expression to turn puzzled, recognising a row of weird symbols on it.

An arrow with a W. A square. A rectangle with a semicircle on top. A triangle. An umbrella. A star. A keywhole with the word 'oro' written beside it.

Her eyes widened. She didn't know what 'oro' meant, but that keyhole-symbol reminded her of the golden key she'd found behind another photo the previous time. It had been a photo of her grandfather at a temple or palace she didn't recognise either. Just like with this photo now. Placing the piece of paper aside, she took a better look on the photo. Seeing something being written behind it. The letters had almost faded, but she could still recognise her grandfather's words on it.

'Me and M. at Little South Gate.'

"Grandma? Can I borrow this photo?" "Hm?" Her grandmother looked up from the bowl she was preparing. "Oh, yes sure, my child. Keep it, if you want." "No, it's okay. I'll return it soon," she smiled and watched her grandmother going back to the ice cream. Taking her phone out then, she decided to look up what 'oro' meant and also where this Little South Gate was.

And her breath hitched, almost gasping at the translation her phone gave her.

No. Could it be?

Quickly shaking her head, she placed the device down. Even if it was a lead, she couldn't follow it up. She had promised Yoongi not to go look for it alone and she didn't want to ignore his request again considering what had happened the last time. Her eyes fell at the thought of him. She was worried, wondering if he was doing alright.

How was his weather?

With a wisp of melancholy, she removed her phone case, revealing the polaroid photo inside it. The candid photo of Yoongi taken what felt like an eternity ago. And suddenly, a queasy feeling overcame her. A premonition, a gut feeling. Telling her something bad was about to happen.

And she knew she couldn't just sit there idle anymore.

»»»

3km outside of Kyoto, Japan

"Alright, I see three guards at the gate." "Another two on the east side." "And west side." "At the back?" "There as well. They wander around every ten minutes, to the point." "How many inside?" "Probably another handful." "If not more."

Yoongi lowered the binoculars from the brightly lit mansion in the distance, a thoughtful expression set on his usually soft features. "You said two on the east side, Jimin?" The younger man nodded, lowering his own binoculars when Taehyung next to him shifted. Turning around and sliding down to prop his back against the abrasive rock. "And two west," he repeated with an exhausted sigh, "And two on the back." "Fck," Yoongi muttered under his breath. Zooming in and following the gravel path from the entrance, around the koi pond in the japanese garden until reaching the entrance of the traditional Sukiya-zukuri building that was facing the pond. "And only one way in and out." "Technically yes, but we could always climb over those walls." Jimin's gestured with his chin to the tall stone fence surrounding the whole property. A mischievious grin spreading on his lips. "Or you could just cut a hole in it with your sword." The older guy huffed a laugh. "Always the easiest escape, isn't it?"

It was around midnight when the three finally left the hill and made their way through the covert. It was half a kilometre away from their actual object of interest, but it was the highest set place close by. And besides, a bigger distance meant they most likely stayed out of unwanted attention.

"So.." Taehyung said when sliding into the passenger's seat. The other two soon sitting inside as well and Jimin started the engine. He rubbed his hands briefly as the cool night breeze of the city's outskirts had frozen his them. "..the plan is set then?" Yoongi hummed, taking out the blueprint again from his pocket and shining the flashlight on it. "Guess so, unless something changes."

The plan so far was easy. Taehyung and Jimin, as the official guests, would enter through the main entrance. Getting past the cameras and the guards behind the gate. Obviously with no weapons on them as the guards were checking everyone who entered. Meanwhile, Yoongi had to climb in from the tree next to the wall on the back side without triggering any sensors or getting caught by the two other guards there. Sneaking into the building then from a guest room, finding them and secretly handing them their weapons.  So whatever the hosts were planning, they'd be armed at least.

Easy.

Maybe too easy.

»»»

Friday evening arrived sooner than expected. The two thieves finding themselves passing through the golden painted gates of Morita's property. "Getting in now," Taehyung whispered, "You ready?" "In position," Yoongi's voice responded through the in-ear-transmitter.

The gate had opened fully now, revealing three man in black suits behind it. Staring them down with stern faces. Stepping out of the car in their suits, they adjusted the ties around their neck. Already seeing the guards approaching them.

Taehyung and Jimin exchanged quick glances before walking up to them. Jimin pulling out their invitation from the inside of his blazer. Handing it to the closest standing guard with an innocent grin who rather harshly snatched it from his grip. Examining it with a scrunched nose before eventually snorting and nodding, indicating they were allowed to proceed further inside. The other two guards stepped close then, beginning with the frisking of their bodies to check for weapons.

After deaming them as clean, they wordlessly stepped backwards. And the two took the hint and continued walking up the path to the house's entrance. Their eyes scanning the environment for any differences between their observations and now. Everything looking normal, no suspicious last-minute changes as far as they could tell.

Entering the two-story mansion, they arrived in the large central area. The ground being replaced by a glass square in the middle with a zen guarden in karesansui-style underneath it. Walls covered in arrases. And at the far end, a staircase that led to a balcony on the top floor. The door behind them abruptly closed then but they didn't even flinch. Too distracted by the two older men appearing on the balcony, overseeing the lower area.

They immediately recognised one of them from the photos of Arabella's background check and the party back then. Emilio Rossi was dressed in an elegant beige suit. His large grey moustache wiggling as he wrinkled his nose at their sight. The second one, dressed in a traditional black kimono, was their other host, Morita. Behind them, the private rooms according to the blueprints.

"Welcome, gentlemen. Glad to see you were able accepting our humble invitation." Jimin's lips curled into a smirk at Morita's words. "See, we always accept invites containing an ultimatum." Emilio huffed at his sarcasm, seemingly unamused, contrary to his co-host who let out a short loud laugh. "I admit, I wouldn't have accepted your declining. That is true. Nonetheless, I'm very pleased to see you could make it after all." Morita's hands went up before coming back together in one single clap. "And now, let's enjoy this night. Shall we?"

»»»

While Jimin and Taehyung got to know their hosts better, Yoongi was following his part of the plan. With his katana slung around his back, he ruffled his hair before pulling over the black beanie that matched his black outfit, keeping him almost invisible in the pitch-dark night. He threw a hook with a rope to the protruding branch of the tree standing in the mansion's guarden. Tucking at it to ensure the hook was firmly clamped around the wood, he pulled himself up and climbed onto it. Carefully making his way over the stone wall, surpassing any sensors on it.

He did so fairly soundless, so the guard partolling at the back didn't notice him. And when he stood right under the branch, Yoongi was able to easily jump down onto him and knock him out with one precise hit. After dragging his body to the bushes and hiding it there, he peeked out of them. Spotting the second guard further down. And so he snuck up behind him, laying him out as well. He glanced at his watch then before his gaze wandered around.

If they had timed it correctly, the next guard would come in around eight minutes due to the largeness of the property. Leading him to have to move fast. However, as he had almost reached the sliding door to the back area where the lavatory and kitchen were located, a faint crackling echoed through the silence, causing him to stop in his tracks. Was there another guard? Had they mistimed the guard switch? Slowly turning around, he spotted a young woman standing there in a snow-white kimono. And a katana in her left hand.

Well, either he managed to somehow proceed with plan a despite this encounter now or.. plan b had to be used.

He decided to try proceeding with plan a first.

"Uhm, hello!" he faked a cheery and trustable sounding tone. "And who are you?" The woman, however, didn't seem to buy his harmless demeanor. Cocking a brow at him. "I'm Morita Kimiko and you're an unwanted guest." In a slow, dramatic gesture, she held her katana in front of her face and slid it out of its sheath. Pointing the blade at him while her other hand remained wrapped around the shealth. And Yoongi dragged a sigh, his arm reaching over his shoulder to grab his own sword from behind. Letting it slowly slide behind his neck, between his thumb and index finger. Deciding to give her an equally dramatic scene.

Looked like plan b it was then.

Breathing in the fresh night air, he held his katana up. Its sharp blade flashing under the moon's light. And they locked gazes, waiting for any small movement to initiate the fight which was soon given, when a breeze rustled the leaves around them. And he instantly ran towards her, his blade meeting hers as she dodged his move.

Their piercing noises cut through the air as they fought. Launching their swords towards each other only to keep meeting. After minutes, both paused at opposite ends to take a breath. Pointing their blades into the space between them. Kimiko let him near her slowly, until the swords rested against each other. Eyes never leaving the opponent. And just in a blink, the fight continued. Swords hitting each other over and over again. It seemed as if he had found an almost equal opponent in her. Although he managed to surprise her and cut the shealth in her hand in two, Kimiko firstly seemed to overpower him in combat. Taking him off-guard for a moment and sending him backwards to the grass covered ground. A smug smirk appearing on her lips.

"Silly boy likes to play with samurai swords.." She heaved her katana, the tip pointing right at his torso. "Perhaps you can at least die like one." His jaw clenched for a second before the corners of his lips tucked into a wide grin. And without saying a word, he got back to his feet. Taking a deep breath and holding his sword up in front of his hardened face. His eyes gleaming under his furrowed brows as he blowed away a strand of wavy hair that had fallen in front them. "Attack me," he commanded then. Voice low and steady. "Attack me with everything you have." And Kimino's smirk widened, seemingly thrilled. Accepting.

However, this time it only needed a few moves by Yoongi to abate her pride. Swiping across ther kneecap over the long fabric, sending blood onto the white silk and down her socking. Shocked, she limbed a few steps back. Both breathing heavily as they stared at each other. "For ridiculing you earlier.. I apologise," Kimiko breathed into the warm air. "Accepted," he responded. An anew silence building between them before Yoongi spoke up again. "Ready?" "Come on."

They engaged once again. The injured woman quickly noticing her weakened state as his blade kept pushing hers back. And in a desperate attempt to buy her some time, she ran behind a picket fence that was decorating a part of the garden. Yoongi quickly following along from the other side until she reached its end and emerged from behind. Trying one final attack, only for her blade to be cut in half. Leaving her completely unarmed.

The young woman slowly sunk to her knees, forcing a smile of sorrow. "Guess now I  will die like a sumurai." Yoongi could only roll his eyes at her dramatic acting though, as she even closed her eyes. Taking advantage of her not seeing it coming, he hit her with a trained blow of his sword's shaft at her temple. Leaving her unconscious. "Silly girl, assuming I'd be a killer like her." And just like the guards, he also dragged her body to the bushes.

