#like let it come out first see what its like lets not just immediately greenlight a film before the book has even been received

[orpheuslookingback]

okay when i saw the headline that there was another thg book coming i was cynically kind of like "oh man do we really need yet another one is there really more we can get out of the series" but seeing that it's going to focus on haymitch's games i am hesitantly excited. that is like the one part of the world that i feel like could use its own whole book at this point lol

[innuendostudios]

I was invited to give a talk on GamerGate over Zoom in early 2021. I've long been frustrated that there isn't a good timeline of GG and its origins on YouTube. When people ask "what the hell was GG anyway?" they often get referred to my or Dan Olson's videos on the subject, but both of them were made while GG was ongoing, and presumed a degree of familiarity on the part of the audience. There was just too much to say about what was already happening to spend time getting the audience up to speed, and it was safe to assume our audiences had enough context to follow along. But time moves fast on the internet, and many people who now care about such things weren't there while it was happening, and are lacking the necessary context to follow the better videos. For a long time, I've only been able to direct them to RationalWiki's timeline, which is excellent but so exhaustively comprehensive that it's likely to scare off first-timers.

I realize an hourlong lecture isn't necessarily helping matters, but the first 20-or-so minutes of this video are my attempt at streamlining the timeline such that people can be up to speed on the most important stuff fairly quickly. The rest is talking about what it all meant, how it prefigured the Alt-Right, and using it to better understand digital radicalization.

This video was made with the help of Magdalen Rose, who edited the slides to the audio while I was laid up with a back injury. Go sub to her channel! And please back me on Patreon.

Transcript below the cut.

FUCKING VIDEO GAMES? FUCKING VIDEO GAMES. THEY MADE DOZENS OF PEOPLE MISERABLE FOR YEARS OVER VIDEO GAMES! NOT EVEN FUCKING VIDEO GAMES, FUCKING ARTICLES ABOUT FUCKING VIDEO GAMES. THIS IS WHAT PASSES FOR LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT??

Hi! My name is Ian Danskin. I’m a video essayist and media artist. I run the YouTube channel Innuendo Studios, please like share and subscribe.

I’m here to talk to you about GamerGate, and I needed to get all that out of the way. I’m going to talk about what GamerGate was and how it prefigured The Alt-Right, and there are gonna be moments where you’re nodding along with me, going, “yeah, yeah I get it,” and then the sun’s gonna break through a crack in the wall and you’ll suddenly remember that all this is happening because some folks - mostly ladies - said some stuff - provably true stuff, I might add - about video games and a bunch of guys didn’t like it, and you’re gonna want to rip your hair out. By the end of this, you will have a better understanding of what happened, but it will never not be bullshit.

Also, oh my god, content warning. Racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, rape threats, threats of violence, domestic abuse - I’m not going to depict or describe at length any of the worst stuff, but it’s all in the mix. So if at any point you need to switch me off or mute me, you have my blessing.

Brace yourselves.

Some quick prehistory:

In 2012, feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian ran a Kickstarter campaign for a YouTube series on sexist tropes in video games. And, partway through the campaign, 4chan found it and said “let’s ruin her life.” And a lot of the male general gaming public joined in. And by “ruin her life” I’m not talking 150 angry tweets including dozens of rape and death threats per week, though that was a thing. I’m talking bomb threats. I’m talking canceled speaking engagements because someone threatened to shoot up a school. I’m talking FBI investigation. The harassers faced no meaningful repercussions.

And in 2013, Zoe Quinn released Depression Quest, a free text game about living with depression. They received harassment off and on for the next year, most pointedly from an incel forum called Wizardchan that doxxed their phone number and made harassing phone calls telling them to kill themself. The harassers faced no meaningful repercussions.

(Also, quick note: Zoe Quinn is nonbinary and has come out since the events in question. When I call Zoe’s harassment misogynist, understand I am not calling Zoe a woman, but they were attacked by people who hate women because that’s how they were perceived. Had they been out at the time things probably would’ve gone down similarly, but on top of misogyny I’d be talking about nonbinary erasure and transphobia.)

Okay. Our story begins in August 2014. The August that never ended.

Depression Quest, after a prolonged period on Greenlight, finally releases on Steam as a free download with the option to pay what you want. In the days that follow, Zoe’s ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, writes a nearly 10,000-word blog called The Zoe Post, in which he claims Quinn had been a shitty and unfaithful partner. (For reference, 10,000 words is long enough that the Hugos would consider it a novelette.) This is posted to forums on Penny Arcade and Something Awful, both of which immediately take it down, finding it, at best, a lot of toxic hearsay and, at worse, an invitation to harassment. So Gjoni workshops the post, adds a bunch of edgelord humor (and I am using the word “humor” very generously), and reposts it to three different subforums on 4chan.

We’re not going to litigate whether Zoe Quinn was a good partner. I don’t know or care. I don’t think anyone on this call is trying to date them so I’m not sure that’s our business. What is known is that the relationship lasted five months, and, after it ended, Gjoni began stalking Quinn. Gjoni has, in fact, laid out how he stalked Quinn in meticulous detail to interviewers and why he feels it was justified. It’s also been corroborated by a friend that Quinn briefly considered taking him back at a games conference in San Francisco, but he became violent during sex and Quinn left the apartment in the middle of the night with visible bruises.

Off of the abusive ex-boyfriend’s post, 4chan decides it’s going to make Zoe Quinn one of their next targets, and starts a private IRC channel to plan the campaign. The channel is called #BurgersAndFries, a reference to Gjoni claiming Quinn had cheated on him with five guys. A couple sentences in The Zoe Post - which Gjoni would later claim were a typo - imply that one of the five guys was games journalist Nathan Grayson and that Quinn had slept with him in exchange for a good review of Depression Quest. Given the anger that they’d seen drummed up against women in games with the previous Anita Sarkeesian hate mob, #BurgersAndFries decides to focus on this breach of “ethics in games journalism” as a cover story, many of them howling with laughter at the thought that male gamers would probably buy it. This way, destroying Quinn’s life and career and turning their community against them would appear an unfortunate byproduct of a legitimate consumer revolt; criticism of the harassment could even be framed as a distraction from the bigger issue. Gjoni himself is in the IRC channel telling them that this was the best hand to play.

The stated aim of many on #BurgersAndFries was to convince Quinn to commit suicide.

Two regulars in the IRC, YouTubers MundaneMatt and Internet Aristocrat, make videos about The Zoe Post. Incidentally, both these men had already made a lot of money off videos about Anita Sarkeesian. Matt’s is swiftly taken down with a DMCA claim, and he says that Quinn filed the claim themself. (For the record, in those days, YouTube didn’t tell you who filed DMCA claims against you.) Members of the IRC also reach out to YouTuber TotalBiscuit, who had been critical of Sarkeesian and dismissive of her harassment, and he tweets the story to his 350,000 followers, saying a game developer trading sex for a good review might not prove true, but was certainly plausible.

This is where GamerGate begins to get public traction.

Zoe Quinn is very swiftly doxxed, with their phone number, home address, nudes, and names and numbers of their family collected. Gjoni himself leaks their birth name. The Zoe Post, and the movement against Quinn - now dubbed “The Quinnspiracy” - make it to The Escapist and Reddit, which mods will have little luck removing. The Quinnspiracy declares war on any site that does take their threads down, most vehemently NeoGAF. People who defend Zoe against the harassment start getting doxxed themselves - Fez developer Phil Fish is doxxed so thoroughly, hackers get access to the root folder of his website.

In what I’m going to call This Should Have Been The End, Part 1, Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief at Kotaku where Nathan Grayson worked, in response to pressure not just from The Quinnspiracy but an increasing number of angry gamers buying The Quinnspiracy’s narrative, publishes a story. In it he verifies that Quinn and Grayson did date for several months, and that not only is there no review of Depression Quest anywhere on Kotaku, not by Grayson nor anyone else, but that Grayson did not write a single word about Quinn the entire time they were dating.

In response, The Quinnspiracy declares war on Kotaku. r/KotakuinAction is formed, which will become the primary site of organization outside of chanboards. The fact that their entire “movement” is based on a review that does not exist changes next to nothing.

Some people start to see The Quinnspiracy as potentially profitable. The Fine Young Capitalists get involved, a group ostensibly working to get women into video games but who have a Byzantine plan to do so wherein they crowdfund the budget and the woman who wins a competition gets to storyboard a game, but another company will make and she will get 8% of the profits, the rest going to a charity chosen by the top donor. 4chan becomes the top donor. They like TFYC because the head of the company has a vendetta against Zoe Quinn, who had previously called them out for their transphobic submission policy, and he falsely accused Quinn of having once doxxed him. 4chan feels backing an ostensibly feminist effort will be good PR, but can’t resist selecting a colon cancer charity because, they say, feminism is cancer and they want to be the cure to butthurt. They also get to design a character for the game, and so they create Vivian James, who will become the GamerGate mascot.

Manosphere YouTubers Jordan Owen and Davis Aurini launch a Patreon campaign for their antifeminist documentary The Sarkeesian Effect and come to The Quinnspiracy looking for $15,000 a month for an indefinite period to make it, which they get.

In what will prove genuinely awful timing, Anita Sarkeesian releases the second episode of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, and, despite not being a games journalist and having nothing to do with Quinn or Grayson, she is immediately roped into the narrative about how feminists are ruining games culture and becomes the second major target of harassment. Both she and Quinn soon have to leave their houses after having receiving dozens and dozens of death threats that include their home addresses.

After being courted by members of the IRC channel, Firefly star Adam Baldwin tweets a link to one of the Quinnspiracy videos and coins the hashtag #GamerGate. This is swiftly adopted by all involved.

In response to all this, Leigh Alexander writes a piece for Gamasutra arguing that the identity that these men are flocking to the “ethics in games journalism” narrative to defend no longer matters as a marketing demographic. Gaming and games culture is so large and so varied, and the “core gamer” audience of 18-34 white bros growing smaller and septic, that there was no reason, neither morally nor financially, to treat them as the primary audience anymore. Love of gaming is eternal, but, she declared, “gamers,” as an identity, “are over.” Eight more articles contextualizing GamerGate alongside misogyny and the gatekeeping of games culture come out across several websites in the following days. GamerGate frames these as a clear sign of [deep sigh] collusion to oppress gamers, proving that ethics in games journalism is, indeed, broken, and Leigh Alexander becomes the third major target of harassment. These become known as the “gamers are dead” articles - a phrase not one of them uses - and they make “get Leigh Alexander fired from Gamasutra” one of their primary goals.

Something I need you to understand is that it has, at this point, been two weeks.

Highlights from the next little bit: Alex Macris, a higher up at The Escapist’s parent company, expresses support for GamerGate; he will go on to write the first positive coverage at a major publication and cement The Escapist as GamerGate-friendly. Mike Cernovich, aka “Based Lawyer,” gets GamerGate’s attention by mocking Anita Sarkeesian; he will go on to hire a private investigator to stalk Zoe Quinn. GamerGate launches Operation Disrespectful Nod, an email campaign pressuring companies to pull advertising from websites that have criticized them. They leverage their POC members, getting them, any time someone points out the rampant racism and antisemitism among GamerGaters, to say “I am a person of color and I am #NotYourShield”; most of these “POC members” are fake accounts left over from a previous, racist disinformation campaign. Milo Yiannapoulos gets involved, writing positive coverage of GG despite having mocked gamers for precisely this behavior in the past, and gets so much traffic it pulls Breitbart News out of obscurity and makes it a significant player in modern conservative news media.

[Hey! Ian from the future here. This talk mostly addresses how GamerGate prefigured the Alt-Right strategically and philosophically, but if you want a more explicit, material connection: Breitbart News took its newfound notoriety to become, as its Executive Chair phrased it in 2016, "a platform for the Alt-Right." That Executive Chair was Steve Bannon, who threw the website's weight behind The Future President Who Shall Not Be Named, and, upon getting his attention, would then go on to become his campaign strategist and work in his Administration. So, if you're wondering how one of the central figures of the Alt-Right ended up in the White House, the answer is literally "GamerGate." Back to you, Ian from the past!]

In what I’m calling This Should Have Been The End, Part 2, Zoe Quinn announces that they have been lurking the #BurgersAndFries IRC channel since the beginning and releases dozens of screenshots showing harassment being planned and the selection of “ethics in games journalism” as a cover. #BurgersAndFries has a meltdown, everyone turns on each other, and the channel is abandoned. And they then start another IRC and things proceed.

It goes on like this. I’m not gonna cover everything. This is just the first month. It should be clear by now that this thing is kind of unkillable. And I worry I haven’t made it obvious that this is not just a chanboard and an IRC. Thousands of regular, every day gamers were buying the story and joining in. They were angry, and no amount of evidence that their anger was unfounded was going to change that. You could not mention or even allude to GamerGate and not get flooded with dozens, even hundreds of furious replies. These replies always included the hashtag so everyone monitoring it could join in, so all attempts at real conversation devolved into a hundred forking threads where some people expected you to talk to them while others hurled insults and slurs. And always the possibility that, if any one of them didn’t like what you said, you’d be the next target.

To combat this, some progressives offered up the hashtag #GameEthics to the people getting swept up in GamerGate, saying, “look, we get that you’re angry, and if you want to talk about ethics in games journalism, we can totally do that, but using your hashtag is literally putting us in danger; they calling the police on people saying there’s a hostage situation at their home addresses so they get sent armed SWAT teams, and if you’ll just use this other hashtag we can have the conversation you say you want to have in safety.” And I will ever stop being salty about what happened.

They refused. They wouldn’t cede any ground to what they saw as their opposition. It was so important to have the conversation on their terms that not only did they refuse to use #GameEthics, they spammed it with furry porn so no one could use it.

A few major events on the timeline before we move on: Christina Hoff Sommers, the Republican Party’s resident “feminist,” comes out criticizing Anita Sarkeesian and becomes a major GG figurehead, earning the title Based Mom. Zoe Quinn gets a restraining order against Eron Gjoni, which he repeatedly violates, to no consequence; GG will later crowdfund his legal fees. There’s this listserv called GameJournoPros where game journalists would talk about their jobs, and many are discussing their concerns over GamerGate, so Milo Yiannopoulos leaks it and this is framed as further “proof of collusion.” 4chan finally starts enforcing its “no dox” rules and shuts GamerGate threads down, so they migrate to 8chan, a site famous for hosting like a lot of child porn. Indie game developer Brianna Wu makes a passing joke about GamerGate on Twitter and they decide, seemingly on a whim, to make her one of the biggest targets in the entire movement; she soon has to leave her home as well. GamerGate gets endorsements from WikiLeaks, Infowars, white nationalist sites Stormfront and The Daily Stormer, and professional rapist RooshV. And hundreds of people get doxxed; an 8chan subforum called Baphomet is created primarily to host dox of GamerGate’s critics.

But by November, GamerGate popularity was cresting, as more and more mainstream media covered it negatively. Their last, big spike in popularity came when Anita Sarkeesian went on The Colbert Report and Stephen made fun of the movement. Their numbers never recovered after that.

Which is not to say GamerGate ended. It slowed down. The period of confusion where the mainstream world couldn’t tell whether it was a legitimate movement or not passed. But, again, most harassers faced no meaningful repercussions. Gamers who bought the lie about “ethics in games journalism” stayed mad that no one had ever taken them seriously, and harassers continued to grief their targets for years. The full timeline of GamerGate is an constant cycle of lies, harassment, operations, grift, and doxxing. Dead-enders are to this day still using the hashtag. And remember how Anita had nothing to do with ethics in games journalism or Zoe Quinn, and they just roped her in because they’d enjoyed harassing her before so why not? Every one of GamerGate’s targets knows that they may get dragged into some future harassment campaign just because. It’s already happened to several of them. They’re marked.

(sigh) Let’s take a breath.

Now that we know what GamerGate was, let’s talk about why it worked.

In the thick of GamerGate, I started compiling a list of tactics I saw them using. I wanted to make a video essay that was one part discussion of antifeminist backlash, and one part list of techniques these people use so we can better recognize and anticipate their behavior. That first part became six parts and the second part went on a back burner. It would eventually become my series, The Alt-Right Playbook. GamerGate is illustrative because most of what would become The Alt-Right Playbook was in use.

Two foundational principles of The Alt-Right Playbook are Control the Conversation and Never Play Defense. Make sure people are talking about what you want them to talk about, and take an aggressive posture so you look dominant even when you’re not making sense. For instance: once Zoe leaked the IRC chatlogs, a reasonable person could tell the average gater, “the originators of GamerGate were planning harassment from the very beginning.” But the gater would say, “you’re cherry-picking; not everyone was a harasser.”

Now, this is a bad argument - that’s not how you use “cherry-picking” - and it’s being framed as an accusation - you’re not just wrong, you’re dishonest - which makes you wanna defend yourself. But, if you do - if you tell them why that argument is crap - you’ve let the conversation move from “did the IRC plan harassment?” - a question of fact - to “are the harassers representative of the movement?” - a question of ethics. Like, yes, they are, but only within a certain moral framework. An ethics question has no provable answer, especially if people are willing to make a lot of terrible arguments. It is their goal to move any question with a definitive answer to a question of philosophy, to turn an argument they can’t win into an argument nobody can win.

The trick is to treat the question you asked like it’s already been answered and bait you into addressing the next question. By arguing about whether you’re cherry-picking, you’re accepting the premise that whether you’re cherry-picking is even relevant. Any time this happens, it’s good to pause and ask, “what did we just skip over?” Because that will tell you a lot.

What you skipped over is their admission that, yes, the IRC did plan harassment, but that��s only on them if most of the movement was in on it. Which is a load of crap - the rest of the IRC saw it happening, let it happen, it’s not like anybody warned Zoe, and shit, I’m having the cherry-picking argument! They got me! You see how tempting it is? But presumably the reason you brought the harassment up is because you want them to do something about it. At the very least, leave the movement, but ideally try and stop it. They don’t, strictly speaking, need to feel personally responsible to do that. And you might be thinking, well, maybe if I can get them take responsibility then they’ll do something, but you’d be falling for a different technique I call I Hate Mondays.

This is where people will acknowledge a terrible thing is happening, maybe even agree it’s bad, but they don’t believe anything can be done about it. They also don’t believe you believe anything can be done about it. Mondays suck, but they come around every week. This is never stated outright, but it’s why you’re arguing past each other. To them, the only reason to talk about the bad thing is to assign blame. Whose turn is it to get shit on for the unsolvable problem? Their argument about cherry-picking amounts to “1-2-3 not it.” And they are furious with you for trying to make them responsible for harassment they didn’t participate in.

The unspoken argument is that harassment is part of being on the internet. Every public figure deals with it. This ignores any concept of scale - why does one person get harassed more than another? - but you can’t argue with someone who views it as a binary: harassment either happens or it doesn’t, and, if it does, it’s a fact of life, and, if it happens to everyone, it’s not gendered. And this is not a strongly-held belief they’ve come to after years of soul-searching - this is what they’ve just decided they believe. They want to participate in GamerGate despite knowing its purpose, and this is what would need to be true for that to be ok.

Or maybe they’re just fucking with you! Maybe you can’t tell. Maybe they can’t tell, either. I call this one The Card Says Moops, where people say whatever they feel will score points in an argument and are so irony-poisoned they have no idea whether they actually believe it. A very useful trick if the thing you appear to believe is unconscionable. You can’t take what people like that say at face value; you can only intuit their beliefs from their actions. They say they believe this one minute and that another, but their behavior is always in accordance with that, not this.

In the negative space, their belief is, “The harassment of these women is okay. My anger about video games is more important. I may not be harassing them myself, but they do kind of deserve it.” They will never say this out loud in a serious conversation, though many will say it in an anonymous or irreverent space where they can later deny they meant it. But, whatever they say they believe, this is the worldview they are operating under.

Obscuring this means flipping through a lot of contradictory arguments. The harassment is being faked, or it’s not being faked but it’s being exaggerated, or it’s not being exaggerated but the target is provoking it to get attention, which means GamerGate harassers simultaneously don’t exist, exist in small numbers, and exist in such large numbers someone can build a career out of relying on them! It can be kind of fun to take all these arguments made in isolation and try to string together an actual position. Like, GamerGate would argue that Nathan Grayson having previously mentioned Zoe Quinn in an article about a canceled reality show counts as positive coverage, and since Grayson reached out to Quinn for comment it’s reasonable to assume they started dating before the article was published (which is earlier than they claim), and positive coverage did lead to greater popularity for Depression Quest. But if you untangle that, it’s like… okay, you’re saying Zoe Quinn slept with a journalist in exchange for four nonconsecutive sentences that said no more than “Zoe Quinn exists and made a game,” and the price of those four sentences was to date the journalist for months, all to get rich off a game that didn’t cost any money. That’s your movement?

And some, if cornered, would say, “yes, we believe women are just that shitty, that one would fuck a guy for months if it made them the tiniest bit more famous.” But they won’t lead with that. Because they know it won’t convince the normies, even the ones who want to be convinced. So they use a process I call The Ship of Theseus to, piece by piece, turn that sentence into “slept with a journalist in exchange for a good review” and argue that each part of the sentence is technically accurate. It’s trying to lie without lying. And, provided all the pieces of this sentence are discussed separately, and only in the context of how they justify this sentence, you can trick yourself into believing this sentence is mostly true.

So, like, why? This is clearly motivated reasoning; what’s the motivation? What was this going to accomplish?

The answer is nothing. Nothing, by design. GamerGate’s “official” channels - the subreddit and the handful of forums that didn’t shut them down - were rigidly opposed to any action more organized than an email campaign. They had a tiny handful of tangible demands - they wanted gaming websites to post public ethics policies and had a list of people they wanted fired - but their larger aim was the sea change in how games journalism operated, which nothing they were asking for could possibly give them. The kind of anger that convinces you this is a true statement is not going to be addressed by a few paragraphs about ethics and Leigh Alexander getting a new job. They wanted gaming sites to stop catering to women and “SJWs” - who were a sizable and growing source of traffic - and to get out of the pockets of companies that advertised on their websites - which was their primary source of income. So all Kotaku had to do to make them happy was solve capitalism!

Meanwhile, the unofficial channels, like 8chan and Baphomet, were planning op after op to get private information, spread lies with fake accounts, get disinformation trending, make people quit jobs, cancel gigs, and flee their homes. Concrete goals with clear results. All you had to do to feel productive was go rogue. In my video,

How to Radicalize a Normie, I describe how the Alt-Right encourages lone wolf behavior by whipping people up into a rage and then refusing to give them anything to do, while surrounding them with examples of people taking matters into their own hands. The same mechanism is in play here: the public-facing channels don’t condone harassment but also refuse to fight it, the private channels commit it under cover of anonymity, and there is a free flow of traffic between them for when the official channels’ impotence becomes unbearable.

