#like even the design for red leader is shit nothing about it is good literally nothing it is all bad

[helldreamz]

society if people would stop making tbatf stuff

[cybertron-smash-or-pass]

I mean yeah voice actors voices are hot but also like in appearance

Corey Burton is a cutie

You know what, that's valid

You must go on a vision quest to see what the MCU is blind to (and by that I mean go find one (1) weird indie movie youve never heard of and watch the whole thing). Then you will be cleaned of your corporate media sins (/lh)

Oh good, I get to talk about this dumbass show (beloved)

RiD 01 as a whole is a SILLY fuckin show. Like they took the sillygoofy nature of g1 and went "bet," then cranked it 10 times higher. G1 still had its somber moments. Character work. Genuinely threatening and downright cruel villains. RiD 01 has occasional complex characters, but 90% of the time, this show is a fairly low-stakes comedy that's going full camp.

The autobots are dysfunctional and just straight up weird. Three of them are brothers, and it's not a trio anyone would EVER expect. Prowl is a fucking narc. Brawn is here but he's named X-Brawn bc I guess he had to get that Xtreme rebrand for the 2000s. He's also closer to Ironhide than anything, complete with the Texas accent. Their other brother is named Sideburn, he's the bumblebee equivalent as the Designated Kid Appeal Character, but he's also, and I shit you not, a sex pest about red sports cars. Not just bots with sports car alts. Any red sports car. He will drop everything to go chase a sexy red car and he catcalls it the whole time. The TFA constructicons have NOTHING on this guy. He gets so aggressively horny on main his narc-ass cop brother has to arrest him for it.

Optimus is here, and he's got his own family trouble. He has a brother too, and it's fucking Ultra Magnus. Magnus hates his guts because OP got chosen as Autobot leader and he didn't. At one point they find a cache of blank protoforms, Megatron gets to it first, and has one of them scan both himself and Optimus when he comes online, which results in Scourge, my lameass emo boyfriend i was defending through the whole Scourge War. He's literally just, like, Their Kid and he fucking hates his autobot dad so he lives with Megatron instead to try and make him proud of how Evil and Competent he is.

Megatron has like. Too many altmodes. Just too many. One of them sort of kind of counts as a sports car, that is partially red, Sideburn gets horny about it. Finding out it was Megatron did not stop him for asking for a date. Canon bisexual before IDW, even in the English dub.

The main villains serving Megatron are the predacons and they're about as threatening as team rocket and roughly half as competent. One of them is a squirrel voiced by Steve Blum. The second in command is SkyByte and he's so fucking bad at being evil. He writes poetry (which Optimus roasts the shit out of). He takes online personality quizzes and then gets legitimately upset if he doesn't get the results he wants. This was the plot of an entire episode. He has a crush on Megatron and fantasizes about doing a good job for him. He doesn't like scourge because he thinks he's Meg's new favorite. He does circus tricks on command. He has a soft spot for kids and he was so nice to them while actively trying to be evil that he ended up with a fanbase in-universe that followed him around and encouraged him to be a good guy. He is the EPITOME of a skrunkly little loser boyfailure AND he's a shark. What more could you ask for.

This is not even a quarter of the insane shit that happens in this show. It has NO chill, ever. If you want to see pure, unbridled chaos from robots that are usually at least a little more serious and intense, I literally cannot rec it enough. A lot of hot robots too, tbh. The things id do to Midnight Express...

Beeussy

[crystal-crax]

A RANT:

In defense of rise changing their design and personalities

Inspired by viviwithav's video on Youtube ♥️

What's a quick way to make sure your version of a franchise gets hate? Change something

Jk, but let's be real, a lot of people didn't even give rise a chance because it wasn't loyal to what a lot of people are used to.

Leo is not the leader, Raph is not a yelling angry guy, Don is not a nerd and mikey isn't the dumb dorky dude anymore. And they're different turtles!? How dare they!

Well nobody asked so i'm here to defend everything because i'm bored!

Why am i insisting? They're literally still what we know them to be

1- Leo's still the leader

I have a full on rant about it already but yeah, trust me, Leo is still leader material, you just have to trust him and let it cook a bit. We're able to join him on his journey to overcome his self-doubt and accept that he can't do everything on his own and trust those he loves around him.

2- Trust me, Raph is still angry

But this version of him focuses more on giving him a healthy oultlet. One of my biggest pet peeve's with most of Raph's versions, is that they portray his anger as something that he needs to learn to hide and contain or else he will never be nothing more than a problem to team (I'M GENERALIZING A LOT, I DON'T ACTUALLY THINK THIS ABOUT RAPH, I LOVE HIM IN EVERY UNIVERSE).

I think there are a lot of ways to express and portray anger. I've struggled with stress induced-anger my whole life and i think rise Raph is a good example on how your anxieties and worry can make you show a bad side of yourself sometimes. Honestly, i think a lot of Raph's versions have this same problem: he cares for his family so much and is constantly afraid something bad will happen to them, he constantly compares himself to the team and is afraid they don't respect him. He desperately wants his brothers to take their training seriously so they can be ready when danger strikes. EVERY RAPH HAS THESE ISSUES (kind of?) but rise is more vocal about it.

This Raph has channeled his stress and anger towards his position as the leader. He doesn't fight with leo because he wants to be the leader, he fights with leo because he wants to make him understand how much he needs his family to be safe, he's the leader because needs to make sure his brothers are safe. He still yells because he wants his brothers to take training seriously, he just is more of a softie about it because he has learned to take out his anger issues towards the bag guys that threaten his family.

3- Don is still a nerd

Trust me, he's still dorky, the only problem is that this version of him is not willing to be stepped over and ignored. He's brilliant and he knows it, he just wants his family to recognize his talent, to understand him and tell him how much they value him.

This is something we've seen with 2012 donnie before too, they're sarcastic and snap back when someone disrespects him. They're brilliant and won't let anyone make them feel like less

4-Mikey was never "the dumb one"

I mean- sure! He gets babyfied a lot and is the one to receive the cowabunga surferboy attitude but he's always been so much more! Not because you act less seriously does that mean you don't take it as such. You can be the life of the party and wreck bullie's shit! Have y'all not seen the last ronin? lol he is talented and as great a ninja as his brothers

5- and lastly, the new designs

.....Y'ALL 4 REAL?! THEY'RE SO COOL I MEAN

Sure the turtles might have started with their signature likeness but they've changed so much already.

They started as black and white caricatures, four identical brothers with red bandannas, then got color coded and have even been tweaked here and there across the years! Time changes and art evolves, of course the turtles will eventually change in a way that represents more properly their personalities and 2012, rise and mutant mayhem have done such a great job at it

Do you look the same as when you were born? What about when you were a kid? No! Let art grow with us, let stories be changed to represent their own world

Besides, let's be real, the being different turtles thing it's so cool that i'm surprised it wasn't thought about before. It's also perfect match to their personalities!

Wanna make a character stand out and show his cool persona off? WHAT'S BETTER THAN A RED EARED SLIDER KING, leo's red marks go so amazingly well with his blue color??? Besides as said here:

Red-eared sliders are one of the most popular of all aquatic turtle species. They tend to be friendlier and more sociable than some of their relatives, they're pretty active, and they're widely available.

Leo completely meets the expectations of hi species personality

Why is donnie a soft shell turtle? WHO CARES, HE BUILD HIMSELF AN AUTOMATIZED SHELL OMG HE'S SO SMART? Jk/ but i do find it oddly fitting his species are known for being aggresive due to their sensitivity

Need to properly represent a soft but intimidating character? A snapping turtle it's amazing for Raph! Due to popular belief; besides their fiery personality, snapping turtles are known to be timid. But oh boy, they're completely defensive and can definately attack when threatened, much like our big boy's personality

Why is mikey a box turtle? Well, how to better represent his youthful friendly attitude than with a species that's literally known to be bold, adventurous and friendly! Also, it only gets better when you consider their outgoing personality is cutely tied to their response to danger (cue their ability to hide completely inside their shell) which kind of reminds us that in this version, mikey is canonically the youngest.

I have so much tmnt rants, someone help, my head is spinning-

[rozetheeuwu]

1, 2, 3, 8 for Saphira, Taka and Victoria for the chara ask game😄✨️

Thank youuuu lets go.

A long post so putting everything under read more The first three questions honestly kinda overlap with each other answer wise so sorry about that slkdgjdlgdf

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Saphira - I adore her entire character arc throughout the story in both main and post game (even if there's like one quest in the latter for her). Even if I don't agree with a lot of her views in main game I can obviously understand a 100% why she acts the way she does and has a certain mindset.

I can't really think of anything about her character I dislike personality wise at the top of my head, but I hate the dragon design on her outfit because it's a pain to draw for me if that counts.

Taka - Idk I do have a weakness for characters with daddy issues I suppose. Similar to Saphira I like his development (in both routes) throughout the story. I also do in post game, but I have some issues with how that's done in certain parts.

I'm just gonna continue on that last part by saying I don't like how in Reshiram route his personality just kinda does changes after being freed from the umbral state.

Like I don't mind the umbral part and how he acted during that regard, but from that point on he kinda felt different. I don't mind the change and I did enjoy him in that route, but I wish we had seen his character change into that after being freed from the umbral state and being like "Yeah, I guess I don't want to be like this anymore."

It just feels a little jarring, especially since the other characters that were also umbrals literally got nothing in that regard, like they spouted how they felt and when they were freed were like "Oopsie, let's never talk about this again theehee."

Victoria - I can't keep saying that I like the character's development throughout the story so I'll say something different for her.

I do love her immediate action to help others in need. She's caring person and genuinely wants the best for others.

Idk what I dislike about her, I guess the way she got almost nothing in postgame quest wise but that can be said for a lot of the characters.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Saphira - Love that her ace is a Dragonite. Idk it's often seen as this cute dragon, so to see someone with her personality have one is really fun.

Taka - I love his color scheme! The greysih washed out colors, then his scarfs pop out with the red color.

Victoria - I love that her team slightly changes in main game after Kiki passes. Losing the Pangoro (panda's are often used to symbolize ying and yang) saying how she lost her balance/inner peace or whatever. Of course I could be looking way to into that.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

I honestly kind of explained this already in the first answer kgjfdlgjfd

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Oh boy, that's a good question. I have some good answers.

Saphira - Honestly for her I don't have an opinion on any takes or whatever on her. I can understand why people don't like her, as long as they like understand why she does what she does it's not an issue to me?

Taka - I hate how people downplay Zekrom route Taka, in fact I prefer that version of him. I'm excluding the Tao Gauntlet team up battle, because I want to focus on his character.

The development of going from the son of the leader of Team Meteor who's bloodline is (was) important to the region to a man who just wants to live a normal life is so special to me and the fact he's not as loved in this route or even said that this version of him isn't good SUCKS.

Victoria - Okay (some) people hate how she acted after Kiki and saying 'that's not what Kiki taught her that's not what she would want her stude-' Yeah no SHIT. Too bad a traumatic experience changes people and forces us to not work on logic sometimes. Fuck she literally learns to accept what happens and learns in end game and to forgive herself in post game.

I'm gonna be honest, I bet if she was a male character people would dislike her less about the way she acts after Kiki died.

Okay yeah I'll stop there with that dfngfdlg

Thanks for the ask!!

[justcallmenikki7]

BTS Reaction To: Them Breaking You Out of Jail

Mafia!Au & Maknae Line

Summary: the boys are not happy when they find out that you, their girlfriend, was arrested and put into jail.

Warnings: mafia related stuff: guns, killing, mature themes (torture), split!jungkook that is basically a given with his insane personality, okay jungkook is insane in this mainly because of his love for you, ACAB is mentioned in this on all of the parts mainly in tae’s part but the term ‘acab’ is not said directly, a heated kissing scene in kook’s part, THE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE BOYS IS A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP!!!.

W.C.:

Notes: I went overboard with jungook’s part that I feel like I kind of do all of the time with his part in these kinds of reactions. But, I hope you enjoooooyyyy!!

Hyung Line’s Part

Park Jimin:

You were sat twiddling your thumbs on the cold concrete floor of the jail cell that you were for unnecessary and unfair reason. Being the mafia leaders girlfriend who is hated by the law enforcement is not really the best thing in the world. The cops who hate Park Jimin are the ones who know that they are crooked and unfair, so they very stupidly try to make his life a living hell. Sometimes, you wonder if they know what exactly your can and will do to them, especially if they mess with you.

They thought it would be okay for them to make a scene at your work by arresting you for being a suspect for a shooting that had nothing to do with you or even your boyfriends gang. Shrugging your shoulders, you let out a heavy sigh, now deciding to retie both of your already tied shoes from boredom. What you did not know is that on the other side of the jail, your boyfriend has stormed into the jail, shooting the cops that were in his way, Jungkook behind him as an extra eye. Walking up to the front desk lady who was secretly a spy for his gang, he gave a smile as she threw him a key that was specifically for your cell.

“Thanks, Jisoo,” Jimin thanked before making his way to you, sighing at the armed men that were at a stand off with his gang. “Why can’t things ever be easy for once?” He groaned before signaling Jungkook was a nod of his head.

You did not hear any commotion or even footsteps that were making their way towards you. A familiar chuckle was what got your attention, looking up so quickly which cause you to get dizzy for a split second. “Jiminie!” You squealed excitedly, running towards the bars, grabbing onto them.

Pouting, “Did you not think that I was going to come for you? My heart,” he pressed his right hand to his heart in a dramatic manner.

Rolling your eyes, you smiled, “well, you took an hour too long to come and get me,” you teased which earned you an adorable laugh from your boyfriend.

“Well, my bad, princess. Namjoon was taking a shit as I got the call from Jackson that you had been arrested, and so Namjoon delayed us.” Your boyfriend spoke honestly, unlocking the cell door to let you out.

You tackled him into a deep kiss, heart fluttering like it always does when he wraps his arms around your waist to bring you in closer to him. “I know that you’ll always come for me, my knight in shining armor,” you said once you pulled away from the kiss.

“NOONA AND HYUNG SITTING IN A TREE, K-I-S-S,” You jumped from the loud yelling of the two youngest. “On a serious note, Noona Jisoo said that the SWAT is on their way and will be here in like, I don’t know, .5 seconds,” Jungkook noted casually. A loud crashing noise was heard with a few cusses from Jimin’s hyung’s. “Looks like they are now here,” he said calmly, “I suggest we should get going, don’t you think?”

Kim Taehyung:

Kim Taehyung has always been a person who does not tolerate bullshit and people who have the train of thought of abusing their power just because they believe that they can. He knows that the law enforcement hates him because he basically does their job for them by getting rid of pests and keeps the streets clean. The hate that they have for him is from jealousy and pride. He knows that a few law enforcement people are actually grateful for him because of how Taehyung and his gang can actually figure out some cold cases and criminals that the law enforcement are trying to catch. Some cops and FBI members actually turn to Taehyung and his gang, mainly Min Yoongi the IT of the gang, for help when they cannot figure out a case even though their bosses are against it.

Anyways, the call that Taehyung had gotten from one of the officers that turns to Taehyung informing him that you had been arrested for going ‘over the speed limit’ with a suspension of you carrying marijuana on you really did not make his day. The officer, Yu Jong, gave details of which cell and area of the jail you were at that really went against his protocol, which Taehyung thanked him for, informing him that Jong and the other three officers who are for Taehyung that they needed get out of there as soon as possible because it will turn into a slaughter house. Dressing in his designer ripped jeans, a black shirt and his Gucci jacket, he grabbed his pistol and got the gang together, making their way to the jail.

You are having a glaring contest with the officer who arrested you, the distaste that you both have for one another is strong. “You’re honestly a piece of shit, you know that?” You commented calmly, knowing that your boyfriend could be showing up any minute now, so you are going to make the best of it.

“Don’t test me, bitch. I could make your life—”

“Make her life what?” Your boyfriend’s baritone voice boomed in the hallway, comforting you but mainly scaring the officer.

Smirking, you stood up cuffed hands resting against your lower stomach as you walked towards the bars, a calm look on your face. “Go on, don’t be shy now, say what you were going to say,” you said calmly, too calm for the officer.

Not saying anything due to being frozen in shock at the thought that Kim Taehyung is standing right behind him with his pistol aimed at his head with the safety off. Sighing, Taehyung rolled his eyes out of boredom, “You guys are literally all talk but cannot for the life of you actually say anything to my face, it’s pathetic really. Now, hand me the keys so I can take my innocent girlfriend home.”

Doing as he was told, you were out of the cell and in your boyfriend’s arms in no time. You knew that this was the cop who has been tormenting both you and Taehyung for years now, and you knew that Taehyung has had enough of it. So, wanting to spice things up, you whispered into your boyfriend’s ear, “He also called me a bitch, Tae.”

Smirking darkly at you, “oh did he now? What a shame,” Taehyung looked at the officer who was looking back at him with fear in his eyes, “what a real shame.”

Jeon Jungkook:

You love your boyfriend with all of your heart – you really do – but sometimes you get nervous with how … sadistic he can get with his job. You know that he loves the thrill he gets when he sees the fear in his victim’s eyes, you can tell that he gets off from it sometimes. Knowing him since you both were in diapers and been together exclusively since the age of fifteen, you are confident with confirming that you know your boyfriend like the back of your hand, and as he did you. But having been in the job since the age of seventeen, taking  over his dads position when he was murdered, Jungkook, you can now say that you do not know his business side like his gang. Namjoon once said that Jungkook turns into a completely different person, someone more sinister – and you do not want to know that side; not because of the fear of him hurting (something you know that would never happen) but because of wanting to stay out of whatever business he is in.

Jungkook has made it a mission of making sure that you would never get tied into his business, and made a promise to yourself that you somehow you did, he would make sure that whoever found out about you and dragged you in would never see the light of day ever again. So, receiving a phone call from Seokjin, telling him that the cops in Busan had arrested you as a pay back for ‘scaring them into submission’ and wanting to show that they will not back down, Jungkook automatically saw red. He knew that this would happen once the Sheriff, Kim Jung, stepped down, a good friend of his dads, actually. But Jungkook dreaded the thought of the son of the Jung, Kim Mark, would screw everything up, always having something against Jungkook since the two were kids without any reason. Jungkook had told Mr. Jung that even though they were almost like family, Jungkook will do whatever he would to a person that he ran into on the street – in short, killing them – and Jung sadly accepted that possible fate of his son.

And as you sat in jail cell that was being watched over by Mark himself, both of you hearing the gun shots and screaming of the officers in the room above. There was a feeling of relief of safety that you felt, but there was also a feeling of nervousness, almost fear, that you felt that came of the knowledge of seeing your Jungkookie in action – the side that you will meet. You came to accept that this may change your relationship dynamic, something that both you and Jungkook will have a very long talk and acceptance of whatever that means. To make things clear, you will never leave Jungkook over this, but you know that this is the beginning of being involved in his second life style – the lifestyle that Jungkook was trying to prevent you from of being involved in.

So, as you heard the deep, sadistic laugh that came from your boyfriend, you braced yourself. You watched his intimidating form walk in, his long black hair in a half up bun while the lower half of his hair touched his shoulders. His signature outfit which consisted of his black ripped skinny jeans, timberlands, and an oversized white shirt and his black leather jacket – you would be a liar if you said that he did not look hot as fuck. But the one thing that you did notice about him was the deranged look in his eyes that looked you straight in the eyes – noting the fear you felt.

“Now look at what you did, Marky, you scared my girlfriend, my Y/N. Now that is another thing that you will have to pay for.” He snarled, moving to the side so that Taehyung and Jimin restricted him, kicking the pointing gun out of his hands. Walking over to the cell door, Jungkook unlocked it, pulling you into him for a heated kiss. You allowed him to dominate you for that small moment, letting out a shaky breath as he pulled away. You knew that right now the man standing in front of you is not your Jungkook, it is someone different. Brushing the hairs that fell in front of your face, Jungkook smiled down at you lovingly, “There’s my beautiful princess. I’m sorry that Marky over there caused this mess, but I’ll make sure to clean it up for you, don’t want my princess to get into anymore messes now,” he chuckled a spine chilling laugh, one that shook you to the core. But what made you even more nervous for Marks life was when you were walking up the stairs to the main floor was the scream that came from Mark and the laughter of your boyfriend that soon followed after.

[fallout-drabbles-n-stuff]

Not sure if this has been done but if not I believe it’s time for a beach ask-isode (sorry thatwasreallybad)

Anyways! What does everyone (Maxson and gang leaders included) do while at the beach? What kind of suits do they wear?

(Ah yes, only a wedding post would top this masterpiece. Also this is going to be more on the Pre-War! Or Modern! Au spectrum since yknow..radioactivity)

Cait:

•Abosuletly HATES the beach.

•Bitches about literally everything. Sand? Fucking despises it. Getting wet? No thanks. THE SMELL?? Sis, no.

•Gets burnt AF as well. Miss Ma'am ends up looking like a boiled crab after maybe a couple minutes out in the sun.

•The only thing she enjoys is checking people out.

•either way, she goes and wears something comfortable. A bandeau and some shorts are her go to.

Curie:

•Rather likes the beach.

•She loves collecting seashells and seeing if she can capture hermit crabs (which she promptly returns to their home after taking a picture)

•She would wear one of those one pieces complete with a cute skirt and an oversized sun hat.

•SUNSCREEN ENFORCER

Danse:

•Has one helluva time running. As a matter of fact, he loves nothing more than to run on the beach at sunrise....however this is more of a social event we're talking about-

•Passive aggressively admonishes his "friends" to wear sunscreen.

•Will actually partake in alcohol is it's presented. Make sure he doesn't overdue it- Hancock is patiently waiting for him to get lit and do something stupid so he can have blackmail material. DRUNK DANSE WILL PROVIDE PLENTY OF IT.

•wears tragically boring red and orange swim trunks and that's it. Doesn't understand why Cait keeps whistling at him when he takes his shirt off.

Deacon:

•He's the type to go sun tanning and end up forgetting his sunglasses are still on. Oh well, just an excuse to keep wearing them.

•Definitely instigates water fights.

•Wears the most outlandish, neon green speedo. Scars the masses.

Gage:

•Loves the beach but will bitch about it being too hot nonstop.

•Mainly just floats out into the open water on a lounge float and sips lemonade. No one is stupid enough to try to play a prank on him anyways- they already know he isn't above drowning someone over being thrown into the water unexpectedly.

•wears a horrendous green muscle shirt and yellow swim trunks.

Hancock:

•Life of the party, as always.

•Blasts music, indulges in whatever drugs he can and has an overall wonderful day filled with debauchery.

•Provided the beach is okay with it, he'd prefer to go nude. However if that isn't an option, he'll rock an American flag speedo.

Macready:

•I know it's soft, but he prefers to bring Duncan along. So no terrible parties for Mac, unfortunately.

•He makes sandcastles and plays "soldiers" with his little boy before going with Curie to collect seashells for Duncan to add to his collection.

•For once ditches the hat and rocks a Grognak themed ensemble. Duncan hates it and often pretends he doesn't know him.

Mags:

•As a woman who enjoys the finer things, she spends a little extra money to "party up" her beach time in an expensive cabana.

•Prefers to sit out and relax, getting some sun as she smokes as many cigarettes as humanely possible and knocks back bottles of wine.

•Wears a pair of those really nice, oversized sunglasses and a simple black bikini...and probably those ridiculous platforms.

Mason:

•Despite his wealth, he "roughs" it and spends his beach time like a normal person...well..as normal as Mason can get.

•He spends the majority of his time in the water like a damn idiot, swimming until he gets sick from accidentally ingesting too much salt water.

•Very, VERY tempted to flip Gage's float over.

•Wears flamboyant flamingo themed swim trunks.

Maxson:

•Another one of the pathetically rich, buuut he doesn't overdo it. Sure, he may also rent out a nice cabana but he spends the most of his time underneath an umbrella reading whatever novel he's invested in at the moment.

•Will sit there and read for as long as possible, maybe only breaking to play a game of volleyball with Danse and Preston. Even then, his top priority is to get back to either reading or jotting down the next key points for a future meeting.

•Wears some stupid designer like burberry. It's hideous but he doesn't care.

•uhhhh, don't entice him with alcohol either, it's not a good idea.

Nick:

•Loves going to the beach right as the sun is setting. He gets a small window of time to read before being able to fully appreciate how beautiful the scenery is as the moon rises.

•Keeps an eye on Hancock so the dude doesn't do anything too stupid, but pretends to "party" so Hancock doesn't catch wind that he's being supervised.

•He's the perpetual "parent" of the group and he accepts it.

•Wears a matching shirt and trunk set, usually in black.

Nisha:

•Surfs and proceeds to beat the shit out of Mason with her board when she's finished.

•Will actually go smoke and drink with Mags and have a decent time until they inevitably hit a snag and decide to not talk to each other for weeks again.

•Tries to instigate fights with Gage fueled by her hatred for him.

•Wears an expensive wetsuit.

Piper:

•Enjoys taking nice pictures of her friends and herself at the beach.

•Also joins in the volleyball game whenever she is done with said pictures.

•Gets bored easily and decides to go back to working on her next article...until she gets bored of that and decides to go swim.

•Wears a nice red and white polka dot two piece and some red sunshades.

Preston:

•Is the unofficial life Gaurd. Like no shit, he is on a damn mission. He'll fight a shark if he has to.

•Plays fetch with Dogmeat whenever he finally calms down.

•May even go scuba diving, just depends. He loves seeing the fish and different things in the water.

•Wears a cute pair of sunflower swim shorts.

X6-88:

•Doesn't show up. He hates the beach.

•Okay fine, if you force him into it...

•He'll more or less just sit where the waves crash onto shore.

•If shaun is there though, it's a whole new story. Oh yeah. If his best buddy Shaun is there, you bet your ass he will happily do whatever the kid wants him to. Piggy back ride? Right away. Go prank Maxson? In a heartbeat.

•Wears a grey and black striped pair of shorts.

[theravennest]

Let’s Talk: The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion

I finished all 40 eps about two weeks ago, actually. I enjoyed it for the most part, the 1st half especially, but there were several things near the end that took me out. 

But first some of the good bits...

The cast chemistry was immaculate. Our four main lead actors were a lot of fun together. Not just Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jing Yi, but also Wang You Shuo and Xu Jiaqi (Loved them!). The four of them have such obvious ease with each other after their previous work together in Legend of Yun Xi and it made scenes with any combination of the main four really pop. 

I was especially drawn to the sisters’ relationship and the Prince-Vassal bond going on between Prince Su and Little Marquis. (Y’all know I’m a sucker for both sibling stories and stories about fictional royals and their loyal vassals.)

Most of the ancillary characters were interesting, actually. As y’all know from my last post about this one, I was crack shipping like crazy all the side characters. 😂 This cast made it easy for me.

