#ks final chapter

[hopecomesbacktolife]

crying weeping. this book was phenomenal. 100/10 magnificent and soooooo intense and vast and searingly intimate and heartbreaking and swoops of joy and I just. Katherine x Zera 5ever I love them so much

(possible spoilers in the tags even though I redacted the most spoilery bits)

once I’m a bit more coherent I plan to write an actual legible review (a glowing one, of course!) but I had to scream about all my feelings for this book here 😭❤️

[seospicybin]

REWIND.

PART I

Hyunjin x reader x Seungmin. (s,a)

Chapters: Part II

Synopsis: As a part of a research team that works on a memory-erasing machine, you work alongside the professor whom you greatly admire and a computer geek who relentlessly flirts with you. But the one that you want is the one that you can't have. (12,6k words)

Author's note: Sorry for the delay. Enjoy this one!

Memories are recordings of our past experiences and experiences can be good and bad, some are in between. There are also ones that we wish we had never experienced in the first place and whether we like it or not, they stay with us. We can only try to endure them in the hope that time will lessen the pain that memory carries.

The thing is remembering is easy. It's forgetting that's hard.

Here at KS Research Facility, forgetting is as easy as pressing the delete button. The research team has successfully built software called Memory Neurons Erasing Machine, in short, MNE-Machine.

With the existence of this machine, now anyone can erase a certain memory from their brain and live as if that memory never existed at all.

The one to thank for this technology is Professor Kim Seungmin, the youngest yet the brightest scientist of the past decade. He is the one who came up with the idea, spent two years developing that idea, initiated the project, and ultimately, led the team building the machine from scratch.

There's only one MNE-Machine in the world for now and once it has successfully passed five human tests, the board will authorize the production of this machine so eventually, anyone can easily undergo the memory erasing procedure which means there’ll be more people to help.

And what is your part in this? You're an assistant to Seungmin, you directly work with the man who invented it and help him achieve his goal. Despite your minor role, you're proud to be a part of it. Despite restocking the coffee pods in his office is one of your job desks, well… yeah, you're still proud of it.

"How much time do I have before the meeting?"

You scramble when you see Professor Seungmin come into the office. You hurriedly finish restocking the coffee pods into the drawer and crumple the empty box behind your back. You glance at your wristwatch and check the time.

"You have approximately 30 minutes," you answer with a smile.

It's not like he'll your smile, Seungmin barely speaks a full sentence to you so there's no reason he looks at you in the eyes as he speaks. He goes to his drawer, scanning through the files with his fingers flipping one file over another to finally find the one he's looking for. He takes it with him as he sits on his desk, flipping the file open and starts reading.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Professor?" You ask because despite it being your job to assist him, he rarely asks for your help unless it's urgent.

He stays quiet until he flips to another page of his file, "Get me the subject's latest psych eval!"

"Right away, Professor!" You reply, picking up the empty box and carrying it with you out of the office.

Considering that there's not much time left until the meeting, you need to get it fast for Seungmin. But you know when you're in a hurry, there's always something that slows you down in the process. Well, in your case, it's a man who dresses like he's in a rock band in his ripped jeans and oversized t-shirts, his dark hair that he keeps long is usually tied in a low, messy ponytail.

At one point, everyone just kind of gave up telling him to put his lab coat on. As long as he does his job well as a tech scientist, everyone just let him be.

However, Hwang Hyunjin can't let you be, he flirts and teases, even seduces you at any chance possible.

"Can you get off my chair?" You ask, then let out a low sigh.

He swivels the chair to face you and grins, making his eyes forming two crescent moons, "I'm making your chair much more comfortable," he simply says while patting his lap, telling you to sit on it instead.

It's only going to be a waste of time trying to tell him off so you relent, sitting on his lap and when he's about to put his arms around you, you glare at him.

Hyunjin immediately put his hands up in defeat, "Want to grab drinks after work?"

He asked you the same question every other day for a few months now and your answer remains the same.

"No," you answer without a beat, getting on your computer to search for the file Seungmin asked.

"How about dinner?" Hyunjin shoves his hand into the pocket of your lab coat, knowing you like to keep sweets in there.

"My treat," he adds while checking the other pocket.

You're clicking open a few folders as you answer, "No."

Hyunjin excitedly gasps as he pulls out something out of your pocket, a caramel. He wastes no time to unwrap it then pops the cube-shaped caramel into his mouth.

"You know you can't keep saying no to me," he says, resting his chin on your shoulder.

"No," you shortly respond.

He hisses at the way you keep rejecting him, "There'll be a day where you say yes," he confidently says.

You look away from the computer screen to look at him and say, "No."

He softly sighs then rests his chin on your other shoulder, "Let's say you already done your part playing hard to get and get to the first base already," he shamelessly says.

Hyunjin is so bold and confident, you can't deny that he's beautiful, he probably never had any problems getting any girls he wanted. Maybe that’s why he won't stop asking you out, he feels challenged to win you over too. As if you would let him have the satisfaction.

Shaking your head, you pretend that you didn't hear him say that. You click print on the file and get up from his lap, walking to the printer to wait for it to finish printing yet Hyunjin follows you there, leaning against the printer machine with his arms crossed in front of you

"The more you reject me, the more motivated I am," he says with a lopsided grin on his face.

"You sound like a serial killer," you tell him.

He bends down to get the printed file for you and hands it to you with both hands, "I'm just saying."

Without looking, you know Hyunjin is trailing behind you like a puppy with his tail wagging behind him. He then sits on the edge of your desk, grabbing the stapler for you to use.

"Go, do your job or something!" You try to send him off even though you know it's going to be a useless effort.

"I am doing my job by helping you do your job," he says with a half-smirk.

See? It's only going to waste your time trying to tell him off, it's easier to ignore him. You hurriedly tidy the files and bring them to Seungmin's office. You place three gentle knocks on the door before letting yourself in.

"Professor, I have the files you need— Ouch!" You bump into someone and you glance up to see that it's Seungmin.

His office is big, in fact, too big for someone who likes to spend most of his time in the lab yet you feel like there's no space left where you can escape his intense stare.

"Oh, God! I am so sorry," you apologize in sheer panic and quickly take off the hands unknowingly resting against his chest.

You expect him to, you know, dust himself off since your hands were touching him but instead of that, he looks at you and not just look at your face but right into your eyes for the first time in a long time. The eye contact only lasts a second until Seungmin takes the files from you.

"I'll read it on the way to the meeting room," he says.

Having no time, you hurriedly grab your things from your desk, clutching them close to your chest as you follow him from behind.

On the way to the meeting room, Seungmin spotted Hyunjin having a donut in the pantry. He stops on his track to say, "Aren't you coming?"

Hyunjin knows well enough that when Seungmin tells him to go, then he should go. In fact, Seungmin is the only one who can control Hyunjin. A part of the reason is because Seungmin personally hired him and has been taking him under his wing, you can say Hyunjin is his protégé.

He puts the half-eaten donut down and happily joins the two of you as you let him link his arm with you, walking together to the meeting room.

-

There are three main buildings in the KS Research Facility.

 A building is the main office and a health facility, B building is the biggest and also a research facility, there are several science projects on the works in there but it's mainly focused on Biochemical, led by Professor Hale and C building is where you work along with the team that works with MNE-Machine, it's the smallest building so the team get to have the building for themselves.

But as a smaller community, you have to go to the B building for meetings and such because most of the board members are there. You have to walk from and through the greenhouse, seeing all the rare plants the scientists are collecting in there on the way to get to the B building.

Today's meeting is to seek approval from the members of the board on the test subject Seungmin has carefully selected from a group of volunteers and once it's approved he can proceed with the procedure.

While the important people are busy talking about important stuff, you and Hyunjin are secretly playing tic-tac-toe in your notebook. He's twirling his pen between his fingers when you subtly nudge his elbow, signaling that it's his turn to place his O.

As Hyunjin observes the game with his tongue slightly sticking out the corner of his mouth, you notice that Professor Hale's assistant, Rina, is staring at Hyunjin.

"Your turn," he whispers at you.

You look down at your notebook and lowly mutter through your gritted teeth, "One o'clock."

It takes him a moment to get what you're saying, and then Hyunjin looks in the direction you hinted. You watch them exchange a look before Hyunjin turns his head back at you, looking unbothered. He clicks his pen to place an O and scratches down the line.

"I won," he whispers with his warm breath tickling your ear.

Noticing that the meeting has come to a final decision, you stop talking and fix your sitting position. You watch as the board members take votes on whether Seungmin can continue with the test or not and all hands are raised in favor of Seungmin.

"With all members approving the selected test subject, Professor Seungmin is allowed to continue with the procedure that will be held on the agreed upon time and place," the board leader announces.

Even in his triumphant moment, Seungmin remains calm and still, you can't remember the last time he smiled, even out of courtesy. Ha he always been like this? Honestly, you can’t remember.

"The board members will watch closely the process, before and after the test. We also demand follow-ups and thorough datas on every detail of the test," they warn once again even though it's not the first time Seungmin has run the test.

Everyone scatters around once the meeting has finished, you wait outside of the meeting room knowing that Seungmin will likely stay to chat with the other professors. Rina is still here as well, holding her tablet close to her chest and not-so-subtly staring at Hyunjin

"You should ask her out," you mutter at Hyunjin, subtly hinting the subject of the talk with your eyes.

Hyunjin doesn't even look up from his phone when he flat-out rejects the idea, "No, thank you."

"Why not? She's pretty and she's your age," you point out all of the obvious facts why he should be seducing her, not you who's a couple of years older than him and not having a shiny, healthy hair.

Hyunjin lets out a scoff, then shoves his phone into the pocket of his hoodie, "You're prettier and older," he says with a sly smile plastered on his face.

Whether he tries to compliment you or try to offend you, you feel like you need to check if there's something wrong with him. You poke his side with your pen and he yelps in pain.

"What's wrong with you?" He sharply gasps.

"You are what's wrong," you answer, poking him on the other side this time.

He laughs and leans against the wall facing you, slightly slouching so he can be on the same eye level with you. "Dating older women is hot, you know," he coyly remarks.

You give him a repulsed glare at his words, shaking your head as you look away from him.

"And you're hot so dating you would be ticking two boxes at once," he adds with his sly smile growing wider on his angular face.

Besides your actual job, you have to deal with this 5'10" man bursting with youthful charm and testosterone, you wouldn't complain if you get double paychecks for it. You aim his stomach next and poke him with your pen again, hoping a little violence would put some sense into his small head.

"One more test, huh?" Professor Hale says, patting Seungmin's shoulder as they walk out of the meeting room.

It feels like your body is accustomed to getting on your perfect posture whenever Seungmin walks into your radar, you stop moving altogether and stand up straighter.

"I'll see everyone on Friday!" Professor Hale says one last time, he also smiles at you and Hyunjin before turning to leave.

Now that the team has earned the green light, everyone is going to get busier to prepare everything. Seungmin lists the things he wants you to do as he walks back to C building and you jot down everything on your notebook. He stops by the main lab and gets Hyunjin on the job, ordering him to run a diagnostic test on the MNE-Machine, checking for any issues.

It's one of those times when you can see how passionate Seungmin is about his work.

He's the reason why you applied for the job, not only because you can work directly with him but also because you admire him, his brilliance, his work ethic, and most of all, him as a person.

There are so many things you learned from working for him for the last three years and your admiration toward him only grows bigger with time. And out of that admiration, something else grows, something that makes you excited to go to work, makes you happy at the sight of him and wanting to always be close to him.

Sensing that someone is watching him, Seungmin turns around to find you still standing there, "Don't you have things to do?"

You gulp air before asking, "Uhm.. Professor?"

He starts walking with his hands shoved inside his lab coat pockets, "Yes?"

You half jog to keep up with his wide strides, "Professor Hale said one more test and I thought we're only on our fourth test?"

You wait for his answer while quietly admiring his wide shoulders from the back while struggling to keep up with his fast walks.

All of a sudden, he turns on his feet and then he looks at you, the eye contact doesn't last longer than a second until he looks away, "Notify the test subject first and make sure they make the time for the interview tomorrow!" He orders instead of answering your question.

"Will do, Professor," you respond.

You manage to finish a few things before it's time to go home, the rest on the to-do list are meant to be done tomorrow though. As you're about to get your coat, Seungmin walks out of his office and swings his briefcase on his side.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he says without looking at you.

"Have a great—" You don't even get to finish your sentence as he disappears into the elevator.

Only a dozen people are working in the C building and there are only five people working directly with Seungmin. Professor Lee who worked together on MNE-Machine with Seungmin is being called to give lectures out of the country and taking his assistant with him, so that leaves you and Hyunjin. The rest of the employees are working maintenance on the lower level of the building, you only meet them when you either enter or leave the building.

"Are you sure you don't want to grab drinks with me?" Hyunjin asks, unlocking his car but not getting in yet.

You toss your bag onto the passenger's seat before getting inside your car. It's actually tempting to say yes, you could use it to blow some steam off to prepare you for the busy days ahead.

But you don't want to give Hyunjin the satisfaction. No, not yet.

"No," you answer with a playful smile.

Hyunjin tosses his backpack inside and comes up to your car, he bends down to look at you through your rolled-down window.

"Come on. It'll be fun," he persuades with a smile that is mischievous and seductive at once. You bet this is how he puts anyone under his spell.

You turn your head at him and smile, "You know what would be fun?"

He tips his head to the side and asks, "What?"

"Me running you over with my car," you jokingly say as you turn on the car engine.

“Ooo… feisty,” Hyunjin hisses then slowly, he steps away from your car.

That's how most of your days usually went, dealing with two men who are the opposite of each other. One gives you not enough attention and the other gives you way too much. One is cold and nonchalant, the other one is warm and attentive.

Sadly, the one that you want is the one that you can't have.

-

What is it that he likes about you? Hyunjin can quite put his finger on it.

Something about you though draws him to you, it's almost magnetic and he happens to like the push and pull of it. However, he liked you even before this dynamic formed between the two of you.

He likes that you're unlike the other girls he had met and known, you have a way of carrying yourself, you're outspoken and bold, and he can see how smart you are from the way you act, the way you talk, and even the way you think.

Under that layer of fine qualities though, you're a simple girl, gentle and a bit silly and Hyunjin likes to play with that latter part of you because he knows that even though you act like you don't like being around him, he knows that it’s actually the opposite.

One thing that Hyunjin likes the most is when you're deeply focusing on something. You look so beautiful yet so unaware of it.

"Why are you working so hard? You only get one paycheck," he whispers from behind you as you observe the interview occurring in the next room.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence,” You sneer at him.

Hyunjin stands right behind you, his hand is rummaging inside your lab coat pocket to find something sweet in there. He finds your scrunchie instead and he uses it to tie his hair into a messy bun.

"So, what memories are we going to erase?" Hyunjin asks while rummaging through your other lab pocket. He gasps in excitement when he finds a lollipop.

"A bombing incident, he was trapped under the rubble for ten hours in complete darkness and has been dealing with severe PTSD and claustrophobia ever since," you eloquently explain, jotting down a few things in your notebook as you speak.

"That's tragic," Hyunjin comments while struggling to unwrap the lollipop.

Hyunjin takes a moment to look at the interview taking place in the next room conducted by Seungmin himself. He's asking the test subject about his worst memories and as the test subject talks about them, he triggers the brain to show where these memories are located. It's important to have a map of these memories to prevent the MNE-Machine from messing with the other memories.

"Are you ready to spend another night together?" He asks, finally succeeding in unwrapping the lollipop.

"I can tell you're into threesomes," you joke in a plain tone.

It seems like Seungmin hasn't told you about the personal matter he has to attend on Friday night and as his assistant, you’re supposed to know these kind of things before him. Hyunjin crosses his arms in front of him and tries to make what of it.

"He didn't tell you?"

You stop noting down bits from the interview, "What?"

