#its not so bad. first root was awful second is pretty good

[milkweedman]

Something about trying to get comfortable tucked into a tree's roots...

[jswatson]

you know about musical tuning right? harmonics? equal temperament? pythagoras shit? of course you do (big big nerd post coming)

(i really dont know if people follow me for anything in particular but im pretty sure its mostly not this)

most of modern western music is built around the 12-EDO (12 equal divisions of the octave, the 12 tone equal temperament), where we divide the octave in 12 exactly equal steps (this means that there are 12 piano keys per octave). we perceive frequency geometrically and not arithmetically, as in that "steps" correspond to multiplying the frequency by a constant amount and not by adding to the frequency

an octave is a doubling of the frequency, so a step in 12-EDO is a factor of a 12th root of 2. idk the exact reason why we use 12-EDO, but two good reasons why 12 is a good number of steps are that

12 is a nice number of notes: not too small, not too big (its also generally a very nice number in mathematics)

the division in 12 steps makes for fairly good approximations of the harmonics

reason 2 is a bit more complex than reason 1. harmonics are a naturally occurring phenomena where a sound makes sound at the multiples of its base frequency. how loud each harmonic (each multiple) is is pretty much half of what defines the timbre of the sound

we also say the first harmonics sound "good" or "consonant" in comparison to that base frequency or first harmonic. this is kinda what pythagoras discovered when he realized "simple" ratios between frequencies make nice sounds

the history of tuning systems has revolved around these harmonics and trying to find a nice system that is as close to them while also avoiding a bunch of other problems that make it "impossible" to have a "perfect tuning". for the last centuries, we have landed on 12 tone equal temperament, which is now the norm in western music

any EDO system will perfectly include the first and second harmonics, but thats not impressive at all. any harmonic that is not a power of 2 is mathematically impossible to match by EDO systems. this means that NONE of the intervals in our music are "perfect" or "true" (except for the octave). theyre only approximations. and 12 steps make for fairly close approximations of the 3rd harmonic (5ths and 4ths), the 5th harmonic (3rds and 6ths) and some more.

for example, the 5th is at a distance of 7 semitones, so its 12-EDO ratio is 2^(7/12) ~= 1.4983, while a perfect 5th would be at 3/2=1.5 (a third harmonic reduced by one octave to get it in the first octave range), so a 12-EDO fifth sounds pretty "good" to us

using only 12-EDO is limiting ourselves. using only EDO is limiting ourselves. go out of your way, challenge yourself and go listen to play and write some music outside of this norm

but lets look at other EDO systems, or n-EDO systems. how can we measure how nicely they approximate the harmonics? the answer is probably that there is no one right way to do it

one way we could do it is by looking at the first k harmonics and measuring how far they are to the closest note in n-EDO. one way to measure this distance for the rth harmonic is this:

adding up this distance for the first k harmonics we get this sequence of measures:

(this desmos graph plots this formula as a function of n for k=20, which seems like a fair amount of harmonics to check)

the smallest this measure, the "best" the n-EDO approximates these k harmonics. we can already see that 12 seems to be a "good" candidate for n since it has that small dip in the graph, while n=8 would be a pretty"bad" one. we can also see that n=7 is a "good" one too. 7-EDO is a relatively commonly used system

now, we might want to penalize bigger values of n, since a keyboard with 1000 notes per octave would be pretty awful to play, so we can multiply this measure by n. playing around with the value k we see that this measure grows in direct proportion to k, so we could divide by k too to keep things "normalized":

plotting again, we get this

we can see some other "good" candidates are 24, 31, 41 and 53, which are all also relatively commonly used systems (i say relatively because they arent nearly as used as 12-EDO by far)

increasing k we notice something pretty interesting

(these are the same plots as before but with k=500 and k=4000)

the graph seems to flatten, and around 0.25 or 1/4. this is kinda to be expected, since this method is, in a very weird way, measuring how far a particular sequence of k values is from the extremes of an interval and taking the average of those distances. turns out that the expected distance that a random value is from the extremes of an interval it is in is 1/4 of the interval's length, so this is not that surprising. still cool tho

this way, we can define a more-or-less normalized measure of the goodness of EDO tuning systems:

(plot of this formula for k=20)

this score s_k(n) will hover around 1 and will give lower scores to the "best" n-EDO systems. we could also use instead 1-s_k(n), which will hover around zero and the best systems will have higher scores

my conclusion: i dont fucking now. this was complete crankery. i was surprised the candidates for n this method finds actually match the reality of EDO systems that are actually used

idk go read a bit about john cage and realize that music is just as subjective as any art should be. go out there and fuck around. "music being a thing to mathematically study to its limits" and "music being a meaningless blob of noise and shit" and everything in between and beyond are perfectly compatible stances. dont be afraid to make bad music cause bad music rules

most importantly, make YOUR music

[rustbeltjessie]

The past week (the good, the bad, & the miscellaneous):

—One of my uncles is in very bad health, and if he doesn’t get the proper treatment soon, will probably not make it. That’s bad enough on its own, but it has also brought up a whole slew of family drama, which…well, I won’t get into specifics because they’re not really mine to tell, but it sucks.

—The oldest kiddo is doing great with his ADHD meds. He’s better able to focus on schoolwork, he listens better, and he has actual reciprocal conversations more often now. (Like, yesterday, we got into a conversation about AI art/writing, and he had some very well-thought-out opinions! I could tell he wasn't just regurgitating things he'd heard; he'd actually put a lot of thought into it.)

—I've gotten a little sad about the fact that I probably am ADHD, and possibly also autistic, or whatever (there’s definitely some neurodivergence in there), but never got any help when I was a kid/young adult. Because AFAB kids tend to present differently and mask better, y'know? All I know is I had an awful lot of school reports that were like: "J. is really smart, but doesn't follow directions well" or "J. does well on everything, when she decides it's something she wants to do." And then when I reached the age of burnout everyone was like: "But you are so smart! You're just not trying hard enough! You're just lazy!" How much better could I have done, especially in college, had anyone noticed that I was trying, that I was fucking struggling, and it wasn't just laziness?

—Speaking of college, I'm still researching universities I might want to attend when/if I go back for another degree.

—There's also a chance we may be moving sometime in the next year.

—And I'm putting some serious thought into how I wanna proceed with Bone & Ink Press. I want to keep it going, but it has long been untenable the way it's currently going. See, the thing is, I never wanted it to become what it became, a semi-legit publishing house with perfect-bound books and royalty payments and the like. I wanted to do small print run zines and chapbooks. So I'm going to finish up/publish the New Wave anthology, and then the three other titles I have on the roster, and then after that...I think I'm going back to its roots.

—The youngest kiddo had his first online class in astronaut science this morning. He loved it so much, and wants to continue with the rest of the course. Now I just gotta scrounge up some money to pay for the rest. (The first class was free; the rest cost money.)

—My dentist appointment went okay. It was fast and relatively painless. I have two small cavities, and have to go back in a month to get them filled, but they said everything else looks good.

—After the dentist, I had a bunch of errands to run. Normally I enjoy running errands but today I just wanted to get home and relax and also, everyone in town was driving like a jackass, so it took an extra long time to get from one stop to the next.

—But I did see two cuties while out and about. There was a hot middle-aged skater dude in the grocery store. (I know he was a skater because I saw him get out of his car, and it had Santa Cruz, Independent, and other skateboard-related stickers on it.) Downtown, I spotted a beautiful 20-something goth person; they looked appropriately eldritch in a long-black coat and big black boots.

—And while in the checkout at Walgreens, I saw this mom come in with two kids. One of the kids was a goth/punk teen; they shuffled into the store with their shoulders all hunched and a scowl on their face. Amazingly enough, the song that was playing over the sound system at the time was the Siouxsie and the Banshees cover of "Dear Prudence," and the teen recognized it, and for a split second, their scowl turned to a half-smile. And then they went back to scowling. It was perfect, because that is the era of my life which constitutes the bulk of my new zine.

—Speaking of the new zine: it's done, and I am glad it’s done, and I’m pretty pleased with it, but I am also fucking exhausted. To paraphrase something I wrote in my journal in 2009, after finishing a zine: I have completely overdosed on punk rock and stories from my own life. So now, I must cleanse myself with different kinds of music and different writing; namely, fiction and poetry. (Even when my poems are based on my real life experiences, which is often, writing them doesn't deplete me in the same way that writing prose memoir does.)

—I've felt pretty on top of my shit in general lately, but I am somehow flat broke again. Despite all the freelance gigs, side hustles, budgeting, etc. I mean I had to buy more printer ink and paper to complete this zine, so there's that. Then there's the fact that no matter how much we budget, our monthly food money always runs out 5-7 days before it gets refilled. Oh, and then there's the dentist thing. My health insurance covers some dental stuff, but not all, so I gotta pay the rest out of pocket. My dentist has a payment plan, but I had to make a down payment and have another bill due when I go back for my fillings. Shit. Anyway, if anyone wants to order some of my stuff/hire me for stuff, now would be a great time.

[oceanwithinsblog]

ok nobody asked for this but let me present you

✨my personal evaluation of each eurovision 2023 entry✨

where should i begin? i've decided to quickly comment this year's participating songs !! these are all personal opinions so don't take them too seriously ! hope you enjoy this sh!tpost of mine and, most importantly, happy eurovision grand finale day to all those who celebrate !! 💙💛

a quick legend: ❌ = song i don't like | ✅ = song i enjoy | ♾️ = song i have on loop (and is therefore among my faves)

as for the order of the songs, i'm using the eurovision 2023 playlist on spotify ^^

tell me more (turalturanx) ✅

this song is very simple and cute imo, still i'm not surprised it didn't make it to the final

aijā (sudden lights) ✅

this song is soooo good once you listen to it a couple times !! they were robbed, i really wished for them to qualify :((

we are one (wild youth) ❌

honestly? no. this doesn't quite do it for me. plus their staging was pretty awful during the 1st semi so yeah ... hopefully ireland will do better next year !

dance (our own party) (the busker) ✅

can i be totally honest ???? I DO NOT UDNERSTAND HOW IN THE EUROVISION THEY DIDN'T GET THROUGH THE FIRST SEMI I WAS AND STILL AM IN AWE WTH i have to admit the song didn't really catch my attention the first time i listened to it on spotify, but the performance they did on tuesday night left me speechless. so much fun ! so much color ! so much dinamicity ! plus those references to michael jackson the king of pop ! not my fave entry but they deserved to take part to the finale imo :(<3

burning daylight (mia nicolai, dion cooper) ✅

this song is actually pretty good to hear on earphones (on spotify), the chorus got stuck into my mind for days lol but after watching their performance i do agree with the televote - the live singing wasn't really nice. unrelated but the netherlands should try singing in their native language more often at eurovision !!!

like an animal (piqued jacks) ❌

i'm sorry fellow italian compatriots but i don't vibe with this song ... you tried and did your best on the thursday night tho !! kudos to you and good luck for your future ^^

d.g.t. (off and on) (theodor andrei) ❌

romania ... what happened to you ... don't tell me that hola mi bebebe was your peak at eurovision .... i don't wanna believe it .... but this whole song and performance really isn't it ... deeply unsettling for me

what they say (victor vernicos) ❌

greece ! i don't really know what to say about this, the guy has a nice voice but the song just doesn't work for me. i'm sad he didn't qualify 'cause he was very excited (and you could easily see it during his performance) but i think it didn't qualify for the best..

breaking my heart (riley) ✅

might come off as a surprise but i do enjoy listening to this song from time to time (on spotify) ! this boy is a personification of tiktok and that scares me ngl but i think the song itself is catchy. surely not suited for eurovision tho. the live version of breaking my heart loses all its catchiness but it's ok he tried

echo (iru) ✅

WHAT ! A ! VOICE ! iru's tone is so powerful and beautiful to listen to !! too bad i can't understand a word she is singing :// i was actually rooting for her to qualify on thursday but apparently european are deaf lol

power (diljá) ✅

i genuinely like the song and i think she has a great voice ! the performance at the second semi wasn't even close to one worth of qualification tho :( she was left alone on the stage and it felt pretty empty imo :( she's the cutest tho <3

mama šč! (let 3) ✅

OH MY LORD !!!!!! THIS IS MADNESS !!! THIS IS EUROVISION !!! HEAVILY POLITICAL LYRICS FIREWORKS COLORFUL CLOTHES THOUSANDS LIGHTS SCREAMING TRACTORS SILLY COSTUMES HIGH HEELS HEAVY MAKE-UP ROCKETS GO CROATIA FEED US

ps. i wrote that i enjoy the song - which i do - but i never listen to it on spotify honestly

blood & glitter (lord of the lost) ✅

germany has finally submitted a good entry !! love the alt rock vibes !! still no idea what the live performance looks like but i feel pretty good knowing these guys have a lot of fun on stage ^^

bridges (alika) ✅ ♾️

she's like a goddess ... vocals are super on point !! i'm kinda rooting for her, the staging is very nice, simple and neat. love the details !! go estonia !!

because of you (gustaph) ✅ ♾️

OMG PLEASE I'M LOVING THIS !! the live performance is even better than the studio version imo; the stage presence, the '90s vibes, the VOGUEING, the back up vocals, the dancer EVERYTHING IS SO ON POINT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT totally my cup of tea <3 GO BELGIUM !!!

eaea (blanca paloma) ✅

it took me a few listens to really get the vibes and the lyrics, but i have to say i love this entry ! most importantly i love that spain is always doing spain ! vamos blanca ! love the union of traditional and modern elements into this, i hope it does well in the final ^^

break a broken heart (andrew lambrou) ❌

big no for me. any straight man singing about heartbreak is a big no for me. we don't care. ok, yk, you have a nice voice mr. lambrou, i'll give you that, but you shouldn't have gotten to the final imo. no hard feelings. plus wearing a tuxedo and singing on stage shoeless ??? ugh.

promise (voyager) ✅ ♾️

hell yeah !! aussies doing rock'n'roll and showing up on stage in a random car are also my thing !! they understood the assignment and i'm glad they did. can't wait to watch their performance again tonight !! kinda rooting for them ^^

ai coração (mimicat) ✅

again, kudos to portugal for always being portugal and bringing such gems to eurovision. i like this one. i don't listen to it often, but i for sure enjoy it when i do ! wishing her the best for tonight's finale !!

samo mi se spava (luke black) ✅

it took me a while to appreciate this song ngl ... luke gives an incredible performance on stage tbh, i'm happy he qualified for the final. plus singing in your native language and naming yourself after the dead serbian music panorama are big reasons to give you bonus points. slay king !!

due vite (marco mengoni) ✅ ♾️

i might be biased (i'm italian after all) but i love this song. i relate to this song. a lot. marco's voice is sublime imo, i'm so very glad he is representing our country in liverpool. <3 tbh i actually can't wait to see what he prepared for the finale !!!! i have really high expectations but i know he's gonna leave me awestruck <3 vai marchettooooo <3

stay (monika linkyte) ✅ ♾️

my lithuanian queen !!!!!!! love the song ! love the live vocals ! love the lyrics ! love the orange themed performance ! love the interactions with the back up singers ! totally 10/10 for me. sending her a big hug !

duje (albina and kelmendi familja) ❌

i don't know how to feel about this song. i personally don't get the hype. it's very albanian and very traditional and i appreciate it a lot, but i can't quite come to like the final product :(

watergun (remo forrer) ❌

sort of the same scenario 've already described for greece, he's got a nice voice but the song isn't right. plus it's a bit funny to hear a swiss guy saying he doesn't want to be a soldier ....

solo (blanka) ❌

poland is another big no, rigged. rigged. rigged. if anybody asks me, poland didn't participate to eurovision in 2023. shoutout to jann, i hope you're having a wonderful day <3

carpe diem (joker out) ❌

very much appreciating their outfit and vitality and sort of silly joyous queer vibes, but i personally can't come to like the song. still, i'm glad they made it to the final ^^

soarele si luna (pasha parfeni) ✅ ♾️

moldova has me clapping and singing and dancing and trying to learn how to play the flute. 10/10 chef's kiss. constantly on loop. great job pasha and friends, i'm partially rooting for you tonight !!

future lover (brunette) ✅

very interesting song, from the lyrics to the musical structure, from the outfit to the staging. brunette's voice is lovely. i wish she had sung the entire song in armenian, but still - it's good!

unicorn (noa kirel) ❌

a total ... skip for me ! shouldn't have qualified for the final ! and as i keep saying for years, israel shouldn't be allowed to participate to eurovision anymore ! good bye.

my sister's crown (vesna) ✅

the song is great, the message is nice (if i understood it correctly) but the whole pink outfits don't match any element of the performance. still, a nice entry for czechia !

[thedancingkajira]

C23

Here’s a true confession: I hate losing.

Yes, I have a growth mindset. I know all things happen in their time. I get that one door closes and another opens. I feel the love of the universe when I let myself get out of my way.

But I hate losing. I despise doing my best and not having it be enough. I loath having to suffer the proverbial slings and arrows while I make my way to success. I am sick of having doors slammed in my face and locked. I don’t like getting kicked in the teeth when I’m down and I detest waking up and having to clean up all the doubt, the fear, the woe of the day before.

I lost at Kaissa again yesterday and, as before, learned a good deal from it. Namely, I learned three things. First, that my defensive strategy was the correct one. Second, that key pieces need to be employed in order for that strategy to not be paralyzed. And third, that the eventuality of defeating my Master, who has been playing for quite a longer time than I, is not likely to occur in the near future.

The loss resulted in sodomy and story time, when I related two of my favorite events of my erotic history. As with past buggery, it was the intended punishment. I felt pretty awful afterward and was threatened by an even more awful outcome if I lost again.

I didn’t want to lose before and I sure as the Vosk is wide don’t want to lose again. Losing is bad enough in an encouraging environment, like when I used to mess up my tavern dances when owned by my prior Master, Ho-Hak Bar-Hom. Even though it was terrifying and awkward, he would tell me I was a great dancer in the making. Such is not the case with Kaissa.

My Master knows and says that I’ll be a formidable opponent one day. Yet the journey there will be long and unpleasant. Fortunately, I enjoy the game enough to persist. That’s the saving grace of the situation, the thing that puts that hatred and its root, my ego, aside and impels me to face the day enthusiastically. As much as I may hate the price of defeat, I love the game more than it.

Win or lose, I’d still play Kaissa. And I’d still be me. So no matter the situation, its cost or the length of the journey, I’d still keep at it. That’s that sense of purpose that gets us through the darkest times. I know what my devotions are, and I’m at peace giving my all for them, understanding that doing so is the only real success I can have.