Except for Prince An. (Sorry to hit the bad so early.) Good god, I hated that man. His character was poorly drawn in pretty much every way, which is unfortunate cuz he’s the main antagonist. Any story with a main antagonist that just doesn’t work is always gonna be weaker.

Also, no offense to people who like that actor but he was the only cast member who did absolutely nothing for me in terms of performance. So much of the story was focused on his weaksauce motivation and dry acting like, my god, put me out of my misery I do not care.

Anyway, the set design and costuming was top notch and I even enjoyed the broader story ideas the show was trying to put forth. The sitcom vibe of the first 20 eps or so was SOOO good. Our four mains’ comedic timings were pitch perfect. 

Unfortunately, the writing took a sharp nosedive in the back 3rd or so and it had a rough ending. (The lightning strike on the tower scene, the fight in the underground temple, the return of Prince An’s mom...all of that was trash. let’s be real.)

I mostly blame this on three things: the missteps with the Prince An character, the lack of development of Rong’s prophetic dreams even though that was the main premise of the show, and the jump-the-shark moment that was the wedding night and its subsequently underwritten fallout. 

Now to clarify, I don’t mean to say the wedding night event shouldn’t have happened at all but rather the execution of it within the story was poor and it negatively impacted 90% of the other character motivations/progressions and the overall pacing. 

You know, it felt like that thing you do as a writer where you wake up and have a specific scene in your mind. It’s evocative, impactful, fun, or otherwise intense. But you just have that scene and it’s something that would have to happen in the middle of your story. So you work your way backwards to try to get to that scene and you do your best to get the characters to make decisions to get there but when you sit down to write nothing works out. It’s clunky or OOC for the scene to still happen so you end up having to either scrap the evocative scene or keep the clunky lead up and hope no one notices. That’s what that wedding scene and everything that happened after felt like. They wrote themselves into a corner and just struggled to recover until the bitter end. 

The main pairing suffered the most because of the poor writing choices. No matter how much chemistry ZZH and JJY have together, even they could not completely salvage Rong’s yo-yoing behavior with Prince Su. They started off so wholesome and then dove into such toxicity and miscommunication for no reason. 

Don’t get me wrong. I can very easily enjoy angst. But Fu Rong consistently broke this man down. After ep 25-26, it stopped being good angst and became so awful to watch all the emotional manipulation and turmoil. There’s something broken in the writing if 9 out of 10 times Prince Su cried or fell into depression it was because of something Rong did or said to him after jumping to a conclusion with only part of the puzzle pieces gathered. 

I could forgive some stuff because Prince An was manipulating things but some stuff was just all Rong not giving Prince Su the benefit of the doubt or plain old not doing her due diligence in investigating. She is supposed to have inherited the most prolific and successful spy organization in the show and she still got 90% of her conclusions wrong. It was like she was determined to always think the worst of Prince Su no matter what despite how often he went above and beyond to help her. Despite the fact that he literally had a reputation as a general for being a harsh taskmaster but fair and just. 

I think what broke me was when she did the bare minimum investigation into her own father’s death and just fully blamed Prince Su without confronting him honestly or even considering his personality or their relationship up until that point. She really believed a single street seller’s entire testimony over the man she lived with and supposedly loved for months. Girl...

And this is after she’d previously mistakenly accused him of killing her mentor with very few facts to the point where she stabbed him on their wedding night.

There came a point where I actually wanted Prince Su to finally, truly divorce Rong and settle down with someone who could love him right. Maybe give him time to heal from the repeated heartbreaks, betrayals, and the literal stab wound in his chest but he was so fucking in love with Rong, he just couldn’t escape.

(If there were behind the scenes production reasons for the clunky-ness of the back half, I would not be surprised at all but ultimately they don’t matter cuz the story we got was the story we got.)

Imagine if we had gotten a Rong who used her prophetic dreams to navigate the cut throat world of royal politics. Or imagine if we’d gotten Rong as a true apprentice to Ruyi who learned both metalsmithing and spycraft in the first half and took over the pavilion as a competent leader in the second half. As it stands, it just felt like wasted potential.

I’m glad they had the modern day special AU eps tho cuz those were great. Zhang Zhehan and Ju Jing Yi had the opportunity to really showcase their incredible chemistry but in a modern setting and with better writing than the back 3rd of BRYP.

Now let’s talk Zhang Zhehan since he was the reason I started this in the first place. I loved him in this. I truly did. He was stern and serious but also playful and sweet. He was romantic but awkward, badass but vulnerable. He really delivered a nuanced and charming performance. I loved every second.

I think my favorite moment wasn’t some badass fight or even a super romantic moment. No, it was when he got drunk and started crying like a little baby cuz Rong was constantly doubting him no matter what he did. It was simultaneously sad and hilarious. Like gut busting funny. Y’all can watch it here:

I laughed so fucking hard at this. Oh my god, guys! This shit was too much.

Random Thoughts:

The romance between the 2nd leads was A+. Truly an adorable affair. Though I think they should’ve gotten together officially earlier around ep 25 or so and we should’ve seen the rest with them as a couple.

The costuming was so good y’all. For all the main four characters but I was especially drawn to Prince Su’s outfits.

The ghostly pale look with the bright red lips and eyeshadow makeup for Rong did not bother me at all. I actually liked it for her though I think it would’ve worked better if she’d had more explicit prophetic abilities.

I could’ve used more actual war scenes with Prince Su and Little Marquis.

The OST for the show SLAPPED!

That one kid spy in Ruyi Pavilion was voiced by the same actor as Chengling from WOH and I have never double-taked harder. lmao

Even though there were things I didn’t like in this show, I appreciated how gay I could make it in my last post. Truly it was a bisexual’s dream aesthetically.

[enkelimagnus]

Mezuzah

Bucky Barnes Gen, 1886 words, rated T for Hydra shit

Jewish Bucky Barnes, pre TFATWS, post Endgame

A month after his trial, Bucky Barnes gets a house and starts a slow process of reclaiming his identity and home from Hydra, more or less literally.

Read on AO3

------------

The house is quiet and empty when he opens the door. It’s eerie. He isn’t used to this kind of quiet. No one lives here. No one has lived here in a really long time. Perhaps since… he was a teenager.

It’s clean, it’s relatively well-equipped. It’s made for people who come in and out, almost like a hotel room. Everything is perfectly nondescript. Everything is calculated to be unremarkable.

The corridor ahead is painted off-white, the floor is hardwood. It’s simple. There is a stock photo of a bee and a flower hung on the wall. Bucky immediately hates it.

He can see some doors further forward, a staircase. All off-white paint, hardwood floor, ridiculously innocuous and impersonal frames on the walls.

He stands there for a long moment, with the keys in his right hand, staring inside at the empty corridor and the empty rooms and the emptiness. He doesn’t move. If anyone’s watching him, they probably think he’s crazy. They’re not wrong.

He exhales deeply.

This is his house now.

Up until and including three hours ago, it was a Hydra safehouse. It fell into the hands of the American government the day before, thanks to his activity as… Hydra-sniffing dog for the Secretary of Defense?

And now it’s… officially his house. He signed a paper he barely read to gain ownership of this place, because the Shiny in charge of him whom he can’t remember the fucking name of got orders to find him accomodation that wasn’t an army housing unit. His head is swimming.

The house was empty when they got there, earlier. Still filled with basic amenities, sheets on the beds in the three bedrooms, cans of food in the pantry, bodywash and shampoo and a first aid kit looking more like an ER’s supply cupboard than something used for everyday household nicks and cuts.

Oh, and two corpses in the basement, still chained to the chairs they’d been tortured on.

They’re gone now. Or at least Bucky hopes they are, because if someone decided to play this kind of joke on him… Who is he kidding? He’s not gonna hurt anyone, that would be… all shades of bad.

He thought they would try and put the house on the market. It’s nice, after all, a row house with red bricks and white paint, tall windows and a small staircase. He takes a step back and lets himself trace the edge of the door, the parts of the façade he can see. It doesn’t wear the marks of Hydra.

It wears… other marks.

His eyes catch on two marks on the right side of the doorpost, at about the height of his shoulder. Two holes, the kind of holes left by nails. One above the other, but not parallel. In diagonal. Tilting towards the inside of the house.

There was a mezuzah there.

Bucky walks into the house, towards the closest doorpost he can find. In the wall, on the right side, at about the height of his shoulder, there are two holes that confirm it. There were mezuzot.

There were Jews.

He feels everything go cold as ice inside of his chest. A pit opens in his stomach. This was a Jewish home. This was a Hydra safehouse.

He runs the fingers of his right hand over the holes. How long… Too long.

The last time he touched a mezuzah was on June 14th, 1943, when he walked out of his parents’ house for the very, very last time. It’s a few miles away now, or at least what’s left of it. He hasn’t visited. He doesn’t know the state of it. He doesn’t want to know.

Bucky takes a hard, hurt breath. This house was a Jewish home, and then a Hydra safehouse, and briefly, for a few minutes, it was a US government property. And now… now it’s his.

What the fuck is he supposed to do with this?

He has a house now. An empty house, with no one in it, and phantoms of inexcusable horrors and pains, echoes of the ones he saw in his community back in the day. Echoes of the ones he was around for the past… seventy fucking years.

What is he supposed to do with that?

Perhaps not leave the door open and your shit outside, Barnes.

Yeah. That would be a good start.

He walks back to the doorway and grabs his bag, pulling in his belongings. Some clothes, some toiletries, some meds, shit to take care of his arm. And one stupid postcard from that awful Smithsonian exhibit about Steve.

He shuts the door behind him, the noise echoes down the empty corridor and he sighs heavily. This… is going to be annoying.

The house seems to have been cleared of everything: the caches of money and weapons hidden behind walls, files and paperwork… Bodies. He’s never going into that fucking basement.

All he has to do now is… get settled, and wait for his next call. Perhaps the files will lead them to more safehouses, more Hydra cells waiting in the corners of the world.

It’s been ten years since Hydra revealed itself, a little less since its last leaders fell. But they’re still somehow… there. Acting on no one’s orders, following their own ideologies, usually nothing more than small white supremacist groups. Neo nazis.

Because the nazis, like Hydra, don’t seem to ever want to fucking die.

It’s 2023, and Bucky was really hoping he wouldn’t be still fighting the same fucking assholes.

Perhaps he’s stuck forever fighting the same enemy. Perhaps that’s his punishment for what he did. It feels almost mythological. Like Sisyphus pushing up that boulder, except it’s him punching Nazis into the ground with a metal arm.

Except he lives in a Hydra safehouse that used to be a Jewish home, and isn’t that fucking poetic? It’s not like he’s trying to reclaim his own identity from Hydra’s claws or anything.

Putting his things into cabinets doesn’t take long, and he ends up standing in the middle of the living room after a moment. There’s only one armchair and one chair, no table, a tv… And the open kitchen.

The outside of the house is nice, but the inside isn’t supposed to be the most pleasant, he guesses.

So… what next? Putting on tv and trying to get some shut-eye before his next call? It’s not late, only just past noon. There’s so much time ahead before he’s supposed to try to rest.

He sits down in the armchair, surveilling his surroundings. He needs weapons. He assumes the army took every single one they found. He has a couple of knives, but perhaps he should try and hide some guns around. Just in case.

He’d only just gotten used to the motel rooms they had him stay in. His trial was a month ago. And it’s been a month of back to back Hydra shit, interspersed with therapy sessions, and those motel rooms…

How is he supposed to know what a home is supposed to feel like? His place in Romania, when he was trying to piece his mind back together, had also been a safehouse, and he’d been a fugitive. That didn’t leave much space for interior design. The last home he had was his parents’ house. With the radio always on -- because Deborah would never turn it off -- with the smell of food, and his mother’s voice… With the bookcase filled with everyone’s siddurim and the chumashim, and the haggadot and all these beautiful, beautiful books. With the mezuzot on the doorposts.

Perhaps… perhaps it’s time this house gets to be a home again.

He’s not a good enough Jew for it. He’s barely a Jew at all. His dog tags are carved with P and not H, his magen david is long lost in the Italian mud, he’s spent the last seventy years scrubbed off anything Jewish about himself and acting as a Nazi gun.

But perhaps… this house has been desecrated too. It’s been robbed and sundered. And perhaps, he’s just the right Jew for this? Probably not. What he’s done can never be forgiven. What he’s done… who he is…

He closes his eyes for a moment. It can’t hurt, right?

He pulls himself up from the armchair, grabs his wallet and walks out. His left hand is hidden under his glove. No one will know.

He walks out of that house with the quiet promise that he’s coming back.

Bucky’s steps take him towards 13th Avenue, towards where the old shops used to be, back when he was a smart-mouthed kid.

Borough Park is even more Orthodox now, it seems. Hasidim, perhaps. He doesn’t know. His Hebrew school days are so fucking far from him, and trying to think about those kinds of details make headaches bloom under his skull.

He makes it to a store that looks small and mostly empty and takes a deep, deep shuddering breath.

It goes… fine. The cashier seems a little surprised, but he gets what he’s coming for. Six mezuzot cases and the scrolls to go with them. He has to buy the nails and the hammer to affix them, but… they rest heavy in the plastic bag he carries in his hand. They feel… heavier than they actually are.

The cashier slid him an extra piece of paper on the way out, with words in Hebrew on it. Except it’s been… seventy years and he can’t read Hebrew anymore.

He remembers there should be a specific blessing for affixing mezuzot, but again, his memories of the words are blurry and aching and he ends up googling it on his phone on the way home, once he has the nails and the hammer.

Once he’s standing at the doorpost with his hammer, nails and mezuzah, he stops.

One of his hands is metal and he… he doesn’t know how to feel about holding those precious objects with that hand. That hand of destruction and pain. So it’s either… he holds the case with the metal hand and hammers with the flesh one, or the other way around and he doesn’t know which one is right.

Probably neither.

This is never going to be perfect. His tongue will butcher the words of the blessing no matter how many times he repeats them. But he’s promised he would make this house a home again and this.. This is the way to do it.

So he does it. Metal hand holding the case and flesh one hammering.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu likboa m’zuzah.

He butchers that language and those words, but it feels.. It feels better than a lot of the things he’s done lately.

He’s precise with his strikes, and it doesn’t take long for all the doorposts of the house, except the bathrooms ones and the basement one, have a mezuzah affixed to them.

The cases themselves are a far cry from the ones he remembers, but it’s… it’s fine. It’s good. It’s enough .

Something settles inside of him. He’s going to have so many nightmares while sleeping under this roof, he’s going to struggle and hate everything, but he’s going to be safe. And the house is going to be a home again.

[fantasticstoryteller]

Under the Sea

The kelp waved despondently in the current as May clutched it. She turned wide, frightened eyes on her nephew, the last of her blood. She couldn't let him know how frightened she was. “This is—this is a great honor,” she said. The pale silver of her braids wrapped around her head as she tried not to look at him.

“Aunt May,” the calm voice, tinged with humor said, “I’ll be fine.”

May peered through her braids at her nephew. He was simply not built like most of the merfolk. Most of them had thick, muscular tails—well suited for pushing against even the strongest of currents. Peter—did not. His tail was long, yes, but it was also thin. Many had wondered when he was born if he would ever be able to properly swim. Most merfolk had thick, muscular bodies—fit for hunting even the most savage of predators. Peter—did not. Compared to most his body was thin, almost like his tail, and he was pale—too pale. Most of the merfolk were darkly colored and had mottled scales to help them hide in the depths. Peter—did not. The scales of his tail were bright red and blue, his fins were so white they almost glowed.

Peter could also use magic. There were others, of course, who could use magic—but Peter was the best. Peter��s magic allowed him to overcome his physical limitations.

And what else? May ignored the traitorous voice in the back of her mind. The important thing, the only thing, was that Peter was a good tadpole and had a kind heart.

A sob broke through her throat and she reached out for him; her tadpole—her son.

Peter willingly embraced his aunt, and gently smoothed the braids out of her face. “It will be all right,” he told her firmly. His embrace was firm. There was nothing, save the scrawniness of his body, to indicate that he wasn’t as strong as other merfolk.

“You’re my baby!” May wailed.

Peter soothingly ran his tail along hers as he hugged her. “I’ll be fine,” he said with confidence. “Everything will be all right.” She could only shake her head and cry, pearls falling off to clutter the floor of their little house.

***

“Shut up Wilson,” growled the dark haired man. The short, stocky man grimaced as he was hit with yet another ocean spray. “This is annoying enough.”

Wade, with no filter, gamely replied. “Aw, is it too wet out here for you?”

“That’s enough.” The order came from the leader of their little party and Wade automatically turned to look at the younger man. Scott had taken off his glasses, designed to save the people around him from getting blasted by his eyes, and was rubbing his lids. The lids had a dark, almost bruised look to them. Wade kept his mouth shut until the glasses were back on. While Scott couldn't actually kill him (no one could), he could make Wade miss out on this important event.

In an effort to create peace between the kingdoms of the land and the sea (the sea folk kept wrecking ships and the land folk kept hunting them) the sea king was sending five of his people to live on land for a year. The hope (from both sides; both rulers were sick of the bloodshed) was that bonds would be formed between the humans and sea folk. A group of five humans had been picked to meet them on the shore, to take the first steps towards trust and a better relationship.

Well, the others had been picked carefully by their ruler for the first gesture at peace. Wade was, as with most things, along for the ride.

[They should be grateful we’re here.] The long, thin beast sat next to Wade and watched sea with narrowed yellow eyes. Its white coat had taken a dull gray sheen from the surrounding land. [They have no idea how dangerous the merfolk are.]

The other beast ran into the waves only to fall back laughing. {But it’s fun!} The yellow beast rolled and looked at both Wade and the other beast with wonder filled white eyes.

The uninitiated would think that the two beasts were blind. Few knew the truth, knew what they truly were. Those who did know tended to look at Wade like he was a monster—and, maybe, he was.

Another splash interrupted Wade’s thoughts as the sea in front of them literally split in half. Rising from the depths, sea foam dancing around them, were five people. Four of them were tall, obscuring the fifth, muscular, and wider at the top than the bottom. They were covered in what appeared to be thin sheets of kelp. They were going to have trouble moving around on land.

[Don’t underestimate them Wade. They are far more dangerous than they appear.]

{A singer! This one’s a singer!}

Wade looked up in horror as Yellow bounced through the foam to jump up to the fifth one emerging. The fifth one looked surprised, but caught the beast before it fell back to the ground. Then, he smiled. Amazingly, impossibly—he smiled.

“Parker!” snapped the one at the head of the group. The boy flinched.

{I want to kill that one Wade. Can I kill him?} Yellow’s tail thumped gently against the boy’s side as the boy fearlessly held the blood beast.

“Put the beast down,” growled the leader.

Parker, the boy, carefully stepped away from the group, trotted onto dry (well, dry-ish) land, and set the blood beast on the ground. Then he gave a low note that made the water shiver off of Yellow’s coat, leaving the blood beast perfectly dry. In fact, a great deal drier than any of the humans on the shore.

In a flash White was next to Yellow and nuzzled gently at the other beast before purposefully nudging Parker with its nose. Wade watched suspiciously as the other members of the group realized (slowly) that something was going on. “Would you like to be dry too?” White gave a regal nod and the boy emitted that tone once more. Water and dirt flew off the blood beast, leaving a it a pure, pristine white.

[The singer is innocent.]

{We should keep him!}

Wade noticed the staring about the same time as the boy, and the boy stood and tucked an errant strand of hair behind his ear and shifted nervously. Scott, Logan, Anna Marie, and Hank stared at the boy—with the two suspiciously docile blood beasts at his feet. The other merfolk were staring as well and looked—annoyed.

“Parker,” growled the one in front.

The ears on both Yellow and White flattened against their heads and, as one, let out a low growl right back at the merfolk. Anna Marie cleared her throat. “Can we, uh, not antagonize the insanely dangerous blood beasts?”

“Welcome to our land!” said Hank, eyes drifting towards Parker and the beasts warily.

Of course he was wary. Wade was the one they were bonded to and he was wary. There was a reason that people avoided blood beasts.

“We’ve prepared places for you to stay,” Hank continued.

{Can we take him home? I want to take him home!}

[I agree. We must make sure the singer is not…tainted.]

By what? Wade wondered. Neither beast (no surprise there) answered him. Everyone knew that blood beasts, bound or not, answered to no one.

***

Peter watched as the person (Hank, he’d introduced himself as envoy of their land king) divided up the merfolk. Peter didn’t want to be separated from them—actually no. No, he could easily stand to be separated from them, but he didn’t want to be alone. Not on dry land. He remembered the stories…

The land beast, with yellow hair, leaned against Peter’s leg and tucked its head against his knee with a low whine. The landfolk stopped and stared for a moment, as though Peter was some kind of terrifying animal that would snap and kill them at a moment’s notice. Peter tried to ignore them as he reached down and gently pet the land animal. The white one nudged his other leg, wanting attention too and Peter was glad to provide it.

Their king hadn’t really given a lot of details as to how this mission was to be accomplished. He wanted to stop the kidnappings of merfolk by humans, and he wanted them to try and build a relationship with the landfolk. Something that Peter had, somehow, already managed to screw up.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by one of the landfolk (a human so bulky he could have been merfolk) slinging an arm around his shoulders. The yellow beast turned and snapped a bite out of the man’s leg. The man didn’t even seem to notice as the beast began to daintily chew the meat. Was that normal?

“Sorry Hank,” said the man. “This one’s coming with me.” The blue human opened his mouth to speak and the man quickly added, “White and Yellow insist.” Landfolk gazes turned to Peter before dropping to the beasts once again.

“And Wade’s home is open to that one. Ah,” the human raised his voice as Flash stalked over to Peter, “I wouldn't—”

Flash reached for Peter, who flinched, but the white beast was suddenly between them releasing a low growl that made the rocks around them tremble.

“So, uh, yeah,” said the man holding Peter, apparently his name was Wade. “See, White and Yellow are a little—unpredictable. And vicious. Very vicious. Not sure why this guy’s still in one piece. So—uh, try not to get too close? If you value your life? Sorry, sorry, not trying to break the alliance all by myself—sorry.”

Before Peter could react the yellow beast lifted its head and swallowed the meat with final gulp before trotting up to stand next to the white beast, tail wagging, tongue lolling. “Shit,” cursed the man as he strode up to the two beasts. He reached down and grabbed at the two necks.

His leg was now whole. There was a hole in the pants, where the beast had bitten through it, but the muscles underneath were once again in one piece and Peter could see the jagged skin through the hole. He stared.

Humans had better recovery powers than merfolk! No wonder their king wanted an alliance with them—perhaps, if they got the authority humans on their side they’d be able to stand a chance against the hunters! And this guy—wasn’t upset by Peter. That was new. That was…nice.

Wade turned to him. “I—I hope you don’t mind,” he said nervously.

It occurred to Peter, for the first time, that the humans were just as nervous as the merfolk. Neither side had had much interaction with the other. For the first time humans and merfolk were coming together. Peter smiled. “I don’t mind,” he said shyly.

The huge human looked at him before looking away. “Sorry,” he muttered. The white beast looked up at the man and he turned, offering a hand to Peter. “Name’s Wade,” he said nervously.

Peter, not entirely certain what the hand was for, reached out for it. “Peter,” he introduced.

The white beast gave a loud, sharp bark and Wade nodded. “These are White and Yellow,” he said pointing to the fascinating creatures.

“Hello White,” Peter said softly, trying not to get too much attention from the others. “Hello Yellow.” The yellow one jumped up and rested two paws on Peter’s chest before absently licking a stripe up the merman’s face.

“I think they like you.”

***

“Are you an idiot?” raged Antonius Stark (also known as Tony, to his friends), king of Vlagard, largest nation of the known world. He glared down at the men in front of him. “Do you have any idea how important this mission is?” he demanded. “Do you?”

The men, understanding their monarch’s anger, stayed silent.

The kingdom Vlagard had one huge strength and one huge weakness. Unfortunately, they were one and the same. The ocean provided food, for the citizens, and travel. It also provided shelter for the merfolk.

Some of the merfolk were harmless. They either wanted to learn more about the humans that looked like them, or they stayed far enough away. Tony was fine with either of those responses. He admired those that wanted to learn more about humans, and respected the ones that wanted to be left alone. That was fine.

What was not fine was the majority of merfolk, who could not tell the difference between a legitimate sailing vessel and a pirate ship, who would mercilessly attack ships and drown everyone on board. He had heard that they had a way of controlling the weather—but he didn’t put much stock in it. No one could control the weather.

He also understood the reaction. The pirates would hunt the merfolk and use them in gory, pain-filled ways that made Tony sick if he thought about it too long. He hated the pirates, would destroy them all if he could. The things they did—made him sick, they really did.

At the same time he had to protect his people—and he didn’t want to go to war with the merfolk. While all Vlagardians praised their navy and believed it to be unbeatable—Tony knew better. He knew that no matter how he enhanced his ships, how many weapons he made for them—they would be vulnerable to attack from below. There was no way around it—and from the bottom was where the merfolk would come from.

Luckily, the king of the sea was just as eager to end the war as Tony was. His reasons were different, of course; from what Tony understood the pirates had discovered the spawning grounds and were attacking there, slaughtering and kidnapping as the whims took them. Right now the pirates could hide amongst the legitimate—but if they could forge an alliance, all that would change. It was even possible that the mer and the humans could work together to destroy the pirates. Possible.

First though, they had to prove they could coexist which was not going to happen if one of the ambassadors got killed!

“Forgive me, My Lord.” Tony shifted in his throne so he could watch the approaching man carefully, warily. Lord Stephen Strange was the only true magician in the kingdom. He could use his magic to manipulate time, energy, and even living things. His living cloak was proof of his power. So far all he had done was in the best interests of the kingdom. “I was held up in divination.”

So far. Tony’s father Howard might have agreed with and held the magician in high esteem, but that didn’t mean Tony did. Tony believed himself to be a man with a practical nature. Sure, they lived in a world saturated by magic—but there was a reason the majority of the populace couldn’t use it.

“You only missed the threat to the treaty that my vassals allowed to happen,” growled Tony as the men in front of him flinched.

“Oh? The Singer is not with the man Bonded to blood beasts?” asked Stephen as he stepped into the room with a frown. “That would be—most unfortunate.”

“Singer?” asked Tony.

“Indeed. Here on land,” the magician theatrically put a hand over his heart, “we have magicians. Under the sea, they are known as Singers. I do believe that your aquatic royal counterpart sent one of them as an ambassador.”

Lady Tasha, unofficially the head of Tony’s entire spy network, stepped out of the shadows. As always, no one had realized that she was there. “Explain,” she ordered. Then, realizing she wasn’t dealing with one of her personal underlings, she explained herself as she rarely did. “Explain why it is important to allow one of our possible allies to live with an unpredictable, immortal man and his two bonded blood beasts.”

