#like I know we sort of get SCRAPS as the series goes on but he DOES have a distinct personality to me

[bumblingbabooshka]

Everyone needs to start getting way weirder (read: hornier) about this moment so I don't feel so alone.

Also - Tuvok....this is WILDLY funny. Tuvok is SO cringe I love him, he's the worst guy ever. Absolutely 0 hesitation to, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, straight up go "Hey, first officer? Sorry for cutting you off in the middle of this life-or-death situation but I just couldn't help but notice that I, Tuvok, made a suggestion and you didn't follow it? That's literally never happened before. Did you not hear me or..?" There's literally not even a good reason for him to object it's straight up ONLY because it wasn't his idea.

[lawlightautismtruther]

SUPER LONG LAWLIGHT DYNAMIC ANALYSIS RANT (THIS MOSTLY ONLY APPLIES TO THE ANIME)

It’s really not that serious, but there’s more to my thesis of L being a sub/bottom than just blorbo yaoi fuel. I‘ll call back to my post about L’s true emotional vulnerability that most viewers seem to miss, because on a surface level (especially when coming from the manga and when trusting the words of Obha at face value) you may see L as detached and cold. You’re supposed to think that L is unfeeling at FIRST but post-confinement/pre-yotsuba, the truth starts to seep out. L could have had Light convicted after seeing that no more criminals were dying since locking him up, but he didn’t. Even Aizawa admitted that it was enough evidence. You know it’s real when Aizawa agrees with Matsuda, lmfao.

Anyway, after this point, L and Light actually really start to bond. (I pretty much see lawlight as subtextual canon) L, not really needing to do this because of his access to surveillance, handcuffs himself to Light Yagami. He doesn’t want to be apart from him. I actually find it to be a comedically obvious act of desperation.

My point is, Light is winning the game, and L is letting him do it out of what I believe is love. L has found the one person in his life (besides maybe Naomi) that he really feels any sort of connection to, and therefore he would hate to watch that person die. L is inarguably a vulnerable character imo. If you rewatch the the series, outside of his internal monologues, he’s actually extremely soft-spoken and coy.

“Oh, uh, well it was nice meeting you”

“Light, please make Misa stop talking now.”

You get the point. He’s nervous. He’s super frail and holds himself very compactly, he walks with his eyes on the ground usually. He shakes when Aizawa lays a hand on him. He is terrified of shinigami. I think his coldness is an act to protect himself. I really do, because he knows how much things actually do affect him. In order to continue with cases, he has to pretend like none of it really matters to him. And he almost believes it at this point, too— hence his monster speech.

But then there’s Light Yagami. A worthy individual to truly understand L. He comes along, actually treats L like a human being (be it an act, I believe it still feels good to L, who has been treated like a robot his entire life), of course L is bound to at the very least see him as a friend.

I don’t believe L’s external behavior towards Light is an act. He didn’t have to be kind, he didn’t have to pretend it was a friendship. He had zero professional reason to do so. In fact, it very much made the case a harder one to solve. If we take L’s character at face value, he would have scrapped all of the fluffy shit (like asking Light to go get cake with him, telling Light he was his only friend knowing damn well Light wouldn’t budge regardless, etc.) Adding a friendship into the mix only complicates the process of trying to read Light.

As much as L the detective hates to lose, L the person is desperate. If he really hated to lose, why did he let himself? He’s submitting to Light’s will and THAT is what kills him. On the day he dies, he knows it will happen, but still, he treats Light with kindness. Sure, he asks him if he’s ever told the truth once in his life, but after that, he pretty much gives up prying. That’s it. He’s put his gun down. Since he’s going to die anyway, he might as well just enjoy being around Light. I know for a fact that he is smart enough to have come up with some sort of plan to convict Light post-Higuchi. There’s a book about that. But canonically, he didn’t do it. Notice also how L goes to Watari before he dies for comfort. L is really such a sad character.

The crux of his character is his submissiveness, hence why I’m such a proponent of that ship dynamic. Its not just a wet-dream, it’s something I sensed in their dynamic to begin with. It’s why I became an L simp, not the other way around.

Anyway, the anime is a genius adaptation and expansion on the original story imo. (At least up until L’s death— unfortunately it didn’t do the other Wammy’s boys any justice)

TLDR;

manga L- cold and domineering, hates to lose and mostly loses at first because Light outsmarts him

anime L- the very opposite and I LOVE IT

Look at me putting my 5 on the AP English literature exam to use! Also, I know I’m a huge L fan, but I am a Light kinnie and I love him as a protagonist in every possible anti-hero type way and would love to analyze him so let me know if yall want that.

Okay, class, any questions?

[familyabolisher]

do you have any favorite quotes or passages from the locked tomb series?

mmm i don’t really think about prose in terms of “quotes” (not trying to sound like a snob i just find it difficult to make value judgments about a piece of writing when it’s isolated from its broader context!) but i think some of my fav bits of prose in the series are:

like, the whole of john 1:20, but especially the creation of alecto—’from my blood and bone and vomit i conjured up a beautiful labyrinth to house you in, i was terrified you’d find some way to escape before i was done,’ ‘adam and eve, galatea, barbie, frankenstein’s monster with long yellow hair,’ ‘i hid you in me i hid me in you’ etc. just a really really good sequence lmao.

the couple of parts of the john chapters where tm drops the monologuing conceit to have john & harrowlecto do some like rapid-fire dialogue (‘“[...] i couldn’t do a damned thing” / “so what did you do” / “a damned thing, didn’t i” / “i still love you” / “you always say that, harrowhark”’; ‘“do you remember what you said to me once i had done it? when we stood here together? / “yes” / “you said, i picked you to change and this is how you repay me?” / “what else did i say?” / “you said, what have you done to me? i am a hideousness” / “what else did i say?” / “where did you put the people? where did they go?” / “i still love you” / “you said that too”’) are really good.

the final few pages of nona before the epilogue where alecto’s memories start bleeding through into the present-day action (and the splicing of kiriona killing crux with the entry into the tomb + alecto’s memories of entombment … Screaming and throwing up) have some good turns of phrase—’the scrap of black-eyed meat had asked for it—the chain of a kiss: the ice that burnt the flesh of the mouth that had stuck to the mouth that was frozen. the teardrop on the hand. the hand that john had fashioned.’; ‘most human voices sounded alike, after all. they were not beautiful. the waters parted for her and it became possible to walk, crunching through the bones at the bottom. the bones at the bottom; what did they make her think of?’ ‘the terrible face with the terrible arms and legs and the terrible middle part, the terrible hair, and the terrible ears: the nose too short, the ears too brief. [...] her own edge had been pushed out, her swinging edge, her toy.’ walking a VERY fine line between lyrical and overwritten and actually landing it. 

really fond of varun the eater and nonalecto’s exchanges—’green thing, green-and-breathing thing, big ghost, the drinker, transformed, what will you eat now? where will your body go? what did he do to you to make you this way? [...] they are coming out of their tower, salt thing. i will pull their teeth. i will make it blank for you.’ REALLY goes. ‘what did he do to you to make you this way’ immediately after asking nona if she ‘loves’ and nona saying ‘ i don’t know what it means, did i ever know what it meant?’ and ‘john loves alecto, john needs alecto’ as the thing that forces alecto’s ‘return’ of sorts … every day i get emails

‘the shimmering white figure of the dead kiriona gaia’ is a very satisfying turn of phrase. i am fond of it

nona epigraph poem (‘you told me sleep, i’ll wake you in the morning / i asked what is morning and you said / when everyone who fucked with me is dead’ etc)

some of the language used in gideon to describe canaan house sets off my little fictional house sensibilities so bad. ‘castle that had been killed,’ ‘the look of a picked-at body [...] a beautiful corpse,’ ‘abandoned and breathlessly waited to be used by someone other than time.’ horrid horrid house i love her so much.

arm scene, obviously. incidentally—and this is present throughout harrow but i think i notice it more in scenes like the arm scene—i really enjoy how much harrow moreso than the other two is written in a voice similar to that of lolita, wherein you have a protagonist with an incredibly affected pretension which the narration pokes fun at them for but which also enables a kind of indulgence in pretension even whilst painting it as such. anyway—'an exquisite conglomeration of bone beneath skin and meat, pocketed in the middle with soft treasures of parenchyma and muscle [...] you were able to see her skeleton as though she had shyly undressed herself for you, as though in the orange hues of the daytime light she’d sloughed capillaries and glands off the budding rose of her scapula’; ‘prayed for a woman you loved to assist you in disrobing a woman you did not’ (insane line sorry); ‘the lovely cup of the radius, the forked embrace of the ulna.’ cowards will call it overwritten but not ME i love sex scenes

& finally, the descriptions of alecto in harrow (which, incidentally—something to be said for the text of harrow referring to alecto predominantly as the Body and the text of nona referring to kiriona pretty heavily as the corpse prince—anyway) but especially the ‘that night the body consented to embrace you’ bit spliced in with john bringing up annabel fucking lee for the first time. deranged.

[down-the-rabbid-hole]

A collection of miscellaneous Rabbids Invasion headcanons

Because I'm sleep deprived and why the hell not

Mad is VERY hyperactive and cannot sit still to save his life, he's always fidgeting or moving a little. He often tends to speak really fast when he gets excited about something, much to Nerdy's annoyance

Nerdy is Mad's first assistant to actually stay around him for longer than a week, most of the others would've run off out of fear or because they didn't want to become a lab rat. Mad doesn't know whether Nerdy stuck around because he likes him or out of stupidity and this will never cease to fascinate him (in truth it's a mix of both)

Yes there besties and you cannot change my mind, I'm very normal about their dynamic (lying)

I've said this before but Non Binary Mini

Nerdy didn't need glasses before the Mole-Rabbid incident but now he does, and is practically blind without them

Yes, he can still transform into Mole Rabbid, but he doesn't do it as often (HE SHOULD'VE DONE IT IN THE SEASON FOUR FINALE)

Lapini likes tea, and Mad prefers coffee, they have and will fight over this

Season four took place before the movie, and the stupidity thing just...wore off or something

At some point I may rewrite the season four finale cuz it kinda sucked no offense

The Mars gang sticks together after the events of the movie, sort of all staying together in scribbles little lab thing on that one island, John and Olivia visit sometimes too!

Lapini villain arc would be cool though

Mad is a chronic insomniac and will refuse to sleep unless he passes out in the middle of doing something, Nerdy has and will drug his coffee with NyQuil so he actually sleeps for once

One of the first things Lapini did in the lab was uncover his old translator from the series so he could have a proper conversation with Olivia

Less a headcanon and more of a parallel, but concept art reveals Lapini's lab in the movie is made from a half-dismantled helicopter, and since Mad's lab is in a school bus they both have labs made in/from scrapped vehicles!

Cosmo still dreams of being an astronaut sometimes, if he ever gets a room or something he'd fill it with glow in the dark stars

Lapini is claustrophobic

Nerdy still gets Mole-Rabbid instincts sometimes, he becomes more alert if he were to ever go underground, and his eyes glow ever so slightly in the dark

He also has retractable mole claws now! He's accidentally scratched more countertops than he can count with them lmao

Mad has absolutely horrible social skills. Mf has no sense of boundaries and cannot pick up on any social cues, also isn't really good at reading others emotions, which is why he sometimes goes too far with teasing or other things

Speaking of teasing! Mad LOVES to tease Lapini, and the two have a sort of one sided rivalry, Lapini doesn't want anything to do with Mad and Mad is determined to one-up Lapini at every little thing he does

Mainly because Lapini is the only other Rabbid Mad has found that can match his own intelligence, Lapini also sees this but sees Mad as impulsive, reckless, and a general disgrace to science

Mad doesn't hate Lapini though, quite the opposite really! He does enjoy being around him but only knows how to do so through competition and teasing, which he doesn't know is bothering Lapini as much as it is lmao

If we ever get a season five or another movie I NEED to see an plot where Lapini and Mad are forced to work together and learn they're not actually so different, please that would be so cool

[robo-ky888]

So I wanted to make a video on why Robo Ky is my favorite fictional character period but I don't feel confident enough with my skills to do this sort of thing justice so I'm scrapping the project for now. I'm gonna upload the script here but be warned, it's my first ever script so sorry about that. Thank you for reading.

Introduction

Robo Ky. a character that first appeared as a story mode exclusive boss only as a palette swap of Ky and was only made fully playable in the 3rd entry into the series, is my favorite character in media. But…why, why is this random one off character that usually places around C tier on tier lists and was relegated to cutscenes and spin off games past his debut game my favorite in all of media, especially when Guilty Gear has so many amazing characters like Faust or Sol or even Johnny or Slayer. Well today I intend to tell you why and frankly, i'm not trying to win anyone over with this one or spark a new “Robo Ky revolution” or anything, i just really REALLY wanted to get this out there and this was the only way i knew how to do it. I hope you all or even if you dont, i hope you learn something new about one of guilty gears most original characters.

Who is Robo Ky

Robo Ky made his first appearance in Guilty Gear X Plus for the Playstation 2 in 2001 exclusively in cutscenes. He was portrayed as a palette swap of ky and to play as this version of Robo Ky, you had to select ky’s gg version which had different attacks. This version of Robo Ky looked way different as he was portrayed as having tan skin and a much slimmer frame, looking more like regular ky. This also applied to guilty gear petit as he works exactly like this in that game as well. I actually played this game on an emulator once and inputted the code to play as Robo Ky right away and even got his ending, which is probably one of my favorite photos of the funny man. After these two middling appearances, we finally see Robo Ky take on a full move set in guilty gear XX released in december of 2002 in japan and march 2003 everywhere else. In the first installment of the game, he is unlocked by completing Story Mode or via time release (96 hours). This is the only version of the game Robo Ky is an unlock in and in all future versions he is unlocked right at the start, as perfection should be. Its moveset and gameplay is surprisingly different from ky and if you know anything about Robo Ky, this is probably it. His gameplay revolves around maintaining your heat and battery gage as when you use certain moves, the corresponding bars will increase or decrease, if the heat gage fills up too much, you overheat and explode, if you run out of battery, you can't do specials until you get the energy for them, think of it as tension that empties and fills faster. For example, his special skill fires a bullet from his elbow which increases the heat gauge and his DON'T GET COC-KY! Uses up a bit of power. Heat goes down naturally and your main tool for rebuilding energy is gimmicky, no that's the actual name of the move, Gimmic-KY. He even has a delayed get up which can really throw people off and he even talks shit at you while he is getting up. Now why am i explaining any of this, to most people none of this even matters, but i thought this was really important to explain because Robo Ky does not play like anyone else in the entire cast, not even ky himself. They may share some of the same moves, around 9 or 10, but Robo Ky plays so differently thanks to his gauges and his weird attacks that i was drawn to it as soon as i saw it. His uniqueness is truly what makes him stand out and while he isn't the BEST character in accent core (thank you zappa), he is my absolute favorite to play and i will die on that hill.