His glance falling to his watch then. One minute until the next guard would show up there. He needed to be quick.

»»»

"So," Jimin began then with a bored expression as he looked around, "What exactly is this whole party about?" Back inside no one had noticed the sword fight that had taken place outside between Yoongi and Morita's daughter. "Oh, you know," Morita said with a sly smile, "Since you seem to like parties - or so I've heard-" His glance briefly wandered to Emilio. "- I thought of throwing one especially for you. See it as a farewell party, before you hand yourself in." Taehyung frowned, faking confusion as he played dumb to play for time. "Okay.. and why?" "Isn't it obvious?" This was the first time this evening that Emilio spoke up. An equally annoyed and contemptuous glare in his eyes. "Admittedly, we unintentionally wrecked your family's gala, got your son intentionally arrested and ruined your family's reputation, indifferently," Taehyung listed on his fingers before pointing one at Emilio with raised brows, "So we get why you would wanna see us behind bars. I just don't get how we pissed off you." His finger glided to Morita.

Both older men exchanged a look, holding a gleam of amusement, before glancing back down at them. "You don't know who I am?" "Oh, please," Jimin intervened with clear offence in his voice. Arms crossing in front of his puffed out chest, "Of course we know. We aren't some noobs, we obviously did our preparations. We just don't get why you, a high-ranking member of one of the biggest and busiest crime organisations would bother so much for one of his - I don't know - fifty associates. Pretty sure he isn't the first one getting arrested." Morita laughed under his breath. "Indeed, from the outside it must seem confusing.. However, Felipe Rossi isn't just one of my best business partners when it comes to run art objects and antiques from east asia to europe and facilitate deals and buyers. He's also a close friend. And very loyal, which he proofed by not betraying me or giving me away. Despite interpol having suggested him a very lucrative deal for mitigation. So naturally, when I heard of what happened, I reached out to Emilio here. And besides.." He paused his explanation, eyes darkening when remembering something. He seemed lost in thoughts for a moment before quickly snapping out of it and redirecting his focus to his two guests in the lower area again. "Call it gratitude for coincidentally also taking revenge on an old friend for me." Jimin and Taehyung locked gazes, silently wondering what Morita meant.

"Anyway," Emilio took the lead then. Touching his moustache out of habit, "Since you accepted our invitation, I must assume you either are smart enough to agree turning yourself in or you're foolish enough for believing negotiating would work." "Hm, and what if neither one is the right answer?" "Then you're incredibly naive either way." Morita held his hand out, stopping his co-host as curiosity sparked in his eyes. "And why did you accept then if you aren't here to allow us bringing you to authorities? You must know the consequences of that, don't you? I believe Emilio is quite generous by wanting to leave you alive and only turn in to interpol. My preferred solution would be quite the.. opposite." He smirked cockily. "You know, torture of you and everyone you love.. this kind of consequences." Jimin shrugged, not letting his words get to him and affect his mind. "Oh, you see. We could always just try and fight." "Is that so?" The older man suddenly revealed a dagger from one of his kimono's broad sleeves. Holding it up in the air, as if he was showing it off, only to ram its tip into the wooden railing. And the sound of hurrying vehicles echoed from outside.

Taehyung sighed. "Is that what I think it is?" Morita smirked. "You two didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" "You know, for a second.. yeah, we kinda did." "Silly thieves."

Fast steps were heard from a side corridor, a man with a wooden stick appearing only for more men in black suits to suddenly jump out from behind him. All slide-doors around them were pushed aside, even more men in suits holding all kinds of weapons, mainly katanas, appearing. Pouring out from all openings.

The two friends shortly being circled by around fourty members of Morita's organisation, pressing their backs against each other. Jimin's hand slowly going up to his in-ear. "Yoongi? I fear we must proceed with plan b."

"Figured already."

Some men in the back began to yell out in pain all of a sudden, one by one falling and even the ones in the centre seemed alarmed, wondering what was going on. Jimin and Taehyung immediately taking advantage of their short distraction, jumping onto the ones in front of them and knocking them senseless. "Took you long enough, man!" "Sorry, got hindered." Yoongi quickly passed them their weapons before swinging his sword over his head and piercing an attacker behind him. As he sliced and swirled across the floor to clear the space, Taehyung spotted the large lamps hanging from the ceilings, and with a precise shot, let them crash down on several opponents. Jimin paused to glance at the balcony then. Only catching a glimpse of their hosts before they disappeared behind a sliding door. He snorted, going straight to punching a guy, who was about to attack him, in the face.

The three managed making their way to the staircase, running upstairs while fighting off the rest of the men who followed behind, being close on their heels. Even sending one rolling down the stairs with a kick. With slow steps the gang members climbed the stairs, angry expressions on their twisted faces. Eyes fixated on the three who were also slowly stepping backwards with their weapons in front of them. Not noticing entering a wide area, the members entering as well while some even cut through the paper-walls to get inside as there wasn't enough space.

For an unknown reason, the lights went out. Solely the light from outside illuminating their silhuettes and  weapons. And after seconds of silence, the fight went to its second round. It was easier now as only around ten men had remained, so while Jimin and Taehyung dealt blows and gunshot wounds, Yoongi was skillfully slicing and punching. After eliminating all but one shaky soldier, the lights were turned back on, and they saw the last man standing was nothing more than a zealous teenager. Yoongi huffed, cutting off the boy's blade in one blow. The boy remained staring at him with big frightened eyes when he lunged out and cut another piece and another, until only the shaft was left in his shaky hands. "Get out," he banished him out with a harsh tone. And the three went to the other rooms, finding them empty.

"Where the fck did they disappear to?" Jimin's question was quickly answered when they heard the sound of an engine starting. They immediately rushed back downstairs and out of the mansion. Seeing a black limousine heading towards the opening gate only to abrubtly stop right after passing it. And they were about to run after it when they heard the reason the car didn't escape. "Morita Hideo, this is interpol! You're surrounded! Stop the engine and leave the vehicle with hands raised!" "That's our cue," Yoongi whispered, about to return to the backyard and follow Jimin's suggestion of a quick escape, when steps echoed behind them. Causing them to instantly freeze. "I know you bunch.. So we meet each other again."

The voice sounded familiar. Slowly, they turned around seeing agent Kim Namjoon grinning widely at them as he folded his broad arms. Standing firm and tall in front of his men. "Oh, you again!" Jimin laughed out, not the hint of nervousness in his face. More the opposite, he was relieved he didn't have to deal with some random, unknown agent but at least one he knew. Made it easier to work his charms. "How comes we meet each other here?" "Me and agent Jung are after this guy, Morita, for quite some time, you know. Finally gathered enough evidence against him." His chin motioned to the direction of the entrance gate and their eyes followed. Indeed observing agent Jung Hoseok putting handcuffs onto Morita and Emilio, escorting them away from their car. "And why did he invite you guys over?" Taehyung arched a brow. "How do you know we were invited?" Namjoon only laughed. "We obviously had Morita under constant observation. We knew he was planning something. We were only surprised to see that Rossi guy here. But when we also saw you arriving - and you sneaking in -" he peeked at Yoongi, "- we began to understand."

He stepped forward then, pulling out his handcuffs from the back of his belt. Two other agents following his move. "Don't worry, Seokjin will have the honour of returning you to Seoul. I'll just keep an eye on you till he arrives." "Ugh, don't tell me you snitched on us to pops," Jimin whined dramatically, only earning a dumbfounded look from the older agent. "'Pops'?" he repeated amused, musing for a moment when eventually chuckling. Deep dimples appearing on his cheeks, giving him a childlike appearance for a moment that contrasted his sturdy physique. "That's new, but kinda suits him. But no, we didn't 'snitch on you', he was already on his way when we contacted him." The three shared confused glances as they got handcuffed. Had they been careless and got seen somewhere? Or had their interpol agents suddenly become even better in locating them than usual? 

They were led to the waiting interpol vehicles outside then. Seeing agent Jung approaching them with a wide grin on his heart-shaped lips when spotting their bonus captives. "We deserve a pay rise for helping the robbery department once again, don't you think, Joon?"

As they climbed into the transporter, another car arrived at the scene. Three familiar faces stepping out of it, just as forwarned. "Well, well, well, look who we have here!" Seokjin was grinning from ear to ear when seeing them sitting nice and well inside the van. Only earning a cocky smirk from Jimin. "Always a pleasure to see you, pops. And Kook and Sky, too, of course." "It's still agent Jeon and Blake for you," Jungkook mumbled annoyed under his breath. Giving him a serious glance. However, Seokjin only laughed dryly, choosing to ignore the evident sarcasm in his opponent's words when a yawn crept past his lips. The late hour and unscheduled flight having taken a toll on his sleep. "Can't say the same," he said then, before facing his younger colleagues behind him. Gesturing for them to help the other agents and Jungkook and Skylar instantly nodded and walked away. He turned back to his favourite criminals then, his grin having returned. "Be nice criminals and wait here, okay? We'll be right back." And with that he shut the doors with a loud thud and locked them.

"So, you know what exactly the three were doing here?" Hoseok asked when seeing Seokjin approaching him. Namjoon joining them shortly while their agents were taking care of all the arrestees. However, all they got was a shrug from Seokjin as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Only what that girl told us, that they got an invitation from Rossi and this guy you were after, what was his name again?" "Morita," Namjoon quickly added. The older agent nodding. "Right, Morita. That's pretty much all the info she had - or at least wanted to share." The agents of the organised crime and special victims department only nodded with musing expressions. "I think it's save to say.. " Hoseok began then with a lower tone, as if he didn't want anyone to eavesdrop, ".. that Morita was helping Rossi taking revenge for his son." "Think so, too," Namjoon agreed, his glance falling to the transporter with the two elder men. "They set a mob of his men on them. If that doesn't scream revenge.." Seokjin was pensive, eventually nodding. "Sounds logical. I guess we'll see after the interrogation."