[dtothe4th]

Book final out of seven

as deliverysbug was finishing up her story the unconscious carapacian bug had finally began to come to, groggily looking around the fire at the bugs surrounding her. she was terrified at first, but crochetsbug gave her a nice smile which seemed to put her more at ease. seersbug offered the remainder of their stew to her, which she glay accepted. she asked where her boyfriend was, and the party all looked to the ground beneath them. she joined them in looking down, and nodded her head. she knew he would do something stupid like sacrifice himself to save her. the party couldn't bare to tell her the specifics of his death, but she seemed to have a pretty good grasp on his character. she struck the dirt and cursed the world for forcing them to flee through the tunnels. this piqued the party’s interest and she expanded: she and her boyfriend had been escaping through a sprawling network of tunnels the carapacian bugs had been secretly digging all throughout the war, something they said would be the deciding factor in the end. as the daughter of the lieutenantsbug, she was princessbug, and fell in love with one of the armysbugs. she tried doing things the right way, talking to her father to try and end this pointless war, but he wouldn't listen to her. he kept her under his watchful eye from then on, with guardsbugs stationed outside her door to escort her wherever she had to go. the only way she could escape was through the tunnel entrance built into her room that her father didn't know she knew about. she escaped through there and ran to find her armysbug boyfriend. when she found him though the guardsbugs had caught onto her escape and begun chasing her, forcing the two to hop down into another tunnel entrance. she had been studying the tunnels for months and vaguely knew the way towards the garden, and clearly the guardsbugs did not. they were in awe of the scale of the tunnels, and only half heartedly pursued the two before getting lost in the maze and calling it quits. the lovers were now free to live their own lives away from the war, they just needed to find a way out. she led him to the center of the kingdom as she knew past it was an exit near softbug territory that would hopefully aid in their escape if they too wanted an end to the war as bad as she did. the tunnel they were in widened until it was practically a cavern. they could tell they were now underneath the garden by the thick roots hanging down from the ceiling and continuing down into the earth far below. as they walked past they swore they could see eyes in the bark, and felt like they were being watched. princessbug looked back and took armysbug’s hand and began to run, only to turn back around to be face to face with an odd tree-like bug. it had a smile that looked almost carved into its face unnaturally wide, and eyes that seemed deeper than the abyss that swallowed kingsbug.

princessbug stammered through an awkward greeting and tried to slip past the bug but with a snap it's arm was perpendicular at once, expanding outwards unto the darkness of the cavern. a breeze suddenly blew through the tunnel, and like an odd instrument it caused the creature to speak. you do not want war, yes? it croaked, and the two simply nodded, very quickly. another gust: why not? the question was so asinine and stupid it took them a second to even formulate an answer, of course they wouldn't want war, it forces them to watch their loved ones die for a propagandized view of history, watch as thousands of innocent bugs are slaughtered for no good reason. any rational person would be against war on principle. the bug stood lifeless for a while before wheezing out a hm. is not death the most eternal of peace? this was getting philosophical and even a little comedic so princessbug just responded no, death is torture that severs one’s soul from their body, forever condemning them to the afterlife and could they please be let through. world of bugs has been a crazy ride for me and honestly i think i’m like so ready to get off jt lmfao like i have zero clue what to write i kinda forced myself into a corner like we know these bugs at least get out of the tunnel but princessbug ends up mortally wounded and armysbug can still walk and shit which means they have to get past this weirdbug (who i will explain in a bit) which probably means learning it's weakness or whatever which like i have no fucking clue what their weakness is or if they could think their way out of this i also think they're kind of like mega edgy and that's how the story has been going from 5 onwards is like super edgy and idk how i feel about that but anyway: the explanation for the weird bug is that they are what happened to the jestersbug after being put into the pod. in the ancient bug kingdom the original yggdrasil continued to expand into their cavern until it overtook it completely, including the pods. fhe tree tried to do the thing where it converts the bugs into life force and shoots them up through their trunk and into the t leaves and into the stars (an idea i had was that every star in the sky is actually a dead bug consumed by a yggdrasil tree, which i might still have be the case) but because of the pod they just sort of get shot out whole, save for jestersbug who due to an error in the pod gets lodged inside of the trunk of yggdrasil. the tree and the jestersbug sort of merge together, allowing them to materialize out of tree roots and harness the growth capabilities of the tree. the yggdrasils were parasites of the earth, slowly draining it of its life force, and their ultimate goal was to link the various yggdrasil trees across the world all undeground to form a network that could drain the life force of all life on earth. i’m also realizing that the bug in the grate who talked to washeranddryersbug was meant to be jestersbug but that doesn't really work if they're a sort of tree avatar? i thought jestersbug would provoke washeranddryersbug into harming neoyggdrasil so they could be free but 1 why would they want to hurt themselves and 2 they are the fucking tree so like ???? idk but yeah jestersbug tree avatar was supposed to be the main v illain of this.

i had plans for all the other ancient bugs as well, but maybe their stories can see the light of day sometime. cobblersbug and bakersbug are still considered missing, and we can just assume the events that happen in this aside are canon, only they're not written out in prose like the other stuff was. as this project continued it got more and more serious and less something i could do as like, a fun thing. book 4 is probably my favorite because i think it struck a good balance between fun and serious and lore stuff but it's still not like, garbage trash or anything. during this project i didn't write anything down externally, it's literally only been this document and my mind so i've been trying to keep track of characters in my head to bring back but sometimes that doesn't really work out like with the jestersbug in the grate thing. i think what i've taken from this experiment is that free writes are absolutely fucking fantastic to get the premise of a story down: the whole first book was great imo, it sets up the world in a funny yet simple and engaging way, and books 2-4 sorta just expand on that logically. however i tried to push it too far, and 5-7 are absolutely evidence of that. by not keeping a lore document for myself i ran into continuity issues, and if i had fleshed the characters out internally right after foreshadowing them, then i wouldn't run into issues like not knowing their weaknesses or whatever. i also had zero plan for the princessbug at all until this book so i remembered she was there and was like oh fuck i guess uhmmmm make her tie into the main villain or something?? i have no clue but past me wrote themselves into a corner with that one too. i don't think i’m done with world of bugs; i’m very proud of the greater world i've built and i have a shitton of ideas that i’d love to expand on the flesh out the world of bugs but this story in this method of storytelling wasn't it. thank you for my faithful readers and i will catch you eventually some other time or whatever.

fin.

[velvet-ink]

For the First Time, For the Last Time

A tragedy AU inspired by one anon’s terribly sad dream, in which Carlos dies during the break-up, and TK is left reeling in the aftermath that is months of buried feelings, the unexpected inheritance of the loft, and an uncomfortable revelation that Carlos never passed on the news of their break-up to his family.

Snippet below:

"Dad? What are you doing here?" 

"Hey, I uh…wanted to come by and see you." Owen's mouth curves into a tight smile that looks as forced as it probably feels, and only fleetingly meets TK's eyes before glancing past him, resolutely focused on something in the background. He clears his throat when TK doesn't show any sign of moving. 

"Oh, sorry," TK kicks the shoes laying haphazardly by the front door into a pile as he shuffles aside. "Come on in."

He returns to the kitchen, pulling out two glasses from the cupboard. "Can I get you something to drink? Water?" He supplies, realizing there's not much more than that to offer.

Owen politely accepts and seats himself at the edge of the sofa. There's a seriousness in the way he's carrying himself—shoulders taut, elbows perched on his knees, hands clasped together—a stark image to the ease with which he sat back, laughing and cheering only a week ago when they watched a game together in that same spot. 

"Can we sit for a moment?"

TK's hand stills over the tap, bottom lip working its way between his teeth. And there it is, he thinks. There's always a purpose.

It’s not lost on him that the question was spoken in the same tone as the ever tragic "we need to talk", which paired with a surprise visit, surely can't equate to anything good. 

"What's going on, Dad?" He asks cautiously, feet still rooted to their spot in the kitchen. "Is mom okay? Did something happen to Jonah?" 

"Yes, no–" Owen's face falls as he closes his eyes and shakes his head, "They're both fine. Your mom and brother are okay."

There's an uncomfortable beat, and dread starts to creep under TK's skin as he waits for the impending bomb to drop. "Is it you?" 

His dad runs his palms along the length of his thighs, nodding for TK to take the seat next to him. He sucks in a deep breath before finally meeting TK's gaze, "There's no easy way to tell you this." He pauses, and TK starts to hate the steady, measured way his dad delivers bad news. After years of practice, TK can barely remember so much as a falter, a crack, a slip of emotion to hint at how truly awful the words streaming out of his mouth would be. In the same careful and collected way TK has heard his dad speak to victims at a scene, Owen voices three very unexpected words. "Carlos is gone.”

The name catches him off guard.

It's so far from where TK thought this conversation was heading that it takes a few seconds to grasp what's actually been placed in front of him. His mom is okay. Nothing has happened to his brother. While the last question may have gone unanswered, for all intents and purposes, his dad is doing fine.

Carlos is gone.

He eyes his dad warily, the sentence tugging at a raw, dull ache in his heart. Carlos is a topic he's made abundantly clear he doesn't want to talk about, and in his mind, it certainly isn't one that warrants an impromptu visit. Owen, and the rest of the team for that matter, have tried broaching the subject a couple of times in the wake of their break-up, digging for information that really wasn't any of their business. 

Why did it end? Who ended it? What could have been so bad it led to this? Countless questions TK had no interest in answering.

After only being met with short, icy responses, they pretty much dropped it altogether. That was the end of it. Or at least, TK thought that had been the end of it. 

The thing is, TK knows he should have spoken to Carlos after he walked out of what was meant to be their loft. He knows leaving with an, "I don't think I can do this anymore," was a pathetic cop out—a lousy one at that—a way to run away without actually addressing any semblance of the problem. 

But each time he saw Carlos he couldn't bear to face him. Not when he looked so tired, so worn out, his eyes shining in a way that took TK's breath away with their beauty, yet lacked the sparkle which had once permanently resided there. Suddenly too much time had passed and it felt like TK missed his chance. The ship had sailed without him.

TK is all too well aware of this in fact, and his dad showing up unannounced, wielding Carlos' name, was simply another harsh reminder of just how badly he had fucked everything up.

"Okay…" his eyes narrow in suspicion, “Gone where?”

Owen only stares back, confusion slowly morphing into an array of pain and sympathy as he patiently waits for TK to slot the pieces together. "TK…"

"What?" He retorts, frustrated to be dancing around this conversation.

Owen lets out a heavy sigh, and TK immediately regrets his tone as he notices the exhaustion etched deep in the creases of his dad's face, hears the weight of it seep into his voice, and finally sees what he’s been missing. “Carlos...he’s dead.”

[jdrizzle15]

Her Second Return

Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.

But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!

I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…

A Father’s Words:

In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.

Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.

Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.

Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.

This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.

Building Relationship:

The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?

In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...

Representation of Hope:

At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.

Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!

In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.

In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.

It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.

Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them

The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.

A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.

Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.

The Void Screams:

Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.

Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.

And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.

Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.

The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.

Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.

Narnia Parallels:

Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.

Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.

Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.

The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ‘Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.

(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)

Norse Mythology:

The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.

Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.

I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.

The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.

The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.

There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.

This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.

Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.

It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.

Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!

(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)

Ambrosius and the Staff:

Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.

The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.

They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.

Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.

A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.

Musical Hints:

In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.

What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.

For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.

If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)

(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)

What We Didn’t See:

It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.

Pyrrha Parallel:

Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.

The Moment:

RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.

The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.

On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.

At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.

Transfer of Power:

As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.

A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.

Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.

This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?

An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.

It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!

And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...

Jaune’s Aura:

The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.

He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.

Pinocchio Allusion:

As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.

Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.

In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.

Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.

Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!

A Girl That Fell Through the World:

Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.

What Returning Brings:

Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.

As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.

Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.

I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.

It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.

I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!

As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.

I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.

I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!

@arcana-amicus

@catontheweb

@cosmokyrin

@gaydontmesswithme224

@jammatown919

@shadow-0f-x

They really helped get this thing across the finish line!

And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!

[thesolferino]

⤷ note: apologies for losing your request, anon, but thank you for requesting! this is my first time writing a full fic in second person, so bear with me, and i hope this is what you were looking for <3

The Great American Bake Off

pairing: corpse husband x gn!reader

word count: 3.6k

genre: fluff

summary: you’ve been jealous of rae and her closeness with your boyfriend since the dawn of time, but things change and friendships are made once she comes over for one hell of a cooking video.

Corpse, among many other things, was a man many wished to have.

It’s the truth; even if he didn’t have a YouTube channel through which millions kept up with everything from horror stories to Among Us gameplays, people would still turn heads and whisper whenever he spoke - that attention more than multiplied when he started blowing up and his social media presence grew.

With growth come numbers, and there are always people behind said numbers. Through them, Corpse makes wonderful friends - through them, you had met him, too. All the way back, during his horror narration days, you had grown to like him - really, who wouldn’t?

A DM you once sent after a few drinks, when you claimed to your friends you’d get the “deep-voiced man of your dreams” you often talked about and they, in turn, challenged you to message him, was nothing short of a joke and the idea of him responding was merely a pipe dream. What you hadn’t expected, however, was a response, which wrecked your brain at noon the next day, where your head throbbed with embarrassment, guilt, pride, happiness, a melt of hatred and gratefulness for your friends, panic and the remains of alcohol that tugged at every part of your skull.

It had turned out to be more than a great idea, though, because for the next few weeks you were constantly talking. You learned so much more than he let on in videos, and during late night calls you found out everything from his favorite clothing brand to his favorite color to his thoughts about his own mortality and then back to his favorite cereal. Audio calls and short voice messages turned into hours long FaceTimes that led you from friends to something more. And after a year or so of dating, you packed your bags and made it to sunny San Diego, ready to lay in his arms and sweat bullets.

Safe to say Corpse’s social media presence had its good sides. However, with all good things come bad things too, and you weren’t sure if the bad things were bad at all or you were simply too jealous.

Corpse made wonderful friends thanks to his YouTube channel. He met people he could confide in, meet, people he could talk to about his worst problems, people who would listen - he met people he could have fun with, with who he could forget all about the real world and his own issues, and simply laugh his heart away, play games until the late hours of the night.

If he had to name his closest ones, they would have to be Dave, Loey, maybe Mykie, possibly Jack, and Rae. And that is exactly where the root of the problem stood.

Rae is beautiful, and everyone who denies it must be either dumb or blind. She’s drop dead gorgeous, and funny, and kind, and smart, in a way that made you want to rip your hair out. You wanted to hate her so bad, because the jealousy ate away at you like a damn disease, but you couldn’t, because she was perfect Rae, and as much as you hated the fact she seemed to be perfect inside out, you just couldn’t hate her as her. It was impossible, you concluded.

You convinced yourself you weren’t jealous every time you heard him yelling or laughing at her from his office room - or at least you attempted to do so. Your lunch would turn sour and end up forgotten because you’d be way too focused on listening in on what he was doing and trying to make out what she was saying to even eat at the same pace you previously were. Jealousy ate away at you, no matter if you admitted it to yourself or not.

It didn’t go unnoticed by Corpse, of course. On one late night when you couldn’t sleep and neither could he, as per usual, you turned on a random comedy that you half-heartedly paid attention to, his fingers combing through the knots in your hair peacefully and the slow pace of the movie lulling you to sleep slowly. That is, before his phone rang and lit the mostly dark room. You managed to sneak a glance at the notification before he had, and the familiar bitterness seeped between your ribs as always upon seeing the name displayed at the top of the message, more than awake now.

You visibly stiffened when he laughed at the message and typed something back, shifting your head in his lap as some subconscious attempt at getting him to pay attention to you instead. He put his phone down and you huffed, eyes locked on the TV screen as you pretended to be extremely absorbed in the movie even though you weren’t quite sure of the difference between the protagonist and antagonist anymore. His hands didn’t return to your hair, and that somehow made you even more annoyed.

“What’s up?” Corpse quietly spoke up, barely over the volume over the already quiet movie.

“Nothing.” You said, quicker than you wanted to, and you bit your tongue in cringe when you realised it was an awful lie. Corpse seemed to think the same.

“That’s bullshit. Seriously, what’s wrong?” He asked, and was met with pure silence. In reality, you were hoping he’d simply never realise you were somewhat jealous, because you knew you were being stupid and unreasonable, but you couldn’t help wanting him all to yourself. Admitting it out loud made it so much more real, and so much more embarrassing that you would rather bury yourself alive than admit to being jealous of Rae, of all people.

After a few seconds of silence, save the laughter of characters on screen, he spoke again.

“Are you jealous?” The hint of a teasing tone in his voice made you want to rip your hair out of your skull. Was it really that damn hard to believe that yes, you were jealous of an extremely close friend of his? Was it a crime?

The clenching of your jaw seemed to give Corpse enough of a response, and his hands returned to running themselves through your hair as he giggled to himself. 

“What’s so damn funny?” You borderline spat, causing his movements to halt for a second before continuing with even louder laughter.

“I don’t know, just the idea of you being jealous of Rae is so funny. I’ve noticed the way you roll your eyes whenever I text her in front of you. You’re not exactly sneaky, you know?” His words made blood rush straight to your face, cheeks heating up in embarrassment. How long has he known this for?

“Sorry. I don’t…” you exhaled and attempted to smile. “I don’t know what’s up with me. I’m so jealous nowadays. I don’t even know why.”

“There’s enough of me to share with everyone, no worries baby.” he replied, teasing tone still yet to dissipate as you slap his knee in mock offense and he starts wheezing.

“Absolutely not! Fucking excuse you, I’m not sharing with anyone!” you gaped at him as he kept laughing.

That was the end of it - or at least Corpse thought so. Needless to say, he was wrong.

Your mood would instantly turn sour whenever he’d laugh at one of her messages, and you attempted to push down every eye roll whenever he’d sit on his phone, between your legs, back turned to you so you could see everything, and open Rae’s DMs again. Sometimes you managed, sometimes you couldn’t help it, but you did your best to do it whenever he wasn’t looking. Because you truly knew you were being unreasonable, especially whenever you have to relay situations like how he had to postpone a date one time because Rae asked him to play Rust for a bit longer and you almost ripped all your hair out of your skull in frustration back to your best friend who just turned Rae and Corpse into the villains in the situation because that’s what best friends are supposed to do.

Not like he was going out of his way to talk to her a concerning amount, they mostly talked in groupchats and on streams and that was only a few times weekly, but it did absolutely nothing to calm the green monster growing stronger in you every day, fed by every laugh she got out of him.

The green monster fucking loved it when Corpse excitedly announced to you that he’s finally meeting his friends for the first time, and by friends meaning Rae, Sykkuno and Karl. You, however… were far from impressed.

He paced around the room in excitement, a mix of obvious anxiety and joy evident on his face, and he fiddled with the strings of his hoodie with shaky hands as he very proudly announced that he would be the second tallest person in the room through a blinding, pearly grin, and seeing him so electrified couldn’t help but make you shut your jealous thoughts up, even if just for a little bit, and mirror his grin back to him.