Story reasons

In the guilty gear universe, Robo Ky was created by the Post-War Administration Bureau as a sort of assassin robot to take care of anyone trying to get in their way. This is his main objective throughout his entire story, to eliminate someone who is in his way, but that is the most barebones way of explaining it so let's go more in depth. The way fighting game canon works in general is….questionable as everyone has multiple endings and routes, it's hard to know what is canon and what isn't but i will give my best interpretation on what is Robo Ky canon.

In X’s story, Robo Ky actually scans ky and stalks him throughout his chapter until they fight and surprisingly he actually gets the jump on the defective original as when you play this story, you will always have a portion of your health missing.

Unfortunately, Robo Ky does canonically lose but this is one of the most intimidating scenes we see Robo Ky in and one of the only times he is taken and shown off as a legit threat. The next time we see a Robo Ky unit is in XX where the number of Robo Ky are actually quite thin and because of their middling performance, they’re up for discontinuation.Nevertheless, this guy named crow who has been working on the Robo Ky’s for awhile decides to send one particular Robo Ky on a mission to gather combat info as a sort of last mission.

Throughout the mission, Robo Ky argues with crow, is generally rude and dismissive and just goes on fighting, collecting data, all that until crow essentially decides “hey bud, your insides are acting real FUN-KY so get back here” and you actually get a choice as a player for if you want to return to the lab or not but for this overview we will be looking at the ending where you do not decide to return to the lab.Robo Ky must have only heard the word KY when crow said he was acting FUN-KY as he only has eyes to kill the defective original, much to crows dismay. Eventually, you actually do find and fight ky but the prince gets away and robo-kys damages are too severe so he gets back to the lab…only to be met WITH A COPY OF JUSTICE WHO IS ESSENTIALLY AN ULTRA POWERFUL KILLING MACHINE.

(Here is pt 2)

[dangraccoon]

Oyuba'din - Chapter 14: Remember

Summary: Jaine makes a decision about her future.

Warnings: intense pain, painful memories resurfacing, implied physical abuse, brief mention of murder

Author's Note: Hello friends! This is gonna be a sort of rough one; as mentioned in the warnings above there is implied physical abuse and mention of murder. These are contained in less than 100 words at the end of the chapter. Nothing is described or discussed further. All that being said, I hope you're all still enjoying this series! I'm really loving creating it for you all! Please keep it up with your lovely replies, likes, and reblogs! they fuel my even better than the spite that normally does 💛🤟Also, let me know what y'all think of the little banner I made!

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“What?” Hunter groaned, squinting at the medic at his bedside. 

“You’re an idiot,” Jaine repeated, a little softer now, but the chill didn’t leave her voice. She picked up a scrap of cloth, smeared some kind of paste on it, and then blew a cool breath over it before laying it across Hunter’s forehead. 

“Smells weird,” he grunted. 

Jaine scoffed a little. “Smells better than you do.”

Hunter shifted his concentration towards himself. She wasn’t wrong. He could tell his body odor was stronger than normal, and he still reeked of alcohol. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled. 

She ignored him, turning back to her bag on the side table. “Can you take pills?” she asked, tersely. 

“Yeah, I-”

“Take two of these with food, and then one every two hours until you’re feeling better. I’ll give the instructions to Tech and Crosshair because I know you’ll either forget or just not do it without someone forcing you.”

Something was wrong. Hunter knew something was wrong. Her voice was icy and her face seemed to be made of durasteel. None of the typical humor that sparkled in her eyes was present. She almost looked hollow. 

The door to the room he was sharing with Crosshair for their R&R slid open, revealing the sniper himself. 

“Good timing,” she said, though Hunter noted that the hint of sarcasm that was usually a staple in her voice - especially when speaking to Crosshair - was absent. 

He longed to ask her what was wrong, to search for whatever was draining away all the little tones and mannerisms he’d grown used to and fix it all. 

“He needs to take this medicine. Two as soon as possible, it goes down better with food. Then one every two hours until his headache is gone. That cloth on his face is optional, but it should help minimize the overload I’m sure will hit him later on,” she prattled, barely even looking at either brother. 

“Jaine,” Hunter tried to interrupt. 

“If you need to add more to the cloth, it’s in this container, and this container has the drink blend for his migraines, and some of the de-scented kind in case he’s overloading. Also in this bag is the bruise salve - I made extra, I know Wrecker goes through it like crazy - Echo’s phantom pain lotion, Tech’s tea blend, and those pills I gave you for your stiffness.”

“Jaine,” Hunter tried again, sitting up. 

“Lay down, sergeant,” she ordered, not looking away from the task at hand. “I labeled everything in aurebesh; I know Tech was worried about not being able to read my ‘scribbles’, as he called them.”

“Hey,” Crosshair started, quietly. “What’s going on? Talk to us.”

“I am talking to you,” she stated plainly, pulling a data stick from the bag. “This has everything I just told you in case none of you can get it right.”

She packed up the bag, then placed the strap of it in Crosshair’s hand. “You can contact the 501st when you are in need of a resupply and more will be sent when we get the chance.”

“Jaine, you’re not serious,” Crosshair protested. 

“As the grave, trooper,” she spat. “I have a meeting. Goodbye.”

She quickly left the room, despite the protests of the men behind the other side of the door now closing behind her. 

She started her brisk walk away from the barracks, but was quickly met with Tech and Wrecker, emerging from the room they were sharing with Echo. 

“Jainey!” Wrecker shouted, even as she brushed by them.

“Jaine, I have some questions about the files you have sent to me,” Tech started, trailing after her and meeting her pace easily. 

“I’m sorry, I have a meeting in a few moments, and it is important that I get there on time,” she stated. 

While Wrecker was more or less oblivious as he and Tech stopped following Jaine down the hallway, letting out a disappointed sigh, Tech noted her. Her voice came out flat and monotone as opposed to the way she sounded almost musical to him, and her posture was guarded, even as she rushed away. More than that, she brushed them off completely. Tech knew she cared about them, but she was acting distant from them now. Even if she were running late, she would have stopped and likely would have told Tech about her meeting. Now, she barely even glanced at them, even Wrecker, for whom Tech knew she had a soft spot. Tech didn’t rely on intuition or “gut feelings” as much as his brothers did, but he had one now. 

“Guess we’ll see her later,” Wrecker shrugged, heading back to their room. 

Tech stared at the point he had last seen Jaine before she had rounded a corner. “I’m not sure we will,” he said under his breath. 

-

“Jainey, are you sure you want to do this? I know you and General Skywalker don’t have the best…opinions on one another,” Rex asked, cringing a little.

“Of course I’m sure. I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t,” she shrugged. “Do I wish Skywalker was a little less…irritating, sure, but he takes good care of his men. I’ll be fine.”

Rex took a deep breath. “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t give you the chance to back out of this.”

Rex hit the button to open the door, and Jaine entered the room.

“Lieutenant Vale,” General Skywalker greeted warmly. Jaine stood rigid at attention, her hand at her forehead in a salute. “None of that for an old friend.”

“Of course, sir,” she replied, as at-ease as she could be in the presence of this particular General. 

“Why don’t you have a seat; my Padawan and our other colleagues will be arriving shortly,” he smiled, gesturing to a set of chairs on one side of the room. 

“‘Other colleagues’, sir? I was under the impression it would just be the three of us.” Jaine was beginning to feel uneasy, like she had just been walked directly into a trap. She ultimately decided to attempt not to show her true feelings, sitting politely on a couch. 

“You see,” Skywalker began, but was interrupted by the door opening again. 

Kriff, she thought as she watched two more Jedi and two more clones enter the room. 

“Jaine,” Obi Wan Kenobi smiled. “I hope you don’t mind that I invited Commander Cody and ARC Echo here to this meeting; they and Captain Rex all feel Echo may have some insight that could be helpful in coming to a decision about your placement in the GAR.”

-

“You have to take them,” Crosshair grumbled as Hunter refused to accept the medication left for him by their medic, his medic. 

“Stow it, Cross,” Hunter growled back. 

Wrecker laughed. “Sarge must be feelin’ bad,” he grinned, elbowing Tech’s side. “That’s why he’s so grumpy!”

“Given the amount of alcohol he consumed last night and his usual hypersensitivity to stimuli, it is unsurprising that he doesn’t feel well,” Tech mentioned, rubbing the section of his rib cage that had caught the brunt of Wrecker’s amusement. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Wrecker added, rolling his eyes and waving Tech off as he walked out of the room. “Anyway, I got some regs to spar and win against.”

Tech and Crosshair exchanged a look with each other, then glared back at Hunter. 

“What?” he scowled. 

“Hunter, Jaine’s directions were clear,” Tech said. “If you want to feel better, you will have to take the medication she has left for you.”

“I don’t need them; I’m fine,” Hunter reiterated, flopping back onto his bunk. 

“Sure,” Crosshair snarked. “The lightest sleeper I know slept undisturbed through all of his brothers and his medic coming into the same room as him. But yeah, sure, you’re fine.”

Hunter’s eyes narrowed at the sniper.

“Hunter-”

“I’m not taking the damn meds, Tech,” Hunter snarled, shooting back into a sitting position. He realized he said it a bit more forcefully than he’d intended as he watched Tech recoil a little, and Crosshair stepped towards him, almost protectively. 

“Fine, feel miserable then. Just answer one question; why didn’t you tell us Jaine was transferring units?”

“She’s what?” Crosshair sputtered looking between Tech and Hunter. “She told me she was on a temporary mission, not leaving altogether.

“Jaine is leaving our squad for another unit. I do not know the reason behind it, though I expect Hunter does. 

Hunter simply sat there, glaring at his brothers as though he were trying to convince them to leave just with a look. 

“Hunter, why is our medic transferring to another unit?” Crosshair asked, his voice far softer than Hunter expected. 

“Don’t know. It was her choice,” he finally said, doing his best to keep his voice as neutral as possible. 

Crosshair scowled at Hunter, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Echo was supposed to be babysitting him last night,” Crosshair murmured. “Maybe he’ll tell us.”

With one last nasty look from both of his brothers, they left him alone. 

-

Why does this feel like a trap?, Jaine wondered as 6 sets of eyes all watched her carefully. 

“So, Lieutenant Vale, your record shows that you recently transferred from the 212th to Clone Force 99, about two and a half months ago,” Ahsoka questioned. “Why are you requesting another transfer now?”

“Interpersonal conflict between myself and the commanding officer of the unit, Sergeant Hunter,” Jaine reported. 

“You want to join the 501st because you and Hunter can’t get along?” Anakin scoffed. 

“I am unsure of what soured our working relationship, but it seems we have irreconcilable differences.”

“Lieutenant, you were ordered to work with Clone Force 99 by General Kenobi, myself, and Commander Cody. Why go against that order now?”

“As I said, General-”

“Echo,” Skywalker said, cutting Jaine off mid-sentence. “Did you witness any of these ‘irreconcilable differences’?”

Jaine watched Echo’s eyes widen in surprise for a moment as though he couldn’t believe his opinion was actually being asked, before settling back into the fierce expression of determination he’d been wearing since he arrived. 

“Not personally, sir, although Sergeant Hunter did confide in me a few things he was uncomfortable with regarding Lieutenant Vale,” he reported, his eyes never leaving Jaine’s. 

“Did you agree with your Sergeant?” Obi Wan asked. 

“No, sir. I found most of his points to be unfounded.”

What is he thinking? Jaine wondered as she watched the ARC speak.

“Oh, really? How so?” Obi Wan said, urging Echo to continue.

“His observations were primarily based on Lieutenant Vale’s character, something to which I have been paying close attention as well, and I believe his findings to be fallible,” Echo explained, his amber eyes burning holes into Jaine’s hazel. Despite the stoic expression on his face, his voice was full of emotion. “That being said, I also believe that any misunderstandings between Sergeant Hunter and Lieutenant Vale can easily be cleared up. I can even mediate if they feel it is necessary.”

For the briefest of moments, Jaine felt as though she could read beyond his soldier’s countenance. Deep in his eyes she saw it; his express desire to keep her in the squad, to keep her with him, and above all else, his fear that she actually would leave.

“Well, I’d say that’s certainly something to consider,” Obi Wan said, grinning at Jaine. 

“Would you be open to meeting with Sergeant Hunter, perhaps accompanied by Echo, to try and…talk things out?” Anakin snarked.

So Jaine was right, it was a trap. She walked right into it, and now that it had her, she had no choice but to submit.

“I will have a meeting with them, however I would ask that my request for transfer be kept open, in the event that our discussion does not go as well as you all seem to think it might.”

“Of course,” Ahsoka smiled. “And I’m sure that should you still wish to transfer to the 501st, General Skywalker would be glad to have you.”

Jaine couldn’t be sure, but she could’ve sworn she saw Commander Tano kick Skywalker’s leg under the table, who quickly cleared his throat.

“Right, I’m sure we could find a…suitable position for you, Lieutenant.”

They all stood from the table, and Lieutenant Vale gave a respectful salute to the Generals, Commanders, and Captain, turning on her heel to leave.

“Oh, Lieutenant,” Obi Wan called. “I was hoping we could have a word with you in private?”

“Of course, General,” she sputtered. 

Jaine watched as Skywalker, Ahsoka, and Rex all left. Echo turned back to face her. “I’ll be right outside,” he assured her, before following the others out.

“How can I help you, sir?” Jaine asked nervously. 

“None of that. What happened, Jaine?” he interrogated. 

Jaine’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What?”

“All records indicate that your time with this squad have been positive, but here you are, leaving only a few months in? That doesn’t seem like the Jaine I know.”

There was a slight ringing in her ear. “I- I don’t understand,” she mumbled, hand cupping the side of her head.

“Jaine, what do you remember about your home planet, Qoljak? What do you remember about the day your moon died?” Obi Wan pressed. The ringing became louder and Jaine fell to a crouch.

“General,” Cody began to protest, rushing to Jaine’s side.

“It’s going to be okay, Cody,” he spoke soothingly to his Commander, before his voice turned harsh again. “Think, Jaine. You must remember how you escaped the planet after your ship went down.”