What I hope I’m illustrating is how these techniques play off of each other, how they create a closed ecosystem that rational thought cannot enter. There’s a phrase we use on the internet that got thrown around a lot at the time:

you can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.

Now, there are a few other big topics I think are relevant here, so I want to go through them one by one.

MEMEIFICATION

So a lot of interactions with GamerGate would involve a very insular knowledge base.

Like, you’d say something benign but progressive on Twitter.

A gater would show up in your mentions and say something aggressive and false.

You’d correct them. But then they’d come back and hit you with -

ah shit, sorry, this is a Loss meme.

If I were in front of a classroom I’d ask, show of hands, how many of you got that? I had to ask Twitter recently, does Gen Z know about Loss?!

If you don’t know what Loss is I’m not sure I can explain it to you. It’s this old, bad webcomic that was parodied so, so, so many times

that it was reduced to its barest essentials, to the point where any four panels with shapes in this arrangement is a Loss meme. For those of you in the know, you will recognize this anywhere, but have you ever tried to explain to someone who wasn’t in the know why this is really fuckin’ funny?

So, now… by the same process that this is a comics joke,

this is a rape joke.

I’m not gonna show the original image, but, once upon a time, someone made an animated GIF of the character Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z graphically raping Vegeta. 4chan loved it so much that it got posted daily, became known as the “daily dose,” until mods started deleting every incident of it. So they uploaded slightly edited version of it. Then they started uploading other images that had been edited with Piccolo’s color scheme. It got so abstracted that eventually any collection of purple and green pixels would be recognized as Piccolo Dick.

Apropos of nothing, GamerGate is a movement that insists it is not sexist in nature and it does not condone threats of rape against the women they don’t like. And this is their logo. This is their mascot.

If you’re familiar with the Daily Dose, the idea that GamerGate would never support Eron Gjoni if they believed he was a sexual abuser is so blatantly insincere it’s insulting… but imagine trying to explain to someone who’s not on 4chan how this sweater is a rape joke. Imagine having to explain it to a journalist. Imagine having to explain it to the judge enforcing your abuser’s restraining order.

Reactionaries use meme culture not just because they’re terminally online but also because it makes their behavior seem either benign or just confusing to outsiders. They find it hilarious that they can be really explicit and still fly under the radar. The Alt-Right did this with Pepe the Frog, the OK sign, even the milk glass emoji for a hot minute. The more inexplicable the meme, the better. You get the point where Stephen Miller is flashing Nazi signs from the White House and the Presidential re-eletion campaign is releasing 88 ads of exactly 14 words and there’s still a debate about whether the administration is racist. Because journalists aren’t going to get their heads around that. You tell them “1488 is a Nazi number,” it’s gonna seem a lot more plausible that you’re making shit up.

MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS

Online movements like GamerGate move at a speed and mutation rate too high for the mainstream world to keep up. And not just that they don’t understand the memes - they don’t understand the infrastructure.

In an attempt to cover GamerGate evenhandedly, George Wiedman of Super Bunnyhop interviewed a lawyer who specializes in journalistic ethics. He meant well; I really wish he hadn’t. You can see him trying to fit something like GamerGate into terms this silver-haired man who works in copyright law can understand. At one point he asks if it’s okay to fund the creative project of a potential journalistic source, to which the guy understandably says “no.”

What he’s alluding to here is the harassment of Jenn Frank. A few weeks into GamerGate, Jenn Frank writes a piece in The Guardian about sexism in tech that mentions Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn. In another case of “here’s a strongly-held belief I just decided I have,” GamerGate says this is a breach of journalistic ethics because Frank backs Quinn on Patreon. They harass her so intensely she not only has to quit her job at The Guardian, for several months she quits journalism entirely.

Off the bat, calling a public figure central to a major event in the field a “journalistic source” is flatly wrong-headed. Quinn was not interviewed or even contacted for the article, they were in no way a “source”; they were a subject. But I want to talk about this phrase, “fund a creative project.” Patreon is functionally a subscription; it’s a way of buying things. It’s technically accurate that Frank is funding Quinn’s creative project, but only in the sense that you are funding Bob Dylan’s creative project if you listen to his music. And saying Frank therefore can’t write about Quinn is like saying a music journalist can’t cover a Bob Dylan concert if they’ve ever bought his albums.

And we could talk about the ways that Patreon, as compared with other funding models, can create a greater sense of intimacy, and we also could comment that, well, that’s how an increasing number of people consume media now, so that perspective should be present in journalism. But maybe it means we should cover that perspective differently? I don’t know. It’s an interesting subject. But none of that’s going on in this conversation because this guy doesn’t know what Patreon is. It was only a year old at this point. Patreon’s been a primary source of my income for 5 years and my parents still don’t know what it is. (I think they think I’m a freelancer?) This guy hears “funding a creative project” and he’s thinking an investor, someone who makes a profit off the source’s success.

The language of straight society hasn’t caught up with what’s happening, and that works in GamerGate’s favor.

In the years since GamerGate we have dozens of stories of people trying to explain Twitter harassment to a legal system that’s never heard of Twitter. People trying to explain death threats to cops whose only relationship to the internet is checking email, confusedly asking, “Why don’t you just not go online?” Like, yeah, release your text game about depression at GameStop for the PS3 and get it reviewed in the Boston Globe, problem solved.

You see this in the slowness of mainstream journalists to condemn the harassment - hell, even games journalists at first. Because what if it is a legitimate movement? What if the harassers are just a fringe element? What if there was misconduct? The people in a position to stop GamerGate don’t have to be convinced of their legitimacy, they just have to hesitate. They just have to be unsure. Remember how much happened in just the first two weeks, how it took only a month to become unkillable.

It’s the same hesitance that makes mainstream media, online platforms, and law enforcement underestimate The Alt-Right. They’re terrified of condemning a group as white nationalist terrorists because they’re confused, and what if they’re wrong? Or, in most cases, not even afraid they’re wrong, but afraid of the PR disaster if too much of the world thinks they’re wrong.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND CONTROL

A thing I’ve talked about in The Alt-Right Playbook is how these decentralized, ostensibly leaderless movements insulate themselves from responsibility. Harassment is never the movement’s fault because they never told anyone to harass and you can’t prove the harassers are legitimate members of the movement. The Alt-Right does this too - one of their catchphrases is “I disavow.” Since there are no formalized rules for membership, they can redraw boundaries on the fly; they can take credit for any successes and deny responsibility for any wrongdoing. Public membership is granted or revoked based on a person’s moment-to-moment utility.

It’s almost like… they’re cherry-picking.

The flipside of this is a lack of control. Since they never officially tell anyone to do anything but write emails, they have no means of stopping anyone from behaving counterproductively. The harassment of Jenn Frank was the first time GamerGate’s originators thought, “maybe we should ease off just to avoid bad publicity,” and they found they couldn’t. GamerGate had gotten too big, and too many people were clearly there for precisely this reason.

They also couldn’t control the infighting. When your goal is to harass women and you have all these contradictory justifications for why, you end up with a lot of competing beliefs. And, you know what? Angry white men who like harassing people don’t form healthy relationships! Several prominent members of GamerGate - including Internet Aristocrat - got driven out by factionalism; they were doxxed by their own people! Jordan Owen and Davis Aurini parted ways hating each other, with Aurini releasing chatlogs of him gaslighting Owen about accepting an endorsement from Roosh, and they released two competing edits of The Sarkeesian Effect.

I say this because it’s useful to know that these are alliances of convenience. If you know where the sore spots are, you can apply pressure to them.

LEADERS WITHOUT LEADERSHIP

One way movements like GamerGate deflect responsibility is by declaring, “We are a leaderless movement! We have no means to stop harassment.”

Which… any anarchist will tell you collective action is entirely possible without leaders. But they’ll also tell you, absent a system of distributing power equitably, you’re gonna have leaders, just not ones you elected.

A few months into GamerGate, Randi Lee Harper created the ggautoblocker. Here’s what it did: it took five prominent GamerGate figures - Adam Baldwin, Mike Cernovich, Christina Hoff Sommers, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Nick Monroe, formerly known as [sigh] PressFartToContinue - and generated a block list of everyone who followed at least two of them on Twitter. Now, this became something of an arms race; once GamerGate found out about it they made secondary accounts that followed different people, and more and more prominent figures appeared and had to get added to the list. But, when it first launched, the list generated from just these five people comprised an estimated 90-95% of GamerGate.

Hate to break it to you, guys, but if 90+ percent of your movement is following at least two of the same five people, those are your leaders. The attention economy has produced them. Power pools when left on its own.

This is another case where you have to ignore what people claim and look at what they do. The Alt-Right loves to say “we disavow Richard Spencer” and “Andrew Anglin doesn’t speak for us.”

But no matter what they say, pay attention to whom they’re taking cues from.

AD CAMPAIGN

George Lakoff has observed that one way the Left fails in opposition to the Right is that most liberal politicians and campaigners have degrees in things like law and political science, where conservative campaigners more often have degrees in advertising and communications. Liberals and leftists may have a better product to sell, but conservatives know how to sell products.

GamerGate less resembles a boots-on-the-ground political movement than an ad campaign. First they decide what their messaging strategy is going to be. Then the media arm starts publicizing it. They seek out celebrity endorsements. They get their own hashtag and mascot. They donate to charity and literally call it “public relations.” You can even see the move from The Quinnspiracy to GamerGate as a rebranding effort - when one name got too closely associated with harassment, they started insisting GamerGate was an entirely separate movement from The Quinnspiracy. I learned that trick from Stringer Bell’s economics class.

Now, we could stand to learn a thing or two from this. But I also wouldn’t want us to adopt this strategy whole hog; you should view moves like these as red flags. If you’re hesitating to condemn a movement because what if it’s legitimate, take a look at whether they’re selling ideology like it’s Pepsi.

PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING

One reason to insist you’re a consumer revolt rather than a harassment campaign is most people who want to harass need someone to give them permission, and need someone to tell them it’s normal.

Bob Altemeyer has this survey he uses to study authoritarianism. He divides respondents into people with low, average, and high authoritarian sentiments, and then tells them what the survey has measured and asks, “what score do you think is best to have: low, average, or high?”

People with low authoritarian sentiments say it’s best to be low. People with average authoritarian sentiments also say it’s best to be low. But people with high authoritarian sentiments? They say it’s best to be average. Altemeyer finds, across all his research, that reactionaries want to aggress, but only if it is socially acceptable. They want to know they are the in-group and be told who the out-group is. They don’t particularly care who the out-group is, Altemeyer finds they’ll aggress against any group an authority figure points to, even, if they don’t notice it, a group that contains them. They just have to believe the in-group is the norm.

This is why they have to believe games journalism is corrupt because of a handful of feminist media critics with outsized influence. Legitimate failures of journalism cannot be systemic problems rooted in how digital media is funded and consumed; there cannot be a legitimate market for social justice-y media. It has to be manipulation by the few. Because, if these things are common, then, even if you don’t like them, they’re normal. They’re part of the in-group. Reactionary politics is rebellion against things they dislike getting normalized, because they know, if they are normalized, they will have to accept them. Because the thing they care about most is being normal.

This is why the echo chamber, this is why Fox News, this is why the Far Right insists they are the “silent majority.” This is why they artificially inflate their numbers. This is why they insist facts are “biased.” They have to maintain the image that what are, in material terms, fringe beliefs are, in fact, held by the majority. This is why getting mocked by Stephen Colbert was such a blow to GamerGate. It makes it harder to believe the world at large agrees with them.

This is why, if you’re trying to change the world for the better, it’s pointless to ask their permission. Because, if you change the world around them, they will adapt even faster than you will.

THE ARGUMENT ISN’T SUPPOSED TO END

Casey Explosion has this really great Twitter thread comparing the Alt-Right to Scary Terry from Rick and Morty. His catchphrase is “you can run but you can’t hide, bitch.” And Rick and Morty finally escape him by hiding. And Morty’s all, “but he said we can’t hide,” and Rick is like, “why are we taking his word on this? if we could hide, he certainly wouldn’t tell us.”

The reason to argue with a GamerGater is on the implied agreement that, if you can convince them they’re part of a hate mob, they will leave. But look at the incentives here: they want to be in GamerGate, and you want them not to be. But they’re already in GamerGate. They’re not waiting on the outcome of this argument to participate. They’ve already got what they want; they don’t need to convince you GamerGate isn’t a hate mob.

This is why all their logic and rationalizations are shit, because they don’t need to be good. They’re not trying to win an argument. They’re trying to keep the argument going.

This has been a precept of conservative political strategy for decades. “You haven’t convinced us climate change is real and man-made, you need to do more studies.” They’re not pausing the use of fossil fuels until the results come in. “You haven’t convinced us there are no WMDs in Iraq, you need to collect more evidence.” They’re not suspending the war until you get back to them. “You haven’t convinced us that Reaganomic tax policy causes recessions, let’s just do it for another forty years and see what happens.” And when the proof comes in, they send us out for more, and we keep going.

The biggest indicator you can’t win a debate with a reactionary is they keep telling you you can. The biggest indicator protest and deplatforming works is they keep telling you in plays into their hands. The biggest indicator that you shouldn’t compromise with Republicans is they keep saying doing otherwise is stooping to their level. They’re not going to walk into the room and say, “Hi, my one weakness is reasoned argument, let’s pick a time and place to hash this out.”

And we fall for it because we’re trying to be decent people. Because we want to believe the truth always wins. We want to bargain in good faith, and they are weaponizing our good faith against us. Always dangling the carrot that the reason they’re like this is no one’s given them the right argument not to be. It’s all just a misunderstanding, and, really, it’s on us for not trying hard enough.

But they have no motivation to agree with us. Most of the people asking for debates have staked their careers on disagreeing with us. Conceding any point to the Left could cost them their livelihood.

WHY GAMES?

Let’s close with the big question: why games? And, honestly, the short answer is:

why not games?

Games culture has always presented itself as a hobby for young, white, middle class boys. It’s always been bigger and more diverse than that, but that’s how it was marketed, and that’s who most felt they belonged. As gaming grows bigger, there is suddenly room for those marginal voices that have always been there to make themselves heard. And, as gaming becomes more mainstream, it’s having its first brushes with serious critical analysis.

This makes the people who have long felt gaming was theirs and theirs alone anxious and a little angry. They’ve invested a lot of their identity in it and they don’t want it to change.

And what the Far Right sees in a sizable collection of aggrieved young men is an untapped market. This is why sites like Stormfront and Breitbart flocked to them. These are not liberals they have to convert, these people are, up til now, not politically engaged. The Right can be their first entry to politics.

The world was changing. Nerd properties were exploding into popular culture in tandem with media representation diversifying. And we were living with the first Black President. Any time an out-group looks like it might join the in-group, there is a self-protective backlash from the existing in-group. This had been brewing for a while, and, honestly, if it hadn’t boiled over in games, it would have boiled over somewhere else.

And, in the years since GamerGate, it has. The Far Right has tapped the comics, Star Wars, and sci-fi fandoms; they tried to get in with the furry community but failed spectacularly. They’re all over YouTube and, frankly, the atheist community was already in their pocket. Basically, if you’re in community with a bunch of young white guys who think they own the place, you might wanna have some talks with them sooner than later.

Anyway, if you want to know more about any of this stuff, RationalWiki’s timeline on GamerGate is pretty thorough. You can also watch my or Dan Olson’s videos on the subject. I’ll be putting the audio of this talk on YouTube and will put as many resources as I can in the show notes. The channel, again, is Innuendo Studios.

Sorry this was such a bummer.

Thank you for your time.

[chateautae]

I for duck's sake need help people.....see, I would be very pleased if anyone of you would just help me out....the thing is, I have been in a relationship for like around 3 years and trust me, he is like the most perfect kinda person I have ever met..but now comes the main issue, he has till now, never ever hinted me about doing anything ( the max. we have went is uk till just a little makeout types, ik spoiling my sex life like this sucks but that's why I am going anonymous and I think some of you might have experienced it ig, don't take me wrong, I mean like uk). The good thing is, we both are understanding and extremely working persons (he works as a employee in a business firm and I am a newbie doctor (kinda just started my practice as a doctor)....and even though I am a doctor and that having sex is like a normal thing because we literally studies everything, I still freak out upon thinking about doing it with him....it's not like I am scared or anything but I just want some uk girl tips upon how to actually do it....reading about it is quite, tbh, okay for me, but then doing it is like, a difficult task....i bet you he knows about everything and that's why he hasn't hinted upon anything but like from the past 1 week, he jas been dropping kinda hints ig.....like I won't go into the details, otherwise I would be hella embarrassed, not that I am not right now, I am literally sitting in the washroom typing this ( don't judge me)....while reading about it, it feels so easy to execute everything but then when doing it in real life is like so much like wierd ig....I mean how do I respond to it.....I am nervous and what not.....as 25yo, I sometimes feel wierd that I can't uk do it......can anyone of you just help me please......like some girl tips.....I searched it on Google too, still I don't have the courage.....amd moreover, my friends circle is so wierd amd plus, I am too shy to ask anyone.....ik asking this in such a way and place is way too inappropriate to be even considered normal....it's not like I am not ready for it, it's just I am quite nervous about how to do it.....tbh, he hasn't forced me even once still remained to be sweet and all but internally we noth know, we might wanna step up.....HELP PLZ.....my mom is way too conservative to even have an open conversation about kisses let alone doing it....

Oh hun, you are completely and tOTALLY allowed to come to this blog for any advice and not feel ashamed. This is an 18+ blog and anyone here would be so glad to help you, something like this is totally normal!! I shall leave my words under the cut, though if anyone else would like to help this lovely anon please do not hesitate to drop off a reply or even something in my inbox! I'll answer right away to help anyone wondering the same thing 💓

Alright hun, first and foremost I am so happy your relationship has been so strong! And I'm glad you're with someone who hasn't pushed you or anything into doing anything sexual yet, I'll tell you from experience that can be extremely daunting and uncomfy so I'm super relieved your man has been sweet!!

In terms of real advice, tbh I'm quite the wrong person to go to. I lost my v-card with my first boyfriend when I was 16, literally we were both inexperienced and even the times we did you know, do the deed it was very clumsy and nobody knew what they were doing, and the second person I've been with was a Kiseok situation (if you read maybe I do, yes Kiseok is based on a real person in my life) so fuck that dude. But maybe my own inexperience can also help you out, here are at least some lady tips I can think of:

1. Make sure you're comfortable. I say comfortable instead of ready because I'm quite the believer in if you wait until the moment you're ready, you'll wait your entire life. So my best advice is to make sure you're comfy with the situation and your partner!!

2. Ensure your partner is someone who cares about you. I know everyone's stories are different, and not everyone has sex with someone they've been with for a long time or even love, one night stands are totally okay and I salute you sister. get that dick!!! But even in situations where you're with a stranger, sex is a very intimate thing, and it would make your experience 1000x better if you can at least tell the person cares about you and your body and your wishes during sex. Everyone deserves to be respected during an intimate act like sex and if you feel you're not being respected, whether it's your body, your wishes, your limits, your choices, do not feel obligated to still go through with this person.

3. You have to be wet. Of course not all sexual encounters happen the same way, and every female gets off on different things or turned on by a variety of actions, but essentially you have to be wet for sex. Most men understand this but a lot also don't, basically you gotta get into that juicy foreplay to get wet my girl. Try making out, maybe if you're sitting down swing a leg over his lap and bam you're straddling him. This position is usually optimal because you gain the opportunity to grind against yo man's crotch and my fucking God, does that shit feel hella nice. It's also highkey ego-boosting feeling how much the guy's getting worked up because literally anytime you grind or move over their crotch it immediately spikes to their dick and you can usually feel them against you. If you're standing, try moving to an area that has a wall and keep grabbing at your man's neck, usually men naturally will indicate you to jump and you'll easily be all up against the wall making out, this gets hella fun too cause being carried like that is so 😩

3.2. Okay cool, we're making out, now it's essentially a game of go with the flow. Men usually take the initiative and begin the escalation of things on their own. Maybe he'll start kissing down your neck, his hands are gonna be somewhere at your waist, maybe inching down to your ass or maybe he's an ass guy and he's already palming at yo cheeks. Regardless, I can confidently say you can sit back and relax, let yourself feel, get into the kissing and grinding and if you love the way he's touching you, make some noise and let him know, don't be afraid to be turned on and goddamn horny, dudes love that shit. You however are also allowed to take the wheel, and guys usually search for the greenlight from girls by sensing their movements and how eager they seem for the go-ahead on anything. If maybe you begin tugging at his clothes, they'll usually think "okay, she's okay with this rn" and so on. This part's sincerely just go with the flow, you don't need to rush and honestly the more foreplay the better for getting your puthy wet. Make sure you're comfy and your partner makes sure you're okay with that they're doing to you.

3.3. Whoop dee doo your man's hands are suddenly going, you know, places. Another case of go with the flow, if you're comfortable with your man wanting to do a lil rubby dubby on your kitty then totally let him, this shit feel's god-like I tell you. Maybe I'm just a sensitive ass whore, who knows but something about feeling a man's hands do what your lady fingers can't just HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. But essentially from here maybe you wanna reciprocate. Get them pesky pants open and feel your man up. Reach inside those boxers and touch that beast he's hiding inside. Make sure to go nice and slow and your hands aren't rough, men's dick are super sensitive and if you go too hard on at least a dry dick it acc hurts them. Men usually leak pre-cum at their tips so try using some of that to slick up your hand.

3.4. That's handjobbing, now if we're getting into oral, very important things to remember. A) retract your teeth, it's hard and it hurts to do it for a long time but teeth will hurt dudes a lot so suck them in and away from their cocks. B) Hollow your cheeks, men like the tightness of a mouth and that's what really gets them going. C) BREATHE THROUGH YOUR NOSE PLEASE DO NOT JUST STOP BREATHING AND TAKE YOUR TIME OKAY BLOWJOBS ARE ACC VERY FUCKING HARD AND FUCK YOU UP especially for someone like me who has a small mouth, yeah that shit sUCKS but nothing is more beautiful than seeing a man fold under your touch. D) Tease yo man a bit, kitten licks and kisses, dragging your tongue over his slit, maybe a pump and then take him out, slick him up with some saliva maybe, anything you feel like doing go ahead girl, that dick is yours for the time being and I promise he'll love it. E) Deep-throating is really when gets guys going cause they only acc feel shit at their tips, so please deep-throat with caution, and take your time if he's a big one, you can acc really hurt yourself especially if you're constantly deep-throating a really big one. F) Go to town girl, get up and bobbing, go down on him like he can't survive without you, go at your own pace and own it. G) Balls usually go neglected and I promise if you even fondle them or grab at them your man will combust.