"Professor Seungmin will be having his wedding anniversary dinner on Friday night and obviously, he can't miss it," he tells you.

From the way your eyes waver and widen, you indeed have no idea about it. You look back at your notebook but stop writing.

He leans in and mutters, "We'd likely spend the night just the two of us, isn't that exciting?"

You put your pen into your pocket and flip shut your notebook, then you get up from your chair. You turn to look at him and pull the lollipop he stole out of his mouth.

"Stop stealing my sweet!" You tell him, shoving the lollipop into your mouth next.

You leave the room looking slightly upset about something but he's sure it's not about the lollipop. However, Hyunjin is mostly focused on how you didn't hesitate to take the lollipop.

"Kinky? Checked," he mutters to himself.

There's nothing wrong with the MNE-Machine and Hyunjin understands that Seungmin wants everything to be perfect until the day of the test, but he worries too much. The MNE-Machine can only get activated by his access key so he goes to his office, knocking on his door before popping his head between the doors.

"Professor, I need the access key to uh..." he awkwardly says because it feels like he's asking his dad if he can borrow his car.

"I'll be right there," Seungmin shortly answers.

Now that he only needs to wait for Seungmin, he has time to tease you. He leans on your desk, watching your nimble fingers busy typing something on your computer with your hair draping around your face.

"Hi, the most beautiful and hardworking girl," he sweetly greets you with a bright smile on his face.

"That's half true," you say without taking your eyes away from the computer screen.

"You know I'm always telling the truth," he says once again, feeling tempted to tuck your hair so he can see your face.

"I am the only girl in the building," you point out with a raised eyebrow.

Hyunjin can't help himself anymore, he reaches for your hair, wanting to brush it to the side when Seungmin gets out of his office.

"Let's go," he says to Hyunjin while fixing his lab coat.

Hyunjin reluctantly drops his hand and offers it to you, "Come with me, dear princess?"

You chuckle at him and take his hand, letting him put your hand around his as you both walk to the main lab.

MNE-Machine resembles one big X-ray machine but the technology behind it is way more intricate than that and Hyunjin's job is to operate it. He's sitting behind the large desk with a dozen computer screens showing a lot of things all at once.

It's a quick check-up for tomorrow's test, Hyunjin gets the machine ready and swivels his chair back to let Seungmin insert his access key to run the program. Hyunjin's long fingers are dancing on the keyboard, checking everything and making sure everything is fine.

"I don't see any issues here, working just fine, Professor," Hyunjin informs, showing him the performance log on one of the computer screens.

Seungmin observes it for a while, checking things himself and Hyunjin is already used to his mistrust. After all, Seungmin is a scientist,  he only believes something when it's written in data, not someone's words.

"Everything is great," he mutters, still checking everything.

"Just like I said..." Hyunjin lowly mutters through his teeth while swiveling his chair to see you, flashing a smile at you when you're clearly not looking at him.

Seungmin then turns around to face everyone but only looks at Hyunjin as he speaks.

"The two of you can come late tomorrow but make sure to be here by four. The test will commence at 5," Seungmin says even though everyone is well aware of it because it's the only thing they've been working on for these past few days.

"And we'll take care of the rest," Hyunjin continues his words while swiveling his chair back to face the computer,

Seungmin briefly glances at Hyunjin then takes a pen out of his lab coat, "I'll stay to supervise," he says.

"Then how about your dinner, Professor?" Hyunjin asks.

"I'll take care of my personal matter myself," Seungmin coldly answers.

Those words are enough to put Hyunjin back in his place, he retreats right away and closes his mouth. His intention is not to meddle in his business but it's a wedding anniversary, it only happens once in a year and he has to wait for another year to celebrate. Maybe Seungmin can celebrate it another time but Hyunjin wouldn't be so sure the missus would be pleased to hear her husband rather stay the night up working in the lab.

And also because—

"I think you should go, Professor," you say.

The heads are turned in your direction, and you're fidgeting with the hem of your lab coat as you speak, "I mean, once you authorized the procedure... Hyunjin and I, the two of us can supervise it..." your voice gets smaller the more you talk.

It seems like a good time for Hyunjin to add his say too, he gets up from his chair to make it a formal appeal.

"We just need to wait until the machine finishes the procedure. We surely can do that for you," Hyunjin assures.

It's going to be a hard case to convince him since Seungmin has trust issues, especially with Hyunjin. Again, it's the scientist in him.

"I don't feel good leaving such great responsibility on the two of you," He says without looking at either you or him.

"There's nothing to worry about, Professor. The machine works fine and if anything happens— which I'm sure nothing is going to happen, Professor Hale is a building away and... so are the other dozen of Professors..." Hyunjin failed not to fumble on his words, he was rambling the whole time.

"What Hyunjin is trying to say is we're trained to do this and if you're worried, we'll keep you notified every hour on the progress of the procedure," you immediately add.

Hyunjin secretly gives you a thumbs-up from behind his back, thanking you for backing him up.

Seungmin looks at him, then at you, probably considering whether to finally trust his employees or not. Whatever his decision is, Hyunjin is ready to be disappointed. After a moment, Seungmin clicks his pen and puts it back into his pocket.

"I'll think about it," he concludes, leaving the main lab with the hem of his lab coat flying behind him.

Hyunjin kicks the floor to gain momentum so the chair rolls across the room and hits the other end of the table, stopping not far from you.

"I know you want to spend the night together with me," he teases you.

You scoff and look at him, "Mmh. Yeah, sure."

He takes both of your hands and holds them, "What do you want to do tomorrow night, mmh?"

Your shoulders slump as you sigh, "Should I change my mind about this?"

Hyunjin puts his hands on your shoulders and keeps your gaze on him, "How about this? Tomorrow, you come dressed nicely for me and I'll take care of the essentials," he says, slowly blinking his eyes hoping they're enough to soften you.

The stillness on your face shatters as you break into a smile, "Okay," you reply with a nod.

Hyunjin leans down to kiss your hands but you retrieve them before he can place a kiss, "Don't get too excited!"

This proves that you actually like having him around. You could have drawn boundaries and he would have respected it, but instead of that, you keep letting him in.

And Hyunjin hopes you keep on letting him in until the day you finally say yes to him.

-

With Seungmin sending you to pick up his suits at the tailor means that he has decided to go to the wedding anniversary dinner tonight.

The drive from the nearest town to the facility takes half an hour and on the way back to your car, you see a flower shop and think of getting a bouquet as a gift. You pick the nicest one knowing that Seungmin married a woman who comes from a wealthy family and their wealth funded Seungmin's project. In fact, the facility is owned by Seungmin's parents in-laws.

What do you have against all that? This is the bitter pill you have to swallow everyday for the last three years.

As you expected, Seungmin is already in his office as you can see through the glass window, reading his journal and probably working on his new project already. You put on your lab coat and then knock on his office door three times before entering his office.

"Good day, Professor," you greet.

You walk to his coat hanger, hang his suits for him, and then put his mails on his desk. You take a step back and look at him, a way to let him know that you’re at his service.

"Anything else I can do for you, Professor?"

Seungmin looks up from his journal and lays his eyes on you, staring at you like there's something wrong with you. You immediately look down, checking your appearance and you're sure that it's not the first time you wear a skirt to work so what is different about you that gets him staring?

"P-professor?" You stammer, wiping your palms down the front of your skirt.

He immediately looks away and clears his throat as he flips the next page of his journal, "Make sure the serum is ready and check in on Professor Hale uh..." he clears his throat before continuing to talk.

"What time he'll be here, " He takes another look at you before turning his chair away from you.

"Sure thing, Professor," you respond, wasting no time to get on the job.

The sight of the flower bouquet reminds you to put it in the fridge for the time being to keep it fresh, you bring it with you to the pantry, and safely tuck it between bottles of water inside the fridge. You're supposed to go to the B building to get the serum but you make a stop at the main lab, seeing Hyunjin is already busy in front of his computer.

"That's new," you say, commenting on the glasses he's wearing.

Hyunjin rolls his chair away from his desk and looks at you with a grin on his face.

"Yeah, it's uh... I can't see clearly without them," he says while sticking his finger inside the frame, showing you that it's just the frame. Hyunjin has a weird sense of humor but in a way that is adorable, not annoying.

You softly laugh and shake your head, "I have to go to the next building."

He nods and effortlessly twirls a pen between his fingers, "I'd like to come with you but he wants me to..." he shows how busy he is to get everything ready for the test.

"That's okay. I'm working faster this way anyway," you playfully say.

After running around the facility getting everything ready for the test, you knock on Seungmin's office to notify him that everything is ready. As usual, you let yourself in after the third knock and walk up to his desk, "Professor, the test subject is already on their way here," you inform.

Seungmin gets up from his chair to put on his lab coat, "Okay then I'll uh..." he looks down at his desk, cluttered with papers.

"Can you look for the—" he points at the mess on his desk.

"Want me to tidy your desk?" You offer but not moving until you get his confirmation.

"Yes."

While he's busy putting on his lab coat, you gather all the papers and put all of them into a stack, along with old files he took out from archives. You organize them into different piles and when you lift his journal, his access key slips out of it. You don't know if he notices, but you quickly squat down to get it from the floor.

Seungmin keeps a Polaroid photo in the back of his access key, you can tell from the back of it but you're curious to see who's in the photo. The safe bet would be of his wife or them together but if that's the case then why did he choose to hide it?

"Here," you hand him his access key knowing that he needs it to authorize the use of MNE-Machine.

Seungmin looks at you, then at the access key in your hand. He quickly reaches for it and as he takes it from you, his fingers brush with yours, you feel a static current, a slight electric shock that makes you retract your hand right away.

You see that he senses it too from the way his eyes widen and grow a little intense, or maybe because you caught him staring into your eyes again.

"I'll check the main lab," you excuse yourself out of his office.

The preparation continues as Professor Seungmin explains the procedure that he'll be going through and after that, he gives him an injection with the serum that will make the test subject's brain responsive to the MNE-Machine. Soon, the test subject will fall into deep sleep and he'll remain in his slumber while the MNE-Machine is working on him.

Everyone gathers in the main lab to start the test and Professor Hale is here as the representation of the board members, watching over Seungmin who works with a team of doctors to check on the test subject one last time to continue with the procedure.

You walk up to stand next to Hyunjin who also watches everything from the operator room, you quietly take his hand and put it inside your lab coat pocket.

He turns his head at you and smiles when he finds the sweet you keep in there for him. He gladly takes it out of your pocket and his eyes shimmer when he finds out what it is, a small bar of chocolate.

"Good luck for today," you mutter to him.

"Thank you," He whispers as he puts it in the back pocket of his jeans.

It's time for the final step. Seungmin takes out his access key and scans it into the computer, sending the screens light up and the system starts loading.

Hyunjin then takes the role of operating the machine, clicking on his keyboard and getting the MNE-Machine ready for Seungmin. When he's done, he backs away to let Seungmin push the authorization button. He glances at Professor Hale, seeking final approval from him.

"Go ahead, Professor," Professor Hale says, allowing him to continue.

Seungmin confidently pushes the button and MNE-Machine begins by following the map Seungmin has recorded days before and from there, it starts erasing the targeted memories from its most recent to the earliest. The procedure could take 8 to 10 hours, depending on the amount of memories programmed to be erased.

Professor Hale applauds as Seungmin successfully launches another test and comes up to him to congratulate him with a proud smile on his face and pats on his shoulder, "Congratulations!"

"Don't congratulate me yet, Professor," Seungmin sheepishly says.

"We all know your machine is a great success," Professor Hale praises, briefly glancing at you before looking back at him.

You don't want to overanalyze something that could mean nothing but a mere glance. You smile at him thinking he's just being courteous with you.

Professor Seungmin leaves to send everyone off or more like, return to B building. Now that the procedure is truly underway, you come up behind Hyunjin to give him a pat on the shoulder.

"Wow. You're working," you poke fun at him.

Hyunjin takes your hand and pulls at it, dropping his head to the back to look at you, "Do I look smart?"

"You are smart," you simply confirm with a gentle pat on his cheek.

There's no other reason why Seungmin hired him in the first place if it's not because he’s qualified for the job which includes adequate intelligence.

"And you like smart guys so what are we waiting for?" He says, pressing your palm to his cheek.

"Professor Seungmin," you tell him, seeing that he's making his way back into the main lab with his hands buried in his lab coat pockets.

You hurriedly take your hands away from Hyunjin and take a step back, you immediately get on your perfect posture as his figure enters the room.

"What's the status?" Seungmin asks.

"Everything is up and running fine," Hyunjin immediately responds.

"Vital signs?"

"Normal and stable," you respond from the other end of the desk, watching over the state of the test subject's essential body functions.

Seungmin stayed for another hour until the MNE-Machine successfully erased the first memory. He checks on everything once again to finally leave the main lab and goes to his office to get ready to leave.

You don't want to walk in on him changing his clothes so you give it a few more minutes and decide to take the flower bouquet out of the fridge before you forget. As usual, you knock three times on his door but this time, you wait until he lets you in. You knock again when he doesn't respond, afraid that he's still changing.

"Come in!" Seungmin says from inside his office.

Seungmin is tying his tie in front of the mirror when you come in, you stop right by his desk and inform him of the latest status of the test.

"Keep watching it closely while I..." his words trail off as he slides the knot up to the base of his shirt collar. He turns around and takes the suit jacket off of its hanger, swiftly putting it on. He's doing a mundane thing yet it's such a mesmerizing sight for you.

You notice the back of his collar is folded and you reach for it, reflexively fixing it for him. Now that you have crossed into his personal space, you may as well continue by helping him flatten the lapels of his suit jacket. You can feel his eyes on you as you fix on his tie and you try so hard to ignore it.

It's better to say sorry than ask for permission.

You quickly take a step back once you're done and mutter your apology, "I'm sorry."

Instead of scolding you, Seungmin takes his briefcase and coat with him, then heads to the door. You scramble to chase him out of his office and give in once you know that he's going to the main lab to check everything before he leaves.

Seungmin returns with Hyunjin and you hurriedly grab the bouquet you bought for him. You doubt he'll accept it but what's the harm in doing something nice?

Hyunjin pushes the button on the elevator and it arrives in a minute. Not giving him a chance to reject your gift, you wait until the last moment to give it to him.

"Congratulations on your wedding anniversary, Professor," you mutter as quickly as possible, handing the bouquet right into his hand.

Seungmin looks at the flowers in his hand, then looks at you, seeming like he wants to say something but refrains.

"Congratulations, Professor!" Hyunjin also congratulates him as he stands next to you.

"Have a great night!" He cheerily adds with a bright smile and enthusiastically waves his hands at him.

As the elevator doors close, you feel like letting go of something that you can't get back. It's funny that it feels like that when he's not yours in the first place.

The hand rests around your shoulder and snaps you out of your head. You turn your head to find Hyunjin slyly smiling at you.

"Ready to party?" 

-

The parent is finally out of the house and Hyunjin can throw a party in the house.

As promised, he brought a box of things that he deemed as ‘essentials’ that he's been keeping it hidden in the cabinet in the pantry.

"Okay, impress me!" You tell him, standing across the table to see what he bought for tonight.

Hyunjin puts on a cocky smile, he's confident with what he does as he places the box on top of the counter with a low thud. First, he takes out all the bags of chips and cans of soda.

One corner of your mouth curls higher than the other, seeing that he bought all of your favorite snacks. You take a bag of chips and waste no time to tear it open.

"Not the time to be impressed yet," he says to you with the cocky smile still dancing on his face.

You shrug and continue munching on potato chips as he introduces you to the other essentials.

Hyunjin takes a bottle of Tequila next and you respond with a nod of approval. He continues with another one, a tin can, and slides it in front of you.

"Mints?" You ask in utter confusion.

This time, Hyunjin gives you a shrug. He makes you open the tin can to find two rolled joints inside. He sees another smile of approval rise on your pretty face.