What did, however, make you as anxious as him was when he announced they’d a) be coming to your shared apartment and b) making a cooking video - it sent you into a panicked mom mode as you dusted every corner of every room and vacuumed everything from the kitchen to the balcony and Corpse did nothing but record you as you anxiously rambled and laugh at you from his place on your bed.

When the dreaded Saturday finally came, and the first person to arrive, Sykkuno, rang your doorbell, you squeezed Corpse’s hand to stop him from nervously toying with his rings and opened the door, and you greeted the man like he was your own brother and not a person you’d seen probably a total of three times through the computer screen and someone who’s seen you maybe two times, from the pictures Corpse sent him, in your best attempt to make both of them more comfortable. It actually kind of worked - turns out Sykkuno is a pretty affectionate guy, too, and a conversation started as soon as he stepped in. Corpse gave you a look when you pulled away from Sykkuno’s half-hug, and you almost laughed out loud at the irony when his phone lit up with a notification from Rae announcing she was almost there at that exact moment.

She had kept true to her word; ten minutes or so later, another ring was heard and you gestured to Corpse to open it this time as you gave Sykkuno his cup of water and resisted any and every urge to roll your eyes or do something otherwise bitchy and stupid. Corpse did as told, and you watched them hug and listened to Rae squeal in excitement through the open door of the living room and decided to plaster a smile on your face for as long as you could muster before you remove yourself from the situation when they start filming.

Unfortunately for you, the first person she locked eyes with was exactly you, and they lit up an even prettier brown (if that was even possible) as she beelined to you and you barely got a greeting out before she engulfed you in a large hug, arms wrapping around your neck as she swayed both of you side to side.

“Oh my God, you must be Y/N! I’ve heard so much about you, it’s so nice to finally meet you!” Rae cheered into your ear before she finally pulled back, before shooting an infectious grin at you that you couldn’t help but return back.

“All good things, I hope.” you chuckled as she moved to greeting Sykkuno, and nodded her head with an enthusiastic giggle of her own. You eyed Corpse for a second who simply leaned against the door frame, watching the whole thing unfold with somewhat of a proud smile on his face, before Rae turned back to you and your attention was on her again.

“Of course! Corpse is very much a simp for you, you know that?” She said and both you and Corpse laughed, especially him, who nodded his head in agreement as she sat back down, still beaming at you.

“Well, I’m happy to hear that.” you respond before turning back to Corpse. “Where’s Karl at?”

“He’ll be here in half an hour or so, he only landed recently.” he said. You nodded and moved to sit on a nearby chair to leave space for the guests on the couch.

Karl ended up arriving in twenty minutes and apprised everyone of the information that “his taxi driver is a psycho that, apparently, doesn’t fear stop signs or the police” before setting up the camera in your kitchen and tried his best to attach lapel mics on everybody (admittedly, it took way longer than it should’ve, but he eventually managed and that counted as a win in his book). You reluctantly agreed to be the judge of the finished product when they’re done cooking, and Karl was there for the purposes of being a cameraman and making jokes off screen so he agreed too, albeit way more enthusiastically than you.

The two of you sat behind the camera as the three of them lined up, Corpse wearing a mask and his signature eyepatch (that he didn’t really need, but those two did their job in preserving his privacy) and introduced what they were doing. Corpse was obviously very anxious, hands fidgeting constantly and shivering like a dog after a bath despite the hoodie he was wearing in 100 degree weather because of the shower of sweat that was now drying on his body, and that was partly why you were there, supportive smiles, encouraging cheers and all.

They were making Mexican ground beef tacos, and despite knowing Corpse can barely make a sandwich without setting at least two dishes on fire, you still cheered him on proudly and repeated he was part Mexican himself roughly 5 times a minute, claiming he was going to kill it.

“Kill it? More like kill one of us- CORPSE watch what you’re doing with that fucking knife! You’re proving my point!” Rae yelled at him as he giggled in delight, watching the woman gape at him in pure horror and Sykkuno watch his movements completely entranced as he played with the knife in his hands.

“You’re just mad that he’s going to make tacos fifty times better than you.” you said to Rae, chewing down on some M&Ms that Karl and you shared (both of you decided on a genius plan - you’re going to eat the whole bag before they’re done with cooking so you can claim you’re full and therefore can’t eat the atrocity that will most likely be the tacos).

“Don’t gas me up like that, Y/N, you are well aware I’m shit at cooking. Expect absolutely nothing from me.” he replied over the sizzling of the meat on the pan, throwing a whole spoonful of chili powder into it, earning loud yelling and scolding from your side and loud laughter from Rae.

“HALF A TEASPOON! Half a teaspoon, how have you not remembered this already?! We’ve made tacos a million times now, oh my God, you’re actually stupid.” you yelled at him, arms flailing in the direction of the seasoning to emphasise your ‘half a teaspoon’ point as Rae doubled over in laughter and Sykkuno looked into the pan with a concerned and somewhat afraid look. Just as he peeked in, the overwhelming smell of chili powder started biting away at his eyes, and he jumped away with a yelp.

“Jesus, Corpse!” he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes with his forearm as the whole room burst into laughter and Corpse suspiciously inspected his beef.

“What were you saying about your ‘Mexican king’, Y/N?” Rae asked, pulling out a few tortillas and putting them on the table. You huffed, grabbing another handful of M&Ms.

“Giving him up to God. He’s the only one who can help, at this point.” you said. She giggled in response and Corpse let out some sort of protesting sound and waved his knife around in complaint. “I don’t know who this man is. He broke into my kitchen and now I’m here.”

“Hey, I pay half of your rent!” he said, and you were about to reply but Rae dropped her meat into a pan full of overheated oil, and a loud hiss and some sort of a scream overtook the room as a cloud of steam shot into the air and she frantically looked around for the wooden spoon so the meat wouldn’t stick to the pan. You simply sat and laughed, eating the candy like it was popcorn and you were watching a shitty cooking show - it wasn’t that far from reality, really.

“Um, I just realised I don’t make many tacos, actually.” she said as she helplessly stirred the meat, turning to you with pleading eyes. “What seasoning even goes into this? Y/N, will you help me? Let’s team up against Corpse!”

You tilted your head in thought, but before you could even speak, Corpse spoke up.

“That’s not fucking fair, that’s-that’s against the rules.” he turned to you. “You won’t betray me, right?”

You laughed at him, adjusting in your seat. “I gave up on you ever since you added, like, 3 kilos of seasoning into the meat for no reason.” then you turned to Rae. “Sure, let’s do it, babe.”

Their loud yelling immediately started mixing, Rae’s cheers contrasting Corpse’s protesting. She stuck her tongue out at him meanwhile Corpse shot her the middle finger, and she turned back to you with a grin.

“Alright, what do I put in?”

Roughly twenty unnecessary and extremely long minutes later, the tacos were done, two each for each of them. Rae’s looked the best - probably because you guided her through the whole thing - next to Sykkuno’s, whose you were genuinely intrigued to try. While Corpse was arguing with Rae, he burned roughly half of his already ruined beef, and Karl made the very nice observation that it looked like a bird shat in a tortilla, which you proclaimed as the highlight of the video.

Since you and Karl claimed you were full, the three of them simply swapped tacos between each other as to be unbiased, and the two of you watched in amused suspense. You were actually quite interested to see what the end results were - you were first anxious and quite annoyed you even had to participate in the first place, because it meant losing your mind from jealousy, watching Corpse and Rae giggle and act all domestic while cooking, but jealousy simply dissipated somewhere half through the video as you watched the three argue if cheddar cheese belonged on tacos or not and Rae laugh at every stupid joke you cracked. Now, you sat, fully immersed as you stared at Sykkuno’s face; the poor guy ended up with the misfortune of having to try Corpse’s taco first.

“Zoom in, zoom in!” you whispered into Karl’s ear who complied and zoomed into Sykkuno’s face. He bit into the taco, chewing for a second before his face twisted in disgust and you began wheezing when he grabbed a tissue and spit it out, immediately grabbing his glass of water. Rae laughed at him as well, mouth full of his one, which she claimed she actually liked but it wasn’t as good as the “Y/NRae-co” as she proudly called it. Corpse silently ate Rae’s taco and refused to give a review on it because he was upset he got defeated, but the fact that he scarfed down the whole thing in a minute or so was enough of a review.

“Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad.” Corpse exclaimed when he saw Sykkuno’s bite in the tissue, grabbing the second taco he made and biting down on it. The whole room burst into laughter when he roughly swallowed, tears obvious in the one eye that showed, because of the overly spicy beef.

“What are you motherfuckers laughing at? It’s not that bad, I stand by tacorpse.”

“Tacorpse is actually genius. The one good thing you came up with during the entirety of this video.” Rae said and Corpse mumbled a fuck you in response.

“Well, I think we can all agree that me and Y/N’s taco was clearly the best.” she said, clasping her hands together.

“I actually think mine was better.” Sykkuno said, to which she pushed his plate out of the frame.

“Nobody asked you anything.”

“Don’t bully Sykkuno, I’ll fucking kick you out.”

“Oh yeah? I’m pretty sure Y/N would kick you out before they’d let you kick me!” Rae said, accusingly pointing her taco in Corpse’s direction.

“Alright, let’s wrap up the video.” Karl laughed behind the camera, and the three of them all turned to properly face it and end the video.

“Thank you all so much for watching, this has been an… interesting video, to say the least. Uh, thank you to Karl for filming this whole disaster, thank you to Corpse,” Rae gestured in his direction, “for lending us his kitchen, thank you to Sykkuno for probably getting us more views on this video, and also a big thank you to Y/N, Corpse’s better half for making this video way more interesting and helping me make probably, like, the best taco I’ve ever made.” she grinned and you shoved a peace sign in front of the camera.

“If you liked this video, check out Sykkuno and Corpse’s channels, they will be linked down below, and please click like and subscribe to support the channel! Again, thank you all for watching, see you later, bye!” she finished, and with that, Karl turned the camera off.

Silence engulfed the room. You sighed.

“Alright, who’s gonna clean this shit up?”

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Korra and her Brutalization: A Legend of Korra Meta

In honor of International Womens’ Day, I want to talk a little bit about Legend of Korra and the treatment of Korra (and to a small extent other women) throughout the show. Content warning: there's some disturbing scenes that I show here, but if you've watched all of LoK, you should be fine.

Korra starts off confident; she is a young avatar who is eager to learn and feels suffocated from the isolation she is kept in from a very young age. But that doesn’t stop her, and like the headstrong girl she is, she moves to Republic City to make a difference and step into her role as the avatar.

Korra immediately starts to doubt herself; she becomes unsure of her abilities and frustrated with herself, and through that she learns to become emotionally vulnerable with Tenzin. To me, this was really great. It showed that you can be confident and vulnerable, and that the two aren’t necessarily independent of each other.

(I’m going to be honest, the 2nd season I didn’t really remember much of, so I’m just going to skip over that. Because what I really want to talk about is season 3.)

In season three, Korra faces the Red Lotus, an “anarchist” group that essentially wants to kill her. And they get pretty close. First, I want to talk about how Tenzin is beaten by the Red Lotus. This has been brought up in Lily Orchard’s (in?)famous LOK video, and while I disagree with her on many many topics of the show, I really think she has a point here. When Tenzin is being brutalized by the Red Lotus, the camera pans away. It is SO painful to see him like this, and the directors know it. It’s TOO painful to see it, so they don’t show you it, and the episode ends before we can see him be defeated.

Contrast that with Korra. They show you every detail of this. And I mean every detail.

It’s disgusting, and they refuse to treat her with any sort of decency or respect like they do Tenzin. It’s almost like they want us to enjoy her torturing. It’s genuinely gross.

People will often refute this by saying “LoK is just a darker show! Look at what they did to the Earth Queen!” And while yes, it is marketed towards an older audience, there’s still no point in brutalizing Korra this way. The main difference between Korra and the Earth Queen is that… well, Korra’s the protagonist. We’re supposed to be rooting for her, and while the Earth Queen being suffocated was definitely dark, it wasn’t unprecedented. The audience was never supposed to like the Earth Queen—she exploited and kidnapped her own people, so of course we wouldn’t care THAT much if she died. But we’ve been with Korra since the beginning. We’re supposed to want her to be happy, and why on earth would we want her to be tortured brutally in such a disgusting way that gives her absolutely no dignity? If we want her to succeed?

(here Zaheer uses the same technique used on the Earth Queen to suffocate here on Korra. for some reason)

In Season 4, the main focus is on Korra and her healing from the brutal things the Red Lotus did to her. She is clearly still struggling, and it could have been another great way to show how being physically strong and confident doesn’t mean you can’t be vulnerable. But they make a lot of bad choices in this season.

One of my main gripes is that in order to heal, she has to return to her abuser, Zaheer, and HE has to teach her how to feel better.

I don’t want to compare LoK to ATLA, although it’s very important to mention that a show that’s a direct sequel, uses its old characters, and banks off of references, should be able to be compared to its predecessor. But I think it’s important to compare Korra’s arc here to Zuko. This doesn’t come out of nowhere; Korra has a lot of similarities to Zuko. The chopping of her hair is a significant turning point in her arc, and there’s an episode called “Korra Alone” (which is clearly a direct callback; shown below).

The difference between Zuko and Katara is that, a. Zuko never had to accept his abuser, and b. Zuko started off as a villain.

One of Zuko’s major points is when he confronts his father—his abuser. He does not bow to him and give in, saying that maybe he had a few good points or his heart was in the right place, but he directly says that Ozai was wrong for what he did. This isn’t the case with Korra. For some reason, Korra has to learn to trust her abuser. The person who did this to her:

And she has to hear him out.

This leads me to my second point, and what’s basically the complaint I have; despite being a protagonist, the show treats Korra like a villain. It frames her torture scenes as if we’re supposed to be excited that she’s being brutalized, as if we’re supposed to think she deserves it. And it’s not even handled properly as one of the villains we know so well—Zuko, who was able to overcome his abuse and become a protagonist who we root for. Again, Zuko and Korra aren’t directly the same characters, but there are parallels between the two and the show encourages their comparison. When it comes to Korra, however, we’re supposed to believe that she deserves everything that comes to her; the brutal scenes and the lack of dignity, even if she is a protagonist.

And in the end, that’s what we’re meant to believe; that Korra deserved what happened to her. In the finale, Korra says, “I finally understand why I had to go through all that. I needed to understand what true suffering was, so I could become more compassionate to others.”

This is, to put it short, ridiculous. I hate this so much I can’t even begin to say how much I hate it. No, Korra did not have to go through the torture she went through. She did not have to go through the mercury poisoning. She did not have to go through every hardship she did. This “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is so harmful because Korra’s healing revolved around accepting her abuser and thanking him for the awful things he did to her. Korra wasn’t even that cocky by the end of the first season, so what it’s essentially indirectly teaching girls is that if you’re confident, you’ll pay. It’s disgusting.

Zuko got a banishment to the Earth Kingdom, got to have his ideas and practices challenged, but he never got physically tortured. I truly, truly believe that one of the main reasons why Korra is quite literally villainized by the show is because she was a confident, brown teenage girl. None of the male characters are treated with such disrespect and we never get told that they need to be “humbled” by abuse.

This is not completely resolved to LoK; there are some aspects in ATLA that I think could’ve been fixed had there been more women in the room. I tag her a lot (bc her metas are awesome), but I really recommend you read @araeph 's Katara: Consumed by Destiny series. I also have a meta here about how Katara is treated in ATLA, specifically in “The Fortuneteller.” (I want to emphasize that while I am anti-Kataang, I don’t believe that Katara’s treatment had to do with the ship itself or that kataang is inherently anti-Katara. It’s just a note about how her character is treated in this episode and beyond.)

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re ‘glad’ that LoK didn’t feature Suki or Mai or Ty Lee, because they can’t imagine how poorly they’d be represented. And honestly, I can’t blame them.

This isn’t to say that we need to stop watching LOK or even ATLA. I think the internet has this weird problem where we’ve been told that the way to get rid of problematic media is to just stop consuming anything even remotely problematic altogether. But certain aspects of media will always be relatively problematic, since as content creators we sometimes input our biases into the things we create. The solution, then, is not to banish anyone who puts any harmful stereotypes into their content from society, but to actively and healthily criticize it. Bryke are not God, but they’re also not demons put on the earth to suppress woc. They’re white guys that have implicit biases that have worked their way into the content they produce. I think the lesson learned here, is to have women, especially BIWOC, in writing rooms, to prevent atrocious acts from happening to future Korra's.

Happy International Women’s Day, y’all.

[helnjk]

Bad Idea - F.W.

Fred Weasley x fem!reader

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates 🤍 Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season & new year 🧚🏼‍♀️

this is the first installment of my showtunes fic list, based on the song bad idea from the musical waitress !

Summary: fred weasley has the ability to get under her skin in a way no one else can. he also sends butterflies straight to her stomach like no one else can. 

Word Count: 4.1k

Warnings: enemies to lovers, slight cursing, steamy scenes but no outright smut

song lyrics are bolded & italicized

-

It’s a bad idea me and you

Y/N rolled her eyes as the Weasley twins made something or other explode at the Gryffindor table at breakfast. The awed cheers and whispers of her schoolmates at the colorful display of miniature fireworks did nothing to sway her opinion on the irritating duo. In fact, it might have even made her dislike for them grow.

It wasn’t as if she had no basis for hating the pair of them. They had been nothing but rude to her since their first year, and she was sure it was mostly due to her adorning the green and silver crest on her school robes. She had been at the receiving end of their nasty pranks more than she liked to admit, and some of them weren’t even a sliver funny. 

As if he practiced legilimency, the older twin’s eyes moved from his showy display of spellwork to hers and sent a subtle wink in Y/N’s way. 

“Like what you see, Y/L/N?” Fred yelled across the hall, causing the onlookers to turn their heads in her direction. 

Angrily, she felt heat flood her cheeks, “Not at all Weasley. Just wondering how many points I could take away from Gryffindor today.” 

She heard the members of her table snickering quietly at the sound of points lost for their least favorite house, but she paid them no mind. In all honesty, she knew that no amount of points taken away would sway the Weasley twins from their mischief making. 

Later in the day while Y/N made her way from her last class to the library to catch up on some coursework, she heard the familiar snickers of the two boys she wanted to interact with the least. 

“Oi! Watch where you’re going!” She yelled, annoyance bubbling in the pit of her stomach as the redheaded menaces rushed past her and nearly knocked her over. 

“Going to take some more points from Gryffindor, Y/L/N?” Fred taunted over his shoulder as his brother let out a huff of laughter. 

“Well, it’s not like she has any other important things taking up her time, don’t you think Freddie?” George said.

“You are absolutely right, George.” He replied. 

“Honestly, don’t you two have anything better to do than get on my nerves all the time?” She gritted out.

The twins slowed their pace and Fred turned around casually to wink at her, “No can do, love.” 

“Don’t call me love!”  