3.5. Okay so with actual sex, FIRST OF ALL BE SAFE!!!! USE A FUCKING CONDOM, IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE THEN DON'T FUCK BUT IF YOU'RE STILL HORNY THEN PLEASE RECIEVE SOME MONEY FROM YO MAN FOR PLAN B!!! IT'S NOT ENTIRELY FOOLPROOF THOUGH PLEASE REMEMBER THAT RISK. You can totally go on birth control too but this has its complications, there are also monthly shots you can take and other contraceptives.

3.6. Okay it's sexy times, this is just gonna have to be a thing for you. Everyone's different and has different comfort levels, maybe you can take someone that’s bigger while some women can't and that's fine. Just make sure when he does go in, you feel okay with it. It will hurt if you’re dry and not wet, like hurt a lOT but if you do feel loads of pain just let your partner know to go slower, and let yourself get used to the feeling of something inside. You can always say stop if it hurts too much, seriously it's normal and that's what I did with my first boyfriend. Hell I fucking kicked my ex off me LMAO and he was so sorry and we just ended everything there, and had actual sex the next time I visited him. From here on I've really got no lady tips, essentially it's up to you what you like and what you'll do, get it on!!!

General Tips:

4. Be you, and be confident. I know sex can be really daunting especially when you consider men usually tend to be more experienced, and maybe you become afraid you won't measure up or be as good as his previous partners or you’re not good at sex, but baby girl it ain't about that. This dude is going to have sex with you because he wants to have sex with you, and whether that's his dick speaking for him or his heart, it means he will not be thinking about some other  chick he got it on with a year ago, he will be thinking of you and your pretty mouth and what you're doing, focused on touching your body and thinking he loves the way it feels. The more confident you are, the better. You're sexy and pretty and you are desirable babes, let those noises he makes when you touch him drive your confidence, the way he groans a little when you do something, the way he's tugging your body close to yours cause he wants to feel you, it all means he wants you and that's hot, let it boost your lady ego my love. You're allowed to be shy, I totally understand that, and if your partner really cares about you then they'll easily take your hand and guide you through it. Let them know you're a little nervous, and they'll really try to make things more comfy and easier for you because sex is about both parties, not just one.

5. Orgasming is hard, but it's still achievable. Especially in an open, established relationship, really let your man know what turns you on. Let him feel at your cooch while he's penetrating you and I promise that can usually get you orgasming. Other than that, another huge case of doing what you need to do to get yourself off, and always let your partner know. If you’re really searching for an orgasm in a newer relationship or if you’re too shy to say something, then literally just take your man’s hand and place him over your clit and start rubbing with him, he’ll get the hint and start doing it himself. 

6. Communication is key. This is obvious, but even if it's dirty talk, usually it's still a way to communicate and see if you're okay. You can ask to go slower, faster, softer, harder, stop altogether or entirely wreck your goddamn shit. Your partner should listen and if they don't, get the fuck out of there and leave that man, he don't fucking deserve you at all, especially in situations where you ask to stop or to slow down cause maybe something hurts, if he doesn't listen here then no, he don't deserve shit and LEAVE. Don't be afraid to make noise either or say something, dudes usually love hearing you. If you don’t like something please let your partner know, I’m sure they’re wondering if you do and would love to hear you communicating. 

7. Be clean after you're done woo-hoo-ing. Make sure you're tidy and stuff before putting clothes back on, sex can get messy especially if it's your first time you can bleed. Usually if the dude is a sweetheart enough they'll clean you, which is obviously aftercare uwu.

8. Pee after sex, UTI's are not fun. 

9. Your body may also feel weird or go through changes after you have sex for the first time, but that’s normal. Just you body’s response to feeling something foreign inside you. 

10. Ladies, remembering during sex that you have power, IT’S YOUR BODY!!!! Whether it’s because you’re totally domming or because your man is super duper sweet and will not do anything unless you want it, sex is meant to be fun and for both parties’ enjoyment. It’s not a chore nor is it something you HAVE to do to keep your man around or something, let yourself have fun girl, you deserve it. The flow of sex and any activities as such are usually dictated by you and what you want, so remember you don’t have to go through with something if you don’t want to. It shouldn’t matter if a dude really badly wants to get his dick wet, this is your body and you are to decide what happens to it. If a man makes you believe otherwise, FUCK THAT DUDE!!!! HE DON’T DESERVE YOU!!! YOU DESERVE LOVE AND RESPECT AND TO BE CARED FOR AS A HUMAN BEING!!

[whimsywispsblog]

All’s Not Fair in Love and War

A/N: Hi Wispies! So this is chapter 4! This one’s got little fluff and angst. One of my fav chapters so far. Hope y’all like it! 💜

PART1, PART2, PART3

CHAPTER 4

The next few days went by in the blink of an eye. The only good thing that happened was the return of Woods and Mason.

There was too much for the team to process. The most shocking information was the Greenlight nukes revelation- American nukes run by Hudson which were now in the hands of Perseus. Had it not been for Adler, Hudson would have been killed by Woods when he tried to shift the blame for his blunder onto Adler. While the group was busy figuring out a way to get the control on the nukes or at least find a way to stop Perseus from launching them, Adler decided to break into the KGB headquarters to get the names of the Sleeper Agents. The plan was to break in with Woods and Mason, but they were still stuck in their mission. So it was up to him and Bell.

Hudson was definitely not happy with Bell going in, while Adler was adamant on taking Bell with him. Rei herself wasn't happy with Bell going- what if the side effects of MK-ULTRA showed up? Who would be there to control Bell? And if the side effects showed up and blew their cover, she'd loose Adler forever, even if they are separated.

Reasoning with Adler was like arguing with a wall. Once he decides on one thing, he will never let go of it. "Russ, this is an unnecessary risk! Not only from Hudson's perspective about loosing the names, but also Bell. We never know when he might go out of control."

"Rei, if I were to play everything safe without risks, then I wouldn't be here in this job." The cockiness of his tone irritated Rei to no end. She so badly wanted to just slap him to reality.

"Adler, don't you see?! This is not just about you and your bloody Perseus. You're taking an unnecessary risk and you're going to get us all killed!" Rei shouted. Adler simply puffed. She slapped his hand, so the cigarette fell off. "Fucking look at me when I'm talking to you." Rei growled. Adler looked at her. "You're angry for no reason." Rei shook her head in disbelief. "You're a prick, you know that?" Rei sighed and walked off. Adler watched her leave with a sad expression that was fortunately covered by his shades.

"Gear up, Bell. We're leaving."

-

The entire time since Adler left for the HQ, Rei kept fiddling with her fingers. The thought of things going downhill and loosing Adler worried her. And as a cherry on top of the situation, she was mad at herself for fighting with him before such a high-risk mission. "Relax. We haven't heard anything about Bell so far." Sims said, bringing her a glass of water. "It's not about Bell, Sims. It's just. Does he have to be so damn difficult all the time? I mean, we just had to wait for Mason and Woods. Save the headache." Rei buried her face in her hands. 

"That he is- adamant. But doc can still pull out the riskiest missions without much problem! I wouldn’t be worried.." Rei smiled lightly. She hadn't noticed that the entire time, she accidently bit her lower lip a bit too hard. The familiar taste of metal started to fill her mouth. Drinking some water, Rei decided to go out for a smoke. She definitely needed to clear her mind.

-

Once Adler got back to the base, he was welcomed with a silent treatment from Rei. Luckily, nothing much happened to Bell, except for one moment of discomposure and confusion which was quickly brought under control, thanks to Adler's trigger phrase.

The first thing that Rei did was send Bell back with Sims to the apartment. He needed a proper rest, before putting in another session again. The sleeping pills worked pretty well. Bell was able to sleep better with little to no disturbances.

Once the rest of the team dispersed, leaving only Mason and Woods, Hudson, Rei and Adler, she stomped towards Adler's table, slamming it hard.

"A day's delay wouldn't have killed you Russ! I don't even know what to do with you!"

"Good to see you too, Rei." Adler rolled his eyes. Pulling out a cigarette to light, Rei got irritated even more at him.

"Look, my whole job revolves around risks, but the mission was a succ-"

"I don't care about the damned mission, Adler! I'm not Hudson!"

"The hell did I do?!" Hudson shouted from the corner.

Rei was completely red. Her eyes started getting watery. This was obviously noticed by Adler. He swallowed his retort, knowing that whatever he might say next will ruin the situation.

"Okay okay, lovebirds. This fight ain't gonna get you two anywhere." Woods butted in, his arm around Rei's shoulder. "Say, how about we all go for a drink?" Mason's face lit up like a 100w bulb. Rei smiled lightly at Woods, nodding her head. Adler just shrugged.

"Not me. I'm too occupied for that." Hudson declared, earning a groan from Woods.

"Alright let's go!" Woods announced, pulling Rei with him.

"Those two will never change." Mason chuckled. Adler nodded, smiling lightly.

Rei was a female version of Woods. Loud, boisterous, and hyperactive- they clicked instantly. Together they would annoy the living hell out of Adler and Mason.

-

Just a few shots and Rei was already down. Frank and her almost got kicked out because they both decided to pick on a random man. He kept flicking the man's forehead, while she squirted water at him. Mason and Adler somehow managed to get the troublesome duo out of the situation.

Later they started picking on Mason. The poor man couldn't even get out of the situation without giving in to their crazy demand to go and dance on the stage.

Rei kept snuggling into Adler's neck, poking his cheek every once in a while. The whole time she just kept staring at Adler. His dirty blonde hair, the facial scars, the little wrinkles that added more charm to his alluring face. Adler didn't seem to mind her gazing. He just wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her so that she doesn't fall of the chair. And also so that she doesn't hop away into the crowd.

Frank was busy repeating his tales of bravery over and over, while Mason just sulked about his embarrassment. Once Adler noticed Rei dozing off, he decided it was time to leave. "Alright. I better take her away before she completely passes out." Woods earned a smack on his head from Adler, because he kept whistling and shouting "Fucking shag each other and get back already."

Getting her into a car was an absolute headache, but entertaining too. Rei thought she was flying, keeping her from falling was a huge task, especially with those ridiculous heels of hers. She kept jumping around. Adler's soul almost left his body when she jumped down the stairs. Miraculously, she ended up on her feet, perfectly fine.

Once in the car, she dozed off immediately. Being a heavy sleeper, it was difficult to wake her up when they arrived at Adler's apartment. Giving up, he pulled her out of the car and carried her.

Once they reached the room, Adler gently put Rei on his bed. Caressing her cheek lightly, he placed a small kiss on her forehead.

"Don't go." Rei's tiredly looked at Adler, clutching onto his jacket.

"But...are you sure?"

"1594%. Now come." She forcefully pulled Adler to bed. She turned away from him, pressing her back to his chest. Putting a blanket on them, Adler held Rei close to him. She held his hand, her thumb lightly caressing his fingers, before she slept off.  For the first time in several weeks, they had their first peaceful sleep together.

-

Waking up in the morning, Rei looked around at her strange settings. And there he was, Adler, holding her lightly. Before she could even process anything, bile started rising to her throat. In less than one second, she was already in the bathroom, throwing up her dinner from last night. She could hear the ruffling of sheets and footsteps.

"You okay?" Adler stood by the doorframe, looking at Rei worriedly.

"Russ don't come in here, its disgus-" before she could finish her sentence, you turned away to vomit. Adler pulled her hair back, gently rubbing her back.

"I'm never drinking again." Rei got up, holding Adler's arm for support. Adler ruffled her hair lightly.

"That's what you said last time." He smirked. Rei let out an airy laugh, washing her mouth.

"Freshen up. I'll make some eggs." Adler walked towards the door.

"Scrambled, please?" Adler smiled at her. She's always loved eggs and Adler is great at it. Not just with eggs, but with the whole art of conjuring food with his magical hands. Rei always wondered why he joined the CIA instead of using his brilliant cooking skills. He'd have made a great chef.

Walking out of the bathroom, Rei put on one of Adler's old sweaters. Her clothes were unfortunately covered in vomit and sweat. 'I'll have to stop at the apartment before going to the safehouse.'

The smell of eggs and bacon filled the house making Rei’s stomach grumble.

"Mhmm... I missed your cooking." Rei said, stuffing the eggs in her mouth. She was famished.

"And I missed your eating sounds." Adler chuckled.

Rei looked at Adler, initially annoyed, but it soon melted into an affectionate expression. With a hand on his cheek, tracing his scars, she kissed him, softly. Adler tilted his head lightly, deepening the kiss. Placing his forehead against hers, he whispered "I missed you."

Rei nodded lightly, giving out a 'mhmm'.

A big smile danced on Rei's lips as she stared into Adler's eyes.  She once again pulled Adler into kiss, a rough and hungry one this time. Sloppy and messy with lots of biting from Rei (she's a biter), Adler pulled her up. He lifted her with ease, her legs around his waist. Oh how they both missed the intimacy.

Little did the two lovebirds know that things were just going to get more complicated.

Taglist:

@sophtheunlikelybakeryfestival

@pookolokon

@quizzyisdone

@nikkibell1937

[guigz1-coldwar]

'Confrontation' : New chapter for "Always for the greater cause..." is out !

Chapter Summary: The end of the mission put Bell in a wounded state after getting shot at her right shoulder, worries are made from some as a confrontation with someone needs to be done for Stitch...

To read it on AO3, click here!

Taglist: @snowgoldwaylon , @clxudtea , @efingart

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26th February 1981, 22h45

Freya 'Wraith' Helvig, Ex-NIS, Perseus

In a car, on her way to the extraction point, 5 km north of Colorado Springs

The moment when I heard through the radios the alarm of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and told the two to escape, I had to shut off the communications between us as I was forced to leave the shack, the US Army having sent some patrols around the base and having killed one of those before I left the place to go join the extraction point where Stitch & Jackal were waiting for them & me.

Having nothing to hear in my ear from their side was giving me chills and fears: what if they can't escape? What if she dies while Naga lives? Not only I was scared about her but also that we were going to lose our only chance to get the upper hand on having Greenlight in our hands, she was our only chance to succeed. For me, she was important to live for many reasons that I couldn't explain but...I just can't bring myself to say that we're fearing losing her.

It was unneeded stress I was giving to myself on the drive to the extraction point but it was going up, trying to stay calm on my seat as my hands were firmly holding the steering wheel as if I wanted to break it in half with them, the anxiety rising inside of me and it wasn't normal for me to feel that...it wasn't normal. When I engaged myself on the dirt road that was leading to the back of an old abandoned gas station, scare took over me when I only saw Stitch & Jackal, waiting near a car alone without any signs of Bell & Naga.

"Where are they?" I directly started as I stopped the car near them, not letting Stitch speak first, him going to open his lips to talk.

"I thought that you will be the one to told us that," He protested, shrugging at me while I was unbuckling my seatbelt, my window already opened before I came here. "You're the one that led the communications, not us," He added.

"I lost that when an armed patrol found the shack I was hiding in," I exclaimed, getting my left hand on the door to open it, grabbing my AMP-63 on the seat at my right before going out of the car. "Got them good but since, I had to left to get here, they were sending reinforcements," I continued, stepping outside as I put the AMP-63 inside my jacket, keeping it with me.

"When was the last thing you heard from them before you lost contact?" Stitch asked me.

"The base's alarm went off, I just told them to run, and then, nothing more," I replied, my eyes looking at the radio equipment that was on the backseat through the windows of the car. "I heard them talking about something linking Aldrich to the Numbers program," I revealed, trying to figure out at this moment what I heard exactly.

"Aldrich & the numbers program?" Stitch mumbled, crossing his arms as he was looking at Jackal, leaned against the car with a pair of binoculars in his hands. "Why would Aldrich be linked to that?"

"Do you really think I have the answer?" I told him as I was in the same feeling as him, trying to understand that whole situation. "Something is off with Aldrich by hearing this,"

"Always been like a typical American," Jackal spoke up, looking at me and seeing his eyes through his red mask. "Hiding things from us, that's their specialty, right?" He said, gesturing that coming from our CIA insider, it should be normal to see that.

"Not with him," Stitch muttered, shaking his head as he was focused on looking at the horizon before I see him narrow his eyes towards it. "Seems that the army is mobilizing, here's a lonely APC coming," He pointed out to us, Jackal getting to look with his binoculars as I was seeing a desert camouflaged American APC coming on the main road and near the gas station.

"That's...that's Naga!" Jackal said in a surprised voice, prompting me to walk to him and ask for his binoculars that he gladly accept to give me after I had to friendly nudge him for that.

"Yes, he's the one driving," I confirmed, a little smile coming on my face before it disappeared very quickly. "Wait, where's Bell? He's looking alone," I demanded even if my question weren't going to be answered by those two as the APC was arriving at the gas station, filled with bullet holes and one of the wheels having a bullet in it. It arrived rapidly near the gas pumps, almost hitting them this close that it could have blown up the place.

"Finally," That was Naga's not sounding so good voice when he opened the hatch at the top of his spot in the APC. "It's about time, I've got a wounded at the back," He revealed, my eyes going wide at hearing this.

"Shit, Bell!" I whispered, walking to reach the back door of the APC, followed by Stitch & Jackal, and thanks to some help from them, I opened the door.

What I saw sent a vision of horror in front of me: Bell was laying down on the metal bench of the right side of the APC, small drops of blood slowly falling on the floor of the APC, having formed a little pool on it as the blood was coming from her right hand and by seeing it, I immediately jumped inside the APC to check Bell, having already been badly bandaged but her eyes were closed.

"She's got a pulse," I declared after putting my fingers on the side of her neck, feeling her heartbeat perfectly but slowly, she was still looking bad in shape.

"I managed to make a stop to a hidden spot to do my best to heal her," Naga admitted as he arrived near Stitch & Jackal behind them. "I did my best with what I got but to fully have her recover, she needs more things, the bullet still in her shoulder," He added, making me look at the bandages on Bell's right shoulder, not looking great at its sight.

"We need to get her back quickly to the safe house," I exclaimed, moving my hands below her to get up from the bench.

"Yes but now, I want to see Aldrich," Naga told us, taking out some files from his jacket and handing them to Stitch. "That fucker lied to us about some important details," He affirmed, me getting out of the APC, holding Bell in my arms as Jackal helped me to get out while Stitch was looking at the files.

"He was involved with the program..." Stitch lowered the first file he was holding in his left hand, not even taking care of the second that he immediately put along with his body slides. "Wraith, you're taking Bell to the safe house, Jackal & Naga, you're with me to check with Aldrich," He ordered, walking behind me as I was going to put Bell on the front passenger seat of the car I'm using.

"And what about the APC?" Jackal asked.

"Do you think I give a fuck about that thing? Let it here," Stitch replied to him in a harsh voice while I was carefully opening the right door of the car with my free hands. "We don't need that and besides....yeah, we don't need that," He repeated two times.

"It's okay, Bell," I whispered to her, making sure to get the seatbelt around her once she was on the passenger seat, keeping her head still before closing the door to get to the other side and drive away from here, back to the safe house.

"Wraith, take the Greenlight file with you, I want to confront Aldrich with the other one with his name on it," Stitch spoke up, getting in front of me to give me the green file with the big 'GREENLIGHT' in red on it and I took it in my hands.

"Let's get this fucker," Naga proclaimed as he moved to reach the other car with Jackal as Stitch followed them, leaving me to get inside on the driver's seat, installing myself well before starting the engine and drive away first from the place, Bell next to me unconscious.

The more I was having my eyes on her, the more I was panicking that she could never open her eyes again, she wasn't properly healed by Naga as the two didn't bring any medkits with them and bandages weren't going to be enough, she was still having a bullet inside of her and the only place we could do that was at the safe house. No one wanted to face her death, not after the success she bring to us with the West-Berlin mission.

She wasn't going to die here in that car while I was staying focused and going faster on the roads to reach our place, her file could matter in minutes, my heart beating faster than before as I was now seeing her, head against the closed window, her eyes fully closed and her face going pale, I needed to be faster with the car if I didn't want to lose our chances to succeed...I was even speaking up to her, saying that everything will be okay and that she couldn't lose hope...everything to keep her still.

After 5 long interminable minutes, I managed to arrive in front of the safehouse, pulling the car right next to the place destined for it before getting out of the car with the file that Stitch gave me inside my red jacket, and then, taking Bell inside my arms to walk towards the garage door of the place.

"Open up, it's Wraith!" I shouted to get myself heard from either Bellamy, Knight, or both of them at the same time, adding three knocks on the garage door. "Open up, dammit!" I yelled again, making my knocks louder than before, and finally, someone reacted by opening the door, seeing Bellamy at the controls panel.

"Shit, what happened?" He asked me.

"At your guess, you're blind or something?" I narrowed my eyes at him, stepping inside the safe house, still carrying Bell's unconscious body in my arms. "Get the infirmary ready, I need to heal her now," I ordered, gesturing with my head at the door near Stitch's desk and just behind the dashboard.

"Understood," Bellamy complied, walking rapidly to reach the door before me, getting it opened before stepping inside to get the lights on and the surgical table ready. "Who tried to heal her? Naga?" He guessed, nodding to him as I put carefully Bell on the table.

"Yes, enough to stop the bleeding but not enough if she wants to live," I replied, removing my hands from Bell after I was done, moving as Bellamy was gathering the necessary tools for me. "I'm healing her and I'll give her the needed dose before putting her on her bed, you prepared the doses for that?"

"Of course, got them ready in here," He responded, pointing for me, the big white closet with a window on its door, with inside of the doses we need to give her daily. "She had her doses for breakfast, noon, and during the dinner,"

"Good," I exclaimed before I looked at Bell, making a sign to Bellamy to remove the bandages from her right shoulder and when he removed them, I could see the bad shapes of her outfit, all bloodied on that part, a bullet hole with blood coming out. "Okay, let's save her," I whispered before starting to move towards the right shoulder...

"Don't worry, Bell, I'll get you out of here,"

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

26th February 1981, 23h07

Vikhor 'Stitch' Kuzmin, Perseus

In a car with "Jackal" & "Naga" for a meeting with Robert Aldrich, 20 km north of Colorado Springs

Once that Wraith left the extraction point to carry Bell back to the safe house and save her, I had to pull a call to Aldrich after the revelations that I saw & learned from Naga, seeing Aldrich's name as the supervisor of the 'numbers program' that managed to fall into the CIA hands just by what I saw on the file but the man himself needed to give us the answers that we're looking for, why did he lie to us about his involvement in that program when the subject was discussed?

Hopefully, I was the one driving the car to get to the meeting point that Aldrich told us, far away from Colorado Springs: first because I was knowing my way around thanks to Aldrich indications of the exact place we're meeting but also because I couldn't let Naga and his anger drive us, knowing that he could make an accident even with us inside the car, Jackal on the backseat and staying calm along with me, not the same thing for Naga.

I'm staying all calm during the drive as Naga was saying profanity against Aldrich before he stops saying it loudly to whisper it between his lips when we were getting closer, the place was looking like an old warehouse and the first thing I saw was Aldrich, smoking under the light near a door to get inside the building and when I stopped the car, Naga didn't take the time that he was already out.