Hyunjin suppresses his laugh as he fishes out the last thing, he holds it in his hand and puts it in the middle of the counter.

Your eyebrow raises at the sight of a box of condoms, "This is essential?" 

Hyunjin rests both hands on top of the counter, "If you want to do it raw, I'm more than okay with it," he jokingly says.

You pick it up and observe it like you have never seen it before, reading the back of the box like it’s a foreign object to you.

"Regardless we'll have sex or not, a condom is essential," Hyunjin adds.

You snort when you notice something on the box of condoms, "Are you sure you bought the right size?"

He snatches it from you and puts it back into the box. He stares at you and says, "You have no idea what's coming to you."

You chortle at his words and uncap the bottle of alcohol, "Let's get this party started, shall we?"

He stops from you from getting the bottle of Tequila, "No, wait, wait, now is the time for you to be impressed," he says.

You tip your head to the side, "What?"

"I have Tim from security bring us pizza when he takes his shift tonight," Hyunjin announces with a pride smile.

The facility is in the countryside and ordering food is hard because it takes at least half an hour to get here, even if they are willing to go that far, the food gets cold by the time they get here.

"Now, I am impressed," you remark with a sly smile.

As a start, you both have a few shots of Tequila before mixing it with soda and drinking it from your respective mugs. The party continues in the main lab as Hyunjin has to message Seungmin on the current status. Hyunjin chooses to send a text instead of calling, afraid that he interrupt the romantic dinner.

Hyunjin glances up from his phone to find you leaning against the desk, reading something on the computer. With your lab coat off, he can see the way you are dressed for tonight. Not sure if it's because of what he asked but you indeed dressed nicely tonight. You wear a blouse and a plaid skirt, and you rarely wear a skirt to work, but the one that intrigues him is the black tights you're wearing.

Fuck leaving so little to the imagination, he likes having a lot of imagination when it comes to you. He can imagine a lot of scenarios just from seeing the way you bend against that desk.

You take a small sip of your alcohol then look over your shoulder, "Do you know why I can't open this file?"

Hyunjin immediately comes to your aid, standing behind you until his chest meets your back and maneuvering your hand that is holding the computer mouse instead of doing it himself. His head hanging next to yours to find out the problem of why you can't open the file and he discovered that it's locked.

"You need an access key to open this," he simply answers.

"You're saying Professor Seungmin is the only one who can access the file?"

He quietly gulps air before answering your question, "Yes."

You turn your head to the side to look at him and he can't keep his calm when your lips are only inches away from him.

"Can we have that joint now?" You sweetly ask with your alcohol-tinted breath brushes his lips.

He softly smiles and answers, "Of course."

Hyunjin lights up the end of the rolled joint and takes a drag, passing it to you after while letting out a long curl of white smoke out of his mouth.

"Why do you think he locked it?" You ask as you take the joint from him.

"I don't know," Hyunjin honestly answers with a shrug, "Maybe it's his new project or something."

You take a long, slow drag and pursed your lips as you exhale the smoke, filling the room with the sweet-smelling smoke.

"I found it in among the data files of previous tests," you tell him, passing the joint to him.

You turn around to face the computer again to show him where you find the locked files, "See?"

It's supposed to be a fun night and discovering what's inside that locked files isn't a part of the plan. Hyunjin needs to intervene so when you're about to take your turn to smoke, Hyunjin keeps it tugged between his teeth and rolls his chair away from you.

"Hey!" You shout in complaint.

"Puff and pass!" You remind him of the unwritten rule of smoking pot.

Hyunjin shakes his head and reclines on his chair, "Come and get it," he says, smoke escapes his mouth as he speaks.

Once you come close enough, he pulls you until you topple and have you sitting on his lap. You don't seem to mind, you get comfortable instead, resting your back on his chest and let his arms wrapped around you.

You take the smoke from his mouth and finally take your turn, "You think he'll be back soon?"

Hyunjin's forehead wrinkled at your random and sudden question, "Professor Seungmin?"

"Yeah," you answer, handing the joint back to him.

He takes it from you but keeps it between his fingers, "Uhm... I don't know. Rich people tend to take their dinner seriously, they probably have a full-course dinner, and after that... sex," Hyunjin emphasizes the last word.

He then takes a quick drag and looks the other way to exhale the smoke, "God, I hope he gets laid. Man needs to lighten up!"

He passes the joint to you even though there's not much left of it but you refuse by shaking your head. He finishes it and throws the butt into his empty can of soda.

"Don't worry. We'll have time for a foreplay or two," he jokingly says with his hand rubbing down your arm.

You laugh at that and his body shakes along to your crisp laughter. You turn your head and there it goes again, your lips merely inches away from him.

This palpable sexual tension... Hyunjin can't take it anymore yet he does nothing but keeps staring at your face.

"Are you going to keep staring and not kiss me?" You say but it seems like you're reading his thoughts out loud to him.

You take his glasses off and toss them away, "Or do I have to do it for you?" 

Your hand curves around his neck and you angle his head towards you, not hesitating to lean in first to kiss him.

Hyunjin always thought that when the two of you kiss, he imagined it would be romantic but it's not, it feels way better than that. It feels natural and familiar like he has kissed you a thousand times, like your lips belong to be kissed by his lips.

And you know what? Fuck romantic kisses.

Hyunjin wants kisses that feel right like this, tightening his hold around you and engulfing you in his warm embrace as he deepens the kiss. The more he kisses you, the more he can't stop, and worse is, you keep trying to quench his endless thirst.

The sound of his phone ringing shatters the intense moment, he keeps kissing you and mutters against your lips, "Let's pretend none of us hear it."

You chuckle and slowly pull away, "It could be Professor Seungmin," you say, then console him with a quick peck on the lips.

"Mmh... 'kay," he heavily sighs.

Hyunjin reluctantly reaches for his phone on his desk while his other arm is still wrapped around you, not letting you get off his lap. He accepts the call right away and talks on the phone, it's Tim from security telling him his pizza is here. He ends the call with another sigh.

"I have to go and get our pizza," he pouts at you.

"Then go and get our pizza," you simply resolve.

Hyunjin holds you close and allows himself to plant a kiss on your neck. He stays there for a moment with his head buried in your neck, getting himself drunk in your heavenly scent.

After a moment, he forces himself to let you go, "Guess I have to go," he says in defeat.

You take that as a cue to get up from his lap and immediately smooth down your skirt, "I'll be waiting here."

Hyunjin ties his hair into a messy bun and takes his phone with him, in case Seungmin is going to call him to ask for the current status.

"Don't go anywhere, okay?" He warns you.

You lean your hips against the desk and take a sip of your alcohol, "Okay."

Hyunjin heads to the door and then turns around by the doorway, "We'll continue the kiss when we get back."

You manage to not spit your drink and swallow it before answering, "Okay."

Impulsively, Hyunjin rushes to you and places a long peck on your lips. He then breaks into a run, not giving you time to change your mind about continuing the kiss.

-

It's going to take at least 20 minutes for Hyunjin to pick up the pizza to and fro.

As you wait for him, you're going to your desk to check on a few things, and then you see Seungmin's office and get intrigued to get in there. You're not going to steal anything, you just want to take a look around and perhaps, get a few hints on what Seungmin is working on.

You've seen the books on his shelf one too many times so you come to his desk because that's where you usually get any hints. It's either something he randomly jot down on his notebook or the journals he's studying.

Seungmin happens to have a stack of them on his desk, you're going through them one by one, only reading the front page to see what it's about and moving on to the next one. However, between those scientific journals, you find a different file. You open it to see that it's a lease statement whether he wants to continue the contract for another year or not.

The first thought that comes to your head is that maybe Seungmin bought a nice beach house as a wedding anniversary gift but why did he rent it? He's more than capable of buying a property, especially a house with only one bedroom that—

Wait, what if they've been living separately? You check the address and find that the conclusion is rather implausible. It's two hours of drive, commuting from there and here would be tiring. 

The faint sound of the elevator chimes open can be heard from his office, it seems like Hyunjin has returned from picking up the pizza. You tidy up the stack and put them back where they belong, then quietly leave his office. You can hear Hyunjin calling for your name.

You jog to meet him in the pantry, "Smells nice!"

"Where were you?" He asks, opening the fridge to get another bottle of soda.

"Bathroom," you lie since it’s easier then refill his mug with more alcohol and Hyunjin pours soda after.

It must be the effect of the recreational drug you smoked earlier that makes the pizza taste exceptionally delicious and the next thing you know, you already ate three slices of them. Hyunjin has been so quiet and it's because his mouth is full of food. He smiles at you as you catch him taking a big bite out of his pizza.

"Hyunjin eats so well!" You coo, addressing him in the third person and poking at his cheek with your index finger, treating him like a little baby to annoy him.

"Do you have any memories you want to erase?"

The question just sort of pops into your head and you are kind of curious to know his answer. You pick up another slice and alternate it with a sip of your spiked soda in between bites.

Hyunjin slows down his chewing, he puts down his pizza slice to grab his drink, and takes an earthly sip, "Maybe that one time I pissed my pants during the school field trip," he answers.

"How old were you?"

"Second grade."

You take a small bite of your pizza and ask, "What happened?"

"I got bitten by a spider," he answers.

"And how did you piss your pants?"

"Because I'm afraid of spiders," he innocently answers.

You burst into laughter and have a hard time swallowing your food after, you wash it down with your Tequila soda to help.

"But I'm not sure I wanted to erase it though," Hyunjin adds, adding more alcohol to his mug.

You give up on finishing your pizza slice and put it back in the box, "Why is that so?"

"That day, I found out I'm allergic to spider venom," he answers.

You scrunch your nose in perplexity because it's bad experiences, one after another and he chooses not to erase it,

"Why not?"

"Then I would forget that I'm allergic to it," he simply answers.

You don't get enough explanation from him so you keep looking at him with a questioning look on your face.

"What if I get bitten by a spider again and I don't have the knowledge that I'm allergic to spider venom?" Hyunjin lays out a scenario for you.

"Well, yeah..." you nod in agreement as the logic in his answer registered into your head.

"I could have died," Hyunjin dramatically adds with a squeeze on your shoulder.

"I get it, I get it," you answer, half chuckling at him.

Hyunjin takes a long sip of his drink and gasps once he swallows it all down. He leans on the counter and leaves not so much space between your faces.

"But think about it..." he says.

You nod, ready to listen to what he's about to say.

"Life would be boring if we only remember the good memories," he says.

That simple notion speaks so much and when you think Hyunjin couldn't be more profound than that, he comes with another remark.

"There wouldn't be good moments in the first place without the bad ones too."

Hyunjin lets a moment pass in silence to let those words sink into your head and you're indeed still processing them. He makes a good point that you can't add anything to that. You can't believe that Hyunjin has left you speechless.

But looking at the test subject, going through the procedure to have their bad memories erased doesn't mean that they're being cowardly. They have must thought these things through before deciding to volunteer as a test subject.

“But when you look at babies, they’re so pure and free because they come into this world with no memories. And adults are… a mess. They’re sad, depressed, and anxious and have phobias, and Professor Seungmin, he makes them all go away,” You deliver your opinion.

Hyunjin nods in agreement and that regardless of everyone’s stand on whether they want to erase their memories or not, the work all of you are doing here helps people.

-

"They're on their sixth, yes," Hyunjin speaks into the phone as Seungmin calls the office for a status check.

"Vitals?" He glances at you.

You hurriedly hover to the other end of the desk to check and give him a thumbs-up.

"Pulse rate, respiration, BP, all stable," he informs.

The call ends in the next second and Hyunjin places the handle of the phone down, he leans against the desk, panting as if he has just run a mile. It seems like you both have sobered down after munching on pizza together. You exchange a look at each other and break into a smile at the same time.

"Card game?" Hyunjin offers.

"Sure."

You can taste the imbalance of the alcohol and juice ratio you put into your mug but you need it to fuel yourself for the card game.

Hyunjin shuffles the card in his hands and splits the deck into two even stacks, he pushes one at you and draws the other closer to him.

"Whoever draws the smaller card value, loses," he explains the game rules.

You take a gulp of your drink and ask, "And when I lose...?"

He ties his hair into a ponytail and puts his hand on top of his card stack, "Whoever loses has to take a piece of their clothing off," he says with a devilish smirk that makes him more attractive.

It's obvious that Hyunjin has been wanting to play this game, the excitement is drawn on his face and somehow, it makes him more adorable, you can't help but smile.

"Are you sure you split the card evenly?" You jokingly accuse.

"You're welcome to shuffle your cards if you want," Hyunjin calmly responds, then sips his canned soda.

You laugh at how he gives you the side eyes, "When do we start?"

"Eager, are we?" Hyunjin says that it's him who's been anticipating this.

Hyunjin rubs his hands together before placing his hand on top of his deck of cards and pinches a card in between his fingers.

"Ready?" He asks.

You slide the cards down the table and intensely look at each other before turning it over, revealing the cards at the same time. A gasp escapes your mouth as your 7 of Heart card beats his 2 of spades. You prop a hand under your chin and wait for him to do his punishment as he lost this round.

It doesn't faze him, he takes his sweater off and tosses it onto the empty chair next to him. He's wearing a plain white t-shirt underneath and he rolls the short sleeves up to his shoulders, exposing the muscles on his arms.

The next round is won by Hyunjin as his 9 of hearts card beats your 6 of spades. You calmly take your blouse off and hang it on the back of your chair.

Your Jack of Diamonds forces Hyunjin to remove his t-shirt next and you didn't expect him to have a toned body considering that you always find him sitting on his chair and working in front of the computer. You try not to be obvious that you're ogling him but he catches you looking already, so...

"And you've been hiding that under your oversized clothes?" You poke fun at him.

He coyly shrugs in response to you and tidies his deck of cards, "Want to switch decks?"

It seems like a trap because your cards have been doing good and switching decks may switch your luck too.

"No. I like my cards," you refuse his offer with a smile.

He shrugs again and this time, his Jack of Clubs won against your Ace of Diamonds. He triumphantly smiles and crosses his arms watching you getting off your chair to unzip your skirt. You take a step away from the counter to shimmy the skirt down your legs. It feels wrong to be this exposed in the pantry of your workplace.

"You sure you don't want to switch?" He offers again with a lopsided grin.

It's tempting but you trust that your cards will bring you luck, you shake your head and take another card from the top of the stack.

"How about I reveal my card first?" Hyunjin daringly offers.

"Okay, sure," you coyly agree, letting him flip open his card first.

His long fingers are holding the edge of the card and at once, he turns it over, revealing a 9 of hearts. It is supposed to be easy to get a card higher than that. Oddly, you suddenly lost the confidence you had in your cards a minute ago. You put on a calm face and flip the card, not looking at it until you let go of your hand.

"Fuck!" You lowly curse at your 7 of clubs.

You let out a low sigh as you’re about to do your punishment and reach your hand to the back to unclasp your bra. You maintain eye contact with Hyunjin as you let the bra straps slide down your shoulders. In one swift moment, you take the bra off and let it join your pile of clothes on the back of your chair. You lean back and see Hyunjin smiling ear to ear.

"Christmas came early for you, huh, Hwang Hyunjin?"

It doesn't even bother him that you called him by his full name which he dislikes. He's enjoying his triumph, his tongue is slightly sticking out on the corner of his mouth as he smiles.

"I think it is," he says.

Instead of showing him your defeat, you feel motivated to win the next round. You put all of your hair to one side and lean onto the table, slapping the next card on the table.

"Want to raise the bet?" You challenge him.

One of his eyebrows raises in intrigue, "What are you proposing?"

"Whoever loses next has to take two pieces of clothing," you answer with a daring smirk.

It's a fair game since Hyunjin has only his jeans and his underwear on and so are you, with your tights and underwear.

"Let's raise the bet," Hyunjin calls to your bluff.

"I'll reveal my card first," you dare yourself even though you have no idea what card you're keeping under your hand.

"Be my guest," Hyunjin delightfully says.