Tony shifted at the mention of the creatures. Blood beasts were dangerous, wild, and unpredictable. The two that had bonded with the former soldier were—slightly—more stable than the ones that hadn’t bonded, but that did not mean they were safe. He did not want to risk this mission by entrusting the safety of one of the ambassadors with them.

Stephen met her eyes calmly, living cloak fluttering around him in its own wind. “There are forces conspiring to destroy us, and that child is the keystone. Fortunately, they adore him.”

***

By the time they got to Wade’s home (a crappy little flat in one of the worst parts of the city) he was, understandably, nervous. The flat was small, cramped, and cluttered. It didn’t have any rodents in it—but that was because the two blood beasts were ruthless in hunting them out and killing them. He was certain that it was nothing like—like whatever the mer had under the sea.

The boy looked around the one-room flat with wide eyes. “There’s so much light,” he said as he looked around.

Light? The flat was just big enough for a bed, clothes chest, and chamber pot and the kid was talking about the light? “Uh, most places have light,” he said.

“Not in the sea,” explained the merman softly. He walked to a window and watched the play of the sunlight over the skin of his hand. “In the sea, only the wealthy have lots of light.”

[The farther down you go, the more the light is filtered by the water and the harder it is to see.] White watched the boy standing, just enjoying the sun for a moment. [Those at the bottom of the hierarchy are at the bottom of the floor, where there is less light.]

Wade stared at the beast. It almost sounded as though White had been there and seen it. But that was impossible—wasn’t it?

{Food Wade!} Yellow insisted as it wagged its tail furiously and panted. {We all need food!}

Yeah, right. Wade remembered what happened the last time he’d taken the two blood beasts with him to get food. “Yeah—no,” he told it.

“What?” asked the boy as he turned, still basking in the sunlight, to look at Wade. The glow of the setting sun softened already soft features and he looked so sweet, so pretty that Wade ached to reach out and touch—

[Peter. The singer said his name is Peter.] White trotted over to the boy who automatically—fearlessly!—reached out and pet it.

“Right. Peter.” Wade watched as the boy gently scratched White behind its pointed, twitching ears. Wade still found the sight freaky as hell. He looked at the boy. “What do you know about bond beasts?” he asked curiously.

Peter frowned and slowly, gracefully dropped to a seat on the floor. “Not much,” he said as Yellow bounded over to fling itself in his now presented lap while it panted excitedly.

Wade was very glad he was wearing loose pants. “You know,” he squeaked. He cleared his voice and tried again. “You know that the world is filled with magic,” he said as he tried not to let inappropriate imagery flow into his brain.

Peter nodded. “Of course,” he said.

Wade was stunned at how he managed to keep the insult out of his tone of voice. He swallowed. “Bond beasts—sometimes,” he said changing track, “a human is in a situation where they—impress a magical beast. The two—bond, hence the name, and they’re forever in each other’s heads after that.”

[And being in your head is quite the trial.]

“So you impressed them?” asked Peter.

White snorted with derision and Yellow convulsed into laughter as it rolled on Peter’s lap. “Well—we reached an agreement, of sorts,” Wade admitted.

{You didn’t die.}

[Not like we didn’t try.]

“And,” Wade said ignoring them with difficulty, “they said they’re hungry. Because they’re—them, I’m not allowed to take them into the general public if I can avoid it, and so I was wondering—would you like to come with me to get them food?”

White glared at him. [You must feed the Singer as well, Wade.]

“And us as well,” Wade added quickly. He thought about his usual place and winced. “There will be—a lot of people,” he said slowly.

Peter’s face, impossibly, brightened. “I’d love to meet more humans!” he said cheerfully. He gently rubbed Yellow’s face, scratching it behind the ears, before gently pushing the beast off his lap. And Yellow—didn’t—attack!

Wade shot the blood beast a look as he steered Peter back towards the door.

{Oh! I want to go! I want to go!}

[No.] White firmly sat on the blood beast’s tail. [If we go we may traumatize the Singer. We do not want him to get corrupted.]

Yeah. Wade was going to need White to explain that. Later. First—food. “Do you eat?” he asked, concerned as his hand spanned almost the entire back. “You look very—thin.”

“You’re sweet,” Peter said sweetly.

***

Francis took a long drag of his cigar as he kept a wary eye out on the clientele of the shady tavern. He knew they wouldn't turn him into the Guards, but there were a few that wouldn't hesitate to distribute what they saw as “justice” on him. He needed to steer clear of them, at least while he was on dry land.

Justice. They were just too weak to see the opportunity that presented itself. The mer were a goldmine. They cried pearls, bled rubies, and some were comely enough to grace noble beds. Ha! He bet King Stark had no idea how many of his court had illegally caught mer locked up as toys.

They’d be harder to get though, if both the Navy and the mer were after him. He just needed one more big haul, something large enough to outfit the ship for a voyage to a new land where no one knew him, no one knew his exploits. As long as it was filled with people he could use, he didn’t much care where he went.

He caught sight of a familiar scarred head and ducked into a shadowed corner as he cursed under his breath. Was he fast enough? This was not the time to be visiting that one…

But he had company. There was something—familiar in the way the young man moved. Almost graceful, even when simply moving around a puddle (piss or vomit; didn’t matter in this hellhole) on the floor. Graceful, flowing. Almost as if he was—underwater?

Francis realized what he was looking at. A mer—in human form! And a comely one! Oh, the prices people would pay for that in their bed…

He just had to figure out how.

***

The light was fading as the two of them walked back to Wade’s home. Peter wasn’t stupid; he could tell that humans prized space over light. Still, he’d lived in the shadows since he was a tadpole, and he’d always longed for the light. It was nice. It was warm.

It was drier than Peter had ever thought he’d be. He’d never been out of the water for so long before and his skin was starting to have an odd, tight feeling to it. The feeling wasn’t unpleasant, but was strange.

Then there were the people. As they were getting food the man (a thin, scrawny man that intrigued Peter because he’d never have been allowed to live to adulthood if he’d been mer), the man asked what kind of roast Peter wanted and Peter had replied that he didn’t eat meat. The man had simply smirked and said, “Wade must be disappointed to hear that.”

Wade had turned an interesting shade of red (Peter hadn’t known that humans could change their skin color like that) and paid the man before leaving while the other man cackled.

“Sorry,” he said, still red.

“It’s okay,” Peter assured him. “I don’t understand anyway.” For some reason Wade’s skin became such a stark, mottled red around his scars that he almost seemed to glow.

“It’s—yeah,” said Wade as he rubbed his neck. Peter had noticed the human made that gesture a lot, and it showed off the muscles in the man’s chest. He wanted to rub his hands over the lovely textured skin and feel the muscles rippling underneath, but didn’t know how humans felt about that kind of contact. Would his host welcome it, get nervous and explain why it was wrong, or just be so offended that Peter broke a taboo that Peter was booted out of the man’s home and sent to the palace? He just wasn’t sure.

“Well, well, well,” purred a voice as a thin woman with generous curves sauntered up to the two of them. Unlike most of the human women that Peter had met, she wasn’t wearing much in the way of clothing. “I heard you were playing host to one of the exchange mer, but I didn’t believe. The boys let it happen?”

Wade smiled, attitude changing to confident in a moment. Peter watched with fascination. It was as if the human was a rainbow of reactions to people. This person gets one reaction, this one another, and still another for this strange woman.

Mer tended to have two reactions; either they were protective and close, or rejecting and cold. Well, they were also respectful to Steve—but he was their king. Of course they all felt respect and a little awe for him.

“The boys insisted,” Wade told her.

She paused. “What, really?” she asked, disbelief coloring her voice.

“Really.”

She looked at Peter again, wonder and calculation in her gaze. “Wade,” she said without looking away from Peter, “he’s wearing seaweed.”

“To be fair, he was wearing that when—hey!”

The woman linked her arm with Peter’s and began gently towing the mer away. “Humans,” she said firmly, “wear clothes.”

“I’m mer, though,” said Peter, confused. Even more confused when Wade, trailing after them, began laughing.

“You are in human form, in human lands, and you need to dress like a human,” the woman said. She leaned close to him and whispered, “And there are Hunters on these streets. Dressing like a human will help throw them off.”

Peter shuddered. Hunters had gotten his uncle. He went along without protest.

“You going to introduce yourself Ness?” asked Wade

“Vanessa,” said the woman curtly.

“Peter.” The reply was just as curt and quick and he held his hand out like Wade had when the two of them were introduced. The woman shook it before leading him to a room filled with clothes. “Why do most of these have ruffles?” he asked curiously as he poked one item that looked like it was made entirely of ruffled cloth.

“For a different kind of hunting,” Vanessa replied, clearly amused. Behind them, Wade choked.

***

“Please, calm down,” Steve gently ordered the agitated mer in front of him. The elderly mer was twitching in a nervous manner that meant she was torn between attack, flee, and submit. Not many mer got to that part.

“You didn’t tell him the truth,” she accused, her eyes twitching between Steve and his mate.

“I told him the truth,” Steve said calmly. “He is a strong tadpole, with a good heart. I firmly believe that, out of all those we sent, he is the most likely one to bring us peace.” He didn’t add that Peter was the only one, the only mer that he knew, who was capable of looking into the eyes of a creature and seeing that creature’s soul. And that, having seen the soul, could love it no matter how horrific a creature it was.

Steve did not know if this ability was due to the tadpole’s power. A Singer hadn’t been born to the mer in so long that all anyone knew were myths and legends. Legends of great power, of civilizations created and destroyed by whims—they were even rumored to have had the ability to create new life out of nothing more than a song. Because of those legends, the young mer was outcast among his peers, tossed aside by his parents. But his aunt, his uncle—two mer who had so, so desperately wanted a child had taken him in, and raised him as though he was their very own. And the tadpole had responded by growing into a bright, vibrant, and curious mer. True, by mer standards he was not very strong—but he was smart. He was clever. He could use his power to make up for his weaknesses.

In sad truth the hardest part of deciding who to send had come down to who was clamoring for a chance to go that hated the young mer the least. Despite his humble approaches, despite his powers and abilities, he had a shocking power to create resentment and enmity among the mer. Perhaps it would be different among the humans.

“You didn’t tell him about the blood beasts!” the mer shrieked. Fish around them hid and rocks cracked.

“What blood beasts?” asked Steve, honestly confused. He’d thought they’d died out long ago, when they were banished from all the Seas and Oceans.

“I heard it,” whispered the mer. Tears pooling in her eyes had already gained the opalescent sheen of a forming pearl. “I heard his magic touch them.”

Steve’s heart seized. “What else did you hear?” he demanded of her. Had he sent the youngest, most naive of his people to a trap?

She shook her head. “I heard him use his power on not one, but two blood beasts. And—and I have heard nothing since.”

Bucky, cupping the bulge of the egg within him, swum quickly between the two of them and laid his other arm around her shoulders, as comforting as possible given that she’d been barren before her mate had passed and was unlikely to even attempt to get another one. “We didn’t know about the blood beasts,” he told her firmly. “We gave them a communication crystal.”

“You think they’ll let Peter use it?” snarled the mer.

“They will if I order them too,” replied Steve firmly. The mer hesitated, then nodded before swimming away. Bucky leaned back, secure in the knowledge that Steve would be there to catch him. “Do you think he’ll be all right?” Steve asked as he cradled his mate.

“I think he has the greatest chance of surviving an encounter with blood beasts,” Bucky replied firmly.

They both knew it wasn’t an answer.

***

Peter, having lived most of his life in the depths and only going out into the light to gather food, was fascinated by the different colors that the light turned as the sun set. Colors he’d never seen before—or even had words for!

“What is the name of those colors in the sky?” Peter asked Wade as he pointed up. He was currently carrying huge, rough bags of clothes that the woman—Vanessa—had insisted he take with him as he left and was wearing an outfit of loose pants that tied at the waist with a thin, soft rope and a large shirt that hung over one shoulder (he’d been told it was supposed to, and a lot of Vanessa’s friends seemed to wear their shirts like that).

“Which ones?” asked Wade looking up. He was carrying the food they’d gotten. He winced. “White’s right; stupid question. Well Baby Boy, the clouds are a bright pink—shut up furball, I don’t know the name of the shade—the sky behind them is orange, and the sky above them is purple. Or dark blue. Or dark blue-purple—come to think of it; I don’t know what that color is called. Huh.” The man sounded surprisingly pleased to note he didn’t know the color and turned a grin towards Peter.

Peter grinned back, watching the play of the light against the lively face beside him. The human he was with didn’t seem to be like the other humans—more like a mer that happened to have two feet. Peter found him to be endearing. And—best of all—the human didn’t hate or resent him.

He could remember far too many times when he’d been ordered to do impossible things. “Heal this wound.” “Kill that beast.” “Bring back the dead.” And every time he’d said he couldn't, they’d hated him more. After all, the Singers were supposed to be able to. What was wrong with Peter?

What was wrong was that Peter was the only Singer. He knew how to do basic things with his power like clean or find food (only plants though—he couldn't bear the thought of eating another creature). That was all he knew how to do, all he’d figured out how to do. The mer had no centralized place where learning was stored (he’d learned that humans called it a library). There was no one living who had ever even seen a Singer before Peter was born. All that considered—Peter thought he was actually doing really well.

Back at Wade’s room the setting sun made beautiful colors on the walls. More of that orange (which was nothing like the orange Peter was familiar with, nothing like the orange of fish), a little bit of pink, and an odd dark color that was both blue and purple, almost like the depths of the sea where he and his aunt lived. It was wonderful. He loved the way the light played on the walls, on the fur of the two beasts before him, and on Wade’s amazingly textured skin.

Wade calmly handed both beasts their buckets of dinner (mostly blood with entrails mixed in for good measure), and then he and Peter sat against the wall, in the fading light, as they ate their own dinners—which was something in a light brown lump. “What is this?” he asked with fascination.

Wade frowned. “You never seen a pastry? No, stupid, of course you haven’t. Can’t bake in the ocean. Give a bite, you’ll love it. I think it’s mushrooms and kelp or some shit. I got beef.”

Peter did as he was told and nearly vibrated apart at the different tastes and textures on his tongue. In the ocean the only two textures were soft and soggy or rubbery and soggy and everything had a strong overtone of salt in it (of course). But this—this was crisp and soft and chewy and the different pieces actually had more textures to them as he chewed. The flavors were indescribable. He had nothing to compare them to. “’s good!” Peter mumbled around his mouthful.

Wade chuckled. “Of course it is,” he said warmly. “Weasel’s a lot of things—but he’s also a damn good cook.” He laughed at something else, and Peter thought it might be something one of the beasts said to him. He didn’t ask; just basked in the happy sound.

The two of them finished their food in the relative silence (for Peter) of the two beasts guzzling down their buckets. When Wade finished he stood up and Peter stared at the play of light and shadows on his body. “Can I—” he started. He stopped. He didn’t know enough about humans to know if what he was about to ask was okay or if it would cause a diplomatic incident.

“What?” asked Wade, half turning, partially silhouetted in the fading light.

Desire overrode caution and Peter felt himself almost pulled to his feet as he looked at the textured skin before him. “Can I—can I touch?” he asked breathily.

Wade stared at him with wide eyes and Peter flinched back. He didn’t want to upset his host, after all. Wade swallowed hard and said, “Yeah. Yeah, you can touch.”

Hesitantly, Peter rested a hand on Wade’s arm. Fascinated by the different textures—soft, rough, smooth, hard—he rubbed his hand along the skin. He barely noticed as he ripped into Wade’s shirt moving over the muscles, feeling them bunch and tremble beneath his hands.

Suddenly Wade’s hand came up and grabbed both of his wrists—gently. Far more gently than Peter knew he could move. “Peter,” said the man huskily, “if you keep going—you’re going to start something.”

“What?” asked Peter, eyes wide looking up into the shadowed face above him. Wondering what the other man saw.

The man swallowed. “Like—sex things. Mating things, White says.”

Peter thought about it for a moment. He knew that mer and humans could mate each other. It had happened before, although it wasn’t openly spoken of. And he knew that none of the other mer drew him like the human in front of him did. But—mating meant—that. Did he want that with Wade?

Yes, Peter decided quickly as he raised himself up for a kiss. He most certainly did.

Wade kissed him back, tongue (just as textured as his skin) ruthlessly plundering Peter’s mouth as his hands roamed over Peter’s body eliciting warm chills wherever their skin touched. Peter wanted more. He pulled Wade closer to him, grinding their bodies together and broke away to look down, puzzled. How did humans mate? He was in human form, as Vanessa had said, and he thought they should mate like humans—but how to do it?

Wade silently pushed both sets of pants down leaving them standing in the dim room, completely bare to each other. The human stopped, and stared as he breathed heavily. Peter’s hands began to roam again over the plains of the human’s back and Wade pulled him into another kiss as Peter’s hands roamed lower. He brought them forward and hit the expected erection—but there was smooth(ish) skin where he expected to encounter folds. “Huh,” he said.

“What?” asked Wade.

“We’re different,” Peter explained as he brought one of Wade’s hands around to feel the glistening folds under his own erection.

“We need to lie down.” Wade said firmly as he gently led Peter to the bed. “Can I—is it okay if I lick down here?” he asked.

“Sure, but why? Oh!” Peter gasped as the rough tongue probed the delicate folds and reached inwards. It went deep—deeper than anything. It reached and reached, stoking an insane fire in his groin—and stopped as Wade pulled away.

“Peter,” Wade gasped as he looked in the darkness at the form beneath him. Peter wondered how much the human eyes could see. “Can I—can I enter you?”

Peter reached up and pulled the human closer. “Yes,” he said firmly as Wade’s own erection lined up with his folds, trapping Peter’s erection between them as he slammed home. Peter gasped as orgasm forced seed out of him—and seed within him. He felt the merging all mer did when they met their Mate and felt the moment fertility was achieved. And then the two lay, in the darkness, as sleep overtook both of them.

***

[Can you hear me? Singer? I felt your souls mesh.]

{He can hear us? Really? What am I saying?}

Peter opened his eyes to look at the two snouts in his face. His body was tucked up into and partially under Wade’s. “What?” he asked, confused. He’d never heard of this—but then a mer had never mated a human with bond beasts before, either.

[You can hear us. Good. Wake the idiot. We have a lot to talk about and not a lot of time.]

Puzzled Peter reached out. “Wade? Wade, wake up.”

Wade groaned and pressed his head to Peter’s back, mumbling something and making his skin tingle. Peter ignored the shivers running through him and gently shook the human. The human smacked his lips and licked the exposed skin sending shivers through Peter. He hummed and did again.

“Wade!” Peter nearly shrieked. He wasn’t above starting those lovely activities again, but it seemed to him that White needed to talk to them.

“Hmm hmm what?” said Wade finally waking up.

[Finally. You’ve gotten too used to tuning us out.]

{Yes Wade. That’s very very rude. Peter! Pets!} Yellow thrust himself under Peter’s hands and Peter obliged as Wade suddenly sat up.

“What?” said Wade again, staring through the darkness at his beasts. Peter helped him sit up on the bed so they could face White as Yellow whimpered and wordlessly begged for more affection.

[I told the Singer to wake you up. We do not have much time left, and there is much you need to know.]

“What do you mean?” asked Peter.

“You can hear him?” demanded Wade in shock.

[Of course he can hear us, you idiot.] White lifted its lips from its fangs in a silent growl. [When mer mate they share souls. We are bound to your soul, and now to his as well.]

{Good thing, good thing. More pets please.}

Wade watched, stunned, as Peter obliged. Suddenly he swallowed. “I didn’t—I didn’t mean to shackle you,” he whispered.

Peter smiled. His poor mate. The human really didn’t understand mer very well, did he? “You didn’t,” he assured Wade, shifting to curl into the human’s side.

[That’s very nice.] White’s voice may have said it was nice, but his tone did not. [But all of that is outside the point. Wade, as mate to the current world’s only Singer, there are things you need to know. Singer, Wade is a brash, outspoken, immature moron, but he is the best you could possibly do out of these humans.]

“I can’t tell if I should be insulted,” grumbled Wade. Peter lifted a hand from Yellow to gently squeeze Wade’s hand as Yellow lifted its head and took a dainty bite from Wade’s side before Peter started petting him again.

White ignored them. [Once, long ago, the world had two clans. There was the Carry Clan and the Power Clan. The Carriers had the ability to allow the power of the world to flow through them, not touching them, but allowing them to see the world in a new way. The Power Clan could use the power, diverting it and changing its shape. All lived in peace—until a great Cataclysm rocked the very foundations of the world.]

Peter could feel Wade frown. “I’ve never heard of a cataclysm,” he protested.

“I have,” Peter said thoughtfully. “But—only in the most distant of legends, mostly forgotten.”

White bowed its head. [It was—a long time ago. But it tore the world into two parts—that of land, and that of water, and the people were not equipped to survive either. The Power Clan did not know which of the two would provide the greatest chance of survival, and so they divided. Half of the Power Clan used their power to turn their half of the people into Humans with the Power Clan with them turning to Mages, while the other half turned theirs into Mer and their Power Clan turning into Singers.]

“So—humans and mer were originally the same species?” Wade asked. “Then why…” His voice trailed off as his gaze dropped towards Peter’s groin.

White sneezed. [I don’t know; maybe it was a fetish. Stop interrupting. The mer moved into the sea—and met the kraken.]

“Kraken,” Peter said solemnly, “are huge beasts. They’re like a cross between a squid and an octopus, and they hunt in the depths.” He’d been ordered to kill a few. He hadn’t been able to—although he had been able to make them leave.

[Yes. And the mer—were not prepared. There had been no predators larger than them before the Cataclysm. The Singers did their best—but all they could do was banish the kraken.]

Peter privately wondered if they’d ever really needed to. He remembered the kraken he’d dealt with, that he’d convinced to leave. Perhaps they were the same?

[The Singer Loki decided mer needed more power, and a place to retreat to, so against the wishes of his king, he altered the mer. Thanks to his efforts every mer born can alter their form to walk on land, should the need arise. However, this led to the Singer being Outcast while with egg. He needed a place to hide. A place to grow the tadpoles forming within him. He needed protection. He created us, and named us Impulse] a nod towards Yellow still on Peter’s lap [and Memory.] White bowed its own head for a moment.

“The Singer could create life?” asked Peter with wonder.

Despite having no pupils or irises, the beast with its glowing eyes gave the impression of rolling them. [No more than any other mer. Or human, for that matter. We were taken from what we were and changed for his needs—and loneliness.]

Peter felt his heart ache for the ancient mer who had died long ago. Mer needed to be around people, to talk and to laugh, to feel the warmth of embrace from those around them. He could only imagine how crippling the loneliness had been.

[While he was holed up in his cave, practicing his arts and preparing for the eggs, the kraken once again attacked. Their greatest warrior, his mate, forsook the kingdom and swam out in search. By the time he found his mate, our Master, he was almost insane from the solitude. The mate’s presence eased the way quite a bit, and soon the four of us watched the eggs as the mate and the two of us took turns hunting to keep Loki fed. When the tadpoles hatched, the six of us were happy.]

[However, the king of the mer was not. He resented Loki for taking their strongest warrior, even though he knew the two were mated, and had exiled Loki in his mate’s absence. He led a raid on the cave, killed Loki’s mate, and slaughtered the tadpoles.]

Peter gasped, eyes wide. How? How had a king dared to hurt the tadpoles? All life was precious! He barely noticed that both Yellow and Wade were growling.

[Loki went insane. He saw the murder of his mate, the murder of his tadpoles, and saw the mer warriors coming for us, the last of his creations. The last of his children. He Sang a change in us, making us crave blood, giving us strength, and the ability to heal. We slaughtered them all—but our Master had changed. He was Corrupted. There was—nothing we could do.]

Wade wrapped an arm around Peter. “Why are you telling us this now?” he asked.

[Peter is the last Singer. The only Singer. There will soon be a time when he must make a decision to remain as he is, to elevate himself, or to be Corrupted. I do not know which you will choose, but I wanted you to know what your decision will mean.]

“But—I don’t know how!” Peter protested, panicking.

[It is instinctual. When it happens, you will know. Do not stress.]

“Thank you, White,” Peter whispered.

Wade wrapped an arm around Peter, his side already healed as Yellow chewed its meat. “Nothing will happen,” he said firmly. “I’m here to protect you.”

Peter grinned and leaned in for a kiss. “I know you are.”

***

Flash stared at the small mer in shock. Like all mer, he could see the binding of a mating. “You—mated a human?” he demanded harshly staring at the tall human behind the mer.

If Peter had to mate a human, Flash really doubted that the young mer could have picked a better one. Tall, broad, and clearly strong the human almost looked like a mer himself. But still.

While they’d still been in the sea, Peter would have ducked his head and swum away at the earliest opportunity. Here, on land and with his mate beside him, the young mer simply took his mate’s hand in his own and met Flash’s eyes squarely and answered without hesitation. “Yes,” he said firmly.

Flash nodded. “Well, Human,” he growled at the strange human, “come. King Steve wishes to speak with Peter through the Crystal, and might as well speak to his mate at the same time.” He got behind the two of them as he watched the human warily.

Humans were tricky, manipulative creatures. They could easily switch from being friendly to being enemies and Flash didn’t know how to gauge them. Mer were simply by comparison—if a mer liked someone they liked someone and none of that pretending. Flash supposed that it was possible for the human to have tricked Peter into mating him somehow—but he didn’t know how that would be.

At least he’d been briefed on the two beasts that were with the two of them. Blood beasts. Rumors still filled tadpoles with night terrors as their older siblings whispered them. Perhaps the rumors were exaggerated—but, given the way the humans gave the two beasts a wide berth, perhaps not. He eyed them warily.

The white one turned its head to look at him without missing a step, and very carefully, very obviously, winked.

Flash stumbled and almost fell. Fortunately, neither the mer nor the human in front of him noticed. He was going to have to reassess the beasts; not once, in any of the tales he’d heard, was it mentioned that they were smart.

Inside the building was a room they’d set the Crystal up in. It was on a stool, with a cushion underneath it to prevent the perfectly round surface from rolling off and breaking. As they approached the image of their King appeared within it. “Ah, Peter,” their monarch said. “I see—you’ve mated?”

Peter nodded, his hands never having let go of his mate. A gentle tug pulled the human forwards. “This is Wade,” he said, voice proud and soft.

Flash blinked. This was a new side of Peter. This wasn’t the young, cowardly mer who refused to hunt even to drive monsters away—this was someone new. Perhaps all Peter had needed to properly settle down to his life was a mate. Shame though; while mer could walk on land, humans could not swim under the sea.