Even if I knew what he was going to do, I didn't stop him, neither did Jackal, stepping out of the car with him with normals means as Naga walked towards Aldrich who threw his cigarette at his feet, Naga having his hands full clenched before he landed a big punch with his right hand on Aldrich's left part of his face, the punch pulling him back against the wall along with Naga's hands putting it on his own too.

"You knew that the CIA was into the Numbers program and didn't tell us!" Naga said, full angry as he was holding Aldrich against the wall with his left arm, his right hand ready for another punch. "What else are you hiding?" He asked. "Maybe I can knock the truth out of you!" He added before the click of a gun was heard...coming from Aldrich.

"You might want to rethink that, Naga," Aldrich advised him in a good & normal voice, Naga looking down to see an M1911 pointed right at his stomach, with Aldrich's finger ready to pull the trigger, causing myself to step in.

"Everybody stand down," I ordered, still near the car before closing my door as Jackal was already near Naga who stepped back as I told them. "That little pissing match isn't going to help us catch Adler," I affirmed, starting to walk towards their direction.

"Why you didn't tell us that you were involved in this?" Jackal spoke up, moving a bit in front of Aldrich and pointing his finger at him.

"He needed us to clean up his mess," Naga suggested, spreading his arms at Jackal, reminding us of the same thing he told us during the drive. "The snake's been lying to us all along," He added, turning around to face Aldrich, who passed his hand below his nose, seeing the bleeding from his nose before pulling his gun back behind him.

"It's not a lie, it's an omission of fact," Aldrich defended him, standing still to us away from the wall.

"That's what you like to do best, isn't it, Aldrich?" Jackal demanded with his muffled voice through his mask. "Manipulate people, tell them your own version of the truth," He continued, giving what Aldrich does the best...lying, cheating, stealing, manipulating...CIA's dirty work...

"There is no truth, only who you choose to believe," Aldrich protested while I was staying silent for the moment, watching the three argue until we can get to the subject. "Stitch knows all about that, don't you, Vikhor?" He exclaimed, hearing my first name making me move to get into the matter now.

"The Numbers Program, what is it doing in the CIA's hands? Tell us everything," I ordered in a clear voice, wanting to know like Naga & Jackal, the truth from him.

"Back in '63, the CIA were hearing rumors about a sleeper agent program that Dragovich created," Aldrich started, everyone staying silent to let him talk, passing his left hand below his nose again. "Langley was convinced that if the rumors were true, they would be facing a lot of problems," He continued, his hands moving along his black jacket to remove the blood of his hands. "So, they decided to launch a secret operation to find that program and steal it, the ultimate plan for them to get the upper hand on the soviets,"

"And what's interesting in it?" Naga demanded, crossing his arms.

"In 1968, Russell Adler became the one supervising his secret operation after his success during the 'Fracture Jaw' mission, knowing of his capacities of making things done," Aldrich replied, his eyes drifting towards me, knowing my hatred for the man. "He became obsessed with having the program in his hands, thinking of using it against the Russian leadership and the soviet population," He added, eyes back on Naga who were still having his hands clenched. "He found it but he's trying to upgrade it for better efficiency against the Reds, more physiological damage, less damage to the infrastructure,"

"Thousands getting to fight against their own and you're talking about fucking infrastructures," Naga rolled his eyes around at this but we all know well that we ain't the one who can't object about the necessity of this

"How's that civilized?" Jackal moved in, putting Naga a bit aside from him. "We're maybe doing this to that...Bell but to thousands of people, that's fucked up," He admitted.

"How long have you been of the CIA having taken over the program?" I asked Aldrich, looking at him with a serious glare that could directly kill him on the spot.

"Well...Adler managed to find it in the old gulag at Vorkuta, been abandoned since that riot in the 60s at the beginning of January," Aldrich responded, looking down at his feet. "I suspected him to be the one to have done it but couldn't confirm it until you brought back those intels from West Berlin," He added, his eyes back at me, his voice getting a bit higher.

"So, there's the old Dragovich program in the CIA hands, and if Adler uses it..." I started, taking two steps towards Aldrich without fully approaching him. "Perseus would be discovered and will become global enemy number one," I resumed, giving Aldrich a serious look.

"We wouldn't have this problem if you have done your job better and killed Adler back in Rebirth Island in 1968," Aldrich said in a raised voice against me and I could have punched him myself from that but I stayed calm as Naga started to move before I stopped him, moving my right hand on his chest, making him stop instantly.

"Careful, Aldrich," I said. "Next time, I might not stop Naga," I warned Aldrich who simply look at us with a determined look as the subject was finally clear for us: Adler has his hands on the Numbers Program while we're trying to have ours on Greenlight. "I'll see you tomorrow at the safe house, we're leaving," I proclaimed, been done in here as I got my hand off Naga, gesturing at him & Jackal to leave.

It's without any words that we go back to the car, Aldrich staying at his spot under the light as we installed ourselves back inside the car, Naga looking rather calm than before and taking back the places we used, and then, I drove off the place with them to get back to the safehouse, a part of the mystery having been discovered and the things we didn't want to hear...been heard, unfortunately...Adler & the Numbers Program...

He will see, one day, what's hell on Earth is...like I did...

[zwritestuff]

Placebo Effect (One-shot) - Monét/Monique

A/N: Hi! This is a paid commission I did for @derpy-avocado. I did my best to live up to her wishes for this fic, and I hope you all like it too! :D If you’d like a commission, all the information is on my pinned post.

Summary: Monique is sick and asks Monét to take care of him.

1,692 words | on ao3. 

*

Moonique: are u free today?

Monét barely has time to read the text when Bob is pushing him to keep on walking, albeit rather harshly, otherwise they’ll miss the greenlight. He just huffs, haphazardly putting it in his back pocket and adjusting his gym bag, pinching Bob’s arms once they’re on the other side of the street.

“If you wanted to push me in front of the cars, you should’ve just done that,” he jokingly says, and Bob just rolls his eyes.

“I don’t need you as a ghost tugging on my cold feet for the rest of my life, thank you very much,” Bob deadpans, but a chuckle escapes him. Monét just snorts, turning around the corner of the street, heading for their nearest Starbucks.

Summer is on its last stage, leaving space for autumn’s chilly winds and brown leaves. But the temperatures have yet to drop, and Monét isn’t sure why he allows Bob to drag him to the gym on hot days like these—best friend privileges, he supposes.

Between small talk he forgets about Monique’s text, until they get to Starbucks and the line is larger than they anticipated. He turns to Bob to go on with their conversation when he feels his phone buzz, before they hear a moo. Bob cocks a brow in his direction, but Monét is more than used to the ridiculous ringtone Monique set up for himself.

“Mo?”

“‘Nét.” His voice sounds solemn—and nasal. “You ignored my texts, bitch. I’m dying and you ignored me,” he says, as dramatic as Monét knows him to be, and he can’t help to laugh.

“Okay, first, I saw your first text while I was walking, I was going to answer. Second, I’m pretty sure you’re not actually dying.” He hears a whine on the other side of the line and gives a tiny smile, accompanied by a chuckle. Bob purses his lips as if he were to say something, but his mouth stays shut.

“Excuses, excuses.” He can almost see Monique dismissing what he said with a wave of his hand. “I’m sick, think I got a cold or somethin’. ‘M burnin’ up, my nose’s runny, my throat’s sore—and I’m bored outta my mind,” he sighs deeply, to really sell his acting.

Monét cocks a brow, “Pretty sure boredom isn’t part of the symptoms,” he says, amused. Monique groans on the other side of the line.

“Of course it isn’t, you dumbass.” There’s a small pause before he continues, “I just—I want someone to hang out with to not feel so miserable, y’know,” he admits in a whisper, and really, it shouldn’t make Monét’s heart speed up, but it does.

He purses his lips, glancing towards Bob, who seems much more preoccupied with his own phone. He knows they’re supposed to film a video and their podcast, amongst other things—but a day off can’t hurt, can it?

“Alright, I’ll come by. I’m at Starbucks, you want anything?” He asks, though he knows Monique’s usual order by heart. And sure enough, Monique recites it back to him. “I’ll be there in ten, maybe. The door’s locked?”

“I’ll unlock it now,” Monique says simply, and Monét hears some fumbling in the background. “Thanks, Nét,” he mumbles with earnest, making Monét smile lopsidedly.

“Anytime,” he whispers back before hanging up, and when he puts away his phone and goes to meet Bob’s gaze, there’s a questioning glare piercing right through him. “What?”

Bob just stares at him for a solid second before speaking, “It was Monique, wasn’t it? You got that look on your face, you know the one. No wonder you’re abandoning me that easy.” He goes straight to the point, with a shit eating grin. Monét just cocks a brow, trying to not look flustered.

“I have no idea what you mean,” he says, but he knows—it’s just he’d rather not think about it now, not when he’s on his way to see him.

Bob gives him sneaky glances and teases him a fair share until he leaves, and all Monét can do is pretend he doesn’t hear him.

*

Monét arrives to Monique’s apartment in the blink of an eye, with his stupidly complicated order, and unceremoniously lets himself in.

Immediately, he’s greeted by the sound of SZA’s latest song blasting from Monique’s room, and he smiles a little before he makes a beeline for it. The door is wide open, and right away he can see Monique bundled in a bunch of blankets, his eyes are closed, peeking out from under the covers, and he looks so peaceful he’d hate to ruin the moment.

But then again, his coffee is getting cold, and he knows Monique hates cold coffee.

“Wow, you really look like shit,” he jokingly says, making Monique’s eyes snap open.  He kicks off the blanket covering him and makes the motion to stand up from bed, but Monét takes a long stride and makes him settle back down.

“Thanks for coming,” he beams, turning the music just a notch down. He makes space in the bed for Monét, and he gladly settles by his side, and there’s something comforting by the familiarity of the motion. “D’you get my order right?”

“A venti Americano blonde espresso with caramel syrup and almond milk, right?” He asks, knowing the answer, and pride swells in his chest when Monique squeals in excitement, making grabby hands at the drink.

Monét’s own drink is already half empty, so he nibbles on it silently while Monique is cuddled up by his side, telling him about this one gig where he did shots with the host, how he felt sick over the course of the next days, pinning the blame on the host. Monét just listens, amused, unable to wipe the grin off his face whenever he glances to Monique out of the corner of his eye and sees him talking with his hand and making gestures, to really tell a compelling story.

They stay like that for what feels like forever, talking aimlessly about everything and anything, listening to SZA’s second album, and letting a comfortable silence fall when there’s nothing to say, just sipping on their drinks until the last drop. Monét leaves for a moment to use the bathroom, and Monique lets out a long breath.

He’s not sure why his first instinct upon realizing he’s sick was to call Monét instead of seeing a doctor, but he can’t deny his company brings him a sort of peace he only feels when he’s with him. And Monique isn’t stupid, he knows what it is and why he feels like that, but he’d rather protect their friendship a little longer.

He gets up to get a glass of water while Monét is still busy in the bathroom, and he aimlessly stands in the middle of the kitchen, still wrapped up in his comfy blankets, when he hears it—the ice cream truck tune.

Monique smiles widely, peeking over at the door of the bathroom. He knows he’s not supposed to go out like that and Monét will chastise him, but Monét can forgive him once he comes back with ice cream for the two. Right?

*

“Do you have any idea of the heart attack you almost gave me?” Monét exclaims, once he finds Monique sitting on the sidewalk, melting ice creams on each hand and a smug smile, still wrapped up in blankets.

“In my defense, you left me unsupervised, and I bought you an ice cream too!” Monique holds his hand out, offering him the sweet, and Monét glares at him, begrudgingly accepting it and kneeling down next to him.

“Girl, you’re a grown ass adult, I left you for one minute to use the bathroom and you disappear!”

“One minute? Seemed like an eternity to me,” Monique says nonchalantly, carelessly licking the ice cream. His tone is jokey, but there’s some truth to his words.

If he sees Monét blush before he looks away and scoops him up in his arms, Monique doesn’t say anything. Monét chastises him on their way back, the ice cream melting before he can finish it, and Monique would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy their proximity.

Monét vows to not let him out of his sight while he’s there, and proposes they watch something on Netflix, and it totally isn’t Monique’s idea to cover Monét with his own blankets to have him closer. They have a mixed marathon of SpongeBob and Avatar when they can’t settle on just one, and if Monique feels his heart skip when Monét insists he rests his head on his chest, he’ll never admit it.

“Y’know, I think it was always obvious Katara would end up with Aang,” Monét comments out of nowhere, and Monique cocks a brow, silently prompting him to go on. “I mean, just look at the way he looks at her. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t pick up on it if someone looked you that way,” he muses mysteriously, and Monique has to agree.

“Well, yeah, but why are you—” He glances up to meet Monét’s gaze, and the words die in his throat.

It seems planned, the way Monét is looking at him while the show plays on the background, mimicking Aang’s lovey-dovey gaze to Katara. It sends chills right down his spine.

He’s looking at his lips, and it makes him wonder who’ll be the one to make the move. In the end, Monique isn’t thinking straight, blame it on the way her brain shut downs when he’s with Monét or the fever, but the next thing he knows is that he stops holding back and clashes his lips with Monét’s.

It feels childish to say a canyon of butterflies exploded on his stomach, but that’s what happens.

“I think that made me feel better,” Monique confesses sheepishly, once they pull apart, and Monét just chuckles, pulling him closer.

“Oh, yeah? I’m more than glad to be your placebo effect,” he says, “You still need to see a doctor, though.”

Monique rolls his eyes, biting back a smile. “Don’t ruin the moment, bitch.”

[athelari]

3. snowflakes in the desert

Day 3/7 of the Mass Effect Trilogy Week: Plot. 2k words; canon divergence (Priority: Tuchanka because I just want catharsis, blast it); Shepard+Mordin; no content warnings.

No. No, not like this. Her teeth grind together, bile rising in her throat. If you go up there—and you will, I know you and I know there's no stopping you once you've set your mind on something—

He bows his head. “No. No other option. Not coming back. Suggest you get clear. Explosions likely to be problematic.”

He starts walking to the elevator.

“Mordin, no!” She darts forward. “Wait!”

This, at least, got him to face her. “Shepard, please. Need to do this.” He meets her gaze, black eyes glossy, glimmering back at her, and shakes his head fractionally. “My project, my work. My cure, my responsibility.”

“No.”

He startles at her answer, short and decisive and immediate. She marches forward, never looking away, never breaking eye contact. Something falls to the floor behind her, but she no longer cares.

She keeps her voice low and steady; a voice she only uses for the most serious of situations. “If you're going up there, then so am I.”

His shoulders drop, ever so slightly. “Shepard—”

“I helped you track down Maelon,” she presses on. “I told you to save his data. I introduced you to Wrex, brought you to Tuchanka, helped you gather your tissue samples! I even convinced Victus to greenlight the cure! So this may be your project, but the way I see it I'm at least your damned lab tech here, and I'm coming with you.”

“Shepard,” his tone is urgent, almost pleading, “might not make it out in time.”

“So both of us come back, or neither of us do. Either way, we're wasting time out here. Come on!”

She runs ahead of him towards the elevator. Mordin catches up merely a second later, immediately closing the cracked glass doors behind them. The cramped space hums with tension thick enough to carve like a turkey dinner. The fact that he'd recognised her unwillingness to back down doesn't clear the air at all; if anything, it seems to only make him more nervous. She hears him singing to himself under his breath, fast and quiet, his verbal equivalent of a bouncing knee.

She decides to turn her attention elsewhere. “Normandy, this is Shepard, do you copy?”

A crackle, followed by Joker's voice in her earpiece. “This is Normandy, come in.”

“Mordin and I are going up the Shroud tower. Fifty-second floor. I need a shuttle on standby for evac, ASAP.”

“The Shroud tower? What the—aye aye, Commander.”

If EDI's synthesised voice is capable of sounding alarmed, this is what it sounds like. “Shepard, the tower you are ascending has endured significant damage from the Reaper attack. Structural integrity is estimated at sixty-four percent, and there are live fires on the floor you and Dr Solus are headed to.”

“Thanks, EDI, good to know. You and Garrus made it out in time?”

“Yes. Radio chatter also suggests Eve has regrouped with a handful of krogan warriors. She is being escorted back to Urdnot territory.”

Joker has the Normandy. Eve is as safe as can be given the circumstances. She'd filed the official request to make Garrus her XO. Thane's awaiting his lung transplant, with Kolyat keeping him company. All that's left to do is make sure the cure is properly dispersed, then the krogan and turians will fully provide aid for Earth, along with Kirrahe and however many STGs he convinced to go backdoor for them, and with Liara giving extra intel they should be able to keep going without—

“Would have liked to run tests on seashells,” Mordin says suddenly.

She looks at him, a faint smile on his weary face, and makes a paltry half-laugh. “Plenty of good beaches on Earth. We should go after all this is done.”

Assuming Earth is still around by then.

Assuming you and I will still be around.

“Heard of Earth species capable of shooting venomous darts at prey. Fascinating.”

Beat. She blinks. “We still talking about shells here? Or—”

But then the doors reopen, revealing a lab-slash-control-room covered in debris and flames. Without a moment's hesitation, Mordin darts ahead, making a beeline for the farthest console. A bursting pipe temporarily derails him, but she catches his elbow, and together they cross the room.

She realises, now, how foreign the equipment—and their interfaces—are. Whatever her bluster about being his lab tech earlier, she's clearly way out of her depth, even with her visor scrambling to translate the salarian glyphs on the screens. An automated voice is echoing in the chamber, repeating something about the temperature, but that doesn't tell her how to help.

A thought comes to mind. “Mordin, tell me if you need something, all right?” He nods wordlessly—not silently, however, he's humming again and she knows that song like the back of her hand by now—while she runs to the nearest pile of debris and starts analysing the damage.

If she can't make this go any faster, then at least she'll buy him some time.

Fallen column broke unidentified equipment #1, some flammable—or inflammable?—liquid under it catching fire, runs all the way to unidentified equipment #2 on the far right. Left console is dead, roof cave-in opened a pipe. Doesn't seem to be water. Coolant? Electrical short by the corner—it's awfully close to those pressurised canisters. That can't be good.

She runs to the canisters first, grabbing one in each hand and hefting them to the nearest wall, away from the short. Then it's to the unidentified equipment and the burning liquid. Where's the fire extinguisher? A lab like this has to have several.

“—studied species turian, asari, and batarian—”

There, beneath a pile of rubble. She skids across the room again, narrowly maintaining her footing as a piece of flooring crunches under her weight, and starts digging into the debris. The tank is dented, but its nozzle seems undamaged. She grabs it and starts spraying its contents onto the fire. Kalahira, please let this work.

“—xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian, I am—”

“The very model of a scientist salarian!” she drops the extinguisher on the floor. It caps off the song with a hollow clang. “How much longer?”

And Mordin throws up his hands, taking a step back from the console. “Done!”

“Then what are we waiting for? Go! Go!”

She beckons him to run into the elevator, determined not to budge until he does. But apparently she'd made her point earlier, as he doesn't waste another moment. They scramble for the only exit, jumping in and slamming onto the controls like starved varren seeing fresh meat.

When the elevator judders back to life, taking them down the vertiginously high tower again, she finally lets out a sharp, bright laugh. “You stubborn old man,” she manages between shaky breaths. “I knew you could do it.”

She looks at Mordin's smile, relieved and open, and it strikes her how much younger he suddenly looks, like he'd just shed off ten years' worth of weight from his brow. “Had to be me,” he half-whispers.

“Someone else might've gotten it wrong,” she nods, still grinning.

He bows his head for a second. Then he looks back at her, straightening himself again. “Thank you, Shepard.”

“For what? All I did was—”

A deafening boom.

The elevator staggers, throwing them back. She loses her footing and sprawls on the floor. Mordin, lighter and less sturdy, is knocked against the external doors.

There's a sickening sound of glass breaking, and then he falls backward, plunging into the emptiness without.

“Mordin!”

How she manages to dart forward and grab his arm on that very second, she doesn't even know. But now she's on her stomach, her grip on his wrist the only thing keeping him from plunging down to the concrete floor far below. His mouth is moving, but her ears are still buzzing and she can't make out a word he says. The only thing she hears is a rushing, swirling sound, like waves crashing on the shore.

The elevator's still moving, she realises. The explosion dislodged them and broke both the inward- and outward-facing doors completely, but the mechanism is still intact. They're still going down, and if she can't pull him up in time then momentum will still get him one way or another.

“Mordin! Take my hand!” She reaches down with her other hand, the one on his wrist gripping with more force than she'd normally consider using.

He swings, sways, and finally manages it, fingers just barely brushing hers. She latches onto them anyway and pulls, hard. It's not enough to get him fully back on the elevator, but he manages to get a knee up and pushes back, glass shards crackling under his weight as he climbs back on.

“You okay?” she sits up, kicking aside a few broken shards in an attempt to provide some clear space.

“…bruises, strains. No serious injuries,” his breathless reply is barely audible over the rushing sea in her ears.

“Good.” Her throat suddenly feels very dry. She leans back against the metallic wall, her head thudding against the surface, and wipes the sweat running down her brow. Except something about it is oddly sticky, and her hairline unaccountably damp. She looks at the back of her gauntlet. Oh. She lets her hand drop again to her side.

“Saved my life, Shepard,” Mordin covers her hand with his, causing her to look up at him. “Twice in an hour.”

“And you just saved countless more,” she shoots back.

They stay low until the elevator nearly reaches the ground floor, and then she jumps back to her feet, pulling Mordin up with her. They spill out onto the lab, walking fast and wary of any further surprise explosions.

She hears Mordin emit a soft gasp, just at the edge of hearing, and turns to look at him.

And then, she sees it.

Pale, yellowish particles, falling gently like snowflakes on the harsh Tuchanka desert, carried by the lazy breeze. She looks up and sees many, many more, drifting in every possible direction. And at the centre of it all, the Shroud tower, shooting the flakes into the sky like a steady, benevolent volcano.

She feels shivers climb her spine. “Mordin, is that—?”

“Shroud mechanism operating to specifications. Cure dispersing evenly. Weather should carry particles to—” he pauses, inhales sharply; blinks once, then twice, then releases a shaky breath, “—completion.”

Completion.

That's what this feels like, she realises. The culmination of a lifetime's work, a crescendo built upon sleepless nights and grinding regrets. Whatever else happens, whether or not they survive the war, this is their legacy now.

A shuttle homes in, cutting a straight line atop what was very recently the site of a Reaper bloodbath. Then its door swings open, and out jumps Garrus, rifle in hand in a true example of turian military readiness. She spots EDI and Liara already inside the shuttle, which likely means Javik is as well.

“You should be halfway to the Normandy by now,” she chides as soon as they seem close enough. “I asked for one shuttle, not all of you.”

“Oh, I'm just here because Wrex'll kill me if he finds out I left you behind,” Garrus replies glibly. He looks at Mordin and his expression sobers. “So it's done then? You've cured the genophage for good?”