Their raucous laughter echoed across the hall as she pushed past them in a huff. Stupid redheaded twins. Stupid Fred with his stupid teasing. Stupid George for laughing and egging him on. 

Something about the way she determinedly called out over her shoulder made Fred pause. 

Her eyes caught the fading light that streamed through the windows of the hallway, and shone brightly. Her skin seemed to glow in the amber light, reflecting the sun as it set in the horizon. The way she moved so confidently as she weaved through the sea of students made heads turn, and Fred was beginning to understand why their gaze gravitated towards her. 

He had never noticed how pretty Y/N had gotten over the years. Another pause. Did he find her pretty? 

Yeah, pretty annoying. He tried to reason with himself, but still he couldn’t shake this new feeling. 

For the rest of the week, Fred had decided that if he couldn’t get her out of his mind, he would simply have to make sure he was on hers as well. Whenever the two of them walked past each other in the halls, he always had some sort of cheeky remark up his sleeve. 

Subtly, he would get close enough for their shoulders to brush and would mutter under his breath, just enough for her to hear. 

“Looking good today, Y/L/N, such a shame you’re a snake.”

“What’s a lad got to do to take a pretty prefect like you out on a date?” 

“Cat’s got your tongue, Y/L/N? I know it’s ‘cause you think I look right fit, you don’t have to say anything.”

The more she ignored his comments, the more it seemed to spur him on. She would catch him sending her flirtatious winks during meals, feel his gaze on hers in their shared classes, or hear him whisper something or other to his twin while he glanced in her direction. 

If it wasn’t something he said, he would manage to send practically every kind of prank her way. Tripping jinxes, jelly-legs jinxes, dung bombs in classrooms she was about to enter, puking pastilles or nosebleed nougats slipped into her drinks. 

It was getting to a point that Y/N grew frustrated and angry all day. Her friends tended to avoid her when she got this way because she would just repeat the same things over and over again to anyone who would bother to listen. 

Fred Weasley was a massive arse. Fred Weasley could jump in the lake and be used as food for the Giant Squid for all she cared. Fred Weasley this and Fred Weasley that. 

They had even once asked her why it was specifically him that she complained about and not just the Weasley twins in general. 

“Well, both of them do irritate me to no end,” She explained, “But there’s just something about Fred that irks the hell out of me. Merlin, does he know how to push my buttons!”

Y/N didn’t know what it was about Fred that got her going. It might have been because he was the instigator of most of the twins’ pranks, that he acted first and thought of the consequences later. It might have been that he would purposely send bludgers her way whenever Slytherin played Gryffindor and the many bruises that came from it.

It might have been the little flutters she would get whenever he whispered something cheeky into her ear. But that last one she had a hard time admitting to even herself. 

By the end of the week, Y/N was at her wits end. Every time the bell rang and she gathered up her things, her hand would clutch her wand, ready to put up a small shield charm or send a hex in the direction of a certain redhead. 

It being the weekend, many of her fellow classmates rushed out the door the moment they were dismissed from class. Y/N took her time packing her things back up, as her only plans for the night were to catch up on one of the novels she had had no time to read recently. As she exited the classroom, her eyes scanned the bare hallway for any sign of Fred. Her suspicions rose when she began her walk back to her common room and nothing out of the ordinary happened. 

She soon stood corrected as a flash of red hair danced in her vision and she was suddenly pressed up against a wall. 

With a gasp she said, “Weasley? What in Merlin’s name are you–”

“Can’t be quiet for a second, can you, Y/N?” Fred teased, his lips skimming the shell of her ear and sending shivers down her spine. 

She gulped at the proximity of their bodies, her eyes darting around the empty hallway for any onlookers. 

“Get on with whatever this is then,” She breathed, trying to keep her nonchalant act up, “I have other plans for tonight that I’d rather be doing.” 

A slow chuckle escaped Fred’s lips, causing her heart to beat even more erratically than she thought possible, “So impatient love.” 

“And I told you not to call me ‘love’.” 

His eyes darted quickly to her lips and she could only hope that he couldn’t feel just how fast her heart was beating, “I’m going to kiss you now.” 

He waited for her to give him any sign of discomfort or to say no, but she merely glanced at his lips and back up at his warm brown eyes. Then, as quickly as he had appeared in front of her, his head dipped and he captured her lips in his. 

Y/N felt all the breath in her body leave as Fred pressed the searing kiss on her lips. He was intoxicating, his smell, the feel of his skin as she gripped onto his strong biceps, the way his breath mingled with hers. 

When they broke apart, his eyes trailed the length of her body in a way that made goosebumps rise from her flesh. Y/N thought she must have looked like a fish out of water, mouth slightly agape and eyes wide. 

“Just a taste of what could be.” He winked at her and then turned on his heel, “Think about it, Y/L/N.” 

Far longer than she would like to admit, Y/N stayed rooted on the spot, staring in the direction that Fred Weasley had disappeared in and fingers running along the lips that he had claimed. 

Heart keep racing Let’s make mistakes

The adrenaline pumping through Y/N’s veins gave her a feeling of weightlessness and grounding at the same time. Being Slytherin’s best beater came with the responsibility of carrying most of the game and she played her role well. Still, she always made it a point to play fair and to compensate for the shitty sportsmanship the rest of her team subscribed to. 

When she had spotted a bludger to her right, making its way to where Malfoy was slowly circling, she set off. With a strong swing of her bat, she had it hurtling in the direction of one of the Gryffindor chasers. Neither of the Weasley twins was able to make it in time and the ball scraped the unassuming chaser’s shoulder. 

With the boost of confidence this gave her, she proceeded to play one of the best matches of the season. A triumphant grin etched its way onto her face at the frustration leaking from the Weasley twins, who were trying to keep up with her and her co-beater’s synchronization. 

Though, she had to admit that the way Fred’s arms flexed and his grunts of exertion every time he did manage to hit the bludger were a tad bit distracting too. The cheeky winks he sent her way weren’t helping either. 

“Feeling a bit tired, Weasley?” She teased when he began to hover close to her, “Can’t keep up?” 

“In your dreams, Y/L/N!” He all but growled and the fire in his eyes made her heart stutter for just a second before she set off in pursuit of another bludger. 

The game had ended when Malfoy caught the snitch, a feat especially when Gryffindor had Potter, and Slytherin had won.

She couldn’t help but feel a smug sense of pride as she and the rest of the team walked out of the pitch, hearing the cheers of her house at the stands. She took her time in the changing rooms, trying to still her erratically beating heart. Her teammates slowly trickled out, reminding her of the celebrations that were definitely going to happen in the common room. 

When she heard footsteps approaching the tent just as she had finished stuffing everything in her bag, she had just assumed that one of her teammates had forgotten something. She stood corrected. 

“Quite a game today, wouldn’t you say?” 

The familiar baritone voice made Y/N pause. Without turning to face him, she said in reply, “Definitely, Weasley. It’s always nice to kick your sorry arse out on the pitch.” 

“Now, now Y/N,” He drawled, his voice inching closer to where she stood rooted on the spot. Her hand gripped at the strap of her bag as she tried to think of an escape route, “That’s definitely not the context I imagined you’d be talking about when you first mentioned my arse.” 

She let out a scoff at his insinuation, but couldn’t shake the feeling that he could see right through her bluff. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she realized that she was trapped in the quidditch changing rooms with the person who had been plaguing her thoughts. 

The air surrounding the pair was thick with tension and charged with electricity. Countless days of teasing and rivalry, all the discreet glances and brushes of shoulders against each other, bottled up into a single moment, this moment. By the time Y/N had turned to face the cause of the palpitations in her chest, he was mere inches away. 

His hot breath fanned her face and his deep brown eyes scanned over her. She could practically feel the heat of his body against hers, white hot and tempting. He knew exactly what he was doing to her. 

“What do you want, Weasley?” She breathed, finally managing the courage to meet his eyes. 

“You.” He said simply, tongue darting out to dampen his lips. 

For a moment, it was as if they had both stopped breathing. Neither of them said a word or moved an inch, anticipating the other’s next move. 

“Fuck it.”

Before Y/N could let out a word, his lips were on hers and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. 

All of the frustration and built up resentment between the pair of them came to play in the harshness of his kiss. It was not sweet nor soft, not what one would imagine a kiss between a prince and a princess to be. Rather, it was passionate, playful, and powerful. Two opposing forces clashing against each other, their convergence causing an eruption of flames. 

Fred was not a shy person, and it was evident in the way he kissed her. 

If she was the least bit surprised, he couldn’t tell, because as soon as his arms rested on the small of her back, she pressed her palms against his chest and leaned into him. For once, she let him take the lead and their mouths molded together in a passionate dance. 

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” She gasped as they broke apart for air, chests rising and falling rapidly. 

“You think too much.” He responded, leaning down to capture her lips in his once more. 

The way his lips deftly glazed over her neck and attached themselves to the point right below her ear made small sounds of pleasure escape her lips and her hips rutted against his. 

These sounds only spurred him further as his arms slid down from her waist to the backs of her thighs, urging her to wrap them around him. She complied, and soon her back was against the wall as he continued the assault on her neck. 

When the pair finally broke away, they took a moment to breathe, panting heavily. Y/N was the first to break the silence, laughing slightly at the compromising position they were in, and how they had just spent the last several minutes taking their frustrations out on each other. 

“What’s so funny then,” Fred smiled as he slowly eased his grip on her thighs, lowering her back to the floor.

“Nothing,” She shook her head, surprised at how casual they treated the situation, “Just not what I’d expected to happen when Slytherin won today.” 

“And what did you expect?” He quirked an eyebrow, “Especially when you were out there playing so well and looking that good.” 

Y/N had to bite her lip to keep herself from grinning like an idiot, “Definitely not snogging you in the changing rooms, that’s for sure.” 

“I know for a fact that you quite enjoyed what we did,” He whispered, pulling her close to him once more and closing the gap between them.

“In your dreams, Weasley.” She breathed.

And then his lips were on hers again. And again and again and again.

-

Over the course of the next few weeks, many noticed how the dynamics between the two shifted ever so slightly. There were still jeers and taunts in the halls, teasing comments made in classes or during meals, but there were also fewer eye rolls and less malice behind their words. It was almost as if they had an unspoken agreement. 

The only one who had really caught on to what was really happening between the two of them was George, and it was only because he walked in on them on Fred’s bed in the dorms. 

Y/N had been on top of Fred, straddling his midsection and pressing soft kisses all along his face and jaw, while he had his arms wrapped around her waist and held her tightly. Chest to chest, a soft hum verbrated from him as she continued her ministrations.

There wasn’t any sort of sexual tension at that moment, in fact, there hadn’t been an ounce of it the whole day. Laying like this with Fred made Y/N all sorts of confused, but she still enjoyed whatever the hell was happening between them.

It was cut short, though, as George had walked through the threshold of the dorm and saw their slightly compromised position. 

“Bloody hell!” He exclaimed, and Y/N sprung up immediately, his twin’s arms falling limply at his sides at her sudden movement. 

“Erm-” She mumbled, trying to move away, but Fred had none of it. If at all, his grip on her thighs tightened. 

She could feel his body shaking from the laugh he was trying to hold in, and smacked him on the chest, “Fred! Stop that!” 

“What?” He laughed, “It’s not like he saw anything, did you, Georgie?”

George, who was still trying to process what he had just witnessed, blinked a couple of times before shaking his head in disbelief, “Good Godric, so this is why you two have been acting so odd lately?” 

“Well, it’s not as if we’re bloody dating,” Fred rolled his eyes, but Y/N felt her heart skip a beat, “We’re just having some fun s’all.”

She swallowed the lump that was suddenly in her throat and gave a feeble nod, “Yep. Just some fun.” 

It was a pretty good bad idea  Wasn’t it though?

Y/N didn’t know why she began avoiding Fred. 

To everyone else in the school, all was well. The teasing between them hadn’t stopped. The little jabs at meals, in classes, or out in the hallways still happened. She was still a prefect and took points from Gryffindor whenever she caught the twins outside of curfew or running from Filch. They were both still beaters who played for their respective teams and shot remarks mockingly at one another out on the pitch.

Outside of those moments, though, Y/N made it a point to walk the other direction when she saw him walking her way, with or without his twin. She would slip out of shared classes as soon as the bell rang and their professor dismissed them. She even went as far as hiding in a spare broom closet once, when she was doing her prefect rounds and heard his telltale laughter just around the corner. 

They hadn’t shared a moment alone in a few weeks and Fred had wracked his brain trying to figure out what he did wrong. Their set-up had been practically perfect before she started avoiding him. Stolen kisses and the excitement of sneaking around with her were some of the best times of his life there in Hogwarts. He hadn’t had the Gryffindor courage to tell her how he really felt, but at least they shared intimate moments alone, away from prying eyes and judgemental stares. 

Instead, now he had taken to staring at her whenever he could, replaying all of their previous interactions to find out what went wrong between them. 

“Oi, quit staring at Y/N before McGonagall takes points from us for not paying attention to her,” George hastily whispered one day.

“I’m not doing anything wrong,” Fred defended, his eyes still locked on Y/N. She paid him no mind, unconsciously twirling the quill in her hands and chewing on her bottom lip. 

He thought she looked stunning. 

“I never thought I would say this,” George groaned softly, “But you’ve gotta listen in class right now or else we’ll lose even more points and everyone’ll be right chuffed. We can figure out your dumb bird problems after.” 

With a roll of his eyes, Fred finally brought his attention back to what their professor was going on about. He’d worry about whatever was going on with Y/N later. 

-

“I think it’s simple, really,” George shrugged, later on in the day when it was just the two of them in their dorm. He leant back against the headboard of his four-poster, an image of calm and nonchalance. 

“On with it then!” Fred exclaimed, the exact opposite of his twin at the moment. He fidgeted from his position on his own bed, his foot tapped anxiously on the hardwood floor and his hand kept running through his already disheveled hair. 

George couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His own twin, all out of balance because of some bird. 

But it wasn’t just any bird, he knew, it was Y/N. And if it had to be any bird in the whole school for Fred to become this mess of feelings and uncertainty, at least it was because of her. George always knew that their rivalry would either end in them realizing their feelings for each other or them hexing each other to death. 

“Grow some balls and just tell her how you feel, you daft git!” He exclaimed, humor sparkled in his eyes. 

“Be serious here, George,” Fred groaned and pushed his face against one of his pillows. 

His twin rolled his eyes, “I am being serious! It’s obvious she fancies the balls off of you, so just ask her out on a date or something and save us all from this awkward dance the lot of you have been doing for the past few weeks.” 

George’s words rang in Fred’s mind for longer than he liked to admit. 

One night, as dinner was coming to a close, he’d had enough. He spotted Y/N getting up from her seat at the Slytherin table and stood abruptly from his half finished meal. As she exited the Great Hall, he followed her out and into the drafty corridor.

“Y/N!” He yelled before he could stop himself. 

She paused briefly, shoulders tensing at his call to her. Instead of turning around though, she picked up her pace. 

Fred cursed softly, “Y/N, I know you can hear me!” 

As his legs were much longer than hers, he caught up to her quickly. Still, she paid him no mind and continued her on her way, “What’s got your wand all in a knot, Y/L/N?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Weasley.” Came her reply. 

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Y/L/N,” He rolled his eyes, “You’ve been ignoring me recently and I can’t think of anything that I’ve done wrong.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve been actually paying attention to my classes and doing all of my coursework, that takes up most of my time these days.” She shrugged, turning a corner and continuing her fast pace, “And I’m not at your beck and call, Weasley. I’m not yours.” 

“You could be.” 

Y/N’s resolve seemed to be taken away with the tide as he muttered those words aloud. In fact, she was so shocked at what he said that she quite literally had to stop walking and merely stared at the redheaded boy. 

“Don’t be daft, Weasley.” She managed to choke out after a few beats. 

He turned to face her and Y/N had never seen him look so serious before. Fred was usually the louder twin, the more explosive one, the one who acted first and thought of the consequences later. But now, now she could see that he had nothing but genuine intentions as his eyes scanned her and gauged her reaction.

She huffed, unwilling to let her walls down for even a second. It was too frightening, telling the person she had spent much of her formative years rivalling with how she truly felt about them. In fact, despite her act, she couldn’t get it in her to look him in the eyes.

“This, whatever this is, you know that it isn’t a good idea.” She tried to argue, but as the words left her lips they seemed to carry no weight in them. 

“It’s a pretty good bad idea if you ask me.” He said with as much conviction as possible, “C’mon, Y/L/N, you gonna back down from a challenge?” 

That sparked a fire in her eyes that he had missed seeing, one that said she meant business, “I’ll say yes to you on one condition,” She said. 

“Anything.”

“Take me out on a date first.” 

[sxdmoonchxld]

Proven Wrong | KTH

Taehyung x reader

Words: 4k+

Genre: smut

Warnings: Rough Sex, Oral Sex, Fingerfucking, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Cunnilingus, Begging, Multiple Orgasms, Very Big Dick Tae, Like Scary Big, Like Gut Splitting Big, Unrealistic Sex, Belly Bulge, Bad Dirty Talk, Unprotected Sex, Gets A Little Dubious Consent Towards The End

Summary: You call his dick small. He proves that it’s not, by wrecking your pussy ;)

a/n: again i use to be lizardsocial. this was my most popular story on here so im bringing it back as well. i think you can find the original one on here somewhere. i don’t expect it to get half as many notes it did the first time but thas okai. i’ve edited kinda heavily so it's a little different from the original. its filthier. anywhos. Enjoy!

__________________________________________

Loud music blasted throughout your apartment, the rumbling bass from the speakers reverberated through your bedroom walls. Pictures and posters rippled with each vibration, struggling to retain their original position. You groaned in annoyance, you honestly thought your request was quite simple. Just a couple of hours. 120 minutes of quietness was all you asked for so that you could study for your upcoming calculus test. He knew how important this exam was to you. He evened 'pinky promise, cross your heart hope to die'. That he would give you the silence needed to stay focused. And everyone knew you don't break a pinky promise.

Even now in your annoyance, his voice still played on a constant loop in your head.

"Oh! Yea ___, not a problem. I can keep it quiet for you. So don't you worry a hair on your pretty little head!" Taehyung had said, waving his hand in the air feigning nonchalance.

That cute signature boxy smile of his planted face. You actually thought that for once he would keep his word, and you could get some precious studying time, but no. The tiny 2-bedroom shared apartment was full of heavy jazz music and high-pitched shrieking from what sounded like a cat being skinned alive. Who even listens to jazz music when trying to fuck?

The last thread of patience had now been pulled too thin and finally snapped. Your desire to study was gone with the wind, and in its place, irritability and wrath began to take root. You slammed your laptop closed and threw it to the end of the bed along with your papers and textbook. Jumping out of bed, you stomped your way out of the bedroom, eyes searching frantically for your target.