“Well done. Have you—”

An explosion took down most of the building around them knocking the Crystal off the stool and shattering it against the hard floor.

***

Francis grinned. What luck! Most of the mer were ugly, horrid bastards, but the one he’d been tracing was there. And knocked unconscious! He didn’t have to waste any of that medicine. It was expensive. He and his assistant grabbed the mer and hauled it out of t he building as he planned the auction that would land them far across the sea.

***

[Those bastards!]

{Where’s Peter? Where is he?}

[We will kill them.]

“Damn straight,” growled Wade as he sat up. The woman bending over him shrieked and flailed backwards.

“About what?” demanded a voice. Wade and the three blood beasts turned, identical growls in their throats, to see King Stark’s spymaster, Tasha. Instead of her decadent court gown she was wearing the same kind of clothes that sailors wore working long stretches on the ocean.

“We will kill the fuckers,” Wade growled as he worked his way to his feet, “who took Peter.”

“Peter.” She blinked for a moment. “The mer staying with you?” Her eyes tracked to the beasts, who had healed quicker and were shaking themselves free of debris.

{I miss Peter. He could get us clean.}

[We will find him. And we will kill them.]

Wade growled an assent as the beasts cast around for the scent of the Singer. Of Wade’s mate.

Tasha went to stop him when a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up into the eyes of the magician. “Let them go,” he advised calmly, eyes searching the air as he performed divination on the dust forming in it. “It is all in their hands now.”

***

Peter’s eyes slowly fluttered as he tried to open them, or to get his body to work, period. “Look at that, Angel,” a voice said. A rough hand gripped his chin and forced his head up, making it pound even as his skin crawled from the sensation. “See? He’s still lively.”

“He’ll fetch a good price,” agreed a second voice, a feminine one. There was something—odd about it. Flat, almost. After a moment Peter realized what was wrong—there was no emotion in her voice.

He squinted to try to see them, eyesight still blurry. “Who—are you?” he asked.

His head was slammed into a hard surface making stars dance behind his eyes. “You don’t get to speak,” the man growled. “At least, not unless your new owners want to hear you beg.”

Owners? Peter—was going to be sold? He tried to force his brain to clear, to force his mind to work.

Peter was one of the ambassadors from the merfolk kingdom. Wade, his mate, worked for the human one. If anything happened to him it would mean war—his people being pit against each other as he had no doubt that his mate would do everything he was asked within the best of his abilities—even if that meant killing merfolk. The war would be bloody—the merfolk warriors were the best of their kind, tempered against the monsters of the deep—but Wade healed impossibly quickly. They would tear each other apart and he knew, knew his mate would be bleeding on the inside, impossible to heal.

No.

[There will soon be a time when he must make a decision to remain as he is, to elevate himself, or to be Corrupted.]

“The Singer could create life?”

[No more than any other mer.]

But—the singer had been able to change life—to alter it to a shape he needed.

White was right. Now that he was faced with it, now that he had an egg and a mate to protect,  Peter knew exactly what to do. He opened his mouth and a single, pure tone rang in the air.

***

The air shivered, dust rising off the ground as people screamed and ran for their lives. “What is this?” demanded Wade as he pressed on, forcing himself through the crowd that seemed to determined to keep him from his mate. From Peter.

[He’s singing!]

{Oh! This is why you didn’t want to corrupt him!} Yellow absently bit a man’s hand off as he ran.

“Dammit Yellow!” growled Wade as he stopped to tie something around the wrist to keep the man from bleeding to death. “I told you to stop that!”

[We are losing time. The Singer is calling!]

“I’m going as fast as I can!”

[You are not.]

“How am I supposed to go faster?”

[Stop. Search yourself for the tie to your mate. Feel it in your soul. And pull.]

Wade, not entirely sure why he obeyed, closed his eyes. He could feel the tie. Now that he was looking for it, he could sense the rage and desperate need to protect swirling through Peter. He reached for it—pulled—

“Wade, look out!” He ducked as wooden club swung through the space where his head had been.

“If it isn’t the scarred one,” growled the man behind the club.

“Francis! Haven’t seen you since you tossed me in that pit and left me to die,” Wade commented as he circled the man. His blood boiled when he saw Peter.

The young mer’s legs had been tied together into a grim approximation of a tail and his arms tied behind his back. His face was bruised, scraped, and bleeding. Wade growled.

“Oh, you don’t like him? Too bad, my customers prefer them this way!” He lunged. Wade, distracted as he was, didn’t catch the blow in time. It sunk into his head. He felt, more than heard the scream.

[Call us! Call for us, Singer!]

Wade watched a single pure tone echoed into the air—for a moment before Francis slammed his club into Peter’s side. “None of that,” ordered the man.

The damage was done. Yellow landed on the man’s back and delivered a paralyzing blow to the back of the neck before proceeding to eat the evil man—feet first. White, quickly behind, growled and killed someone that Wade, still healing, couldn't see. He heard the snapping of teeth, the popping of bindings being snapped, and suddenly he was cradled in the lap of his mate with small, hard things bouncing off his face.

He crinkled his face as soon as he could. “What are you doing?” he asked looking up and seeing—pearls? Falling on him?

“Wade!” Peter pulled him close, moving his entire body, and cried more pearls which rolled off onto the rubble filled floor. “You’re alive!” he said with clear relief.

Wade smiled and reached for his mate. “I’m not that easy to kill, Peter,” he said warmly.

***

Several weeks later the two of them stood on the shore of the beach. “Are you sure?” Peter asked gently before they went into the water.

Wade ignored the way the rocks cut into the bottoms of his feet as he grinned at his mer-mate. “With you? Always,” he said.

{I want to have white spots!}

[Shut up!]

Peter giggled and Sang a change. He caught his mate as the human toppled over on his sudden tail. White and Yellow lost their fur, gained gills and elaborate fins, and were ready to get into the water again for the first time in hundreds of years, if White was to be believed. Peter changed himself and the four dove into the water and he helped Wade learn how to use his thick, powerful tail for swimming before they headed towards the ocean.

It was time for the Laying ceremony as the entire sea watched with bated breath as their King’s mate went to the spawning ground to lay his eggs. As the (only) human mated to an ambassador, Wade had been invited as well, and Peter was the only one who was capable of making sure he could make the trip into the depths without dying.

{Look! SPOTS!} Yellow swam, craning its neck to see the beautiful white spots decorating his fins.

After a few tries, Wade figured out how to speak underwater. “So,” he managed with a pointed look at Peter’s rounding belly, “will you be visiting the spawning ground, or giving birth on land?”

Peter swum around his mate, entwining their tails together as he smiled. “That depends,” he said.

“On?”

“On whether we prefer mating in the sea or on land.”

[bts-roses]

Spilling Coffee | 1

➼ summary: You’ve always prided yourself in being a naturally graceful and reliable person. So an internship at BigHit seemed like a walk in the park. That is, until a certain goof slide-kicks you off your feet and makes your life a whole lot harder.

/

Namjoon is a misunderstood klutz and y/n thinks too much.

➼ pairing: idol!namjoon x intern!reader

➼ genre: fluff, angst (if you squint), idolverse

➼ word count: 3,700

| next

‣

You have always been proud of your natural grace. Throughout your life, it’s granted you the title of being the responsible and reliable one. The one to do the important jobs. You were always the child the teacher would pick to fill a glass of water up for the paintbrushes during art class. You would do that with a smug grin on your face, holding a big ass jar of water with both of your tiny hands. You would hand it to the teacher, whip your pigtails as you turn around and walk back to your seat looking at your jealous classmates like hell yeah I just did that, you bitches could never.

So naturally, finding out you were about to intern in a big entertainment company, you just knew you were going to unquestionably nail it. Being responsible for mundane tasks like going on coffee runs or carrying boxes to different places? Uhh, you lived for that shit.

Obviously, these weren’t the only tasks and they were definitely not going to help you in the long run of your dream profession. But being able to put down that you received work experience from Big Hit Entertainment sure was. And there was an opportunity to get a job there after your internship! And the internship pays really well! And apparently the food in their canteen was pretty good! In conclusion, it was a win-win situation all around. And how hard could it be?

The answer to that was hard. Very fucking hard.

‣

Namjoon has always been in awe of how clumsy he actually was. Even his bandmates wonder how such an intelligent, grown man can be such a dumbass. Whenever he tried to fix something? Boom, it instantly got 10x worse. His fans even call him the God of Destruction. He would be offended by the nickname, but he can’t hate the truth. And the title is pretty badass if you think about it.

He was more of the kid in art class who was always given small jobs like making sure the aprons weren’t tangled up when it was time to put them away. Even though he wanted cooler jobs like holding those cool big ass glass jars, he understood that sometimes it’s just best to mind his own business and do his own designated jobs. You know, for world peace.

But today. Wow. It’s like the gods above are punishing him or something.

He actually woke up feeling pretty good. Today was going to be his day. Or so he thought. His clumsiness, once again, ruins it for him.

Long story short: he accidentally broke a bit of the toilet seat off. In his defence, he really needed a shit and someone left the toilet seat up again. He was definitely not going to fall into the toilet bowl this time. So Namjoon did the only thing a human could do in such a limited space of time: he slam-dunked that toilet seat down as hard as he could. Not his smartest idea. To his dismay, he spent his morning poo hovering over the toilet, with a piece of the seat held in his left hand. Let’s just say the other members were not thrilled when he walked out to the kitchen holding the piece of the smashed toilet seat from one of the most used bathrooms in the house.

After sitting through another one of Seokjin's speeches about the importance of handling things with a bit more caution, Namjoon decided it would be best to go to the company a bit earlier than the others today. Especially when the younger ones wouldn’t stop roasting the shit out of him. It was when he tripped over walking into the company building he thought to himself.

Maybe today wasn’t his day.

‣

This was the tenth day of your internship. And you don’t like to boast but you think you’re owning this shit. Sure, your boss is scary and likes giving you lots of monotonous tasks. But she’s not that bad. Besides, this is what you signed up for! And you’re having fun. Kinda.

“Intern.” You look up from your desk to see a smiling Joowon, one of your coworkers, “Lee is asking for you.”

Giving him a nod, you swiftly get up from your desk. You knock on your boss’ door and walk in when she acknowledges your presence.

“Yes, Mrs Lee?” you say, beaming brightly.

“I need you to go on a coffee run for the marketing team. We have an important meeting regarding TXT’s comeback and I do not want to see anyone slacking. If I do, I will kill someone,” she says looking up from the screen, giving you a small vacant smile. See? She’s warming up to you!

“Of course! Do you want me to buy you a knife while I’m out? Just in case?” You joke while giggling lightly.

“Was that supposed to be a joke?” She asks, with no amusement in her face.

You immediately stop laughing. Fuck. Maybe she’s just a tad bit scary. You stiffen a bit and nod ashamed.

“Yeah. I don’t need any of that here” she glances at you up and down and then looks back at her computer, “you should leave now.”

You bow and basically run out of her office. Okay. Fine. She’s fucking terrifying.

You knew working in a big establishment like BigHit was going to be intimidating but not this intimidating. It didn’t help that you had a subliminal fear of attractive people. Of course, you liked looking at them but talking to them made you so nervous. Maybe you should've taken that into account before working in a fucking entertainment company. They were everywhere. At least you were working in the marketing team, where your interactions with the idols were very limited. However, you still would have the odd occurrence with one. On your second day, TXT's Soobin asked you for Mrs Lee's whereabouts. You nearly cried... But let’s not think about that.

Thankfully, your department is quite small and you only had to go get nine iced americanos. The lady at the counter also gave you two paper bags that held eight of them which made your life easier. Since you were feeling fancy and had the room, you got yourself an iced latte. Realising you were a bit short on time, you quickly dashed back to the company.

Entering the building, you check the clock on the lobby wall: fifteen minutes until the meeting starts. Cool. That's fine. You can totally get there before it starts. Totally. Deep breath. You'll be fine. After violently stabbing the elevator button multiple times, you hastily enter and press the floor you needed. Seeing no one was going to get on with you, you push the button to close the doors. Just once. Maybe a few times for good measure. Before the doors shut, you catch a glimpse of the clock again. Thirteen minutes. More than enough time.

When you reach your floor, you check inside the bags to make sure nothing has spilt. You can't help but smile. Look at you. Two coffees in each hand? Not a spill. Holding two bags of coffee? Not a single drop. You really did that. You were that bitch. I am the elite intern. You think to yourself with a chuckle. Then you stop yourself and wince. Jesus Christ. You really needed to get a life.

Remembering your task, you carefully pull out your phone from your pocket to check the time; ten minutes. Just to be safe (and to beat your previous coffee run score of having eight minutes to spare), you speed down the hallway.

You can literally see the glass walls of the meeting room. Not even half of the team is there yet. You were that early. On the opposite side of the corridor, you see your boss, who is facing away from you, and Joowon talking to each other. He glances at you and smiles. You quicken your pace, about to return the smile.

Suddenly, you're seeing him horizontally.

What the fuck? Why the fuck? Oh my God. You're too busy soaking up the mess in front of you that you don’t feel the searing pain on your left ankle. You blink hard and freeze on the floor.

The coffee is spilt. Everywhere.

Shit. You’re gonna get killed. You're gonna get fired. Before you start crying on the ground, the floor starts moving... Wait. Floors don't move. Uuugh. And floors sure as hell don't groan.

You look sideways to realise you're on top of someone's chest. That said someone looks down at you.

Your heart drops.

You jump up to stand and you instantly feel the sting on your ankle. You look at the scene in front of you. You feel like sobbing again. You just spilt your drink all over RM. Fucking Kim Namjoon. You know, the leader of the biggest fucking boy group on the planet? That's the one. You aren’t just going to be fired. You're gonna be banished from Korea. Burned at the stake. Mauled to death.

"I'm so fucking sorry." You burst out, desperately getting back down on the floor to clean up the liquid with your clothes, "I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to."

You warily look at him. He's just lying there in this weird, starfish-like position. Not really moving. Oh my God, you think to yourself. You fucking broke him. Did you kill him?

You stop helplessly scrubbing the floor with your jumper sleeve and shakily ask him, "are you alive?"

Abruptly, pulls himself up in a seated position. You flinch. Fuck. He's gorgeous. Great, now you’re nervous. He stares at you blankly and you wince a bit. You mentally prepare yourself to get screamed at and you feel a sting in your eyes. God, you're about to cry. You’re gonna lose your internship. You’re gonna have no future. You're so fucking terri-

All you hear is a deep chuckle.

"Shit. You've done it again Namjoon" he mutters to himself in disbelief, "Did I hurt you?"

He looks at you in concern and shuffles closer. Carefully, he puts a hand on your shoulder. Well, he’s never seen you before. He glances down at the ID card hanging from your neck. There’s a picture of you grinning cheerfully and your name: Y/n L/n. An intern? He also notices that you don’t have the same red lanyard as the other staff here; you switched yours to an Animal Crossing themed ribbon. Cute. He looks back up and his brows furrow when he sees a tear run down your cheek.

“U-uh. I-I’m fine.” you stutter, not really paying attention and avoiding eye contact. You feel yourself shaking.

“Are you sure? I just completely wiped you out with a sliding kick.” He jokes to try to ease the situation, offering a kind smile. Fuck, he has dimples, you think to yourself. You feel him brush his thumb over your cheek to wipe the stray tear.

“Oh my God. Namjoon-ah are you okay?” your boss asks, pushing past you to check on the man, “What is with this mess? What on earth did you do, intern?”

You stumble upwards, preparing for your death. You close your eyes in anticipation. Here it is. Your life was fun while it laste-

“It wasn’t her fault. And I’m fine. Just a bit of liquid.” You hear him say.

You open your eyes and face them. The idol makes eye contact with you and you quickly divert your eyes down. You feel your face heat up from the sudden attention.

“Namjoon-ah, it’s okay. You don’t need to cover up for her. She’s just an intern.” your boss says, impressed with his supposed kindness.

Excuse me? You look up at her disbelief. He was the one who caused you to fall. Before you’re about to defend yourself, you glance at him again and stop yourself. Oh, what the hell? Fine.

“I’m so sorry! I’ll clean this up straight away!” You shout and bow deeply, accepting the fault. It was just going to be easier this way, you’re just a disposable intern anyways.

Namjoon watches you bow deeply towards them. What? This was his fault.

“Wait, no this was my doin-” He started.

“I really expected better than this, intern.” Mrs Lee sighs in disappointment, not wanting to waste time, “Clean this mess up.”

You bow at both of them again as she walks past you, heading for the meeting room. Well that went better than expected. At least you’re still alive. You sigh weakly and started your hunt for something to help clean the mess up.

Before he could intervene again to clear things up, his phone rings.

“Hyung! Where are you? We need you now, the business call is just about to start.” Jimin shouts down the phone.

Namjoon curses himself. He takes a quick look at your back before running to where he was needed. So much for first impressions. Throughout the call, all he could focus on was the cute intern he wiped out and his coffee-stained hoodie sticking to his chest.

Yup. Today was definitely not his day.

‣

After two weeks of whatever that was, you’ve been trying really hard to redeem yourself. Just a few examples: you started colour coding the meeting notes to make it easier to read; you call the coffee shop ahead of time so your coffee runs take no longer than seven minutes; you bring running shoes to work so for any errands you need to run, you literally run. Oh, and most importantly, you steer the fuck out of Kim Namjoon’s way. This step has been proven difficult because you now see him everywhere. (Apparently, their group is heading into more product deals with different companies so your department is becoming a regular for them).

You tell yourself you aren’t trying to avoid the man because that would be stupid. But you know deep inside you’re just really fucking scared of him. Here are some reasons for your new founded fear:

1. He drop-kicked you down to the floor and you would be lying if you said it didn’t hurt like a bitch. You walked with a limp for a whole week. You’re pretty sure you could’ve sued him.

2. He’s the reason Mrs Lee now hates you with a burning passion. (Bit of an overstatement but since when did your mind not blow things out of proportion?)

3. He’s too tall. His mere size towers over you. It’s petrifying.

4. He’s so fucking attractive? Like? Who allowed him to look that good daily? And when he smiles, his dimples show? The thought of them breaks you out in cold sweat.

5. He smells too nice.

6. And oh yeah. Whenever you see each other, he tries to walk up and talk to you.

It scares the living daylights out of you.

‣

Namjoon has never experienced this before.

It’s like he’s the bloody plague. The guilt was eating him alive. For two weeks now he’s been trying to come up and talk to you. And for two weeks you have been running away from him like your life depended on it. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Surely you knew it was an honest mistake and he did try to defend you against Mrs Lee. He even apologised, right? Did he apologise? Oh God, he didn’t apologise. He needs to apologise.

“Hyung!” Jungkook pushes him, “Were you even listening?”

Namjoon looks up at the youngest in confusion, “What?”

“He’s too busy thinking about his latest victim.” Jimin teases.

Jungkook laughs with him, “It’s not like she hates you or anything. If you feel so bad about it then just go talk to her and sort it out. You said she was on the marketing floor right? So just go find-”

His words get cut off by his hyung groaning and banging his head down to his table, watching the surrounding objects jump up from the force.

“You think I haven’t tried that?” He mumbles sadly into the wood, “She runs away from me.”

The two younger men look at each other.

“Hyung, you’re totally just overthinking this. She doesn’t run away from you.” Jungkook chuckles, offering a supporting hand on Namjoon’s back.

After a few hours of trying to work on some songs, Namjoon yawns loudly and stretches out his long limbs. From behind him, he hears the two yawn straight after and they all let out a small laugh.

“I think we should call it a day,” Jimin stands up, starting to pack his things, “Yoongi hyung said we were gonna have dinner tonight so we should get going.”

Moving towards the elevator, Namjoon sees you, holding a big stack of papers, from the corner. Shit. Instantly, he pulls the two members in front of him.

“Oh my God, it’s her.” He hides and whispers, even though you are out of ear reach.

Jungkook and Jimin look at the small moving figure, who is currently trying to move hair out of her face with her mouth. So that’s the girl who is clouding their leader’s mind. They watch you a few feet away from the elevator. As if they knew what the other was thinking, they exchange a mischievous look. Without warning, they forcefully drag their hyung forwards before he could process their actions.

Jesus. You whine to yourself. These papers are so fucking heavy. When you hear the ding of lift, you walk in and stretch your pinky to the ground floor button. You move to the back of the elevator, resting your back on the railing. You only have this job to do and you can finally go home. Smiling at the thought, you mindlessly look at your feet, oh and the large feet in front of you. Wait, what?

You look up in shock and meet eyes with your greatest fear. He gives you a nervous smile and you notice the two other attractive people on either side of him. Another fear of yours. (Not the biggest fear at hand but albeit still a fear). God. It’s like you were in a horror movie, where the ghosts were unfairly good looking. You feel your heart speeding. You scream inwardly when you see the idol opening his mouth.

Namjoon stutters and starts when he feels Jungkook hit his back, “Hello aga-”

He feels a gust of wind run past him.

You just sprinted out of the elevator.

As the doors close, the three turn around and watch you racing away. Gobsmacked. Before the doors fully shut, Namjoon is the only one that sees you trip, papers flying everywhere. He lets out a quiet gasp. The small room is silent.

“Well,” Jungkook quietly coughs out, “Maybe she does hate you...”

“You think she hates me?” The oldest pitifully questions and watches Jimin hit the youngest.

“No, don’t be stupid,” Jimin weakly persuades and gives an insincere smile, “She might just be nervous or something.”

Namjoon instantly frowns. She hates me.

‣

You lay face down on the floor, soaking up all the embarrassment of what just happened. Did you just fall? You? Over nothing? What in God’s name is happening to you? You look up and instantly wince. All the documents you organised, sorted and colour-coded are all messed up. There goes your early night.

Picking up the stray papers, you think to yourself: what the fuck is wrong with you? If you weren’t such a big pussy, your life would have been so much easier. You think about all of the time you would have saved if you just walked the quicker route, regardless of whether or not he was in the way. You think about all the plants you wouldn’t have hid behind to prevent his attention. You think about all the information you could’ve learned about your dream job if you didn’t reject the offers just because there was a slim chance of running into him.

At the end of the night, you have one question burning into your mind: why were you so scared of him?

‣

“You like him.” Daeun proclaims. You just told her about your most recent encounter with him.

You stare at the fellow intern in confusion, “What?”

“You have a big fat crush on him.” She repeats, taking a bite out of her lunch, “Just think about it, you said it yourself, your heart races when you see him... So you like him.”

“My heart races because I’m scared of him” You point out.

“No. You dumb bitch. Your heart races because you are nervous.”

Oh. Well, this was not what you were expecting when you asked your friend for advice. You have a crush on Namjoon?

“B-but I don’t know anything about him.” You argue, shaking your head.

“You don’t necessarily have to personally know him to crush on him,” she continues, “You find him attractive right?”

“W-well, yeah I guess so-”

“There you go. We’ve cracked it. You’re just horny for him.”

“The fuck? No, I’m not.” you push her and she laughs.

“I don’t blame you, he walks like he’s got a massive cock.”

You shriek and whack her in detest. She screams jokingly at the pain. When you two look around and notice people staring, you both can’t help but laugh hard.

At 9PM, you were laying in bed, thinking about your friend’s words and you couldn’t help but to be curious about him. Sure, you liked his music as much as the next person but you didn’t know much about Namjoon as a person. Since you just graduated from college, you didn’t have much time to spend on immersing yourself in the world of the BTS. Letting your curiosity get the better of you, you start doing research, telling yourself it’ll only take a few minutes.

After watching countless interviews and videos, you wonder how such a person could exist. He’s intelligent, loving, kind, gentle, passionate and- well you just go on for hours. You laugh a bit when you realise his only fault: he’s the biggest fucking klutz.

It hit you at 3AM when you finished watching his UNICEF speech with a big ass smile on your face.

Fuck, you totally have a crush on Namjoon.

a/n: hello! thank you for reading + i hope you’ve enjoyed. i’m also already in the process of writing the second part, if that is something you would like to see!

[rudolphsboyfriend]

ndbdbdhd i saw ur 4 picrews and u said u made headcanons for them and i’m curious so if u wouldn’t mind pls info dump ur headcanons for them on me <3

Sjdhd YES I'd be glad to!! There weren't alot at first but I'll def be adding to them as i make this post so here goes

Ok so fr ref these r the four from this adorable picrew, credits go to them

I haven't named em so for now their names r Stars, Skull, Heart, Dots after their lil speech blurbs

They're all Japanese just cuz I associate this kinda manga-ey art style w Japan

They're chilhood besties and hang out regularly, despite their personalities being completely different.

Heart and Skull r twins but not the identical kind

Stars

He's half English

He was actually inspired by a character from Mo Dao Zu Shi named Nie Huaisang.

If u just met him on the street u'd think he was kinda harmless and unassuming but really he's very smart and calculating. He's not evil but he is,,, morally ambiguous.

He's v calm and chill unless u offend him/his friends. He'll take revenge in some unfathomably roundabout, clever way so you don't even realise he's doing it, and he'll be totes normal looking and like nothing is wrong.

His family owns a big hotel in uptown Tokyo so he's the sugar daddy of the group.

His parents r the really competitive-and-projects-on-their-child kind, so he went to a bunch of extra curriculars and is like, creepily good at everything. Sometimes he's even good at things he's never learnt.

He's the top of his class at college, where he's majoring in History with a minor in Japanese lit

The other three are pretty sure he sold his soul to be good at everything (they're right), but he's their bestie and pays for everything so they don't care

He's Pansexual and is single atm

Heart

Heart didn't go to college and is a waiter at a restaurant, but he has some other, very irregular source of income and no-one knows what it is except Skull.

It doesn't happen often, but he sometimes disappears for hours at the weirdest times.

He's actually a hired assassin, but he only kills like, rich assholes who r exploiting others, and only accepts payment if whoever's paying can actually afford to pay. If they can't, he works for free. Think Robin Hood but murder.

His family was poor so he always hated people who exploited others for money. Star's fam is a very honest and kind rich family that helped his fam out often, and he doesn't attack those kind.

He had secretly dreamed to be an assassin since he was a kid. At first it was just a kid's fantasy but as he grew he started taking it seriously. He began at 19.

He's a really fun, outgoing and bubbly guy. He's v popular, everyone likes him. And he's not the assholey kind of popular. He's just really friendly and warm to be around. Which is why noone even thinks of "assassin" being his other job

Despite his popularity, his two friends, his twin and his parents are the only people he really cares about. He's a crazy loyal, ride or die kinda guy for these five.

He's an amazing painter, but he never learnt professionally cuz he would much rather do whatever he wants on a canvas for fun. His art style is very impressionistic and Monet. Draws a lot of nature

He's trans and ace+aro

Skull

He's a Fine Arts major in college, the absolute top student. The red stuff on his face is paint i promise :) He mostly paints in classical styles like baroque.