Jimin took his benefit of the agents' short discussion to let his fingers reveal a thin wire that was always hidden inside his sleeve for cases like this, which neither Namjoon nor Hoseok knew. And since Seokjin had assumed they had been checked by them for potential means, it had passed through. Much to Jimin's delight who was cracking open his handcuffs with a scoff. "As if I'd just wait." He went on to uncuff the other two as well. Yoongi immediately rubbing his freed wrists. "Do we know where our weapons are?" "Caught a glimpse of Jungkook receiving them from an agent and stuffing them into the trunk of their car." "Great." "Well," Jimin said, cracking open the van's door with the wire, "We got no choice but to look for them. I ain't going nowhere without my walter." Taehyung squinted his eyes at him annoyed. "Did I say not to get them? You know damn well I'm not leaving without my baby either." "Neither do I," Yoongi huffed. And Jimin only rolled his eyes before cautiously peeking out the ajar door. Locating any agents close by. He knew no one believed they'd make a run for it while so many agents were around and that's why they were left - even if only shortly - without supervision in there with only one guarding the van outside. It was always a big advatage getting underestimated.

"I see their car, it's around five metres to the right. There's currently only one guy standing in front of the door. Another one close by, six metres to the left. One of us could sneak to it and get the weapons." "I'll do it," Yoongi immediately shrugged. And indeed, he soundlessly stunned the agent guarding the vehicle, leaving him somewhere unseen at the side and in no time he had returned with their beloved weapons. Nobody having taken notice of him. Especially since everyone was preoccupied with the more than fourty other criminals who had to be taken into custody.

After hiding their weapons underneath their clothes, they put the cracked-open handcuffs back on, pretending they'd never been taken down and took their previous seats. Waiting and acting innocent. Moments later the doors opened again and in came the two younger agents along with an unknown one. "Oh, no, where's pops?" Taehyung faked disappointment. "Thought he'd have the honour of taking us back." Skylar arched an unimpressed brow at him as she sat on the opposite seat. "Don't worry, you'll meet him again at the station. He'll be driving our car back."

The vehicles soon began moving, heading south to the highway to Osaka, where the interpol branch office was located at. Yoongi's eyed Taehyung and Jimin, then the agents who didn't seem to have noticed anything. His eyes going back to his friends then, giving them an acute glance. And Jimin gave him a knowing look before using a bucking of the van to unnoticably shove one hand into his jacket. Pulling a tiny ball out he had originally intented for Morita, he gave the other two sitting opposite of him an almost non-perceivable nod. And the three held their breath as he clicked on a small button, smoke filling the narrow space and clouding the vision into a mist of white, causing the agents to instantly jump up in panic. "What the - No one move!" "Dammit, tell the d- tell the driv-er t-" However, before Skylar could even finish her sentence, she'd already sunken to the ground. "Sky? S-ky.." Another thud followed. And another. All agents laying unconscious on the ground, just like intended.

Yoongi quickly open the car door enough for the smoke to dissolve into the night air. The three finally respiring, taking deep breaths and getting rid of the handcuffs for good. "They never learn," Yoongi tutted, shaking his head, "Thought they'd have learned their lesson after Morocco." Taehyung lightly nudged his arm then. "Don't jinx it," he chuckled and they closed the door to not catch any attention of the other cars on the highway, although there hadn't been too many around. Jimin clearing his throat and picked up Jungkook's radio then. And with a perfect imitation of his voice, impersonating the young agent, he asked the unaware agents in the front to stop the vehicle at the side of the road and join them for a small emergency.

And just like planned, the vehicle indeed came to an halt. Soon another two agents opening the door to check what was going on, only to join the others on the ground. And Yoongi, Jimin and Taehyung quickly climbed acting normal. Even if someone saw them, they'd most likely assume they had a flat tire and that's it. Now all that was left was to hijack a random car passing by and - "Hey, get in!"

They instantly turned around at the unexpected voice, seeing a young woman bending out the window and waving at them frantically. Even with the wig and tinted glasses they could tell who it was. "Soyeon?" "What are you waiting for? Hurry up!" she yelled and got back inside. Watching them look at each other startled before running up to her and getting inside the car. And she quickly drove off, merging back into the sporadic traffic.

"Soyeon, what the fck are you doing here?" Yoongi's scowl from the passenger seat made her shift shyly. "I thought I was clear last time! I told you not to do irrational actions li-" She straightened herself though, intentionally cutting off his lecture as she didn't feel like hearing it again. "Be thankful I saved your ass again," she grinned at him, ignoring his angry stare. Yoongi only scoffed at this, sitting back in his seat. "We'd have found a different car." "Ohh," she pouted with innocence then, "But then I wouldn't be your getaway driver this time!"

Jimin and Taehyung stifled a laugh in the backseat. Jimin leaning in between the seats then, giving her one of his naturally charmy smiles. "Forgive his grumpiness," he waved off his friend whose aggravation only grew, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "That's just how he shows his concern for people he cares about." Soyeon's lips folded. Already knowing that, hence why she hadn't taken it with offence. Jimin continued then. "But I'm curious, how did you end up here? Don't tell me it was a coincidence. I don't believe in those, at least not when you wear a wig and those fancy glasses." "She obviously did something very dumb again," Yoongi muttered annoyed while staring out of the window. Trying his best to keep his calm at her getting herself in danger once again, for him, and failing. "For your information, it wasn't dumb. I think it was brilliant, maybe risky, but not dumb," she defended herself as she changed lanes to overtake a truck as she pushed near the speed limit. Fear of hearing sirens nearing any minute in the back of her mind. However, as she realised what she was about to confess, her cheeks blushed with embarrassment. "I.. actually, guys, I think I need to apologise to you first."

The three frowned, looking at her confused. "If it's because you feel guilty for 'dragging' us into this again.." Yoongi paused when seeing her shaking her head. "No, no.. I mean, yes, for that, too. But I didn't mean that." Inhaling deeply, she took an exit and left the highway. "I told agent Kim about the invitation. I knew, even if coming here I wouldn't be able to find you by myself. And I had this bad feeling, you know? That something terrible would happen. So I told them what I knew. They'd eventually find you with their methods after all. So all I had to do was letting them lead me to you." A small grin plastered on her face, as she couldn't pretent not being a little bit proud of herself. "And I knew you guys would sooner or later try to escape and indeed, you did just that."

Everyone stared at her with jaws ajar, being quite astonished by her plan. Taehyung being the first one to speak up then. A lopsided smirk tucking on his lips. "Damn, you've got it." Neither him nor Jimin showed any sign of resentment towards her for informing interpol. Much the opposite, they laughed. And she sighed in relief when seeing their reaction. It only lasted for a bit though, only until her glance fell to Yoongi who remained quiet while looking out at the buildings they passed by. "Uhm," she said then, averting her eyes from him with an uneasy feeling, "Where should I drive you guys to?" "Well," Jimin said then, glancing at his watch, "Considering pops will soon find out we escaped, I'd say we shouldn't waste any time. So get us to the airport, please." She nodded, following the signs with the airplane symbol.

With Taehyung giving her directions, the car eventually came to an halt at a secluded area next to the fence seperating the runway from the street. Far away from the actual airport for anyone seeing them. The hangers with private jets only a couple hundred meters away, where they'd simply 'borrow' one. "Thanks for the drive!" "We'll see you around." The two younger guys gave her a wink before getting out. Much to her surprise, Yoongi didn't follow. The two remaining in silence until he decided to speak up.

"Soyeon -" "Save your breath, I don't wanna hear about how much of an idiot I am or how dangerous and irrational this was." Shaking her head, she took off the glasses and the fake-blond hair. Her grip on the wig tightened. "You must believe me when I tell you I had a presentiment, okay? I didn't know what else to do, I knew you'd ignore my calls and texts, but I couldn't just ignore this awful feeling. Despise me, hate me, think of me of a fool if you want. But I don't regret it." Her jaw trembled by now as her built-up emotions flowed out of her lips. And Yoongi observed her quietly, before eventually reaching out to her hand. It loosened its grip on the wig, allowing him to hold it in his. "I could never hate you for saving me, angel. I'd be the biggest fool of them all if I did."

He was still mad. Incredibly mad actually. However, he was also in awe with her grit and persistent nature. And at the end of the day, she'd only done it because for some inexplicable reason she felt and cared enough for him to do crazy, irrational things like this. He drew closer, his other hand wrapping around the back of her neck. And as she turned her head to finally look him in the eyes, he pressed his lips on hers. Taking her aback. "Just what do I have to do to keep you from pulling a stunt?" His warm breath brushed over her skin as he rested his forehead against hers with a small grin. Streaks of hair lightly touching her lashes. Soyeon's eyes fluttered open then and she smiled at him. Her arms finding its way around his torso. "How about you don't give me any reasons to anymore?"

A knock on the car's window made them jump in their seats and they let go of each other in an instant. Seeing Taehyung's apologetic grin. "Guys, don't wanna interrupt the cute moment, but time presses." Soyeon coughed, swallowing the embarrassement. "You should probably go." "Yeah, right," he sighed and opened the car door, ready to leave before pausing. Smiling at her. "See you soon." And her face lit up at his words, eyes beaming. He didn't push her away this time, knowing very well how pointless it'd be. She was so damn stubborn. But also breathtaking. And he loved her for that. "So you won't tell me to stay away anymore?" "I promised I'll come back, didn't I?" He winked. "Just be careful and get back to Seoul as fast as possible, okay?" She nodded vigorously. Watching the man she loved leaving the car and cut a hole into the fence. Disappearing behind it with his friends and into the night.

Truth was, Soyeon knew whenever meeting Yoongi an adventure was about to happen. She could simply never tell what kind it'd be. And she didn't mind that. After all, she was both: someone who wanted to live a simple life as an introvert, getting lost in her songwriting while following a routine, but also someone who wanted to have all the joy and adventure that life coule give. Both these women living in the same body, but somehow never clashing with each other. The introverted one always prevailing.

Only with her choosing to let him into her weird little world, that had changed. And at the end, she was thankful for her grandfather leaving her that emerald necklace. 

Without it they might've never found each other in this universe after all.

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next chapter: epilogue here

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

[nixthelapin]

So I got an email from Pinterest notifying me that one of the pins I’d saved got deleted for violating Community Guidelines, or whatever, which I was going to ignore bc I usually don’t think it’s worth my time, but then I read what the violations were:

And I’m like… that’s weird. I don’t save any pins or even consume content that has anything sexual in it- I’m just not interested in that stuff, and it sometimes makes me uncomfortable, so I just try to avoid it (sometimes it will be hinted or reference, but it’s never anything explicit, and definitely never graphic).

So I’m wondering- what thing did they either accidentally flag or did I accidentally save that had anything sexual or fetish related?

The picture in question?

What. Even.