She turns, too, to face Mordin. She sees the faint tremor of his lip; the way his cheeks twitch and tug and finally break into a small, genuine smile. “Yes.”

A simple, blunt reply. Garrus flexes his mandibles, momentarily silenced. After what feels like a breathless eternity, he nods. “Then let's get out of here. Bet the krogan are itching to throw their new hero a celebration.”

[v-hope]

Wedding gone wrong

Pairings: Kim Seokjin / Min Yoongi / Jung Hoseok / Kim Namjoon x Reader

Genre: Fluff, crack, suggestive maybe?

Request: Some of you have been asking for the hyung line for a while now so 😅 I provided.

A/N: Sorry it took me so long, bbs :( and I hope you like it, let me know what you think! 💕 You can find the maknae's one in my masterlist.

Kim Seokjin

Ah, the garter toss.

It only took one of his friends to announce that was what would take place next during your reception for Seokjin's ears to turn completely red.

It wasn't like his mouth had never been in contact with your thighs, that was for sure, but having to dig his head inside your dress to take the garter off in front of all your guests? In front of your families? Yeah, that sure was something new.

And so, when a chair was brought up to you and you rested your leg on it, lifting your dress up a little bit, he couldn't help but to let out one of his signature laughs – one that sounded way more nervous than usual.

To make things even worse, a very sensual song started to play in the background, having you tilt your head back to let out a laugh at the sight of your flustered husband.

"Go on" you mumbled only for him to hear, "you've done way more than just this already".

With a roll of eyes that was followed by a glare, Jin's head disappeared under your dress, making goosebumps show on your skin at the tickling feel of his hot breath near your thigh.

Then, his teeth faintly brushed over your skin, catching the small piece of lace in between them to start pulling it down your leg. However, something along the way went wrong somehow, and he couldn't do it entirely, involuntarily letting go of it before he could even start bringing it down with him.

So, imagine how it looked from the guests perspective when they watched Jin's head move back up closer to the spot between your legs, and taking way too long to get out of under your dress.

"Leave that for the honeymoon and get out of there already!"

Well, Yoongi didn't hesitate to speak on everyone's behalf, causing everyone to laugh, whereas your husband and you were left there with burning faces.

"Yah!" Jin shouted immediately; your dress making his voice come out muffled. "You do it if it's so easy!"

"Kim Seokjin!" you scolded him, moving your leg to lightly hit him with it.

With everyone who was watching the scene display before their eyes laughing harder now, he decided to end his own suffering by just grabbing your leg and this time bite tightly down on the garter, managing to take it off in a matter of seconds.

"Good thing Yoongi didn't have to come do it for you" you taunted him with a smirk once he was back on your eye level and the rest of the people cheered in amusement.

He shook his head with a smirk curving up his lips before he leaned in to kiss the spot under your ear. "I think I'll just stick to taking off your bra".

That he had mastered already for sure.

Min Yoongi

Even way before Yoongi proposed a couple of months ago, you had always enjoyed watching those silly videos of people who messed up their vows at their wedding, and you couldn't help but laugh every time. All they had to do was to repeat the priest's words, simple; yet they still managed to fuck up somehow. Good thing you were better than that and such embarrassing situation would never happen to you.

Or so you had thought.

Because, you see, when you're used to call your fiancé one specific way indoors just to mess with him, for you loved the way he would always roll his eyes claiming he hated it whilst the smirk on his face said otherwise, your mind kind of gets used to it and starts acting by reflex at some point. Add some nervousness to that and the final result cannot really be any good, can it?

So, when you were holding Yoongi's hands at the altar, glowing with happiness and being sure you would tear up anytime by then, and the priest asked you to repeat his words, there was only one way for things to turn out to be like.

"I, Y/L/N Y/N" he spoke.

Not taking your eyes away from your soon-to-be husband, you repeated: "I, Y/L/N Y/N".

Nailed it.

"Take you, Min Yoongi".

That's when things went downhill.

"Take you, Min PDaddy".

Awkward silence.

Yoongi's eyes opened wide, matching your own.

And then, as inevitable as it was, the whole church bursted out laughing.

And although you had laughed it out as well, you couldn't bring yourself to take your hands away from your heated up face. Yes, it was funny, but calling your significant other that in presence of not only his but your family as well, was most certainly something you wished you could erase from your memory. And everyone else's, at that.

Letting out another breathy laugh himself, as he was, too, pretty embarrassed by the whole situation, Yoongi pulled you up to him, allowing you to bury your burning face in his chest. "You do know my actual name is Min Yoongi, don't you?" he teased, earning a whine from you. "Do you even know who you're marrying?"

"Be thankful I didn't call you Min Sugarpie Honeybunch instead and you got to keep some of your dignity".

Well, he should know by now he's not marrying you only, but also your very delusional nicknames for him. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

Jung Hoseok

He shook his head no the second you motioned with a tilt of your head to the shot that had been handed to you, moving his lips closer to your ear so he could whisper: "I've had enough for now, angel".

You bit your lip, looking around your friends who were all too caught up gushing before you could all proceed to down your drinks together. "I know, but you promised" you locked your pleading eyes with his, "they can't know yet, just man up and drink".

With a heavy, resigned sigh, he nodded his head, giving you the greenlight. So, right after everyone raised their glasses and gulped them down, you pretended as if you were about to drink yours, only to quickly turn around and have Hobi do it instead without anyone noticing.

And so he did. Reluctantly and already starting to hate the burning feel the alcohol would leave in his throat, but he did it. Just like he had done two other times already since the reception began and people started to demand drinks with the newlyweds.

Because, what other option do you have when you and your wife find out, only two weeks before the wedding takes place, that you're expecting a child? Some sacrifices would have to be made, like you not being able to neither drink nor go as wild as you had intended to, in every sense of the word… and Hoseok having to cover up for you throughout the night.

Telling people was an option, of course, but not one you particularly were very fond of. Not only didn't you want to make it public yet, but also you didn't think your respective families would be able to handle so many emotions for just one day.

So, he kept on drinking. It wasn't much, but it was enough for his lightweight self to reach a point he didn't ever want to see another glass of alcohol in his life.

"Okay, time for the toast!" Jimin was the one to propose after having asked for a microphone, standing up with his glass of champagne after everyone had been handed one.

Just one glance from you at your husband, who had been spacing out for the past couple of seconds, before eyeing the glass of champagne in front of you, was all it took for you to have him tilting his head in frustration.

"Ah, do it for your child, do it for your child" he mumbled to himself.

Only he had not quite mumbled, but said out loud instead for everyone to hear.

"Wait, you're pregnant?" Jimin, being the closest and therefore the first to hit realisation, spoke into the microphone without noticing.

And after everyone had gasped at your friend's blunt words, there was nothing Hobi could do besides staring at you like a scolded puppy begging for forgiveness.

"Please don't divorce me" he blurted out, having you roll your eyes in both annoyance and amusement. "Look on the brightside, I won't have to drink anymore and will actually remember our reception!"

Oh well, that was one way to put it. Although having both his mum and sister turn into a river of tears, ready to scold him for not telling them sooner, was not something you were sure he'd like to remember.

Kim Namjoon

Your first dance as husband and wife had been something both you and Joon had been trying to mentally prepare yourselves for. Not only that, but you had also taken a few dance classes, you know, just to make sure you would not accidentally injury one another after one of you probably stepped on the other. It was bound to happen at some point otherwise.

So, when it was announced for everyone's information that you would be having your first dance right then, the two of you felt ready.

Walking hand in hand over the middle of the dance floor as everyone gathered around the two of you to witness such special, soul-stirring moment, you stood in front of your husband and placed your hands loosely on his shoulders, whereas his rested firmly on each side of your waist.

It was okay. Breathe. You could do it.

And then... the song started playing.

Not the waltz you had so beautifully and dedicatedly prepared, but no other than one of Namjoon's solo tracks. And no, not "Trivia: Love", which would've still been great given its message. No.

Expensive Girl.

Your hands let go of his shoulders just to bring them up to cover your mouth and muffle a laugh that had not waited a second to escape it – your head turning around along with Namjoon's towards where the music equipment was, only to find the maknae and the oldest of his hyungs behind it. And, in all honesty, you didn't know if it had been on purpose or not, for Jeongguk's lost puppy eyes didn't match Seokjin's mischievous smirk at all.

Ignoring that and the few gasps mixed with laughs coming from your guests, you focused your eyes back on your still stunned husband, wrapping your arms around his neck to make him focus his entire attention back on you.

"Such a heartwarming song, did you write it for me?" you teasingly fluttered your eyelashes, earning a roll of eyes and a cynical smile from him, later grabbing you by the waist again.

"Well, I do hope you take it off tonight, so…"

"It?" you raised your eyebrows in feigned dumbfoundedness.

His previous smile turned into a smirk. "Everything".

Just like that, right as he had gently tugged at your dress and your cheeks were burning, the song changed to the one you had originally prepared.

Either way, by that point, waltz or Expensive Girl, you were glad to just let go and stop worrying about everything being perfect, enjoying yourself instead in company of the man you had just signed up to be with for the rest of your life.

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Answers

Monsta X

Im Changkyun/Reader [F]

Genre: Fluff, Smoking, Drop Out Changkyun + A Cool Motorcycle

Words: 2.8k

You were laying in bed, feet kicked up on a stack of three pillows as you had a comic book hoving over your face, reading only to have the same difficult struggle in turning the page when you finished.  Gravity doesn’t easily allow paperback comic books to be easily turned when it’s above your face.  

You were in the middle of reading a comic your best friend, Changkyun, had lent you about a week ago.  Every time he sees or calls or texts you, he’s wanting to know if you’ve read it.  Apparently, it's the best thing to be put on paper since the first newspaper clipping back in 1690.  You had to admit though, it was pretty good.  

You were probably about halfway through it when your phone buzzed next to your head.  

Kyunbabe: I’ve been thinking about going on a ride tonight.  You coming?

You smiled at that.  Changkyun had long since abandoned anything prioritizing to a lot of the normal society tasks and activities pushed on him.  When he was in school - he had already dropped out, deciding he was smart enough as it is - he wasn’t involved in much.  No clubs, no sports, no after school activities of any kind.  The only reason he would stick around after school had ended was to wait for you.  Student council kept you busy, but he’d always wait until every meeting or task assigned to you was finished.  

Changkyun made it an unwritten rule that you two were to leave school together no matter what.  So, even if he got stuck with detention and didn’t sneak out, you’d be forced to soundly wait in the classroom or library with your nose in a book until his time was up.

You two have known each other since you were children.  A bit of a tomboy you were.  You met him at a park that was old and hidden behind a ray of trees, completely in the shadow of the newer, more ‘fun’ park.  You were 7 when you got lost and ran into the 8-year-old, ashy brown haired boy who was half buried in the sandpit.  

The friendship began when you agreed to bury him completely - except his face - just so he could pop up and act like a zombie or Frankenstein's monster rebirthed.  It was one of the best afternoon’s spent lost playing you could remember.  

Now, he still stood beside you as your best friend.  A bleached blond head of hair with piecings up his ears and an eyebrow bar to boot.  Only select fingers of his were painted black; the ones which weren’t, where the ones on your hands that were painted in his stead.  Truth be told, he spent more time at your home than he did his own.  

Time spent at his house always resulted in a conflict of interest and fights between his folks.  Part of you was always curious about how his parents show their disappointment with their son’s decision.  If they were so angry, why hadn’t they kicked him out?  He was old enough, just turning 19.  He could be on his own if he wished to by now.  Of course, it would probably be you telling him to stay with you and your parents until he had a game plan figured out.

When you offered it to him, he’d always refuse it.  

You bounded out of bed, putting the comic on your bed, marking your page before you zoomed down the stairs.  Just around the railing of the staircase, you leaned over it to see your mom sitting on the couch watching her rerun shows rather bored.  Your father was still working, but he’d be home soon.

“Mom, Kyun wants to go on a ride with me.  Can I go tonight?”  Your parents were studious folks, yet they still loved Changkyun like a son.  They accepted his decision to drop out of school and offered to support him and his future decisions the best they could.  When they told him so, that was probably the first time you saw him get misty eyed.  

Normally, you weren’t allowed on evening to nightly rides.  However, it was Saturday and with no plans tomorrow, your mother smiled.  

“Of course.  Only if you invite him over.  It’s been a hot minute since he’s been around.  Your father and I miss our dear little non-birth son.”  You rolled your eyes but smiled warmly at her nonetheless.  “Oh!  If he refuses, bride him with food.  We just re-stocked on some prime meats he may want to sink his teeth into.”  You cringed at the sentence but nodded all the same.

“Will do, mom.  Will do.”  You skipped back upstairs, nearly slipping in the process, as you went back into your room.  You grabbed your phone and sent a text back.

You: Hell yeah.  I got the greenlight, so let’s go.  What time?

Kyunbabe:  ‘Greenlight’ was such a lame pun for a motorcycle ride Y/n.  

You: Quit being a bitch and tell me.

Kyunbabe: Oof, she bites.

Kyunbabe: 6

You abandoned your phone as you moved to your closet.  Slipping on jeans and changing out of your comfy shorts and tank top. A sweater replaced your top and a leather jacket that was gifted to you by Changkyun himself.  It was one of his from a few years back, but he outgrew it so you immediately called dibs on it before he tossed it.  

Slipping on your worn out ankle boots you grabbed a small drawstring back and packed it with a few items.  The comic you were reading, a small Bluetooth speaker, your charger for your phone, and a water bottle with a half-empty box of Skittles.  Flipping off your light, grabbing your phone and slipping it into your back pocket, you left your room to wait in the living room with your mom.  It was 5 after all.  

Kyunbabe:  I’m outside.

It was 5: 47 when he texted you.  You rolled your eyes.  

You: Come inside.  Mom wants to say hi.

It was a moment later you heard the front door open and from around the small entryway hall rounded the teenage.  Clad in leather over leather and an unlit cigarette between his lips.  He pulled it and placed it back into its box, knowing that smoking inside was a no-no.

His leather pants hugged his thighs and a belt wrapped them, making them even edgier.  His shirt was black underneath his jacket, the new leather one he recently got.  The ends of his undershirt lace and see-through adding more beauty on him than he already had.  His blonde hair was bright and face glistened with the slightest sheen of natural oils.  

“All you do is wear black and bleach your hair and you look good.  I’m insulted,” you whined as you slouched back against the couch.  It was routine, insulting him for insulting you with his looks that look so effortless.  He chuckled as he shrugged, ego successfully inflated.

“Maybe it’s because I don’t sit on the couch all day when I’m not holed up in books,” he chided as you rolled your eyes. “What a bookworm,” he tacked on.  He looked to your mom as he put two fingers to his brow and flicked them.  “How's it going, ma’am?” He’s known your mom for years, but he still insists on calling her ma’am. The same for your father, he only calls him sir.  One can’t say he doesn’t have manners at least.

Your mother smiled.  “I’m well.  You’ll ride safely I presume?”

“Always,” he chuckled confidently. “It won’t be a long ride.  Just out to the countryside for a while.  Some nice, clean air would do the soul some good.”  Your mother nodded, absolutely agreeing.  

You stood up off the couch, your mother following your steps as you walked to both of you to the front door.  Changkyun opened it, letting you step outside first- ever the gentleman- as well as letting your mother step out onto the porch to see you two ride off.  After stealing a hug from both you and Changkyun, you ran to his bike.  

A maroon Harley Road King sat parked against the curb.  You ran to it, as you turned and leaned against it, watching Changkyun take his time and walk towards you and his bike.  Lighting that cigarette he didn’t have a chance to do before.  You rolled your eyes.

“Lighting one for the road?”  You teased as he flicked open his Zippo lighter and struck.  Puffing as the cigarette took the light, he flicked his lighter closed and pocketed it.  Taking a breath, he leaned towards you and blew the smoke into your face.  Waving your hand around and coughing at him as he laughed.  “Second-hand smoke is not cool man!”

He laughed as he moved to lounge against his bike seat.  One foot propped up on the rest as he leaned next to you, as you two talked.  No matter how many times you saw each other, you always had things to talk about.  Your mother watched with a smile as you laughed at whatever he said and he smiled back.  It was a single moment of bliss for the troubling age of teenage youth, so she turned her back and went inside.  

Soon, he finished his cigarette and climbed onto his bike.  You followed after him, seated behind him like you so used to.  Wrapping your arms around his middle and interlocking your hands as you leaned on his chest.  

“Is this alright?!”  You yelled over the loud revving of the bike as he kicked it into the ignition.  He looked over his shoulder, your nose pushing into his cheek.  

“Always sweetheart!” He teased back as he looked back forward, kicked up his stand and was soon pulling off the curb, down the road and cruising down the highway into the countryside, a paceful 80 mph down the roads.  

You and he must’ve been riding for hours, as by the time he decided to stop and pull off into a pasture the last minutes of the day were being snuffed out by the blanket of night.  The sun gone from sight and the moon on the rise.  

Getting off his bike with you before him, he plopped himself down in the grass beside his bike, leaning his back against it.  Taking a deep breath, he let it out and closed his eyes.  Relaxing for a moment.  You stood and took your bag off and sat next to him, too far as he deemed.  He cracked open an eye and saw you digging around, pulling out your speaker as he reached and grabbed your arm, yanking you over towards him.

You squaked as you just shook your head and scoot over closer to him.  You turned your speaker on as Changkyun took your phone and began scrolling through your music.  He smiled as he saw a lot of his own stuff on there.  He would produce tracks and random little blurbs for fun when he was ultimately stuck at home.  It was flattering to know you liked them, or even if you didn’t he was happy you at least put them on your phone in a little playlist all for him.

“Play one of yours,” you chided as you crossed your ankles and pushed against his arm to tap your finger on the screen of your phone that he still head in his palm.  He watched the crown of your head as you focused on the screen.  It wasn’t fair to him how with each new time he saw you, you somehow got more beautiful than the last.

He just turned his head away and let you scroll as he grabbed his pack of cigarettes and once again lit one.  He wouldn’t smoke it all, only half.  He didn’t get paid until next week from his part-time job and he only had a pack left.  He had to be fruitful of his smoking for the next week.  Smoking helped take his mind off the thoughts he most definitely shouldn’t be having about his best friend.

For a while, you both just sat and talked like you always did.  Changkyun had gotten into another skirmish with his parents about going back to school, resulting in his run-off last minute ride.  He didn’t like fighting with his folks, and no matter what he tried to love them as they did raise him. He only wished they would stop treating him like his life was over just because he didn’t dress up in a gown and get a stupid piece of paper in an overly long ceremony.

“Oh, that’s right.”  You turned to Changkyun, seeing him already looking at you as he finished off the second half of a cigarette.  “Mom said she wants you to stay over tonight.”  He smiled as he shook his head.

“Of course she does.  That woman is too good.”  You laughed, agreeing with him.  “Send the word I’ll crash over.  I don’t feel up to going home tonight anyway.”  You nodded.

“That’s understandable.”  You pulled your phone out to text your mom when you asked Changkyun a question.  “Have you thought about moving out?”  He sighed.  

“I don’t make enough money to even start to support myself, Y/n.  Unless my parent’s kick my ass out, I’m stuck there for now.”

“You could live with us you know.”

“Y/n,” he breathed.  You’ve had this talk before. Time and time again you have offered your home to become his as well.  And time and time again he’s refused, but he doesn’t give a reason as to why he won’t.  Your mom and dad already see him as family and you have a spare room that you all keep for him when he comes over.  He has clothes, bags, shoes, even a spare laptop in there already!

“Come on.  Why not?”  You whined as you looked at him.  He looked down at you, your eyes wide and brows down.  Concern etched into your face.  In all honesty, he wanted so badly to take you and your parent’s up on the offer.  Moving would be easy, simple and even hardly problematic.  He could, he wanted to so bad.  

“You know why,” he remained vague.  You shook your head.

“No, I don’t.  Explain it to me.”  You were awfully pushy tonight.  

“I just can’t.”  

“That’s not an answer and you know it.” Your eyes were piercing, solid and unwavering.  You were determined to pry an answer out of him.  Maybe it was time you actually got it out of him.  He huffed as he grabbed one of your wrists and twisted you, pulling your arm above his shoulder.  He turned to you, now chest to chest and very close.  

“You want an answer?”  You blinked, before nodded.  “Fine,” he dropped your wrist before he took both of his hands and grabbed the sides of your face, jaw and cheek in his palms before he pulled you towards him and pushed towards you. He tasted like smoke and Cola.  

His lips were unforgiving on your own.  Pushing against you with fervor and so much passion you felt light headed.  Your hands moved to his neck, pulling at the small hairs on his nape as he kept pushing against you.  Moving his lips against yours, pulling on your lip with his teeth and prying your mouth open.  The taste of his tongue was something you didn’t expect to be so sweet with how much he smokes. Perhaps he’s cut down like you’ve asked him to before.  

You felt his hands slide into your hair, tugging at the strands as he pulled his lips away from you after sufficiently making yours kiss swollen and red.  He pushed his lowered his forehead to your as his nose touched against your own and he breathed harshly.  Your breath was just as uneven and jagged.  

“Was that answer enough?”  He breathed as you shook your head.  “No?”  He was more than willing to answer again if you still didn’t get it.

“Changkyun,” your breathing was so small.  It was attractive knowing he was the one to make it so.  “If that’s the reason, then you have to move in now.” He quirked a brow.

“Oh, and what's the reasoning behind that conclusion?”  

“You want an answer?” Teasing him with a laugh, spitting his words back into his face.  He pretended to think, looking up into the clear, country sky covered in midnight and speckled with stars and their designs.  

“Hm, that’s a tough one, doll,” you just rolled your eyes and kissed him again.  

When you two rode home that night, it was nearly 9.  Your father was home, your mother had just pulled the leftovers out of the fridge to reheat for you two, as you were both whining and hungry.  Along with you two eating at the table, your parents sat with you, cups of wine and coffee as you four spoke.

Spoke about Changkyun and you as you both tangled your hands together on the wooden dining table and discussed the future. Or at least the next couple of days because Changkyun was officially scheduled to move in.  No questions asked.

[subconwell]

Title: (Refusing to) Give Up the Ghost Characters: The Snatcher, the Conductor, Hat Kid Description: The Conductor wants a surefire way to beat his rival, and isn't above playing dirty to get what he wants. The Snatcher, however, has other plans. Word Count: 2,985

This is a piece I wrote for the Picture Perfect Zine since I got the greenlight to post it to social media! If you enjoy it, please feel free to leave a comment and kudos here on its AO3 page!

All of the chapters are available already, but if you’d prefer to read it on Tumblr, I’m posting the entirety of the fic under the cut.

“Hey, yer the one that writes up contracts, right? I’m interested in striking up a deal.”