He's bi and has a boyfriend whom he loves very much. He's planning on proposing soon!!

He's very intimidating and has "stay away from me" energy. People find it hard to believe he and Heart are related, but they're actually extremely close.

There's a rumours that Skull is a mafia gang leader, that he once killed someone, etc. None of these are true, of course.

He does help his brother plan his murders tho. He's really good with planning and organising, Heart is not. He shares the same hatred as Heart. They're a duo, always working together, Skull planning and Heart carrying it out.

His boyfriend knows all this and just reminds them to be careful.

The only people who can get him to laugh regularly are his boyfriend and Heart. The besties can too but less often.

He doesn't even genuienely smile around other people. If anyone else asks him to smile his does this rlly intimidating smile like in the picrew.

He loves his boyfriend, brother, and the two besties alot. He's not very obviously affectionate, but the others know his little subtle displays of love. He's just really bad at showing emotions.

Similarly, he's not very romantic. Not in the aromantic sense, he's just awkward. Luckily his boyfriend is very cheesy and it's helping him come out of his shell.

However, he's a sentimental drunk

He and Heart often talk about their parents like they r dead, or really far away. They all live within cycling distance of each other, but they find this funny.

He cries at happy endings, and if anyone other than these three sees they will be killed

Dots

Dots is non binary :)

They have a girlfriend. They just started dating but they're v happy!

They're like, the most normal of the four, considering one friend sold his soul, one is an assassin, and the other a criminal mastermind. Dots is just a tired college student.

They're a computer animation major with a graphic design minor. They're doing well academically, not the top but still high

Their dream is to start their own animation company.

They're not very talkative but everything they say is hilarious and they're a sassy sarcastic lil shit. Easily the funniest of the four.

Theyre actually really kind and nice, they're a lil withdrawn but polite and friendly.

They cry at sad+happy endings. They cry at bittersweet endings. They are a crier. They do not try to hide it.

Their taste in music is just. Everything. From bubblegum pop to screamo metal to alt to 70s country.

Knows every single band/artist out there.

Is a surprisingly good singer. Their parents were music teachers so knows how to play all kinds of instruments

Either stays up for 3 days straight or is passed out like a dead body. No in between

Estranged from their fam and is now roommates w Stars

Wow this got. Real long. It's also literally just me projecting intensely onto fictional ppl so yeah.i hope u liked that!!! Odkdnsk does this mean i have OCs now wow.

Thanks fr the ask this was actually really fun!!!

[krabstick32]

It’s The Little Things We Remember (collab)

We’ll Do It All Over Again - A Modern/Reincarnation AU with @trueblueoceaneyes​

Welcome to the second part, or the “head” of the We’ll Do It All Over Again (Modern!AU) Collab! This Modern!AU collaboration is divided into two parts, @trueblueoceaneyes​’ “It Took A While, But We’re Home Now” and mine “It’s The Little Things We Remember”. It’s about you and Giyuu meeting in a new life where the Corps and the Demons still exist, armed with the memories and experiences of a past life. Although both of them are set in modern times, and technically within the same timeframe, they are not direct sequels or immediate continuations, so it can be read alone. (Although, we would appreciate it if you read the other’s part UwU)

NAVIGATION:

PART 1: It Took A While, But We’re Home Now by @trueblueoceaneyes​​

Novelist Giyuu Tomioka passes off his past life as a fantasy series but shit goes down when the main heroine of his book shows up in front of him.

PART 2: It’s The Little Things We Remember by @krabstick32 (You are here!)

You’re tasked to go on a mission with the Water Pillar. He was a bit of a jerk, but despite meeting him for the first time, you already knew that - among a couple of other things.

header was made by trueblueoceaneyes and image used was by @/sinba_ on twitter

Pairing: Hashira!Giyuu x Hashira!Reader (mentioned Mitsuri x Obanai)

Synopsis: You’re tasked to go on a mission with the Water Pillar. He was a bit of a jerk, but despite meeting him for the first time, you already knew that - among a couple of other things.

Tags/warnings: There is some light angst, swearing, a semi-graphic depiction of a fight scene, and a bit of blood. If you’re not comfortable with that please do read something else uwu

Word count: 14.1k~

A/N: I honestly can’t believe I was able to work with the one and only @trueblueoceaneyes​. Like literally, all of this was possible by their wonderful and amazing self, and would not exist without them (i still can’t believe how we literally wrote a grand estimate of 23k words) UwU working with her was so fun, and her writing is beautiful and i am willing to sing her praises day and night, so go check them out!! <33 BECAUSE BOTTOMLINE IS: SHE’S GREAT.

To be completely honest, both of us were freaking out with how long this is, and were crying over how we would cut it, until we said fuck it, let it be 14k words long. We thought that theirs was long, but we thought wrong lmao. Anyway, we hope you like our labor of love, and enjoy it as much as we did writing it. Please Enjoy~

NAVIGATION:

PART 1: It Took A While, But We’re Home Now by @trueblueoceaneyes​​

PART 2: It’s The Little Things We Remember by @krabstick32 (You are here!)

Thursday 9:37 PM

From: Headquarters        

            9:37 PM

Head to Ubuyashiki Tower—Oyakata-sama’s office at 10:00 PM. Meeting Assignment.

Taking note of the short message, you shut your phone and tucked it into a shirt pocket before heaving a sigh and standing up from where you were perched at the edge of a building. 

Ensuring that both your Nichirin blade and Nichirin gun was tucked well onto your person, you turned around and leaned your body back, letting yourself fall as you grabbed a stray railing to hoist yourself back up.

Despite the late hour, the city was loud as you jumped from building to building. From the height you were on, it was relatively easy to hear the sound of cars and sirens, and the faint thumping of music from the bars that dotted the streets. You made sure to keep yourself hidden in the shadows and on top of the rooftops to avoid detection as you were rushing to get to the Ubuyashiki Tower in the few minutes you were notified to arrive. Thankfully, the building wasn’t far from your previous assignment, so you were able to arrive in record time, landing at the top with little difficulty as you walked towards the lone structure settled in the middle for those like you, and entered the elevator inside to go down a few floors.

Exiting the metal contraption, you were greeted by a welcoming lobby with an adjacent garden open to the crisp night air, filled with wisterias and designed with a respectably sized koi pond. Nodding to the young girl at the receptionist table, you continued walking to a brightly lit hallway cushioned with lush carpets, and wall-mounted lamps. 

As you walked, you composed yourself for a moment and brushed off your skirt, using your fingers to lightly comb over your wind tousled hair. When you finally reached the large door at the end of the hallway, you took a deep breath before knocking three times and entering.

Upon your entrance, you quickly noted Oyakata-sama sitting on his desk chair and Giyuu Tomioka, a fellow Pillar, standing tall in front of the master. As per protocol and to show respect to the leader of all demon slayers, you quietly bowed and greeted the master as soon as you were in front of his desk.

“Good Evening Oyakata-sama. I apologize for being late, I got caught in a mission.”

“Raise your head.” You obeyed, and saw him smiling calmly at you, easing your nerves. “It’s alright my child, you aren’t late. In fact, you arrived at just the right time. Giyuu himself just got here.” 

“Thank you Oyakata-sama.”

The master gave a small nod and gestured to the chairs the two of you were in front of. “Well, now that (F/N) is here, I have something to discuss with the both of you. Please, take a seat.”

You tossed a quick glance at the man beside you and mirrored his actions as the two of you took a seat. Upon your and his movement, Oyakata-sama clicked a button, and the room instantly dimmed as a projector dropped down behind him.

“As the both of you know, we’ve been getting reports about disappearances focused around Natagumo Prefecture.” The screen showed a sizable map with a specific area highlighted in red. “Specifically the town at the base of the mountain. It seems to be acting as the base of operations of the demon.”

He clicked at a small remote and the screen showed fifteen humans aged around ten to sixteen years old. “It’s been a month and over fifteen missing cases have been reported to the police.” The slide changed and showed seven people wearing demon slayer uniforms. “Seven of our own haven’t returned after that mission.”

Immediately your stomach twisted into painful knots upon hearing the deaths of so many innocent lives - you felt sick unto your very core. No matter how long you’ve been a demon slayer, it never gets any easier hearing a death count.

“Could it be an upper moon?” The Water Pillar asked after a moment of silence.

“I’m afraid it’s possible. I hate sending any of you into the battlefield, but I need the two of you to handle this as quickly as possible, to avoid more lives from being taken.” Oyakata-sama replied somberly. “Take the necessary supplies. You can leave at dawn.”

The two of you stood and bowed in respect to Oyakata-sama.

“We’ll update you on any major news.” Giyuu spoke, and you added “Yes, We’ll take our leave now.”

The two of you left and walked back out into the hallway, and through the reception area. The girl from before was nowhere to be seen, so once the elevator doors opened, the two of you rode in silence down to the swordsmiths' floor. A mission such as this would require the two of you to have your weapons checked and to grab any necessary items.

On the way down, you decided to engage in a conversation with Giyuu. Despite being a Pillar for a few months now, this would be the first time you were paired with the raven-haired man, or spoke to him for that matter. You wanted this mission to go as smoothly as possible. 

Taking a deep breath, you started, “So, Tomioka-san, this would be the first time we're on a mission together, yeah?” You broke the silence and gave him a smile, only for the silence to stretch on uncomfortably after your words left your mouth. Thinking that maybe he didn’t hear you, you were going to repeat it until the doors opened and he spared you a quick glance. 

“Uh, Tomioka-san?”

“Stay focused. This is an important mission.” He spoke, in a strong yet quiet voice, and exited with a brisk pace until he disappeared behind a corner, leaving you standing alone in the elevator to gape at his response.

You were dumbfounded. “He did not just…” you asked yourself, because how rude was it to ignore your coworker and leave them hanging? Those were the first words you spoke to him - apart from the compulsory introduction of you being the new Thunder Pillar - and yet you were promptly snubbed. Even Obanai replied to you when you spoke to him.

In your stunned silence, the doors started to close until you reached out a hand, and exited as well. Briefly, you heard a small shhk that signaled it closing, but didn’t care as you were absorbed in your thoughts, carefully picking apart the situation.

There was nothing wrong with what you said. You were only trying to engage in a conversation - trying to get along for the benefit of your mission, because nothing was worse than a tense atmosphere between a team. But then he goes and slaps your metaphorical face by insinuating that this was all a big game to you, that you’re not taking any of this seriously? You were a Pillar; as if talking to a handsome man would distract you from doing your job and exacting vengeance for those poor souls killed in cold blood.

Letting out a dignified huff, you continued walking, and resisted the urge to stomp your foot down at the Water Pillar’s unfriendliness.

In the back of your mind however, you were barely surprised. He was always like this—always putting up a front in the presence of others, always acting cold as ice, always pretending like he didn’t care even though he did care, he cared so much, all because he felt that he didn’t deserve to be happy after—

“Don’t come closer.”

You were losing breath as you tried to catch up with the raven haired male after a Pillar meeting. How was he even walking so quickly? Not to mention it didn’t look to be as taxing to him as it was for you. He was practically strolling when you were full on sprinting. He was a Pillar, sure, but so were you! 

“Hey! Don’t ignore me,” you gasped as you stumbled over the uneven path, but you quickly regained composure. Giyuu doesn’t even pause for a second. “I just wanted to-”

“No thank you. Please leave me alone,” he gruffly replied. How come he didn’t seem the least bit tired? You heard he trained at a mountain, fine, but how the hell was he this fast in such a thick forest? You still couldn’t go around that quick without tripping over some root or getting hit in the face by a random branch! 

Making up your mind, you go as fast as you can and tackle him. It doesn’t look like he ever expected you to do that, because he loses balance and you both go crashing into the forest floor. 

Whatever you were on top of shifts and you’re forced to move. You groan as you get up, only for the breath to hitch in your throat as you find yourself staring into blue eyes. 

Gods above, he looked absolutely divine. 

“Why?” he grumbled as he softly pushed you off of him and sat up. “What were you trying to accomplish by doing that?”

“It’s not my fault you were walking so quickly! Who does that when you’re talking to someone?” you huffed, your cheeks feeling incredibly warm at how close you both were. He probably caught how you had gawked at him. 

“Fine. What do you want?” he groaned, frowning at you. He doesn’t miss how red your face had gotten and how you couldn’t seem to look him in the eye. “Why do you keep following me?”

“We’re going to be friends.”

“...What…?” Giyuu stares as you smile brightly at him. You were practically sparkling. “You’re joking, right?”

“Of course not, you idiot. Do I look like I’m joking?” you huffed again, before getting up and dusting your kimono and uniform free of dried leaves. “We’re going to be friends even if it’s the last thing I do.”

Giyuu is completely dumbfounded, until you reach down and pull at his hands to get him up on his feet. He takes a mental note of how your hands looked so fragile and soft compared to his own, but you had pulled him to his feet with strength that did not match your smaller body frame. 

“Why… are you doing this?” he whispered. He couldn’t understand. 

“Well, I don’t like seeing people alone. Especially when they don’t look like they want to be,” you grin at him as you both find your way back to the village. Giyuu is quiet, both by your words and because you haven’t let go of his hand. “First off, let’s have lunch! My treat, of course.” 

When you blink, you feel like you just took a sudden breath of air and the room comes back to view. What just happened? What the hell was your subconscious on about? Where did those thoughts even come from?

You barely knew the man. You didn’t know where he came from or what his circumstances were. You tell yourself to get your facts straight and effectively push back whatever that was, only leaving the memory of the conversation you just had - or the lack of a proper one, to be exact.That small thought quickly dampened the fire of your irritation, because admittedly, you believed that first impressions aren't everything - to always take them with a grain of salt. Despite how plain rude he was, you had no right nor the sufficient amount of experiences to be able to understand his character and pass judgement. 

Slowly, you took a deep breath, and exhaled. 

Maybe he just had a rough day, or maybe he was just shy and socially inept, a farfetched and random thought may it be. Perhaps that was just how he really was. Regardless of his personality though, you can’t deny the fact that he must be an exceptional demon slayer to be granted the rank of a Pillar, and because of that, you’d try your best to at least be respectful to him, even if he didn’t return the same courtesy.

Shaking your head, you resumed walking, and turned the same corner he did to reach the weapons room.

You wouldn’t say it out loud, but you were willing to admit to yourself that he was amazing.

The way he moved and handled the sword was absolutely unparalleled, you noted as you watched from the side. His actions were like water - the way he dodged was perfectly calculated, his slashes fluid, and precise. It was like no movement was wasted because everything was precise and deliberate. It almost seemed like he read the battle in the blink of an eye before executing an attack.

You couldn’t help but feel awed as you watched his fight. He truly was something else.

“Hey, am I really that pathetic to you? How annoying are you to turn your back on an opponent to ogle your comrade?”

From your periphery, you felt the air vibrate, and without batting an eye, you unsheathed your blade and cut off the approaching appendage with little effort. “I was enjoying the show y’know. It’s not everyday I get to see him fight,” you sighed as you turned, and slashed at air to get rid of the blood on your sword. “But you’ve ruined my fun. Might as well get this over with. So, what’s your name?”

“Are you stupid? You don’t even know me, the great upper moon six?”

“Frankly, no. Not really.” This wasn’t upper moon 6. It was strong yes, but no matter how many humans a demon ate, this was nowhere near the strength of an upper moon. Although with it’s impressive blood demon art of replicating multiple limbs, you wouldn’t be surprised if it was a lower moon.

It seemed to pause, before screeching out a loud “How annoying!” as a dozen arms lunged for you.

You quickly jumped out of harm’s way and up a decently sized branch. “That’s a pretty cool blood demon art you got there. Imagin—!” You leaped off the tree before a large snap cut you off as the demon broke the branch you were previously on. “Hey! I was talking!”

“Annoying! You’re so annoying! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

“Ugh, is that all you really have to say?”

Crouching on the branch, you pushed your feet, and catapulted yourself into the sky. You shut out the world as you breathed deeply, focusing and positioning your body into one of your breath forms.

“Thunder breathing, First form: Thunderclap and flash.” And in a flurry of movement, you landed deftly on your feet before hearing a loud thump sound from behind you.

“Well.” Dusting off your skirt, you stood and faced the demon. “That should do it.”

“How annoying!”

Immediately, you turned around and was surprised to find the demon floating 15 feet off the ground.

“Not so pathetic now, am I? A Pillar like you can’t even kill me!” It taunted, before raising his hands and the ground beneath you crumbled.

It all felt so real. You felt the ground shake and how the earth seemed brittle - only instinct made you twist out of the way as the forest floor seemed to cave under you. A tiny mistake on your part caused you to land quarter of a meter short from what was supposed to be the edge, but once you felt a completely intact forest floor, you immediately knew that multiplying elastic body parts was not its Blood Demon Art.

You need to talk to Tomioka. This could get ugly fast without knowing which was real and which was an illusion. Your eyes immediately found him fighting, but widened in horror as you watched the demon he was fighting pushed at his shoulders and slammed his head against the ground. You felt your heart freeze as you screamed his name, not even noticing that you used his first.

“Giyuu!” 

In your haste to reach Tomioka, Giyuu’s vision suddenly slowed as he watched one of the demon’s limb aim for you.

You were distracted from seeing him hit his head, and in a moment of weakness you didn’t notice the demon preparing for the kill.

It was too familiar; it felt like he’s seen this before, like he lived through this. His vision overlapped with a visage, of you wrapped in a painstakingly familiar haori, your skin pale and painted with red, his hands wet and drenched in your blood… 

“Giyuu, stop, please,” you begged, your voice barely above a whisper. It hurt having to be moved around so much. You felt really tired, despite being carried.

Red. Red. So much red.

“No, no. Just shut up, please,” Giyuu could feel his lungs constricting. He was so panicked he had forgotten how to use his breathing technique. He felt like his whole chest was on fire, legs only moving due to adrenaline. “Please. We’re close to Shinobu, just-”

“Giyuu…? You’re still there, right?” your voice was so small, so unlike how he usually heard it laughing or calling for him. “Why…? Can’t I see you…?”

It was like something in him snapped.

No, I'm not letting you die again!

“WATCH OUT!” Giyuu screamed as he moved so fast that only your fellow pillars would be able to see how he grabbed his gun from its holster and aimed at the hand reaching for you. 

Upon hearing his warning, you immediately flipped back, using the forest floor as a springboard to push yourself out of the way. When you landed, a solid arm got a hold of your waist and you felt yourself being pulled to a strong body, as the air brushed past the two of you.

Quickly, he pulled the two of you behind the cover of a massive tree, Giyuu only letting go of you when he took a quick glance at where the demon was cradling its hand and screaming its head off. You were breathing heavily, immediately aware of how close you were to death’s door.

“Are you okay? Did you get hit?” He turned to you as he asked, gently holding your shoulders and inspecting your uniform for any blood. Whatever he saw just now felt so real, he had to check for himself if you were alive.

You shook your head, dazed as you saw the worry cloud his eyes. “No.”

He breathed out a heavy sigh, feeling relief flood into his system before scolding you lightly. “You need to be more careful! You almost got yourself killed!”

“Sorry, sorry. But that’s besides the point. How are we going to kill it? It’s blood demon art shows some pretty damn convincing illusions.”

Tomioka thought for a moment. “We need to distract it, keep one of us at the front while the other takes the kill from the back.”

You nod in affirmation. His idea made sense. “I’ll be the distraction.”

“What? No, i’ll do i—“ Giyuu stopped talking once he noticed the sound of a clashing sword and found that you weren’t there in front of him anymore. “Sure,” he sighed before gripping his sword and jumping on the trees’ branches for cover.

He didn’t notice you fighting earlier, but as he jumped from branch to branch all around the opening, he saw that you were incredibly fast. Even with his enhanced senses, you appeared to be a blur as you weaved in and out of the demon’s clutches, laughing all the while taunting it.

“Ahh, this is fun! You should’ve put on a fight like this with me back then!” Squealing, you darted out a hand and slashed at its neck. Unfortunately for the both of you, the demon was nearly as fast as you were, and you only managed to land a scratch on its skin.

“Annoying! The way you’re jumping around is annoying!”

Giyuu wanted you to stop talking so badly, because you weren’t supposed to rile the demon up like this! Distract it sure, but not bait it to want to kill you more!

“Oh, are you getting mad already? You seem a little red there.”

“ANNOYING! STOP! MOVING!”

“Ah, would you prefer me to stand still? I wouldn’t mind! You should have said so earlier.”

And when Giyuu saw your eyes dart to his for one quick second, he immediately knew what you wanted him to do.

In an instant, he launched himself off the branch he was on as you pulled back your sword and jabbed it at the demon’s forehead.

“Water breathing First Form: Water surface slash!” Quickly, he extended his sword and slashed at its neck before it could move a muscle as he twisted his body to avoid hitting you. The leaves crunched under his shoes as he landed on his feet a couple of feet away.

“Annoying, annoying, annoying! Put me back on my body so I could prove to you that I’m not pathetic!” The demon wailed as it started to disintegrate on your sword. “He would’ve let me move from Lower Moon 1 and let me join the Upper Moons if the two of you didn’t meddle! You two will pay for this!” It threatened, as the last of its body turned into ash, and its clothes fluttered down to the ground.

The clearing was quiet save for the wind whistling past and the tree leaves rustling by.

“That was the real one right?” You whispered, slightly anxious that another one would pop up in the silence.

“It is.”

Heaving a sigh, you looked back at Giyuu and saw him walking towards you.

“Are you okay? You hit your head right?” You asked him, surprise coloring your face when he tore a portion of his suit. “What are you doing?”

Gently, he took your arm and inspected a decently sized laceration settled neatly in between your shoulder and elbow. It was deep, but it was a clean cut and it wasn’t too bad, considering that you’ve had much worse such as broken bones and dislocated joints.

“Worry about yourself first, will you?” He turned your arm carefully, making sure that his actions were slow and steady before wrapping the piece of cloth carefully and with practiced ease.

You frown. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I feel fine. Now focus on yourself. This is pretty deep. It might need stitches.”

Though it was unlikely, you hoped that it was too dark for him to see your face clearly—it felt too warm for your liking. “I… didn’t notice.”

He tied the bandages off neatly, before answering, “You will soon. The adrenaline will probably wear off in a few minutes.”

“I’m not the best at first aid, but this will do for now. Try not to move so much until we get to Shinobu?”

It felt oddly nostalgic, seeing him worry like this a little, almost like a distant dream or a distant memory. “Thanks.”

Giyuu nodded before pulling out his phone from his coat pocket. “I’ll be updating HQ. Kakushi should arrive in a bit. Do you want to wait for them, or head back?”

You weighed the pros and cons before responding, “I wouldn’t mind waiting for them. The fight was fairly easy, but I feel drained. We could get checked too.”

“That’s a good idea,” he said as he typed another message while you sat down slowly beside a nearby tree trunk. Once he shut his phone, he followed your lead and leaned down on a tree a few feet from yours.

After a few minutes of a slightly tense silence, Tomioka decided to break it, and be the one to start the conversation.

“That… was the first time I saw you fight. You’re pretty fast (L/N)-san. It was amazing.”

“Oh?” You tried to mask the surprise in your voice. Hearing him initiate unnecessary conversation was something you weren’t used to, especially after your first conversation (if it could even be considered one) back at the Ubuyashiki tower. Was he offering an olive branch?

Regardless, you couldn’t deny the warm feeling in your chest as you looked up and automatically smiled up at him. “Well, you were doing really good yourself. I’ve never seen someone move that gracefully in a fight like that.”

At your compliment, he looked down at the ground as he tried to hide his nervous habit of fiddling with the hilt of his sword. “I’m not.”

“Oh don’t be modest now Tomioka-san! You looked amazing!”

“I was complimenting you; don’t turn it around on me.”

Laughing lightly, you let out a breathy “Okay, okay.” After deciding to not push your luck and that you’ve bothered him enough, you raised your hands in defeat before bringing them back down to your lap.

The silence that followed was definitely nicer compared to before, until he broke it again with a near inaudible whisper.

“Giyuu.”

“Hm?”

“Just… Giyuu. Giyuu is fine” he added, rubbing a hand on the nape of his neck.

Smiling widely, you turned to him, “If that’s the case, just (F/N) is fine too, Giyuu.”

“(F/N) it is then.” he spoke, feeling a sense of warm familiarity as he tested the way your name felt on his tongue.

Truthfully, he noticed when you called out his first name even in the heat of battle. It wasn’t much of a big deal back then, because the two of you were focused on staying alive and doing your job, but as he processed the fight in his head, he found that he didn’t mind, and that he actually liked how his name sounded in your voice.

As if on cue, the cracking of dried leaves and branches alerted you and Giyuu, instinct driving the two of you to grab onto the hilt of your nichirin blades. The tight grip on your swords only eased up when the familiar uniform of the kakushi moved into the clearing. There were around ten of them, seven surveying the area and taking down any evidence of the demon’s existence while there were three holding medical kits who walked over to the both of you.

They stopped once they reached a reasonable distance before bowing slightly. “Tomioka-sama, (L/N)-sama, please excuse us. We’ll be checking on your injuries.”

You muttered a grateful thanks as the kakushi attending to you started cleaning the wound Giyuu wrapped earlier. It was wrapped pretty well, so they only applied an ointment before replacing the cloth with gauze. “I apologize (F/N)-sama, I can’t suture your wound here because I’m not trained. We’ll immediately take you in the medical wing of the tower once you and Tomioka-sama head back.”

“Thanks,” you smiled as the kakushi bowed in front of you. “Hey, no need to bow, I really appreciate your help…?”

“...Tanaka Ayaka.”

“Really, thank you so much Tanaka-san.”

“O-Of course (L/N)-sama!” Tanaka said, bowing deeply in gratitude for your kind words.

As you and Tanaka argued on why she should or why shouldn’t bow, Giyuu watched discreetly, feeling the warmth pool in his stomach from the kindness you displayed. He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the pain on his head multiply as the kakushi tending to him started wrapping gauze on his bleeding wound.

“Please bear with it for a bit longer Tomioka-sama, you have a concussion-”

Immediately, your gaze darted to the side. You weren’t eavesdropping on his conversation - truthfully, you only overheard - but when your eyes landed on a stream of blood coating patch of his hair and a portion of his pale skin you didn’t notice before, you absolutely flipped because how dare he tell you to worry about yourself first, when he was the one with a head injury!

“You idiot! You told me you were fine!”

The kakushi watched on in wide-eyed surprise (and slight fear as well) as the mighty Water Pillar looked everywhere else except at you, the fuming Thunder Pillar, who were scolding him (fairly lightly) for not telling you about his injuries.

Ayaka didn’t even argue with you afterwards.