I don’t even know what the most baffling part of this is. Like, for one, these are literally screenshots from a kids show- the most “indecent” thing in here is Chat Noir being on top of Ladybug (which isn’t, and just mildly suggestive at best), but you can’t even see that in this image, just Chat’s huge smile [bottom left].

Is it the tongue pictures?? Do the Pinterest overlord bots think anything with tongue showing outside the mouth is implying a hot make out or oral? Are tongues indecent now?

Is it Chat Noir’s leather outfit? The cat ears and bell? The list did include fetishes, and we all know furies and BDSM exist, and plenty of people make jokes or legit posts putting Chat into both or either category(ies).

Is it the ones with their butts in the air?? [top two images] Do they think this is a sex position? Ready for the dirty? This stupid pose is a decently common gag in cartoons to make the character look ridiculous. I’ve only seen it sexualized in fan works and in anime/manga (which has its own reputation..)

I’m genuinely at a loss here. If any of the pics in the collage were interpreted as sexual, I’d lean towards the top row set, I pointed out the tongue one more as an exaggeration, and kind of on the cat costume, but like.. everything I can think of just seems like a huge stretch. I’m genuinely baffled. Especially since, like I already said- they are taken directly from a show made for literal children. How can anything from that get flagged as explicitly sexual??

It’s not worth it to appeal for, I really don’t care about losing a Pin I barely remember saving in the first place. I’m just so confused on how their flagging system caught this as “adult content.” I’m genuinely wondering on a technical level what it saw (beyond “bots are just bad at recognition), because it obviously saw something wrong, so what was it?? What was considered sexual in these pictures??

[filonikou]

I realized that my fic is so short I can put it here

The blob

Tim nearly fell out of the bed because his leg was tangled up in the blanket. He prepared himself to fall but with a weird pose, he managed to stand up. He couldn't help but gasp as he looked up. He was looking at the strangest sight he'd ever seen, and he'd seen a number of bizarre things in his life. 

As the third Robin, now known as the Red Robin, he felt that nothing could surprise him. But this thing looked like something out of a cartoon. It only could be described as a floating green blob. It didn’t really have a shape but strangely have something that looked like eyes, if you would call two black orbs eyes.

 “Uh,” muttered after starting for a while, “ I should have eaten before I went to bed. Now I hallucinate things.”

Walking to the kitchen and starting the coffee machine he knew that not eating wasn’t the real problem. Even so, he opened the fridge thinking that eating wouldn't make things worse, but of course, there was nothing edible in the fridge. 

“I have it bad. My fridge contains more samples obtained from the crime scene than genuine food. Alfred would be so disapproving if he know that this is where I keep the samples.”

From the corner of his eye, he sees the green floating glob. It was indeed floating rather than flying; he had seen people fly previously and this creature was not doing that; rather, it appeared to be in water. The thing swayed gently as it emerged from the bedroom. 

Tim began to panic; hallucinations had never lasted this long before. He saw things when he was exhausted, but now he was well rested, which was unusual on its own. But seeing things in this state was the first. He could see the glop right in front of him. Tim reached out cautiously to touch it, but his hand passed through without touching anything.

"So this is really a delusion," he says, shaking his head, "Of course, it's not real. Don't be a moron." 

He looked at the phone, which was left on the corner top, considering telling someone, but then just shrugged, "It will go away soon, there is no need bothering anyone,” chuckling softly, “Half of them would just laugh, especially Jason and Bruce would want me to do mental health examination."

He began drinking his coffee and making a shopping list, even though he doubted that he will actually go shopping. 

Despite having slept for a few hours, his mind was just not in the right place. Given that the green glob was still there, he was in even worse shape than he had anticipated. 

Overall, it wasn't too shocking; he'd had some difficult weeks behind him. Yesterday he finally solved the latest serial killer case, which had been ongoing for several weeks and claimed the lives of 17 people. In his mind, he cursed himself, thinking that if he had realized the motivation sooner, fewer people would have died.

But who would have suspected that the murderer was motivated solely by the victims' red shoes? Because the bodies were discovered naked, everyone assumed it was the work of a sexual predator, even though there was no evidence of rape.

All that remained for him was to write the report, which shouldn't take long. He'll then get some free time. Even then, he'd probably go see some of his friends rather than go grocery shopping. He'll eat the energy bars he got specifically for this kind of occasion. He knows himself enough not to rely on having food at home.

“I'll just go to the mansion to give Bruce my report before eating here, it will be good seeing him and Alfred in my civils not at night as a vigilante. Alfred's food always the best anyway.  And even the Damon brat isn’t home for the weekend.”

He tries to ignore the green blob, but it's impossible when it's in his hair; he thinks he feels it, but when he attempts to touch it, he can't. He feels slightly cold but nothing much.

“Ignire, ignore, ignore. It will go away if you ignore it.”

[tikitania]

Nutcracker Season!

Nutcracker season can elicit an array of feelings. Some love it, some hate it. I was falling into the indifferent category. I don't live in a major city, so the month long onslaught of ballet school-civic rep level productions has me a bit bummed out…and ready to tune it all out. AND THEN…I stumbled upon this very interesting panel discussion lead by ballet critic, Alastair McCauley, comparing the original Lev Ivanov Sugarplum PDD to the Balanchine version, getting into the nitty gritty of the score and the choreographic language that can be found in both versions, pointing out the various ways in which Balanchine quoted Ivanov. This is so interesting and only available online until Dec. 17, so hurry and watch it while you can. Who knew about the original version of the Sugar Plum sliding across the stage on point on a hidden stage tracking device?! If you do anything, watch this first video with the panel talk and demonstrations. The videos I included after that are just if you want to get obsessive like I did to dig deeper. Panelists: Suki Schorer, Wendy Whelan, Sara Mearns, Jonathan Stafford. (Watching Suki coach is worth watching!) NYCB Dancers: Chun Wai Chan, Ashley Hod (Balanchine version) & Anthony Huxley, Emma Von Enck (Ivanov Version)

MacCauley mentions the Fonteyn version a few times during this talk, so I found it for you. The tempo is certainly much faster, and it really makes you appreciate Fonteyn's speed! But I actually prefer the slower tempo, which allows the music to really soar. But I also wondered if it was the audio quality of this historic recording is simply too compressed and tinny to do it justice.

The Mariinsky dances the Vasily Vaionen version of the Nutcracker, and I wanted to see how it compared to the Ivanov version. I really love the Mariinsky version. It's a departure from Ivanov, but still very classical and regal. PPD below with Baby Shakirova.

BONUS: If you want to watch the full Mariinsky Nutcracker, here's a 1994 recording with Larissa Lezhnina and Victor Baranov. And for some real fun going down the rabbit hole, this is an amazing Soviet black and white recording of the PDD with the late Svetlana Efremova (SHE IS AMAZING!) and Sergei Vikulov. Notice that the extra four cavaliers are not in this one, so the choreography is adjusted. I have a thing for soviet era black-and-white ballet films. Not to be overlooked, the Grigorivich version at the Bolshoi is worth mentioning. There are a few things that stood out to me. Its religiosity, for one. The PDD essentially starts with Masha and her prince praying together as if at a mass. And then, towards the end, are the huge lifts that end with an upside down ballerina (not my favorite pose…)

Interestingly, ABT's version by Ratmansky also incorporates the same big lift, but transitions into a spin. You can see it here, and it's a much smoother transition. Ignore the weird speed manipulation in this video. It can give you motion sickness.

AND….I found this POB version. The Nureyev choreography is horrible and Tsikaridze knows it. He can barely hold back his own laughter as how bad this performance is. When I watched this, my first thought is that Nureyev must have been a misogynist because the Sugar Plum/Clara choreography is so god awful that it seems like he's trying to humiliate ballerinas. Poor Myriam Ould-Braham, she does her best to dignify the choreography with her impeccable technique, but there is no saving this. Another thing that bothers me is that the couple are hardly dancing together, it's like a bad ballet class where they dance side to side. I hope this version soon disappears forever. Watch at your own risk. It made my blood boil.

Okay, that's it for a while. I may go see the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker if I have time. But I will mostly be focused on taking time off with the family, puttering in the garden, and catching up on my ever-expanding to-do list. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

[rontra]

who The Fuck is manhunter

god this is such a good question. who the fuck IS manhunter. well okay so let me pose a counter-question. what if women sucked and were not fun to hang out with. do we still support their wrongs?

no okay (visibly trying not to laugh) heres the girlcrush of the day. she's got what ive jokingly called "bull-in-a-china-shop lifestyle". her name is kate she's a famous federal prosecutor who specializes in prosecuting supervillains. and brother she loves pushing for the death penalty. one day when she was pushing so so hard for the death penalty, the jury did not go for it. and she got so so so mad that she decided to go find and kill the guy herself

and she liked it.

so she blackmails some guy in the witness protection program into being her gadget guy & from then on she's the vigilante "manhunter" (yay!) who kills bad guys she thinks deserve it. when she's out there she's basically operating on a completely circular logic that goes like "well if i can't kill this villain here, i'll simply get him the death penalty in court (which i'm very good at), and if that falls through, i'll just go back to Plan A (killing him with my own hands)" and it's like girl i think you just kind of Like Killing. good luck with that

it's like what if batman not only loved killing and jumped directly to it every time, but was also working With & Inside the system at the same time to ensure there is no other way for things to end. that's a weird thing to do, right? girl? this is weird?...