Snatcher recalls, in one of Hat Kid’s various attempts at “quality time” with him, some mention of a small, angry bird that yelled a lot. What was his name again? Director? He can’t be bothered to remember more than that. All he knows is she was wrong about one thing: that is definitely not a bird. Maybe more like a piranha?

“I am,” he answers, “but I’m not interested. Get out of my forest.”

Normally, he’s all for taking people’s souls if they freely offer them up. How could he refuse something so easy? However, he can sense something is off about this one, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. It’s not something he wants to put up with today, especially if it’s unsolicited.

“Eh?” He looks confused. “I was told ye wrote contracts!”

“By who?”

“The lass explained it all to me!” The bird puts his hands on his hips, huffing. “Ye took her soul and made her sign a contract! I’ll give up a soul if it means you can help me!”

Ah. As soon as he mentions his soul, what’s off about the other clicks. It’s difficult for the ghost to suppress a laugh upon breaking this news to him. “No can do, birdbrain! I can’t take your soul if you don’t have one!”

“What!?” His yell would’ve blown out his eardrums if he had any. “Who ye callin’ a birdbrain!?”

“That’s what you take issue with?” Snatcher asks. “Not the fact that you don’t have a soul? Really?”

“Of course I don’t! I work in the movie industry!”

“That’ll do it.” The ghost pauses for a moment. “Why were you offering a soul that you don’t have?”

“It’s not me own soul, it’s a soul I got from someone else!” Although Snatcher didn’t sense a soul inside of him, he can sense that he has a soul on his person. An owl’s, to be exact. Interesting. “Will ye listen to me now, or what!?”

Well, that’s new. He doesn’t want to say he’s intrigued by this information, but someone using another person’s soul because they lack one of their own? That’s just enough excitement to warrant his attention. Shutting his book, he leaves his chair and slinks himself over to the bird’s side. “That’s intriguing! Surprisingly, I haven’t heard that excuse yet, but it’s not often that movie directors come through here!”

“Wait, how’d you know that I’m a movie director?”

Looks like he remembered a bit too much from the kid’s stories. He doesn’t need to know that. “Lucky guess! What, is your name the Director too?”

“The Conductor.”

Scratch that, he doesn’t remember as much as he thought. “Can’t win them all! Anyway, enough of that.” Snatcher puts an arm around the Conductor, who tries to shove it off immediately. “I won’t ask where you got this soul from, and you’ll tell me why you came here. How does that sound?”

“Great! Get yer arm off of me!”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be making any demands.”

“And I think I could just keep what I have and not give ye anything at all!”

The underhanded nature of this man shouldn’t surprise him considering he took the soul of another for his own gain. How does someone besides him do that, anyway? Then again, he’s witnessed weirder things, so this is something that isn’t worth questioning extensively. He moves his arm off of the other, deciding it would be more fitting to tower over the Conductor instead. “You’ve made your point, but like you, I’m not a patient man. What are you trying to get out of this?”

Snatcher is expecting something dramatic to warrant coming to his forest. Only someone desperate and possibly seeking revenge (or something just as nefarious) would seek his help. Maybe he shouldn’t get his hopes up, but everything about this encounter has heightened his expectations.

“I can’t allow that no good DJ Grooves to win Bird Movie Awards! He needs to see how much better my movies are!”

And, just like that, his high hopes were crushed. Amazing how that works. “What? That’s it?”

“What, can ye not do it?”

“It’s not that,” he answers, “it’s just not the request I was expecting. You sure you don’t want your rival dead? I’m pretty sure that would solve all of your problems.”

“What!? No! If he dies, it’ll be by me own two hands!”

“You can’t use those two hands to do it instead of rigging the competition?”

“I can’t murder and direct a great movie, now can I?”

“If you included it in your movie, you could, you know, kill two birds with one stone! ” Snatcher laughs at his own joke, but the other isn’t amused.

“I just don’t want him to win,” the Conductor says. “My usual tactics aren’t gonna cut it this year, so yer all I got!”

“You ever try actually competing?”

“Once. It’s why there’s only one award I haven’t won in all my years of doing this.”

“Have you considered the fact that you might not be cut out for the movie business after all?” The Conductor glares at him, and Snatcher can only grin back. “I’m only kidding! C’mon, you just need a little help from yours truly to focus on your movie! I can make that happen for you.”

As difficult as it is for him to keep his mouth shut, at least he managed to bounce back from potentially losing out on this deal. Maybe now would be a good time to mention how little control he has over competitions he’s never heard of, but hey! It’ll be his fault if he doesn’t read the fine print on the contract! It’s not like he asked to win, after all!

He’ll deal with the fallout later, but for now, he’ll be satisfied with the stolen soul he’s been offered.

In an attempt at expanding his library, Snatcher recently picked up How to Kill Birds (since To Murder a Catbird, while a good read, wasn’t exactly what he was aiming for). With all the work he’s had to do for his forest lately, he hasn’t gotten the chance to sit down and give it a proper read. Telling the minions to leave him alone for the rest of the day, Snatcher cracks the book open, finally relaxing for once.

That is, until a certain yellow bird came in, fire in his practically nonexistent eyes. How he wishes he actually read the book before this sucker’s untimely yet expected presence. Of course it didn’t work out, what was this guy expecting?

After much ranting and raving from him, he comes to the end of his tirade. “I thought ye promised I’d win!” The Conductor huffs, shaking his fist at the ghost before him. “Ye can’t even fulfill a simple promise after I’d given ye a soul ye lousy, pool noodle lookin’, jack-o-lantern faced, PECKNE —”

“Okay, cool it,” Snatcher says, shutting his book and putting a finger on the bird’s fist to lower it. He punches him in retaliation instead. “Wow, ow, that hurt so much, you really showed me. Look, tell me exactly what happened instead of coming in yelling at me. Did your rival win?”

The Conductor tries to take another swipe at Snatcher, but he’s too short to reach his target. “No! Neither of us won!”

“In that case, you got exactly what you wanted,” Snatcher says smugly. “DJ What's-his-face didn’t win. I specifically remember you requesting that.” Remembers so much that he can’t even recall the rival’s name, apparently. “What, were there other competitors that happened to make a good movie for once?”

“No! ” He doesn’t even stop to take a breath. The Conductor tries to make use of his pent-up anger by stomping on the ground. “One of me owls that wasn’t even entered won!”

That’s exactly when he realized there’s been an unfortunate mistake on his part, something that even Snatcher himself couldn’t see coming: the soul he made a contract with ended up getting what the Conductor wanted. A rare side effect that he didn’t see coming, but at the same time, nobody has dared to use the soul of another. Guess that’s another thing to add to the contract, he figures. But, here’s the tricky part: Does he tell the Conductor that’s what happened, or is it a good time to bluff?

“Oh, I guess you didn’t read the fine print after all! What a shame.” A few white lies won’t kill someone that’s already dead inside, Snatcher figures. 

The Conductor, on the other hand, is not reacting well to this news. “Fine PRINT!? YER TELLIN’ ME I SHOULD’VE READ THE PECKING THING!?”

“That’s how contracts work? I don’t see what the big deal is,” he says, shrugging and sitting back in his chair. “You signing it meant you read it, which you clearly didn’t.”

“YE DIDN’T TELL ME I HAD TO READ IT! ”

“Sorry! Not my problem.” Snatcher doesn’t sound sympathetic at all. “I fulfilled my end of the bargain. I can’t change the result, nor can I give back the soul you gave me. It’s mine now! Maybe it’ll do you some good to be more specific next time.”

“Oh, that’s RICH comin’ from you! Not even gonna tell me what happened there either?”

“To be fair on myself, you didn’t ask.”

“And you didn’t tell me! I shouldn’t have to ask!”

Arguing about this is pointless, but it does add some excitement to his otherwise somewhat-dull afternoon. However, he’s already bored of this particular line of conversation. Letting out a dramatic groan, Snatcher replies, “ Fine, have it your way. Here, let me show you what you signed up for.”

With a snap of his fingers, the contract (with a new clause added before the Conductor could notice) materializes before the bird. Will it occur to him that Snatcher admitted to not knowing what could happen, and wouldn’t have something like this on the contract in the first place? Of course not. He’s too blinded by anger, after all. Snatcher watches as the Conductor holds the piece of parchment closer to his face, and lets out a small chuckle.

“Eh?” He looks up. “I heard that!”

“Oh, no, it’s just hilarious watching you try to read that with your lack of eyes.”

“I have eyes, peckneck! ”

“You definitely won’t have any if you continue to yell at me.”

The Conductor frowns, but looks back down at the contract, trying to find this fine print that the Snatcher spoke of. Already bored of him trying to make heads or tails of it, the ghost looks back to the book he was starting to read and focuses on it again. It’s not like the Conductor is smart enough to realize he’s been tricked.

“Huh.” The Conductor scratches the back of his head, not looking away from the parchment he’s holding. While he’s still frowning, it’s less out of anger—no, it seems he might feel regret, if Snatcher had to take a guess. Like he cares.

“You should be on your way now,” Snatcher says. What more is there to say about this entire situation? The Conductor did this to himself. Anyone who dares make a contract with him voluntarily is at fault for their own misery. It’s always been that way, and it always will be. “As much as I’d love to be able to, I can’t go back in time. You’re going to have to deal with what you’ve done.”

It only becomes a problem when the Conductor continues to stand there, not moving. “I ain’t leavin’, not until ye give me soul back.”

“Okay! Can’t wait to see you leave in about a day or so. Good luck!”

As it turns out, he didn’t end up leaving at all, and Snatcher’s patience has run thin.

If Snatcher thought having the kid around was annoying, this yellow bird is especially a thorn in his side. Refusing to leave Subcon Forest, the Conductor squawks out his demands, claiming he’ll leave as soon as he gets his soul back. He saw through Snatcher’s tricks, annoyingly enough, and refuses to take no (or any of his blatant lies) for an answer. It’s been well over a week. He’s sick of this.

This bird isn’t so stupid after all, and he hates to say it, but Snatcher underestimated him. Reading How to Kill Birds didn’t have a section called “how to get an annoying pest to leave your forest for good,” so he had to do the next best thing: consult someone just as annoying.

“Hey bestie!” Hat Kid waves, smiling to Snatcher, whose elbow is on the armrest and head in his hand. “Are we finally gonna play?”

“Absolutely not.” He regrets this already. At least, that’s what he’s telling himself. “Don’t take this the wrong way, kiddo, but we’re still not friends.”

“You know there’s a word for people like you?” The young girl puts a hand on her chin, deep in thought. “I think it’s called a soon-deh-ray? I heard it on TV once!”

“What!? No! I’m not whatever that is!” Snatcher has no idea what she’s talking about, but if the kid sees him as that, then he wants no part in it. “Look, I called you here for a specific reason.”

“Because you’re lonely?”

He sighs deeply, not even trying to be dramatic this time. “I need you to help get rid of someone for me.”

“The Conductor?” She gestures to the bird, whose arms are crossed and foot is impatiently tapping. “I said hi to him, but he said ‘ay I’m busy lass’ or something like that! Anyway, he doesn’t want to leave, I think.”

“That’s the exact reason why you’re here, kid.”

“I come here anyway?”

Snatcher rubs his temples. “And every single time I tell you to leave.”

“Yeah!” Hat Kid smiles brightly. “‘Cuz I know you actually wanna be friends!”

“No respect for me or my wishes. That’s great.” He leans over, picking her up by her cape. The girl’s unphased. “You want me to say we’re friends, right?”

Hat Kid nods enthusiastically. “Yeah!”

“And you help your friends, don’t you?”

“Yeah!”

Snatcher smiles, but there’s something sinister about it. If Hat Kid is picking up on it, he can’t tell from her joyful expression. “So, here’s the deal: you get rid of that bird, we can spend a day doing whatever friends do. How does that sound, kid?”

There are practically stars in her eyes. “ YEAH! ” Before Snatcher can put her down, she wiggles out of his grasp, bouncing happily toward the Conductor. While he wants to continue his book, he can’t help but glance over to the two of them. They go back and forth, the Conductor raising his tone of voice and insisting he won’t leave until he gets what he wants. After frowning at his response, she suddenly perks up, grabbing the complaining Conductor by the sleeve toward the Snatcher.

“What are you doing?”

“I got a great idea suddenly!” The Conductor tries to leave, but Hat Kid has a tight grip on him.

“Huh? You do, lass?” Looks like even he wasn’t informed of this change of plans. Considering how impulsive this child is, Snatcher isn’t surprised.

Hat Kid smiles, looking almost too excited to announce what she has in mind. “You both gotta apologize. You’re both too grumpy, so it’s time to be nice!”

“WHAT!?” Their voices cry out in unison, the only bit of teamwork they’ll ever have at this rate.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” the Conductor says. “I was tricked, lied to, misle —”

“Yeah, did you mention how you practically stole someone’s soul for that? It didn’t even work!”

“No thanks to YOU! I would’ve won without yer meddling!”

“Are you sure about th—”

“ENOUGH!” Hat Kid’s outburst causes the two of them to immediately stop and look to her. For such a small child, she has quite the presence (which Snatcher would never admit to her under any circumstance). “This is why you have to say sorry! You can’t do this forever.”

“I can!” Snatcher says, but Hat Kid glares at him. “What?”

“You’re both not that bad!” She tugs on the two of them. “Say sorry. Please?”

The Conductor and the Snatcher glance at each other for a time, trying to gauge which one will speak up first. They know the girl will keep insisting on this. After a seemingly long silence, the two grumble out half-hearted apologies to each other at the same time. This seems to satisfy the kid well enough, and they’re both too tired to continue this feud for the time being.

“I’ll be back for me soul later,” the Conductor says, turning his back on them and walking toward Subcon’s entrance. “I need to be with me train anyway.”

As much as Snatcher wants to get one final quip in, he knows it’ll just prolong this frustrating encounter. When he’s gone, Hat Kid smiles, looking up at her bestie. “So, when are we gonna play?”

“Never, kid,” Snatcher says, picking his book up again. “I had a part in making him leave, so the deal’s off.”

“Pleeease?”

“No. Get out of my forest.” He glances over, seeing Hat Kid already trying to climb the chair. “Hey! What did I just say?”

“Not that I couldn’t climb up here.” She drops down onto his shoulder.

“Okay! You can’t climb up. Go away.”

“Too late!”

In spite of his previous responses, Snatcher decides to not push the issue any further, turning back to his book as the kid leans on him happily. He’ll insist that he’s too tired to tell her off, but she knows that he might actually like to have some company after the Conductor left.

[sol1056]

three anons: what the hell was all that in S7

Picking out the three that are most to the point for this answer, but I’ve got another dozen or so that overlap. Not sure I’ll have time/energy to answer the rest individually, so hopefully this meta will be sufficient. 

I mean it could be that they had different execs back then who were better at their jobs and kept Shiro around. No one disliked black paladin Shiro, even the DotU fans were ok with it, and the writing in s1-2 was mostly very good. Changing all that was a bad idea. I would have left on the spot if Shiro died or was benched, like now, I'm only around for closure. Maybe they were different execs with this decision & the EPs leaped at the chance. Well, we know who's also gonna be in trouble if that's the case.

With your theory on how storyboards were reused and characters shuffled around for cost cutting, might this not also partly explain the Adam flashback scene and how it was staged? I mean, they were originally supposed to be roommates and the scene was meant to appear in season 2 but got cut. What if they just reused the storyboard (or even animation, if it was already mostly done) the way it was and then just changed the dialogue? This could explain the lack of intimacy in the staging, too. Ezor and Zethrids interactions were more openly intimate maybe not (just) because they‘re villains who die immediately after, but because the decision to make them an item came before storyboarding was done, so the staging is more suggestive. I mean, if you think Shiro was mostly pasted in in the first half of s7, that might make sense.

If cost was the issue and they already had the black paladin Shiro version written, and got the greenlight to change it to Keith then things don't add up. Because they changed it once more! Which could have been avoided if they stuck to the Shiro one. And it goes without saying it would be better written to follow canon instead of the mess we got, like, I cant imagine this NOT discussed. So if it wouldn't be cost effective to change it again for Keith and it would be badly written, why did it happen?

Behind the cut: the most likely chronology of revisions, the clues in S7 as to its original form, and what this means for S8 and the Black Paladin position. 

This is everything I’ve been able to figure out between interviews, podcasts, tweets, plus researching the industry and a few reality-checks with friends more familiar. As always, any mistakes are my own. 

version 0: "five teenagers"

This would’ve been the first pitch after getting the green light, and probably only a loose synopsis, with just the pilot given a rough storyboard. A post-apocalyptic Earth conquered by the Galra, who are seeking Blue. The execs rejected JDS' mechanism for the discovery of Blue, in favor of simply having Keith ‘sense’ Blue. The execs also rejected the idea that Shiro would die only a few episodes in. This summary seems to be the basis of the "five teenagers" part of the teaser.

version A: "shiro kicks the bucket"

Timelines would've dictated moving onto an outline pretty quickly, detailed down to the episode level, including bits of dialogue, motifs, turning points or emotional beats. In this revision, Shiro dies/leaves at the end of S2 and does not return. This is the “originally we wanted him to kick the bucket” version, which the execs rejected.

version B: "shiro goes away for awhile"

If I'm interpreting the hints correctly, the "does Shiro die or not" question got tossed back and forth all the way into S1/S2 pre-production. Rather than rearrange everything, the easiest fix would've been to leave most of the story intact and write only a new ending where Shiro returns. The execs reject this rewrite, saying Shiro can’t be gone that long. This is the “we tried to just have him gone for awhile, but the execs said he had to come back sooner” version.

version C: "enter the clone"

Again, easiest fix is to insert Shiro/Kuron, remove Keith, and reverse that just before Shiro's return in version B. This impacts only the middle seasons (S3-S6); the clone compromise satisfies the execs. Kuron's characterization makes a lot more sense if it’s Keith, in visuals (ie Kuron leaning against the wall in Keith fashion), dialogue (fighting with Lance), and action (leaving without consulting the team). It's also why no one mentions Keith's absence. Because in the original version A, Keith was standing right there.

version D: "wtf is going on", aka Season 7

When JDS mentions having a full season written with Shiro as Black Paladin, it didn't make sense how they'd have a script and not use it. With @ptw30's visual detective work, I think I may've figured it out.

Technical notes: first scripts are all written for a season, then voices are recorded, and then the combined script+recording is used to storyboard. Production seasons are 26-episodes, independent of actual broadcast seasons; VA may be recording scenes across two 13-episode seasons completely out of order, since the recording schedule's going to be based on who's available, not chronology of the file numbers. The biggest staff changes are usually in April ('staffing season') when new shows get the greenlight and start sharking around to catch writers, designers, directors, etc.

In March of this year, S5 was released. At least some of the storyboarders were released in time for staffing season; in April, Hedrick moves to a new project. With S7/S8 being unchanged since version B, I suspect Hedrick delivered the scripts for S7 and S8 by winter of last year, at latest. Even that would be tight, since that's expecting animation to deliver 26 episodes in an 8-month timeframe. [edit: probably delivered much earlier, given the studio leaks show images we can recognize from S7/S8, so some amount of these seasons were in production by then.]

In June, S6 dropped, and a week later, Hamilton was announced as the new story editor via the Lets Voltron podcast. With the lead time required in production, there doesn't seem to be any reason to even need a story editor, at this point. All the pre-production work should be done.

In August, S7 dropped. Hedrick's editor credit is only for the first half of the season; Hamilton gets it for the second half. That means the last six episodes were written after Hedrick's departure. (May Chan's S2 script was reused in part, and she gains a belated co-writing script credit for that. Hedrick should've received the same; it's standard.)

Let's recap a few things we know (and a few we can intuit) about S7:

The season was already written with Shiro returning as Black Paladin, possibly also recorded and storyboarded. 

S6 reversed the S4-S5 trend, lending strength to exec arguments that Shiro is necessary in the story.

After S6 dropped, the EPs said the wolf's name was a spoiler. See this post from @pwt30; tl;dr is that perhaps the EPs intended the wolf to be Shiro's spirit. 

Despite Shiro's return, he's absent for the majority of the first half; when he is present, he barely speaks a half-dozen words, and none are plot-relevant. See @ptw30's post for more details. 

There's a glaring incontinuity when Allura says the paladin armor protected the team, yet Shiro is frozen with the other non-paladins despite wearing armor. 

Keith never offers for Shiro to pilot, nor mentions it, nor even seems to consider it an issue.

Not everything dovetails since I don't have the full picture, but here's my theory: S7 was originally outlined with Shiro's spirit in the wolf, rather than Black. I have no idea when/how JDS would've thought up the CA:WS parallels for his sole writing credit, but Shiro's "I died" and Lotor's psychotic breakdown are squeezed into S6E6, which was written by Josh Hamilton, Hedrick's later replacement. The only other Shiro-in-Black point is a few minutes at the end of S6's final episode. Shifting from Shiro-in-wolf to Shiro-in-Black really only affects one episode, with a bit of editing for another.

Anyway, S6 ends version C, and we segue to version B. For the first half of S7, the clone's body may have been in stasis while the team traveled through its various non-adventures. The episode we now know as S7E1 may have been the mid-point, with about six episodes of Shiro being unconcious. After watching the numbers drop from S3 to S6, the execs may've rejected another six episodes of where-is-Shiro and insisted he come back ASAP.

S7 only has two episodes that must be in order; the rest are pretty rearrangeable. All they had to do was insert Shiro into the background and record a few lines. (Several lines are pure voice-over, which also saves cost/time by not needing to animate moving mouth.) But the moved episode is only his memory/awakening, and the logical next episode would be Shiro's reconnection, and the rest of the season would roll from there. Without moving the entire second half of the season to the start, moving only his awakening episode would mean Shiro does nothing for 5-6 episodes and then abruptly reconnects.  

In a recent interview, JDS said at first the execs weren't enthused until JDS talked up the new mecha they'd give Shiro to captain. Honestly, there's no way JDS got to be EP without giving a really good pitch, but there may've been another element to his argument: nostalgia. The EPs seem certain everyone suffers from their same nostalgia dementia, which if you do, then you probably have been waiting for any glimpse of that og!Keith. If Shiro returns at the start of S7, then Keith's time in Black has been limited to a few disastrous episodes in S3, and a single big battle in S6. The beginning of S7 is the only time we'd ever see the Voltron84 formation working as a unified team, and returning Shiro too soon would defeat the whole purpose of showing how the team has grown in his absence.

The solution seems to have been to remove Shiro's reconnection completely, and keep Keith in Black. That would mean re-recording Shiro's lines from the midpoint onward, and editing in Keith over Shiro. The savings would be that only half the seaon would have to be reworked, not all. The loose end of the space wolf --- an artifact of version B --- was left in place.  