Arriving at your estate after a mission used to be a nice moment for you, because you could rest and train at the comfort of your own home, but hearing the silent clunk of your keys resonate through the walls… you couldn’t help but feel a little cold and lonely.

It’s been a week since that mission with Giyuu back in Natagumo Mountain happened, and only a couple of hours since you left Ubuyashiki Tower. After your initial report to Oyakata-sama, he suggested that the two of you stay and take a few days off to heal your injuries at the medical floor. The two of you didn’t even resist as you were both led to adjacent rooms, showering immediately before dropping dead at the futon laid in your respective rooms. Now, you were as healthy as you could be, the laceration, bruises and scratches all healed thanks to the week of rest. Before you left, you made sure to inform the master of your recovery and thank Tanaka-san who took care of you and kept you company.

Taking off your blazer and loosening your blouse, you passed by your living room and walked into the kitchen to try and make something to appease the grumbling of your stomach. You did occasionally have your home cleaned on a schedule when you weren’t around, but moments like these were when you were a bit regretful of not hiring any at-home help. 

The fridge was a welcome sight as you grabbed the handle to open the door; the contents however - or the lack thereof - weren’t as appealing because it was empty save for a wrinkled lemon, a few bottles of water, and a quarter-filled jug of milk.

“This is pathetic,” You grumbled as you recalled the moment you ate the last bit of leftovers without restocking your kitchen. Whyy.

“I hate myself,” you moaned to your empty kitchen. 

Deciding to put yourself out of your misery, you walked up to your room to store your weapons and to change into a pair of jeans, and a hoodie. Once you were in something comfier, you grabbed your phone, your keys, your wallet, and a small nichirin dagger - for safety, at the off chance of getting ambushed by a demon or a human - and put on some white sneakers before locking your door and leaving your estate.

Taking a deep breath, you felt the cold night air nip at your lungs and the exposed skin of your face. The difference in temperature shook you a little, as you broke out into a jog. Pulling up your hood, you tug the strings tighter and into a cute little ribbon to prevent it from falling.

The walk to the convenience store would normally take fifteen minutes, but with you jumping on roofs and taking shortcuts you knew by heart, you were there in record time, and feeling hungrier than you did before.

The convenience store was a sight for sore eyes as the familiar ding sounded upon your entrance. Smiling at the clerk, you grabbed the largest basket and moved around the store, grabbing everything that looked appealing and piling them on as best as you can.

Once you were satisfied, you proudly walked back to the cashier and presented your precious loot to the boy in front of the register.

“Stocking up huh?” He smiled as he rang up your items.

“Yup. The lone lemon in my fridge was feeling a little lonely.” You joked as you grabbed your wallet.

The two of you chuckled as he bagged your food, pointing to the little screen of the cash register once it was done. “That would be 6,854 yen.” You gave a light nod and handed him a ten thousand yen bill. “Here, you can keep the change.”

His eyes bugged out of his sockets at the large tip “Yo, thanks, dude!”

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed familiar black hair, and a quick glance behind you took you by surprise.

“Tomioka-san! Why are you here?” You asked in surprise.

He eyed your overflowing bag and your silly attire. “Same reason why you are.” He answered. At his surprisingly sarcastic response, you quickly pulled back your hoodie, and looked him over to note that he was in a similar attire to you, though he was wearing a sweater and a cap, instead. “Although i’m just getting dinner, not the entire store.”

The remark caused you to flush red in embarrassment. You didn’t want him—or anyone really!!—to see you pig out. “Oh, um. Well, I’m just… restocking.” He seemed skeptical, but there was a ghost of a smile settling on his face.

“Okay,” He said casually as he moved past you further into the store.

Nodding at the cashier and grabbing your bags with both hands, you walked after giyuu, instinct ruling over rational thought.

“Hey,” you called after him. He turned back to look at you, causing you to stutter in your words a little. Why did you call for him? What could you say to make him stay for a little bit without making yourself look like a total fool? “I—… um, i mean, uh would you like to share my loot? I think i just bought most of their stock, and I… still haven’t thanked you for saving my life back at Natagumo.”

He raised a brow at you. “Loot?”

“The food I got,” you mumbled as you dropped your gaze to the ground and felt your face burn at your choice of words, because who in the world calls their groceries ‘loot’, except you? Ah, how embarrassing!

While you were wallowing in your misery, you missed the way Giyuu turned his face away from you and the way his shoulders shook from containing his laughter. You just looked too cute, all flushed and flustered like that, but he did his best to hold it in because he didn’t think you’d appreciate him laughing in your face.

After a moment, he composed himself, and went back to his cool and normal facade before replying a short, “Okay.”

“Great!” You beamed at him, trying to squash the butterflies in your stomach. “Want to head outside for the tables?”

“Sure. Lead the way.”

Unconsciously, you grabbed his hand after moving your other bag. You didn’t notice his face warm at your casual touch, but the cashier did, and he gave a thumbs up to a flustered Giyuu as the two of you passed by.

“Ah shit. I forgot to get drinks!” You exclaimed as you rummaged through your bags.

Giyuu watched you with a small smile. “With the amount of food you bought, I’m surprised you didn’t raid their drinks too.” He was joking, but he really was surprised. It’s like you bought everything in the store - The two of you already ate two bento boxes each, five bread buns each, three rice balls each, and had a cup noodle… each. 

There was even another bag of chips open at the table, and your bags were still full!

“Is that a joke I hear?” You smiled, leaning back in your chair as you popped a chip into your mouth. “Well I didn’t expect to meet you here. I was originally going to eat at home.”

He nodded before standing and stretching a little.“Don’t worry I got it.” 

“Wai-“ you were going to hand him spare change, but he was already at the vending machine two houses down the street. 

You sighed and used your hands to prop your head upright. How unfair.

As he inserted a few bills in the slot, you couldn’t help but admire his profile. You always noticed him back at work. He was extremely professional, nearly passive as he was assigned missions and at the rare times you catch him training at headquarters. But as the two of you were here together in a convenience store, all of it felt so… so normal. In this short moment, you could just pretend that demons weren’t real, that you still had a family waiting for you back home, that you were just a normal twenty-one year old woman hanging out with a friend from work who you wished was a little more than just a friend.

“Cheater.” You pouted as he walked back within hearing range.

He ignored you, passing you a bottle. “Here.”

“Thanks.” You said, taking the bottle and looking at the cover. “Oh! Yuzu Juice! I didn’t know I told you about my obsession with these.” 

“You didn’t.” He answered taking a seat, as you rummaged through your pockets for a bit of change.

“Really? Huh.” You didn’t seem to notice how he scrunched his eyebrows and looked at the drink carefully.

Normally, buying a drink for someone wouldn’t be a big deal, but he didn’t just randomly guess. It was almost second nature for him to pick that drink. He could almost hear a voice in his head that sounded so much like you.

You couldn’t come with Giyuu to Natagumo Mountain because you were hurt pretty badly from the last mission you went to. He had come to visit you at the Butterly Estate.

“Why are you so excited about a fruit?” Giyuu asked incredulously, as your eyes shimmered at the basket of yuzu fruits he brought.  “It’s just a fruit right?”

You gasped as you hugged the basket away from him. You looked so offended that Giyuu was taken aback for a second, halfway considering an apology.

“Just a fruit? JUST a fruit?” you gasped again, more dramatically than the last, but you don’t think Giyuu understands you’re pulling his leg because he looks even more worried. “Am I actually hearing this from my own lover?”

“Why? What’s so great about it?” he asked, but you don’t miss the hidden panic underneath his voice. “Am I missing something?”

“It’s a yuzu fruit, Giyuu,” you lean in and whisper, like the greatest of secrets were being shared between the two of you. “And do you know what that means?”

Giyuu shakes his head slowly, entranced. He leans in as you motion for him to come closer.

“It means,” you whisper, before pecking his cheek and grinning as he blushes. “We can make my favorite drink.”

You laugh as Giyuu groans, burying his face in his hands as he fell for another one of your stupid jokes.

“Don’t forget, Giyuu,” You toss him a yuzu fruit from the basket before leading him to the kitchen of the Butterfly Estate. Hopefully Aoi and the other girls wouldn’t mind if you borrowed it for a bit. “I can never turn down some good yuzu juice.”

Giyuu blinks, and suddenly he can’t remember what he was thinking about just a second before. He felt like he was forgetting something very, very important.

“I… just took a wild guess.” he muttered. There was no use pondering about it now, no matter how hard he tried to grasp at the straws of his memory.

“Well, you made a pretty good guess.” Placing a hand over the cap, you opened the bottle and took a hearty sip “Ah, I love this so much! Here’s my share.” You said, offering a hand with the money.

“Oh please, as if I can’t afford to get you juice. Think of it as thanks for sharing your food with me.”

“Okay then,” because If he wanted to treat you, who were you to argue?

“Meeting adjourned. Stay alert, the issues we’ve talked about will be sent later as a mission to some of you.” The room was once again bathed in light as Oyakata-sama pressed a button which shut down the projector and automatically drew the meeting room curtains back open. You and your fellow pillars stood as Amane-sama grabbed the handles of the master’s wheelchair. “I’ll be seeing all of you at the next meeting. Take care, my children.”

All of you bowed deeply as Amane-sama closed the door shut, before the nine of you stood from the chairs situated around the large table, moving to talk to the others.

“(F/N),” you immediately felt your heartbeat faster. You would’ve kicked yourself for reacting in such a way when he called for you, but damn it if it didn’t make you feel nice.

I think my heart is broken, what the hell.

“Ah, Giyuu, are we still on for training later?” you smiled politely at your co-worker, and Giyuu faltered for a second too fast for you to have noticed before he had already recomposed himself.

“Yes, but don’t expect me to pull my punches just because it’s training,” Giyuu felt the corners of his mouth turn up ever so slightly as he watched your face flush.

“I’ll have you know that I hardly break a sweat from fighting off demons alone, so I should be the one to tell you that,” your cheeks were puffed from indignation. The words pour out of you without thinking and you don’t even realize what you’re saying anymore. “Besides, when have you ever pulled your punches? You said you’d always spar with me using everything you had so I wouldn’t die out in-”

“What…?” Giyuu’s voice knocked you out of your rant. He had a funny look on his face, like you had said something odd. You immediately backtrack to your little spiel in search of something wrong - something embarrassing - you might’ve said. “When did I…?”

When has he ever pulled his punches? I mean, it’s true, I’m sure of that, but…?

You stop. How would you have known that? This was your first training session together. What were you going on about? By the thoughtful yet confused look on Giyuu’s face, you could tell the words had not gone unnoticed.

“N-nevermind that,” you tried to salvage your pride, despite your ever glowing face. “I, uh, I don’t know what I’m saying. Sorry, I just…”

“No, it’s fine,” Giyuu shook his head and waved away your apology. There was a pause before he seemed to make up his mind. “Actually I was—“

“Tomioka-san!” You and Giyuu jump as Shinobu suddenly pops up between the both of you. You’re confused whether to be thankful for her cutting in or not - on one hand, she had saved you from more embarrassment, but on the other, you wanted to know what Giyuu was going to say. “Sorry to cut your conversation short, but we need to borrow (F/N)-chan for a little bit. This won’t take long!”

Without even waiting for Giyuu to respond, Shinobu’s already dragging you away from the black haired male. You turn to look back at him apologetically.

“Sorry, I’ll meet you in the training hall,” you see him wave at you in goodbye before Shinobu makes you turn a corner and you both enter an empty meeting room. Well, it was mostly empty, save for a couple of people.

“So, Shinobu, Mitsuri… Uzui and Kyoujuro? What’s up...?” you ask hesitantly. You don’t like the knowing looks and the mischievous grins they have on their faces.

“You tell us.” You don’t like the glint in Shinobu’s eyes as she stares you down. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen Tomioka initiate a conversation on his own.”

“Or smile for that matter.” Mitsuri added, barely suppressing her grin. Shit, didn’t she live for this kind of thing? You were definitely fucked. You need to get out or you’re dead.

Uzui hummed before getting all up in your face, making you take an involuntary step back, but Kyoujuro blocks you from taking another step. You were surrounded on all sides.  “Yeah, it was weird. Did you do anything flamboyant to him?”

“Excuse me?” Did they think you pulled some sort of magic trick over him? A sort of spell? “I did nothing!”

“Nothing, she said!” Mitsuri squealed, before turning back to you with eyes glittering. “Did you see the way he looked at you? He looked like he was on cloud nine!”

He… he did?

Brushing it off, you wave off their words, because the very thought of him being genuinely happy while talking to you made you ridiculously happy. And you didn’t want these idiots to see it. You were not going to give them the pleasure of seeing you turn into a bumbling, blushing mess.

“Oh, please, if anything It’s m-” You cut yourself off once you realized that finishing that sentence would lead to an entirely different ballpark you were not willing to enter. “You know what? Nevermind. Giyuu’s waiting for me so I have to go.”

“Oh, so it’s ‘Giyuu’ now huh?” You catch their words before you make up your mind to book it. You thought you were free because you only had to take one more step to get out of this cursed room, but a strong, yet slender hand darted out to grab your wrist, effectively preventing you from walking out of this room and out of this conversation.

“Nu-uh, not until you answer us,” Misturi grinned, locking you into a hug to make sure you didn’t try to run away again.

“Guys, I swear, we need to train.” you grumbled, feeling the sweat gathering over your forehead.

Uzui tsk-ed, and placed a hand over your shoulder. Great, just what you needed: another restraint. “Look, we’re just curious. Tomioka’s flamboyant, but he’s a pretty quiet guy so we’re worried for him.”

“Aw... well, tough shit, I’m going now.” You say, finally prying yourself free from Mitsuri’s soft albeit annoyingly strong grip.

“(F/N)-chan, you don’t have to deny it.” Placing a hand over your shoulder, Misuri smiled softly at you, and you didn’t like how you could practically see the hearts flying around her back.

“Deny what?” Maybe, if you acted like you had no idea what they were talking about, they would drop it, and you can leave, and you can train with Giyuu.

But such things in life would never happen, and you were doomed the very moment Shinobu snuck up on your conversation. You didn’t like the thought of him waiting for you while your coworkers hounded you.

The four of you turned when you heard a light sniffle come from Gyomei. “Ah, to be young and in love.”

“Wh-? No, it’s not like that at all!” you tried to defend yourself, but by the look on their faces you knew you were fighting a one-sided war. They were convinced there was something going on. To be honest, the more time you spent stuck in the room with them the more you were slowly coming to terms with your own feelings. And that was not good. “Besides, we only went on one job together, so why-”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve never heard of love at first sight~” Mitsuri giggled, and by the look on her face you had a guess she was already planning the wedding.

“Love at first sight, my ass,” you groaned, recalling your first assignment together. “He basically told me to shut up the first time I tried talking to him. What’s supposed to be cute about that?”

“The first time,” Shinobu emphasized, and you buried your face in your hands at her knowing smile. “But from what we just saw, not only did you talk again, but he even initiated the conversation himself.”

“Not to mention you’re going to be training together,” Kyoujuro nodded vehemently. “And as far as I can remember from my time as a Pillar, Tomioka has never trained with anyone because he preferred to train on his own.”

“And I guess now I’m never going to find out what training with him is like because you guys insist on keeping me here,” you were honestly proud of yourself that you haven’t punched someone yet - but you were oh so painfully close. If not one of them, then you might just punch yourself just to escape the shame. This felt oddly claustrophobic and it was making you slowly lose your mind. “Also, when have you guys turned into detectives?”

“(F/N)-san, we would’ve let you go already if you’d just admit what was going on between you and Tomioka,” you stared dumbfounded as they all nodded, waiting patiently for your answer.

If you guys think I’m going to crack first, you’re dead wrong.

“It’s nothing, okay?” you sighed, exhaustion over this whole ordeal finally setting in. Would you even be able to train with Giyuu like this? “He invited me to train with him after I almost messed up during our mission. That’s all there is. You guys have just been looking too much into it.”

The room goes quiet, the other Pillars taking turns to look at one another, unsure of where to go from there. You shake your head as you pass by them and make your exit.

“NO! I refuse to believe that!”

Oh my god, no, please.

You look incredulously at Mitsuri as she blocks the door in front of you. You feel your eyes twitch sporadically, your hand that was already holding on to the doorknob tightening and your knuckles going white.

“Mitsuri, come on,” you groan. You weren’t too keen on saying anything (too) bad at the pink haired girl since she was honestly really nice, just ever so slightly airheaded, and getting into bad terms with her husband Obanai didn’t sound too appealing. “What more do you want from me?”

“How about the flamboyant truth, (F/N)?” your head whipped back at lightning speed at Uzui, who merely laughed at the dead-eyed smile you gave him.

“What ‘truth’? I already told you guys, I-”

“(F/N)-san, one last thing,” your head turns to Kyoujuro, who shares a look with Shinobu. You watch as something passes between them, before the Insect Pillar nods back at him with a sweet smile. Kyoujuro grins as he turns back to you. “Just do this one thing for us and I promise we’ll let you out.”

Shit. I don’t like that.

But you stand your ground. “And that would be…?”

“Can you look into my eyes and tell me that there’s nothing going on between you?” he raised an eyebrow, challenging you with his wide eyes that seemed to stare deep into your soul.

You lower your head, mentally preparing yourself. You pray to whatever higher being that could hear you to give you the strength to get through this unscathed.

Please, for the love of my sanity-

You look back to Kyoujuro, head held high. He holds your stare - his eyes were intimidating as hell -  but to your relief, he backs off first after a good few seconds. He sighs, as does Shinobu.

“Fine, fine. You win, (F/N)-san,” Shinobu grumbles.

“For now,” Uzui throws you a mischievous grin as you pass by. You scowl at him.

“Whaaaaat? We’re letting her go?” Mitsuri wailed as Kyoujuro practically pried her off of the door.

“A deal’s a deal, Mitsuri-san,” Kyoujuro said.

You’ve barely taken a step out the door when a hand is placed over your shoulder. You don’t bother to turn around, scared you really might punch someone this time.

“(F/N), one last thing,” Sighing, you turn back heavily, because it feels like they’ll never let you leave, but when you see Gyomei smiling kindly at you, you can’t help but return it too. “Remember, there is no shame in admitting your feelings. Face them head on and find strength within it. You can only run from your problems for so long until you loop back to where you started, because you can never stop things that were set in stone by fate.”

Despite how drained you were feeling, you manage a genuine smile. “Understood, guys.”

Letting out a sigh, you were finally able to breathe after your nosy coworkers got all up in your business. You were glad that you were alone in the elevator, because at least now you could take a moment to compose yourself and get rid of the blazing blush before you faced Giyuu.

“Can you look into my eyes and tell me that there’s nothing going on between you?”

Kyojuro’s words echo in your head. You were unbelievably lucky for being able to keep your poker face before he cracked, because if that stare-down lasted a second longer, you would’ve burst, and confessed your feelings to them instead of Giyuu.

Snapping out of your thoughts, the doors opened to a bright wide room that smelled of wood and steel. The training hall was one of the many floors in the building and the Corps spared no expense in getting it look as it did with high ceilings, and large areas divided into varying sizes. Some areas were even designed after different types of terrain.

You spot Giyuu with his back to you, warming up in the center on the biggest mat of the entire hall. He was doing practice swings with a wooden sword.

“Hey, sorry I'm late,” You say, causing him to pause mid-swing as he turns to see you grabbing a wooden sword on the far wall and depositing your own blade beside his. He watched, slightly mesmerized as you gathered your hair into a high ponytail on top of your head. “Want to get started?”

He shook off his daze before he raised a brow at you, setting his sword tip down against the ground and leaning a bit of his weight over it. “You’re not going to warm up?”

Smirking, you say “Oh please, this is my warm-up.” You don’t give him a chance to reply as you move straight for him, sword held high.

In one effortless swoop, Giyuu had his sword in front of him blocking your swing with ease. “That’s cheating, in case you weren’t aware.”

“I know.” You smiled, before retracting and swinging again. “But I prefer to call it strategy.”

“Haaaa,” You breathed out before dropping on the floor. “I’m glad we’re on the same team. Fighting you is crazy exhausting.”

Walking towards you, he offered you a water bottle and once you took it, he sat down beside you. He was so close, you could feel the warmth radiate off him. “Likewise. You’re ridiculously fast.”

“And you’re ridiculously strong.” You smiled, taking a sip from the bottle he gave you.

The two of you were quiet, keeping each other company as the other regained their breath. In the silence, you couldn’t help but let your mind wander back to the conversation back in the meeting room.

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen Tomioka initiate a conversation on his own.”

“Did you see the way he looked at you? He looked like he was on cloud nine!”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve never heard of love at first sight~”

“But from what we just saw, not only did you talk again, but he even initiated the conversation himself.”

“As far as I can remember from my time as a Pillar, Tomioka has never trained with anyone because he preferred to train on his own.”

“Remember, there is no shame in admitting your feelings. Face them head on and find strength within it. You can only run from your problems for so long until you loop back to where you started, because you can never stop things that were set in stone by fate.”

All of their words passed by your head like a snapshot. It was slightly disorienting hearing the others comment on your relationship with the Water Pillar. You liked him, but you already planted it in your head that you had no chance. Because who were you kidding? One look at him, and you knew that you were out of his league. He was good-looking (though that was more of a bonus than anything), dedicated, strong, and had a dry sense of humor that could rival your own. A guy like that was bound to have someone waiting for him at home. He was too much of a catch for you to believe otherwise.

“(F/N)?”

“Yeah?” you hum distractedly, still completely submerged into your own head.

“Do you-” He started, and abruptly, your bubble of fantasies popped.

He was looking at you weirdly, an expression you’ve never seen him make, and somehow your mind managed to mix that up with him being able to read your thoughts. You just panicked, your mouth spouting off nonsense before you could process anything, trying in vain to protect yourself from rejection. “No! I don’t like you!”

“Oh.” He looked back at his folded hands before adding a short “I’m sorry.”, before you realized what you just said. Regret immediately washed over you. 

“No, I mean, I don’t not like you, I-I’m not making any sense-”

He interrupted you gently before standing up and dusting off his clothes. “No, it’s okay, you don’t have to explain yourself. I understand. Sorry if you felt forced to train with me.”  

Oh my god, you’ve never wanted to slap yourself harder in your life than you did in this moment. 

You fucked up. You fucked up so bad.

You reach for him, trying to explain, “Wait, don’t misunderstand please, I was jus-”

“Really, it’s fine. I know I'm not the easiest person to like. Especially with how I treated you back on our first mission.”

“Giyu-”

“I’ll be leaving now (L/N)-san. I’m sorry again.”

And that was the last straw. Hearing him call out your name in such a cold voice hit you so deeply that you tell the consequences to fuck off as you stand up, and pull him back to you.

“(L/N)-san, I swear, it’s fine-” Neither of you get to hear how he ends his sentence, because you grab his shirt, and pull him closer, until your lips were pressed against his.

You felt your resolve crumble as your lips moved against his own, and as his hands reached over, cradling your face closer to his. It was so soft, so warm, and your heart ached as you felt your eyes start to sting. After a moment, the two of you pull away, bringing your foreheads close, before you spiral into a wild spiel.

“You idiot! If you would just listen!”  You whisper lightly, afraid of what his reaction would be. “I like you. I really, really like you. I didn’t mean what I said. I only said that because you caught me off guard and I didn’t think you’d like me back! I’m scared of being rejected by you because you're smart, you're funny, you're nice… ”

“I didn't want to tell you but I got caught up in my thoughts, and I just… I know what I said, and I’m sorry, I'm really sorry. It might sound like an excuse to you, but you really did catch me off guard. If I could take it back I would.”

“I’m really sorry, Gi...Tomioka-san. I hope you could forgive me.” You say, before you untangle your arms wrapped around his neck, and walk yourself to the elevator, not even waiting for the inevitable rejection you’d get from him.

Pushing the doors open, you didn’t notice how the other pillars - namely Mitsuri, Shinobu, Kyojuro, and Uzui - were still situated around the room, because your only goal now was to get the bag you left earlier, leave straight for your home, and sleep.

When they saw your puffy eyes however, all of them looked amongst each other, before pushing Mitsuri closer towards you.

“(F/N)-chan, are you okay?” At Mitsuri’s soft voice, you jumped out of your skin, cradling your bag to your chest as a shield.

“W… What are you guys still doing here?” You ask, before furiously wiping at your eyes.

“You’re avoiding our question. Why are you crying?” Normally, you would’ve brushed them off, and replied in a snarky comment, but you were tired, and you just wanted your bed.

“I... Tomioka and I got into a little fight, is all.” You replied, not even looking up from fixing up your bag.

Mitsuri immediately looked back at the others upon hearing you say ‘Tomioka’, before rubbing your back consolingly. “Do you want to tell us what happened?”

You sniffed. “No, not really. I’m just tired and I want to go home.”

A quick look passed between Mtsuri and Kyojuro before the Flame Hashira walked over to you.

“And home you shall go! C’mon, (F/N), I’ll drive you back.” Kyojuro said, grabbing a hold of your bag while Misturi took your hand, leading the two of you after Kyojuro. “Yeah! I’ll make you some pancakes, and lots of other food!”

Once the three of you left, Shinobu looked up at Uzui, and nodded.

Shinobu and Uzui found Giyuu splayed back at the center training mat.

For a good second the pair thought that the Water Pillar had fainted, or something of the same degree. But upon getting closer, they noticed him looking up, dazed, with a hand over his lips. Making their way over, they sat at either side of him, waiting for him to acknowledge their presence.

“What are you two even doing here.” Giyuu blinked as he realized he wasn’t alone in the room anymore. They were looking down at him with a mix of surprise and amusement. “Did you just come to stare at me?”

“We should be the one asking you that,” two seconds into talking to Giyuu and he was already testing Shinobu’s patience. “(F/N) went back to the meeting room.”

“Yeah. She was crying flamboyantly, by the way.” Uzui nodded briskly, arms crossed and eyes closed in thought.

Giyuu couldn’t deny how his chest had tightened at the memory of you walking out earlier, “I know.”

When he didn’t speak for another few seconds, clearly having no plans to elaborate until prodded, Shinobu sighed. “Care to tell us what happened?”

Do I have to…? Giyuu scowled softly. But he might as well, since he was lost ever since you left, with no clue what to do next.

“... She told me she didn’t like me, so I apologized and moved to leave,” Giyuu’s voice was no louder than a whisper, as if he was scared someone would overhear. But the other Pillars heard him nonetheless. “But then she kissed me and told me she liked me before leaving me here.”

Shinobu would be lying if she didn’t admit she felt victorious. So you were lying. HA! But that’s a conversation for another time. Right now, you left the other half of the party lying down on the training room floor and it seemed they needed to drag him back to his feet if they wanted a straight answer from you.