“I don’t- I c-can’t,” she whimpered, clutching her head. Her eyes were screwed shut tightly, the ringing becoming too much. She knew what he was trying to do, thinking back to the way she’d brushed Sinya off when she’d suggested going over the list. “P-please don’t.”

“Obi Wan,” Cody practically begged, feeling helpless in this situation.

“Come on, Jainera, remember me,” Obi Wan’s voice pleaded with her, pushing her down into what felt like a black lake. She crashed under, floating helplessly into her own mind.

On the surface, Jaine howled in pain, her torso thrusting up, face towards the ceiling. Her eyes flew open, her usual hazel replaced by a crimson red light that completely covered the irises, pupils, and sclerae, smoky red tears dripping from them. Cody jumped, looking over his friend, full of anxiety. 

Echo burst into the room, eyes rapidly trying to take in the sight before him, he rushed to Jaine’s side, grasping her shoulder with his hand, and pressing his scomp to her other arm.

“Jaine, Jaine,” he called. “What happened? What’s wrong with her?”

He looked frantically to Cody and Obi Wan, begging for answers.

“Echo, Cody, we need to lay her flat, and you both need to get away from her. If you see any red smoke, do not touch it,” Obi Wan ordered.

The pair of clones looked at each other, but ultimately followed the general’s orders.

Jaine’s red eyes were wide open as she lay supine on the floor, unmoving. 

“Set a chrono, I’ll need to know how long we’re under,” Obi Wan ordered Echo, then turned to Cody. “There is a contact on my data pad labeled as S. Bey. Comm her, immediately. Tell her M3, GAR barracks. When she confirms that she received the message, you will meet her at the gate. Use my clearance codes if you must, but she must get here quickly. Go, now.”

Cody set off to carry out his orders, sending one last look of thinly veiled fear.

In her mind, Jaine resurfaced. She was home. No, not quite. This isn’t where I was that day, she spoke, her words echoing slightly, as though she were in a cavern. She could see the destruction around her. The craters left by the meteors.

No, I remembered this already. I know what I did, she begged to the emptiness. She could hear herself crying out, pleading for help. She ran towards her own strained voice.

I was so young, she said. Something made her spine tingle and she realized she wasn’t alone. Just as her younger self saw a young man running towards her, shouting for his master, she saw Obi Wan Kenobi, now a Jedi master in his own right. The two images collided together, mixing in a way that made her eyes sting.

Do you remember me, Jainera? he asked, stepping towards her. My master, Qui-gon Jinn, and I were sent to your home planet to stop the war and save your people.

Jaine felt herself trembling. She looked down at her shaking hands, vaguely aware of the wisps of red smoke pouring from them. 

Obi Wan? she murmured.

Obi Wan pointed to the memory playing out before them. Yes. We rescued you from that debris. We brought you to Coruscant.

Qui-gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi, she repeated. You brought me to the temple.

Yes, Obi Wan breathed.

You brought me to the Council. You said they would help me.

Yes, he repeated.

The Council sent me to the AgriCorps. That’s where Sinya and I met, she remembered. That’s… she trailed off as she felt what felt like a swift kick to the gut.

Go on, Jainera. Remember, he pleaded.

They refused to let me contact you. Our group leader, she- she was horrible to us.

Obi Wan’s eyes went wide. These were not the memories he was looking for. 

That’s why I can’t remember you, isn’t it? she cried, red tears streaming down her face. Because of what she did to me?

Jainera, I-

She killed me, Obi Wan.

Thanks for reading! - Dang

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[navree]

Do you think they will turn Aegon into a depraved clone of Joffery? Let's be real they give him the most cartoonish scenes for a reason . But really i find it weird how anyone would read the book then be thinking yeah Aegon ii was the original joffery. I mean if I'm going to compare Aegon to any character of the main series, i will say it's theon greyjoy and Tyrion who are the most similar characters to him , maybe Robert too? Since Robert has revolted against Aerys because Aerys wanted his head and ned's as well also Robert never wanted to be a king? That similar to Aegon kinda

Also if they turned him into joffery2 this will be the most boring, predictable route for his character. But i guess Showrunners these days are not that creative to create a nuance and grey story , so the easiest way is turn it into Joffery0.2 vs Daenerys0.2

I don't have the most faith that they'll give Aegon his due, but unlike most I do actually avoid a lot of the doomcasting I tend to see about season 2 because a) we know absolutely nothing about season 2 given that I think at most it's still in early pre-production b) they're going to have more space next season. The consequence of the show having done so many time jumps is that we got a very limited amount of time with Aegon (he's got like one focal scene in episode 6 and he's very much a background character in episode 7 except when he goes along with Aemond's lie, and then two episodes, both of which he's more of a side character in until his coronation), so they really couldn't give us a lot with him beyond some incredibly bare bones characterization. That means we need to know that he's got substance abuse problems, he's a mess of a person, and he gets all wet and pathetic the second someone shows him a scrap of love. Do I think that was a good decision? No, I think it was dumb, but that's the corner they drew themselves into. But that's not gonna be the case for season 2.

We're pretty much gonna be dumb with big time jumps I think, so that means we're going to have a full ten episodes to get to know Aegon, and given that the writers have shown an openness to listen to TGC and follow his insights on the character, as well as keep in things that he's improvised to improve on him, they're probably going to have more leniency towards showing different facets of his character. And unless everyone comes down with a big case of stupid-itis (and while I have issues with these writers, they're not dumb), Blood and Cheese and its aftermath is likely going to get a whole episode to itself, which alone is going to give us a lot of pretty layered Aegon content. And I don't think they'll lean too heavily on the Joffrey stuff either, because while there's been jokes about it, when you look at the writing that doesn't seem to be where it's going.

The Joffrey comparisons are trite and annoying form a fandom perspective, but I think that the writers are likely going to avoid it just from sheer luck based on the fact that Joffrey and Aegon, even show Aegon, are very different people. Aegon, as portrayed to us, is a drunken lech who avoids responsibilities and also has so many issues surrounding love and self worth. Meanwhile, Joffrey doesn't have any of those. Joffrey doesn't avoid responsibility unless he gets bored, he doesn't have nearly any of the self worth issues that Aegon does (Aegon doesn't think anybody loves or cares for him and appears to have a deep rooted self hatred, which isn't conjecture that's basically me quoting TGC, Joffrey thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread), and most importantly, Joffrey is heavily coded as being genuinely psychologically disturbed. And I'm not talking in a "lol Aegon's got some issues in his head guys" kind of a way, Joffrey is clearly written to have some sort of personality disorder. It's more explicit in the book where he does shit like torture animals and is more sexual in his brutalization of Sansa, which in our modern world are clear red flags for kids who've got some kind of antisocial personality disorder (idk how valid people consider the homicidal triad in today's psychiatry but torturing/killing animals is one third of it), but even in the show universe Joffrey's clearly meant to be fucked in the head. Aegon doesn't have that, so anything beyond a cursory "eh I mean they're both kings that some people don't like" literally cannot be done without making the entire show whack. Joffrey has genuine severe mental problems (likely meant to be a result of incest) that would get him under psychiatric observation if he lived in our world, Aegon needs a stint in rehab and a therapist and also isn't being written to exhibit any sociopathic tendencies. Sorry to Burlington Bar.

(And also Alicent and Cersei raised their children very differently, especially book Cersei who is completely blind to the kind of person Joffrey was, but let's be real we're not expecting anybody who's pro-Blacks to understand nuance when it comes to Alicent, and also the Alicent/Cersei parallels are so surface level it's bordering on annoying)

The issue with Aegon I'm anticipating the most isn't necessarily bad development, it's under development. My most pessimistic view is that they're going to keep treating Aegon as more of a side character than he should be, while keeping main focus on Rhaenyra and Alicent and Daemon and Aemond, while characters who should be mains, like Corlys and Rhaenys and Aegon, are going to be getting less screentime and development than they need, especially for such major players. Do I think that's what's going to happen 100%? No, I don't know what's going to happen 100%, and I'm choosing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt due to what I've seen so far and the fact that there's a lot more I like about season 1 than I dislike. So they might go more along the route of someone like Tyrion or Theon or Robert (even tho Theon definitely wasn't a good guy in season 2 and also Robert was an ass who deserved to get gored by that boar), especially given that Ryan(?) said he was anticipating people switching sides and viewing things differently in season 2 and also the writers' clear vendetta against Daemon and poor Matt Smith.

Also they can't really do Rhaenyra as Daenerys because Rhaenyra and Daenerys are two verrrrrrrry different characters in many different ways, and I do say that as a positive towards Dany and a slight on Rhaenyra (I'd go into that more but this ain't about them this is about my sweet Eggo)

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Speaking of Death Battle thoughts on the 2000000000000000000000th repeat of Goku vs Superman? Good? Bad? Or exists?

//Ok, I have a lot to say about it:

//You know how I said that Scooby Vs Courage was my favourite episode of this season?

//It is genuinely at risk of losing it's title, and it's because of Goku Vs Superman 3. Let me break it down:

//Now, I did kind of mention this when I recapped Rick Vs Doctor, but even from the beginning, I was a big defender of the match. When Ben explained why they were doing this again, he made some really great points and convinced me that they had something good in the works.

//And for the people who say that the rerun was pointless, especially since Goku lost again, I need to point out that the SECOND fight was pointless. It happened one series after the first one and seemed to just be made of scrapped notes from the first episode, which, to its credit, I still think holds up today. The controversy surrounding the second episode was a bit intense, but sort of deserved, since the really only good thing about the second fight was Brandon Yates' "Alive".

//As for what makes the most recent episode so great, the analyses for both Goku and Superman are really well done and very respectful to both characters, much unlike the second fight where Goku just got fucked over and Superman got decharacterized like a motherfucker. They do a good job at bringing out both characters best sides and this is what is translated into the fight.

//Unlike the previous two times the two fought on Death Battle, Superman actually plays along with Goku's battle hungry enthusiasm, and the two are pretty chummy throughout the fight despite how they're trying to kill each other. I love it when there's no real animosity between fighters in DB and that they're just trying to test out each other's strength. I also think this shift in motives for Superman is great, because it brings out what I believe is his best side, that being his humility. Whereas in the previous two episodes he was kind of no-nonsense, overly stern and serious and just gave Goku shit for...being Goku, Superman is really nice to Goku in this episode and respects him right until the end, even agreeing to go round 2 with him. So even though the fight ends with Goku losing again, I saw this coming, and I'm at least glad it wasn't a fuck-you death like the last two times.

//Also, what helps is that the voice acting is amazing. Michael Kovach and Xander Mobus are two guys who I respect IMMENSELY, and this episode highlights why. They break off each other well, and Michael's final Kamehameha when Goku goes Ultra Instinct is incredible.

//The animation is the best of the season, bar-none, or at least the best 3D animation. If I talked about everything I liked about it, we'd be here forever, but you can tell the animators pulled out all the stops. The one scene I will draw attention to is when Superman starts to get serious and punches so hard, reality breaks and we see alternate versions of Goku and Superman fighting, like Goku Black fighting Ultraman. I think that was really cool and really clever and paid good attention to the legacy of both the characters.

//Lastly, the post-analysis was very well done. It seems to me that Death Battle really wanted to explain why Superman wins this time instead of just saying, "ugh, he's fucking strong and goku sucks" so they broke it down into categories, and Goku even outmatched Superman in skill. I liked that the fight wasn't a complete and total one-sided beatdown since Goku had a few edges, and that's enough for me.

//If I had to say there were any disappointments with the episode, I have two, and they are extremely minor. For one, I was really hoping that the battle track would be a remaster of Alive from the second fight, but upon reflection, Alive was more of a nitty and gritty and edgy track that suited the more savage mood of the second episode, whereas in this one it's more upbeat and powerful to show just how fun the two were having. So while my expectations were subverted, they were succeeded.

//The other thing I didn't like was how the episode ended. Wiz starts going on a panic and questioning what they're doing before Boomstick snaps him out of it. And the reason this makes me sad is because it feels like Death Battle is trying to justify it's reason for existing to it's audience, which...it shouldn't HAVE to do that. Death Battle exists to paint and show a picture of what would happen if the characters you love were to fight to the death using every ability they have in their arsenal, and use math, science and research to decide who. The people who right the show, in spite of what many people will tell you, are not biased against anybody, and even though they rely on facts to reach their verdicts, it's all about having fun and seeing these crossover fights with two powerful combatants duking it out. That's all there is to it and that's all there needs to be, and it makes me sad and angry to think about how these guys are getting chronic hate for their verdicts from toxic people, since it DOESN'T MATTER who wins! Oh, your fav lost? How sad! MOVE ON! You've got a life to live and if it pisses you off, watch a different series. It just made me sad, that's all.

//Anyway, in summary, top tier episode. 10/10.

//And for those who are curious, here's my current ranking of the Season 10 episodes from best to worst, not including Galactus Vs Unicron (which by the way, I have no say in, I'm not particularly invested in either character, so I don't really care who wins. Subtly rooting for Galactus though.) This season has been absolute fire from start to finish and I love every single episode so far though:

Scooby Vs Courage

Goku Vs Superman

Frieza Vs Megatron

Rick Vs the Doctor

Cole Vs Alex

Bill Vs Discord

Guts Vs Dimitri

Ant-Man Vs Atom

Gojo Vs Makima

Skyrim Vs Dark Souls

Phoenix Vs Raven

Martian Manhunter Vs Silver Surfer

Vader Vs Obito

Stitch Vs Rocket

Killua Vs Misaka.

[glassautomaton]

Prompt: Drunken Iris is affectionate and giggly with Jackie and Anne. :]

At the moment, I feel like I’m not quite there yet, narratively speaking. Iris isn’t quite at the point where she’s comfortable enough to let he guard down like that, nor would she take a ‘risk’ like getting drunk. Writing it now would feel kind of awkward - I think getting there naturally over the course of the series would give me a better idea of how it plays out.

Going to put some more thoughts related to the whole “affectionate” angle under the cut as well.

So, I know a lot of people here ‘ship,’ for lack of a better term, Iris, Anne, and Jackie. I’m going to level with you and say that it’s a little up in the air as to how far I might actually be able to push that angle on the main site. People can post whatever they want on offsite spaces like AO3 or Tumblr, but anything on the main site is subject to deletions based on votes and general reception.