You hold his gaze and flip the card, surprising yourself with a Queen of hearts. You can almost taste that sweet victory knowing that Hyunjin needs a King to beat your card. However, Hyunjin is looking nowhere near your card and you know well enough where he is looking.

You purposely lean forward on the table, presenting him a clearer view of your chest then tap your fingers on the table, "Ground control to Major Tom!" You summon his consciousness back to reality.

After a while, he finally looks away and immediately takes a sip of his can of soda to gain some sense back into his head.

"It's your turn," you remind him, propping a hand under your chin and waiting for the grand reveal.

Hyunjin clears his throat and puts his focus back on his card, he's fiddling with his card. He realizes that he's in a predicament.

He holds the card in his hand and tosses it upward, showing a Jack of Heart which means you won this round. You take a sip of your drink in celebration and victory indeed tastes so sweet.

Hyunjin reluctantly gets off his chair, he finishes his can of soda first before reaching for the waistband of his jeans. He begins by unbuckling his belt then slowly, he unzips the fly of his jeans and it's instantly loosening around his dainty waist.

"Wait, wait," you abruptly interrupt him from his stripping show.

You get off your chair and lean your side against the counter, "On a second thought... you can keep your pants on," you say.

Hyunjin looks rather flabbergasted by the turn of the event, he stands there with his jeans hanging open, "You can't do that!" He protests.

You calmly sip your drink and reply, "Oh, yes, I can."

Hyunjin rests his hands on the counter and looks at you, "You have to see!" He insists with his eyebrows furrowed.

You shake your head and pretend to not care, "Nah. I'm losing interest."

He takes a step closer at you, "Once you see, you will be interested," he boldly remarks with a cocky smirk.

You scoff and put down your empty mug, "Still not interested," you shake your head again.

Hyunjin inhales air and places his hands on each side of his waist, "You have to see!"

"No!" You refuse while half laughing.

You see Hyunjin about to take another step toward you but before he can do that, you turn to leave the pantry.

"You have to see!" He shouts as he follows you.

"No!" You shout back and immediately break into a run. 

You're squealing as he chases you but you know well enough that you will likely lose against his long legs. That doesn't stop you from running, holding your breasts with your hands as you make a turn in the direction of the staff lounge and Hyunjin catches you right as you're about to enter.

With the absence of lights, you can see the glimmer of the city lights from afar.

Hyunjin pushes you to the wall, he grabs both of your hands and pins them above your head as he presses his nose into your ear.

"I got you now," his breath feels hot in your ear.

When you tilt your head to look at him, his lips immediately capture you in a kiss, a kiss that consumes you whole and makes you feel hot all over.

He drops your hands around his neck and that way, he can freely roam your body, feeling the smoothness of your skin under his fingertips.

He puts his arms around you and draws you impossibly close while his mouth is busy lathering yours, his tongue is prying open your mouth, wanting to taste you more and more.

As much as you want to keep kissing him, you have to let go to catch some air and fill your lungs with oxygen.

Yet Hyunjin uses the opportunity to kiss you somewhere else, dragging his plush lips down the column to your neck, and from there, he starts a trail of kisses down your front.

He kneels in front of you with his fingers tugged at the elastic band of your black tights, he looks up at you and in the dark, you can see his eyes like two gleaming marbles.

Slowly, he pulls the tights down and you hear the faint whimpers escaping his mouth as he keeps pulling it down your legs.

The silence that hangs in the room only intensifies the tension, it's so quiet that you can hear your ragged breath as Hyunjin successfully takes your tights off.

He keeps looking at you with his wide, lustful eyes as his hands climb up your legs. He slowly leans in, landing a soft kiss on your inner thigh to earn a low whimper out of you.

Wanting to hear that soft whimper again, Hyunjin places another kiss on the other one, higher and closer to where you want him the most.

Just like he reads through your mind, Hyunjin drags his mouth higher and kisses your clothed core. You grab a fistful of his hair as he presses another kiss with his nose rubbing against your clothed core and then he softly inhales air.

The breath he lets out between your legs feels hot and it sets your body alight with desire yet you feel more alive in this heat.

Hyunjin opens his mouth wider and takes more of you, his wet mouth dampens the thin fabric of your underwear and all you can do is whimper at how erotic this very scene is.

Then he stuck his tongue out and starts to trace your clit through the fabric, repeatedly running his tongue in circles that it begins to pulsate under his slick tongue.

Your legs are wobbling and you can only hold onto his head and shoulder to keep you steady as he keeps his mouth buried between your legs.

Impatient to taste you, Hyunjin puts your underwear to the side and lifts your leg, putting it over his shoulder so he can dive deep into your wetness.

You keep your back close to the wall with your hands in his dark locks, tugging at it when the pleasure gets too overwhelming.

"Oh!" You gasp as Hyunjin inserts one digit inside you and not long after that, he adds another digit.

His fingers and mouth are moving in sync to give you immense pleasure, making the knot in your stomach tighten and your hands tugging harder at his hair.

Unknowingly, your hips start moving against his mouth, riding his face as you please as your hands keep his head between your legs.

"I'm close, oh, I'm close!" You breathlessly tell him with your eyes barely focused on him.

Hyunjin opens his mouth wider and runs his tongue between your folds before sucking on your clit, taking you to your high so that a loud moan falls out of your open mouth and echoes in the room.

Mischievous, Hyunjin teases you by touching your sensitive bundle of nerves, lightly circling it with only his fingertips.

"You're having fun, huh?" You look down at him and gently twist his ear as a way to get back to him.

In the dim light, you can see he's grinning at you with his face wet around the mouth from your essence. You pat his head and place his hand on the strap of your underwear.

"Help me take this off, mmh?" You seductively ask, turning around on your feet to face the wall.

Hyunjin wastes no time tugging his fingers on the waistband of your underwear and pulls the soaked underwear down, then off your legs.

You shiver as his fingers lightly graze the side of your thighs and the back of your legs. As you press the side of your face on the cold surface of the wall, Hyunjin starts placing kisses on the back of your thighs and he goes upward.

Eventually, his mouth lands on your ass cheek and he playfully bites at it, letting out a laugh knowing that you enjoy it.

"Go ahead. Bite the other one," you encourage him with a laugh.

He's going to do it with or without your permission anyway as he immediately bites the other cheek. From there, he continues his trail of kisses up to the nape of your neck.

His arms around you, touching your body and kneading on your breasts as his mouth busy planting ferocious kisses on your neck and shoulders.

It's rather sensual that he pinned your naked body against the wall when he still has his jeans on yet you can feel his member poking through the fabric and rubbing against your rear.

"Mmh..." you hum as his fingers circle your nipple.

You turn your head to the side only to let him capture your lips in a hungry kiss where his teeth almost collide with yours.

"Ouch!" You yelp as he pinches on your nipple while he smiles in satisfaction.

You turn around to face him and put your arms around him, not worrying that you'll fall when you have his arms tightly wrapped around you.

Without breaking the kiss, you maneuver his body, pushing him in the direction of the sofa until he finds himself plopping down and you let yourself sit on his lap.

You take a moment to catch a breath and look at him, seeing him this up close, in this light, hit differently. With the moonlight shining through the big window and casting a glow on his head, Hyunjin looks so ethereal.

"You're so beautiful," Hyunjin says, taking the word out of your mouth.

You smile at his praise and lean in to deliver your gratitude with a kiss, a kiss that takes things further. As your lips are busy lathering his, your hand makes its way down his body and slides it into his boxer.

You delightfully hum against his lips as you wrap your hand around his swollen member which you take out of its confine, letting his erection sprung free.

With your own eyes, you can see how impressive his size is and glance at him, "Now I know you bought the right size," you mutter with a seductive smile.

"Told you," Hyunjin says with a sexy smirk.

You sit close to his crotch, wanting to feel his cock against your cunt and wetting it with your essence while you keep stroking at it.

"I uh..." Hyunjin's words trail off as you rub his tip with your thumb.

"Yes?" You breathlessly ask.

"I have to get the uh... I have to get the condom," he stammers, almost couldn't finish the sentence as you rub his tip between your folds.

"You said you're okay doing it raw with me," you tease.

He drops his head to the back and you can see him swallow air with the way his Adam's apple bobs in his throat. He then shakes his head, "Don't think that's a good idea."

You tip your head to the side and pout, "Why not? I'm on the pill."

Hyunjin shakes his head again, he stands firm on his principle even in the trying of times. You cup his jaw and then plant a long peck on his lips.

"Go get that condom," you mutter.

He slowly opens his eyes as you pull away from the kiss, "You're not going to change your mind, right?"

You softly laugh at his words and even though you feel bad to tease him more, you can't help yourself.

"Uhm... maybe, I don't know," you jokingly say with a shrug.

He grips at your waist and pouts, his lower lip jutting out more than his upper lip. He's so adorable that you can't stop yourself from pecking his lips again.

You get off his lap and sit on the sofa, "I won't change my mind," you tell him.

Hyunjin can't shoot up from the sofa faster, sending his jeans drops and pools around his ankle, he hurriedly kicks it away, "I'll be back in a minute," he says.

-

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[steamberrystudio]

31/12/2023 Devlog

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for Steamberry stuff! Except I skipped one because I can't remember why.

I half-wrote it but I think I just wasn't feeling up to finishing and posting.

I haven't been doing extremely well health-wise lately but still powering through.

Summary

Finished writing Chapter 5.5 (the new chapter in WSC)

Finished editing Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Asher's path

Finished all the profiles for the GS lore book

Have started wrapping up the "side stories" and additional content for the GS lore book

Ramble

Okay so in my last update I was in the middle of editing chapter 5 and was nearly to the start of chapter six in editing Asher's route. I finished up chapter 5...

At that point when I was looking ahead, I started feeling like I wanted to add in a transition scene to move between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

As I started plotting out this scene, one of my ideas took on a life of its own and I realised that it might be better to interject a new, fleshed out story incident that would allow me to slow the pacing as well as flesh out the setting and universe a little more. This incident would also let me tie into some earlier events and connect them to something that occurs in chapter 6, also foreshadowing the chapter 6 incident.

Ultimately, this became too much to call a "scene" and I decided to branch it off into a supplementary chapter (IE a chapter a bit shorter than the others and meant to be released along with another chapter.)

Then that chapter ended up being 30,000 words.

So that happened.

After finishing that I went on to finish editing chapters 6, 7, and 8. I am currently on chapter 9. I only have a few more chapters before I'm finished editing Asher's path. As always, during my edits, one of the main things I do is flesh things out.

So obviously the word count has grown from that (and, you know, the 30k extra chapter I invented).

Currently the word count is 468,000 words.

Other Stuff:

I have received several new BGs and a new BG sketch. BGs are continuing to come in at a fairly steady pace.

I now have all the BGs for The Ophelia and the artists are working on other locations finally. OwO

I've also been, here and there, doing small tweaks to the sprites, small additions and fixes.

Gilded Shadows:

As I mentioned, I finally got through all the character profiles. There are so many more characters than I remembered in this game.

Then I got halfway through and realised that I forgot five. And had to insert them, which...meant rearranging pages, which is a pain in the butt. However, that is now complete.

What I'm working on now is finishing up some of the short stories and drabbles I have planned or partially written out and getting them into the lore book. 

As well as gathering any other content. The lore book is currently about 350 pages. And I am really hoping to wrap it up soon.

Upcoming Weeks:

Next couple of weeks I will be trying to wrap up the lore book and wrap up editing Asher's Path.

When I finish editing Asher's path I'll be moving on to finish drafting the end sequences for the four remaining characters. I'm starting to have an idea of where the word count is going to end up but will have a better idea for sure when Asher's edit is complete.

I have written over 100,000 words since mid-August, just plugging away and trying to hit at least 1000 words a day.

I hit my year end word count goal of 466,000 words for When Stars Collide but unfortunately did not finish the draft because the draft has grown in size.

But I am really hoping to finish it early next year so we can fully move into phase 2 of When Stars Collide.

I am also hoping to get the final KS stuff resolved for Gilded Shadows early next year as well (the lore book, art book, and some residual art and stuff).

For now, I shall just keep plucking away at it until it's all done.

And that is all for now. I will see you all next year.

[sunnychuuya]

FUCK OKAY SO I SCCIDENTALLY DWLETWD THE OG POST I WAS MAKING ITS FINE THO

What is this it makes me think of the recent bsd chapters lmao

So basically I'm in the temple placing the booms

ASH FUCKING DROPPED A VASE THIS KS WHY K HATE YO UTAGHH

I put em all down- now I have to make it out. I don't believe in myself. My heart is speedy

NEIL AND MAPLE FUCKING DIE TOO GUYS I CANT HAVE ONEBOUNCE OF HAPPY

AhhhhHHH STUPID UGLY BOY THAT I LOVD

"I'll finally be with my Todd again" guys this game sucks booo I'm crying.

ASH GOD FUCKING DAMNIT. I THOUGHT YOU WOULD FINALLY DO SOMETHING, BUT NOOOO YOU CANR DO IT AND NOW THE CULT IS STILL THRIVINF AND THE WORLDS FONNA END.

SAL COULD KILL LITTERALLY EVERYONE IN THS FUCKING APARTMENTS TO TRY TO STOP THE SPREAD

AND YOU CANT KILL A FEW OF YOUR FRIENDS

I KNOW IT FUCKING SUCKS

BUT IS LIKE

IT HAS TO BE DONE GOD DAMNIT

just got the title screen for memories and dreams mmm ourple

Oh what da fuk

guys I'm. A L I T T L E confused to say the least

"Ugh never mind" great to see after murdering his loved ones and getting excuted hea still the same silly man

Why is this SO FUCKING COOL

LARRYS DAD?!

"I stopped nothing. I died for nothing. I... killed... for nothing." Owie ow ow owie ow ow fucking ow

SAL IS THE CHOSEN ONE

UR A WIZAR-

great a shattered soul

Guys pls I'm so eepy and I'm sure sal is too I mean heblitterally died- can u not make me go hunting for sjit

"There used to be a. Door here.. uhm there it is." Dkkdkd

GIZMO BACKSTORY

I think my eyes just started bleeding st the sudden artsyle change what in the mickey mouse fuckery is this

is that a fucking zelda reference is that fucking beedle (I might be delusional)

Purple thingies

I tried the microwave and TV and tried combining them wtf is the code

*cutely turns to google*

Thats painfully obvious.

WOW RHANKS FOR MAKING MY ENTIRE FUCKING SOUL LEAVE MY BODY JESUS CRHIST

Holy shir ig their making up for the lack of jumpscares last chapter H U H

bro idfk what I'm doin.

OH SBIT WHAT THE FYCK

GUYS I DONT LIKE HOROR

Wow trauma 😀 fuck off henry

AH POLYGYONS

ozohh spinnys again RANDOM BUTTON SMASH GO

the noise is skko aggressive I'm gonna cry

TRINGLE

PNCE AGAIN THE SOLUTION IS RANDOM BUTTON MASH UNTIL SOMWTHING HAPPENS

fcyk wait I might actually get it-

Nvm j don't:(

Fuck dude I got no clue

cutely gives up

Ill figure it out tmmrw I swear

@mypinterestgotbannedsoimherenow

Im eepy tonight so not a ton

[joelhappyhil]

It's been a month and a half, here's a update for DAWN before the new year.

(This was taken from an update on my Kickstarter)

Hello everyone, and happy holidays!

I'd first like to give an apology for the lack of substantial updates, especially regarding DAWN's progress after the Kickstarter's end. I've shown many small updates on my Twitter and Discord but felt it would be annoying to send out emails for each of those teasers. I've created this post as a bulk progress update before I release a major update to the playtesting material (more on that later).

Art

I would like to share the thing that's taken most of my time and funding since the Kickstarter ended: the ordering and use of new art for the book.

This is only some of the work that's been done so far, but since this art is meant to represent player options, I felt it was good to show you all these as examples of what's been completed, as I assume most of those reading will be looking to play the game as players.