& like MAYBE in 2004 america this setup was written to appeal to a certain type of reader who'd go "yeah girl the System never gives the bad guys what they Deserve lets fucking go #justice" . i couldn't really tell you to be honest (and her murder mettle is proven entirely in scenarios that are like "well maybe she's morally in the clear here because the guy in question is a cartoon snake-man who eats people") (to me personally, on its face, this all reads like the origin story for a supervillain lawyer named Death Row or something. but that's just another part of her womanly charm in my eyes.) what i CAN tell you is that deciding to become a coldblooded premeditated killer in her spare time is Really cutting into both her professional and private life and now her ex-husband is suing for full custody of their son

oh yeah. she has a son and she is like a deadbeat mother she never shows up on time she forgets to pick him up and he hates going to her house when it's her weekend she is NOT doing a good job on this one. figuring out how to actually mom this kid is also kind of a thing for her and she DOES figure it out but i have to tell you. her Divorced Milf Who Totally Sucks appeal. VERY High

man. yeah she's always getting her shit pushed in during fights because She Is Just A Lawyer but she just like Walks it off (girl...). she's addicted to nicotine in a major way. she's cold and cranky and would not be fun to hang out with. she's terrible at banter. she actually sucks to the point it makes me feel Bad for her ex-husband who has to keep hounding her like "don't forget to pick up our SON" it's kind of a feat to be honest. she just sort of is charging blindly into things and wrecking her life because she has a chip on her shoulder and Maybe Enjoys Killing but at least she's also got a certain failgirl swag about it

there is a major theme of like, legacy, but crucially (and most interestingly, imo) most of the time kate is completely ignorant of said legacies existing around her while she's stomping through the porcelain with her hooves until they rear up to bite her directly in the ass, which i enjoy very much. she is very much focused on her own thing and consumed by her own motivations and does not really give a shit about these things and it's a major issue every time. even "manhunter" itself is a name that's been used by multiple dc characters (sometimes simultaneously) (including a whole cult), which suddenly becomes a problem for her when someone starts murdering all the other manhunters until she's the only one left standing. uh oh! i was just doing my own thing and thought the name sounded cool! noooo!

there's also the very pointed matter of her gear which is all "borrowed" from just like. the lockup. (girl...) so she's wearing someone else's suit and someone else's gauntlets and using someone else's weapon (actually one of the previous manhunters! there's that manhunter lineage again!) and while the audience is treated to a whole issue elaborating on the backstories of these things, kate herself is completely unaware and uninterested in the significance and legacy of these hand-me-downs because she picked them out at complete random to go do premeditated killing. it's really underscored in an interesting way how much she just is kind of bulldozing straight through everything--whether it's her own life or her proverbial predecessors--towards her own ends

the whole lineage and legacy thing is something of a Theme i guess. especially when it turns out her own biological father is an absolute sicko with a murder charge and he's on his way right now to bulldoze her life for his own ends. that's funny. maybe she's got that serial killer gene from riverdale,

jokes aside i would give her a 10/10 failwife cringemilf rating, with ample extra points awarded for being divorced, for the broken ribs, and for how much i would hate hanging out with her if she were real. this is a certified manhunter post. i hope you enjoyed it.

(reading manhunter 2004 and shaking my head sternly the whole time but also smiling. so people know i don't support the death penalty but i Do support women's wrongs)

[lgbthequarry]

One lil headcanon of mine is the idea that Jacob and Emma realize they're both gay (or not straight) and become Suffering besties.

Like camp kicks off and Jacob's all 'Macho Man' and Emma indulges his antics and they start hooking up. And at first its pretty casual; they're still practically strangers so it takes a bit to get to know each other and the other counselors.

But then thats when shit starts getting complicated bcuz Jacob and Nick start gettin along like best mates (Jacob doesn't know why he gets all giddy when Nick calls him that), and Emma and Abi grow nearly inseparable (Emma keeps telling herself that the reason she likes Abi's attention so much is bcuz she doesn't have her fanbase atm).

And Jacob and Emma continue hooking up but... it's kinda 'meh' now. Like they enjoy each others company but now its like theres this pressure between them, like a soda can about to burst. Half the time they're together Jacob forgets he's supposed to be sweet talking this girl and not talking about the time he and Nick jumped off the tree walk into the river on a dare. And the other half of the time Emma spends it ditching the guy she's supposedly 'dating' to hang out with Abi and posing for her portraits.

The more their feelings for their friends grow tho, the worse their relationship gets. Bcuz Jacob has a serious case of Internalized Homophobia (he can't be gay, he's cool with others being gay, but theres no way he can be gay), and Emma's locked in a spiral of "she's just a bestfriend, you don't have any of those, stop being weird, you're gonna fuck it up". And soon the only reason they're still together is to play "House" and be the happy couple like everyone thinks they are (talk bout toxic af).

So Jacob's malcontent and broody. And Emma's miserable and bitchy. They end up bickering and occasionally fighting with each other more than they can hold decent conversations together. And whats worse is the others are starting to pick up on it too.

It all comes to a head one night when they've snuck out to the boathouse to meet up. Neither of them even want to be there and start arguing, but then its an all out blow up between them as they lash out at each other with their unacknowledged frustrations. They're both trying to blame the other (they're both to blame really) and ignoring the fact of why they're really not working out. Finally they collapse down on the dock and cry together in silence.

Emma breaks the quiet after a while, wondering if they're both just too fucked up to make it work. And Jacob, for all his dumbassery, hears the self depreciation in her words and its like his anger and wallowing just disappears. Cuz it kinda just clicks for him that no, they're good, just not good together. He tells Emma that and offers that they be just friends. And Emma nearly sags with relief as she agrees, saying she likes him but its nothing more than that. And its like the pressure to keep up the act just completely fizzes out and they're left sitting together finally at peace.

And maybe its the relief or the weightlessness of it all, but after a pause Emma confesses that she thinks she might be a lesbian (and Jacob being Jacob, jokingly "was i really that bad?" to which Emma smacks him over the head repeatedly). But its okay bcuz in the next instant Jacob's confessing that he's maybe coming to terms with being gay too. And theres more crying bcuz fuck is that scary, but its okay bcuz they're in the same lifeboat and they've got each others backs now. (Jacob and Emma being besties is my favorite flavor!)

Emma guesses Jacob has a crush on Nick cuz hes so obvious and Jacob retaliates saying she's got hearteyes every time she so much as thinks about Abi. (Emma pushes Jacob off the dock for it). Emma encourages Jacob to try his hand at flirting with Nick, and he only agrees after he makes her agree to pursue Abi.

Which is a great plan... until they watch Nick and Abi walk into the lodge the next day holding hands and very obviously in love. (Emma's face crumples and it takes all her acting skills to fake a smile as Abi sends a wave her way. And Jacob has to get up and leave, not even touching his lunch, cuz stupid stupid stupid boy, finally when something feels right in his life its gone to shit, what did he expect).

And they get to be miserable angsty teens together while Abi and Nick seemingly flaunt their new relationship around the camp. Like forget Emma/Jacob Toxic Relationship woes. Gimme Emma/Jacob Gay Suffering Solidarity.

(Sidenote: Nick and Abi are fake dating cuz they're bisexual disasters and in love with their bestfriends. Dylan suggested the whole charade in order to make Jacob and Emma jealous. It takes like two weeks, lots of pining, and Kaitlyn intervening bcuz she can't take the fucking stupidity of it all anymore).

[toges-cough-syrup]

jjk characters as things my friends (and i) have said

lessgo (ignore the fact that toge cant really talk—)

—

gojo: im mommy today.

—

toge: a is for asshole. b is for bitch. c is for cunT and e is for EEEEEEEE

panda: and o is for octopussy—

—

yuuji: i love ikea. and i love meatballs….balls.

—

geto: you want kfc?

—

nobara: *sends a photo* ignore how bad my nails look.

—

maki: im confusing myself. identity is stupid.

iden titty. titty. tits. boobies…k bye.

—

nobara: i just saw a mouse run across my kitchen floor and hide. kill me. now. do it.

yuuji: OH NO OH FUCK BURN THE WHOLE HOUSE.

—

toge: my kimchi will be done fermenting before i can eat it. its a sad life.

—

yuuji (ab sukuna): why’s his finger so crooked. his dick probably crooked too.

—

gojo, geto, shoko, yuuji, megumi, and nobara: *having hour(s) long conversations about red white and royal blue*

—

megumi: i hate.

—

gojo and geto: yelling at the other for not taking care of their (digital) children (on widgetable)

—

todo: dude i had the weirdest dream. the instagram pfps on my discover page were squares. we were taking a group photo and—this is gonna sound weird but they put us in clear boxes so we pose right. and i met Tall Idol Takada Chan and i hugged her while crying it was beautiful

(side note: my friend irl said jimin)

yuuji: sounds great.

—

gojo: yk that song that goes “i wanna ride”? its so real. i felt that in my soul. (talking to shoko about geto)

—

yuuji: personally the phrase “shits and giggles” is outdated. use “shiggles” instead

—

k imma end it here <3

[alazyparallelworld]

sending an ask to engage with what you were saying was a random impulse but im happy to see you respond and give it thought, definitely wouldnt mind sending more since this is an interesting topic :3 glad you dont mind... it can be weird being a detached observer of somebody elses life specifically if they are uncomfortable with the idea of it. i think the reason i jump to using the word "oversharing" is that talking a lot generally has a negative connotation for me because i have negative experiences with talking a lot and being ignored. i guess one of my main insecurities? so maybe i dont have the same type of accidental charisma because im too obviously desperate/curating myself too much, idk. marketing myself as a persona isnt necessarily a good goal to have so maybe sharing myself in more private spaces is for the best (not like i dont compulsively share to anyone who will listen anyway)

also being the way that i am i dont appreciate the observers/audience i DO have enough because im constantly looking for evidence of it. kind of a never enough situation. i definitely think i just have to let it go & if it happens it happens. actually, i do have a decent chance of gaining a following over my art, and when i got more interactions i swear it was when i drew more, so i guess that is part of whats happening with you. art drawing people into somebodys persona or something? i wonder if part of it is just like, when scrolling the dash peoples attention is caught more by images so it makes somebody more likely to get invested. but i think your art has a lot of personality and its what personally made me interested in following your blog so i guess the art is just like, one piece of the whole of a "persona"

diving into the pure psychological sense… going to put the entirety under a read more.

leans back, in the "contemplating therapist" pose and aura. This is a distinct position for anyone familiar.

forgive - me - in the event of bad perspective. entirely: i am not a medical professional, and if these woes are Distorting your life into an unhappiness (ability to function, socialize, that ilk) on a regular basis, either from the 'expected' of bi-weekly to the 'constant' of daily - internet guidance should be an appetizer, at best…!! while a peer's view is quite different from a, "Went to college for half-decade for this particularity" employee, they are both helpful -

but I don't mean. "Go to a therapist," because: i minimized my daily-distortion of BPD (fond Bitch Personality Disorder) thru worksheets, pamphlets, scientific texts. this conversation between us is 'improper' text, ""Uneducated"" but it is not without merit. I just don't want the existence of only two options - "[symptom of mental disorder] reddit" or "therapist that specializes in [mental disorder]" in an analogy. There are a plethora of ways to better yourself - "so maybe sharing myself in more private spaces is for the best" cannot be the single possibility. i believe in you - broaden yourself, and do not hastily imprison yourself to Any distraught for the easy answer, "better in the long run"

what you desire is evident. That is a crucial first step, and your life is measured in the thousands of footprints. Time is here for you - there is no real clock, rather, you know where your satisfaction is in space. Be proud of self-awareness, of identifying desire, these are inch forwards.

now, your path forks - "can i transfigure that want, into something 'healthier," "is there a healthier route to that want," and how exciting is that…! how to min-max pain and pleasure, that is the basis of all species. and if the decision solidifies further into, "i have to go home, i have to let this all go," that is the first option. there is no shame in release.

that is my thought on. "insecurity," and i hope - even if very inaccurate, maybe Inappropriate, your reaction of 'that's wrong!' strengthens what you know to be true.