I’ve seen that reception towards romance on the site, specifically with SCPs, can be a little icy. This isn’t without reason, though, as way back when, a lot of people would make self-inserts and mash them together with humanoids like action figures, which ranged from eye-rolling to downright creepy. Take a look at some of the old edit logs for humanoids like Vector and even Iris specifically if you want specifics. People don’t want that happening again, myself included, and so the common knowledge is “Don’t ship SCPs.”

That said, I think that being so far removed has sort of softened things up a bit. 7910 and its attached tale feature a romance between an SCP and her assigned doctor, with more tales planned. Most notably, Hawaiian Shirts, one of two tales about Iris Thompson liking girls submitted to ColdpostCon, prominently featured a romance between two series one SCPs and did pretty well for a tale, with the only real complaints about it being more about its structure than its premise.

All that is to say that I’m not really sure how anything romantic with the SCPs in Devil’s Advocate would be received. If I’m being totally honest here (if anyone from the main site sees this no you didn’t), the plan is more or less to slowly develop things, which I feel like is just a good thing to do narratively anyways, and see how far I get. Either I find the line and leave it at “And they were squadmates” or I slow boil the audience like frogs in a kettle.

For that reason, I’m hesitant to post stuff showing Iris being openly affectionate or inwardly yearning. Like I said in a previous post, I’ve got this stuff sitting around, but if that ends up not being very well-received and I have to ditch it, I’d hate to make it seem like I was baiting my audience and then not end up delivering.

If everything goes to plan, though, we might just be able to scratch a square off of the Bingo board:

Since you’ve read this far, though, I’ll give you a little scrap of what you asked for, from the notes app on my phone. It’s too late for me to write this out into a full scene so it’s really just and idea with a specific line or two I liked, as is most of my stuff. As I said before, these are just interactions I thought might be good down the road - the series might not end up going in this direction.

Iris gets drunk, a little handsy with Anne. Anne’s like “Jesus fucking Christ what the hell is this” and Iris is like “Wow I should get drunk more often” because Anne is rarely on the back foot. Wakes up and is embarrassed but thinks she could get one over on Anne by just not acknowledging it beyond saying she remembers it perfectly.

And for fun since I do kind of like this line:

Anne is dejected for some reason, kneeling on the ground, probably after an operation. Iris decides to try to cheer her up while still acting like they dislike each other, so she walks up to her, lifts her chin up so they’re looking at each other, and says “No one should be allowed to wipe that smile off your face but me.” Anne bluescreens and Iris realizes, perhaps too late, that that was kind of an odd thing to say.

Hopefully that makes things behind the scenes a little more clear.

[sofiadragon]

Not to go full old woman yells at cloud, but...

Way back before the 5th (or even the 4th) book was published there was a lot of Severitus- adjacent stories where Harry would somehow find out about the whole secret keeper swap and all that early and tell Snape ahead of Sirius breaking Ron's leg. Of course, back then the dominant headcanon (because we didn't know) was that Snape himself was a pure-blood with connections and money while the Marauders were all more like Remus is presented: lower middle class struggling to get by. All the heros were from lower means as far as we knew, like the Weasleys, and the bad people were explicitly upper crust types, like Vernon and his fancy public school background and Draco Malfoy whose dad was a viscount or something. There were also some "oops, I broke it" time turner mistake variations too that were fun.

The forum where all that was posted got shut down in a anti-fanfic purity purge around or before '05 and I've only ever found a few of them reposted elsewhere on places like Ink Stained Fingers (which was later added to AO3) or Walking the Plank (that whole website is an age gap content warning, here be dragons.) Been so long I'd probably never recognize the pen names or titles anymore. Since the trope wasn't mainstream, but primarily part of that forum community, when the host shut it down a lot of us were too discouraged to keep writing those stories.

I'd love to read that sort of thing again, but this time taking into account what we learned about Snape's background. Maybe Harry goes to Gringotts while he's staying at the Leaky and Lily left some journals and such for him in storage there. I think it could be very healing for Snape to make a connection though Lily to Harry, and Harry could do with an adult he can actually trust. His relationship with Dumbledore is based on the bare minimum of human interaction and perhaps two conversations a year before book 6, he's clearly willing to take whatever scraps his mum's best friend can muster. If he can forgive the treatment in class... well, I hate the epilog but hey-ho and Harry forgives a lot from a lot of people throughout the series. It could even be done with the newer Master of Death time travel.

Rereading PoA and no wonder Snape is going insane through the book like yes on one hand there is the fact that he doesn't know Sirius is innocent but also everyone keeps lying to him in a way that is so spectacularly bad and ridiculous. And he is not entirely wrong about things (Remus IS hiding information and eventually helps Sirius) and before the time travel he actually got evidence for it and his suspicions

And then yeah said time travel happens which he doesn't know but Dumbledore does so like in his eyes in a split of a second Sirius disappeared and once again he's right that Harry has something to do with it, but he got no context of what's happening so like

My man is like there crying screaming throwing up because he's right but wrong scaring Fudge meanwhile fucking Dumbledore is just standing there like nah just leave him he's disappointed it will pass

[filmbyjy]

LOVE COMES WITH A PRICE

— the mafia main masterlist

pairing: lee heeseung x fem!reader

summary: working at one of the world's famous hotels in seoul was pretty interesting. you never thought your life would make a whole 180 when you got the job. you were now a mafia leader's fake wife and it's definitely not how you thought how you'd spend life.

warnings: cussing, shady business, honestly would make a little more sense if you played the game bc i tried my best to describe it as how i remembered. it's been a whole 1 year since i played that game. flirty heeseung.

word count: 9.1K words

NOTE: o em gee😵‍💫 it’s been so long since last touched this series. i was supposed to continue to it after ‘jam out’ ended but you know the whole fiasco happened with my account so here this is. i’m still procrastinating on writing the next member. i feel like it’s not as great so I may just scrap it and restart the whole thing🗿

when you look at a hotel, you would never think anything shady was happening. it was just a simple mere 5 star hotel that stood tall in the middle of seoul with all its glory. to many, the people behind this spectacular place were more in the talks. who were they? you might ask.

“have you heard about lee heeseung? one of the owners of this spectacular building?” one rich lady asks another.

“i heard. aren’t there 6 other guys too? i heard they are quite dashing too.”

“yeah. think we could meet them?”

“nobody ever gets to meet them. only if we were lucky, we would.” the ladies snobbishly laugh before leaving the hotel grounds.

you rolled your eyes at them. this was how it was everyday for the past 1 week at your new workplace, they always talked about the building but mainly the 7 boys who actually owned the place and built other hotels after.

Decelis Resort, it was really hard to get a job here. all their staff was to be trained. the first few days when you started were harsh. it felt like an army training camp rather than a simple training. thankfully, you became friends with the rest of the maids and even one of the higher up maids. there were two maids who joined 2 weeks earlier than you. they certainly made you feel like you were cinderella, as they constantly made fun of you and always left the work for you to do.

but at least there were other maids to help you out. that’s how the bond was because every one of them has gone through descrimination from the guests here.

“(name), care to help me?” danbi asks. she stands at one end of the bed and you stood at the other. the both of you lifted up the covers and straightened it out. she goes to grab something out from the cart. “oh no, we’ve ran out of towels to put in this room.”

“I can get it for you.” you say.

“(name). it’s okay, i can get it. you can stay here and help sort more stuff in this room. i’m sure you still haven’t really memorised where the storage room is.”

“well, i have to learn, don't i? so, this is a great opportunity for me!”

“oh (name).” she sighs. “alright, you can go but if you get lost. please call me, don’t even bother pondering over the contact. you know how this place is, it’s scary. one mistake and you are done for.”

“alright, danbi unnie.” you say.

you were determined to get the route of the storage room right. you always wondered why the heck it was so confusing to find the place but danbi simply explained that it was the owner’s decision to do it. which owner? danbi doesn’t know, all she knows is that it was one of them. everyone suspects it was lee heeseung because the two parks of their group couldn’t stop making out with girls. they were party lovers and you would always catch them partying with girls surrounding them constantly. some people even say that they always came back with lipstick marks staining the corner of their lips, dishevelled hair and a smirk adorning their lips. probably making out with their chosen girl for the night in a janitor’s closet. hence, lee heeseung was done with their doings so he placed the storage room far from any contact. it made the job for the maids harder though so you thought lee heeseung must really hate cleaners or either he really didn’t plan the floorplan properly at all.

“now was it the left or right turn?” you say. you took the right corridor. which wasn’t the way at all to the storage room. you entered one of the rooms.

“oh? are those towels?” you say. surprisingly, they had cleaned towels here but they were high up on the shelf. too tall for you. you found a chair but it didn’t look sturdy. you knew you had to take the risk since you needed those towels. you climbed the chair and went to grab the towels.

“just a little more.” you went on your tiptoes trying to reach for the clean towels. unfortunately, the chair gives up on you and you fell to the ground. it wasn’t a high fall but you were for sure going to have bruises the next morning. you wince at the sharp pain that appeared on your ankle. your uniform torn from getting caught on something as you fell.

the torn definitely made you look unprofessional though since it was like a cut slit to a formal dress. you were practically showing off a decent amount of your skin. you sighed and then you realised something else had broken as you fell. it was an art piece, sure to be way more than your salary. let’s hope nobody finds you-

“you.” someone says. you gasp and hide your face. he pries your hands off your face. “you just broke the bosses’ art piece! you are going to pay it back in full amount now!”

“h-how much is it?” you asked. the guy smirks.

“definitely more than your poor ass can afford.” you flinch when he brings his hand forward to tilt your head up to face him. “you seem pricey though, surely we would earn millions of dollars.” he smirks.

“i’m not an object though and i can’t be sold!” you say. the guy laughs.

“then find another solution for you to pay me off.”

“I can give you in small amounts first. how about that?” you suggest.

“it’s going to take you a lifetime if you want to pay me the full amount.”

“then i shall do it! I don’t care how long it takes. i would rather do that then we sold off to god knows what.” the guy laughs hard.

“Well too bad. I will not take that deal.” he knocks you out cold. the next time you opened your eyes, you could hear talking and gossiping. it was dark, something was blocking the light. the blanket gets pulled off from the place where you held at. you quickly realise, you were in a giant cage and your hands were bound to the chair by a tight knot.

you couldn’t even say a word as there was tape covering your lips. you could hear the guy calling out numbers and you only assume it was the price. it kept going up. this was it, you would be sold to some random old dude and he could do whatever he wanted with you. you wished someone would at least help you. please anyone but a random creep. you looked up to see who was betting for you.

there was this guy who was constantly betting for you and he looked like a complete creep. smirking at you, rubbing his hands and licking his lips constantly. it made you sick.

“going once, going twice. sold to the man in-” in grows quiet, someone else raised his hand. he was at the top, overlooking everyone. “What’s the price you’d like to name, sir with the mask and red hair.”

“100 million usd.” the announcer’s jaw drops. actually everyone’s jaw drops, even yours if your mouth wasn’t taped shut.

“anyone would like to add more?” the creep raises his hands.

“140 million won.” your eyes widened.

“500 million usd.” the guy in the red hair says. everyone gasps again. the creep was shocked. he quickly backs down, he can’t lose his money. he only had a certain amount.

“going once, going twice. sold to the man in the mask with red hair!” the announcer comes up to you and opens the door.

“good luck on your new life.” he whispers, you felt shivers down your spine. he removes the rope binding you to the chair and removes the tape across your lips. the guy who bought you comes up to you and holds out his hand. you hesitantly take it. a small smirk appears at the corner of his lips. he pulls you close.

“meet upstairs.” he hands you a keycard before pulling back and turning to the announcer. “The money is with my friends, let us go to them.” the announcer nods and follows the guy along. A few bodyguards coming along with the announcer to protect him, you guessed. you did what you were told to do because you were terrified.

you got in the elevator but you realise, that there were far more levels than upstairs. you noticed there was a penthouse but you were certain that was not what the guy meant. from what you were told, the penthouse was where the owners of the buildings hang out and probably stay. there was no way the guy wanted you there.

you entered the 18th floor, it was a ball. well, the business meeting kind of ball. tons of guests here were the rich business men/women. you certainly felt out of place, bruises glazing your skin, you carefully walked around when someone hands you an empty wine glass.

“thank you, the service here has been so far horrible. waiters are nowhere to be found. you guys should step up, we are providing more work for you to get money!” ah, how you despise rich snobby people but you couldn’t do anything. what if you somehow got told on and then you got fired. you were not taking any chances.

“of course sir, we are so sorry for the terrible service provided. I will make sure to inform the service team of our horrible behaviour.” you bowed. the guy scoffs.

“is this what enhypen taught their staff? those young boys are nothing but good looks. they have no skills.” you looked down pretending to feel sorry for the damage the other staff had done. someone stands next to you and you looked up. you stared at the man who just stood beside you. he smiles at the guy who insulted the owners of the hotel.

this young man had streaks of dirty blonde hair against his natural hair colour, his lips were wide but even though he was wearing a masquerade mask to hide his identity, you could tell he was really handsome. the suit was wearing showed off his amazing physique, small waist line, perfect combination of masculine and feminine hands, long legs and strong chest muscles (he most definitely had a huge heart under there). A rose tattoo adorned his beautiful neck, the final touch to make any girl swoon over him.

he smirks.

“you must be mr.hansel.” the young man holds out his hand. mr.hansel shakes his hand.

“yes, that is certain. i’m so sorry for not being able to recognise you but who might you be exactly.” mr.hansel says. the young man smirks again. he take off his mask and mr.hansel gasps.

“nice to meet you, i am sim jaeyun, i go by jake too. one of the owners of the decelis hotels.” he smiles. you froze in your spot.

you mean he is the jake that is part of the enhypen team? one of the owners who are highly important and the ones who created the hotels that every rich people lavish in?

mr.hansel freezes too. you noticed he was taken aback, not being able to find words to form.

“i overheard you talking to one of our staffs here.” jake turns to look at you. “you were complaining about the horrible service here and about how we don’t train our staffs right. we do apologise for that.”

“no no, it’s okay haha. mistakes are common of course. not everyone can do their job right all the time.” jake nods in agreement.

“that is very true. in that case, shall i punish our staff over here and her team?”

“oh my, there is no need for that.”

“great because she is no staff.” jake says. you tilt your head, “she’s mr.lee heeseung’s wife.”

mr.hansel’s eyes widened. he looks at you and starts bowing whilst muttering a string of apologies.

“i am so sorry, my dear lady. mr.lee has never revealed that he has a wife and we have never seen her before so i did not know it was you. Forgive me.” he mutters. you looked shocked. you turned to look at jake before he gestures for you to act it out.