“And? How do you feel about that?” Shinobu poked the side of Giyuu’s cheek, but it’s like the male was still lost somewhere they couldn’t reach as he failed to give the slightest reaction besides words.

“Confused.” Giyuu muttered mostly to himself. “Really confused.”

“I feel like there’s a flamboyant ‘But’ in there...?” Uzui honestly felt like he was getting his child to admit what he did wrong - except he had no child, he was talking to the Water Pillar, a grown man who should’ve been easy getting answers from.

Giyuu’s eyes softened at the idea of you, and the kiss from earlier, and the look didn’t exactly escape the surrounding Pillars. “I like her too. A lot.”

Shinobu suddenly stood up, surprising both males. “Well, then, you’ve got your answer. So what are you lying around here for?”

“She left, I doubt she wants to speak with me now,” Giyuu muttered, disheartened - which was the exact opposite of what Shinobu wanted to achieve.

She remembered something odd she noticed when you had left earlier, so she looked around the room and felt like she struck gold.

“Oh, she did leave, it’s definitely too late for that,” Shinobu says, brushing aside Giyuu’s sarcastic “gee, thanks”. “But I have a hunch that she’ll be returning soon.You’ll just have to wait.”

Shinobu pointed to the far end of the training room, forcing Giyuu to muster the energy to sit up to see where she was pointing to. There on the wall was your Nichirin blades among the rack of extra training swords. 

“I can’t believe how stupid I am today.” You grumbled before exiting the elevator.

You were on your way home with Mitsuri and Kyojuro, when you noticed that the sword strapped to your waist wasn’t your nichirin blade, but the wooden one from the training hall. Kyojuro was nice enough to turn the car around back to the building, and pressed the hazard button on the car as he pulled up in front of Ubuyashiki tower.

“Take your time (F/N)-san, Mitsuri-san and I will wait here.” Lightly, you smile at him before grabbing the wooden sword and going into the building.

And this is where you find yourself. You were back in the training hall, warm orange light filtering through the large windows as the sun began to set. You were glad you noticed your missing sword when you did because not being prepared for a mission could cost someone’s life. Running your fingers through the wall, you open the lights and feel a slight disappointment at how empty the hall was of people - or rather one raven-haired male.

You messed up once already, (F/N). Why add to that by wishing he was here?

Letting out a sigh, you move to the wall, to where your sword was supposed to be, and jump out of your skin when you notice the Water Pillar leaning over and facing away from you towards the window.

Of course. Of-fucking-course. Because why not?

Quietly, and in hopes to avoid him seeing you, you creeped carefully along the wall, clutching your nichirin blade to your chest, as you exchanged it with the wooden sword. You turn around, thankful that he didn’t seem to notice your presence before walking to the ele-

“Why did you leave earlier?” He asks, not moving an inch from his position.

Of course he noticed you.

“I didn’t think any of us had anything else to say.” you fiddle with the blade in your hands, refusing to turn and face him. Your hands haven’t shook this much in years, the last time being when you had first fought a demon.

“Well, I had something to say,” You cringe as he turned to you, his face as beautifully stoic as you had always known.

Okay, wow. You knew he had a bit of a mean streak going on, one that died down when it came to talking to you but you didn’t really think he was mean enough to roast you for having a stupid crush. Sure, you did accidentally say you didn’t like him, but that was a lie - obviously, since you kissed him like the suicidal dumbass that you were.

“Well, I’m here now, so we might as well rip the bandaid,” you say that, but as his eyes bore into your own, you realize that you’re not ready for what he has to say and you cut in as he opens his mouth. “Before you say anything though, I just wanted to say that I completely understand if you want to stay away from me and-”

As you rambled on, you didn’t notice him walk closer. Giyuu had a determined look on his face as he grabbed onto your hands that were nervously playing with your sword, and held them in his own, softly running a thumb over your knuckles. You immediately drag your gaze from the floor and into his eyes, seeing warmth and gentleness in his blue irises.

Giyuu’s eyes never leave yours, even as he asks, “I do have something to say… If you would listen?”

You swallowed, your mouth feeling dry, as you give him a slight nod.

He breathes deeply before he speaks. “I’ll admit. I don’t really care what others think of me, as long as I’m doing my job and they’re doing theirs. I’m used to people saying I’m cold, and unlikable, but for the past few weeks, I found your company comforting, and I thought that we’ve been genuinely getting along with each other. So when you said you didn’t like me when I was going to ask if you wanted to have another match, I was really confused and hurt.”

“I’m sorry-” You interrupt, before he shakes his head and asks you to let him finish.

“So, I was really surprised when you pulled me back and kissed me. Then you go off telling me that you like me, not even 5 minutes after you told me you didn’t, and then you leave, not even letting me process anything, or telling you what I had to say.”

Giyuu stops for a moment, opening his eyes and looking deep into yours. He seemed to debate something for a moment before he decided, and took a short breath.

“If you would have waited, I would have told you that I like you too.” Your knees felt absolutely weak as he placed his forehead over yours. You could feel the rough calluses on his hands as he squeezed yours softly.

“You would have?” You ask. He nods. “Do you really?”

Your heart melts when you see his face change into a soft smile, a smile he only put on for you. “I do. I really like you (F/N).”

It felt so surreal hearing him say that he liked you too. You felt like you could fly.

“I like you too.” A small watery laugh bubbles up from your throat, and a warm giddy feeling swirls around your stomach, easily replacing the heavy feeling of regret.

You could feel the tears fall from your eyes and the blood rush to your face. You pull your hands off from his as you use it to cover the raging blush on your cheeks. “Ugh, stop making me cry. This has to be the most I've ever cried in my life.”

“And it’s the most I’ve ever been confused in mine too… but I hope it’s happy tears now?” He takes both of your hands into his left, using his other to wipe at the tears and cradle your face, like you were a priceless jewel.

“Yeah,” You hum, moving closer and letting his left hand release your hands as his arm wraps around your waist. He pulls you closer and you revel in his warmth. “Can you say it again?”

“I like you.” His smile grows fonder as you lean into his touch, and wrap your arms around his shoulders. Giyuu has never felt so content in his life.

“Again?”

“I really, really like you.” He says softly, and your mouth stretches into a smile that mirrors his.

“Prove it?” You ask, faintly hinting at what you wanted him to do as your faces move closer and closer until you were an inch apart and could feel his breath fan over your face.

“Okay,” He whispers, before he finally leaned in and kissed you again.

BONUS:

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Obanai groaned as he rolled over in the large training room floormat. You might have used wooden sticks, but it still hurt like hell.

“I didn’t know the training room floor was so cozy,” Muichiro mused, staring up at the ceiling as he was splayed on the ground. “I don’t think I’ve ever been knocked down before. (F/N)-san, help me sit up. My spine feels tingly ever since you hit me.”

You laughed sheepishly, crouching beside the Mist Pillar before helping him sit up. Giyuu, on the other hand, was standing over Obanai, looking down at the Serpent Pillar with a bored gaze.

“You told me not to hold back,” Giyuu deadpanned, bi-colored irises glaring at him from below.

Word had travelled fast that you and Giyuu were going out. And of course, since you had always been dragged into the Pillars’ shenanigans, you had decided it was time that Giyuu be a part of the group. So to warm up a bit to the idea of having him around, you had offered the idea to have a training session with everyone, doing pair up battles to save time and promote teamwork. They agreed, since they have never seen Giyuu train with you, much less have trained with him themselves.

But the idea backfired hard.

“Tomioka and (L/N) win,” Gyomei announces, a small smile on his face. He looked amused more than anything. “That’s 3 wins.”

You decided the pairs by letting four people write their names on scraps of paper and letting the other four pick from the pile. Gyomei had decided to sit this one out and be the moderator, so the numbers balanced out. And since Giyuu was the so-called “guest of honor”, the others had allowed him to pick first.

“You guys rigged it. I know you fucking did,” Sanemi grumbled.

Giyuu had miraculously pulled out your name from the pile. Sure, there were only four names, but it was still a one-out-of-four odds.

“You can check if you want, Sanemi,” you sighed in exasperation. “I didn’t do shit to that paper.”

“Bullshit,” he roughly grabs the scrap from Giyuu and inspects it, the other Pillars laughing as he nitpicks your paper.

You stand next to Giyuu, who was leaning on a wall away from the Pillars, and ask in a soft voice so no one else could hear. “Alright. How’d you do it?”

You see him smile for a fraction of a second from the corner of your eye. “You press down on your pen too much when you write, so I just felt around for the paper that had the most indentations.”

“How the fuck…?” Sanemi exclaimed, and you laughed again.

“You’re so amazing!” Mitsuri squealed, bounding up to the training room floor and glomping you. “You guys worked together flawlessly! ”

“That’s putting it too lightly,” Uzui laughed. “They flamboyantly wiped us out.”

“Yes! Truly amazing!” Kyoujuro nodded. “I’m aware of both of your prowess, but this was truly overwhelming.”

“You fuckers cheated!” Sanemi growled, walking over to the training room floor and pointing his wooden sword at the two of you. “How did you-”

“Your attacks are mostly mid level swings, aimed at the stomach,” Giyuu answers passively as he sits down beside you and Muichiro on the floor.

“Wh…?” For the first time, Sanemi is caught off guard, and so are the other Pillars, but you nod at Giyuu’s words. You don’t notice how they stared at the both of you weirdly.

“Yeah, you do,” you laugh softly, before making a slow sweeping motion with your wooden sword, Giyuu parrying it once it’s within his distance. “You swing, and then when your opponent curls up, either from pain or to try and dodge, you go for a thrust.”

When you stop talking, you and Giyuu turn to the other Pillars, who were mostly looking at you with gaped mouths. Shinobu and Kyoujuro had frozen smiles on their faces and Obanai and Sanemi were looking at you like you had force fed them rotten food.

Was it something you said…?

“Hey, (F/N)-chan,” Shinobu suddenly cut in through the silence, smiling as pleasant as ever. “How did you beat me? Tomioka-san uses hard force to deflect but-”

“You usually do thrusts. I guess because of your sword style, right?” you answer, almost impulsively. “It ends up leaving too many openings, especially if someone hits you from the side.”

“You only do slashes when you’re close enough,” Giyuu adds. “But you thrust when you’re too far away because it helps with your speed and momentum.”

You blink again, the room coming into view again, and find the others staring at you, more confused than anything.

“Tomioka-san? (F/N)-chan?” Shinobu asked, the smile gone. Shit, did you say something you shouldn’t have? “What are you talking about…? I only use a revolver because it carries my poisons better. My sword is usually reserved as a last resort, but I haven’t used it in a long time. I was a bit off today since I’m not used to it anymore, but...”

“Not to mention,” Sanemi grumbles to the side, looking at the both of you suspiciously. “I haven’t gone on any fucking mission with you guys. How the hell do you know how I fight? You stalkers, or something?”

You turn to Giyuu, and he turns to you with a confused look that probably mirrored your own. The other Pillars stared, waiting for your answer. But you blanched.

How the fuck do I answer that?

Finally, Giyuu breaks the stare and turns to the other Pillars, “Mission and Training videos.”

You blinked. And so did the others. Every single one of you had the same confused looks on your faces.

Mission and training… videos?

“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of them?” Giyuu raised an eyebrow at the Pillars, who looked at one another, expecting someone to know. He sighs as he points up at a surveillance camera at the corner of the training room. “They’re a collection of videos in the Corps archives, mostly of the Pillars during joint training sessions or battles with the Twelve Demon Moons. They’re captured using the crow-drones or the cameras scattered inside and around the building. Demon Slayers can ask to view them for educational purposes, like learning a new breathing technique.”

You gape at Giyuu and Pillars in turn, a frown slowly etching over your face. Something told you that wasn’t the whole truth. Maybe the videos were real, but on how you knew about the other’s battle styles, well…

“There’s such a thing…?” Shinobu mutters thoughtfully, looking at you and Giyuu.

Uh-oh, looks like she doesn’t buy it.

“EEK!” Mitsuri suddenly exclaims, and Shinobu and the others jump from the shrill sound. “What if my videos are super embarrassing? I have to check!”

And she’s out the door, followed closely by Obanai who was trying to reassure her that it was okay. You’re rather surprised Obanai got up so quickly when he was just on the floor earlier.

“Shit like that exists? And I’m only finding out about this now?” Sanemi grumbled, his aura carefully getting angrier and angrier. “What if the fucking demons get a hold of those videos?”

Sanemi was out the door in the next second, yelling about giving away the corps’ battle strategies. Kyoujuro and Uzui followed, interested about seeing the videos. Gyomei took Muichiro to the clinic with Shinobu. The Insect Pillar cast you a questioning look before trailing behind the Stone and Mist Pillars.

And then it was just you and Giyuu again.

“Giyuu?” you called out softly in the silence. When you hear him hum, signalling that he was listening, you push on. “I’ve never seen those videos before. I didn’t even know they existed.”

You turn to him when he lets out a soft laugh, “I haven’t either. I read about them in a report a long time ago, but I never felt the need to see them.”

Wordlessly, Giyuu lies back down on the training mat, arms crossed behind his head. He stares up at the ceiling, looking deep in thought. There’s a question at the tip of your tongue, something you’ve always wanted to ask, but could never muster the strength to actually say outloud.

“It’s odd. Shinazugawa was right. I’ve never been assigned to go on a mission with him,” Giyuu started, still staring up at the ceiling, seemingly muttering to himself. “But I knew how he was going to move. It was almost like-”

“Like you’ve fought with him before?” you finished, and you turned to Giyuu to find his eyes already staring deep into your’s.

“That’s the thing, though,” Giyuu scowled, your image blurring at the edges. Was that a kimono you were wearing? “I’ve never trained with any of them before today. But it felt like I knew what to do. Like I’ve seen it before. Not in a video, though.”

“More like muscle memory,” you mumble, lost in Giyuu’s eyes. Has his hair always been that long? “Like my body already knew how to move on its own.”

The silence stretched on, but it was almost like time had stopped for the both of you.

“I’m not ready,” you sighed shakily, your hands wringing around as you paced in the room before the Ubayishiki garden. You could hear the yells and grunts of your fellow Pillars, mixed in with the clash of swords. “Sanemi always looks at me like I’m a demon and I think this is his chance of actually cutting my head off.”

“Relax, (F/N),” Giyuu sighed, taking your hands into his and rubbing them, trying to get the blood circulating again. “On the bright side, at the very least, he still sees you. I think he sees me as an annoying fly.”

You manage a shaky laugh, and Giyuu takes it as a small victory before making you look him in the eye.

“You’ll be fine, but if you need help,” he smiles softly and you don’t miss the mischief in his eyes. “These are just some things I’ve noticed when he tries to attack me…”

You blink, and you're back in the training room. Where were you just now? There wasn’t a room like that in the whole building. It was old, like the traditional Japanese houses you’d see on T.V. and books. But Giyuu was there, and so were you and the other Pillars, apparently. Your eyes find Giyuu’s face again, and he looks just as confused. Did he see that, too…?

“You know, (F/N), there have been moments where I feel like I’ve seen them happen before, especially when I’m with you,” Giyuu starts hesitantly. You wouldn’t think it weird, would you? “I know for a fact they haven’t, Shinazugawa and Kocho was proof of that, but they just feel so real. And I couldn’t explain them.”

You think of his words for a second - they were exactly what you felt - and nod for him to continue. “But now I wonder - I always push them away because I don’t remember them happening, but now that I think about it, just because they haven’t happened from what I remember, doesn’t mean they never happened, at all.”

“Don’t remember...but doesn’t mean they never happened…?” you whisper, the question you’ve wanted to ask threatening to break out. But looking at Giyuu’s eyes, the wall you’ve been building around to keep your thoughts in place are broken down. “...Like in another life...?”

The question hangs in the air for another second before Giyuu’s face breaks into a small smile and he lets out a small laugh. He turns away from you, and you’re left confused all over again.

“You should see the look on your face right now,” he says, and you turn red at the realization he’s laughing at you. “It’s priceless. Sorry, but you’re really cute.”

“You…!” you tackle him, straddling him and lifting him by the collar of his shirt. “Were you just making fun of me?”

Giyuu stares at you fondly, basically confirming your question. Your blush gets darker as you stand up wordlessly and pack up your belongings. You couldn’t believe he was just pulling your leg! And you fucking fell for it!

Your cheeks are puffed up in anger as you walk out of the training room. You hear Giyuu’s footsteps and his voice calling out for you, but you don’t make the effort to let him know you noticed him.

When you step out of the building, Giyuu finally catches up to you, holding on to your hand.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said. You frown at him hard and he responds by raising his free hand in surrender. “I really am. Sorry for laughing.”

You pout, before returning his grip. You suppress laughing at the relieved look on his face. “You’re paying for dinner, I’ll have you know.”

The two of you walk in tranquil silence on your way to your favorite restaurant. You don’t notice Giyuu’s loving stare as you walk hand in hand. For a second, you’re both walking back from a mission. Your kimono and uniform were battered pretty bad, and you had a bruise at the corner of your mouth, but you look up at him and smile.

You turn to Giyuu in surprise when he suddenly squeezes your hand. “Giyuu…?”

“If it really was another life,” he whispers, and you had half a mind to tell him off for trying to pull your leg again. But at the misty look in his eyes - the same one you stared at earlier in the training room - you shut your mouth. “I’m glad I found you again.”

You smile softly, squeezing his hand back. “Yeah, me, too.”

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Black Widow: MCU Easter Eggs and References Guide

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This article contains Black Widow spoilers. We have a spoiler-free review here.

The MCU is finally back on the big screen! Marvel’s Black Widow was supposed to be the official kickoff of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but then the pandemic happened, it got bounced around the release calendar, and Disney managed to release three MCU TV shows before Natasha got to take her curtain call on the big screen.

But that’s thankfully behind us, and Black Widow delivers terrific blockbuster action in the mighty Marvel manner. And you know what that means! Let’s try and spot all the cool MCU references and Marvel Comics Easter eggs in Black Widow.

The Prologue

Setting this prologue in 1995 gives us the approximate age of Natasha. If she’s supposed to be about 11 or 12 here, that conveniently makes the character the same age as Scarlett Johannsson, who was born in 1984.

The general premise of Natasha’s childhood, in which she was the daughter of two Russian spies is highly similar to that of the FX series The Americans. 

This seems to be the late summer of 1995, which puts it roughly around when Captain Marvel was taking place (the official word on that is 1995, but little details in it, like Stan Lee reading a Mallrats screenplay could place it in 1994). 

Young Natasha is played by Ever Anderson – the daughter of actress Milla Jovovich and Event Horizon director Paul W. S. Anderson. You will not be able to unsee her resemblance to Milla. 

The first song choice in the movie is young Yelena’s fixation on Don McLean’s fixation on “American Pie,” a song about (among other things) the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson. That being said, “American Pie” is about a larger loss of innocence, a theme that weighs heavily throughout this film.

Before Alexei turns the radio off to play “American Pie”, the station is set to 105.1 FM. This is WQXK, a country station based in Salem, Ohio that serves the Youngstown market. Natasha and Yelena’s American home is likely based in Eastern Ohio.

There’s an episode of DuckTales playing on TV in the background while they have dinner. We can’t tell what episode it is, but DuckTales ruled, and the new series was even better. And hey, we get some payoff later in the movie when they play an aircraft crash for laughs while having everyone just casually walk it off.

Alexei was working undercover in the US at the North Institute, which he burned to the ground before making his escape. In Black Widow Vol 3 #1, Natasha decided to retire to Arizona but she and other Red Room victims were hounded by the North Institute. Spurred to investigate the situation, Natasha returned to Russia where she discovered much of the terrible truth behind her past Red Room manipulation. This was a story that also featured Yelena (and Daredevil, believe it or not).

There’s definitely an early SHIELD logo on the trucks chasing the family to the very end there.

The plane number is 258. In Incredible Hulk #258, we get the first appearance of the Soviet Super-Soldiers (later named the Winter Guard), a communist superhero team created for the sake of rivaling the Avengers. The original lineup was Ursa Major (more on him in a minute), Darkstar, Vanguard, and the fifth Crimson Dynamo (more on this, too). Over time, Red Guardian joined their ranks, though it was Josef Petkus and not Alexei Shostakov.

This is a perfect cold open, the kind that James Bond movies excelled at, and it’s far from the only Bond parallel we’ll get in the film. 

The Opening Credits

There’s all kinds of stuff happening in the opening credits, including the film’s villain Dreykov being inserted into photos with various world leaders, including President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush’s Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and others. The Red Room’s influence knows no national boundaries, it seems.

The overall effect is to imply that Dreykov and the Widows have been putting their fingers on the scale for quite some time.

It’s also a nice touch that many of the “news broadcasts” we see here are from MCU staple WHIH.

There’s a shot of some vials with blue liquid, which allude to the Red Room’s attempt to create Captain America-esque super soldiers, which they succeeded with to some degree with the Red Guardian, but also makes us wonder if they tried enhancing any earlier Widows.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

The opening credits are set to a version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Malia J. You may have heard her covers of Seal’s “Crazy” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” in trailers for shows like Bloodlines and The Handmaid’s Tale.

We wrote more about the Black Widow version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” here.

When Does Black Widow Take Place?

This movie takes place in 2016, shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War. General “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) is here to remind us all that Natasha is still in trouble with the government.

What’s kind of neat about this is that it’s the first Marvel “prequel” that feels like it is designed to be watched in its chronological sequence (minus that post-credits scene, of course). Captain America: The First Avenger makes more sense as a flashback interlude between Thor and The Avengers, while Captain Marvel makes more sense as a breather between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But Black Widow feels like it should be watched right after Civil War.

Thunderbolt Ross

Natasha brings up Ross having his second triple bypass. In Captain America: Civil War, Ross talks about how he had his first heart attack while playing golf and it gave him perspective and convinced him to retire from the US Army. It seems chasing down Cap’s allies hasn’t been so good for his health.

Red Guardian

We know that Alexei has been active as Red Guardian since at least 1983 or 1984 based on the tales of fighting Captain America he tells while in jail. He was apparently sent to the USA for undercover work in 1992, and then imprisoned a few years after their 1995 escape back to Russia.

Red Guardian’s knuckle tattoos say “Karl Marx” which is kind of adorable but…shouldn’t they be in Cyrillic/Russian characters and not Latin/English? Is this to troll his capitalist opponents so they can read them as he beats their asses?

Red says he fought Captain America in 1983 or 1984. The simplest explanation is that he’s lying but…what if he isn’t?

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he’s telling the truth and there really was yet another secret Captain America active in the ‘80s. Now that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is done, we know that there was at least one “replacement Cap” and the comics indicate there were others. Or maybe it’s just Steve in the timestream…maybe we’ll find out one day, but we wrote much more about some possibilities for this here.

Ursa

Red Guardian breaks the arm of a man named Ursa… Ursa Major (Mikhail Ursus) is the name of another Russian superhero in Marvel Comics, whose mutant power caused him to turn into a literal talking bear. He became a staple member of the Soviet Super Soldiers/Winter Guard along with a Red Guardian. While the movie doesn’t depict him like the comics, Red Guardian does joke about him being a bear.

Taskmaster

This is a very different version of Taskmaster than the one we got in the comics. Marvel Comics Taskmaster has “photographic reflexes” and is a man named Anthony Masters. Here, in addition to the new gender (Dreykov’s daughter is named “Antonia” as a nod to the comics character), Taskmaster is cybernetically enhanced to make those “photographic reflexes a little easier.

There is precedent for a female Taskmaster. The series Deadpool MAX reimagined Deadpool in a cynical, dark, and very adult (albeit absurd and humorous) way. This lent itself to Deadpool-adjacent characters. Taskmaster was depicted as a woman roughly in her ‘50s who trained Deadpool and warped his mind.

There’s also Finesse, a member of Avengers Academy, whose powers are so similar to Taskmaster that she believes him to be her biological father. Unfortunately, due to memory problems, Taskmaster doesn’t know for sure and refuses to offer any DNA to find out the answer.

In the course of Taskmaster’s action scenes, we see her mimic a number of Marvel heroes, with a particular focus on those who played a part in the recent (by this movie’s timeline) Captain America: Civil War including Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Panther, and even Natasha.

We have more on Taskmaster here.

Who is Mason?

Rick Mason first appeared in his own 1989 graphic novel called Rick Mason: The Agent. Mason was a SHIELD agent mostly remembered for being the son of Phineas Mason, the Tinkerer. Granted, the Tinkerer we saw in Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t nearly old enough to be Rick’s father in the movies and he looks nothing like him, so I wouldn’t expect any secret connection.

In the comics, Rick was practically forgotten about and killed off-panel. His son was one of the victims of Nitro’s explosion in Stamford, Connecticut from the beginning of the Marvel Comics version of Civil War.

Melina Vostokoff

The Melina Vostokoff of the MCU is pretty different from the one in Marvel Comics (who created by Ralph Macchio and George Perez in 1983). There, she was known as (we shit you not) Iron Maiden, and she was at least a former Widow-esque agent as she is here in the film.

Yelena Belova

Yelena and Natasha’s first meeting being over a bio-weapon/agent is very faintly similar to Yelena’s proper introduction in the comics, a 1999 Black Widow comics story where they were explicitly fighting over a bioweapon, not a “mind control antidote” as we see in this film.

The “face swap” trick that Natasha and Melina pull in the film’s final act also has the faintest of echoes of another early Yelena story, where Natasha “swapped faces” with Yelena to try and break her mind and get her on the side of the angels.

What Happened in Budapest?

“You and I remember Budapest very differently,” Clint Barton famously told Natasha in The Avengers during the Battle of New York. But now we know what went down…

Basically, Taskmaster’s origin story is tied to Natasha’s superhero origin. To fully defect from the Red Room and go to work for SHIELD, Natasha had to assassinate Dreykov…which meant the collateral damage of Antonia.

Of course, that led to Clint and Nat getting hounded by Red Room agents, which led to them hiding out for days together. 

And before that, they were in that safe house apartment that was currently occupied by Yelena, hence the arrow damage to the walls.

Crimson Dynamo

Yelena (probably on purpose) refers to Alexei’s superheroic days as when he was “the Crimson Dynamo.” Sure, this is cute, but there really was a Crimson Dynamo in Marvel Comics! Crimson Dynamo is primarily an Iron Man villain, lots of different Russian agents have worn the Crimson Dynamo armor. It…didn’t end well for any of them. 

The original Crimson Dynamo was Anton Vanko, otherwise known as the old man dying in the beginning of Iron Man 2. Although his son was known as Whiplash, Ivan Vanko was more of a cross between Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo. In the comics, “Ivan” was an alias Anton used.