"Taehyung!" You yelled once you began to process the scene that was in front of you. The living room was in shambles, Taehyung's phone was hooked up to the speaker, the volume loud enough you swore angels in heaven could hear. An empty soda bottle, chip bags and clothes littered the floor. Don't even get you started on the couch pillows! Your one of a kind thrift finds were strewn all over the place. You felt your blood pressure rising, the vein at your temple fattening in rage and pulsing wildly. Your jaw threatening to ache from how hard you were grinding your teeth out of anger.

Your eyes investigated the vicinity for Taehyung and low and behold there he was on the now bare couch. Lying underneath him was the source of the vexatious screeches. He was dry humping on some random chick with his mouth fiercely attached to her neck, deep purple bruises vivid from where you stood across the room. You rolled your eyes at the pair. You knew damn well Taehyung's thin lips and weak thrusts didn't call for all that useless screaming. 

You stomped over to the speaker, your sock padded feet slapping against the hardwood floor, and yanked the cord from the wall. Already the apartment was halfway quiet except for the banshee that was still squawking her head off.

"Hey! Shut the fuck up with all that noise!" You roared, scaring the girl and finally bringing their attention to your heated figure. Taehyung separated his lips from the girl's neck with a wet smack dislodging himself from between her spread thighs.

"Y/n, so nice of you to join us. How is studying going?" Taehyung spoke with a grin plastered on his handsome face. You resisted the urge to reach out and slap it off. He knew that you couldn't or anybody for a fact, could study with all the noise that was just previously filling the confines of the apartment. Yet here he was playing with the smidge of patience you had left by trying to simulate naiveté.

"All I asked was for you to be silent so that I could study for my upcoming test, and you said that you would. But instead, I am interrupted by your noisy ass music. Jazz music at that and this bitch here screaming at the top of her lungs!" You growled out between clenched teeth. The female gasped at your words embarrassment transforming her features, while Taehyung sat there with a blank look on his face, apparently unamused with your little rant.

"Oh my! Please excuse my rude roommate Mino. Obviously, her parents forgot to teach her basic manners. Let me walk you to the door." Taehyung spoke his fluffy curls swaying with the shakes of his head. A look of disappointment aimed your way as he began helping her gather her things and walking her to the front door.

"Umm, actually my name is Mina." She corrected Taehyung, but you could see it on his face that he could care less about the girl's name. Taehyung looked at her for a few seconds, as if he was processing the correct information of the girl's name.

"Yeah. Mona, that's what I said, isn't it?" Taehyung deadpanned, pushing her through the front door. Mina huffed at the fact that Taehyung continued to get her name wrong. You observed the pitiful interaction as you began to clean up the mess they made. You could tell from the look in Mina's eyes that she wanted more with Taehyung, but you knew that would never happen. Taehyung was a manwhore, a fuckboy, man thot, whatever the preferred term was. He had a new girl every night, and if he did try the whole "relationship smorgasbord" as he called it. The relationship usually didn't last for more than a week, before he was on to his next conquest.

"Tae?" You questioned meekly.

"Hmm?" He hummed head-turning slightly in your direction.

"Why do you do these things to me." You were genuinely curious as to why he made it his mission to push your every button. This wasn't the first time his action has hindered you from completing an important task. You just didn't understand why he chose to make your life more complicated than it already was.

"Awe is little __ j-jealous?" Taehyung taunted in a high-pitched voice used to entertain babies or puppies.

"Huh?!" You gasped choking on your saliva.  Shit, you almost gave yourself whiplash with how fast you swung your neck to make full eye contact.

"Did you wish that was you, I was grinding on?" Taehyung continued to taunt as he walked into the kitchen to rinse his mouth out with water. That Mina girl had put way too much perfume on her neck. Now he was left with a sour aftertaste in his mouth. It tasted cheap, and Taehyung didn't do cheap.

If he was sincere with himself, he did wish it was you he was giving all his attention instead of these random girls. He considered you cute and innocent, with an air of sexiness. That he was pretty sure you weren't conscious of. In all actuality, Taehyung was smitten with you from the first time he saw when you came to ask about the roommate needed sign he had posted. The cute little freshman with a quirky personality and full of ambition. Those first 10 minutes of meeting you had him sprung like no other.  You were way different from the usual girls he was used to. Which shouldn't be much of a surprise since most just wanted to fuck, have money spent on them. Oh! Of course, the bragging rights, that they actually got to fuck THE Kim Taehyung.

Don't get him wrong, there had been a countless amount of times he had tried to gain your attention. But you were too busy holed up in your room with your pretty little head stuck in a book to give him the time of day. So instead Taehyung reverted back to his middle school ways and chose to torment and irritating you as a way to receive some type of reaction from you. He would take whatever he could get, he was becoming that desperate.

"What exactly did I have to be jealous of? You do know she was faking it right? I didn't think you to be so naive Tae, because you and I both know that them thin ass lips-" You stopped to point at the box that made up his mouth. "And that speck in your pants that you call a dick can't make anyone scream." You declared assuredly, moving your pointer finger down to his crotch. Pride and confidence swelled in your chest at the insult thrown at him. 'Good one __'

Taehyung spat out the water he was swishing around in his mouth and whipped his head in your direction. Did you just stand there and try to insult his manhood? Nah, clearly his hearing had to be a little off, right?

"Excuse me, what did you just say? My ears must be failing me." Taehyung said wiping the stray droplets of water from his mouth, sticking a finger in his ear to loosen the imaginary earwax there. Amused, he sauntered towards you, a ghost of a smirk rising on his face.

"You heard me, Mr.Kim. Your micropenis couldn't pleasure anything but your hand if even that." You said backing up, as he prowled closer to you, his shoulder in a tense bunch raised close to his ears. Any amusement his face could have held was gone, in its place was a dark, unreadable expression. His mouth fixed in a firm line, and the tip of his ears blossomed red. Flames of anger and lust flashing in his chocolate eyes.

"My sweet __, nothing about me is little. I can guarantee that." Taehyung growled out, his already deep voice deepened in tone. You scoffed trying to portray indifference but continued backing away from his advancing until your back made contact with the wall. Shit.

Taehyung placed his hands beside your head, caging you in. Your eyes fluttered softly as you breathe in his rich cologne encased your senses, dark, woodsy with just a hit of a floral note. His eyes roamed your face, taking in your features before settling on your lips. You self-consciously licked them before tucking them between your teeth. Taehyung leaned his face closer to yours.

"Such a pretty little mouth you have. Has anyone told you how troublesome it could be though?" Taehyung questioned, his thumb on his left coming up to your upper lip.

You could feel your heart beating against your ribcage, feel your cheeks heat up, and dare you say; a gush of wetness in the seat of your boy shorts.  The sexual tension was too powerful for your weak defences. Against your better judgment, you let your eyes flutter closed, and lips pucker expectantly anticipating the moment his lips would meet yours. Except Taehyung had other plans.

He shifted his head to the right, placing a gentle kiss on the lobe of your ear. Slowly moving his lips up to the outer shell of your ear.

You couldn't help the surprised moan that left your mouth as you unconsciously tilted your head back, offering your neck to his probing advances.

"Would you like me to prove you wrong?" Taehyung challenged in a whisper. His deep voice sending shocks of pleasure zinging down your spine. He trailed his lips down your neck, pressing gentle kisses against the surface. You had to choke back the moan that threatened to escape you at the feeling of his soft lips on your neck.

"N-no, Taehyung." You panted breathlessly.

"I don't feel like finding my glasses to look at something too small for the naked eye to see." You spoke, resolute on getting in one last insult. Taehyung pulled his face away from your neck, growling at your words.

"Haha, hilarious." He laughed humorously.

He pulled your body away from the wall, hoisted you up over his shoulder with a small grunt, and made his way to his bedroom. Kicking the door open before unceremoniously throwing you on his plush king-sized bed. 'Not good'.

Taehyung stood at the edge of the bed staring at you with unadulterated lust clouding his eyes. His chest heaved heavily with anger or arousal, you weren't sure. But based on the sizable tent in his pants, you could guess the latter.

"Taehyung! I already told you I don't want to see your baby-." You started but was cut off by Taehyung grabbing your ankles and pulling you roughly to the edge of the bed, pouncing on you. His lips met yours in a kiss that stole your breath away. The kiss was sensual and firm, but you could tell he was holding back.

Taehyung snaked his hand up your body, and into your hair, giving it a sharp tug. You gasped at the slight pain giving him a clear path to ease his tongue into your mouth, coiling itself around your own, deepening the kiss further. He thoroughly explored your mouth not leaving one surfaced untouched by his tongue, greedily swallowing your needy moans. Fuck he tasted good. Like oranges and burnt sugar.

Taehyung detached from your mouth to remove his shirt and to help you remove your tank top as-well. Your nipples pebbling from the chilly air and arousal. His eyes studied your body, you wanted so badly to shield yourself away from his unwavering stare.

"You're so beautiful. I've waited so long for this." Taehyung whispered before attacking your throat with kisses. You whined out in pleasure, your hips bucking up with every love bite he delivered, your body was aching in need for more.

"Tae. P-please more. G-give me m-more." You keened in between pants of air.

Your hips now undulated in tiny circles as Taehyung trailed his kisses down your neck, to your breast. He sucked and bit the soft skin around your nipple lightly. Soon his tongue gently wrapped around your nipple, sucking it into his warm mouth, while his hand teased the other breast, kneading and pinching your nipple. Your moans were increasing in volume, at his assault.

Your legs widened on their own accord, making more room for Taehyung. Your pussy was weeping profusely. The boy shorts you were wearing were thoroughly drenched, and with each movement of your hips, your arousal perfumed the air. Releasing your nipple, he continued his way down your chest, moving his lips across your stomach. Down, down he goes until he's kissing you down to where your torso joins your pelvis. He trained his eyes on you, eager to see your reaction as he pulled your boy shorts off from your body with a wet smack.

"Tell me what you want love. Use your big girl voice for me." Taehyung cooed in a provoking tone. You would have told him to fuck off if it wasn't for his mouth hovering right over your clenching core, his hot breath attacking your pussy lips.

"Cat got your tongue? You sure did have a lot of things to say earlier." Taehyung teased once more. You moaned with each word he said, your hips thrusting upwards, hoping to find his mouth.

"Please! Just touch my pussy, lick it, do something! Stop teasing me!" You urged, bringing your hands up to stimulate your breast, you didn't know how much more teasing you could take. You could feel your essence seeping between your ass cheeks and coating the bed. The dull ache in your stomach was intensifying, and he had barely touched you.

"Mmm, well since you begged nicely." Taehyung replied, wasting no time in attacking your pussy. His broad tongue licked wide strips up against your pussy. Splitting your lips with the appendage with each pass to dip his tongue into your pulsating hole. Your hands found his soft brown hair as your back arched off the bed, pushing your cunt deeper into his face.

"Y-yeahfuck! Like that it's so good!" You whined slurring your words.

Taehyung shifted his probing muscle's attention to your clit, attacking it with kitten licks. You shouted loudly, as your thighs were beginning to shake. The coil in your stomach tightening almost painfully. He wrapped his strong arms around your thighs, your knees were hitched higher up almost touching your chest in this position.

But this way, he had much more leverage to devour you. The comforter on his bed bunching uncomfortably beneath your ass but at this moment you gave zero fucks. Taehyung had total control now, showing no remorse as your upper body thrashed about on the bed. Your hands were no longer able to reach his hair, so you opted for your own instead, pulling harshly on your roots.

"Fuck, Taehyung!" You wailed shrilly. Taehyung chuckled at the sounds you were making, remembering your words from earlier he couldn't wait to hear what you sounded like taking his dick.

He then rubbed two thick fingers in the abundance of fluids that your pussy was producing and gently eased them into your tight core.

"Not only is baby girl surprisingly noisy, but she's also pretty tight too." You clenched even more around his fingers, your wall throbbing wildly around them.  

"I can't wait to feel you around my dick." Taehyung moaned sucking your clit into his mouth, delivering hard sucks as his fingers pumped into you at a moderate speed. Sadly, the introduction of his fingers was your undoing. You couldn't help as your legs stuck straight in the air. Body arching off the bed and bowed forward as your orgasm hit you like a freight train knocking the wind from your lungs.

Your eyes were shut tightly, and your mouth hung open in a silent scream as your body convulsed from the intensity of your orgasm. Taehyung had a hard time holding you down but continued his assault on your creaming pussy. He slurped as much of your cream as he could, absolutely addicted to the way you tasted.

"T-Tae, stop-p." You called out to him pathetically. Your intense orgasm had passed, but he was still thrusting shallowly inside your tight core, lapping at your clit. The oversensitivity was becoming too much, as you struggled to wiggle away from him. Taehyung withdrew his fingers and ceased his licking with one last kiss on your clit, making you flinch at the contact.

Taehyung beheld your fucked out appearance with pride. Your legs splayed open, displaying your spasming cunt. The way your chest was swiftly rising and falling as you struggled to catch your breath. Your hair stood up in every direction from your previous pulling, body trembling with aftershocks, and all he did was eat you out and finger you.

"Wow." You mumbled your eyes closing, sleep trying to claim you.

"Oh, nonono. I'm not done with you yet." Taehyung proclaimed, flipping you onto your stomach. He had to admit he was the hardest he had ever been in his life. His pants were now unbearably tight, and a wet spot at the crotch of his pants started to become visible. Taehyung tugged the offending material off hissing as his massive erection made contact with the air, free from being confined. You lifted yourself with jelly arms onto your knees, wanting to see what the commotion was behind you.

You choked on your spit for the second time today, as your eyes made contact with the angry red monster Taehyung called his cock. Not only was he unbelievably thick; a little bigger than your wrist, but he was also long. In his hands was the living definition of a third leg. He was crazy if he actually thought that would fit inside of you?

"Fuck that shit!" You cursed trying to scramble to the headboard of the bed, but Taehyung halted your escape, grabbing your ankles and yanking you back.

He would have laughed at your reaction, but he was too turned on, there was so much blood rushing to his cock he felt lightheaded. He wasted no time in putting you back in your previous position. Pulling your ass up so that it was sticking in the air and your torso was lying flat on the bed, his hands gripping your hips hard enough to bruise.

"Tae! Wait...you can't be serious!" You tried pleading with him terrified that thing he called his dick was going to tear you apart.

"Not so little am I baby?" He snickered

Don't worry, you can take it I'll go slow." Taehyung groaned his voice strained, his arousal was beginning to take a toll on him. Taehyung grabbed his shaft and brought the bulbous tip of his cock to rub against your clit. You mewled with pleasure, his tip was hot and the pre-come he was leaking added to the sensation of relaxing and reigniting your body.

Taehyung continued to stroke his tip along your clit thoroughly coating it with your thick fluids. He placed the thick head at your entrance, your juices helping him to slide in. He watched in amazement as your leftover cum gather around the head of his cock in a coating out creamy white. Your body tensed up at the massive intrusion, your cunt pulsated wildly around him, drawing a deep groan from his throat.

"Baby relax, you're squeezing so tight." Taehyung moaned out affected by your spasming core. He reached his hand underneath your body and strummed at your clit once again, coxing you to relax.

Taehyung took your distraction as his cue to shove the offending length inside your prone pussy. You squealed at the sudden fullness and intense burning. Bucking your hips, trying to dislodge him. It was too much to take, especially at this position. Your pussy was going to rip in half.

"B-bi-iig-g. To-o mu-ch." You whined out stuttering horribly.

Taehyung gripped your hips harder to stop your fitful twisting and bucking. He felt as though he was about to explode you were so damn tight and wet, your bucking didn't help his case any either. He didn't wait this long to finish early. He refused to be a one pump chump. Taehyung reached his hand back underneath your body to locate your clit, rubbing it in firm tight circles, to help relax you, and sure enough; like magic, after you adjusted to his massive size, your body was suddenly filled with mind-numbing pleasure. Your whimpers turned into loud groans as you threw your hips back onto Taehyung, giving him the okay to start moving.

"Hell yeah. That's it, baby girl work this tight little cunt on my cock." He grunts before he withdrew his length and slammed back in, his dick splitting your sensitive walls, hitting every spot inside your clenching cunt. His strokes were fast, broad, and powerful, never had you felt so full in your life. Your mouth was gaped open, as shrieks of pleasure fell from your jaws, drool dripped from your lips, and dots blurred your vision. You could feel him in your guts, branding himself inside you. The coil in your stomach was quickly tightening, ready to release what was no doubt, going to be the most intense orgasm your body was about to experience. Taehyung could feel your core tightening up further, your tight little pussy was far better than he could have expected, he wanted to punch himself for waiting this long to indulge in you.

"You're taking this big cock so well, baby. Such a good girl." Taehyung growled.

"But I have a secret to tell you." You shivered as he stopped mid-stroke. You felt the warmth and damp skin of his torso drape over your back. Like pudding in his hands. You didn't even flinch as he brought his large callused hands up through the part in your breast to wrap around your throat.

Ever so slightly he squeezed the sides of your neck, you felt him throb in your stomach as you clenched even tighter around him at the action. Slowly he lifted your head up with his hand still on your neck. Again he squeezed. Bringing his lips down to your ear, he said, "Would you believe me if I said you're only taking half of me in."

The way your jaw dropped and your eyes bugged out of your head would have been comical. If you weren't genuinely terrified, that is.

"O-nly half! That's impossible I swear your touch my small intestine already." You tried to look back to see if he was lying or not, but he tightened his hold on your neck, forcing your head back to look up at him. Your body was now bowed in an almost perfect 'C' shape. You felt his other hand snake around your abdomen and press on the bulge that was his cock poking through your stomach. Again he throbbed in excitement.

"You were talking such a big game earlier baby girl, what happened? Surely you could all of a dick that's as little as mine. Right?" Taehyung scolded in your ear.

Little by little, he began pulling you more on his cock by your neck. And fuck he really wasn't lying he really had more length to feed your cunt.

"Ta-ae, pleaseplease n-o more-e, I can't take it m-my stomach hurts." You whined

"Hmm? But you're so close to taking all of me in. Just a few more inches, and I'll be all in." He responded.

Not wasting any more time he released your neck, and before you could fall down to the bed. He locked his fingers in your hair and firmly yanked, lifting you off the mattress, and into his arms, allowing himself the rest of the way in.

You screamed out as his hips met your ass with a wet smack. The increase in pressure coupled with the new position broke the levee to your release. You trembled uncontrollably as your orgasm started from your toes. Quickly spreading to your arms and head before finally spreading throughout your whole body, you were rendered speechless as your orgasm claimed you. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head, as a burst of white light flashed behind your eyes, incoherent sounds of what was supposed to be Taehyung's name filled the space around you.

Through it all Taehyung continued to fuck into you almost violently, allowing your cores convulsions to wash over him. His body dripped with sweat as he briefly picked up his speed, his hips beginning to stutter. He held your thrashing body close to his as delivered his last couple of thrusts before moaning loudly and exploding his hot seed inside of your wrecked cunt.