“u-uh, it’s okay. i came out here without my husband’s knowledge and in a disguise. i just wanted to see how the ball was doing since my husband didn’t allow me to.”

“well, enough with the apologies, your husband awaits for you upstairs.” jake says. he helps to escort you.

you enter the elevator, jake swipes his card and clicks onto the penthouse. it looked similar to the one the guy had given to you downstairs. your eyes widened. wait so were you supposed to go to the penthouse with the keycard??

“you know, you’re really naive. heeseung hyung was waiting for you and was even looking for you but you were nowhere to be found. He thinks you should repay since he saved you from being sold to some creep.” you kept quiet. you shouldn’t voice out to someone of higher authority than you.

the elevator doors open, jake walks out first. you noticed there were 6 other people standing in the middle of the room.

“hyung, here you go. got your chew toy for you.” jake says. everyone turns their heads to look at you. you suddenly felt small, out of place. after all, these boys were higher class than you. one of them comes up to you and hands you a set of new clothes.

“here you go noona, your work attire is all ripped up.” he smiles.

“sunoo, stop being so nice to everyone you meet.” the boy with silver hair groans.

“well sunghoon hyung, maybe if you actually tried being nice to a girl for once you’d be able to find love and possibly get laid!” sunoo says. The boy named sunghoon gasps. clearly a little offended by the younger boy’s remarks. jake laughs before patting his dear friend’s shoulder.

“sunoo is right bud, being grumpy all the time does not get you laid.”

“shut it sim. you too should realise that your so called girl best friend has no crush on you!” sunghoon huffs.

“oh hoon, i do know. i’m not that dumb alright. this is why i’m part of the tech team and you are part of the protocol team.” sunghoon shoves jake. they argue for what seemed like a minute. the guy in the red hair sighs, takes off his mask and runs his fingers through his hair.

“would you two idiots stop arguing?” heeseung says. the two younger boys stopped arguing.

“sorry heeseung hyung.” jake pouts. heeseung’s eyes met yours, he steps forward towards you and you moved back. heeseung obviously knew what you were doing so his hand reaches for your waist to scoop you closer to him. you couldn’t move back anymore and when he scooped you closer, your hands fall flat on his huge chest. you blushed.

“look, i have no feelings for you in any sort of way.” well that ruined the slightly romantic mood, if there was even one to begin with. “and since I ‘bought’ you, i can do anything i want to you.” you gulped.

‘anything’ he wanted. this was not what you’d expected you’d be doing 3 weeks ago before you got this job. you thought you’d be happily living your life since you just finished college days prior. you thought you’d be happily at home entertaining your younger siblings as they play with their pet bunny. possibly also teaching your siblings their math homework and then giving up because who in their right minds likes math?

“uhhh hyung, i think you are scaring the poor girl.” sunoo says. Heeseung lets you go. he cocks a brow at you.

“so, deal?” he says. as if you could say no. well, you could but that is only a first class ticket to unemployment and possibly death if they were bad people.

“deal.” you held out your hand to shake his. his hands were huge, it covers yours. funny how it strangely fit yours too well. you shiver.

“alright, your first task.” he stares right into your eyes, “be my wife.” your eyes widened. it shocked you and it seems like you weren’t the only one who was shocked too.

“hyung, are you sure about this?” the boy with dark blue hair says.

“yes, jungwon.”

“but heeseung hyung, you do know that if you declare you’re in a relationship. everyone who practically hates us will be after noona too?” the tallest boy says.

“which is why you and sunghoon hyung will be around her at all times. don’t leave her side.”

you wondered, what did the boy mean by ‘everyone who practically hates them, will be after you’. then it hit you, they were bad guys weren’t they? you were going to be associated with shady people. oh no.

“h-hey umm, if you don’t mind me asking but what do you guys do?” your voice was soft but surely enough for them all to hear. you were terrified if you voiced out they’d possibly harm you. sunoo pouts, he could easily read your expression.

“noona, don’t worry. we won’t harm you, at most we will harm the people who hurt you so you’re safest with us.” sunoo says.

“yeah, don’t worry. we will protect you from harm.” jake says.

“then what about my family?” heeseung steps forward and holds your hand.

“they will be fine, we can move them closer to us or we can get our spies to watch over them and protect them.”

“okay. umm, what do i have to do to be your…wife?” the other boys tilt their heads. “i’m sorry, i’ve never dated anyone and neither have i been offered to be someone’s wife.”

“you’ve never dated anyone? you look like you’ve dated at least 1 person in your life.” jake says.

“unfortunately, i’ve been single my entire life. i’ve only focused on school and i just finished college 3 weeks ago.”

“wait but college doesn’t end this early.”

“i finished earlier since they allowed me to.”

“and what course did you even take.”

“Business.” they were shocked. heeseung smirks.

“maybe you could be of use, my dear wife.” he says. you blushed and quickly looked away from them.

“I need to change, is there any bathroom around?”

“go up, straight and turn left.” jungwon instructs. you nod. “that’s heeseung hyung’s room, just use his bathroom. after all, you two are gonna be a wedded couple.” the younger boy smirks.

“jungwon.” heeseung sighs. he grabs your hand and pulls you along with him. he drags you up the stairs and into the bedroom before standing still in the middle of the room.

“i can’t change when you’re here though.”

“i’m going to be your husband though, so just change.”

“what?! no. we aren’t even real husband and wife. we don’t like each other and i’m just doing your task.”

he comes close to whisper in your ears, “we’ll have an official marriage cert so we will be officially married. which makes me, your official husband.” he steps back and smirks.

you grabbed the pillow on the bed and threw it at him. you didn’t care if this would get you fired, he was a pervert and you were absolutely disgusted.

“pervert!” you yelled. heeseung chuckles.

“i’m kidding. if you want to take a shower, go ahead and wash up. towels are in the bathroom. i’ll be waiting for you downstairs.” he winks before exiting the bedroom.

why did heeseung have to tease you like that? did all bad guys have to be so flirty and charming? or were you somehow attracted to bad people? no that’s not possible. you huffed and glared at the closed bedroom door.

“what have i seriously gotten myself into.”

you walked downstairs after changing and everyone literally watched you walk down the stairs. you didn’t like the attention and spotlight.

“why are you guys staring at me like that?”

“uhh sunoo, are you sure this outfit is appropriate for any of our eyes.” sunghoon asks. jake smacks the boy’s arm before pointing at heeseung. he had his arms folded and staring at them. “sorry, she’s your so-called ‘wife’ forgot.”

heeseung pulls off his blazer and wraps it around you, he holds it shut.

“don’t you guys have jobs to do? we still need to find clues as to where that idiot of a guy is.”

“right, sorry hyung.” the tallest boy bows. he goes to leave the room with sunghoon. jungwon and jake left together to enter another room. jay and sunoo remained.

“umm hyung, we kinda need you since we are working as a team.” sunoo says.

“jay, how about you go meet up with the people downstairs. i’m sure there are great investors to meet up.” heeseung says.

“yes, oh great lee heeseung.” jay bows. sunoo holds in his laughter while heeseung glares at jay. the both of them quickly left the area before heeseung could even say anything. they knew if they stayed longer, he would have possibly used his hyung card to whack them.

“idiots.” heeseung mumbles.

“uhh, i’m not exactly sure what to do…” heeseung turns to look at you. his gaze was intimidating but in some way, it flustered you. especially since he was so good looking.

“well, you need a ring and we need to register our marriage certificate so let’s go out.”

“but i haven’t clock out and technically, i’m still working. i have a shift until 10pm.” heeseung sighs.

“i’ll talk to the person-in-charge of you, you will be excused. this is more important than your job.”

“how is this more important than my job-” before you could even finish, heeseung holds your hands and lightly drags you out of the penthouse. there was another elevator down to the VIP garage. which you didn’t know existed because you were sure it was simply only for the 7 boys.

heeseung opens the door for you and you enter his-

“It’s the latest ferrari model.” heeseung says as he sees you gawking at how nice the exterior and interior of the car is.

“and how much is it exactly?”

“About 700-800 million won.” heeseung casually says as he starts up the car. your eyes widened. you feel like you should not be seated in such an expensive car.

“are you sure you are okay with me sitting in this car? i mean, if i scratch anything won’t that anger you?”

“the boys play rough all the time so no, i’m not worried over a tiny scratch. besides, you are already paying by being my wife. my earnings are also for you to share.”

“don’t tell me you’re a sugar daddy.”

“would you be surprised if i am?”

you gasp, “no way. are you actually one?” heeseung chuckles.

“no, i’ve never even dated anyone-” he shuts his mouth before clearing his throat, “i mean, i’ve dated someone before.”

“you know heeseung, you’re not that lame if you’ve never dated anyone. besides, i did mentioned i have never met anyone too since i’m too busy with school. I’m sure you had your reasons to not date anyone.”

“right.” he blushes, “any ideas of rings you’d like to get.”

“A simple one please.”

“simple one it is.” he says.

you entered a shop filled with high class jewellery. Diamond rings and necklaces everywhere. it sparkled like your eyes as you glance through the collections. heeseung smiles. he goes over to the worker.

“mr.lee, what would you be getting today.”

“a ring.” the worker smiles and nods.

“for the lady over there?”

“mhm, she’s the one.”

“judging by her appearance I think she suits these rings. let me just bring it out and you can call over to get her opinion on it.”

“thank you. oh and it’s no simple ring, rather a wedding ring.” the lady was quite shocked but she still manages to put on a smile. a fake smile. how could someone like you be marrying lee heeseung, just one of the seven charming owners of Decelis Resort.

“right on it, sir.” she says. heeseung scoffs once she leaves.

coming from a family full of liars, he could easily differentiate their fake expressions from their real expressions. it was honestly a game for heeseung and it baffled him how fake some people could be to suck up to someone handsome, not that he knows he is handsome. they’d never bat an eye for someone who was deemed ‘ugly’. 

the lady comes back and shows heeseung the collection that she thought was perfect for you.

“(name)?” he calls out your name sweetly. you walked over to him and panned the collection. they were surely pretty but none suit your exact taste.

“mr-”

heeseung comes close to whisper, “call me babe or any sweet nickname. wouldn’t want someone to suspect that we actually aren’t married.” he moves back and pushes a strand of your hair behind your ear.

“so sorry dear, your hair was blocking my view of you.” heeseung says. your heart leaps.

“o-oh.” you feel your cheeks flame up, “thank you, babe.”

“anytime, love.” and…there goes your heart rate. you were starting to question if heeseung was lying about being single for all of his life because there is no way someone who is single can flirt and use such smooth vocabulary.

“now, what did you want to say before, love?”

“ah right, i was about to ask for your opinion for the ring design. i’m not entirely sure which rings suit me.” you blushed. heeseung pats your head. he scans through the collection and one of them catches his eyes.

“may i take a look at this?” he asks the lady. she nods and takes it out and carefully hands it to heeseung. heeseung delicately grabs your hand and slips the ring in. you stared at the ring.

it was twisted and intertwined with a line of small diamonds lacing one of the twists. surely sweet and simple enough for you. you looked up at heeseung and he smiles before turning to the lady.

“we’ll take this. Ah right, i have to get a ring too.” he turns to you, “care to choose a ring for me, love?”

“i’m not exactly sure what would suit you.”

“i’m not picky and definitely will never judge you.” he side eyes the lady seemingly indirectly calling her out on what she did before.

“alright.” you turned to the lady, “may i see the collection you have for wedding rings for men?”

“right this way.”

after shopping for the rings, you and heeseung went to the marriage officiant to get an official letter stating you two were married for real. they were surprised to see heeseung here since after all his private life was practically surrounded by cameras due to him being one of the top businessmen. they were of course shocked when he walked through the doors with a girl they did not know about. how did heeseung shield you away from cameras and paparazzi. not only that, how did you two even meet when you looked like a pretty average person and not part of some rich family.

those were the questions in their head as they watched you and heeseung sign the marriage letter together. then they saw the loving gaze heeseung gave you. well some sort, heeseung knew they were judging the both of you. he knows the public would act like this since it’s not common for an average person and someone as high-class as him to marry but was society this fucked up? yes, unfortunately it was.

the both of you left the place as an official married couple. heeseung’s phone rings, he goes to answer it and so you were left to wait for him as he finishes the call. once he does, he brings you over to the car and drives back to the hotel.

“you should sleep over. it’s easier for you to get to work on time without having to wake up early. it’s already pretty late.” heeseung says.

“no, its fine. my mom will be worried sick.”

“i see, in that case, i’ll drive you home and pick you up before work.” your eyes widened at heeseung’s words.

“no, it’s okay. you don’t have to drive me to work, you must be very busy with whatever. besides, we can’t exactly be seen as a couple in front of other staffs.”

“what’s so wrong about that?”

“they’ll think i got into this job through you or that i seduced you.”

heeseung snorts, “they don’t know the reason for us to even exist in the first place. Society is constantly judgmental. you don’t have to care about what they say. you’re living your own life.”

“I guess so but you seriously don’t have to pick me up tomorrow. my mom might question our relationship if you do.”

“I can just always tell your parents that i’m your boyfriend or better yet, your husband.”

“please don’t, she’ll think it’s a shotgun marriage and that i got married to you because we had a one night stand and now i’m pregnant.”

“will your mom really think that way.”

“you don’t know my mom, she’s insane.”

“maybe that’s why you are equally as insane.” heeseung jokes. you smacked his arm. “i’m kidding!”

“well, that’s not funny.” you pout. the car stops at a red light. heeseung unbuckles his seat belt and leans in to peck your lips. you gasp and before you could even question him, he speeds when the green light flashes.

“care to tell me your address now?” heeseung cocks his brow whilst smirking. you rolled your eyes playfully.

“it’s xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx.”

heeseung drives you home. it was silent and neither of you wanted to mention the little stunt heeseung had pulled. why did he suddenly peck you? was it just the slightly romantic air? why did his personality do a 180° flip? those were just a few questions that kept you awake, you couldn’t even sleep properly.

your alarm rings and you were shaken by your younger siblings waking you up.

“noona! help us choose what shoe to wear!!” the twins say.

“junyoung, jihoon. It’s too early in the morning.”

“well shoes are important!” junyoung stomps his little foot on the ground.

“yeah, very important!” jihoon added.

“alright, i’ll help. where is mom?”

“we tried to call her but i think she’s asleep.”

“that’s because it’s 6am. your classes don’t start until 8am. i have to get ready for work. just go back to sleep and mom will help you, okay?”