Playtests

I've been spending a lot of time on balancing the game, with combat tests being hosted on my Discord every week. These have resulted in a lot of reworks and changes to the mechanics that will be apparent if you read the version that was publicly available during the Kickstarter's run. Here’s some examples of reworked Techniques (renamed from Power's since the KS) and new ones that have been well received by testers.

Design and Copy Editing

You may have noticed from these screenshots, but I've also taken a try at reformatting the game to better reinforce the comic book look, with new fonts and improvements to the page layouts, while better managing the negative space.

I feel I've made a lot of progress and I'm getting closer to the final pdf, but there’s  still quite a bit of quality checking that needs to be done. (The GM parts of the book especially).

I'll be aiming to release a Final playtest document on my Itch sometime before or around the new year. It'll be the most complete version so far, but will still be missing a lot of art  fluff text, and short stories I plan to add at the head of each chapter. As the name implies, this should be the last freely available version I release before 1.0, where I'll start working on the physical layout for printing and start on the supplements funded in the KS.

Conclusion

If you got this far I'd like to thank you. I've spent quite a few years on this project and never thought I'd be able to get this much funding for it, or for any of my books, really. To show my appreciation, here's the current book cover for that final playtest document. I'm not sure if it'll be the same when the update comes out, but I felt like some of you might enjoy seeing its current version.

Again, thank you all so much, I'll be updating you again when this stuff becomes available.

- Joel Happyhil

[thebroccolination]

Be My Favorite - Intro

WELCOME TO KEY’S SUMMER FIXATION SERIES. \:D/

Hello! I’m Key, and I’ll be your Be My Favorite historian and enthusiast.

I’ve been really excited for Be My Favorite ever since the series was first announced in December of 2021. The premise grabbed me right away since I’m a big fan of time loops (please watch Triage if you haven’t already, I’d say it’s the strongest BL series to date), and Krist’s one of my favorite actors, so it was an instant five stars of anticipation for me. Then in September of 2022, Gawin (another favorite of mine) was cast, and I had a dream casting I think I might have joked about once. (So I did this, you’re welcome.)

Whoever cast Gawin, I’ll send you a basket of whatever you love and aren’t allergic to.

THE CASTING HISTORY

Be My Favorite had a rocky road to casting.

From what I’ve been able to follow, it was initially meant to be a KristSingto comeback vehicle. (Their last BL together was the SOTUS Our Skyy episode in 2018.) However, in 2022, Krist tentatively told fans at a fan meeting that Singto’s schedule didn’t work out with filming. Seeing as GMMTV didn’t want Krist acting in BL series without his brand partner, I think they knew Singto wasn’t planning to renew his contract, so they cast Mike instead. Personally, I was excited to see Krist step outside his comfort zone with a different actor, and he’s close to Mike, so I figured it’d be a good match. I was also happy for Singto, because he’s wanted more independence in his career. He’s into photography and directing, he’s made his own studio, formed his own fan club in Japan, etc. (I think it’s likely he and Krist will work together again, though. They’re still very close, they play video games online with their friends from university fairly regularly, and Singto went out of his way to organize a KristSingto concert in December of 2022 through his Japanese fan club. KS used to hold their GMMTV-sponsored concerts there annually before the pandemic, so I think it was both a “final chapter” to one part of their lives and evidence that they can collaborate again if they want to.)

I didn’t have strong feelings about Mike’s casting. I haven’t seen him in much, but I liked him in the teaser, and he’s already close to Krist, so I was on board. After seeing Singto improve through his series with other actors (something he might have had to fight for, but that’s pure speculation), I was just excited for Krist to get the same opportunities.

And then…Gawin. [seventeen sparkle emojis]

As I said on Twitter the day Gawin’s casting was announced, “I could not be more pleased and delighted that I’ve built a reputation for myself that makes people think, ‘Krist and Gawin? QUICKLY, LIGHT THE FIRES AND TELL KEY,’” because I woke up to not one but three separate friends letting me know about it.

I went from excited to feral in the four seconds it took my brain to go from, “This can’t be real,” to, “Finally, bizarre breaking news that isn’t actively traumatizing.”

Truly, I have to hand it to Krist, because he's wanted this project to do well from the start, and he's stuck with it and worked hard on it through potentially three scene partners. And he really seems to have grown and learned from Gawin, so good on him.

THE WRITER/DIRECTOR

My one worry was that I haven’t enjoyed most of Jittirain’s adaptations.

But then I found out that the director, Waa, directed The Gifted and also has screenwriting experience. Krist has worked with Waa before and speaks highly of his process. There are a lot of scenes in the first episode of BMF that seem very clean and well edited, so I have hope.

On top of that, I’ve also seen fans mention that Be My Favorite is “inspired by” Jittirain’s novel, not adapted from it, which I think is a crucial distinction. (I don’t know the source for that, but I want it to be true, so I’ll believe it for now.)

Krist has said that they changed a lot from the novel, and based on what I know, the first episode has already departed quite a bit, so I have put my faith in Waa.

POSTPRODUCTION

For many reasons, some series just get the short stick with the amount of postproduction and budget they get. Some series are still filming as they start airing, some have budget cuts during production, etc.

Filming for Be My Favorite began on November 19th, 2022 and wrapped two months ago on March 24th. That same day, Waa shared on Twitter that he’d be starting work on intense editing right away. That was a great sign to me. With filming complete and two months of postproduction, he was almost certainly able to do a cleaner job than if he’d had to struggle under continued filming and simultaneous editing while the show was airing.

Also, BMF definitely seems to have money behind it. For example, this upgrade from the trailer to the first episode. In the trailer, as Kawi makes his first trip to the past, there's a bright, swirling glow around him.

When the episode aired, the effect looked a lot cleaner and had scenes from future episodes woven in.

Also, I loved this transition shot with the blurry background, and the dandelion seed floating across the screen was a cute detail, since that's the flower in the time loop globe.

Little things like like this tells me they’ve had the time to do this series well, and that there's a lot of love and effort going into it.

THE ACTING COACH

This February, the acting coach for BMF did an interview (1 & 2) that I really enjoyed. She said she’ll be sharing a video of their workshop now that the series is airing, so I’m keeping an eye out for that.

THE ACTORS

Like I said, I love both of them. I first watched SOTUS and the Kiss series in 2020, so I became a fan of both right around the same time.

In April of 2022, I made a top ten list of what I thought were the best acting performances up to that point. Krist was on it, and so was Gawin. I admire both of them a lot, and I think they’ve both improved tremendously over the years.

Krist, from what I can tell through interviews, leans toward method acting. For example, in the scene I included on my list above, Arthit was apparently meant to cry a few lines later on, but Krist lost it earlier than scripted because in order to channel the emotion he needed for the scene, he imagined how he’d feel when Singto followed through with a long-time dream of studying overseas. It ended up one of their strongest scenes together because it was genuine.

Meanwhile, Gawin was interviewed in November of 2022, and while I think the whole interview is a great read, I wanted to emphasize this part:

“When I prepare for a role, I really have to dig into the story of the script,” [Gawin] explains. “Sometimes they do the last scenes of the series on the first day of being on set. So, you have to be really prepared with the entire story. You’ve got to know the whole thing, what emotions that character went through, and the changes with that character.” 

I think part of what makes Krist and Gawin a good combination is that they’re strong actors with different energies who might just have different ways of preparing for a role. I’d love to hear both of them talk in more detail about their processes, but it seems to me like Krist looks inward for personal experiences to connect with the character, and Gawin creates the character he’s playing based on research.

Another interesting point is that In that same interview, Gawin says he thinks Saifa from Enchanté most resembles his personality (easygoing, music lover, etc.), but he got his start as Mork from the Kiss series (attitude issues, perfect sasspot, etc.). Meanwhile, Krist had an easy link to his first major role, Arthit, in that he’d also been head hazer in university. So Krist started his career able to access a common point with his character, so that might’ve influenced his approach to future roles. Whereas Gawin started off with a character completely unlike himself, so he started from a place of more emotional detachment and probably a more research-oriented approach.

Also, they just seem to have connected on a personal level.

Working with someone so different gives actors the opportunity to learn from each other. When interviewed, Gawin said he and Krist discovered they have a lot in common, and it seems like they bonded over music and spent a lot of time on set singing together. (Their harmonizing is genuinely beautiful.)

Krist’s OST for the series is one of my favorites and Gawin has a ballad coming up later in the series, but I hope they give them a duet at some point. (It’d be a huge missed opportunity if they don’t.)

CATS???

One of the sponsors for the series is fucking Wiskas.

This could just be because Krist is their brand ambassador. (The man has four cats. He has an army to feed.)

OR there is a feline presence in the show. If this is true, I will die, because Triage, series of my soul, also had cats in it.

Listen, I will send TWO baskets of whatever Waa likes if he's enabled me to make the "if I had a nickel for every time there have been cats in a Thai BL time loop series, I'd have two nickels. It's not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice" joke.

CONCLUSION

Big fan! Love it all! (PLEASE CATS.)

I’ll leave this here as an introductory post, and I’ll make separate posts for my individual episode thoughts using #key watches bmf.

[ghostofcinders]

New They Came From! KS going live on the 25th of May!

Happy to announce I'm part of this, as my love for They Came From demands! Of all the 5 chapters & genres there TO BEGIN WITH, I'm the one who had the pleasure to work on the Western one, because as I told my dev Italians do the best Western & we all know it :D If you don't know They Came From!, it's an Onyx Path gameline meant to replicate movies and shows across genres, with a comedic tone that comes from a loving place for each & mechanics leaning on the 4th wall. There's plenty of sublines within it, from 50s sci-fi, to horror, to spy fiction, to fantasy (I pitched and co-developed that one!), with supplements for slasher horror and upcoming ones for action movies and magical schools (also developing the latter!) It's honestly such a refreshing game, made with love, supported by simple yet effective rules, and something that never fails to entertain its players They Came From the RPG Anthology! is its latest project, a big book covering multiple genres, with the option to decide which other ones will get added. There's plenty more in the book right out of the way. Many new genres, new rules, and tons of Cinematics and Archetypes. All 100% compatible with everything else. I can't wait for you all to see it and to shape up together how the final book will look. Know that I'm gonna lobby hard for a Murder Mystery chapter to happen. We deserve our Poirot/Miss Marple/Clue They Came From. Also a pirate one. Or that idea Matthew brought up. Or that other one. Why not this? So much They Came From goodness! Heavens, I love this line.

[koreofkore]

Pilot episode | chapter 1

ᥲsᥱᥒᥲ іs іᥒ 𝖿᥆r ᥲ sᥙr⍴rіsᥱ ᥕһᥱᥒ ᥲ ᥴһіᥣძ kᥒ᥆ᥴks ᥆ᥒ һᥱr ძ᥆᥆r ᥴᥣᥲіmіᥒg 𝗍᥆ ᑲᥱ һᥱrs.

╬╬═════════════╬╬

Fairytale world

Prince Charming (Tony) rode on his horse along the stretch of the land towards a forest. In the forest, he meets seven dwarves gathered around a glass coffin. "You're to late." Wong says. He looks at Pepper in the coffin. Her skin pale and her chest unmoving. "No. No! Open it." He ordered. "I'm sorry, she's gone." Strange said mornfully. "At least let me say goodbye." Tony begged.

All seven men remove the glass top. Tony leans down and kisses her lips and a wave of magic pulses throughout the kingdom. No one notices except the birds that leave the branches they perched on. Pepper wakes up with a gasp. "You... You found me." She said breathlessly. "Did you ever doubt I would?" Tony asked her. "Truthfully, the glass coffin gave me pause." She joked.

"Well, you never have to worry. I will always find you." He assured. "Do you promise?" She asked. "I do." Tony says at their wedding. "And do you, Pepper Potts, promise to take this man to be your husband, and love him for all eternity?' The priest asked. " I do she says. " I now pronounce you husband and wife." The priest says. Everyone applauds and cheers. Pepper and Tony lean to kiss each other when the ballroom doors swing open by a magical force. "Sorry I'm late." The red head stated.

She goes to approach the newlyweds and the guards try to stop her. She flings them away with magic. "It's the Queen. Run!" Someone in the crowd yells. "She's not the queen anymore. She's nothing more than a evil witch." Pepper said grabbed her husbands sword pointing it at her.

"No, no, no. Don't stoop to her level. There's no need." He consoles. Tony takes his sword from her. "You're wasting your time. You've already lost. And I will not let you ruin this wedding." Tony said. "Oh, I haven't come here to ruin anything. On the contrary, dear, I've come to offer you a gift." Natasha smiles. "We want nothing from you." Pepper says in anger.

"But you shall have it! My gift to you is this happy, happy day. But tomorrow my real work begins. You've made your vows, now I make mine. Soon everything you love, everything all of you love, will be taken from you. Forever. And out of your suffering, will rise my victory. I shall destroy your happiness if it is the last thing I do." Natasha turns around after her speech and heads for the door.

"Hey!" Tony calls after her. Natasha turns and he launched his sword at her. She disappears in a puff of black smoke letting the sword crash on the ground.

The real world

A young girl Yelena is seen with a book that contains illustrations of Tony and Pepper on the page. She's seen getting on a bus to Boston. "That a good book?" An elderly woman asked. "This? Is more than a book." The young girl says her little accent coming out. "Oh?" She asked.

Boston, south station. "Thank you for riding Greyhound." The bus announcer said. Yelena gets off the bus and finds a taxi. "You take credit cards?" She asked holding up the card. "Where to, chief?" The driver asked.

╬╬═════════════╬╬

Asena sat in a restaurant waiting on her target to come for their 'date'. She takes a sip of wine knowing that she'd need it. She wore a pink dress with matching heels and her hair was curly. She sat crossed leg to stop her shaking. To be honest she was scared the guy wouldn't show. But he finally did. "Asena." He greeted.

"Ryan? You looked relieved." She said. "Well, it is the internet. Pictures can be..." He pauses trying to find the right word. "Fake, outdated. Stolen from a Victoria's Secret catalogue." She finished.

He nodded. "Sorry I'm late by the way." He says sitting down in the seat across from her after they greeted each other. "It's totally fine." She replied with a forced smile. "So... Um... Tell me something about yourself, Asena?" He asked nervously. "Oh. Ah, well, today's my birthday." She answered. "And you're spending it with me! What about your friends?" He asked.

𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐈'𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐨𝐝𝐤𝐚. She thought.

"Kind of a loner." She answered. "And, you don't like your family?" He asked. 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞. She thinks holding her facade.

"No family to like." She said taking another sip of wine. "Oh, come on. Everyone has family." Ryan says. "Technically, yeah. And everyone knows who they are? Ready to run yet?" She replied. "Oh not a chance. You, Asena, are by far, the sexiest, friendless orphan I have ever met." He said.

𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐧? 𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡. She thought. "Okay. Your turn. No wait let me guess. Umm... You are handsome, charming." She started internally gaging. "Go on." Ryan says.

"The kind of guy who— now stop me if I get this wrong — embezzled your former employer, got arrested, and skipped town before they could throw your ass in jail." She fake laughed. "What?" The man asked playing dumb. "And the worst part of all is your wife. Your wife loves you so much that she bailed you out, and how do you repay that loyalty? You're on a date." She finished off.

"Who are you?" The man asked. "The chick that put up the rest of the money." Asena answers. " You're a bails bondsman." Ryan realized. "Bail bondsperson." She corrected. Ryan flipped the table spilling everything on her and took off running. "Bloody Hell!" She groans.

Ryan runs across the street dodging cars and Asena just casually walks through traffic. He tries to start the ignition and looks to find a boot on his tire. "You don't have to do this, okay? I can pay you. I got money." Ryan bargained. "No, you don't. And if you did, you should give it to your wife and take care of your family." Asena said crossing her arms.