You both fell breathlessly on the mattress, sweat polishing your skin, exhaustion quickly making its way to claim you. Taehyung pulled slowly out of your battered and swollen pussy. On wobbly legs, walked to the restroom to get a washcloth to clean the mess that was between your thighs. You moaned at the textured touch of the cloth and the dampness of it soothing the hot burn from your pussy.

Your whole body was numb, and you were utterly worn out, so much so, that when Taehyung pulled you into his arms, you didn't even argue.

In the morning you will definitely be having a word with him. But for now, you let his racing heartbeat lull you to some much-needed sleep.

[egoisticeuphoria]

You Warm Heart

Chapter II (part I) : Identity

Genre : mafia au

Choi San x (f) Reader

#drama #comedy #action #romance

Words : 8.7k (part II)

Your body was heavy. Your forehead drenched in cold sweat. Your breathing went faster and faster. You couldn’t control what was happening. Your glued on your front as if you were waiting for something. Someone to save you. The door in front of you opened up. Bright lights were coming out from the room. A man dressed in suit standing on the other side of the room looking your way. It was Kai. The wedding melody was playing on the background. A bitter taste on the back of your tongue. A strong arm grabbed yours and started walking you down the aisle. You didn’t want this. You tried to move your body, to run away once again. But this time was different. You had no strength to do as you wished. As if your soul was stuck on somebody else’s body. This wasn’t the life you wanted. Not like this. The eyes of the man in front of you were shining as the lion’s eyes looking at its prey hungrily. You look d around you. The church was full of people. Even Soyeon was there. Why was she there? She was smiling at you with the brightest smile. You wanted to cry. This wasn’t the real Soyeon. She would never be happy with an arranged marriage. You looked away to avoid her smiling eyes but then you saw San. He was standing far away from the seats. His eyes glued to you and your wedding dress. He looked... weird. He was also wearing the same clothes as Kai. You couldn’t understand the reason though. His eyes looked sad as if he was about to cry. The arm that was holding you tightly pushed you to Kai’s arms who looked at you in awe.

“You look stunning, my love.”

Your eyes seemed to finally take action because you felt some burning tears come down your eyes. You opened your mouth to shout loud that this wasn’t the was thing should have been. No voice could come out your mouth though. It was a dream... no... it was a nightmare... It all felt so real though. Weird. Frightening. Disgusting.

You opened your eyes. You lifted your hands to wipe the tears off your face. Your breathing was finally on its normal pace. You hold your head with both arms as you tried to calm down from what you’ve just seen.

The phone rang. You picked it up knowing it was Soyeon.

“Good morning, Soyeon.” a sigh came out of your mouth.

“Good morning, y/n. Did you sleep well?” you could see her wide smile even from some miles away.

“Uhm, well, no.” you scratched your forehead.

“What? Why not?”

“Soyeon, I have a question. Please, be honest with me.”

“Of course, y/n. What is it?” Soyeon asked full of curiousity.

“Did you tell those mobsters my name and address?”

“Of course not! Why would I?”

“That’s what they said...” you said as you stood up from the bed now walking to the living room.

“What do you mean?” suddenly, Soyeon’s voice sounded worried.

“Yesterday night... I met with the mobsters again.” you continued while walking up and down the hall.

“What?! What the hell– What happened?!” before you could open your mouth to breath a response she cut you off. “You know what? Let’s meet up. I’ll come pick you up. Be ready at 15 mins. I’ll be there. You’ll tell me the details over coffee.” and with that she hang up the phone leaving you literally speechless.

You went to take a quick cold shower and got dressed in a simple morning outfit. Just a white T-shirt and short jeans.

15 minutes passed fast. Soyeon came ringing the bell on your door. When you opened up for her she rushed her way in your room.

“Girl... There are so many men outside the building... What the hell happened here?”

“I’ll tell you. Not here though.” you pushed her and yourself out of the room and got in the elevator.

On the first floor you could see men in black all over the place. As if a dark cloud came down from the sky right on your building. You felt weird. After what happened yesterday, things were pretty strange.

“Okay, we better stay quiet till we get out of here. I know a good quiet place to talk.” Soyeon whispered in your ear.

“Good. Lead the way then.” you grabbed Soyeon’s arm and walked alongside her as she led the way to the unknown to you quiet place.

You two walked in silence once in a while turning back to see if anyone was following you. When you saw no one behind you you started walking faster.

Soyeon stopped walking which made you stop too. You looked at her. She smiled while looking in front of her.

“Here we are. This is the place.” after her confirmation you looked where Soyeon was looking. There was a small cafe in the corner. ATZ Café. It looked plain. And nice. It really looked quiet. Not many people seemed to be inside. That’s what you wanted. Less people around the better. You wanted to talk with Soyeon in quiet. Tell her what happened yesterday and try to figure out a solution to avoid that from happening again.

Soyeon pulled you inside and sat on a table far from the windows. She fixed her clothes and stared into your eyes as a hungry teenager waiting for her meal.

“So... begin.”

“Alright then...” you started talking and talking and talking. You told Soyeon what happened after you two had went separate ways. You told her about the steps you heard near the elevator but when you turned back there was no one. You told her about the guys that broke in your apartment and how Wooyoung helped you eliminate them. You also told Soyeon about Wooyoung taking you to San’s mansion and that you left there by foot by yourself. The only thing you didn’t want to share with Soyeon was what happened between you and Choi San. That was too much for you yourself to handle. Also you knew that if Soyeon heard what happened she would start rooting for you two. You didn’t want that. Not at least until you found out what your feelings were for San. Because you wanted to realise what exactly you felt when San attacked you with kisses. You felt weird. Was it bad weird or good weird though? You felt the need to see for yourself by time what it meant to you. By time.

“What the hell?!” Soyeon was in awe at the news of your yesterday’s adventure. “These things happened in just one night? Your first night in Seoul? Girl, that’s insane.”

“Exactly! Insane.” you agreed with her words.

A young boy with the cafe’s uniform came to take your orders.

“Excuse me, girls. Are you ready to order?”

“I’d like some iced americano. What about you y/n?”

“I’ll have a black tea.”

“Okay, I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Thank you.” Soyeon told him with a smile.

The boy left to make your tea and Soyeon’s coffee. There was a man standing beside the waiter that took your orders. The man was faced in a way where you couldn’t see his face. You could only see the back of his head. It was red haired head. Although you didn’t notice it, he did. When Soyeon called out your name a while ago, he lifted his head surprised. Surprised to see you again so soon. He turned around and looked at you.

It was no other than Choi Jongho, San’s little brother.

His eyes glued on you as he couldn’t believe you visited his cafe. Did you know or was it Soyeon who suggested the place? He felt like walking towards you. He wanted to speak with you, to come closer to you. With a wide smile on his face he started walking.

It took him 10 seconds. He raised his hand so you could see it and waved at you.

“Hi. Good morning.” his face seemed happy as you could see the smile attached on the corners of his ears. You lifted your head facing him and finally realising where you’ve stepped in.

“W-what are you doing here?” you asked all nervous. You felt like falling in a trap like a wandering and hungry mouse. You were afraid that this smile on Jongho’s face meant no good news. He raised his eyebrows surprised at your question.

“Uhm, this is my cafe. I own it.” he said while looking around the room. You looked at him as if he was talking about something bad, horrible. You just couldn’t believe how unlucky you were. “Look, y/n, I have to tell you something... My brother wouldn’t say it so I’ll do it in his place.”

“Y-your brother?” you seemed confused. What about his brother? What was it that he wanted to tell you and his brother wouldn’t?

“My older brother, San.” he looked at you as your sudden question confused him. Didn’t you know already? But then again... Jongho never really introduced himself to you. The thought hit him and he stepped back a little to bow lightly in order to make a proper self introduction to you. “Excuse me. My name is Choi Jongho. I’m Choi San’s little brother. Nice to meet you y/n.” his smiley face returned making you unconsciously smile. Soyeon noticed your smile so she decided to speak up regardless Jongho being a mobster.

“Nice to meet you Jongho. I’m Jeon Soyeon. Y/n’s best friend.” she smiled and stood up from her seat to bow politely pulling you with her. She shook you lightly whispering in your ear to introduce yourself as well. When you came back to your senses you bowed lightly.

“I’m Park y/n. Although you already know me. Anyways. Nice to meet you Jongho.” you looked around to check if San was there. Fortunately, he wasn’t.

“What’s wrong y/n?” Jongho noticed you were worried over something.

“Oh, I just... I’m checking for something. Nice cafe by the way. It’s really comfy here.” you gave him a compliment with smile that made him get excited.

“Thanks y/n. It’s really great to hear that from you.” he smiled back with the cutest smile which made you giggle. “Y/n, I really want to make a proper apologise to you for what happened yesterday night. I’m so... SO sorry. My brother is such an idiot sometimes. Stubborn, arrogant. I have to make it up to you.” Jongho’s eyes were full of pain as he was talking. You felt sorry for him feeling this way because of you and San. You didn’t like seeing him in pain even though you didn’t know him well.

“It’s not your fault, Jongho. You don’t have to apologise in your stupid brother’s place. Jongho looked up at you and smiled lightly.

Soyeon, who was observing over your little conversation, sensed a cute atmosphere between Jongho and you. She found Jongo’s actions around you cute and it wasn’t hard for her to realise what kind of feelings Jongho had for you. By the way... what were you talking about with Jongho? Soyeon noticed that your conversation with him was something you never mentioned. She was eager to learn though. She had her plan. She stayed quiet for the time being and just listened carefully.

After a while the waiter came with the tea and the americano. He noticed his boss talking to you two so he felt like he could be close with you as well. He smiled brightly and put the disk down on the table.

“Here you go, pretty ladies.” when these words left his mouth Jongho’s smile disappeared and an angry facial expression appeared on his face.

“Jay.” Jongho called out his employee’s name angrily.

“Yes, boss.” Jay stood straight up realising he made a mistake.

“No talking to the ladies. Get back to work.”

“Yes, boss.” Jay turned around and run off behind the counter. He quickly started cleaning off the counter with his eyes never looking at you and Soyeon again. Soyeon and you laughed at Jongho’s serious face and Jay’s reaction to his boss’ orders.

“It’s fine, Jongho. You didn’t have to be so strict to him.” you said and Jongho’s eyes met yours again.

“I actually had to. Discipline is what matters. If I’m being nice he won’t improve himself.” Jongho came closer to you and you nodded as his words made sense.

“You’re right.” you smiled at him. Jongho smiled back looking straight at you.

“Sit down with us Jongho. Let’s chat for a little bit, then you can return to your cafe duties.” Jongho turned to Soyeon then back at you.

“May I?” he asked giving the point of wanting to sit next to you.

“Oh, of course.” you took your bag from the seat next to you and Jongho sat on it. He immediately shared a bright smile. Jongho was extremely happy to be near you. He wanted to know more about you.

“So, y/n, where do you come from?” you looked at Jongho with a serious expression. You felt insecure about revealing your identity to him but you also felt like even if he knew your secret, he would keep his mouth sealed for good. You took a deep breath and smiled again.

“I’m from Busan.” Soyeon looked at you in surprise as you began to reveal your real self. She immediately looked back at Jongho to view his smiley reaction.

“From Busan. That’s nice. Really nice. Your accent doesn’t resemble Busan’s accent though.”

“I grew up speaking the Seoul accent. Back home nobody speaks with the Busan accent.”

“I see. That explains it.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The conversation with Jongho went on and on. Sometimes Soyeon stopped just observing and joined you two in your long chat. You talked about your hobbies and dream jobs. You felt relaxed while talking to Jongho. It felt nice to have someone to talk to about such things. Jongho could be a good friend. A really good one.

After a while and after you both have drank your drinks, you hear the sound from the door openning. The three of you turned your heads to the direction of the door. Your eyes widened as you saw two familiar faces coming in the cafe.

“Yunho. Mingi. Welcome.” Jongho stood up and walked to them. They greeted each other then Jongho turned to you again. “Come sit down with us.” Yunho and Mingi tunred their faces to you. They looked each other in surprise.

“What’s this? Why is y/n here?” the black haired man said. Soyeon looked at him and then at you. She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. You blushed lightly after realising that you have become famous among those guys in just one night.

“She just came over with Soyeon for a coffee.” Jongho replied instead of you.

“Did you know this was Jongho’s coffee shop?” the auburn haired man.

“No. We didn’t.” you replied immediately not waiting a second for Jongho to reply in your place again. “I had no idea this place was yours.” Jongho looked at you then back at the standing men. One of the men walked forward and placed his hand on his chest.

“We know you but you don’t know us. We still haven’t introduced ourselves.” it was the black haired man that took the lead. “My name is Yunho, Jeon Yunho. Nice to meet you, y/n and Soyeon.” after Yunho, the auburn haired man stepped forward as well and smiled.

“I’m Mingi. Song Mingi. Nice to meet you girls. Also sorry for the late introduction.”

“Oh, it’s fine. Nice to meet you guys as well.” you said as you stood up to shake their hands. Soyeon repeated your movements after you. They both seemed nice guys.

“Yunho and Mingi are my brother’s main bodyguards.” Jongho said first.

“Although San prefers to call us his friends. Our main job in the family is to protect the boss.” Mingi explained to you and Soyeon.

“I get it. That’s totally normal.” you spoke without thinking.

“What do you mean normal?” Yunho asked and crossed his arms. For a second you thought of what you said some seconds ago and began to stutter while trying to explain yourself.

“N-n-normal. H-he wouldn’t he cannot protect himself alone. O-of course he would call his bodyguards just friends. Just how proud is he.” The guys and Soyeon laughed loudly at your reaction and it felt like your words didn’t make any sense. What mattered was that you believed your words. You shook Soyeon off to make her stop laughing.

After the laughing was finally over, Jongho tunred to Yunho and Mingi.

“Anyways, guys. Why are you here? Did anything happen?” Jongho asked them and the guys’ faces went from smiley to dead serious.

“Come here.” Mingi pulled Jongho and the three of them walked far away enough from the table for you to not listen to them talking. Soyeon got worried.

“Do you think anything bad happen? They seem serious.” Soyeon asked and grabbed you by the arm lightly.

“I don’t know. I’m as curous as you right now.” you replied to her while holding her.

For three whole minutes the boys kept staring at you then at each other. This made you anxious. What was wrong?

Eventually the guys walked up to you again.

“Y/n, listen carefully.” Mingi spoke up before the others.

“What is it?” you asked full of curiousity and worry.

“It seems like you’ll have to stay at the mansion for a while.” Yunho continued the announcement. You looked at him even more curious than before.

“What do you mean– Which mansion are you talking about?”

“The Choi mansion. San’s house.” Mingi spoke again. You felt hot blood on the front of your forehead. Soyeon looked at the guys full of worry about you.

“Stop kidding. This isn’t funny.” Soyeon told the guys and grabbed your arm tighter.

“I’m afraid that it has to be like this.” Jongho said while looking at the ground. Mingi and Yunho found some guys out of your apartment. The last night’s incident came as a flashback to you and your eyes widened.

“The guys from last night...”

“Exactly... it seems that San’s men had left their spot for a bit and they found their way in there. You can’t stay there. It’s too damgerous. Too risky.” Yunho added. “We can’t just let a girl alone in a dangerous place.” You looked at Yunho with a serious face. He couldn’t possibly know about you not being just a normal girl. A normal girl would be weak. But you... No. How could you? You grew up in a fierce environment just like San and the other guys did. There was no single proof of your background. You just had to make sure you won’t get caught.

That was the moment when you realised that in order to keep your secret from them you had to act weak. They had already seen you fight but that was with other girls. You just needed to act as if you were inferior to guys’ power. That was nothing hard.

“Actually, it’s San’s house but we all live together. So, you won’t be alone with San, if thaat’s what troubles you.” Jongho and moved a step closer to you. You laughed it off.

“Don’t worry. It’s fine, I guess. Since you’ll be living there with me, I don’t mind having you around.” you said to Jongho and smiled brightly. Jongho smiled back with your answer.

“That’s good to know.”

“Great. It’s decided then.” Mingi said and stretched out his arms.

“You come home with us.” Yunho added. “About your stuff–”

“I’ll go pack them up. There are some things I still have to do so I’ll finish them up and come over to the mansion.”

“Are you sure y/n? It’s dangerous over there right now. What if anything bad happens to you?” Jongho asked all worried again.

“Then you can just watch over me while I’m finishing things up. I won’t be in danger as long as you’re around. Right?” Jongho sighed at your words. He was happy to hear you felt secured around him.

“Great. This way I’ll be able to watch over you.” Jongho’s face got all smiley again.

“Then, I guess we’ll have to say goodbye for now.” Soyeon looked at you and gave you a smile although you could see the worry in her gaze.

“Yeah. I’ll contact you as soon as I get to the mansion.”

“You better do.”

“Oh, and something else. Yunho, can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure, what is it y/n?”

“Please take care of Soyeon for me. She was probably seen by those guys at my apartment this morning so she might also be in danger. Can you do it for me?” Yunho looked over at Soyeon. She looked back at him and smiled. Yunho turned at you and smiled. He nodded his head.

“Of course, y/n. If I don't bother her.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind you being around. But I’ll have to warn you about one thing. I’ll be going to a lot of clubs. You may not be able to follow me there all the time. I need my privacy.” Yunho looked at Soyeon and smirked.

“I’ll try to keep the needed distance.” Soyeon chuckled at Yunho’s words.

“Good.”

“Alright, then. Let’s get moving. Jongho, it’s time.” Mingi spoke up and walked to the door. Yunho followed Mingi slowly.

“Come on, Soyeon. I’ll take you home for now.”

“Okay, see ya y/n. Stay safe!” Soyeon hugged you tightly and followed Yunho to his motorcycle. They hopped on and run off. Mingi rode his motorcycle and headed to the mansion. Jongho turned to you.

“Let’s go. Jay, I’m leaving. Take care of the shop while I’m away.”

“Yes boss!” and with that Jongho held you by the hand and walked with you out of the cafe.

“Get in.” he said after showing you his car. You nodded. You got in the car and sat on the passenger seat. Jongho got in as well after seeing you closing the door and started the engine.

The ride lasted less than you imagined. Jongho made sure to drive fast so you could finish up faster than expected. He parked his car in front of the building your apartment was and you both got out. Jongho looked around to make sure no one was spying on you.

“It’s clear. Let’s go check upstairs.”

“Alright.” you walked to the elevator and got in. You waited for Jongho to walk inside and pressed the button.

When you reached the floor, the doors opened and you walked oit of the elevator. You looked straightt ahead. Your eyes met with a man that held a key on his right hand amd was about to unlock the door of the apartment next to you. He noticed you and turned around to look at you. You walked closer to him to greet him but then Jongho jumped in front of you with his eyes stuck on the man.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” Jongho attacked the man with questions.