[head on desk] That's a heaviness…! not on you. This could've been a very simple answer. I'm strange and chattery, for I don't talk IRL and only online. At least, in length…

ART…! art is eye-catching. It is intrinsic. Of course, my artwork pulls people in (but I captured attention b4 I started, as I only began in winter 2020, blah) for any colorful stimuli it kickstarts the brain. Nervous symptom responses.

(i don't think it provokes the sympathetic nervous system SPECIFICALLY, but i'm not abt to rabbit-hole myself into certainty. sensory is prolly also incorrect, just in a 'less wrong' kind. i'm singling out nervous specifically, as the 'colorful'ness of art prolly agitates the body first into, 'is this a toxic plant' survivalism and NOT the visual aesthetics of being 'pleasing to the brain,' i think that's a secondry concern, aaaand i'm rambling abt special interest SORRY)

word-of-mouth, 'reblogs,' or searches is how people notice the un-art. Fanfic writers. Clever meta. Observations. Diary-ing. to 'appeal,' you have to either - as mentioned previously - change yourself, or redirect your goal - but for less extensive… Journaling via pen-and-paper, or a notes app, is easy in THEORY but difficult in PRACTICE. these don't fulfill the, 'exchange,' because journals and notes are private. However. These are good practices. Writing onto yourself sharpens the ability to communicate, your dialect - there's a difference of 'early' ramblings here to current ones. (admittedly, a, 'there's been developments in psychosis,' is a portion rather than True improvement, but it's not a singularity)

review sites i.e letterboxd and backloggd serve similarity, but are dedicated to movies/video games respectively. And, they center around either criticism, or humor - which isn't what you want… you want your natural self to be attractive. I do think you could find enjoyment outside, and it can be good fun or a learning exercise finding out that You Hate Writing Meta.

[leighdoesitall]

I'm going to use this account to chronicle my ongoing physical and mental health battle in hopes that journaling about it will make it easier for me to track progress and notice patterns.

Last year, I decided that I was finally going to travel. The lockdowns had made me realize that life can be short, and I shouldn't let my mental health control my every step in life.

Starting last February, I went to London to meet friends and see ATEEZ. Then I went to New Orleans for VueConf. Finally, I went to Amsterdam with my partner to attend CSS Day.

I'm really proud of myself for pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to do these things. I met so many incredible people, saw beautiful sights, and experienced so much more than I ever thought I'd be brave enough to do.

That's when it started, though. Another major depressive episode. I learned during my trips that my severe health anxiety hadn't gone away... It was just in hiding.

Every single day that I was away from home, I had non-stop panic attacks. The only thing that stopped them was Ativan. But as a member of a family full of addicts, and a person with health anxiety, taking a med like that was very uncomfortable for me.

Coming home from that hit me like a truck. The depression was bad this time. I've had two major depressive episodes on my life, and I could tell this one was shaping up to be the worst one yet.

I went to my PCP to ask about Lexapro. It's the only SSRI I can recall standing when I tried psych meds as a kid. God, that was awful. Trying meds when I was young was one of the scariest things I've ever encountered. I should've known this wasn't going to go well.

The worst part of the Lexapro was, by far, the first 2 weeks. If a doctor tries to reassure you by telling you that you most likely won't have side effects, just know that's statistically untrue. I had severe depression, panic, nausea, dilated puppies, and other strange symptoms like not being able to listen to music, barely recognizing myself in the mirror, and an overall disconnect from reality.

Spoiler Alert: This will be a common thread in my medication journey.

After 6 weeks, things finally leveled out. I went from 5 to 10 to 20 mg. Each time I bumped it up, those same side effects occurred.

When things chilled out, this was one of the best times of my life. For the first time ever, there was no hypervigilance. No agoraphobia. No weirdness around food, sex, my health, or all the other idiosyncracies that made my life unbearable for so long.

For the first time ever, I didn't feel the void that is almost always present inside of me.

I did start presenting with what seemed like hypomanic episodes. Sudden bursts of insane excitement, unbearable desires to do spontaneous things that made no sense at all. No sleep, general obsessing over hobbies and tasks that I previously didn't really think all that much about.

During these periods, I bought a dog. I traveled across my state multiple times to look at $3000+ cats and would've bought them too if my partner didn't help chill me out. I sold our house.

My doctor added a mood stabilizer (Lamictal) to the mix. It helped these episodes. I haven't had one ever since.

I noticed something strange about 8 months in on the Lexapro. I felt great all the time. Life was so much easier. So carefree. So easy.

But I did NOTHING.

I didn't want to write. I didn't want to read. No video games. No movies.

I became a bit of a smiling, happy clay figure that could be posed but couldn't move on my own to do anything.

All I did was go to work, take a nap, have dinner, take a nap, hang out with my partner, then go to bed.

I had no desire to learn, to play, to create, to adventure.

I was a shell.

At this point, I finally got into a psychiatrist. That's its own awful story that I'll tell at another time, but right now...

The doctor suggested adding Wellbutrin which I tolerated very well. So well, in fact, that it reminded me of my long standing ADHD-I diagnosis that I had been ignoring. Didn't help with my depression, but it certainly helped with my executive function.

We decided to switch antidepressants. This is a long process. Weaning off SSRIs could be worse, but it certainly wasn't fun. I suffered increased PTSD symptoms, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, nausea, migraines. The whole shebang.

Eventually, we added in Zoloft.

I didn't let this one last as long as Lexapro. Less start up pains but I certainly wasn't happy after 8 weeks and I was already feeling that familiar NOTHING that made Lexapro unbearable for me.

We decided to give Prozac a try. From my childhood, we know I don't tolerate SNRIs well. So this was our last option for now. I'm fucking tired. My brain and body hurt. I need to recalibrate.

Prozac didn't last more than two weeks. This was just three weeks ago actually.

It was BAD. I thought I was going to die. My most responsed worse than ever and so did just my mind.

I'm lucky I have a loving partner and a good life. I'm so lucky I have years of therapy and a current therapist that kept me safe during this time.

Medication is for a lot of people and can save lives.

Not mine, though.

I almost lost mine.

I don't want to dwell on it too much. My therapist advocated for me and convinced my psych to let me go off all meds except Wellbutrin.

I feel more like myself than I have in a year and a half.

I'm mostly relieved. But I'm also scared for the future. And I feel weirdly ashamed that I couldn't tough it out on the medication route

The thing is...I have CPTSD. That is one definite thing. I have severe health anxiety. I know this for sure. Everything else is up in the air from a diagnosis perspective. It'll be good to go med free for a while to get a baseline for who I really am at this point.

On another note... My therapist started tracking my moods and it became apparent to her very quickly that my cycles have very definite effects on my emotions.

I got in with her referred gyno and I immediately got a PMDD diagnosis. More than that, with my physical symptoms, she is almost positive I have Endo which could be impacting my mental and physical state.

She wants me to start Norethindrone soon for 3 months to see if it helps. I'll do a separate post on this soon.

These posts are just for me, but I will tag them in case they are helpful for anyone. I'll discuss my physical and mental health as well health anxiety, food, and ADHD ideas.

I hope this helps me manage my thoughts. Having grown up in a very scary environment that has permanently altered how I navigate the world, I can only compare my experience with medications to that time. I felt isolated, scared, sick, tired, and completely and utterly unlistened to even when I felt like I was screaming for help.

This won't be easy, but we'll keep fighting. I love myself past, present, and future and I plan to protect Leigh with everything I have.

ODAAT

[firedragon1321]

Swap AU Drawing Complaints

Spoiler for three characters getting Digimon-ified in the readmore. I teased one but the other two weren't mentioned anywhere yet. So tread with care.

Some of the OG Pokemon anime character references are so weird like

For my swap AU, I noticed Gary's head is a little too small and his legs too short (the other two characters I made have long arms, so I elongated the legs). And the edges have all this annoying crunchy stuff. There's even more shit going on that led me to make a rant specifically for him.

Yes I can ignore it for art. But it bothers me knowing the biggest franchise in the world had art like this floating around at the height of Pokemania.

"Use another reference"? There is none, at least not for the original series, which all the swap AU sketches are based on. Gary would not get another transparent art until Journeys. He did appear before then, but had no clear art of his then-new design.

Then there's these teeny ones I need a damn microscope to look at.

Tumblr blew them up but come ooonnnn with this image resolution. These two were vetoed as refs due to that and- in Ash's case- the PokeBall blocking a good chunk of his body. In fact, this boy has zero chill until the Advanced generation. He's almost always posing in a way that blocks most of his body. The only still pose from this era I can think of is in a book and not easy to find on Bulbapedia.

^ Horrible if I just need a full body concept.

I ended up using this one and I still had to finagle shit (such as the hat and the body shape sans jacket). And I think this is technically Johto Journeys, which is slightly different than the OG art (this was when they started transitioning to computer-based animation over cels). Misty/Amber has a JJ base, too.

Oh well. At least the other characters have still poses and I can choose non-crusty ones unlike Gary so-

... Why?

At least the Digimon-half of this isn't as bad. The DigiDestined art is mostly clean and even if it didn't survive the test of time, almost every character has nearly identical, clear art in the reboot (Mimi is the only one in a different pose). It's still amazing to me how much shit Pokemon got away with in its art until around Gen 2 or even 3. There's no evidence these were American redraws like Digimon had, either...

[bisluthq]

That feels like a swiftwyn cupcake take if that’s a thing. It’s normal to look back at her music and make those connections and I think it’s fine to talk about them. Jealousy was clearly a problem all throughout the relationship, we thought they had solved it and they hadn’t. The relationship was on its last leg for 2 years before they called it quits.