"The hell do you know about family, huh?" The man asked. "Nothing." She replied smashing his head against t he steering wheel. When Asena arrived home she kicks off her heels walked to the kitchen. She grabbed a bottle of Scotch and opened a box with a cupcake inside.

She opens the bottle and then puts a star shaped candle in the cupcake. "Another loner year." She lights it then closes her eyes and makes a wish. Theres a knock on the door and Asenas head snapped to it. She opens the door and sees a child. "Are you Asena Montgomery?" She asked. "Yeah?" She answered skeptically. "I'm Yelena and I'm your daughter." The younger blonde says. Yelena pushes past her and into the apartment. "Woah! Hey, kid! Kid! Kid! I don't have a daughter! Where are your parents?" Asena asked.

"Ten years ago. Did you give up a baby for adoption? That was me." Yelena explained. "... Give me a minute." The woman said going to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror trying to compose herself. She didn't think that her past would catch up with her ten years later. Plus how could that little girl know that she was her mother?

She had a closed adoption which meant the kid shouldn't even know that she existed. "Hey do you have any juice? Never mind, found some." Yelena hollered from the kitchen. Asena leaves the bathroom after taking a deep breath. She sees the little girl drinking her orange juice straight from the bottle. "Gross." She said taking the bottle from the child. "You know, we should probably get going." Yelena realizes.

"Going where?" Asena asked confused. "I want you to come home with me." Yelena clarified. "Okay, kid. I'm calling the cops." Asena picked up her phone. "Then I'll tell them you kidnapped me." Yelena fired back. "And they'll believe you because I'm your birth mother." Asena huffed in realization. "Yep." The child hummed. "Fair played, but you and I both know you aren't gonna do that." Asena tilted her head in protest.

"Try me." The ten year old challenges. "You're pretty good. But here's the thing, there's a lot I'm good at and a hell of a lot I'm terrible at in life. I have 840 confirmed kills so murder obviously isn't one of them. Let's call it a superpower. I can tell when anyone's lying and you, kid, are." Asena explained to the girl. "Wait... Please don't call the cops. Please come home with me." Yelena begged.

"Where do you live?" Asena sighed. "Storybrooke, Maine." Yelena said. "Storybrooke? Are you serious?" Asena asked. Yelena hummed and nodded. "Alright then." Asena rubbed her temples.

Fairytale world

In the castle in the forest Pepper stood near the balcony, and a bluebird lands on her finger. "What's wrong?" Tony asked. "Nothing" Pepper snapped out of her daze. "You're thinking about what the Queen said again, aren't you? Pepper, please. I can't keep having this conversation. You have to let it go. We're about to have a baby." Pepper turns her head ashamed of being caught thinking about the threat.

She had agreed to try and move past that but how do you move past something like that, especially after you know that she will be true to her word. Pepper knew that Natasha would try everything in her power to take away her happiness. "I haven't had a restful night since our wedding." Pepper pointed out. And it was the truth, she hadn't slept well at all she felt as if she had to look over her shoulder consistently again. "That's what she wants - to get in your head. But they're only words. She can't hurt us." Tony reassured pulling her in.

"She poisoned an apple because the thought i was prettier than her. You have no idea what she's capable of." Pepper argued pulling out of his hold. He didn't get it and she needed him to get it. This woman has made her life hell for years. Natasha has had it out for her and wanted to see her dead and now this. " What can I do to ease your mind?" Tony asked starting to realize that he wasn't going to win this argument and that she wouldn't sleep until she got some type of clarity.

"Let me talk to him." Pepper answered. He was the only one who could give her that reassurance that her child would be safe. "Him? You don't mean..." Tony asked with a hint of fear. "I do." Pepper answered back with a look of determination. "No, no, no. It's too dangerous." Tony shut down the idea immedi ately. She couldn't be serious. She knew how dangerous he was. "He sees the future." Pepper points out. Tony made a face. He was scared he would admit that to no one but himself because he had to be strong for Pepper.

But that didn't mean he wanted help from the person he helped trap. that was suicide. "There's a reason he's locked up." Tony said logically. Pepper placed a hand on her swollen stomach. "Can you promise me that our child will be safe? Can you guarantee it? Because he can." Pepper questioned. The look on Pepper's face was enough to make him cave. Seeing her look so unlike her normal fearless self. "Alright. For our child." Pepper smiled in relief and Tony leaned in for a kiss. She had no idea how much power she had over him, and maybe that was a good thing.

Real world

Asena and Yelena were driving and the former had no idea what time it was. The drive was silent for the most part until Yelena broke it. "I'm hungry. Can we stop somewhere?" The girl asked. "This isn't a road trip kid. We aren't stopping for snacks." Asena replied. Yelena closed her book. "Why not?" She pestered. She was hungry she could feel her stomach growling.

She could also tell that they were close to home and she wasn't ready to go back yet. "Quit complaining, Kid. Remember i could've easily put your ass on a bus and let you go the same way you came." Asena said annoyed slightly. "You know i have a name right? It's Yelena." The blonde child pouted before opening her book again. "What's that." Asena asked just now noticing the big old looking book. "I'm not sure you're ready." Yelena flips through the pages. "Not ready for what? A bunch of fairytales?" Asena questioned scrunching up her face.

Yelena makes a face. These weren't just fairytales they were a truth and even if they were which she was pretty sure they weren't, they were a history, her history. "They aren't just fairytales they are a truth. Every story in this book is a truth, someone's truth. Every story in this book actually happened." Yelena deadpanned. "Of course they did." Asena sighed. It was a long night and this kid has made it longer. Yelena on the other hand was just huffing. How dare she not take her seriously.

"I know I sound crazy, but use your superpower, see if I'm lying." Yelena dared. Asena did and the girl was telling the truth. She wasn't about to let this kid slide though. "Just because you believe in something doesn't make it true. " Asena looked over at the page. "Uh no that's exactly what makes it true. You would know more than I would." Yelena scans through a page. "Oh really now? Why is that?" Asena asked. "Because you're in this book." Yelena flipped to the next page

"You have problems." Asena chuckles. This kid was crazy but so was she so she had no room to say anything. "Yep. And you're going to fix them." Yelena snorted. Asena laughed before switching lanes.

Enchanted Forest

Pepper and Tony are walking behind a guard with cloaks on their heads. The guard has a torch in his hand and he stops them just before they get to the cell. "When we reach the cell, stay out of the light. And whatever you do, do not let him know your name. If he knows your name, he wil have power over you." The guard warns, Pepper and Tony nod at him. "Loki. Loki! I have a question for you." The guard calls to the man in the cell.

Loki comes out of the shadows of the cell. "No, you don't They do. Pepper Potts and Tony Stark..." Loki rasped coming closer to the bars of the cell. "You insult my abilities. Step into the light and take off those ridiculous robes they don't suit you." Loki beckoned.

Pepper and Tony step into the light and slowly lower their hoods to reveal themselves. "Much better." Loki praises. "We've come to you about the..." Tony started before he was cut off. "Yes, yes, you idiot i know why you're here. You want to know about the queen's threat." Loki giggled before turning to the walls of the cell. "Tell us what you know and skip all the taunting." Tony deadpanned.

Loki was finding this amusing he could tell they were desperate. "Ooh tense, are we? Fear not! I can ease your mind. But... It's going to cost you something." Loki was playing with them he wanted nothing big they couldn't give him what he really wanted. Toying with them would be easy. "No he's just a waste of time." Tony turned to leave and Loki faked offence. "What do you want?" Pepper stepped forward and Tony spun around quickly. "Oh...The name of your unborn child." Loki said leaning against the stone of the wall with his arms crossed. "Absolutely not!" Tony protested.

"Deal! What do you know?" Pepper rushed out quickly. She needed to know she didn't have time for Tony's paranoia. Loki giggles and says, "The queen has created a powerful curse. And it's coming. Soon, you'll all be in a prison. Just like me only worse. Your prison, all of our prisons, will be time. Time will stop, and we will be trapped. Someplace horrible, where everything we hold dear, everything we love, will be ripped from us while we suffer for eternity. While the Queen celebrates, victorious at last. No more happy endings." Loki explains with a smile on his face. He laughs at the fact that they remain absolutely clueless and the fear that he could feel radiating from them. "What can we do?" Pepper asked with a sense of dread in her chest.

She was scared of the answer, well not the answer an answer one that could break her heart. "We can't do anything." Loki emphasizes the we. Because in truth they couldn't there was nothing Pepper, himself, Tony could do. "Who can?" Pepper asked again with that same feeling of dread. "That little thing, growing inside your belly. " Loki moves his hand, in a gesture, towards Pepper's stomach. Tony draws his sword quickly and slashes at his hand. "Hands off reindeer games. Next time I cut it off." Tony sheathed his sword and placed a hand on his wife's lower back. Loki tsks and glances at his hand. "The infant is our only hope. Get the child to safety. Get the child to safety and Ion it's twenty-eighth birthday, the child will return. The child will find you and the final battle will begin." Loki says in a sing song voice before spinning on his heel and moving away from the bars.

Tony didn't like that answer and he made it clear by saying, "We've heard enough. We're leaving." And he guided Pepper to the exit. "Hey! No! We made a deal! I want her name! We had a deal! I need her name! I want her name!" Loki growls and angrily hits the bars. "Her? It's a boy." Tony rests his hand on Pepper's bump. "Missy... Missy... You know I'm right. Tell me, what's her name?" Loki asked in a much more calmer voice. "Asena. Her name is Asena." Pepper sighed and started to walk again. "Asena..." Loki mumbled.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 229

So... Kind of gave myself an anxiety attack.  Opened my current master doc (for those who are curious, this story fills 3 documents to the point of locking up my computer. Insert eyeroll here), and only saw this week’s chapter in the outline.

Scrambling to write the next chapter within the next week is NOT how I want to this to end. Everyone has been so patient with the chapters where I had to do that, and I. Am. Not. Ending. It. Like. That!

And then I saw that I just hadn’t added next week’s chapter to the outline. So all that frustration was for nothing.

This week’s recognition! Obviously @baelpenrose for sticking in here so long... geez it’s been years. @gingersnap126126, welcome aboard! @dierotenixe, because I can’t not appreciate Nixe... A character so incredible I had to figure out how to put a mermaid on a space ship!  And this week’s recognized speed runner, @mike-ks-66502-blog. As of posting you are up to chapter 53 as far as I am aware, but quite possibly beyond that, because every time I turn around you are 10 chapters past where I thought you were.  I am SO happy that you are enjoying the story... please feel free to tell me who your favorite character is so far!

Edit: And @mustachebatschaos... omg how could I forget!  You literally changed the entire course of this story!

Parvati and I were finalizing the phrasing on the dispatch to the ship and about to send it over to Hannah for one last check, when the pilot team suddenly started swearing loudly.  Launching to my feet, I saw everyone else was doing the same. “Maverick, Tyche, what - “

BLAAAT.  BLAAAT.

Klaxons started sounding, forcing me to cover my ears. “What is going on?!” I shouted.

“Weapons fire!” Evan yelled as she strode into the center of the room. “Firing from the Eko-mari fleet, away from the Ark!”

Over her shoulder, I could see Maverick slamming himself into his seat and pulling down the restraint system. “Noah! Turn that damned sound off, dude! No one can hear directions over that racket!”

My ears rang for a moment at the quiet before I was brave enough to remove my hands. They weren’t completely off, but at least quiet enough to talk over. “Parvati, start pulling up maps for people on recreation,” I ordered before trotting over to Tyche, who was swapping places with Evania. “Can you keep sitrep running with Xio?”

“On it,” she nodded. “Maverick and Evania are prepping for manual piloting and getting a better view of the field.”

“The Eko-Mari are firing at what appears to be a cloaked ship,” Noah announced from above. “Nothing indicates anything has been hit.”

Charly was halfway to the exit before she realized she had to stay put. She started pacing frenetically and held her hands to her ears. “Coffey, Nixe, we need Teeth in suspension yesterday. The Eko-mari are firing at something, and we think it’s the S’crirs or one of the other pirate ships. They have a right to know, but be prepared to sedate them.  If they leave that medbay, there’s no telling what they’ll do.”

“Alice! Are the checks done!?” I shouted, turning back towards the pilots.

“All���. most…. YES!”

“Conor!” I shouted into my databand. “Escort Derek to the nearest med bay - wait, no. Signal Sam to see which one he is closest to, then Derek to that medbay.  Bonus points if it’s - ” I cut off and whipped back around to Charly. “Twelve?”

“Twelve!” she shouted back before continuing to issue orders.

“Bonus points if it’s twelve. That’s where Charly’s family is. I’ll signal Simon and let him know, see if he’s close enough.”

“Do I need to come in and get Derek?” he asked, his tense enough that I knew he was ready to force the door if he had to.

“Noah should let him through without issue,” I responded, walking as briskly as I could without jogging to where Derek had squatted against the bulkhead, hands over his ears. “Hey,” I said softly, line still open and unmuted. “Conor is going to take you to a medbay with Sam, so it’ll be quiet. All you gotta do is make it to the door. I’ll walk with you.”

He nodded, so overwhelmed by the sudden noise and all the shouting that signing was out of the question. Instead, he rose to his feet and walked around the hand I held out.

Okay, no touching, got it, I thought, instead just making sure to walk where he could see me and getting him to the exit as quickly as possible. “Connor, we’re here.”

The door started to iris open, and before it was even halfway there, a hand thrust through with a pair of noise canceling headphones. “Here, bud.” When the door opened completely and he could see my confusion, he gave a short laugh. “When you said I may need to escort Derek away, I went and grabbed them just in case.”

“Good call,” I approved softly before handing the headphones off to Derek and kissing Conor’s wrist. “Be safe,” I whispered. “Charly filled in Nixe and Coffey, so they can give you the details.”

He dragged my hand up and kissed my palm before sweeping his arms wide to create a buffer for Derek. “Let’s go. Same drill as always - if you need to grab my shirt to stay close, go for it. I’ll big-guy my way through the crowd.  Hell, if we run into Jokul, we can practically create a bubble.”

Derek weaved past me, hands trembling while he tried to sign. “Jokul big,” he said, nodding that it was a good thing.

“Yeah he is! And he’s almost as scary as Tyche when he tries.” Conor carefully escorted Derek around the curve in the corridor. 

A high-pitched, semi-hysterical giggle echoed eerily behind them, and I forced myself back to the situation at hand. “Status?” I asked as calmly as possible.

“Additional shots fired, still none have landed,” Tyche rattled off. Her hands flew in a bizarre combination of dancing and conducting. “But the area is getting more focused, and if they hit one of the pirates, we’re going to be in a tough spot.”

“Evan!” Xiomara barked. “Which side of the ship is the fleet firing from?”

“Port, thirty degrees from our x.”

“Charly! Is the S’crirs on that side?”

Charly scrambled to contact, but received no response. Her eyes widened. “I am taking that as a yes.”

“ ‘Sorry, we can’t talk right now, we’re being shot at by your stalkers’ is pretty universal,” Arthur agreed. “Evan, Tyche, anyone with an engineering degree - how hard would it be for us to veer to starboard, and are micro jumps a thing?”

“Incredibly, and not for the Ark,” Tyche droned, focused on her invisible screens. “We may be able to drift pretty hard that direction, though.”

Before anyone could think of any other options, I saw Maverick brace himself and nod once, barely visible over Tyche’s shoulder. “Hold on to your butts, we’re bowling for buzzards!”

I had just enough time to splay flat on the floor before the entire Ark pitched hard to one side and dropped out from under me.  Vibrations rattled through the deck and into my teeth for several minutes before the rocking and falling feeling stopped.

Rolling to my side, all I could do was gasp desperately for air while screeching came over the speakers. “Hujylsogox Vessel Yjq! You have declared an act of war against the Galactic - “

“Our sincerest apologies,” Noah’s voice cut them off. I realized, not too far behind nearly everyone else, that Noah was playing the audio solely for our benefit. “We were attempting to maneuver away from the threat you detected, in the event of stray return fire. There is still a partially healed breech in the hull on the port side, and we cannot risk our cargo being exposed to vacuum. We were unaware it could be taken as an offensive maneuver, as we only detected debris in the navigatory direction.”