What I'm not sure of is whether the following are significant enough changes to warrant removing Hedrick's name and replacing it with Hamilton's. It could be, if supervising the revision process is enough to override the previous credits. I have no idea about that part of the industry, and it's the kind of edge case you're just not going to find a lot of blog posts about, so if you know, tell me. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, this would've meant Shiro was switched in for Allura, Allura was put back in a lion, and Keith was switched in for Shiro. This would explain why Shiro speaks as the leader of Voltron despite no longer being a paladin, and the uneasy sensations a lot of people got about the characterizations. It was most striking in the last three episodes: Shiro felt like Allura v2, while Keith felt like Shiro v2. And that further, the Altean-Earthian ship just 'lighting up' for Shiro --- and becoming that oversized white mecha --- may've meant as Allura's fourth (fifth?) deus ex machina.

I'd be willing to bet that mid-battle, Allura repeated her stunt from the end of S2, heading out to destroy Sendak's crystal by herself. She wouldn't need Sam to hack her brain, and then we'd also have a call back to when she got knocked down by the crystal-ball thing on Naxzela. If she was the one meant to go toe-to-toe with Sendak, that would explain the bizarre neutrality of Sendak's words --- he says nothing personal to Shiro, at all --- and the even more bizarre silence on Shiro's part. Allura's words wouldn't fit Shiro, so he's silent.

And lastly, it'd mean that the one leaping out of Black to cut down Sendak wouldn't have been Keith. It would've been Shiro.

Where would the story go from here?

If I look at the events of S7, the first half is terribly disjointed, really. If Shiro was supposed to wake at the midpoint, an episode (or two) is missing. One for him to reconnect with Black, and a second that would provide some minor conflict to settle him back into position. Those two episodes were likely replaced with the unexpected and frankly over-told two-parter of the Earth flashbacks.

Two problems with that, one technical, one structural.

First, the flashback two-parter has a lot of moving parts. Brand-new designs, characters, and backdrops. It's far too elaborate to be done in an ultra-compressed timeframe, not without several heart attacks and therapy bills on the part of the animation staff. (Plus, the US-based storyboarding team is already downsized, so fewer hands to do the work.)

Second, it doesn't make a lot of structural sense, especially against the big revelations in S6 of an existing Altean colony. Within the story, there's no reason to halt everything and travel across the universe to take however long to build a new castle, when the Altean colony question is far more pressing. Returning to earth also violates the structure, because it's really just a standard milieu: start on earth, head out to have adventures, and return home at the end.

But here, they're returning home and then possibly leaving again. That's just... a rather peculiar and imbalanced way to do it. It doesn't help that doing so means literally telling Romelle her people are just gonna have to rot, the paladins are certain they need the castle more. Why would you take one of the more compelling storylines you've come up with, only to background it again, and wreck the traditional bookending milieu structure at the same time? Especially if that means coming up with major set-pieces and brand-new designs in the space of several months, after a chunk of your core staff are already onto other things.

I think those two flashback episodes -- and the rewritten finale episodes --- may've been cribbed from S8. In other words, the second half of S7 was the original end of S8. That would mean repurposing already-created storyboards and animation artifacts, so there's a huge time savings there (not counting the need to re-record voices and edit the visuals to match the changed-around parts). 

[note: if there’s anywhere you want to frontload introductions for the spin-off, it’d be in the final season, not the penultimate season. Here it feels like a big honking distraction, rather than an organic segue into the next iteration.]

That change necessitated that utterly bizarro mecha that appeared out of nowhere with the most ridiculously impeccable timing. There needed to be a reason to pull the team back out to space to deal with Haggar and/or the alt-Alteans and/or Lotor or whomever else it turns out to be.

So... where we go from here depends on when S8 gets released, because that’ll tell us how much they did (or did not) edit the episodes. Another clue will be whose name gets listed as head editor for an episode; if we see Hedrick’s name reappear at the top, we’ll know we’re dealing with episodes that are enough unrevised to qualify as being Hedrick-edited, that it’s a version B episode. 

My expectation? They’ll move Shiro’s reconnection to the first part of S8, and add an episode or edit pieces of another, to blend it into what would’ve been the first half of S8 (probably with filler to mask the gap). Then add an episode to segue into the version B finale of S7, where we’d end with the original VLD lineup. With the time needed for animation, that’d be the easiest (if potentially awkward) way to repurpose as much as possible of existing artifacts. 

If we don’t get S8 in the next 1-2 months, though, all bets are off, and there’s a much greater possibility that the entire final season is being redone from scratch. I’d expect Keith to stay in Black, in that case, but I’m always willing to be pleasantly surprised.  

edited to add: see this followup for another detail that supports the reversed-seasons theory

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Maybe he’s got it it’s no the implication is that this is the current okay so I restore the ball universe included everyone who had already come back to life med that you are how do I the horse you don’t feel like it should go back to what is bringing back the thing that had aft of the universal ready when you universe you to follow the path on your re creating the flaw in the universe to get destroyed but now someone else made it like you know the last Guardian McGlashan Glaxo were not wanted to resurrect from death anymore but right then we did dieand came back to life yet one more patio pass rightand brief that will deploy the business model wasn’t to be like a local gym setting this outand she was like I thought ofand I’ll try to write my well okay so Jim got nothing the dead mean dad understand like if you think think that means dad because you really really want to matter you post the matter they needed they may not matter on energy is now so I’m saying if you kill some of you better be damn sure that it’s a really good story or as a really good poignant thingand that you don’t want that character come back like next week because I’m not going to greenlight unless it’s a big character that we need money from which is unwisely unless it’s a character toenails created in the Millbury back in the book living like fuck you I energies I feel that the oversight right will you use it though you so how long does it last its programs immediately by who I don’t recall the first person is resurrected by do know that it’s like 2003 so like three years later in Civil War they kill Bill foster Goliathand he still that I think will so well okay when when the comes next is sorely sort which is like so Joe you know you is scheduled to start another Keppra to tell him not telling Jim Starling not to contradict himself is like telling a horse not to gallop gracefully through a field it’s like a chef not to make a delicious meal if it’s just it’s just a thought It was just a guideline install the one was inspired to do a big stupid things the Pharaoh that no one cares about but no one is so is a joke is not as likely to win man wanted to be like I was just try to make people take couple more seriously it may be why Casado left it as of the end book ride is like 10 no one thinks it’s actually incontinent to carry continuity the end book is entirely different things I know you want it is soldand not taking about Sears I was still over there wrote itand just like is not what I asked for I still have to publish it because it’s gonna make us all like I paid already Chairman when you so marble the end or as is later collected I think the court fan is the like all those left and no people click on fantasy got so morallyand it has some really fun ideas I think I glossed over but like if you do get a chance to read about a conversation with Dennisand warlock is very Jim Starling in his like law but also kind of poignant feeling satisfied at the end really is like when you something that they’re just talking about initial reaction was to be upset with him like no this actually makes sense for these two characters early so like every marble hero in the unit on reverse because Spiderman’s alternate reality daughter spider girl is in the fight something always liked everything goes up the fight so I literally already saw your big silly flashlight with all the calculable characters is just the way some yeah we would that’s because that’s what happens in white God now which is like how about these two cooler heads just have a conversation in which I like I really wish I could eat wasn’t a part of all he is on it’s really weird so we really when you’re convinced he was like taking some kind of like learning Annex course about ancient Egypt that’s neat what is when we know well know story about how he die is not what you know there’s a lot of people we don’t know but what happens in the healing starts to go sailing can be treated is the Egyptians role the resurrection or like like a dadand what is it the rightand Azariah the theme in the story so why not if you use some no actual goal was just so randomand stupid as always after one random human to get picked up by alien because he technically was a leader of many people at one point for these goober aliens that the hardest is powered yeah random aliensand overheard name exist beings but only because like they look so what they they’re just the ones who thought of it first went to the who built a machine around or they were just physically close enough to see it probably is forever else is looking for because he believes there is a power like that universe guys probably like was set up there using as a son of the first like 6000 years of our all with the heart of the universeand the thing that makes us all exist let’s go build the thing around it to protect Israel to go to a sweet planet that 1 billion ly away one random dude diaper out of his elementand then give him a portion of power but he does with itand 10 000 years later turns out he is an ass hole about the leavesand goes back to the planet before you you have themand they are experiment will be neat to being a dick cool humans powered exhibit like he’s so powerful that he could destroy everything anyway so I went we had once been the product to a two story is a Egypt story we got really unimportant yeah ultimatelyand then a story the actual story but it’s actually interesting because you could if it wasn’t continuity you have a couple of meanings like a marble began to kill the characters is normally under the end of the universe right also it’s fundamentally the end of marble if it’s in continuity because you’ve just betrayed that this is stupid our universe is someone could physically graband useand that the Godand breaks everything I tell you everything understand just what Starling broke his own book yet did Jim Starling we had always said this was the matter characters die in the book at the end of the book there’ll yeah will relate what does just what you will want more time with this multi means it is it one more time the next time on next or not I’m doing this book to make sure there are number next time but as long as I’m writing it to take this time Jim on the that the last time so I’m to do it as much as possible really is the people come back as you mass like maybe what he’s doing trying to say like look at how stupid it is resurrected don’t you feel like a jackass is not a matter resides in times in the same book if that’s the point of the book by my original person who did that by until it half of the men in was a plot device it was like he’s not doing it because it was a fundamental plot point of your cinematic universe like that was what would would fight he did start was just like it was a display of Panos’s power he does thisand then less than issue later they’re all backand he was doing it to impress desk gas is not doing it because he spun I believe that how it should be he’s doing as a gesture to try get laid which is way less impressive so till the broader badass now is saying rock to bring back that was also like 10 years earlierand now he’s working for this companyand they’re saying were trying to make a new goal of to do that for you not going to want to I snapped way have you ever mission is address the myriad regrets I don’t it’s hard to tell you I’m in it here’s a video Jim Starling wrote a death in the family he killed Jason to is no stranger to the weightand gravity of killing a character maybe didn’t Jim Starling is just a bloodthirsty man was six Hill but like no so get in trouble for is what he’s telling fantastical stories were colorful people in tightsand death is a it is is a very good thing to use that out that hammers home the point that like things matter Jason Todd come back to life by this point could be he’s a like a commentary on being like I killed Jason Toddand Laura are you doing I like you brought them back that’s all to take the availability like anything that means to stay in your will reinforceand outselland problem what why why we why we what we losing the marble againand affordable for your whole universe is gone to see broken back time brought by Jason thought that was where it all started maybe maybe in thisand I credit Starling with the with with movie you know before to be able to shoulder all that I think so yes I said yes but anyway that’s normallyand it definitely looks cool it yes yes the watercolors you want but anyway right as he is negative on the prairies of South Bennett Watson. Really is remarkable and in a time when literally in in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State was using architect of the Obama administration’s foreign policy we see entire portions of the world particularly the wider Middle East literally spinning out of control in a situation were watching our my hours Today is is a result of the failed foreign policy in the week foreign policy that Hillary Clinton helped lead in this administration create the newly newly embolden the aggression of Russia whether the was in Ukraine are now heavy handed approach said Vladimir Cinemas in the land think I got thank you Sen praise for their pertinence in as I because at the time of great challenge in the life of this nation where we weave we can America’s place in the world stifled America’s economy the campaign of Hillary Clinton Tim Kane has been an avalanche of insults looking to get to your question about trust Donald Trump is built a business through hard times intricate sees Brian extraordinary business

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'Break the chains' : New chapter for "Redemption in a Spirit in a Cold War" is out !

"Break the chains"

Chapter Summary : Yirina was unfortunately captured by Duvall's men and could finally met the man in person but she can count on something.....

To read it on AO3, click here !

Words : +3600

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

We maybe saved Alvarez but at what price ? That mission weren't supposed to happen as we didn't have enough intels about the place and the fact that it was very unexpected. We all thought that we were going to finally rest in our beds after making Derazio fly down off his penthouse but instead, we had to run off to save Alvarez as he wanted to flee the country and that what we did.....until the tide has turned in Duvall's men favor that came in great number by surprise and we needed to run away from this place....too late for me.

I was covering Wolf's escape before the burning pole fall just behind, avoiding me to join the others and then, I was knocked down by behind and dragged away from that place by those men as the others has maybe escaped with no choices. I can't blame them....I can only blame myself for it....I should have been faster to run away instead of staying like an idiot behind that cover. Now, those guys is going to either kill me away and bringing me to Duvall himself and to be frankly, these people.....they're acting pretty strange with their white hoods.....who are these people ?

The muffled sounds of cheerings start to slowly make me regain consciousness of the situation around me as I opened my eyes, my vision all troubled because of that hit I received in the back of my head. It was still hurting and feeling very dizzy as my vision was recovering and I could feel my hands tied up in metal chains, raised up, my back against a brick wall, sit on a sort of podium and then, I could start to see people....dressed in white robes & hoods in front of the podium, cheering, their fists in the air. It was looking in a lost place in the Bayou but I can't tell where exactly.

I couldn't believe it as I thought that I was trapped in a kind of stupid joke until I realized that those men weren't kidding at all. I looked up to see a man dressed this time in a fully red robes & a red hood too, must be their leader....and then, I realized that it was Duvall in person as I heard his muffled voice behind his stupid hood. There were an guard next to him and I could see him talk to Duvall as he just saw me, waking up.

"The sinner has awakened !" I could hear Duvall shout to the masked crowd who started to make some cheers for him and booing at me before Duvall faced me.

"Already dressed up for an costume party ?" I start to joke around at him, seeing all these persons in robes before the guard that was near him decided to throw me an punch in the jaw, not even breaking it or making any harm on it. "Is this everything you got ?" I added again and he wanted to continue until Duvall put his arm in front of him.

"Don't...." He said, looking at him. "She will soon understand our fight, white brother." The guard looked away in shame as seen throught his hood before he walk away to get back at its former position, leaving only me with Duvall. "So, you decide to interfere in my little plan." He decide to remove his hood to reveal to me his face that I already know before I spit on his face.

"Take it as a yes, Duvall !" I smirked, trying to keep cool and calm as I am chained and in real danger with those mens. He wasn't looking angry at all.

"So uncivilized." He cleaned up the mess I made on his face. "You, the Europeans....are very disturbing, I can say." He added as he start to slowly move to get closer to me. "Throwing my lieutenant from his hotel, helping this goddamn Cuban out of that burning place but now, you're here...at my mercy."

"At first, was it a compliment ?" I asked to him, he shook his head....of course....."And second, fuck you !" I breathed before he decided to pull out an knife from his robes. "What are you doing ?" I said mixed between been scared and angriness.

"Hold her off, I'm going to mark her." He ordered to his former guard and another one and they both complied. I tried to move quickly but they were more faster, blocking my legs to do anything as Duvall was removing a part of my small-bloodied shirt, getting the knife above where was my heart. "The mark of the sinner !" He exclaimed before he start to make a cross with the knife on my skin.

I wanted to scream very loudly because of the pain but one of his henchman was covering my mouth. The worst of it is that Duvall was making it very slowly while I was enduring the pain with all my strengh before Duvall finally gestured to his men to move away, letting me free in a way. I looked at my chest, seeing now a bloodied cross on it...above my heart, he didn't put the knife deep enough to hit my heart, he just wanted....to mark me....

"You're fucking crazy !" I yelled at his face, realizing that this man is in the same level of Perseus himself. "Looking like an second Perseus !" My words make him move to grab my chin hardly with his hands, looking very angry.

"Perseus ?" He whispered at me. "This damn russian can go fuck himself with his little friends that were around me." He added, apparently still angered by Perseus decision to stop giving weapons. "He want me to lay low and to not move but he can't understand how my world is working and what my ambitions once I'll get Reagan out."

"That was this all about, right ?" I asking, starting to guess his real ambitions. "The guns were going to be used in a little coup d'état against Washington and you will be the new president." I breathed, rolling my eyes & thinking about it. "If you can't win legally, let's do it by force." I raised an eyebrow to him, awaiting, fighting inside of me the pain from the wound.

"That's right, Reagan is convinced that we need to help the free world but does he think about the americans first ?" He asked and I couldn't respond it....I'm not american and not an expert on the US politics.

"Even if you do this, you will still stay the perfect Perseus american puppet." I affirmed and he seemed annoyed by me and my thoughts about it.

"Maybe even if I despited them because they're not americans but at least, I will have achieve my goal." He snorted as he decided to get up, still facing me. "'Stitch' is gonna soon have his plan set in motions and you can't stop us." 'Stitch'.....the 'DOUCHEBAG' that was on that file about Greenlight in my memories....the brother of that Sonya that has 'plans in motion'....shit...Duvall then put his hood on him, giving to me a last look. "If you please, my men will want to hear a speech from me." He then turned around to face the crowd.

I couldn't listen to his little speech as I was already annoyed by him before and I'm not intending to be like this again but then, from afar, I could see a Duvall's henchman that was protecting some sort of ruins, getting suddenly disappear in it, apparently neutralized.....the cavalry has arrived, Yiri !.....I could finally hope more as I was seeing a little white light coming far in front of me....the scope of a sniper rifle....Wolf.....they found me.....They are my guardians angels !

"Hey, Duvall !" I called him out, causing him to look at me, breaking him off his speech. "You believe in guardians angels ?" I asked but he didn't responded as he looked back to the crowd....to be immediately greeted by an bullet right in the head by Wolf and then, it was the beginning of the panick for Duvall's men.

"They have killed the 'messiah' !" A man shouted inside the crowd...damn, those peoples are fucking weird.

The guards that was near Duvall move near his dead body as multiples gunshots start to be heard all around the place and finally, another shot from Wolf hit right the chains I was tied up to, allowing me to break free and getting up to start strangle the guard who punched me with the chains that was still on my left hand. His buddy tried to react at me and to counter him, I decided to use the guard I was strangling as an human shield, taking all the mag this guy just shot.

As he was trying to reload, I quickly took the dead guard SMG and shot a simple bullet right in the head, disposing of him. All of that while I was fighting the pain on my chest because of Duvall. Everyone were fighting in the direction of the place entrance but some of Duvall's remaining men saw me getting freed and start to focus on me instead of the fight at the entrance. I moved to get out of the podium and to cover behind of it as the first bullets came into my direction.

I couldn't risk to waste bullets as I just had a simple SMG with only one mag and for that, I had to pick my targets precisely. I started to shoot just after I got to cover, killing an guy that tried to rush me with an knife, taking 6 bullets in him. Two others were gone as they were out of their cover, taking each one 8 bullets as they were afar and the last one I shot at before the mag ran out of bullet.....I missed him close enough and now, I didn't have any bullet left.

This same guy was running to rush me like the first one did and to neutralize him, I decided to use the SMG I had like an hand-to-hand tool, holding it by the cannon. I start to get myself ready to strike as he arrived but then, as I was launching myself to do that, he prevented that to happen by kicking my arm with his feet before he arrived next to me and threw me away from my cover. When I looked at him, I realized that.....

"Park ?" I whispered, finding out that it was her and not the last guy who came to get me.

"Yiri ?" She looked at me, confused & worried, she didn't know that it was me behind that cover and then, she quickly moved to hug me "Yiri !" She said, relieved, her arms around me before I could feel my chest in pain.

"Ouch..." I breathed, feeling herself against my wound.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry." She removed herself to help me getting up "You're hurt ?" She asked, fully standing up on my feets, I nodded.

"That bastard make me a mark on my chest." I replied, showing her the part of the chest where the blood was still going out but less than before. "Apart of that, my right arm is also hurting me." I added as she didn't almost go easy on my arm when she striked me.

"Fuck...." She said, putting her hand next to the wound, worried about it.

"It's okay, not deep enough & no much blood off it." I exclaimed trying to reassure her as she was nearly going into panic. "Thanks....thanks for the save, how did you know I was there ?" I asked, wondering how they were fast enought to get me back.

"Before your radio goes off, the people that took you inadvertently gave away the location they were going to bring you." She replied, getting next to me as we decided to slowly walk back in front of podium. "Sims decided to bring Alvarez to another CIA safehouse while me & Wolf.....we called for reinforcements before coming in here." She added as I could see a little group of soldiers, checking the dead bodies on the ground as another one was guarding the few remaining Duvall's men.

"Who are these guys ?" I looked at those dead bodies, all wearing white hoods now bloodied.

"These douchebags...." It was Wolf arriving to get to us, his sniper rifle in hand, having heard my question. "They were an part of the fucking Ku Klux Klan." He then looked at Duvall's body on the podium "And that prick were the leader of them in the New Orleans."

"White supremacists dickheads that want to 'keep America white'" Park continued, looking at me, knowing more about the subject.

"Duvall was going to march on Washington with the guns Perseus gave him." I explained what Duvall told me about his plans while I was tied up. "Taunted me about his plans all along and his little politics view." I added before I was rethinking of something. "Does anyone of you know a 'Stitch' ?"

"'Stitch' ?" Park repeated, trying to find something in her head. "Heard the name from Adler sometimes, hard to know more with him."

"Why ?"

"Well, each time 'Stitch' is mentioned, Adler is kinda acting strange and not himself." She responded as I looked at her with wide eyes.

"Adler acting strange & not himself is normal for me." I scoffed, making her roll her eyes around.

"To say that we got Derazio, Alvarez & Duvall in one single day...." Wolf nodded as he couldn't believe it himself before I groaned silently from the pain. "You're wounded ?" I nodded to him. "It's better that Park got you back at the safehouse, gonna stay here for a little with the cleaning crew before coming back." He then approached me to give me a little tap on my right shoulder. "Good job, Yirina."

"You're coming, Yiri ?" Park asked in a low voice, rhetorically to me and then I followed, avoiding the bodies on the ground.

Thanksfully, I was still able to walk perfectly even now with that wound on my chest, Duvall did get the knife deep enough to make it more visible, I wasn't bleeding from it anymore but it would be better that we got it treated before it can get infected. Park led me to the same car we have used for days and I installed myself on the front seat with her before we drove off the place. Finally, I could breathed normally after getting out of this place that was very deep inside the Bayou.

This situation....having my ass get saved.....it wasn't my first time, I could remember East-Berlin well enough : seeing Park, Lazar & Adler rappel down to enter that warehouse and now Park, Wolf and some CIA guys arrived to save the day....my day. Park....was really my guardian angel and I think I was hers too. We saved each other a countless times and I was happy that she reacted quickly with the others, she can't blame herself for that.

After minutes of driving, we finally arrived at the safehouse but there were something very wrong about the place now : Sims was waiting for us on the porch and the house was looking damaged now, the front windows were broken.....something has happened here. We got out of the car, very curious as Sims started to join us.

"I think we have a big problem !" He started, looking at the house behind him.

"What kind of problem ?" Park asked but she didn't have any responses from him, just him gesturing to us to follow him inside. When we entered, we could see that someone came here when we were all gone, the place were all trashed and when we arrived in the operations room, we understand the 'big problem' "You got to be shitting me !" She exclaimed, seeing the dashboard that has been tagged red with the Perseus emblem.