“fine! you are of no help, noona.” junyoung huffs before walking away. jihoon goes to almost agree but he stops himself. he gives you a hug and apologises for junyoung’s behaviour.

your twin brothers, junyoung and jihoon. they are both 10. junyoung was more chaotic compared to jihoon. jihoon was the nicer one of the twin pair, he only agreed with junyoung whenever it was right but whenever junyoung was in the wrong, he was quick to disagree. in this case, he did not believe you were of no help. in fact to jihoon, you were the best sister he could have. he wouldn’t trade you for anyone else.

you quickly showered and put on your work attire. somehow, you were thankful that you bought extra pairs in case. you had to return the clothes the boys lent you, you felt somehow in debt. maybe you were considering heeseung quite literally saved you from being sold to a creep. you quickly left a note at the fridge to inform your mom you had already gone off to work. yes, you had a very early shift and ended extremely late.

you quickly clocked in and checked your roster. cleaning duty. at least you wouldn’t be stuck with those two girls-

you heard their laughter from down the hallway. you weren’t one to be mean but their laughter sounded obnoxious. you glanced back at the roster and quickly realised…

“great, stuck with them for practically the whole day. they are probably just going to make me do their work. as per usual.” you sighed. they stepped into the room and scoffed when they saw you.

“you. why are you here so early.”

“sorry, i shall leave. I have business to attend to.” you say.

“hold on.” you paused in your step.

“take this with you.” they hand you a broom and basic cleaning supplies.

“you didn’t think we’d do the work right?”

“as your newbie orientation, you shall do extra work so you can get used to this hard labour.” they laughed. you nodded and went your own way.

you had no energy to deal with them early in the morning. you dropped the bucket of supplies onto the ground and got ready to clean the lobby. it was clean for the most parts but you were sure after last night’s ball, there had to be something amidst the clean surface. you mopped, swept, cleaned the windows and took care of the plants all by yourself until 12pm in the afternoon. lunch time finally came around and you sat down in the staff room.

heeseung pops his head in and you were startled by it. you were thankful that no one was around because it wouldn’t be great if anyone saw you with one of the owners of Decelis Resort.

you pulled heeseung inside and locked the door behind you. you folded your arms at the boy.

“why are you here?”

“can’t i visit my own wife?” you covered his mouth.

“don’t say that out loud. with the people i’m working with today, i’m sure they would be the type to listen in behind closed doors.” heeseung pries your hand off his lips.

“haven’t i told you to ignore the judging?”

“you have but these two literally bully me-” you cover your mouth.

“bully you? what did they do?”

“nothing, mr.lee-”

“also haven’t i told you that you are now my wife, you should call me by name or at least a nickname.”

“no one is around.”

“anyone can be around. you don’t know how my world works.”

“fine, since i don’t know how your world works, then why don’t you teach me.”

“that’s why i came here, to bring you over since i have some business meeting to attend to. i need my ‘wife’ to come with me so that everyone can get all shocked.”

“you could have said that first before barging in like that.” heeseung sighs.

“i was going to but you got all scared in case your co-workers heard me.”

“can you really blame me? I am suddenly married and my husband is the owner of the resort. they’d freak out.”

“whatever, i’ll meet you upstairs. don’t be late and here, the keycard.” heeseung goes up first. you rolled your eyes.

why was he so snappy today. you didn’t bother clocking out since you were still going to be in the hotel. i guess it was best that you should go up as quickly as possible to prevent heeseung from getting mad at you.

“first time getting snapped up by heeseung hyung?” ni-ki says as he leans on the elevator walls. “it’s normal, he is just stressed over work. since you are his wife now noona, you could relieve his stress.” the elevator dings and ni-ki leaves the confined space before you could even answer him.

“what did that boy mean?” you wondered. then it hit you, you gasp and covered your mouth in shock. “who taught him such dirty things?”

“hi noona.” sunoo waves and smiles. you smiled back at him.

“where is heeseung?”

“Mmm, i think in his office. probably handling some stuff. me and jay hyung need to go somewhere, do tell him since you are visiting him noona.”

“alright.” sunoo slightly bows and leaves. you went up the steps and looked around for heeseung’s office. surprisingly, you found it with ease. you knocked on the door and you could hear a small ‘come in’ before you entered. the room was huge, tons of books on each shelf. heeseung sat on the leather chair, glasses adorning his face, his tie loosened up and he muttered grunts and curses as he types away on his desk.

“you wanted me up here?” you say. heeseung briefly looks up from his laptop, his eyebrow lifting as he looks at you.

“ah right, you’re 10 minutes late.”

“i’m sorry, i was talking to sunoo. right, he said he and jay went out.” heeseung sighs before nodding.

“alright.” he stands up and hands you a red dress. “i have some business to attend to and i think it’s about time i show them my…wife.” heeseung grabs your hand and kisses it. you were flustered.

“umm where are we going?”

“gambling.”

“i’m sorry?”

“we are going to meet with the client. this client is apparently quite the ladies’ man so it would be great to have you around to strike a deal with him.”

“oh but what if he…umm you know, tries something on me.”

“don’t worry. you’re safe in our hands.” he charmingly smiles.

you went to heeseung’s bathroom to change and you realised that the dress was extremely provocative. you looked at yourself in the mirror, eyes trailing each part of you. the dress was a spaghetti strapped velvety red dress with a slit starting from your thighs and down to your ankles. who were you? this wasn’t how you’d normally dress. you breathed in and out and confidently left the bathroom. heeseung was waiting for you, he settled right on his bed as he scrolled and typed on his phone.

“okay, i’m done.” you say. heeseung lifts his head to look at you and he was certainly in awe.

“perfect, now the hair and makeup needs to be done.”

“huh? I don’t have my makeup with me.”

“oh don’t worry.” he snaps his fingers and 2 ladies enter his bedroom with 2 huge makeup boxes. “they will take care of you.” heeseung smirks before leaving the bedroom.

they dolled you up to perfection and smiled once they were done.

“i never thought i’d see lee heeseung with a woman.” one of them say. you tilt your head.

“what do you mean?”

“ah well, heeseung kinda doesn’t hang out with any girls. after his whole family fiasco, he was never exactly keen on dating or let alone getting married.”

“what happened to his family-”

“ladies, i see you’ve done up my wife beautifully. we are already running a little late so we have to get going. thank you for your hard work.” heeseung says as he grabs you. the makeup stylist bowed at him as he left with you.

the ride there was a little quiet, you didn’t exactly know what to say or ask. you two weren’t exactly really in love so you couldn’t talk like normal couples do. heeseung parks the car once you two had arrived at the place. he holds out a hand for you to hold and you happily took it, he leads you into the building. everyone’s eyes were on the both of you, wondering how and when the lee heeseung got a girlfriend (or well wife).

“sir choi.” heeseung holds out his free hand to shake the person’s hand.

“mr.lee fancy seeing you here and without your usual partners.” the guy tilts his head at you before smirking. “who is this fine lady?”

“ah.” heeseung’s hand travels down to your waist, he tugs you closer before throwing the older male a smirk. “this is (name). my wife.” he smiles. you hear gasps from the other girls that were beside the client.

“oh, mr.lee has found a wife. never would have seen the day. she’s really beautiful.”

“thank you, sir. now, i am sure you owe me a game of poker.” the older male laughs.

“of course, mr.lee. we can certainly play a game of poker as we discuss our business together.”

“hold on for a second. I need to talk to my dear wife.” heeseung says.

“go ahead. i shall set up the game for us first.” heeseung bows before dragging you somewhere secluded.

“so, what am i supposed to do?” you asked.

“simple, just sit there and look pretty. he will get distracted by you and your beauty.”

“well, i don’t exactly look pretty. those other girls are shining more than me.”

“look, you may not know this but you’re really distracting me right now. which means, you’re pretty so don’t look down on yourself.” you blushed. “jay and sunoo are here too. take this.” he hands you the other side of the airpods.

“hey pretty.” jay says.

“jay, could you not flirt right now.” heeseung scowls at the younger boy.

“whoops sorry, you are her husband. my bad. i’ll back off.”

“hi hi noona.” sunoo says.

“hi sunoo.”

“okay enough with catching up, jay you have eyes on the guy. let me know his moves.”

“on it hyung.”

“sunoo, you’ll come in when it’s time. you know what to do.”

“okay hyung.”

“(name).” heeseung stares at you.

you felt flustered under his gaze, “y-yes?”

“you are going to need to act.”

“don’t have i have to sit there and just look pretty.”

“yes but try to act all flirty. send seductive looks to him. that will really get him distracted.”

“umm, i’ll try.” heeseung chuckles.

“you don’t have to if you can’t, your job after all is just to be by my side tonight.” 

“no, i’ll try to act. you did save me after all, it’s the least i could do for you.”

heeseung’s heart shouldn’t be racing as fast as right now. you looked adorable, well if he wasn’t looking at the outfit you were wearing. he nodded before bringing you over to where his client was.

“shall we play now?” heeseung sends his signature smirk to him. mr.choi laughs.

“eager to play, i see. in that case, let the games begin.”

the game starts, heeseung throws you a few glances. you nodded at him.

“noona, we need intel.” jay says.

“well, i’m not exactly great at poker so i don’t really know what is going on.”

“It’s okay noona. jay hyung, knows how to play and he knows tactics. he has eyes on mr.choi so you don’t have to worry about a thing. just tell us how he’s acting since we can’t see his expressions as great as you.” sunoo explains.

“for one thing, he keeps throwing me lustful looks.”

“guess you are doing well at being seductive.” jay says. you hear a smack from the other side of the call.

“forgive jay hyung, continue noona.” sunoo says.

“umm, he just has been throwing those like confident looks. like he knows he is going to win.”

“that’s because he believes so. mr.choi always wins poker matches by cheating.”

“oh.”

“heeseung hyung, just a heads up. he has an ace card under his sleeve and he will use it soon.” heeseung scoffs under his breath, he tilts his head to crack it before smirking at mr.choi.

“good god, he’s hot.” you whisper. it was loud enough for the boys to hear and yes including heeseung. it boosted his confidence though.

“noona, we heard that you know.” jay says. you blushed.

“ah, whoops. Sorry.” you were embarrassed, for a split second you forgot you were even wearing the airpods.

“alright, i’m pretty sure he is about to strike now. noona, you need to distract him.” jay says.

“umm.” you stood up and walked over to heeseung.

“babe, we should go.” your arms slither around heeseung’s waist. he smirks.

“of course, sorry to keep you waiting my lady.” mr.choi clenches his fist and slams the table.

“no one is allowed to leave in the middle of the game.”

“uh oh. hey, you think it’s time to call the others over. more specifically, sunghoon hyung and ni-ki?” sunoo says.

“yes of course.” heeseung answers. sunoo knows it was for both his question and mr.choi’s warning.

“noona, i think you should run to the bathroom. it’s going to get bloody. i’ll grab you.” sunoo says.

“i’m sorry, dear. I need to run the bathroom for a bit. you may continue your game.” you tried walking out but they blocked you.

“like i said, no one can leave in the middle of the game. including escorts.”

“we’re fucked.” you mumbled. you noticed someone walking in. it was jay.

“sorry to disturb the game mr.choi but i don’t think this was part of the deal.” jay puts on white gloves and then takes out a silenced pistol, he pushes back his slick back hair.

“mr.park.” mr.choi says in a distressed voice.

“how silly of you to have forgotten that the park family has joined forces with lee corporation.” jay scoffs. “you know how my family deals with people who don’t pay up.” jay cocks the pistol and points it straight to mr.choi. mr.choi’s personal bodyguards stepped in front of him, protecting him. jay laughs.

“ah, have you also forgotten. I have eyes everywhere.” a gunshot was heard and mr.choi falls flat onto the ground. you yelped, heeseung holds you close.

“heeseung hyung, you may leave. I have business to attend to. oh don’t worry about the money. it shall be deposited by the end of the day, sunoo is checking it.”

“do you need anymore help?” heeseung asks. jay laughs.

“just a clean up help? we need to make this massacre look like an accident.”

“I’ll dial for jake and jungwon for clean up help.” heeseung leads you out to where sunoo was. he sits in the driver’s seat and drives off.

“what about jay?”

“oh, don’t worry. he would never get into a horrible situation. he has help from his family.” sunoo says.

“his family is in it too?”

“yup. ah, i wish to have parents like his. they are really cool though. as for mine…they abandoned me.” sunoo says.

“i’m so sorry.”

“oh, it’s fine. you don’t have to pity me, noona. my parents are my enemies too, seems like karma got them the best though. hell sure looks great on their death certificate.” sunoo says with a happy smile on his face. your jaw dropped.

truly bone chilling for someone to just say so. heeseung chuckles.

“you’ll get used to this. sunoo usually says the grimmest things with a smile all the time.”

“i don’t think i’ll be able to do so.”

“well, don’t worry. i’m here.”

“eww hyung, you aren’t even a real couple. what’s with these flirty comments. it makes me wanna gag.” sunoo says. heeseung laughs.

a month passes by since that incident, your life was still unfortunately miserable considering those 2 maids were constantly on your ass. oh and they had found out you and heeseung were married which made it 10 times worse. heeseung doesn’t know this because you kept quiet and never told him about it since you didn’t want him to do anything drastic.

which you found weird considering, yes he was your husband but you were never a thing from the start. why was he constantly doing things for you? what if…what if he-

“yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that lee heeseung is in love with you.” danbi says. you smacked her arm.

“no, danbi unnie. he can’t fall for me. this is a fake marriage and well i can’t date him because he is a rich CEO and people like him.”

“to you it’s a fake marriage but everyone already knows you are in a real marriage. you even got real marriage certs, you can literally skip the dating phase and go straight to your hot CEO husband.”

“unnie, this isn’t right.”

“and so is denying your own feelings for mr.ceo. come on (name). give him a chance to melt your heart. actually, i’m sure he has already melted that heart of yours. considering he does things to you constantly that makes your heart go crazy.” she huffs. “this is descrimination to single people aka me.”

“unnie.”

“shut it. your hot husband is coming over.” you froze.

“we need to go somewhere again. they want dinner with the couple.” heeseung smiles. you playfully rolled your eyes.

“do your clients want to or do you want to?”

“Both.” heeseung flirts.

“you two never fail to make me third wheel.” danbi says. heeseung laughs.

“come on, let’s go. my lady.” he holds out his hand and you happily took it. just as you were about to leave, the two (read: annoying) maids came up to you and heeseung.