“THAT WAS OUR FLEET!”

A quick tap to my ears showed no blood, and the resultant ringing was significantly less annoying than Tea-Kettle’s shouting, so I just rested my cheek against the floor.

“We only detected debris,” Noah repeated distantly. “Threat assessment indicated that the asteroids would do less damage to the Ark than stray fire, with eight nines of certitude.”

A very muffled, repulsive noise filtered through my poor hearing. “Your unapproved change in course has damaged several of our vessels. You will return your ship to its correct bearing, immediately, and schedule the Yjq for maintenance once this folly is concluded.”

“We fear the Yjq may need to be decommissioned due to age, but will take your assessment under advisement,” Noah agreed before cutting audio.

“The Ark is returning to original heading,” Maverick announced. “On auto-pilot, so to speak.”

“Pilot Okima, there is nothing automatic about how I navigate the Ark, especially when you have created such stress on the drives,” Noah scolded.

“You’re more automatic than I am. And the drives shouldn’t be too bad off - I used the forward momentum to make the curve.  No braking, I swear.”

“Our ideas of breaking are very disparate.”

Everything settled into a kind of dull roar, and I started pushing myself up from the floor. I managed to get on my hands and knees before scuttling to a table for leverage. “Why is this in the same spot?” I wondered inanely.

“It’s part of the deck,” Tyche groaned as she forced herself to her feet.

Awesome. Good to know.

“I have the S’crirs!” Charly screamed. “Noah, can you patch them through so we can all hear them!?”

Rather than the buzzing answer I expected, a mellow alto voice started. “ - for the distraction your people provided.”

“This is Xiomara Kalloe. Do you know how they found you?”

“Warrior Kalloe, one of our tugs experienced a drive malfunction and the captain would not abandon their freight. It is shameful.”

“Far be it from me to reprimand someone trying to ensure they get paid,” Xio assured. “Are your people safe?”

Brol’s baritone filled the air next. “All who were willing to abandon the tug have been evacuated, yes. Any vessels able to do so have relocated to follow in the wake of the Ark.”

“Can you send Charly the current locations of your ships along with expected flight paths?” Maverick called out. “I don’t want to bump into anyone, and we’d all be grateful to know how badly the birds are aiming.”

“Who is speaking.” Ix’al wasn’t asking. She was demanding.

“This is Maverick Okima, human pilot, Your Grace. Consort to Sophia Reid, and one who loves Teeth as my own.”

Consort? I mouthed, scowling.

He grinned unrepentantly and wiggled his wrist at me.

His message was waiting for me on my datapad. “They’re matriarchal, and I’m not arguing with someone big enough to kill me by accident.”

“This will suffice.” Hell, from Ix’al it was a glowing approval. “Are any other humans piloting, or are we to give you sole credit for such…unexpected maneuvers?”

“Evania Josue, Xiomara’s second, is also piloting. Tyche Reid - “

“Charly and Sophia, you neglected to inform us that your other sister is a pilot.”

“In training,” Tyche offered, fighting a feral smile. “I am navigating, currently. When Miys is not.”

“Well met.” The filter over Brol’s voice sounded like it was laughing, which I took as a good sign. “And this Evania Josue?”

“Evan, sir and Grace,” she responded for herself. “I… am not directly affiliated with Teeth’s family.”

“She stabbed you, Ix’al,” Charly added to the utmost horror of several of us. “She’s the one who removed - “

Shouts attempted to drown her out. I stared down Xiomara and did my damnedest to develop telepathy so we could figure out where to hide Evan. Pranav actually tried to tackle Charly, but failed horribly when he underestimated her agility.  The antics drew everyone’s eyes to Charly, thankfully, so we noticed when she stopped dodging and just pointed up.

That’s when we heard it.

Ix’al was laughing.

“Oh, the one who gouged out her ears!” the alien Queen crowed. “Yes, you were quite fierce! Has your leg healed fully?”

Evan’s eyes widened and she instinctively bent her left leg a few times before rubbing her thigh. “It aches now and then, but I am far fitter than I would be without the Ark’s technology.”

“Scars are trophies that last the rest of our days,” Ix’al advised.  I could almost imagine her nodding.

Pranav brushed off the front of his shirt nervously, and rocked his head side to side. “Your Highness, my apologies for the interruption. I am Pranav Ranganathan, head of data security and programming.”

“The clever one who stole the squeaking vermin’s data, yes. We recall.”

He ran a hand over his scalp in relief. “We believe we have a possible weapon to assist you. How secure is this communication?”

“As secure as it can get with pirated technology and a theoretically mythical being hiding the data,” Charly answered.

“Quite secure then, superb.” Another inch of relaxation hit him. “We solicited the population for ways to block the fleet without killing them all, to ensure we were doing the right thing.”

Brol spoke up. “Yes, a rare act of conscience for a predatory mammalian species.” A thumping noise broke through before he spoke again. “Xale, do not pretend offense. You have often chided your sister for the same thinking.”

Pranav looked confused until Charly whispered something in his ear. She must have explained Xale’s job and relationship to Teeth, because he nodded in understanding. “One of our own provided an idea that we only feel confident in half of, but it is a half that you can leverage.”

Grey, in a rare moment, raised their voice. “Pranav, biological warfare, even under the GeeCee, is considered a war crime.”

“Of sorts,” Brol agreed. “There are exceptions, but your tone indicates that this is not one.”

“It is not,” Pranav confirmed. “But that isn’t the half I’m talking about, thankfully. Derek, our…. Our Teeth, if you will allow the comparison, has suggested a computer virus.  He has even supplied the code within the proposal.  Can we send it to your people, with the express advisement not to actually run the code outside of a sandbox?”

After a brief but heavy silence, Brol spoke again. “And this is the half you are not concerned about?”

“Correct.”

“May we ask what the half you were rejecting involved?” Ix’al broached, tone more curious than cautionary.

“Oh, sending over a load of Terran bacterial infections and viruses,” Pranav assured. “I do not approve of bioweapons, however, so I would never relay such a suggestion.”

Splashing overruled any attempt at a response from the S’crirs end, before the line went suddenly quiet. Charly glared at Pranav in accusation, but he only held his hands up and shook his head. “I said it was off the table!”

“The line is not disconnected,” Noah advised. “Merely silenced temporarily.”

“Sorry,” Charly whisper-shouted at Pranav, who nodded in acceptance.

“Our apologies,” Ix’al’s voice broke through. “We needed to calm Xale. Xe once contracted a Terran sinus infection from Teeth and was comatose for several months.”

Tyche’s head whipped over to me, and I couldn’t blame her. My eyes crossed as I stared at my own nose in accusation. Months? Really? I had been prone to sinus infections my entire life… Poor Xale.

“At least they were comatose through it,” I thought out loud. “They’re hell to be awake for.”

“We will run the program in a sandbox,” Brol advised in a rush. “If Terran computer viruses are anything like their biological ones, a quarantine is simply a prudent measure.”

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[absentia-if]

I might be one of the only few but I do not blame K at all for moving on and trying to be happy. Nobody deserves to be alone.

Sure I can see it being a crap thing if they moved on weeks after the MC got taken but it’s been five years, you can’t expect someone to just stay single and alone for the rest of their lives.

It just sad that people are upset with K being human and trying to move on and be happy.

I’m exited about trying K’s route.

At the end of the day, I’m more than aware no one will ever 100% agree on the K situation. It’s something that I was aware of when creating Absentia and, in some regard, K. I’m more than aware that people will have dissenting opinions, that they won’t agree with various things and/or will wish to act in a different manner, and I can understand that. However, that doesn’t mean that will ever become a reality.

I don’t care if people HC to their hearts content, but that doesn’t mean they’ll become canon. They can, I’ll make that clear, but not everything will. If you’d like to HC that your MC will never forgive K, for whatever reason you may come up with, I won’t stop you, but that doesn’t mean I won’t add my own two cents. It also doesn’t mean that it’ll become part of the story. I know fleshing out your MCs are part of fun when it comes to the IF Community, as fleshing out the ROs is amazingly fun too, but there are limits set into stone and I’m truly sorry if that upsets anyone.

People are free to share their opinions with me, just like I’m free to give my own opinion back, and I don’t have an inherent issue with that. It’s the tone— not necessarily referring to last asks— when in regard to K, or anything to do with the MC being slighted (even if they haven’t been), that I take issue with. You don’t have to like K as a Reader, you don’t have to like me for that matter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be respectful; it also doesn’t mean that the Absentia MC will suddenly forget about everything, about their own personal knowledge of K, and completely forsake them because K decided to finally move on from a super dark portion of their life. Also remember that Absentia has one actual chapter (barring the prologue). There wasn’t going to be any heavily emotional scenes with the ROs, barring B because they’re emotional, but that doesn’t mean those moments won’t happen; they’ll just be saved when the MC isn’t in a hospital bed.

Now, I can understand that not everyone is comfortable with the possibility of breaking K/Gabby up, and I can’t say that I blame you. That dynamic, Gabby being Gabby, is part of the reason I added them (and I also felt like K needed to have a support net in some regard that wasn’t blood related/didn’t know the MC that well). It’s a tough choice for some people, which is also why opting out of Ks route is such an early choice with the story so you can get peace of mind quicker (it hasn’t appeared yet, don’t worry).

K isn’t perfect, none of the characters are even if they appear to be, and neither is the MC. K has done some things they’re not proud of, and will do things they won’t be proud of, and the MC is/will be in the same boat. All the characters are human within the world of Absentia; they aren’t all knowing nor will they always have the answer even if they’ll strive to find one. They have their faults and weaknesses, just like they have their notable facets and strengths. I want them to feel like people, to feel that struggle they have with simply living on, and if that means they’ll mess up? So be it. No one in this world is perfect, but that doesn’t make them any less worthy.

You all can feel how you’d like about the K situation, or the K/Gabby situation, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll agree. It also doesn’t mean that I’ll add anything (not saying I never will) to the story. Having opinions is part of being human. Part of having free will. I won’t say you can’t share the thoughts with me, but after a certain point— with what I’ve received and have continued to receive— I’ll just stop responding.

Maybe at the end of the day it’s better that the MC and K have gone their separate ways? Maybe in this manner they can find happiness somewhere else. (This applies to some people not everyone.)

I’m glad that you enjoy Absentia, and I can’t wait for you to discover more of it. It’s definitely going to get interesting!

[away-ward]

In KS, the teacher damon meets in the first chapter is his literature teacher and then in NF, all four boys are in a first period literature class with a different teacher.

I HC that damon isn't supposed to be in that first period class with the rest of them. He just chooses to go there and the staff doesn't say anything because dear god he's finally a senior. Let him do whatever he wants so he can goooooooo

[bi-lavelent]

Brie Larson x fem-reader

Warning: Angst, Fluff, Cussing, Bullying

Thank God For Theater Chapter 3

Theater is Something that in compases many things not just acting, it's a way to put yourself out there.  It's a way to start not caring what others think and you don't have to be on Broadway for you to be able to be affected by theater. theater can move you in many spectacular ways."- y/n Y/L/N

My moms name was all over the news of the worldwide.  No matter where I went I would never be able to escape her. When I started theater I prayed that It didn't get any worse all the teasing and name calling. I knew that if I had memorized everyone in the 500 page play (holiday island a play about a bunch of brits on holiday.) I would finally be able to escape.After a while of feeling the escapism that theater provided to me. I realize that theater was what i wanted to do with my life no matter what, It was an escape from everything going on around me. So i was going to try everything to get there no matter what anyone told me even if i failed once i got there at least i got there at least i wasn't with my mother anymore. When I got home I found the letter that I had been praying for my mother was put in jail on a death sentence, Finally something good in my life. 

It was the first day of theater If I didn't see him  long Blonde hair, hazel eyes, Muscles, sunglasses, Button up plaid shirt, and Genes. I couldn't be falling for someone. Not again  I don't know  what I was thinks but I mean just one look at him and your in love. I Probably could have talked myself out of my  feelings if I hadn't heard him talk his voice could part the sea. But at the same time  put a baby to sleep. But the moment he spoke he hypnotized me with every word. But if he knew who I was he wouldn't want me. A couple weeks went by. I had gotten some friends there in the theater that did not judge because of my mother. 

Rose,Alaska,lucy,Zia,Indgo they were not at all like me they were dark and talked about murder a lot and later on I found out that they would wright letters because they were in love with my mother they found criminals hot. At one point in time one said that hitler was extremely hot. Un surprising to me well wrighting this they have all ended up in prison. But the moment they found out I had a crush on Markus(the ks silent) Daniel Amor Traydon. he had my heart in knots and I had nothing to lose hell even as an adult and I could lose everything I still do it. I got tired of waiting for him to ask me out why can't a women do it I had done it before given it was with another women but I mean if he said no what was the worse thing that would happen. 

"Hay" I yelled towards his direction

He walked over to me "Yes" 

" Do you wanna hang out sometime?" I asked

"sure." he said 

We heard the Director say "okay everyone go sit."

"Meet me after class, I'll give you my information." he said

I went and sat down the director had went around and asked everyone who he rounded on me and what about you ,"Mrs.Michael" he said

"Tina sir" I said

"Are you sure?" he asked

"1. As sure as I could ever be, 2. As sure as you were when you asked your ugly wife  to marry you,  3. As sure as you were when you asked your ugly wifes hot sister to sleep with you, 4. As sure as your wife when she divorced your ass.  Dose that answer you question?" I said

"You have confidence I like that It will get you far in this Job." he said

"Thanks sir." I said

"Okay work on that you got the confidence down but you need to not be a pushover." he said

 "I'm not a pushover. I'm stronger than you so unless you wanna get physically pushed over and hurt by me move on to the next person." I said

"Okay moving on is everyone ready for starting reading lines Ann why don't you start." he said

Okay im reading Act 1 Scene 1 Line 5, I looked straight blinked. "Yes, definitely with a pool-view and a telly weren't it Tone?" i said this with a very emphatically and a little concerned voice

"Moving on."

I looked down knowing that my British accent wasn't the best and that I was competing for this part with people who had done Theater before. But I really didn't care. I gave it my all and acted with my heart not my mind.

after class I walked up to Markus'' how's life?"

"great" he said

"yah mine too." i said

"Here mine and my mom's number." he said ,"call me when you wanna hangout." 

"Okay see you tomorrow." I said

I walked out to my grandmas car. and got in "hay grandma" I said she started to drive away.

"Hello kido, how was class today?" She asked.

"I think it's time I'm ready to go back to school." I said.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes," I said "I wanna go back to school." 

"Well I'll call John and will get you into a school." She said "What school?"

"The one I went to as a Kid," I said

"Okay i'll see what I can do." She said

"Thanks." I said as I looked out the window

My grandma must have called John and Told him because he showed up the next day to the house my grandma was out of the house

"Hay kido" John said

"JHON!" I screamed running up to him Hugging him

"Wow someone happy to see me." John said

"Your Like a father, a Best friend and a Brother so i'm always happy to see you." I stated with a smile  "How is everyone at the police station?" 

"Well Peter got married to his girlfriend, Liam got engaged, Roy adopted a puppy and got married to his boyfriend, Rodger and his wife had their third kid and Zack and Tony started dating each other and my wife's pregnant with our baby. Steve and Kyle aren't up to much." He said

"How long have i been gone?" I asked surprised 

"haha yeah alots happened your grandma told me that you wanna go to school i'm okay with this but we've got to get you accommodated back into school so a couple of us officers are coming with you to keep you safe." he stated

"No sorry I love you guys but I feel like I'll be made fun of a lot." I stated 

"exactly that's why we're going to be undercover." he said

"Okay fine." I said sarcastically

"You know we are your family i mean you said that i'm like a brother to you so what you worried about." he said

"Me trying to flirt with boys and girls or them trying to flirt with me and you guys beating them up." I said

"Me and the boys won't do that." he said

"Okay sure" I said sarcastically

"Okay you start school tomorrow so go sleep." he said

"thanks John" i said

The next day I got in the car with john in the morning, and arrived at school it was 8th grade  john walked me to the office and told them who I was they gave me someone to show me around school.