“I–I’m just living here.” then his eyes met yours and he pointed a finger at you. “Oh. Aren’t you the lady from last night at the club?” his question let a flashback intrude your mind. His voice, his gaze, it all reminded you of the barman from the club.

“Oh. Are you maybe... the barman of the club?” the man smiled as you recognised him. Jongho stood straight up watching you two.

“Nice to meet you again, my name is Lee Taemin and as you know I am a barman at the club.” he waved his hand in a cute way. He seemed really friendly.

“Nice to meet you as well, Mr. Lee. I’m Park Y/n.” you did the same to him with your hand.

“Oh, just drop the honorifics. Call me Taemin.”

“Is that fine? Hahaha, okay. You can call me y/n then.”

“Great.”

“Oh, and uhm, thanks for the help last night. The guy would have really caused me trouble.”

“It was nothing. It’s fine.” Taemin smiled really brightly after your thanks. Jongho looked at him then at you.

“What guy?” Jongho looked kind of more worried after hearing about an incident he wasn’t aware of.

“Oh, it’s nothing important. It’s not that I’ll see him again or anything. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know your boyfriend would be jealous.” Taemin spoke quickly.

“He- no, he’s not my boyfriend.”

“I’m not. But her real boufriend will get really angry if I tell him his girl was talking to some barman, and even calling him by his first name.” Jongho had reached his limits with Taemin being all friendly with you.

“I’m sorry, dude.”

“Jongho, what the?” you looked in his eyes. What was he talking about? Was he too worried about you? Was he worried because of Taemin?

“Let’s just get this over with and go home. We’re running late. San is waiting.”

“Okay, okay, fine.” you turned to Taemin. “I’ll see you next time, I guess. Byebye.”

“Okay, bye.” Taemin put on the sweetest smile till now and finally unlocked his door. After he entered his apartment there was nothing but silence in the atmosphere.

Taemin’s face changed. The sweet smile from before turned into a wicked, sick grin that painted his face nasty. “Gotcha birdy~”

Jongho walked to your apartment’s door. You followed him annoyed.

“You know, you didn’t have to be mean to him. He was just being nice.”

“No man working at a club is nice. Now, please. Pack your things. I’ll be waiting in the living room.” Jongho walked his way in the apartment as if he owned the place. You walked to your room and closed the door shut. The door made quite the noise. Jongho noticed that his behaviour made you pissed but he was as pissed as you were. He didn’t like Taemin’s face. He didn’t look like a decent man.

You sat on the bed all angry.

“Why is he acting like that? I mean... He’s here to help me but why would he get angry because of Taemin? There’s nothing wrong with him, is there?” you sighed and got up to pick up your bags.

After finishing your things up you walked out of the bedroom and joined Jongho in the living room. Jongho noticed you and got up from the couch.

“Are you ready?” your eyes turned on the suitcases in your hands then nodded at him.

“I think that’s all.”

“I’ll take these.” Jongho grabbed the suitcases from your hands and stood up the door. You opened it and you both walked to the elevator. You looked at Taemin’s apartment door. It was closed. Would he get offended by Jongho’s behaviour? Anyways. You pressed the button on the elevator.

When you finally left the building and got in the car Jongho placed his hands on the steering wheel and sighed deeply. You didn’t look at him though. His head turned toward yours.

“I’m sorry for earlier. I really am.” his words were soft coming out of his mouth that itade you look at him.

“Why were you like that to him? He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know. I just... I don’t know... I don’t like that guy.” Jongho tried to calmly tell you his reasons. You nodded your head.

“I see. But you could be more kind to him.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful of my actions next time. Let’s go home for now.” Jongho started the engine.

Back in Busan, your fiancé, Kai, had decided to visit you at your home. He came on his red Porsche. He parked his car in front of the mansion, your old home, and got out of the car. He fixed his dark blue suit and walked in the house. All the maids were totally simping over his stunning looks. Your step mother headed over to him to greet him.

“Welcome, dear. How have you been? How is your father doing?”

“Hello, Mrs. Park. I’m very well, so is my father. I thought it would be nice to come over for a visit. I hope I’m not causing any trouble to you.” Kai has always been sweet talking to your step mother. That’s why she liked him so much. You hated him. Not only for this. He was stunning, indeed. But not stunning enough to become your husband. You didn’t want to take him just because your parents said so, or because he made every girl melt with just a single glare. If he really wanted to win a place in your heart he had to change his personality. You had no single interest in him as he already was.

Your step mother guided him to the living room and they both sat down on some pretty golden lux sofas. She kept on telling him about his good looking appearance and how well suited he was to you. That was when he looked around the house only to see the staff and your step mother.

“By the way, where is my fiancée? I haven’t seen her in a while and I already miss her. She didn’t even call not even once since the engagement. She’s so cruel. All I do is love her but still–” his words her cut off as your step mother covered over his question.

“Actually. That rascal... She run away.” she laughed a little to make it seem funny. Kai looked at her. He was at a loss of words. He didn’t ever imagined that you would run away because of this. He knew you didn’t stand him at all but he never thought you hated him that much as to run away so you could not marry him. He felt hurt. But he laughed it off as your step mother did. Their laughs were just ironical. It was as if you had become their little easy prey that you could hunt wherever you hid yourself. Nasty. Rotten. Their laughs filled the house and that made Chaerin come out of her room and fown the stairs. She hid herself behind the wall near the living room and listened to what her mother and Kai were talking about.

“How cute of her to run off just some days away from our wedding. She’s really sweet. Don’t you think, mr.s Park?”

“Indeed, my dear. Don’t blame her. She’s just confused. Her dad will find her and make her return before the wedding for sure. It’s just a matter of time.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that actually. I have a lot of friends in the whole country. I’ll just notify them and it’ll all be done.”

“As expected of our dear Kai. Y/n is so lucky to have you. Also so stupid that she doesn’t see the treasure she’s offered.”

“She will. I’m confident about this.” Kai smiled at your step mother. His phone suddenly rang and he took it out of his pocket to check who was calling him. On the phone was written the name Lee Taemin. “Oh. I have to pick this up. I’ll be back in a minute.” your step mother nodded as he stood up and walked a little further away for her. “Hello my dear friend. How are you?”

“Hey Kai. I’m doing just fine. How about you? How do the wedding preparations go?”

“It’s all fine except one thing I didn’t count that well.”

“You know, I might have found something interesting here in Seoul.”

“How much interesting?”

“Very much. Tell me, isn’t your fiancée’s name Park Y/n?”

“That’s right. Don’t tell me...”

“Yeah, I saw her in Seoul. The first time she was at the club I work with her friend. The second time I saw her was out of my apartment. She was with some other guy though.”

“Another guy?” Kai chuckled at the thought of you cheating on your soon to be husband. “Do you know who that guy is?”

“Actually, he was at the club as well but they didn’t talk at all there. He’s that little brother of that sly fox mafia boss Choi.”

“Oh. I see.” a nasty grin covered Kai’s face. “She just keeps getting more interesting to win her over. Now she even goes to other bosses in order to avoid me? Really interesting. And cute.”

“Shall I keep a close eye on her?”

“Just learn about her whereabouts. I’ll be coming to pick her up. Thanks for your help. You’re a really good friend Taemin.”

“Anything for you Kai.” Kai hang up and lowered the phone from his ear. The grin on his face just grew bigger. His look and aura became scarier.

“Fine. I accept your challenge y/n. Just wait for me.” he walked back to the living room after fixing his grin to a sweet smile as before. “I’m sorry it tooke so long. It was really important.”

“Oh, it’s fine Kai. You don’t have to apologise for this.”

“Actually, it was a friend of mine. He told me he found y/n.” your step mother and Chaerin’s eyes widened. “I’ll go pick her up in a few days. There’s no need to worry over her anymore. I have eveything under control.”

“That’s so sweet of you Kai. Oh, please, bring y/n back so you two can get married.”

“I definitely will.”

“Good. Now, if you please, the dinner is ready. Let’s get to the table.” she and Kai took off to the dining room.

Chaerin who was hiding all this time run back up to her bedroom and fell on her bed. “Where are you, big sis? They all have gone crazy here... How can I help you when you left without telling me anything?” she raised her head up. “I’ll call Chanyeol. He may be able to help.” she grabbed her phone and typed Chanyeol’s number. She was really detremined to help you with destroying Kai and he mother’s awful plans.

Back in Seoul, you and Jongho had arrived at the mansion. A butler was holding your bags. Jongho led you inside. He walked you to the living room where other seven men were sitting on the lux black couches. When you enterned the room they all stood up to greet you with the warmest smiles. All except one of them, San, who just kept looking at you with no reaction. You recognised only the four of them. Wooyoung, Mingi, Yunho and San, the big boss. It was about time you met the other three guys of the gang.

“We’re here.” Jongho announced officially. “Y/n will be staying with us from now on.” the other guys came closer to greet you.

“Hey y/n, we meet again. If I knew earlier that you’d be coming here I would have come over to fetch you.” Wooyoung was the first one to greet you but he was pushed back by the guy next to him.

“Wooyoung, for god’s sake, let the ones that haven’t introduced themselves do it properly.” he smiled at you and bowed lightly out of respect. “Hello y/n, my name is Hongjoong. I am a lawyer and San’s advisor. Nice to finally meet you.” he was taller than you. His bleached hair were shining under the bright lights of the living room. He was really handsome and looked like the more normal out of all of them.

“Nice to meet you as well, Kim Hongjoong.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m Park Seonghwa.” he had nice black wavy hair that fell on the sides of his eyes. “I’m the oldest one among the guys. I’m a captain in the gang, if you know what I mean.”

“I know.” the guys’ eyes locked on yours as you said that. You realised that only an insider would have known the positions in a mafia gang and you didn’t want to seem like an insider at all. “I mean... I’ve seen a lot of movies, that’s why.” the boys nodded their heads understanding what you actually meant.

“Hello there.” another guy with black hair popped from behind. “I’m Kang Yeosang. It’s an honor to meet you, the one who marked our San’s heart.”

“Shut up Yeosang.” San growled. Yeosang laughed after managing to make San make a sound in front of you.

“Finally. You too come to greet y/n.”

“I don’t need to. I’m going to eat. Whoever wants to come is welcomed.” San went over the dining room and sat on his chair.

“Y/n, come eat with us. You must be pretty hungry.” Hongjoong offered you.

“It’s fine.” though your stomach didn’t seem to agree with your mouth cause after that it growled like crazy of hunger. The boys chuckled. “Fine. Let’s go eat.”

The boys led you to the dining room and sat on the table next to San. After a while the food was served and you all started eating. Most of the time you were eating, the boys asked you to talk to them about your life, so you did. Except cutting off some details. They, too, shared some funny stories with you. They seemed to enjoy your company and you didn’t find them annoying at all, in contrast of what you thought of them last night at the club. They were really warm and kind. Just like a family. They teased each other in front of you which made you laugh at their silliness.

After finishing the food the boys sat back on their chairs just looking at each other.

“How about we play some games?” Wooyoung said as he stood up from his chair. They boys found his idea interesting and stood up as well.

“Let’s go to the gaming room. Y/n come with us.” Mingi said and grabbed you by your hand. You took his hand willingly and walked with them to the gaming room. When San noticed you holding Mingi’s hand he stood up straight and started walking behind you. His eyes were completely locked on your united hands. You hadn’t noticed him behind you but you felt someone staring at you. You turned around only to be starlted by how much San was close to you. He bumped into you as you stopped walking.

“What’s wrong y/n?” Mingi asked you then looked at San who now was looking at Mingi with eyes full of jealousy. Mingi understood that San was like that because he was holding your hand. He smiled at San and let go of your hand. “Ah, sorry.” then walked past you and him leaving you alone in the hall for a moment. San looked at you as if he wanted to say something.

“Y/n... I–” he opened his mouth to speak but you interrupted him.

“They’re waiting for us.” you started walking away slowly. San got irritated at how you didn’t want to pay attention to him so he decided to force you look at him. He grabbed you by the arm and pinned you on the wall near him. You gasped out for air as your back bumped into the wall hard. He succeeded. He made you look at him. Although it wasn’t the exact type attention of attention he wanted. He still had succeeded.

“Listen here. If I’m about to speak, no one interrupts me. Not even you. So you’ll sit here and listen to what I have to say to–”

“If you scream growl at me again I’ll kick you hard where I hit you yesterday. I don’t find it difficult at all.” San gulped at the last night’s bad memory. He backed off you and now you were free to go. You flicked your hair and walked to the others.

“Where were you y/n?” Wooyoung whined.

“We were waiting for you.” Yunho said.

“I was gazing at the huge walls.” you laughed it off and joined the boys on the pool table.

After a whille San arrived and Wooyoung jumped on him.

“Where were you San? Did you get lost in your own house? Or perhaps, were you gazing at the huge walls as well?”

“No.” he answered sharply and his eyes fell on you who had stopped playing as he walked in the room. Wooyoung noticed the awkward atmosphere so he decided to lighten it up. He put an arm around San’s neck and chuckled.

“Come play with us. It’ll be fun.”

“I don’t want to.” San tilted his face away from Wooyoung’s. You noticed that Wooyoung was trying to lighten up the mood for San. You were aware that you pissed him off earlier. He wanted to tell you something amd you didn’t let him. Would he want to apologise? Whatever it was he was goimg to tell you, you’ve lost the chance to listen to it. You decided to help Wooyoung and make San play with you. You thought of using the easiest method. Make him feel that you doubt his confidence. You grinned and spoke up.

“He will probably lose. That’s why he refuses to play with us.” San looked at you.

“What?”

“Are you that afraid to lose?” you continued just wanting him to fall completely for this. Which happened.

“Are you assuming that I’m weak and a coward?”

“What? Am I wrong?” your grin got bigger as you got what you wanted.

“You shouldn’t say such things to him.” Hongjoong whispered in your ear.

“Just watch.” you whispered back at him which made Hongjoong curious. San walked up to Yunho and stretched out his hand.

“Give me the pool cue. I’m going to prove to y/n that I’m no coward. Bring it on.” your grin got even bigger after San had accepted your challenge.

“Let’s play.” you said but Wooyoung stopped you both before starting the game.

“Wait. How about making a bet?” he suggested.

“Yeah let’s make a juicy bet.” Seonghwa continued Wooyoung’s idea.

Taglist : @reeateez @xduygu-arsx @paigeeastman @moonmark98 @leicy0756 @kpop-khh-writer-trash @chonsayeosang

(whoever wants to be added just say so)

[ktheist]

CEO!JK + - prompt list - + #47 “You’re seriously like a man-child.”

“ooh, you wanna kiss me so bad.”

“you’re seriously like a man child.”

muses. ceo!jk 

genre. e2l / arranged marriage

word. 2.6k

warnings. implied smut

synopsis. your family legacy is falling into ruins. your father is on his deathbed and your mother and sisters have never worked a day in their lives. their only hope is the jeons - the family of the fiancé you abandoned.

x

it can’t be said that you know nothing of jeon jeongguk per se. for one, he was lightly nudged in your direction by his mother at the age of 6 because he’d been hiding behind her legs since the jeon’s arrived. clad in navy blue kindergarten uniform and gripping tightly onto the brown teddy bear he uncreatively called ‘teddy’, he’d stolen a glance at you for a split second and fixed his gaze to the ground.

“____, say hi to jeongguk, you’re going to be seeing each other often from now on,” your mother nudged you from behind, her voice awfully sweet in the presence of mrs. jeon and her extremely shy son.

you’d found out at 11 years old and him 13 years old, what ‘seeing each other often’ actually entailed.

“i don’t wanna marry you!” you’d screamed in his face when you were left alone by the adults.

“i don’t wanna marry a kid with snot running down her face 24/7 either.” jeongguk’s retort, though held no substance, still made you wipe your nose on your sleeve after you’d left him and locked yourself in your room.

at the age of 13 and him 15, you’d managed to escape the clutches of your family by proposing the idea of attending a prestigious boarding school in zurich where you’d spent most of your adolescent years skipping classes and crashing parties.

by 18, you wanted to laugh at your teachers’ relieved faces when your name was called to receive your diploma, marking the end of your great era in that school.

that was when your mother called you back to south korea, claiming that she’d missed her youngest so very much. but you’d continued to make excuses to stay in zurich, applying for a scholarship and getting into a local university there.

none of your friends knew anyone from home and you’d only passingly mentioned that ‘oh, i don’t talk to my family much’.

but just as you were finishing your degree, the news of your father in his death bed latched onto your limbs and had you hopping onto the first flight home.

“what do you mean? so we’re broke?” yuqi’s voice cut through the air like a knife. even her ray bans couldn’t hide her burning gaze.

to think you willingly walked into this mess of a family.

“yuqi, let dad speak,” miyeon glares.

minnie asks after a lapse of silence, “dad, what do you mean the company’s wounding up?”

your father, a man with greying hair and cheeks losing most of their fullness, stares at nothing but the ceiling, as if seeing the angels welcoming him.

“do you remember uncle jee?” even breathing seems difficult for a man that used to work out everyday at the private gym and always invited you to join in on his healthy lifestyle, “he transferred all the company’s assets to his name and fled the country. even his family doesn’t know-”

“oh, for heaven’s sake!” your mother cries, shooting up from the sofa farthest from the bed - you should have known something was wrong when a wife wasn’t waiting by her husband’s bed and took the seat that’s on the far end from her husband, “just admit that it’s your fault! you trusted him too much even though i warned you about him! you ruined this family!”

“i should’ve brought popcorns,” soyeon says from next to you, shooting you an unapologetic - heck, even entertained smile - when you craned your neck out of mild disbelief.

this family’s a little fucked up in the head.

but they call you the black sheep that got away.

“so what now? do we have to... work?” soojin asks, a horrified look spreading across her face.

those several inches nails aren’t made for work. that’s for sure.

“the jeons...,” he coughs, “jeongguk promised to help us rebuild the family business because my father - your grandfather, supported the jeons when they were starting out.”

all of a sudden, seven pairs of eyes turn to you as if you’re the rabbit in a cage full of wolves. the air turns chilly as if someone’s turned the ac to a minus degrees celcius.

“well, don’t look at me, i haven’t talked to him for 9 years,” despite your hands held up and your shoulders almost making your neck shrink into your body, all they see is a little gold piggy bank.

“what? what about the times when we talked on the phone? you sounded so close!” your mother’s source of rage shifts to you.

“well, i mean, he’s pretty active on instagram-” you couldn’t even properly finish your sentence when a hand lands on your shoulder and you’re staring into your reflection in yuqi’s ray bans.