"Fuck, Perseus was here." I whispered, looking around me to see the room turned over. "How long you arrived back here ?"

"10 minutes after I brought Alvarez to another hideout." Sims replied, moving to redress the table back to normal. "Fuckers trashed the place down but they didn't take anything." He added before he looked at the table where the radio was on, completely broken.  "They had time in 2 hours after we left the place to save Alvarez."

"And the first floor ?" Park questioned him and he shook his head.

"What was interesting them was more damaging everything in the ground level." He got next to the dashboard, looking at it with desesperation. "Even if we got Duvall, Perseus is still acting and he knows where we were hiding in the state."

"Perseus has something that will happen soon in the US." I said, sitting down on the only couch that was available. "We got news from Adler ?" I asked.

"Called me before I got here, they were soon arrived in West-Berlin after getting rid of the general." He replied, walking next to the room's door. "I'm going to clean up the place before Wolf come back here, I see that you're wounded and I guess Park will patch you." He did a silent laugh before he walk out of the room, soon followed by Park that were getting the meds for me.

Now, I was alone in the trashed operations that we used for days, seeing that Perseus insignia on the dashboard was making me sick inside of me.....How I could have stayed with Perseus for so long instead of fleeing away to save my friends ?.....Why ?....I could see that there were something missing on the dashboard : Sonya's picture....gone. If they didn't take anything important, why this particular picture was stolen ? Did they came here or someone else close to her did ?

It took less than a minute for Park to come back with everything necessary to heal that wound on my chest. To be honest, I didn't feel any pain while Park was patching me up with dressings and also disinfecting the wound, only making very silent groans from my mouth. Duvall could have killed me but he was more willing to follow his politics than Perseus's one.

"How you're feeling ?" Park asked after she has finished her business with me.

"Pretty good." I replied, getting my shirt back to normal before I looked back at her. "You really had fairy fingers." I added in a lovely tone to her, making her blush.

"You told me that after that night." She scoffed, making me blush in return....refering to our passionate night here. "Did I tell you that you got also them ?"

"No but thanks you." I smiled at her before we both joined hands together "Thanks you for everything, Park."

"You know that I will always have your back." She affirmed, making me smile further and frankly, we were soon forgetting what happened here before I realized the situation,

"Damn, I really liked this place." I looked around the room, sniffing at seeing it at this state. "Far better than West-Berlin."

"Yes..." She breathed, doing the same as me "Shame we have to go back there." She added before she got something behind her back. "Something from you." She was handing to me, my own M1911 that I thought to have lost at that abandoned lighthouse when the Ku Klux Klan got me.

"How ?" I asked, confused to see it again.

"One of Duvall's men took it with him and when I neutralized that guy, I took it back to give it to you." She responded as I took the gun back with me. By seeing it back, I was impressed by her. That gun.....I used it since a long time and it's like my favourite one.

"Wow, I can say...." I was speechless by Park's actions for me "Thanks you 3000." I finally finished my sentence, looking at Park with a great look that could told 'I love you 3000'.

"Well, I can see that Park make a great job." Sims came back in the room, looking at me with good eyes. "Guess the two make quite a couple."  He admitted and we looked each other, me & Park and we smiled.

"Thank you, Sims." We literally said at the same time before we start to hear the ringing of a satellite phone in the room located right to the broken radio.

"Must be Adler, told he would call back when he will arrived in the safehouse." Sims moved to get to the phone pretty quick and he pick it up. "Hey doc, you will never....." He was going to continue until he froze himself in place to look at us. "Wait, you too ?" At this moment, we could realize that the situation was somehow getting worse. "You got to be kidding me right ?" He asked, before he moved to get next to one of my notebooks, a free one. "Okay, tell me when we join you...." He start to write down something as me & Park was wondering what got into him. "Okay, I'll tell them." He then hang up the phone.

"There's a problem ?" I got up from my seat before he looked back at me.

"The safehouse in West-Berlin has also been raided by Perseus : Adler and his team just found it trashed down too with the surveillance crew dead all over the place." He responded, trying to keep his cool and us, we were shocked to hear that : here and now, West-Berlin. "Our trip in the US is gonna last more longer."

"Why that ?" Park demanded

"An Perseus agent left an intel pointing to an mall in New Jersey." He first replied, getting his hands on the table. "We will have to join Adler to an US Army base near the place." He breathed, looking down in desesperation.

"And do we have a name ?" I asked, extremely curious before Sims raised slowly his head towards me, not sure of saying it even if he got the answer to it.....

"Vikhor 'Stitch' Kuzmin !"

[aion-rsa]

Lovecraft Country: Bringing the Shoggoths to Life

https://ift.tt/3o3hsUu

Contains spoilers for episodes 1, 2, 8 and 10 of Lovecraft Country.

Grant Walker is a monster person. “I’m a monster person, indeed.” He confirms. “It’s definitely been there since I can remember.” Raised on a diet of Clive Barker and ‘80s horror, The Lord Of The Rings and painting Warhammer figures, Walker is just fascinated with monsters. So as Framestore’s VFX supervisor on Lovecraft Country, in charge of bringing the shoggoths to life, he’s in his element.

“Misha [Green – creator] briefed us on the character of the shoggoth and it was basically supposed to be the ultimate guard dog. It’s a loyal creature. It’s a guard dog that’s supposed to be terrifying and fierce and powerful. The most important of those, I guess, is terrifying,” Walker explains. “Almost every element about the creature is supposed to be there to terrify you. Its teeth, all the weird eyes it’s got all over its back. It’s got a powerful anatomy. It’s got these little raptor arms for chopping up people and poking them.”

A creature originally described in H.P. Lovecraft’s mythology, Walker says he was still given plenty of leeway to make his shoggoth his own.

“I really wanted to push the teeth. That was the main thing. It was a big, powerful creature that was supposed to be absolutely terrifying, but also slightly otherworldly. It didn’t want to feel like it was just a monster from the zoo. While we base a lot of reference on existing animals like gorillas, big cats, sharks and things like that, it was supposed to have an otherworldly nature about it to give it some sort of eeriness and sit it into the Lovecraft world.”

Shoggoths make appearances in episodes one, two, eight and ten. A surprise ambush occurs in episode one, followed up in episode two when they’re in guard dog mode. Then in episode eight the shoggoth returns for a big gory action scene, while episode ten sees two shoggoths go head to head.

VFX explained

So how do you put a CG shoggoth into a live action scene interacting with actors? 

“It is tricky,” explains Walker. 

“What we do is we first plan it out with a pre-visualization, a very basic animation where we take a scan from the set so we can build the set in our computers, and we block out the entire sequence with all the actors, with the shoggoth, with all the stuff that’s happening

“That’s to really iron out what we’re going to film, because obviously when we get on set there’s no shoggoth. There’s stunt guys holding puppets but we need to know how fast the shoggoth can run, we need to know what he’s going to do, what he’s going to impact. If he bumps into a car, when do we nudge that car on-set, all those kinds of things.”

There’s no clear cut rules about what will be done with CGI and what will be practical FX, Walker explains. Instead it’s a case of trial and error and ensuring he always knows what can be achieved in CGI if they don’t get the shot. The scene in episode eight where the rampaging shoggoth tears off Office Lancaster’s (Mac Brandt) arm, for example, originally involved a prosthetic limb, but ultimately CGI worked better.

Molding the Shoggoth

Using the pictures supplied by the art department and with further direction from Misha Green, Walker set about sculpting the shoggoth.

“We basically built a digital sculpture of the shoggoth like you would in clay. Then you build a control rig for animation,” he explains. “On top of that you have to replicate all the anatomy inside [the creature]. We build a muscle system that works with simulation so we can simulate muscles bouncing around, flesh wrinkling and all that kind of stuff in a technical process.”

When he was happy with the musculature, attention turned to attempting to replicate the lighting on set, focusing on the skin of the creature and how it would absorb and reflect light. 

“You have to paint all these textures and develop, what we call, shaders that react to light in the way that you would expect certain objects to react to light. You render it using the lights from the set and then at that point you should see your shoggoth sitting pretty much on top of the film plate,” he says. “Then you have a massaging process called compositing where you merge the two seamlessly together.” 

This involves things like adding shadow, painting out bits of blue screen and working with environmental elements like the shoggoth kicking up dust as he runs which could be done via CGI or via a filmed element to really bring it all together.

Guts and gore

Lovecraft Country prides itself on not holding back when it comes to the grue, but this posed more challenges for the team when deciding what should be done in-camera and what would in-computer.

“There’s one significant shot in ep eight where the gore is a big feature that’s in-camera,” says Walker. “There’s this big blood exposure, it covers them. That is the one that I would hate to attempt in visual effects. It’s got too much interaction with the characters. That’s the one significant gore piece that is in-camera. Then there’s the set dressing, which is the blood, guts, arms, prosthetics limbs that are on the floor.”

Blood directly from and around the shoggoth – when it comes from the shoggoth’s gills or when he’s mauling people – was CGI and there were different types of blood they needed to simulate.

“It was surprising how many different types of variation of blood that we needed to do. Blood exploding was one type. Then there’s blood that landed on the ground. From a technical point of view there were probably six, maybe eight, variations of how to produce CGI blood for doing different things. If blood’s seeping into a jumper it’s a textural thing that has to change over time. We also have bits of blood protruding from somewhere and then landing onto something. Then it has to change from one type of data, which is geometry data landing to effect texture. That would turn into another thing. It was quite a complex setup. 90% of it is visual effects blood.”

You can tell monster-man Walker is here for it.

Real life inspirations

Walker got the concept designs from the art department which acted as a blueprint for how the shoggoth would look but Green gave him the greenlight to make tweaks where he saw fit and some of his reference points came from the natural world.

Take the teeth:

“I see all those teeth, but I’m like, ‘Is that the sarlacc pit? Is it just a round thing with loads of teeth in it?’ I want this thing to be able to churn up people’s faces rather than just shaking teeth around. That was one area I was like, ‘Let’s look at teeth that are scary.’ 

“I saw an angular fish that had these big pointy teeth that jut out at you. Then I looked at a shark’s jaws, because I knew that their teeth operated separately from the main cranium skull. Then we built these mandibles inside the mouth that could act like a food processor for people’s heads.”

Nice.

The shoggoth also has gills at the back of the head which inspired Walker in further grossness.

“When someone said, ‘He’s got gills back there and he eats people’s heads,’ I was like, ‘Oh, sure we can blast the blood out of the back of the head.’ I’m sure I wasn’t the first person to think it…”

Putting the moves on

The next challenge for Walker and his team was how to make the shoggoths convincingly move and for this Walker turned to primates.

“In terms of also making it move and be powerful, I looked at it and I’m like, ‘All right, it’s muscular, and looks like this it’s running on its knuckles.’ That’s the gorilla,” he says. With the animation supervisor they would look at other references and tweak the anatomy of the shoggoth in reference to the movement, adjusting the length of the arms and the legs and making tweaks until the anatomy matched the motion they wanted.

Eyes in the back of its head

From the original Cthuhlu mythos the shoggoth was covered in eyes but Walker wanted to adjust exactly where they were situated.

“We put their eyes on the head and the back. We removed them a bit from the shoulder. They felt a bit strange on the shoulder. We were thinking that maybe its brain is in its head. You can imagine that the spinal column might have some sort of optical nerve that might tie it all together. But to be on limbs as well pushed too far. I did feel I’d like to try to keep it around the spinal column at least,” he explains.

“In terms of how that affected the animation and the character was quite interesting because the idea is this creature can see in pretty much any direction. Most creatures hear or see something and they turn their head to look at it. Well, this doesn’t need to. How do you make the creature look at something without needing to turn its head? There was a bit of a trade off there. We did ultimately use the head and little looks, but there are some shots where it’s mainly in the eyes.”

Big mouth strikes again

With the eyes scattered around the shoggoth’s head and neck and the pupils not easily identifiable – they are either have slight cataracts or they’re almost entirely black – much of the shoggoth’s facial focus is on the mouth. As well as the teeth, the shoggoth’s tentacled tongue became an important aspect of the design. 

One of the early animation tests of the face

“When you’ve got a mouth as big as this, you have to spend a lot of time controlling it. This one was a pretty big feature. We spent a lot of time working on where the lips should start and finish. I did do a version where the lips were closed over the teeth, which kind of looked a bit like a weird Kermit the Frog and became immediately less terrifying,” deadpans Walker.

The tongue was another big focus.

“There were a couple of concepts from our art department where they had a single tongue, double tongue, and a four tongue kind of thing but the ends of it were quite short,” Walker explains. He had his heart set on something bigger, a longer, twistier tongue that could feel like a weapon, with barbs down the side he says were inspired by the barbs on a cat’s tongue. 

The shoggoth is a scary beast. There is also something grotesquely phallic about it.

“It’s weird you say that because I’ve done a number of creatures and it’s often a comment about creatures that I make. It must be something subconscious that creeps into these creatures. I don’t know what it means. I’m not going to analyze it too much. But yeah, I have no good explanation for that,” says Walker. We’re not going to push.

Under the skin

The skin of the shoggoth was another element that took work. Walker says the plan was always to make the skin slightly translucent which meant building the skeleton, muscles and vein system beneath the skin so that you can see into it a bit if you shine a torch at it.

  Concept art of the shoggoth

“There’s some kind of red gnarly stuff all over his skin as well,” says Walker. “They’re supposed to be creatures that haven’t seen the sun or don’t like light. So the skin was always supposed to be a bit sickly. That scarring, also was an artistic way of creating variations. There’s a few of these, what we call white shoggoths, in the episode so we needed to have a few variations.”

The money shots

Walker says episode eight was the biggest challenge, in particular the sequence where the shoggoth goes on the rampage and bites Lancaster’s arm off.

“When a monster is interacting closely with a human being, you need to make sure it’s either moving that person or it’s physically affecting that actor, but also that it’s casting shadows correctly,” says Walker. Sequences like this are where the pre-vis comes into its own, he explains, “you’re filming all this action going on and there’s one significant thing missing, which is the shoggoth.”

Walker says they’d been working on this sequence for around five months, and that’s not including the pre-vis which they completed over a year ago. 

Read more

TV

Meet the Monsters of Lovecraft Country

By Rosie Fletcher

TV

Lovecraft Country Episode 10 Review: Full Circle

By Nicole Hill

The shoggoths get a final hoorah in episode ten, in several sequences where you see it close up, not on the rampage “It’s more chill, it’s in bodyguard mode, it’s just following around and you get to see it in a bit more detail in certain shots,” says Walker, while there’s another scene where two shoggoths have a scrap (“he’s going to bob, with his little paws and he’s going to wait up and he’s going to throw a right hook…” boxer Walker describes acting it out for the animator).  

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Walker says the show’s been a joy to work on, and he’s even enjoyed watching it back, though he doesn’t always like to look at his own work – surely an indication of the quality of his creation. The show has been a success and while there is by no means any guarantee any sort of second season will materialise, if it does, we’d fully expect to see more of Walker’s supernatural guard dogs – for the merchandising opportunities if nothing else. Because after all, who wouldn’t want a shoggoth of their very own?

The post Lovecraft Country: Bringing the Shoggoths to Life appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/31t2JbY

[saintjojis]

No Shows

ANONYMOUS Requested: 

Hii!!😊 can i request a yoongi smut where you two have been best friends for a long time and one time when he comes over for a sleepover things get heated? And also they are trying to be quiet bc of the parents? Thank you for taking your time for my shittt request lol💕

Genre: Smut, fluff

Word Count: 1,673

A/n: You gave me freedom so dom!Yoongi it is lol. I’m still not good at writing smut but i hope you like my lame smut anyway lmao

If you asked anyone where you can be found, chances are they’d say that you’re with Yoongi. To your credit, sometimes Yoongi is the one who could be found with you. You’d known each other since forever, you grew up on the same street after all. Ever since you could remember the Min’s had always been your neighbors, so it was no surprise that you’d click with their eldest son Yoongi. You went to the same school, had mutual friends, hung out together, shared food, slept in each other’s beds, and always had each other’s backs. You could say you’re best friends.

It was no surprise that Yoongi would want to spend the night at your place (again), there wasn’t really a plan for the night. Maybe you’d watch a movie or try to figure out the few secrets he hadn’t told you yet (if any really). The night was young and unwritten, anything goes.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” You said as Mr. Min “Uninvited” Yoongi made his entrance.

“Oh shut up, (y/n), you love me.” He retorted. Fair point.

“I put up with you, dude.” He acted fake hurt at your comment. You chuckled a little, and just sat up in your bed looking at him expecting the plan for the night,       he was looking right back with the same expecting gaze.

“So? Are we just gonna sit here in silence or…?” You asked, half surprised that he didn’t have anything planned.

“Well, your choice tonight, kid.” ‘Kid’ he was only older than you by a few months.

“Let’s watch a movie, and please don’t fall asleep again or else.”

“ ‘Or else’ what are you gonna do? Beat me to death with a pillow?” He said with a dumb grin on his face.

“Bitch I might.” And with that, he settled on the bean bag next to your bed as you chose what movie to watch. About an hour later you heard a soft snore. Did he actually fall asleep? You looked over at him, and sure enough. He was passed out. Unbelievable. You called out his name,

“Yoongi…”

“…”

“You better wake the fuck up before I wake you up.” No response was given, so it was the greenlight to mess with him. You quietly got up from your bed and looked for markers. Before the ink could even touch his face, his hand grabbed your wrist. Yoongi opened one eye.

“Try it and see what happens, kid.” He was kind of intimidating if you were honest, nevertheless, you didn’t give in to his little threat. You tried to free your wrist, but he held on tighter.  

“If I let go, you can put that away and we can get back to the movie and no one will get hurt, got it?” He asked calmly. You nodded, and he let go. Big mistake.

As soon as he let go, you made a dot on his face with the marker.

“You’re fucking dead, (y/n).” He said, as he tried to grab you. You moved and climbed back on your bed, you could fend him off with pillows until he gave up. He followed, but before you were safe, he pinned you down. You’d been in this situation before, but it never was because you’d made him mad, and to be honest it was kind of funny to see him angry.

“Do you think this is fucking funny?” He asked, his tone aggressive. Oddly attractive if you were honest. You just nodded as a smile crept across your face.

“I don’t think this is very funny, (y/n). Say sorry and I’ll let you off the hook this once.” As if you were actually going to apologize. Over your dead body.

“Make me.”

His face got closer to yours, you could see he really was mad. However, that didn’t matter as soon as his lips met yours. Just like his aura, the kiss was aggressive and heated. He bit at your lower lip, making you gasp. He used that to slide his tongue in your mouth. He sat back, breaking the kiss. His eyes, eyeing you with lust. You laid there, deciding whether to face him or not. You, too, sat up. He looked at you expectantly, and you didn’t quite understand it.

“Are you going to just sit there?” He asked, clearly irritated at your lack of response. He motioned for you to straddle his lap, and obediently you did. You could feel his bulge pressed firmly against your clothed core. The mere thought making you wet. You moved your hips a little unintentionally, causing Yoongi to hiss. One of his hands held your hips to keep you in place, the other found its way to your hair balling it in his fist. He kissed you again, harder this time. Now that he had better control of you, he pushed up against you and pulled lightly at your hair. You put your hands on his chest, and you could feel his rapid heartbeat. Nearly as fast as yours. He continued his thrusts up at you, his kiss never losing intensity.

Suddenly, he pulled away. An obscene string of saliva connected your mouths briefly, both of you out of breath. He looked at you waiting for approval to go further. You tugged at his t- shirt which he promptly took off and tossed somewhere in the room. You shirt followed, as soon as it came off, Yoongi noticed your lack of a bra.

“Naughty girl.” He purred into your ear, sending a tingle through your body. He dipped two fingers into hem of your shorts, “Take them off.” You did as you were told, and for the first time, you were completely naked in front of Yoongi. You heard a silent fuck leave his lips. You tried to cover yourself, but he wouldn’t allow it.

“I could stare at you forever.” He said, as he sat at the edge of your bed. “Come here, kitten, I want a closer look.” He extended his hand out to you, you took it and he pulled you in close. Kissing your collarbones, down your chest. He cupped one of your breasts while his mouth explored the other. He bit softly on your nipple, eliciting a moan from you. His hand covered your mouth and he brought you down to kneel in front of him.

“You have to be quiet, kitten. Your parents are home and we wouldn’t want to get caught now, would we?” You shook your head, it completely slipped your mind that your parents were right downstairs. Needless to say, you’d be dead if you got caught now. He let go of your mouth, and brought in for a short kiss. He stood in front of you making you scoot back a little. He took of his jeans and boxers, soon they too were thrown somewhere in your room. He sat back down on your bed and stroked himself a little while looking at you.

“Such a pretty girl, aren’t you, (y/n). Are you just going to watch, or are you going to be a good kitten and help daddy out?” His voice like velvet, it sent a shiver through your body. You moved forward until you were between his legs.

“No hands.” He said, as he gathered your hair into one of his hands. He guided your mouth to the tip of his dick, you gave him kitten licks at first. Then you ran your tongue from the base to the tip. He tightened his grip on your hair, he was growing impatient. You took him in your mouth, he pushed your head down slowly, until you gagged. However, he didn’t let go. You swallowed around him, and he let out a barely audible moan. He eased his grip a little, and let you breathe. You looked up at him, you could see the ever-growing lust in his eyes.

“What a good girl.” He praised, he guided your head back down and held you in place as he shallowly thrusted into your mouth making you choke a few times. His pace got faster and messier, you could tell by his breathing that he was close. He stopped and raised your head again,

“Can I cum in your mouth, princess?” He asked, his tone calm but his eyes screamed desperation. You nodded quickly and took him into your mouth once more. He wasted no time getting back to where he was, his thrusts were faster than before, however, they got slower and lower as he was getting close.

“(Y/n), I’m so close babe.” He moaned, louder than he was supposed to. You dug your nails into his thigh. He was being loud and that was dangerous. He hissed, and thrust into your mouth, hard, making you dry heave. He balled your hair, and pulled on it making you moan around him. It was just enough to send him over the edge. He released his seed into your mouth, the taste wasn’t exactly the best. He rode out his high, until he collapsed backwards on your bed. His breathing was ragged and heavy. You watched him, oddly satisfied. As soon as he caught his breath, he sat up and looked at you. His essence was dripping from your mouth onto your chest. He reached for his phone on the side table.

“I could see you like this forever. You’re truly beautiful, (y/n). You know that?” He said, his tone sweeter than you’d ever heard it, as he took a picture of you.

“Erase that immediately, Yoongi.” You said, suddenly bold.

“Oh? Are you making the rules around here, kitten?” He really was good at the intimidation game.

“It’d be such a shame if the boys saw this don’t you think? I bet Jungkook would drool every time he saw you. Maybe they’d want a turn too. What do you think?”

You said nothing, he would do it and you knew it.

“You’ve been a good kitten, maybe next time daddy will reward you.”