“how could you leave in the middle of a shift? moreover, with the owner of Decelis Resort? disgusting, you’re just a wh*re.” heeseung scoffs.

“being a pick me girl i see. well, today’s a good day for the both of you. i’m assigning you two to a new job. a better one.”

the two girls gasp, “really?”

“yes, congrats. you’ve been promoted to unemployment.”

“what?” danbi holds in her laughter watching the two girls frantically panic.

“but we did nothing.”

“bullying surely isn’t nothing. after all, (name) is married to the owner of the Decelis Resort which makes her the co-owner of this place. if you insult the co-owner, it leads to expulsion. am i wrong? i’m just following the rules.” heeseung says. the two girls looked at you.

“we are sorry. we need this job. our parents will freeze our cards if we don’t work here.” they begged you. you turned to heeseung.

“well mrs.lee, you make the call. i’ll meet up in the penthouse.” he pecks your forehead.

once he leaves, the girls scoff.

“seriously, do you think you have the power? we only take orders from lee heeseung and the other enhypen boys.”

“ah, i came back to say. the expulsion will be done immediately so you may start packing your things right now ladies.” heeseung pops in. he leaves again and they turned back to you in shock. you simply shrug your shoulders.

“good luck.” you say.

in the car after changing into your outfit and putting on your makeup, heeseung drives with one hand on the wheel and the other holding your hands.

“so, who are we having dinner with?” you asked.

“someone who has worked for my family.”

“oh, it’s a big deal huh.”

“not exactly. we are having dinner with him because he may know who killed my parents.”

“right. again, i’m sorry about your parents’ death.” he rubs your hand.

“it’s okay. it happened already and there is no way i can bring them back.” heeseung smiles at you. your heart flutters. heeseung stops at a red light.

“heeseung, do you like me?” he turns to you.

“and if do? what are you going to do about it?” you unbuckled your belt and leaned forward to kiss heeseung. he quickly responds to it. it turns green and cars start honking at heeseung. he pulls away first and drives. you put on your belt again.

“i like you too.” you say. heeseung bites down a smile from appearing. he kisses your knuckles.

the both of you arrived at the restaurant, it was going really well until you felt something off. you excused yourself to the bathroom and dialed for jake.

“jake, something feels off. i think we need backup.”

“are you sure? i don’t think heeseung’s family connection would do anything to him.”

“jake, didn’t you say heeseung’s family was in debt to the mafia?”

“shit. we’ll come over right now. keep us updated for now.”

“alright.” the call ends and you went back to the table.

“love, do you want anymore desserts?” heeseung says.

“oh no, it’s okay. I’m really full right now.”

“can’t believe that our lee heeseung that we knew since he was young is married.” mr.kim says.

“that is right! you’re so grown up heeseung-ah.” mrs.kim praises. heeseung blushes.

“ah right, i forgot to ask.”

“ask away.” mr.kim says.

“do you happen to know who killed my parents? or did the killer ever leave any clues.” mr.kim was shocked.

“heeseung, did you not know?”

“know what?”

“your parents they are-” the door bursts open, they covered mr.kim lips and dragged mrs.kim out. they held you and heeseung at gunpoint and so you were forced to put your hand up. they were about to question heeseung when the other boys walked in.

“hey, big one. pick on someone your size.” ni-ki gestures for him to fight. the bigger guy runs to ni-ki but he was quick to avoid and then strike on the guy’s skull. you winced.

“missed us?” jungwon smirks. enhypen never knew who exactly these people were but any time heeseung tried to investigate about his parents’ death, they always appeared and caused chaos.

“sunoo, could you bring (name) out?” heeseung says.

“of course.” you quickly grabbed onto sunoo’s hand and he tries to lead you out of the room but there were people blocking the way.

“not again.” you sighed.

“noona, could you step back.”

“sure?”

sunoo breathes in, pulls out a pocket pistol and shoots twice before they could even react. he spins the gun and blows it out.

“come on noona.” sunoo smiles. you were still in shock. “oh? why is there a tissue paper on the ground?” sunoo picks it up.

“are alive?” it’s written in lipstick. you were thinking about it and then it hit you.

“heeseung’s parents are still alive.” sunoo gasps.

“we have to tell hyung.”

“well we can’t exactly tell them-” the 6 boys walked out of the door and shut it close.

“hey umm, we need a clean up. make it look like an accident as per usual, thanks.” jay ends the call.

“what’s wrong?” sunghoon says.

“Heeseung.” you hand heeseung the tissue paper.

“are alive? what does that even mean?” ni-ki tilts his head.

“my parents are alive.” heeseung says.

“they are what?” jake says.

“how can that even be possible. they’ve been dead for literally half of heeseung hyung’s lifetime and he is literally 40.” ni-ki says. heeseung glares at the younger boy.

“i’m not 40, ni-ki.” heeseung says.

“well you do seem like you’re ageing fast. white hair does not suit you by the way.” sunghoon says.

“can you not.” heeseung growls.

“well what are we going to do now?” jungwon says.

“find my parents and where mr.kim and mrs.kim have been abducted to.”

“is noona coming though.” sunoo says.

“well yes, she is my wife…for real.” heeseung says. you blushed. heeseung holds onto your hand.

“gross.” jay says.

-

taglist[open]: @my5colors @wtfhyuck @nyfwyeonjun @thealatte @dimplewonie @nuttykittypainter

(not me forgetting to put the taglist, sorry🙏🏻)

[dizzblaine]

Saints Row Reboot thoughts under the cut on the off chance anyone cares about spoilers and etc.

Gonna preface this by saying that while I’m not horrifically mad about it like some weirdos are, I’m definitely not going to sugarcoat what I think of the final product at least in terms of its story, themes, and just overall tone.

Alrighty then, here we go.

Right off the bat I’m just gonna say that this didn’t work as an origin story whatsoever. I know there has been a lot of talk about the main four and how they act, and if any of it feels like pandering, yadda yadda yadda. I honestly don’t really mind it all that much. I think they’re perfectly fine (at least everyone but The Boss). But if this is to work as an origin story then I don’t want to come in to an already-established dynamic between the four because it straight up feels like getting invited into a group chat that’s been going on for like a year or two, and you’re just soooo incredibly lost with it all.

Not having them as tight knit as they are at the start would have greatly benefited the apparent story they were going for. And that’s something else I feel like I need to address immediately. By the end of the game (final three or so missions) you’re suddenly given all this stuff about The Boss being told (or even thinking themselves) how shitty of a friend they are. How they could have been more supportive. So on and so forth. And it weirded me the hell out because it honestly came out of nowhere. No buildup. No prior discussion or even moment to reflect on their standing within the group. It’s like we’re missing a bunch of scenes.

And that’s actually a big thing about the game; it feels like a bunch of scenes are missing to beef up the plot or really give us anything of substance. The entirety of it feels like a general outline of what they wanted to do with the story, but then wound up forgetting to add really much of anything. Honest to god I wouldn’t be surprised if something behind the scenes kept them from focusing on it all that much. But that’s just a guess on my part. I have no concrete evidence or much information to tell me in the first place. It’s just a general feeling.

The lack of substance also affects the rival gangs and the “main antagonist’ as well. Little time is spent learning anything of note with the Panteros, the Idols, and Marshall. We have moments here and there to see how they work, how their leaders are, and to get at least the most basic of basic understanding. It’s really sad because while I won’t say that the original series really dove in that deep with some of their antagonists, the screentime each of them received is LEAGUES better than the tiny scraps we’re given throughout the reboot’s story.

And the same goes for the Nahualli. To me he’s a character that they could have done soooo much more with instead of reducing him to a pseudo plot device because we needed someone to be the “final boss”. The potential to have a sort of mentor character come in and show these kids how to really start running a criminal empire and become gangsters, only to then betray their leader and have that be the catalyst in making them an absolutely ruthless force of nature would have been decently solid!

But unfortunately all we get are a few missions to show him off cause before you know it, you’re already at the grand finale of the game and he’s like weirdly obsessed in wanting to take your friends and make them his own. Sloppiest heel turn ever. It’s such a shame and I feel like it takes away from the impact he could have had on the story and characters.

I wish I could go in deeper talking about the overall plot, but like I genuinely have nothing to work with here. Any potential discussion about late stage capitalism and its effects on younger generations is completely absent aside from some nods towards it and a few jokes. If anything the entire thing about being a broke grunt who barely scrapes by and has student loans to pay feels so trivial in the grand scheme of things. Especially when by the end of the game it’s almost completely forgotten about.

And don’t get me wrong. When it comes to the first two games any and all commentary is very surface level at best. But here’s the thing, it’s still there! You can see it plain as day! The reboot has really nothing to offer or show other than reminding us all that we have bills to pay and are probably in debt.

Like if you wanted to make a point about how these people in positions of power take advantage of others and ultimately ruin any sense of financial stability or even the ability to live in the first place, then do it! Go for broke! It doesn’t have to be particularly insightful. But at the very least use these rival gangs to showcase the different kinds of structures that all work in similar but varying ways in order to fuck over the little guy.

But by all means, if you go down that route then please make the Saints look like absolute bastards in their pursuit of personal freedom and the like. It’s another issue I have with the depiction of the gang and the main four themselves. They never truly had that moment where they started acting more and more like pricks. You can have them be friendly with each other and their crew since they’re all working under one banner. But they gotta be assholes. Do some morally grey shit (the actual kind). I don’t care. I just don’t want this feeling like the whole basis of forming a gang in this game is to have an excuse for the violence and chaos. It’s far too clean in my eyes. Almost feels like Border/lands in a way to me. Which I know sounds weird, but the way violence and the sort is depicted in those games always felt more glossed up in my eyes.

One other thing I want to quickly mention is the incredibly sparse use of Spaghetti Western themes across the game. It was almost to be expected given the setting that they would use this genre in some way or another. Sadly that only seems to be the case at the very end of the game where after sooooo long of a wait, they finally set the scene and let The Boss have a duel.

It’s nothing special. It’s very basic. Not even memorable in the least bit outside of the fact that someone probably went “oh yeah, shit. we should probably do that”.

Honestly, I’ve been working on this for a few hours now and seem to find myself losing the motivation to talk more about it. Like the plot’s just barely there and kinda sucks. What more can I add? It’s just a shame because I truly felt like they could have turned things around and make something that was worth my time investing into like I did playing SR2 all those years ago. Sadly that wasn’t going to be the case, whether due to production issues, a lack of focus on polishing things up, or who knows what.

All I can say is that I hope by any chance—a miracle, really—that they can pick things up if they ever get the greenlight to do a sequel. If anything I can at least use this as inspiration for my own ideas regarding the series.

Anyway, sorry if this was too much of a mess. I really had no idea how I wanted to structure this at all, except to just let loose and ramble off about everything I felt. There’s still DLC coming up in the future, so expect me to talk about that at some point or another. Till then I just wanna say thank you to anyone who might have read the entirety of this thing. I really do care about this series a lot and want it to do well. I truly do. Just a real shame to see things play out this way.

[apollos-boyfriend]

Could I possibly get a rundown of c! Jordan lore? Or at least be pointed in the direction to find one? I'm kinda new here.

yeah ofc!! everyone kinda interprets it differently because when it comes down to it, half of it isn’t meant to be lore, and just cc!jordan showing Symptoms again, but here’s the major ones i count/other people count ^^

ofc you have mianite [link], both season 1 and 2. some people count mianitan isles [link] but in my mind that’s an off brand fever dream/weird drug trip and not Actually Canon. grouped in with that is usually trinity island [link] which i can’t actually find a playlist for so apologies. people also tend to include elements of minecraft survival/modded survival [link], which is where jerry the slime originates from!! more recently we have hexxit 2 [link], arguably homies [link], and now the possible inclusion of all achievements [link] and maybe ragnamod [link]. i haven’t actually gotten to watch ragnamod yet but i’ve heard it has the Vibes of c!jordan.

there’s also origins [link] which isn’t necessarily c!jordan, more origins!jordan in the same sense that origins!tommy and c!tommy are different. some people have said fuck it and included mianite-like elements in o!jordan’s homeplanet tho

the basic trend of c!jordan tends to follow him washing up on mianite (likely after survival/modded survival), where the events of season 1 and 2 transpire, as well as trinity isles. jordan becomes the champion to ianite, the goddess of balance, and typically gains some sort of immortality through her. he polishes his redstone and science skills in season 2, going on to straight-up be called the best redstoner in any reality. from there, after the events of season 2, he either goes off to explore the world on his own, or some other event happens where he is separated from the rest of the cast. he kind of goes insane in hexxit, ranting about how great and mighty he used to be, how he used to defeat gods, all to an empty world where the only response is his own echo. what happens after that? who knows. homies has bits of mianite scraps, with rifkin bringing ianite’s name up and the temple/church being built in a replica to that of the original mianitian one. all achievements just has the overall unhinged lonely god energy of hexxit, as well as ties in to survival/modded survival with jerry’s tree. basically, if jordan loses his mind throughout the course of a series, and there’s some sort of unethical/insane science, it’s pretty much c!jordan lore

[differentkettleoffishalltogether]

Update

Hey I’m not gone! I’ve just been working out my notice in my old job and it’s been a lot of hours and then I got vaccinated and felt like death on my one day off 😖

So I will have the next chapter of An Inconvenient Affection up soon, I’ve got the first 3000 words of it written already, I just haven’t had the time to finish it. If it helps to know, it’s almost entirely fluff and smut 🥰

But as a little treat I wanted to show you guys what I had originally written for chapter 2 of this series. I wanted to make it more of a slow burn so I ended up scrapping it, but I thought I’d show you anyway

Alternate timeline under the cut:

“Well making drinks isn’t the only skillset a bartender possesses” he looks at her quizzically. “You gotta be able to talk to people, or let them talk to you I guess. It’s part of the appeal, getting people to trust you, to like you, and maybe a few drinks in you get them to confide in you, slip up and spill something if you’re lucky” she explains.

“You really have done this before” he raises his eyebrows in mock surprise.

“I told ya so, and on that note, tell me what’s on your mind, what brought you in here this evening?” She takes a dishcloth and begins to wipe up the little spill on the table. Spencer just lets out a small chuckle but stifles it when she looks at him. Her eyes are trained on his, awaiting his response.

“Oh! You’re serious.” He takes a beat, “Well, um, I guess my wife and I have been going through a bit of a rough patch lately” he tries his best to make it sound genuine, but something about the bubbles in the drink and Y/N in her sweats opposite him has him feeling a little giddy.