I don’t know what the whole “they were the ones in the relationship” part is supposed to mean? I don’t get the point you’re trying to make.

Last but not least, no, we weren’t part of the relationship but you weren’t either. It wasn’t always happy and good. It sounds like there was a lot of bad that they ignored until they couldn’t ignore it anymore. No one is saying the relationship was always bad because it wasn’t, but they did have a lot of issues all throughout it and that’s the truth. It’s also in songs she wrote while they were still together and happy.

I also disagree with the idea that people only stay in relationships if they’re good because that’s not the case. By 2021 Taylor was tired and she still stayed for 2 more years. You can tell how exhausted she was by the end in TTPD. That’s just the truth. I don’t know why we have to look at a relationship of people we didn’t know and pretend it was all good all the time because she wrote love songs about it?

Why can’t people look back and point out things she liked that became a problem when it’s all there in her songs? This is such a weird thing to get offended by. It’s not the same as trying to make every song about Matty. It’s taking songs written about Joe where she talks about the same stuff but her feelings on it change. I don’t see how pointing that out is a problem?

I do agree with this and as I say I know with exes and even ex somethings often the things the appealed the most at the beginning became the things I hated most by the end lol. Like random example because other stuff is very personal but I fancied this guy who I thought looked like Gatsby (like how I picture Gatsby not Leo) and he dressed like that too as well with these like blazers and shit - we were in undergrad so this was objectively weird - and he’d be strolling on campus looking like he walked off a film set and I was SO obsessed and then he paid attention to me!!!??? And like every girl was I knew was at least a bit into him but he always had a girlfriend and then he paid attention to me!??? And also we’d had a really cool invisible string moment before invisible string was a song, where when I was still with my ex he stopped me on campus in between classes and asked to take a picture of my outfit because I was wearing this little mini skirt and these bright yellow boots and it was pouring with rain and I posed and then he posted just my legs lol and I only realized he’d posted and that’d been him like a year and a half later when I was into him because he didn’t get my name or anything but anyway. Anyway everyone was into him and he always had a girlfriend and he was into me and honestly that was so flattering to me at the time because I was like “of this parade of women throwing yourself at you, you’re going for me and I’m not even THAT nice to you” and anyway loooong story short he turned out to be weird in bed and tried to string me along and shit (I wasn’t keen after we did fuck but anyway it got weird) and now when I see pics with him in those stupid Gatsby suits I’m like “bestie were you (idk him or me or both) for real???”

but at the time I genuinely thought he was the most handsome most gorgeous most interesting man alive and him being 6’5 obviously didn’t hurt the whole situation. But he did look like a film star to me then and now I’m like “maybe like how Hiddles is also technically a film star” 💀💀💀💀

Hormones make us weird.

[fairytaleriots]

Repressing emotions, being ironic...the family business - Chapter 2

Fic summary:

Dave wants to find his Bro, Rose wants to return to her normal live as a college student. Instead they get involved in some rituals, find themselves and a family and maybe save the world. The last part might pose a problem. or Dean Winchester wishes he had what Dave Strider has

ao3

Chapters: 1

Act 1 Chapter 2

“Dave has shown recent attachment to the school the kids are currently at. It’s getting bothersome to hear him complain. Note for the future: draw clearer lines.”

- /home/Folder69/livelaughlove, Bro Strider’s computer files

Your name is Dave Strider and your life is rapidly falling apart. You seem to have lost your brother. You got your sister back, but only for a limited time and with the uncomfortable side effect of her having weird visions from an unknown source. Once you get your brother back you’re gonna have to deal with that and, if he tries to kill Rose, you don’t know what you’ll do. And the traffic on the way to your motel in Chicago is really bad.

You sit in the car in silence. It’s not very in character for you, you know that.  Even when you’re on a job on your own car rides are rarely quiet, you‘re to busy singing along to your tapes, testing yourself on any hunter knowledge that you shouldn't forget by mumbling to yourself or just straight up thinking out loud.  With Rose especially you’re not used to it. Its never quiet with the two of you, you never had trouble finding pointless things to say. You remember hours spend in the backseat of the car making up stories and arguing about music or singing along to whatever was playing while Bro drove. Nights spend in motel rooms, whispering to each other while trying not to wake Bro up.

And yet, after Rose finishes her retelling and you search for the address of the motel she names, neither of you says a word. Once again you can see your family crumbling apart and you desperately want to find something to say that tapes it back together again, but that didn't work out last time either, did it. There’s a part of you that wants to give up and let Rose go back to her new home, without you and there’s a part that hopes this awful, awkward car ride never ends.  There’s a part of you that wants to find Bro as soon as possible, get all of you back together again and a part of you that thinks that if you don’t find him you at least will not have to deal with whatever happens after. 

It takes Rose too long to gather herself and start making fun of your music. The two of you used to  be better at ignoring your problems.

You don’t know what kind of car Bro rented (or stole), when he left the Silverado with you and Rose’ vision didn’t tell you his room number. So there’s no way to break into his room or to know if he’s even still here, without talking to the receptionist. Not that breaking into Bro’s room would ever be a good idea in the first place. Instead you give the receptionist everything you got.

“It’s just so horrible!”, Rose cries out dramatically.  You know she’s not a fan of this and would rather just threaten the receptionist into giving her the information you want, but you don’t know how long you’re staying in the area yet and this way is less likely to end in someone calling security or the police. Less likely, but not unlikely, because Rose loves drama.

“How could he just not show up? My own father! On my most important day! He’s here, isn't he? Can you call him down? Or give me his room number? I just want to talk to him one last time!”

Rose starts some spiel about how Bro was her father, who had not shown up to her wedding day, despite promising to walk her down the aisle alongside her mother. But, because their parents had some sort of fight, he had fled and ruined his daughters big day.  You do your best to look like an angry brother, but not to angry to be of concern, while holding back a grin at the panicked look on the overwhelmed receptionists face, as Rose tearfully unloads years of made up family drama on him.

“I know they have their problems. I know and I would never force them back together. But I thought just for this day I could have my whole family again. Is that so much to ask? Am I a bad daughter for asking them to do this?”, she sobs and looks at the receptionist like he surely has all the answers. 

The receptionist is looking at the door like he is considering just fleeing. You lay a supportive hand on her shoulder. When she starts up again you can practically see him give up.

“Ma'am, why don’t I give you the room number and you can see if you can clear this all up? I’m very sorry about your wedding.” He scribbles a number and a description of how to get there on a piece of paper and shoves it in your hands. Rose starts thanking him profusely, while you gently guide her away.

There’s no answer when they knock, which could mean anything really. So you might have to break  in after all. “You do it”, Rose says, sweeping her hand in a magnanimous ‘Lady’s first’ gesture. “I think you might need the practice after what you did to my window.” “Thanks, your concern for my breaking and entering skills is real touching. I feel so taken care of.”, you deadpan back and then you get to work.

It takes a bit, because Rose learned her security skills from Bro, but he was of course still better than her. This hotel room is more protected than her entire apartment. But, after a lot of fumbling and cursing under your breath, the door swings open to reveal the carefully created chaos, that Bro manages to create in every room he stays in for more than a day. You spend too much time learning the ins and outs of this special organization system, so you could put back anything you needed to borrow from Bro, without him noticing.

The reason nobody answered the door is, because nobody is in the room.  “Should we just wait for him? His stuff’s still here, so he has to come back.”, you suggest. Rose grimaces, before she answers: “ To be quiet honest I would prefer to finish with this sooner rather than later. And who knows when he’ll get back, he has never had sensible time management. Let’s just figure out what the job is, so we can look for him.”

With that she starts rooting through Bro’s stuff and using the opportunity to clean up, folding his clothes and putting stuff where it should typically belong instead of where Bro thinks it should go.  You know for a fact that Rose is not any tidier and constantly leaves her stuff just lying around, a habit she has not grown out of, judging from what you’ve seen of her apartment, but she always did this whenever she had the opportunity. A chance to piss of Bro by destroying his system, under the guise of just wanting to help him. You think Bro thinks it’s funny.

You go start going through stacks of paper, lying next to a chair. Your best bet of finding out what kind of job he’s on is probably his laptop, but there’s no way your getting in there. The stacks are a mix of research, comic sketches, texts written in Latin and, noticeably, the latest chapter of Rose’s wizard fanfiction, printed out and annotated. At some point you stop looking and start reading out the chapter and adding your own commentary, while Rose continues the search. Her face is carefully annoyed, but she doesn’t try to hit you over the head with a blunt object or rip the papers out of your hands, so you assume she’s having fun. 

“… okay, not that I don’t appreciate Zazzerpan and every scene he’s in, but it’s real convenient that he shows up right there. Also, what kind of word is ‘assiduous’ anyway.”

“A good one.”, she interrupts you. “Also shut up, I found some directions. It is possible that he went there today, so we might as well take a look.”

“Fair enough, but I’m taking this with us. I’ll need some entertainment on the way.”  You continue your commentary.

Bro gives a lot of lectures. They’re not really lectures, since they don’t usually include a lot of words, unless he really gets going on a metaphor.  They’re more singular sentences, that fall somewhere between advice and order and are often paired with a slight downward turn of the edge of his mouth or a thumbs down, to communicate disapproval of your actions. Equally often an ass-kicking follows. Sometimes the lecture includes no words at all and is instead an elaborate test of your abilities.

Part of you wonders if this is also a test. Maybe he’s testing how long you stay cool without losing your shit and looking for him. Or he’s testing if you know to come for back up, when he needs you. You don’t know which one or what’s the right course of action and it makes you feel uneasy, but you don’t have a better idea, than to keep doing what your already doing. And there’s a part of your mind that thinks that, if Bro is actually in danger, then coming to help him would surely be worth getting your ass kicked. You ignore that part, along with the uneasiness, because Bro’s to good to get in the sort of trouble he can’t get out of.

One of the lessons Bro keeps repeating is about blending in and staying unnoticed. Alibis, new identities, financial trails. Despite all that, Bro himself is not really subtle. It’s not his fault, he’s simply too cool to stay unnoticed. Also his shades don’t help.

Thanks to that it’s easy to follow his steps, once you picked up his trail, based on the information you and Rose found. Enough people saw him lounging around to give you a direction. Somehow you still end up going in circles three times, until you decide to look under the bridge you’ve been crossing over each turn.  You don’t really see the point in it, since you don’t exactly know what Bro would be doing under a bridge, but whatever. You slide down a muddy hill to get to a more hidden part and you start seeing the point.