“start talking,” her cherry lips curl as she holds out your phone that you don’t even notice she’s swiped out of your hand bag which, “hey, how did you-” you remembered was zipped shut.

x

“you got something to tell me?” the jeongguk before you wears a smirk that exudes confidence and billion dollar legacy backing him up.

no longer the shy kid that avoids the gaze of those he’s not used to and keeps his head hung low. if anything, his chin is looking too tilted for your liking. though you can’t say the same for the muscles that fill out his suit and wraps around his biceps a little too snug.

he’s finally foregone the side swiped bangs and grew it enough to have it tied back into a man bun, enhancing his sharp jawline and proving once and for all that puberty isn’t just for anyone.

the hesitant hum reverberates against your chest. you can only hope that it’s not audible for persons besides yourself, “you look great.”

his head drops as he chuckles but you can still see the way his jaw clenches, cutting off every humor that’s ever present before looking straight at you through his lashes, “can’t say the same for you.”

you resist the urge to shoot up, handle of your handbag tucked in the juncture between your arm and forearm and strut out of the restaurant without looking back.

“that rotten attitude of yours hasn’t changed i see,” allowing the smile to sneak up your face, you feel your nails digging into your palms underneath the table, rooting you back to your reason for being here.

“it’s the thinking you’re better than me for me,” he states, back leaning against the chair.

“oh, baby, i am better than you,” the words escape your lips as naturally as breathing does.

“i don’t know about that, i certainly wouldn’t bring an on-and-off boyfriend of mine to a restaurant where my potential clients usually go to,” there’s a gleam in his eyes.

but before you can dissect the meaning of his words, the sight of a familiar jet black haired man trudging from toward your table with a distorted expression and waiters hurrying after him from a few steps away - catches your attention.

“___! baby, i’m sorry!” if you look closer, you could see the tears welling up in his eyes when he spots you.

“eric,” the hiss under your breath is venomous, threatening, “what are you doing here?!”

“i’m here for you, baby. i realized you’re the only one for me,” he drops to his knees, pulling out a velvet red box from his pocket. the waiters that were chasing after him now freezing, looking at each other back and forth before eric proclaims his undying love and his desires to, “i don’t want to live a life without you- marry me, baby!”

“stop,” you say curtly, body involuntarily leaned forward to make sure your voice reaches him. the sight of a smirking jeongguk adds to oil to the flames growing inside of you, “stop it. you’re acting insane, right now.”

“...i promise, i’ll never cheat on you again...” eric goes on, tears freely streaming down his cheeks as his shoulders sag, “i even tattooed your name on my chest.”

the italic curls of your name is inked in black a few inches underneath his left collarbone, probably where his heart is supposed to be. but at the moment, all you can see is jeongguk’s leisure wine drinking, “oh my god, security. please, take this man away, he’s disrupting lunchtime.”

the two waiters seem to snap out of their initial trance, marching over to eric and gripping his arms with all their might before dragging him away at the manager’s instructions. it’s only then, do you notice the flash of camera from one of the tables on the farthest left side of the restaurant, its position allowing for a full view of your expression and possibly only a view of jeongguk’s back.

“you,” a whisper slips out of your mouth once you’ve assured the manager that everything was settled and you’d continue eating, “you planned this.”

“what an assertive deduction. i almost thought you would’ve missed it altogether,” he remarks, a look of pure awe spreading across his face.

“fuck you, jeon,” slamming your fist against the table, you slip out of your chair and march out of restaurant, fully aware of the eyes that follow you until you’re out of sight.

x

no word got out.

sns was oddly silent about the incident at the restaurant but your sisters know anyway. shuhua knocks on your door, fixing you one of her calming smiles before dropping the bomb.

“mother and elder sisters don’t know, i’m not gonna tell them but i think it’s better if you talk to jeongguk about it.” is what she suggests.

but she doesn’t know he was the one that orchestrated it, as if your life was a show and he was there for a good time. either way, to ease your sister’s heart, you make your way to jeongguk’s office.

he made you wait for a good two hours, having his assistant retell that he’s busy and can’t be disturbed at the moment. but once you’ve had enough, you barge into his room, nails digging into your palms at the lack of meeting partner and the man’s too casual appearance with his blazer draped over his recliner and his sleeves folded up till his elbow.

“i heard you were in a meeting,” you announce, making sure to glare at the secretary that stopped dead in her tracks when you managed to slip past her and through the door of jeongguk’s office.

“as you can see, i’m quite busy,” he nods, hands gesturing at the open mac in front of him.

“what are you playing at, jeon jeongguk?” a smacking sound echoes through the air as you slam your palms on his mahogany table, glaring down at him “because i swear to god, i will make sure you regret messing with me.”

but instead of the panic you hope to raise, a chuckle trickles out of his lips, “ooh, you wanna kiss me so bad.”

how the prettiest pairs of lips could smirk like that is beyond you. natural pink lips, curving deviously as his bunny lips peek innocently underneath. you don’t notice you were staring until his voice fills the silence, forcing you to tear your gaze away from those kissable lips and meet his gaze.

“you really do wanna kiss me,” there’s that gleam in his eyes - that of realization and something - something - you can’t pinpoint.

gone is the boy that used to tell you your pigtails are lopsided and proceeded to fix it for you - he made it worse but you didn’t really mind because it was the effort that counted.

but that was almost a decade ago.

“you’re seriously like a man child,” you shake your head, the initial reason of marching over to his office now shoved to the back of your mind. the last thing you want is to be in the same room with a man who seems to only be interested in making someone else’s life his own personal entertainment.

but before your fingers brush the metal handle of the double doors, another hand brushing on top of yours, feather-light fingers pleading for you not to walk out on him.

“i’m sorry,” he doesn’t sound like the jeon jeongguk you’ve come to know within the short span of time - like a man stripped off his cards and games, “i went too far.”

you don’t - can’t - say anything but your body isn’t exactly listening to your mind’s instructions to move out of his grasp. out of his presence.

“i didn’t know the reporter was there - i made sure he’s keeping his mouth shut after you left,” his breath is hot against your neck and his front brushes against your back but not really touching.

“why did you do it? why did you bring eric all the way here?” you pray to thank the stars for the strength in your voice despite the feeling that’s slowly disappearing from your knees.

“i found out  you guys broke up because he cheated.. i wanted to make sure he knew you were mine,” his clicks his tongue, “i didn’t know you dated such a psycho-”

your world spins for the briefest moment before you come face to face with a wide eyed jeongguk.

“first off, you don’t own me,” you announce, arms coming to cross over your chest in show of protest, “and second off,” the semblance of surprise and panic finally slips through his facade when your hands grip his collar, “kiss me.”

the last thing you remember is jeongguk nodding ever so slightly before his eyes flutter shut just miliscends before yours. you feel his arm band around your lower back, free hand digging into your hair and pulling you closer into the kiss. he tastes like mint and lemon candies that your nanny used to give you and you’d give it to him, saying something like “it’s my favorite candy but i like you so i’ll let you have one”. you don’t miss the small jar he keeps on the side of his desk full of those candies.

but the matter of this and getting married in order to save your family from falling into ruins are two different matters altogether.

and somewhere down the line, you find yourselves still arguing about the littlest of things.

“um, what do you mean that red roses aren’t romantic? it’s literally the symbol of undying love,” surprisingly enough, it’s jeongguk that’s fighting for the fiercer shade of the petal.

“you think fuchsia pink doesn’t symbolize love?” you roll your eyes.

then comes the time when your mother and magically healed father asking for a grandchild to which jeongguk grins, “we’re working on baby jeon.”

(you’re married and the petals themed in your wedding are both fuchsia and garnet)

“excuse me?” you turn to him, brows arching. that alone warrants a break of cold sweat on jeongguk’s forehead as he cautiously laughs.

“i mean, w-we’re not ready yet.”

rather, you’re not ready to forego your child-less phase in exchange for late night awakenings and learning cry-languages.

but you’re not exactly being careful either, what with the two of you finding the holes in time to slip away from your family and into your childhood room only for jeongguk to slam you against the wall and bend you over the vanity.

“jeongguk did you bring a condom?” you ask.

“i’ll pull out,” is all he says and you’re barely listening as you clasp your palms agaist your mouth, trying not to let out the moans pass through your lips.

when you go back to your family, jeongguk’s arm is around your waist and you both sit together as you joke and laugh with your sisters whilst jeongguk raises a glass to joining your dad at the gym.

x

note. hope yall enjoyed!

see drabble game! for how to request!

[watch-grok-brainrot]

CQL Characters as Teas I’ve Had

This started because @needtherapy knows I'm a tea nerd and wanted an idea for what tea would lwj tell wwx he is... So pick a tea that suits the characters well she basically told me... and this spiral out of control... oops. sorry not that sorry. this is another tea post no one asked for... except maybe needtherapy. but she didn’t ask for THIS MUCH of it. 

Wwx: onyx -- this is a tea i got at a tea festival last year from a guy based in chicago. it’s made from a white tea cultivar but made into a black tea. it’s really yummy and pretty deep. unorthodox for sure but still rooted in tradition and well crafted. 

Lwj: aged fuding silver needle white tea -- if wwx is a onyx, then lwj is the traditional tea made of the same stuff. delicious. traditional. respected. 

Jc: a young sheng puer -- needs to mature a little. Astringent. Need time make the edges soften some. the astringency sometimes make me think of zidian. 

Jyl: lotus scented fuzhan - mellow, smooth, round bodied and fragrant. Same feel as jyl's steadiness and kindness (fuzhuan is a heicha, same category as puer) it’s a scented tea so sometimes tea snobs will look down at it. but it’s REALLY good so their loss (i’m looking at you ep 3-27 jzxuan)

Lxc:  aged white tea cake, over 25 years old. it’s respected and almost legendary but not necessarily pretentious. 

Nhs: ducksh*t oolong - amazing tea. Ridiculous name. The farmer probably named the motherbush to deter buyers. kinda like nhs’ YiWenSanBuZhi title. 

Nmj: muzha tieguanyin - strong flavor, took a little time to grow on me, classic though (not to be confused with anxi tgy, btw. very different teas. same cultivar though, iirc)

Jgy: hunan bloolong - this is a tea made from a cultivar usually used to make oolongs that was processed as a black. A named coined by harney and sons in nyc. While the tea might be decent and the concept good, it's inevitably tainted by the inexplicably awful naming. Just like jgy is tainted by his evil deeds even if he had lots of potential.

Jzxuan: jinjunmei - modern and well received. Quality but also very pricey. sometimes i wonder if it’s worth the price... 

Lqy/mianmian: farmer’s choice baozhong -- i get mine from a shop in seattle. it’s a light oolong that’s floral and refreshing. i love this tea. i love mianmian. it’s not a particularly rare and definitely not pretentious. but it’s good and definitely one i love to drink.

Wq: there is a tea that i get from a vendor in chicago called “Black Dancong Champion” that’s made from a Mi Lan Xiang (Honey Orchid Fragrance) cultivar and allowed to fully oxidize. it’s a delicious tea that’s won best tea award at a competition before. wq is the best doctor of qi shan and definitely not 100% traditional so i think this suits her. also the cultivar has such a pretty name which also suits her. 

Wn: so... this is a weird tea story but i have a tea that my dad’s high school buddy picked in yunnan. the best leaves were made into something i can’t afford. he had some cast-off leaves that he asked the tea master to process anyway. and then when we were in chongqing in 2017, he gave me about 300g of it. it’s PHENOMENAL tea but he kinda waved his hand at it saying it was second rate stuff anyway. that’s kinda what wen ning is. he’s amazing as a character -- loyal, interesting, sweet. but the cultivation world as a whole doesn’t appreciate him. it doesn’t make him any less good though!

Lsz: modern chinese lapsang suchong. The name suggests strong smoke (aka the Wens) but it's actually really soft and fruity.

Ljy: high grade jasmine green made from tender buds from an early spring harvest with jasmine flowers added and sifted out at least seven times. i love this tea even if it’s “flavored”. i like its personality! 

Jl:  pre-qingming dragonwell - soft green tea. maybe described as nutty in flavor? you don’t get too many brews from it. first flush (hence the early spring picking) and tender. i think in a lot of ways this tea shows how young the leaves are -- just like jl shows how young he is in many parts of the story. 

Oyzz: lychee tea blended with rose buds and honeysuckle buds. He's simple but delightful. (idk if this is a blend people can buy? i take cheap grocery store lychee and blend in rose buds and honeysuckle buds i buy when i’m in china... i really like a good rose and lychee combo but it’s a bit too sharp when blended and the honeysuckle does a good job of mellowing it out... this is also the ONLY tea i blend myself.. it’s just a thing for me. idk why)

Sl: aged glutinous rice scented puer - i like the texture of the tea and i also like how it ages well. 

Xxc: jinxuan/milk oolong -- a cultivar that makes a really nice round tea. it’s slightly creamy in mouth feel and scent. there are milk oolongs have have milk flavor added. THIS IS NOT THAT. This is WAY BETTER. 

Xy: unaged ripe puer - some people like it i guess? idk why. seems like a bad idea. 

A-qing: london fog (Earl grey latte with vanilla and sugar) -- soft and yummy but don't screw it up or it may not be good. also not actually pretentious tea. 

And for the antagonists:

Wzl: twinnings or bigelow earl grey. passible. doing the minimal work to get purchased. i don’t hate it but i also don’t love it. acceptable go to in hotels and restaurants when i forgot to/can’t bring my own tea. 

SuSh*t: lipton. He's not good tea. Passable cold brewed I guess. 

Jxzun: instant tea mix. >.> probably flavored. i’m not sure if i would even consider it tea... (i’m thinking a beverage like crystal light peach tea. i mean, i used to drink it and i’m not gonna judge people for drinking it but it’s not really a thing i would choose to consume anymore... but i’m a tea snob now...)

[algernoninwonderland]

Hello, I was wondering how you feel about the "Cat Blanc" ML episode? It thought it strange for reasons I can't really articulate so I was hoping to read your thoughts. I am not that good at analysis but I love your episode reviews. They are very insightful and usual help me understand why I liked/didn't like a certain episode.

A belated review/analysis of Chat Blanc! Here we go!

So, Chat Blanc… It wasn't all that great, now, was it?

The good:

Gabriel's motives are made crystal clear once more, which makes his pushing them to their very limits all the more shocking. The Agreste family vault looks impressive, almost church-like, it's some pretty strong imagery. Not outstandingly original but pretty good stuff nevertheless.

Angry Rose is funny.

Marinette's “Know what I won't take for an answer?” and a smash cut to Nathalie's “No.” That's good comedy.

Ladybug goofing around in the Burrow. It's harmless, she's a kid, these different points in time look interesting.

Chat Blanc's future looks eery and white and blue and it really works, we rarely see post-apocalyptic landscapes like this one, usually it's all muddy and dark and this isn't the case here. I appreciate that. The first wide shot in which the camera spins around Montparnasse tower is great.

Chat Blanc's animation is really creepy and for the most part, it's intentional.

if you’re a sucker for mid 2000s evil sadboys aesthetics, you’ll love this.

Have a montage of Adrienette being sickeningly cute.

I’m watching this in French and let me tell you, Benjamin Bollen might have to work with terrible lines but he’s doing a damn fine job with them

That shot in which the debris and Ladybug break the water’s surface, the bubbles and all… It looks great. I don’t know who is in charge of this but it looked genuinely great.

Chat Noir’s akumatisation and his trying to control his power and not hurt anybody is pretty great, as a concept.

The final scene is a nice parallel to the one earlier in the episode. Repetition with variation is an easy way to make me like things and it works nicely.

The bad:

The Girl Squad bullying Marinette is… Eh.

Stalkerish obsessed Marinette is a joke that overstayed its welcome by that point. Had this been an early season 2 joke, it would have worked. It's a late season 3 joke, it's honestly a bit creepy at this point.

That reveal is fanfic-worthy. It feels really light, and not as big a deal as would have been the case if that episode had any consequences. You can already tell this'll be retconned by the end of the episode.

Bunnyx's burrow. It's unimpressive. It's neither bizarre enough nor flashy enough to really work for me. And that TARDIS joke made me roll my eyes.

If you hate mid 2000s evil sadboys aesthetics, you’ll hate this.

They re-use the same two cars for Ladybug to jump on and it’s pretty obvious. There are smart ways of recycling assets. This isn’t one of them.

Wow, that’s a terrible first kiss, the shot is… Pretty bad.

Gabriel being an asshole and breaking Adrienette up for the stupidest, most selfish reasons feels unfair and that’s the point… But also that scene at the bakery is pretty lame, it doesn’t flow very well, the characters are oddly static and not expressive enough for it to be striking, the lighting doesn’t work with the mood of the scene at all. It feels abrupt, yes, but also cheap.

“It was our love that did this to the world milady.” What a stupid, edgy line.

Bad low-res textures being stretched are clearly visible in quite an awful lot of shots.

Wow. Destroyed Paris is the exact same city as usual, just as empty, only this time they replaced the sky with a “water surface” animation loop. It’s… Underwhelming. You had a great concept and this is what you do with it?

Can you believe they made destruction on a cosmic scale look so bland? How do you mess up that bad?

That confrontation between Hawk Moth and our heroes. This should be season finale material. It’s considerably cheapened.

The ugly:

With the few exceptions listed above, the rendering is not good at all, the lighting is flat and inexpressive which could give everything a kind of otherworldly feel if only used in some sequences (and that would be clever!)… Only it's off, all of the time. Chat Blanc is the only character that looks okay in his timeline.

The animation is off when it shouldn't be, outside of the exception listed earlier. Everything is much too stiff, characters' expressions are off, the timing is off. It's a shame, really. The action sequences are decently boarded but look pretty bad.

“Just because I know her secret identity doesn't mean she has to know about mine.” That's a terrible line. And we're supposed to be rooting for that kid. That's not how healthy relationships work, the episode never addresses that because Adrien is perfect, he's just sad and understandably troubled by these revelations.

Do you remember when Gabriel was shown to care for his son, the complex character drama that could have arisen from that? Well it sure as hell ain’t there.

That Guy boarded that episode. He has a weird, err, fixation on a 14yo girl’s butt and makes sure to include a shot in which it is shoved at the viewers’ faces. Seriously? What is wrong with you? If you so badly want to sexualise characters, it’s not like there aren’t any adults in Miraculous.

Perfectly good ideas are skimmed over in a matter of seconds because this episode is only 22 minutes long. The audience is bombarded with pretty major turning points in a matter of seconds and can barely process any of them.

If the point of your episode is, “it’s better if it doesn’t exist” then you obviously shouldn’t be making this episode… Right? Seems pretty obvious to me, but apparently it isn’t since Chat Blanc exists.

That end card has Hawk Moth look like he’s rolling his eyes and so was I by the end of this episode. The overwhelming feeling of all of this for nothing but the reassertion that these two are “made for each other” which, yawn.

Perfectly good ideas wasted on an episode with mediocre writing and bad animation and rendering.

It's a pretty forgettable episode, funnily enough, I had to rewatch it to be able to write this review.

Hope this helped, Anon! Thanks for the compliment!