 "this is Markus." the office lady said.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Markus said.

"I go to school here now." I said.

"Oh hang out with me i'll show you the ropes." he said

"okay." I said "Bye John"

me and Markus walked out to the hallway.

“ hay i'll give you some tips don't mention who you are or Theater trust me I know its hard but The kids here are really mean they are really mean and need to be taught a bunch of lessons like how not to back talk teachers." He said

"You don’t need to tell me twice they can’t be worse than me buddy im it as nice as you think. But you might need to get closer to me to figure that out.  I said

We walked to class staring at each other 

"Here we are." I said

"Students please welcome our new student Mrs." the teacher said

 before I cut her off

"Lee I said Mrs.Lee." I said

"Okay students say hi." The teacher said

The teacher pulled me to the side when everyone was outside. "It says your last names Y/L/N why did you say Lee?"

"Because Y/L/N my moms last name yes I am being raised by her mom but I don't want to be connected with her my moms not a nice person and if people find out what she has done hell i'm scared of my mother she's a scary person so i've taken my fathers name i'm making it legal within the once my grandfather gets back from his hunting trip. In a few days. My grand,a dose not like the courthouse." I said

"Just because there's people that we hate in our lives does not mean that we need to get rid of things that connect us with them." she said,"you have a chance to take your last name's legacy and change it, don't throw it away." She said

"Well if I happen to change my names legacy and do what I want with my life and become famous there's already enough judgment in that job that with this hanging over my head then It might give me a heart attack but being famous will also make me happy and jump with joy all I want is to be old enough to move out and fall in love and start a family of my own. But I'm scared that I'm going to go down the same path as my mother." I said

"The more you say that to yourself the more you are going to fail you need more confidence." She said

"That's funny, my theater director says I have two lot of confidence." I said 

"Well we all have confidence, we just all spend it in different places so spread that confidence around." she said

"Hey Y/L, come hang out over here." Markus said

"Sure." I said

Later that day me and markus were in science chatting well the teacher was talking we didn't hear what she said

"Markus, Ann since you too are so chit chatty you too are partners."

She said

After school Markus said "come to my house and do the project there." 

"Okay" I said "let me call my lift my family is  a bit overprotective so they might come." 

"Okay that's fine." He said

I called John and He told me that he would have to come with me a couple minutes later. John was waving from the car.

 I said “see you in a few”

 to markus and went into the car buckled and drove to his house. Me and Markus were in the kitchen and his mom and John were in the living room talking. John had told me that we have to leave by nine. 

"So who is that guy?" Markus siad

"Well he's my best friend." I said

"I'm not your best friend." Markus said

"Well he's different." I said

"He's too old for you, you need to date someone your own age." Markus said

"Not like that. It's complicated." I said

"You can tell me anything." He said

"Well John was the Police officer; that arrested me when I was 7. I was a troublemaker and got in a lot of trouble; for threatening to kill a kid. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, if Columbine had not just happened. My mom refused to pick me up from the police station. I waited there for a few years till a family member would pick me up. That never happened. When my mom got arrested for selling drugs. I went to my dad he started to drink and abuse me, I got really scared and ran back to my home the cops, there my home there my family. Then I went to my grandmother's house and wanted to know stuff about my family and it turned out that my mother had killed a bunch of kids and adults and was a child sexual predator. John is just a bit over protective of me. All of the cops at that station treat me like family.” I said

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't know." He said

"No it's okay. The court mandatory therapist said that I need to talk about it." I said laughing

"Do not worry I wont tell anyone." He said

"I'm not worried." I said we both started to lean in and look at each other's lips, "I think I should probably be going." 

"Okay see you tomorrow." He said

"Yah yah okay bye."I said

Me and Markus worked on the project for a couple weeks, and didn't talk about what had happened but then the day that we had finished the project.

"Hey, I really liked hanging out with you. Would you like to see a movie with me this weekend after our final theater performance." Markus asked

"sure." I said

John was okay with me going Markus. and I went to a horror movie. which I hated because of paranoia. I already feel like i'm being watched 24/7 so I try to avoid. Anything scary there was a big jump scare and I grabbed Markus Hand after the movies. He asked if I was okay. I didn't say anything I just looked into his eyes and then down at his lips I wasn't going to do it but then he kissed me and I kissed him back. 

"Hay do you want to come over to my house and watch a Superhero movie." he said 

"yah sure." I said

We started dating from there on into highschool senior year. I was a fresh 17 and he was 19. I thought we were meant to be together forever. That he was going to be the father of my children. I still remember freshman year I had gotten onto the Volleyball, Basketball, Wrestling, Boxing and Golfing team as well as still doin theater outside of school. He was a proud boyfriend; he was the one cheering the loudest at the games and performances and when I made the honor roll he was the first one to text me. It was my final Basketball game before summer junior year  and he had hijacked the sound system and started playing my favorite song as soon as I made the basket even though he knew he would be in trouble he told me he didn't care just as long as he got to see my smile. He caressed my face and kissed my forehead. I had my whole life planned out with him. When I turned 17 though everything changed he was 18 and politics were happening he asked me what I would do if i could vote and we got into a big fight that's why I don't vote know as an adult that one moment has ruined my entire life and also saved me I was able to pass all my classes with flying colors. But home life wasn't the best. At 15 my grandma had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and Liver Cancer. She was fighting as hard as she could but she died a couple weeks before I turned 17. It was just me and grandpa. He tried to make me feel better but nothing helped. She was the only mother figure I had up till then, she was my everything. At 17 I graduated and John and all the cops came. I saw Ezra lee for the first time in a long time after the ceremony. I walked up to her and just said sorry. I didnt realize that she was not aware of what had happened and that our father had told her that her mother was just gone for work

(I need to catch up on all my story’s there will be parts posted by next week and I will figure out how to do a master list.”

[steamberrystudio]

13/08/2023 Devlog

Hallo! It is time for the bi-weekly Tumblr update once again

Summary:

Sprite art finished and imported (all sprites are now in the game)

All CG art completed

50% of CGs coded

The Ramble:

So here is the quick ramble for Gilded Shadows.

I finished all the remaining sprite art and got that imported into the game. 

And I finished all the CG art. I have not finished coding the CGs as some of them take a bit longer due to Morgan. So I have a few more of those left to do.

I really did not expect to be finished with the CGs by this point but somehow managed to finish them by the end of Friday without killing my hand.

I've definitely been...uh...feeling it the past couple of days though. Ha ha. 

Fortunately the art is done now so my hand will have plenty of time to rest through beta testing! 

Upcoming Weeks:

Beta testing! 

I have a few more things to wrap up, including coding the rest of the CGs and then Yuu's route will move into the beta testing stage which will last a few weeks; but I'm not sure how long.

So yeah. We're nearly to the final release for Gilded Shadows. 

Even after release, I still have some KS related loose ends to tie up but the game is kind of the main thing to complete and we are nearly there.

=o

Anyway, that's all for now on Gilded Shadows. By next update we should be mid-beta testing and I'll probably be working on some of the KS loose ends while waiting for feedback.

When Stars Collide:

For those following updates on this project:

I have received one new background since last time and a new sketch.

I have also done a fair bit of writing but since this is just my side project I've actually been tracking my word count progress a little less meticulously than usual. I don't know how many words it was at my last update so I don't know how much progress I've made since then. LoL!

I have one more short scene for Yren chapter 5 left but I also worked on the new chapter 3, which I had planned out but not started last time. So it looks like I wrote right at 10,000 words based on how long the scenes I know I wrote are. 💪

I also wrote Kav's first actual scene and appearance (well, it's part of the new chapter 3, not a separate scene.)

I've done a few other small things - worked on potentially re-designing the flowchart screens, changed up some character lore for a few characters. Changed a few character name spellings too (there are reasons for this; it wasn't just a whim. LoL)

And a few other minor things.

I also improved my WSC word count spreadsheet.

Keeping a detailed spreadsheet of my progress - including a specific goal system and progress tracker really helps keep me focused so that my forward momentum stays at a steady pace.

I'm not a naturally organised person - in fact, my natural state as a writer is quite chaotic and disorganised. But I have learned during Changeling that chaos does not serve me well in the development process and that I do better if I make myself use organisational tools to stay on track.

I haven't been meticulous with writing spreadsheets for WSC since it has been my side project until now. But as GS wraps up, it will become more of my focus so I want to be sure I have the tools in place to stay focused.

Hence...better spreadsheets. 💪💪

Side note. But did you lens flares are actually required when something is set in space? That is how you know it's sci-fi.

I don't make the rules.

[foxdriftstudios]

Garden of Seif Mini Updates:

We are still in the first phase of QA for the full game.

Currently programming a profanity filter for the player input name.

The keychain backings are in-progress and the final shipping materials needed for the Kickstarter rewards are on the way.

If the backings are complete, we will begin packing the KS rewards within the next week.

Fun personal dev note: I got engaged last weekend on my six year anniversary and I'm so happy. I'm excited that my game I've worked on for 6+ years now is FINALLY going to be released soon and I'll be moving onto the next chapter in my life. WEEEEEEEEEE!!! 🎉🎉💍

[nonooddo]

ACHEY BREAKY NEWS……

With all the predictability of heartbreak in a country song - the twists and turns of the Oddo attempt to desecrate our neighborhood has taken yet another twist. The April 2 date, that was insisted upon by Oddo, for the Full City Council vote on the wretched development proposal - has been postponed.…!

Apparently it’s now been moved to April 16. Were the City Fathers moved by all the reasonable pleas that this hideous apartment plan was being rushed…? Don’t be an idiot!

After literally HUNDREDS of us write in to the City saying ‘this is going too fast’, after we have meetings at City Hall and tell staff ‘this is too fast’, after we show up en mass at the Planning Commission and say ‘this is too fast’, after we hire a lawyer to plead the case - 'THIS IS TOO FAST' - all of that is ignored. HOWEVER - THE SECOND Oddo says 'jump'- they don’t even bother to ask how high - they just start jumping…!!

Olathe, KS gets a new City Flag

What kind of a Banana Republic is Olathe? I guess we all already know because we are all too used to this type of shit. Witness - earlier today the news came out from the Cedar Creek ‘Developer-owned’ HOA that the Landowners closest to the Oddo development site had finally gotten round to filing a Protest Petition.

(Now a Protest Petition is a technical petition that certain close - within 200 feet - neighboring landowners can file. If it’s filed, on time, after a planning commission decision, it changes the vote requirement to pass a planning measure at the Full Council from Simple Majority to Super Majority.)

WE OWN ENOUGH OF THE QUALIFIED land to have filed that Protest Petition immediately. We - the homeowners. However… as you now know, we don’t control our own assets. We don’t control our HOA. We don’t even control the name of our neighborhood. (Ask the people who have pissed off the developers and because they referred to their own neighborhood the developers are threatening to sue them…! Remarkable True Story in the Olathe Banana Republic!)

The Protest Petition discussions were among developers only…!

So here in our own ‘hood, we don’t have an HOA that is opposing the desecration of the main entrance to Cedar Creek by a rapacious developer. No… our HOA IGNORED the fact of hundreds of letters, thousands of signatures and every actual indication of opposition by all the homeowners - and it kept silent.

The OVERWHELMING response of homeowners - of Opposition to Oddo - has been ABSENT from ‘our’ HOA’s considerations. Instead we were machined against. Talked down to. Told to behave. Patronized and they even tried to bully us with threats, belittling and smears. That was the response of ‘our’ HOA…

However - when the developers that control everything out here in Cedar Creek fell out and then - accidentally did the right thing, albeit for the wrong reasons, and sided with homeowners for ONCE, then THAT is big news…!

Cue a full email blast from the FakeOA, cue some whitewashed details about the ‘discussions’ to fix the Oddo abomination…! Of course WE were not present, this was “Developers Only”. Acting like C19th Colonial Powers carving up the world, we only get told what they want us to know - after the fact. And all we are supposed to do is shout “God Save The Kaiser, or Czar, or King…!” As tho our masters had done something good - for us…! (And not something patently in their own financial interests…!)

So don’t be surprised when this song ends in heartbreak. It is as inevitable as a country tear jerker - and about as synthetic. And the next chapter can be predicted too…

Watch out for Oddo revisions to his shitty plans - something to buy off (or rather buy back) some of that ‘other developer political capital’ he just burned through. Will we be at the table next time…? Hell no, don’t be an idiot…!

…This is still Olathe Kansas…Y’all…!

[bonesandthebees]

Okay, so obviously I’m starting with the beginning and then I’m skipping to the ending and I’ll do everything in between later cuz there’s so much to unpack. Bee, why do you do this to me? /j.

First of all, Wilbur is edging closer and closer to letting Tommy see him without the blindfold on. Not his eyes, of course, just his face. Which Tommy has yet to see in full. I always assumed he hid his face just in case he accidentally opened his eyes and I do think that was or is a part of it. But the bigger part seems to be a rule I somehow missed. No one is allowed to see Wilbur’s face, I’m sure it was there and I just forgot. But it’s another rule. And Wilbur is kinda done with rules. He’s broken a lot by this point. So what’s one more? It’s a very fun mentality that’s slowly going to fix him. It also influences a lot of his other actions and decisions through out the chapter, but I’ll get there.

It’s very fun seeing Wilbur worried about Tommy for once. Not that he hasn’t worried before. He was quite stressed about hurting Tommy with the vision and him being okay after. (speaking of which, if Wilbur were to get that same vision now there’s no way he would do it). But back then Wilbur was the only thing that could cause any danger to Tommy. As far as most people *cough* Tubbo *cough* are concerned, the only thing that poses any danger to Tommy within the temple is Wilbur,

Tommy is not only about to be away from Wikbur for the first time. He’s also about to be in actual danger (which Wilbur has no control over) for the first time. Combine that with the fact that Tommy’s the first and possibly only person Wiobur has gotten properly attached to and we get some nice separation anxiety kicking Iin. And it kicks in hard. Also, I don’t know if it’s fair to call it separation anxiety if Tommy is doing something dangerous, but the symptoms definitely feel like separation anxiety to me.

Then there’s Tommy’s unreadab.e expressions. Most of them at realising that Wilbur ks worried about him. Worried for him. I wonder if that effects his ability to run, aside from being a bit rusty (possibly). I wonder if the idea that he has to get back to Wilbur affects his judgement. I wonder if wanting to get back faster so Wilbur can stop worrying makes his less careful or more careless.

Also, you’ve written yet another fic where crime boys go acab. Hell yeah. Also the pig comment sent me.

-🌲

oh yeah I think I brought this up before during the first time they went to quackity's bar, but there is a sort of more 'unofficial' rule where people aren't supposed to see the pythia's face. that's why he was wearing the veil the night of the ball. if the pythia is faceless, it's easier to think of them as a vessel rather than an individual. it's another dehumanization thing basically. also hiding faces helps to obscure the age of the pythia as well, so another way to prevent them from being seen as an individual. but yes his mentality is finally shifting!!

YUPPP now wilbur is the one super worried about tommy!! it was a very nice switch up to write since we've spent so long with tommy being the really protective worrier over wil. now tommy is the one in danger though. he's going to be away from the temple, away from wilbur, and he'll be in a lot of danger. of course wilbur isn't handling this well. tommy is literally the first person he's had a proper friendship with basically in his entire life.

hmm maybe tommy's own worries and stress affected his judgement, maybe not, you'll have to wait to find out :)

considering l'manberg was basically founded on acab it's almost a sin if you dont have crimeboys say acab lmaoooo