Bro is lying in the mud under the bridge. His white polo shirt is stained brown everywhere and it would look like he just slipped and decided to not get up again if it wasn’t for Bro’s own sword impaling him through the sternum. If it wasn’t for the fact that the brown was not mud brown and instead the brown of dried blood.

You want to leave. You want to turn around and make this not be your problem. To just let him lie there and reject this from your mind. You’re not stupid enough to follow through on that instinct. Even if he weren’t your Bro, you’re a hunter and not taking care of a body is asking for trouble. It’d probably be easier, if it wasn’t your Bro. For a very selfish second you think about booking it anyway and letting Rose deal with it on her own. You can’t do that either. You’re her older brother. Her only one now. (Her only one maybe ever)

You look at her and see her squaring her shoulders, before stalking over to Bro. She raises her eyebrows at you and says: “Well, do you want to do the honors?” She waves her hand at the sword that’s still in Bro. In him. You come closer and raise your hand to pull it out and then let it flop down again. Nope. We are not making that happen. No way. Bro never let either of you touch his sword before and you can’t get yourself to now.   Its weird really. The three of you shared everything else, there’s not really another choice when you life in a truck with a family that doesn’t understand the concept of privacy.  You especially shared weapons and didn’t really get attached to any of them, given that they often had to be discarded or broke because of their shitty quality. Your family went through blades like other people went through 5 dollar headphones.  But that sword was always Bro’s sword. You just can’t. You won’t.

Rose doesn’t want to touch it either, so she just starts jostling Bro’s body until it falls out by itself. That should be worse but you can respect it.  More blood spills out once it’s free and you can’t really understand how there can be any more blood. What kind of bottomless mozzarella sticks bullshit is this. Nope, that’s a bad metaphor, retreat, retreat. 

You cant really bury him here and now. Digging an unauthorized grave in the middle of the day would be noticed and so would dragging a bloody corpse through town. In the end, you end up hiding him more out of sight, with the plan to come back once its dark. 

You find a jewish cemetery a reasonable distance away. At some point it feels almost normal breaking into a cemetery, something that only makes it more uncomfortable, not less. You work together to dig the grave without having to discuss it much and both of you are aware that you usually do this to dig someone up, not to bury them. Somehow doing it the right way around feels worse. Nothing about this fits right. It’s not quiet, because words are flowing out of your mouth, but to be honest you don’t even hear what your saying and by the looks of it Rose isn’t listening either. Her face is a mix of blank and furious, if you ignore the rapid blinking of her eyes, as if she's trying not to let the fury slip away. Bro’s burial is good enough to stop any supernatural bullshit, but otherwise wholly practical, impersonal and unsentimental.

You go back to his room after, gather all his things and then get a motel room at a different place under a different name. Rose dumps anything of Bro’s she doesn’t deem important in a corner of your room and curls up with the rest. “We still have to figure out what killed him. If it was that dangerous it might take out more people.”, she says.

“Sure. If we’re lucky Bro has already done most of the research for us and it won’t even be that much of the boring part. Best kind of job.”, you say.  You don’t say that, if this thing was strong enough to kill Bro, the two of you have very little chance against it. Fighting things that are naturally stronger, faster and better than you is what a hunter does. It’s what Bro does. You have no excuse. You get that urge to leave again.

You snatch the jacket you just threw over a chair back up and turn to Rose. “I’ll go ask around what even brought Bro here, while you go through his notes. Do your boring nerd shit or whatever.” You slam the door and maybe leave a little faster than would normally be appropriate of a dude as cool as you.

Asking around gets a lot of information and none of it especially useful. “Oh, are you the partner of that FBI guy? Agent Mathers, the one that asked after Mr. Powell? Did you ask his wife yet? I’m sure you did, you must be very good at your job. And it’s not like I think that she stabbed him! It’s just that I know they had some problems, I could always hear them yelling when I was tending the garden. Not that I was listening, of course. I was still taught manners, unlike whatever Mrs. Fisher two houses down is teaching her young one. He’s constantly prank buzzing here! Can you believe it? But no, I wasn’t listening, they were just always that loud. A disturbance really.”, an older women tells you, followed by every sin anyone in this street has ever committed, including someone leaving up Christmas decorations for too long, which seems to be equal to potentially stabbing your husband.

You convince a group of teens, that you find near the bridge where you found Bro, to tell you what they know and they tell you about more stabbings, which seem mostly unrelated to Mr. Powell. Nobody has any reliable details, but at first glance the victims don’t seem to have much in common.

And there’s no sign of anything supernatural going on either.  No weird circumstances of death, no impossible break ins or missing body parts or blood. Nobody seeing anything weird or the victims having a feeling of being followed before their deaths. Just good, old stabbings, some standard human murder. Why was Bro even following this trail?

When you get back Rose doesn’t look any happier either. “You find anything at all?”, you ask her.

“No.”, she frowns. “Nothing useful in the papers. Didn’t see anything about stabbings either. Anything relevant is probably on the Laptop, but I tried to crack it and didn’t manage.”

“So what now?”

Rose looks contemplative for a moment.  “I don’t think there's anything useful we can do here, for now. There’s really no point in doing all the work Bro did from the ground up again, when everything we need is most likely on the laptop already. I propose that, if we are not able to access the information ourselves, the next logical step would be to find someone who can help with that.”

There were very few people that Bro respected, but Jake Harley was probably one of them. You knew this because 1. Bro never said anything downright insulting about him and 2. most hunters respected Jake Harley. He was the shining paragon of what every hunter should be. Cared about hunting more than anything else in his life and the dude knew how to pretty much handle any type of gun, with an absurd amount of knowledge about the supernatural on top of that. Maybe that’s just the kind of knowledge you get when your in the business that long, but most hunters didn’t get to be that old.

Bro even worked on a few jobs with him and Bro hated working with other people. Even with you, most of the time you were sure that he only let you tag along, because he wasn’t sure you wouldn’t get yourself killed on your own and you’re family. But he worked with Harley voluntarily.

It was on one of these hunts that you and Rose met Jade for the first time. The three of you must have been like 12 years old and Bro and Jake Harley had left you in a relatively safe spot on standby, in case they needed back up, while they went deal with the Mandragora. The rifle Jade was holding seemed almost taller than her, but she didn’t seem to have any trouble handling it or like she was scared. You think that’s a perfectly valid reason to develop a bit of a crush on someone. At some point she had let out a sincere laugh at something you said and nudged you in the side like you had known each other forever and you think that’s an even better reason.

Jake Harley was dead now. It gets even the best ones eventually. But as far as you know Jade’s still active and still as competent as ever, both with her rifle and, more importantly right now, computers. She’s your best shot to crack that laptop.

Bro mostly keeps to himself, since he doesn’t need help often, but there are spots where hunters meet up and Jade visits them quite frequently. When she sees you and Rose walking through the door a big grin spreads across her face and she sprints towards you, trying to pull both of you into a hug at the same time. It’s awkward but warm, just like her. “Dave! Rose!! Your both here! Together.”, she says.

“Yes, my retirement was interrupted by a family emergency.”, Rose explains, trying her best to look dignified while still being hugged and failing miserably.

“Oh no! What happened? Is everything alright?”

“Bro’s dead.”, Rose states. You close your eyes behind your shades just for a moment.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, guys.”, Jade says and looks at you specifically. You just about manage not to turn away. How did you get stuck between two girls who seem to think you’re gonna break any minute. You’re fine. 

“There’s nothing to be done about it.”, Rose states brusquely. “But we would like to find out what happened and we could use your help with gaining access to Bro’s laptop.” Jade immediately smiles at Rose. “Yeah, of course! To be honest I’ve been kind of curious about Bro’s security anyway! Grandpa always says that he’s a real ‘crackerjack’ at computers and I could use a challenge!” At least someone is getting something out of this.

You try to make yourself train while Jade is busy. At first you try to keep her company, but it’s not really your kind of thing and Jade gets a bit frustrated when people can’t keep up.  There’s a few other hunters at this meeting point, but since it’s a bit out of the way, there aren’t that many and they mostly keep to themselves.  Rose took the opportunity to claim a couch in the corner and go through her uni notes. Makes sense, you guess, it would suck if she went back only to fail all her classes.  And she probably misses it. 

The smart thing for you to do with this bit of free time would be to train. It’s what Bro would want you to do. It’s what Bro would make you do.  You can’t bring yourself to, for some reason. So now your sitting on a small wall outside the back of the house, thinking about knife-forms and moves you haven’t quite internalized yet and your body just won’t move. You’re still stuck like that when Jade comes out and sits down next to you.

“All done! This one was tough. But fun! I didn’t look at anything yet, I thought you and Rose probably want to do that.”

As always your mouth is the first part of your body that reconnects to your brain. “What you didn’t take the opportunity to look at Bro’s porn folder?”

The rest of you catches up and you wince. Jade, bless her, just smiles at you indulgently. She definitely has to deal with too much of your shit. 

“The obvious one with the ironic kinks or the hidden one with the more sincere ones?.” Rose follows Jade through the door. Gross. You decide in this moment to get a new sister. Sure, you brought up the porn thing first, but everyone knows that you have don’t think before you speak! Rose is very much thinking and she’s doing it on purpose. Maybe you can trade her in for Jade.

“How the fuck would you even know about Bro’s porn folders? Wasn’t the whole thing here that we don’t know how to get to his files?” Rose smirks knowingly. It doesn’t explain anything. Ugh.

At some point you do accidentally click on porn. Curse Bro for not properly labeling any of his files. How does he find anything? It’s just tons of weirdly labeled files in unlabeled folders. You have to admire your Bro’s dedication to purposeful chaos.  Going through the most recent files you find screenshots from newspapers all over the country. Weird weather, people vanishing, the usual things a hunter looks out for. Eventually you find some police reports about stabbings in the town you found him in. 

There’s still nothing unusual about them as far as you can see. All of them got stabbed through the sternum but that doesn’t mean its anything supernatural. Could just be a dude.  You click through several more files, some of them not even hunting related. One of them is just an anime of the season list. Then you find what your looking for. At first you think Bro took a screenshot of some poor dudes tinder profile, but then you look at his age.

Jack, Demon, 346(?) years old. Hobbies: Stabbing.   You think you found it. Next to you Rose falls over.  Again.