“Oh that’s terrible I’m sorry to hear that” she sympathizes quickly, encouraging him to keep talking.

“Yeah she’s been sleeping around behind my back, should’ve seen it coming really” he takes a long gulp from his glass, staring into the fizz at the bottom.

“What do you mean?” She probes, “Was she the town bicycle before you got hitched?” She says it as a joke but Spencer’s head just snaps up to look at her with confusion.

“What?”

“Everyone got a ride?” She wiggles her eyebrows as she explains and he can only roll his eyes in response, his face screwing up a little with distaste.

“No!” He’s quick to shoot it down, “Nothing like that!” He waves his hand to dismiss it before downing the remainder of his drink. “She was always out of my league” he says it with a shrug like it doesn’t break her heart a little.

“Spencer” she pleads, it comes out a sort of gentle whisper, “I’m sure that’s not true”

He shakes his head, “Nope, she always has been. To be honest I don’t even know why she liked me in the first place! She’s—” he takes a moment to think, “she’s so incredibly kind, and warm, and she’s so much smarter than I am” he smiles to himself.

“Well that’s definitely not right” Y/N says in an effort to derail him, Spencer’s tolerance for alcohol has always been bordering non-existent. She didn’t want him to say anything he wouldn’t feel good about later. But it was so hard to ask him to stop.

“It is, she’s just not one to gloat about it” he thinks for a second, “y’know what, she actually is one to gloat” he says it like he’s just realized it himself and Y/N lets out a small snort of laughter. “But that’s part of her charm too, she’s funny. The kind of funny that makes my cheeks hurt whenever we hang out.” His lips spread in a wide smile that reaches his eyes as he says it, just from thinking about her. “And on top of all of that, she’s pretty. Like so pretty that when I first saw her I couldn’t remember my own name” He goes to take a sip from his glass once again before noticing it’s empty. Placing it back down on the table with an over dramatic sullen expression. “Shame she had to go cheat on me, but it’s understandable I guess. She’s her, and I’m just—”

“An idiot” she offers and he starts to laugh, nodding his head, “don’t agree with me you fool!” She reaches across the table to punch his arm gently.

“You’re an idiot for thinking about yourself like that. Like you’re not the most special person. Like you’re not deserving of love, or attention, like you’re not desirable Spence” she reaches out to grab his hand and he just stares down at them, not daring to make eye contact. He had just humiliated himself by accident and had no idea how to walk it back.

“Y/N I—” he whispered but nothing else came out.

“Shut up Spencer” she sighed, “you’re my best friend for so many reasons and I can’t have you thinking about yourself like that” her words of reassurance do little to actually help him feel any better.

He felt like he’d just made this horrifically sappy declaration of love to his best friend and now he was being lectured on his self deprecating tendencies.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have said anything” he pulls his hand out from her grip, and rising up from the table. “I think I should probably get some rest, it’s been a long day” he wipes his already sweaty palms against his pajama bottoms.

Y/N clambers to her feet to follow him but he reaches his bedroom a little too quickly, shutting the door behind him. It’s not dramatic or petulant, the action just wreaks of upset more than anything.

Y/N didn’t want to pry, especially if he didn’t want to talk but she had no idea what she’d said wrong. For a second there it felt like Spencer might’ve felt the same way she did, she could see that glassy look in his eyes that she recognized from her own. But he’d withdraw as quickly as he’d opened up.

She took some time to think, gathering up the things from the makeshift bar and returning them to their homes in the kitchen. She busied herself until she found herself staring down at the couch, at the little pillow and duvet folded neatly and ready for use in the armchair next to it. She’d slept here so many times before but didn’t want to do it right now.

Carried on an uncharacteristic wave of courage she marched up to Spencer’s door, knocking loud enough that if he was already asleep she had a hope of waking him. He hadn’t done anything other than sit on the edge of his bed and stare at the doorknob since he’d come in. Willing himself to get up and just go back out there.

Thankfully he didn’t have to. All he had to do was open the door to a waiting Y/N, arms awkwardly fidgeting at her sides. He didn’t say anything when he opened the door, just waited patiently. There was a small lull of silence before she spoke.

“Just to clarify” she cleared her throat, “was that all about— were you— did you mean all of that?” She looked up at him, her eyes wide and pleading. He nodded when he didn’t quite have the words yet.

“Yeah, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I just, had to say it sometime”

“Oh god you are an idiot” she breathes out before lunging at him, pulling him down by the lapels of his pajama shirt to capture his lips in a tentative but sweet kiss.

[nonbinarykai]

Great dev Kai theory time

Buckle up bc this is gonna be a LONG post

So do y’all remember that one scene in s4... goes a little like

Well a lot of people in the fandom has simply explained this scene as the staff possessing him. But personally I’ve never agreed with that statement for multiple reasons

Chen doesn’t have red eyes and he’s been holding the staff the entire time

We know from after this scene that the staff comes from these crystal caves, characters spend days in there and none of them have the same effect as Kai

Skylor has all the same powers in the staff but doesn’t go feral like Kai even when in the cave with the crystals

In s11 we see the red eyes again, it might be because of kais powers but since s11 seems to take direct inspiration from s4 I think it’s something a bit deeper then that

Ok so then if it isn’t the staff what is it then?

For the longest while I wondered that to, it makes no sense for it to be the staff, so then where could it have come from? However when I was watching s4 for the first time, a very specific line stood out to me.

This line comes directly before the episode where Kai turns feral. And considering they both have the same eye color I don’t think this is a coincidence either. The writers where clearly hinting towards something relating between garm and Kai in s4, and I think that’s great devourer venom.

What other parallels are there between the two?

In episode one and six we probably get the best example with chen using the exact same “he did what he had to do to win” line with both of them

Lloyds character arc did seem to resolve around them, his arc was meant to be him realizing he can’t just condemn people without knowing there motives first and to try to think and forgive in the perspective of those people. It starts off with Lloyd berating Kai and ends with Lloyd forgiving garm

Chen manipulates them both in the same way, with trying to convince them to turn against there friends in return for something they deeply wanted

While sure these examples don’t directly prove that Kai is infected with great devourer venom, I think it’s meant to show that there was meant to be a story parallel with Garm and kai, and Kai going evil with the staff was meant to be there way of connecting the two characters.

What happened with s4?

Wait but if these parallels were meant to be connected then why weren’t they expanded upon past episode 7?

Great question, I think it’s the same reason that kais arc was properly resolved and why garm was suddenly killed and why morro had an appearance to the end of the season.

The ending was changed

Now this is a VERY big claim I’m throwing out with little scraps of evidence to support it. Take it with a grain of salt but this is my personal theory for why the ending of s4 seems so disconnected with the rest of the series.

I personally think that the original ending to s4 was going to have Kai turn evil, but was changed last minute because they wanted to keep him as a ninja. Episodes 8 to 10 are all reworks to try to fit there new idea better. The scrapped idea for Kai were then pushed onto morro ((which is why we see him appear in s4 despite the fact it was clear that s5 hadn’t gone so far into conception. Morro after all has the same motivation of wanting to become the green ninja and seems to have the same demanding personality that evil Kai has in s4. It would also explain why kais character arc was cut short and why there seemed to be a lot of contrived plot ideas that seem to go against the first 7 episodes and why garm was sacrificed. It would also explain this season having a shorter run time then s1-s2

So then where does it go from s4?

While it might seem like the concept for evil Kai is cut from s4. I don’t really think that the idea of him has been completely lost yet. Throughout the series we see Kai be connected with snakes multiple times. Whenever there’s a snake for a villain it always seems to tie back to Kai in some way, either from it being directly tied back to him or it effecting him majorly. Multiple times through the series we see snakes as a sort of symbol for Kai, in S1 the snake symbol on the green gi was meant to represent Kai and in s12 we have a snake directly on his avatar outfit with the Harumi face mask. Snakes have been a running theme for Kai for the longest time now.

We also get s11, where we once again see Kai return to that feral state. While many people say this is due to kais powers, I personally think this is a sort of return from evil Kai in s4. Not only because of the red eyes but because kais lines in that scene seem to reflect evil kais lines. With him directly denying anything that doesn’t go his way. Considering the forbidden spinjitzu staff and ice emperor might be taking inspiration from s4 it wouldn’t be a surprise

It would also explain why Kai doesn’t seem to be effected by evil artifacts like the staff of forbidden spinjitzu or dark matter. If you notice throughout the series, whenever there are moments of the cast turning evil due to a artifact Kai seems to be unaffected. You can’t turn someone who’s already evil, evil

So when did Kai get infected? My personal theory is that Kai got infected in Season 2 episode 7, him being thrown off screen into some pots while venom was dripping from the roof would be a great time to slip it in without anyone noticing at first.

That’s personally just my theory, I do have a lot more personal concepts and theories on how the venom work but that’s just how I think it ties into Kai. 😳

[lokiondisneyplus]

LOKI 4 PRESIDENT! For a narcissist trickster sorcerer with the personality of a praying mantis, there are few occupations in the world that would suit Loki better than president of the United States. A few years ago, in the summer of 2016, comic book writer Christopher Hastings imagined just that in a satirical limited series for Marvel titled Vote Loki.

Five years later, Vote Loki has found its way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the fifth episode of the Disney+ series, “Journey Into Mystery,” a variant Loki (still played by Tom Hiddleston) appears in the desolate “Void” surrounded by a Mad Max-esque posse. On Loki’s tattered blazer is a red, white, and blue “Loki” button, indicating this Loki was, uh, elected to lead. Turn on the subtitles on Disney+ and you’ll find this Loki is credited as “President Loki.”

In an email to Inverse, Christopher Hastings says he had no idea this was going to happen.

“I found out [they were doing Vote Loki] when a trailer for the show featured the campaign outfit from Vote Loki,” Hastings tells Inverse.

When Inverse exchanged emails with Hastings, it was prior to the episode’s premiere, to which Hastings said he was “very curious to see exactly what from the comic gets into the show.”

“I love time travel and multiverse material,” the writer says in praise of Loki. “I am a big fan of the TVA as a setting. I'm eager to see how it goes, and what it might mean for the next phase of MCU movies, especially since multiverse wackiness seems to be a major part of those upcoming movies.”

In 2004, while a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hastings wrote and illustrated The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, a serial webcomic about a doctor who is also a ninja. The series was a cult hit, at one point attracting 110,000 unique visitors a day. By 2011, Hastings was doing work for Marvel, writing single issues of A+X and Howard the Duck. With Chris Bachalo, he co-created Gwenpool — a bizarre blend of Spider-Man ex-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and Deadpool — and penned the 2016-2018 solo series The Unbelievable Gwenpool, teaming up with Japanese studio Gurihiru to create the character’s deeply unique comedic tone.

But during Gwenpool, Hastings spent the summer of 2016 playing with a different Marvel trickster: Loki. In the four-issue miniseries Vote Loki, Hastings spoofed the chaos that was the 2016 race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In Vote Loki, an ambitious Loki seeks the seat of the president with a very unique campaign strategy: being honest about lying.

With “President Loki” having a minor cameo in the MCU, Inverse caught up with Hastings to look back on his explicitly political riff that took place inside the Marvel Universe.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Take me back to the origins of Vote Loki. When did the seed for the story plant in your mind? What was going on in the world of culture/politics at that time?

Gosh, it's tough to come up with one thing specifically, because we were making the comic by the seat of our pants, and so many things got scrapped and rewritten along the way, often at the last second. But one of the core topics I wanted to cover had to do with narratives versus reality. It's kind of a given that in the world of politics, truth is this malleable thing, and now more than ever all you have to do to make people believe a lie is to repeat it enough times.

I liked the idea of Loki playing with narrative in a way that wasn't necessarily outright lying, more bending. (Except the bit about being born in Maryland. One outright lie there.) The other driving point I wanted to explore was how Americans can have a tendency to incorporate their national-level politics into part of their identity, and what that does to a person, particularly when a character like Loki is the one on the ticket.

What sort of conversations did you have with Marvel about a political satire starring Loki? What was the elevator pitch that got approval?

Like I said, things changed so many times, I'm not even entirely sure how many versions were kind of approved and then scrapped on the way to get to what was actually published. I think it was more that I assured editor Wil Moss that I could jump on the book (which Marvel was determined to make; they just hadn't decided who was writing it when I was pitching) after talking about the stuff about narrative and identity, and the basic idea that the viewpoint character shouldn't actually be Loki but a journalist covering Loki's campaign.

Vote Loki introduced the character of Nisa Contreras. What was the primary inspiration for her?

That would be my real-life friend, Nisa Contreras. She's not a journalist, but she’s someone I'm sure could take down Loki if he were a) real and b) got on her bad side. I wanted the story to be more about witnessing the tension and the comedy of Loki running for president, about not knowing what was up his sleeve. And so I came up with [a] journalist.

Vote Loki was published over the summer of 2016 when the election was ramping up in awkward ways. (“Pokémon Go to the polls!”) Did the real election influence the comic in any way, including any specific moments?

The comic was a direct response to things that were happening during the 2016 campaign, specifically that a “joke” candidate that was obviously terrible could get pretty far with enough media oxygen and a comfortable political system that ignored the disgust a lot of people had with it.

Vote Loki ran for four issues. Was there ever a possibility for more?

If it was a smash hit, I believe there would have been a President Loki to directly follow Vote Loki.

What do you think of Vote Loki's inclusion in the TV series?

Top five surreal moments of my life.

Do you think Vote Loki could be the focus of its own adapted series/movie?

Oh for sure. You wouldn't even have to take the material from our comic; there's so much more brand-new political madness that a new Vote Loki series or movie could tap into.

A lot has happened in the five years since Vote Loki was published. What are your feelings looking back now in 2021? Did your opinions on the book ever change?

There was a lot happening in American politics in 2016 I missed and wish I had been able to see to include. For example, how broken political polling has become. I had no idea, along with the rest of the country.

It was tricky to do a cohesive narrative amongst a shifting Marvel continuity we had to stay inside; a lot of feedback and demands from various sources within the company and an election that was changing every single day. It was truthfully (heh) a quite stressful book to write, but looking back on it I'm proud to see what we absolutely nailed about American culture. In particular, what we had to say about politics as entertainment and identity, and how a slippery enough politician can not only shake scandal [off] by speeding up an already fast news cycle but embrace and twist it to their advantage.

LOKI WILL AIR ITS FINAL EPISODE JULY 14 ON DISNEY+. VOTE LOKI IS AVAILABLE NOW.