We’re gonna choose to believe that Yelena isn’t just making this name up and that the Russians really did have an armored hero called the Crimson Dynamo, and if we’re lucky we’ll get to see him in a flashback of some future MCU project. After all, there’s that Armor Wars series on the way…

Also, there’s one thing that Crimson Dynamo has over the Red Guardian: he was immortalized in the lyrics of a song by a member of The Beatles. Paul McCartney and Wings have a tune called “Magneto and Titanium Man” which involves “a robbery” where “the Crimson Dynamo came along for the ride.” It’s great, and it’s on Wings Venus & Mars album.

Thor

Yelena’s line about how a “god from space” doesn’t “need to take an ibuprofen” after a fight is kinda priceless.

Mutants in the MCU

Dreykov tells Natasha that they were searching for the “genetic potential in infants.” Sure, this could mean anything like how athletic someone might grow up to be, but is there a chance they could also have been searching for a mysterious x-factor in a baby’s DNA?

James Bond

Natasha is watching one of the lesser-regarded Bond flicks, Moonraker. Of course, she still knows every word.

Dreykov gets a classic “Bond villain monologue” wherein a baddie spells out his plans for world domination before a hero who he surely thinks is either neutralized or could be swayed to their cause.

Antonia/Taskmaster is a Bond Girl! Olga Kurylenko played Camille Montes, a Bolivian agent with a vendetta in Quantum of Solace.

Remnants of the Red Room

Black Widow was written by Eric Pearson, who also wrote Thor: Ragnarok.

So… Natasha probably couldn’t taste that peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Endgame, right? That’s too bad.

It doesn’t seem that “Fanny Longbottom” is a thing from Marvel Comics, but as Mason points out it is most certainly a real name. Also, Yelena’s dog in the post-credits scene is named “Fanny.”

We get an explanation for Natasha’s blonde look in Infinity War here, as Mason gave her the hair dye. But the way it’s presented here feels slightly like a sisterly tribute to Yelena, which is really sweet.

Natasha makes a crack about “the cavalry” as Ross’ troops close in, but folks hoping that’s an Agents of SHIELD reference are probably going to be sorely disappointed.

Dreykov’s pheromone trick that he has implanted in the Widows (and Natasha in particular) leads to this scene playing out like when RoboCop tries to arrest Dick Jones in the classic 1987 film.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Natasha tells Dreykov with a smirk after getting him to monologue his evil plans. This is as close as we get to a Black Widow catchphrase – she also ended a veiled interrogation with Loki using the exact same words in The Avengers.

The Post-Credits Scene

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) is back after her appearances in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. If we had to hazard a guess, she’s putting together a team of “Dark Avengers” or “Thunderbolts” for the MCU.

Florence Pugh is indeed confirmed to appear in the upcoming Disney+ Hawkeye series, as well.

We went into much more detail about what the post-credits scene means for the future of the MCU right here.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Black Widow: MCU Easter Eggs and References Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2VrjyDY

[autumnblogs]

Day 11: Melodrama

WIth Act 4 over, we’ve finished setting up the pins on the Earth Side of this story. We are now roughly one quarter of the way through the full story - and Homestuck is set up more or less in four acts, rather than in six acts as its “official” structure would suggest.

Time to start setting up the pins on the other disc.

https://homestuck.com/story/1942

But first, some more of Andrew’s prose to detail the fallout of the Sovereign Slayer’s activity. He’s been a busy man.

Also, Rose goes off the rails, but we knew that already.

This is the part of the story where Rose becomes an antagonist, in my opinion. More on that later. More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/1955

A letter from another version of Earth.

One of the very first things that we learn about Jake is that one of his all time favorite movies is Weekend at Bernie’s, an association that is part of a long list of red-herrings that link Jake up with Lord English, but of which nothing ultimately comes. It’s an association mostly because Bernie is a corpse who is also a puppet (like Doc Scratch, for example).

All that has already been pointed out by a lot of people before me, so moving on.

https://homestuck.com/story/1957

Just missed her.

https://homestuck.com/story/1993

Act 5 off to a great start, and while Karkat is in many ways a parallel to John (via their shared interests), right away, this action compares Karkat to Dave. Their reaction to being misnamed by the command prompt is pretty much identical.

https://homestuck.com/story/1994

Like I said, Karkat is pretty much immediately compared to John in terms of their shared interests, what with his Terrible Taste in Movies and his Amateur Coding.

One thing that stands out as endearing to me that I’ve probably not thought so much about before is Karkat’s practicing with his Sickle in his room. It reminds me of lightsaber wielding kids on early youtube.

https://homestuck.com/story/1995

So let’s break this and the next few pages down. Viewing the narration through the same James-Joycesque lens of “Narration is more or less identical with the characters’ thought processes,” that we have been so far, Karkat seems pretty ambivalent about existing as a troll, going as far as to describe his bad dreams as *terrible.*

Do all Trolls have dreams as bad as Karkat does? Is it a chucklevoodoos thing? Maybe it’s specifically a Karkat thing.

https://homestuck.com/story/1996

Karkat gets distracted instantly by intrusive thoughts and does something else that’s very Johnlike.

https://homestuck.com/story/1998

Aw c’mon. Early Sandler isn’t even that bad. Then again, it’s been a while since I’ve watched this one, maybe it’s worse than I remember it.

https://homestuck.com/story/1999

This section of the story is even more time-agnostic than the rest of the story, and a lot of it is told in past tense prospective action, which says to me that what we’re experiencing here is the various trolls on the meteor at the End of Act 4 collectively remembering what has taken place in the past, while the parts of this segment that are narrated in the present tense are being relayed to us via the characters in the narrative present (which is to say, the events which are being relayed to us in the panel.)

https://homestuck.com/story/2008

I wonder if Troll Will Smith is a Troll Scientologist?

https://homestuck.com/story/2010

I didn’t like the Trolls very much originally. They’re so ornery and pissy with each other all the time, with the exception of Gamzee and Tavros, but on a reread, especially keeping the things in mind that I’m keeping in mind, all of these characters are a lot more tolerable.

Using the cipher that we’ve established from reading the characters as basically attempting to perform what is culturally expected of them in the first four acts, we can immediately decode what is going on between Karkat and his friends - they are trying to be the best trolls they can be, or at least, live up to certain ideals/stereotypes the way that Dave tries to live up to the stereotype of the coolguy, or John emulates the mangrit and fatherliness and so on of his father figures.

But something is way *way* more wrong with Alternia’s role models than Earth’s.

That’s all from a Watsonian perspective. From a Doylist perspective, there are very explicit stereotypes each of these characters is designed around - commonplace annoying internet people from the ‘00s (pronounce that as Naughts).

https://homestuck.com/story/2012

There’s a lot of early installment weirdness in the first bits of Troll Stuff we get where it’s clear that Andrew was riffing and trying to find clear definitions for their relationships - it’s somewhat poorly known these days, I think, but Andrew has said in the past that he hates worldbuilding, and it kind of shows. (Did I mention that Kanaya Sollux friendship back when those two were interacting not long ago? That’s another one of those bits of early installment weirdness).

Anyway, the actual bit of early installment weirdness that I’m drawing attention to is the fact that the Subjugglators are described as being an Obscure Cult here, but later Homestuck Media (and even stuff within Homestuck, honestly) will make them out to be basically the only major aspect of being a Purple Blood.

https://homestuck.com/story/2013

Gamzee’s ignorance and his bliss are pretty much immediately linked to one another.

That said, I’m not going to dive too deep into Gamzee’s inner life. Like a lot of the trolls, in spite of his great relevance, he’s a bit of a joke character, and the joke is on us - whatever is going on inside this lad’s head is a puzzle for most of the comic.

Gamzee has a Freudian excuse in the form of his absent Lusus, which incidentally, is a parallel to Jade - the Nurture is the same, but the Nature is very differently. Unfortunately, when God was handing out Natures, he gave Gamzee one of the really bad ones, so he’s a worthless goddamn piece of shit.

https://homestuck.com/story/2024

Already into the first few troll conversations, and we’re setting up some stuff for later. Gamzee and Terezi’s very first conversation demonstrates the terrible chemistry that the two have together - Gamzee legitimately unsettles Terezi, and there’s just nothing at all she can do to bother him.

https://homestuck.com/story/2025

Sollux is probably so handy with this coding language because of his ability to hear the voices of the imminently deceased - so he can write programs that will execute along a pretty reasonable time frame.

https://homestuck.com/story/2027

Leader is a phrase that ends up being used in conjunction with Karkat a lot, and the concept of leadership is another one of those things that Homestuck Talks About but not a thing that Homestuck Is About, at least in the sense that leadership as a role is part of the comic’s broader commentary on cultural reproduction, the same way that Homestuck’s conversation about gender is, or Homestuck’s conversation about Roles in general.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Karkat wants to be a leader.

As long as Sollux is making his first appearance as a character, I want to take a second to say that as a character, he’s always been pretty tough and enigmatic for me to write, especially in the sense that he‘s frequently referred to melodramatic and sensitive or similar terms by people around him, but he actually doesn’t really seem that way in most cases - he just seems like a guy who wants to his own devices, and is generally pretty non-reactive to other peoples’ bullshit. Maybe he’s melodramatic in the way that Dave is, hyping himself up as a coolguy who is the best there is, but then again, Sollux kind of lives up to his own hype, considering that up until the last possible moment, he wins pretty much every fight he’s in handily, adapts Sburb personally, and has more romantic success than just about everyone else in the comic.

Maybe Karkat’s just projecting.

https://homestuck.com/story/2031

Roleplaying - a concept that I’ve used frequently to refer to the way that John and his chums perform rituals in order to relate to their culture and parents - is made explicit through the language of Flarping, which for the Trolls, serves as a way for them to literally act out the adventures of their long-dead ancestors, although it strikes me that it’s probably a lot more gainful for highbloods like Terezi and Vriska than it is in general for lowbloods like Aradia and Tavros.

I’ll get this out of the way up front instead of commenting it on a drip feed throughout Terezi’s upcoming courtblock roleplay - Terezi is the kind of kid who aspires to be a Cop. Or a lawyer, anyway, which in Alternian Law, is the same thing as a cop. In the wake of 2020′s scads of police brutality, and in general, having grown up into a nasty commie, it’s kind of hard to look at Terezi the same way.

While it’s clear that Terezi is remorseful later on toward her earlier attitudes and behaviors, Terezi is at least ambivalent, and at worst a purely antagonistic force throughout a lot of early Homestuck because of her authoritarian tendencies and her honestly pretty psychopathic behavior. She plays games with her friends’ lives.

https://homestuck.com/story/2047

Terezi adores having power over other people and making them helpless. For Terezi, alienation takes the form of emotional distance from the people that she’s tormenting. It makes it so much easier for her to conceive of them as wicked people who need to die.

https://homestuck.com/story/2055

Nepeta is an adorable girl who deserves all the good things. All of them.

That said, as long as we’re commentating and not glurging, Nepeta’s internet troll stereotype is probably less familiar these days, and I say probably less, but I can’t say for sure - it’s like this really specific thing that existed during the late ‘00s, where you had this highly specific stereotype, which I’ll call the Furry Artist Roleplayer, and I really hope that I’m not talking out of my ass by generalizing anecodtal evidence, but I know people who were pretty much exactly the Nepeta stereotype around the time that Act 5 was being written! Roleplaying in IRCs or on specialty forums with other people, all drawing art of their anthro OCs and writing stories about each other’s characters. That sort of thing still probably exists these days, but if it does, I’m not really part of any communities anymore where it leaks into the mainstream.

https://homestuck.com/story/2058

Okay, yup, Karkat is 100% projecting “Melodrama” on all the people around him. In a literal sense, Melodrama refers to theatrics that are exaggerated and sensationalized in such a way as to appeal to the emotions, often prioritizing spectacle and physical action over deep characterization.

Actually, if we’re taking it in the literal sense of the word, just about every character in Homestuck is pretty melodramatic - I keep talking about the way that they roleplay rituals and associate with symbols even when they fail to structures of power and culture that those rituals and symbols point to - performative participation without any actual substance. That’s practically the definition of Melodrama.

But Karkat is, perhaps, the most Melodramatic of all.

https://homestuck.com/story/2065

Aradia is one of my favorite characters in Homestuck, and possibly my favorite, something I can be up front about.

Our introduction to her is brief, and right out of the gate one thing about her is apparent - her relationship with destruction is central to her characterization.

https://homestuck.com/story/2069

While I was going to wait for the Hemospectrum to come up explicitly, now’s as good a time as any to talk about the fact that Andrew uses Troll society to comment on hierarchy a lot - hierarchy of just all kinds. Ageism is one of those, and Gerontocracy in particular in Alternia. In Alternia, just one of the ways that the oppression of the Hemospectrum manifests is the way that the Empire systematically takes advantage of its children by basically leaving them completely to their own devices. Trolls don’t have family units normally, but the fact that Troll adults are all offworld is not a “natural” part of Troll Society, it’s a decision. And while it’s a decision made by the Empress, it’s still one that, to some extent, benefits adult trolls at the expense of the children, since they’re not around spending energy on raising kids who are expected to raise themselves from the word go.

It’s honestly pretty late, and I’m tuckered out because of the steroids that I’m on, and the cough medicine, so in spite of the comparatively pretty short amount of reading I’ve done tonight, I’m going to call it here.

Cam signing off, Alive and a little High.

[inspector-montoya-fox]

#9 - The Predator Awakes

Setting: green! like, dark, sappy, jungle green. it’s been a while since i posted my take on A Starry Eyed Encounter but, basically i theorized how that episode reflected Rajan’s low temper and his grand facade whereas The Predator Awakes shows the beast within - and boy, what a beast it is. the vines, the towering trees, the decrepit ruins: they all show how Rajan isn’t holding back anymore. after completely and utterly humiliating him at his own party, he’s ready to destroy anyone who comes in his way. the episode’s nature presents that. supporting this theory is the fact that any signs of grandeur are rotted down remnants of a forgotten time. Rajan has shed his faux majesty and thick vines have grown all over his once stable foundation. like his ancestral temple, he’s a fucking wreck. the jungle is an intricate mess. i’ve played the game i don’t even know how many times and i still don’t know my way around this level. but it’s beautiful. she’s serving some Cambodian palace, some long lost ruins of time - she’s really killing it on the runway! especially with the contrast between the stubborn lifelessness of the jungle, its aged disorganization and the motion of the rocking temple parts (that higher floor where you start Water Bug Run or the tower where Bentley hides out the operation). i would honestly go on a vacation to a place like this. the missions further establish the temple’s mysterious nature by having us explore its rooms in detail (all hidden behind trap doors, no less). Rajan’s office, that huge water room where half of the heart is being kept, and the spice grinding facility are all great examples. also, the way in which the main temple building is supposed to represent an elephant by having those huge tusks come out is genius. it’s the only structure that grabs the player’s attention because the rest blend in with the nature beautifully. even the safehouse (one of my favs) looks like a freakin’ tiger.

Characters: well, cordial Rajan’s gone. he’s in full-on beast mode now, kinda like the rabid animals in Zootopia. even so, the gang manages to spook him out and he spends most of the level MIA. it’s mainly because of Bentley, who invades the tiger’s private space by drugging him and stealing his blueprints. that mission still creeps me out like hell, i can’t imagine how Bentley felt approaching someone who could carve his little heart out in a second... yikes. but even though he spends most of the level in hiding, we get some really good lines out of Rajan towards the end of the episode when he goes all thunder god. he really showed us how he’s both brain and brawn by using half the Clockwerk heart to summon lightning. his plead for higher power on the other hand, shows how he’s either deeply religious or a complete lunatic. either way, Murray takes him down and proves Rajan wrong once and for all. The Predator Awakes also sees Neyla pulling off her second backstab (her first being going behind Carmelita’s back to help Sly and the gang). ooh, that must’ve really burned. i really wanted to see the good sis go on a date with Sly in Bombay but i guess the Clockwerk parts are far more important. talk about a memorable twist - her saying ‘Happy day’ will forever be engraved on my brain. although it comes right at the end, she pulls a 180 and double-crosses both the gang and Carmelita. it’s enough to make this episode amazing. the story really takes a huge turn from this point on, as the characters we thought we knew turn out to be faux. Rajan did show his might but got bested by Murray and spent most of the level cowering inside, and Neyla showed her true colours as a true villain. also, this is the first and only appearance of those hooded treasure dealers with the raspy voices. love them!

Themes: hmmm......... maybe like revelations? how A Starry Eyed Encounter had the masks theme, but now everything’s supposedly revealed, or at least starting to make sense. there’s a sense of a greater plot at play and we’re caught right in the middle of it. Neyla backstabs the gang and shit hits the fan after that. revelations could also refer to Rajan’s “spiritual” awakening. like i said, he’s shed his faux persona and is now true, as ugly and non-regal as that is. that’s how he manages to control thunder - he ain’t holding back. this episode is so setting and character-oriented so i’m scrambling to think about the themes. there’s definitely something to be said about the Clockwerk heart and how it helped ramp up spice production. a nature theme. of course, the episode’s nature is predominant as discussed in the Setting section. but i’m also thinking about how Clockwerk’s heart gave life to the dead temple. it gave it a heart (literally) and turned it from a “corpse”, a set of delapitated ruins into a living work environment for the spice production (it’s quite interesting how Rajan got the best parts btw, like maybe he was the leader of the Klaww Gang even though Arpeggio was the criminal genius. without a heart and wings, Clockwerk would be nothing. like who wanted the talons and the fucking tail feathers? lol). the nature theme also refers to Rajan’s primal state. he’s a wild animal, a vicious feline. it’s better represented by the setting, but it supports the theme nonetheless. also, a fear theme. there’s other episodes where the gang’s confrontation of its fears is better explained and shown (mainly, the next one) but that doesn’t invalidate it here. Bentley goes from a trembling coward at the disco to pickpocketting the main baddie, Rajan is lowkey a scaredy-cat, and Sly’s biggest fear comes true - getting caught and arrested. hell, most of the missions and especially the boss fight scarred me as a kid. this is definitely a new low for the gang. lastly, a water motif and how it’s connected to the revelations theme. how water showed the truth. the temple’s first secret entrance is hiding behind the waterfall, and then water is used to flood the area and show Neyla’s true self. water also forces Rajan to end his hiding and come out, so there you have it.

What I Like: this episode is great. i’m overall happy so let’s focus on the details i like the most. Rajan’s office is amazing. something straight out of an interior design magazine. and that view, big ooff. i also particularly like the Contessa showing up at the end. like, when does that usually happen? a future villain showing up somewhere apart from their own episode(s)? lastly, having the whole hub flood is so satisfying.

What I Don’t Like: maybe how we can’t enter the main temple building. i always wanted to enter that door under that red ruby. oh and getting all the clue bottles in this level was a bitch. climbing those vines for like the 100th time is infuriating.

Quote: when Rajan says Who's "The Murray"? All I see is a fat, pathetic weakling. and Murray replies I might be big and not as smart as the other guys... but one thing I'm not... is weak!

[annabethisterrified]

Book Review: THE TYRANT’S TOMB by Rick Riordan (The Trials of Apollo #4)

“Today, one way or another, the fate of New Rome would be decided.”

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS UNTIL YOU GO BELOW THE CUT!

Reeling from the loss of Jason Grace and the mounting danger of his mission to stop the evil emperors ascendance, Apollo (aka Lester) and Meg arrive disheveled and devastated in New Rome...with a coffin in tow. Getting into Camp Jupiter is tricky enough, and once Apollo and Meg get caught up to speed on the chaos that’s been wreaked in the Bay Area, they realize that the impending battle will be the culmination of everything they’ve been fighting for. Reyna, Frank, and Hazel’s leadership roles put them to the ultimate test as they scramble to prepare for their final stand against Caligula and Commodus. Together, Apollo, Meg, and the inhabitants of New Rome must mourn who they’ve already lost while simultaneously gearing up for the inevitable confrontation that will seal the fate of their home once and for all. 

The penultimate installment of The Trials of Apollo picks up on the heels of The Burning Maze’s tragic conclusion. Through Apollo’s perspective, the reality of what went down in the third book continues to weigh heavily upon the whole cast, but most of their focus is forced forward to an incredibly dangerous confrontation slated for the Blood Moon. Loose ends from the Heroes of Olympus series are tied neatly yet surprisingly, and the continued evolution of Apollo and Meg’s bond shines as the book’s true, gleaming heart. Apollo’s own recognition of his past failings, his father’s abusiveness, and the reality of what his humanity has taught him all come to a head, setting up what’s sure to be an impactful fifth and final book-- not just for Apollo’s journey, but as a capstone for what the whole saga’s implications about what it means to be a hero, and to be a human. 

The Tyrant’s Tomb is consistently entertaining and heartfelt, but the final third of the story proves to be the most deftly-crafted and meaningful. Though not as heavy as its previous installment, this fourth book gives plenty of focus on some lovely development from our main protagonist, priming the series for its finale next fall.

If you click below, there will be spoilers. 

Hello? Okay. You promise you’re good for spoilers...?

All right, just because of who I am as a person I guess, I’ve broken this down into like ten sections. Ooof. Generally, I will say that I was super pleased with how this story went. My only disappointment was that I’d hoped for more of a prolonged or “on-screen” unpacking of the effects of Jason’s death on the Camp Jupiter kids, specifically Reyna. However, I get that that’s kind of hard to do through Apollo’s perspective. I wasn’t totally sold on the idea that he sang a song haha, but I’m glad that Jason’s loss wasn’t just addressed at the beginning and then “moved on” from. It was threaded throughout, showing that grief is not something that you can check off a list. This is something that will always stay with these characters, and alter how they live and feel about things. It ebbs and flows. In addition, I think there could’ve been just a bit more action in the first half of the story, but it was never boring or aimless. And the concluding battle was expertly written and soooooo amazing omfg. Still reeling.

Anyway, let’s go.

FRANKLY, I HAVE NOTHING BUT LOVE

I’m so happy we got the chance to see Frank leading Camp Jupiter as praetor! He did such a good job, but also acknowledged that this is still a new role he’s transitioning into. I was so pleasantly surprised at how he managed to be both authoritative and gentle, and it was gut-wrenching to know that he intended to take Caligula down with him. When I imagined the fallout of Jason’s death, I always pictured Reyna being the one to tear down the emperors in revenge, which was why I was so affected by Frank’s commitment to honoring his friend. Not only did he order Jason’s designs to be built in like thirty hours, but he was so ready to avenge Jason that he was fully prepared to die. 

What. An. Arc. I LOVE HIM. I’m glad he’s finally free of his burden, and that he gets to keep doing an epic job as praetor (though hopefully during more future peaceful times). Camp Jupiter’s lucky to have him. 

SHINE ON HAZEL

Words can’t express how infatuated I was with Hazel in this book. She’s always been one of my favorites, but she really shone in this story. She was already so strong and developed at the end of Heroes of Olympus, but this book still brought her out better and smarter than she was before. She cannot be stopped. Hazel’s determination and grit make her formidable, and she definitely proved to be Rome’s greatest asset throughout the entire story. 

I think it’s great that she gets to step up and take on Jason and Reyna’s former role of praetor...alongside Frank, too! I didn’t expect her to react with anger towards Jason once she found out about his death, but it hit me hard. She initially took Jason’s death to be a reflection of the Seven’s failings as a team. Hazel loved how powerful the bond between them all was, and when Jason took on the burden of TBM’s prophecy alone without confiding in anyone, I can totally see why she felt like that was a betrayal. UGH hit me hard.

REYNA REYNA REYNA!

Reyna is just objectively an amazing character. I’m so so so glad we got to revisit her in this story, and loved where she ended up going. Starting this book, I had literally no idea how she would be handled. She’s always been the quintessential strong leader, which is awesome, but I’m glad we got to unpack the implications behind her very...layered...existence. Leaving Puerto Rico in a traumatic situation, going straight to Circe’s Island, escaping as a pirate, carving out her path in New Rome, getting roped into the Titan then Giant War? Damn. She’s been through a lot, and none of it of her own free will.

Like I mentioned earlier, I wish we’d learned more of how she dealt with Jason’s death. They were obviously really close growing up, and though it was clear she was devastated and things were referenced “off-screen”, I still kind of wish we’d gotten a bit more. Regardless, I liked that the focus of her presence in this book was about HERSELF and nobody else. 

And hello!!!!! She has a red truck!!!! and goes out hiking with her greyhounds??? makes me so glad. 

And yeah-- that ending, huh? I know it got mixed reactions. Personally, it felt pretty natural to me. I’m so glad she stayed in touch with Thalia after the events of HoO, and knowing that they’ll be on eternal adventures with a bunch of other wonderful girls....happy sigh. Reyna’s right-- this is kind of a much-needed vacation by joining Artemis’s team. No matter how long or short she stays with them, it’s important that she’s able to reclaim her destiny and figure out what and who she’d like to be. 

APOLLO & MEG

These two!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy shit. Their bond was so well handled and I loved seeing how it developed in this installment. They can communicate on an instinctual level-- they can call each other out, and recognize the abusive patterns both of their fathers have over them. They have so much in common, but also have so much to teach one another. I loved that they were both able to tell each other “I love you” and ughhhh yes the sibling dynamic is so epic. (Also, the whole Reyna and Meg ganging up on Apollo about Koronis bit was hysterical.) (And the “I thought you loved me?” “I’m multitasking.”) 

WHERE TO NEXT?

Just because I haven’t said this yet, but HOLY MOLY I adored Lavinia. Oh my god. She was amazing-- hilarious, presumptuous, go-getter, kind...what a star!!! What a joy to read!

Anyway, now it’s onto the fifth and final installment...THE TOWER OF NERO. I’m so happy that we’re going back to where this story started (in both Hidden Oracle and The Lightning Thief)....New York! And it sounds like also a potential field trip to Delphi, Greece? I’m down!

I’m assuming we’ll be able to tag up with Annabeth, since she’s the only main-player we haven’t yet revisited in ToA. And probably also Percy, Nico, Will, Austin, Kayla, etc. at Camp Half Blood. 

There’s a lot of ways this could all go down, but I think this book set up a heart-wrenching conclusion. I’m looking forward to Apollo and especially Meg standing up to their fathers and claiming their own lives. I’m not even sure if Apollo will want to be returned to godhood by the time his trials are up. We delved into some really interesting threads in this book-- he mentioned several times that he’d only ever felt comfortable and “at home” when he was human. What will that mean for his final trial? 

In either case, this book was fabulous and I’m so glad we got a chance to learn more about Camp Jupiter and New Rome...and I feel like a lot got resolved, so it felt like a satisfying way to say goodbye to the California crew. I doubt they’ll be in the last book, so it was bittersweet but fitting to leave them as we did!

Now, we wait. One last time! Thanks for reading this if you made it all the way down, haha!