#like. Daniel’s Japanese needs some work from what I can tell but again I don’t even speak the language just know about its phonology

[nineratsinatrenchcoat]

Gonna drop the most nitpicky linguistic criticism of JWCT known to man in a few days. In unrelated matters anyone on JWCC/T tumblr a native Japanese speaker

[bethanythebogwitch]

Digimon fanfic chapter 1 draft

Hi, I'm posting the draft of chapter 1 of a Digimon fanfic I'm working on for proofreading and if anyone is interested in reading it. It's set in the Adventure canon between 02 and Tri, but follows original characters. Using dub terminology except where I think the dub is dumb. Chapter 2's draft in in the works.

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“Your brother is in the Digital World”

Daniel stared at the mysterious message that had just popped up on the family computer, then shouted.

“I knew it!”

“Hmm, knew what, danny?” asked Blue, Daniel’s partner Dracomon as he looked up. The red-eyed, small blue-green dragon with little red wings and antlers had been gnawing on a dog bone on his favorite spot on the family room’s recliner. 

“I just got a message from the Digital World saying that Andrew is there,” replied Daniel, “and don’t call me Danny”. 

It made sense, of course. This would be the second time Andrew disappeared into the Digital World. The first time was in 2000, not long after he watched the battle between the Japanese DigiDestined and Diaboromon on the internet. After a full two months, he returned home to a terrified brother and father with tales of a world full of digital monsters. To prove it, he brought back a partner Digimon, a Dracomon. Andrew never said much about what he went through on his adventure in the Digital World, but his Dracomon was accepted into the family. Two years later in December 2002, Daniel witnessed Andrew sending the light of his Digivice to help a new team of Japanese DigiDestined defeat the terrifying MaloMyotismon. Not long after, a digi-egg and Digivice emerged from the family computer, granting Daniel his own partner Dracomon (nicknamed Blue to tell him apart from Andrew’s) and marking him as a DigiDestined.

“Wha’s the rest of it say?” asked Blue, his interest suddenly diverted from his beloved bone.

Andrew turned back to the computer and read the message out loud.

“Your brother is in the Digital World. We want to help him and we want your help. We don’t have much time. If you want to help, touch your Digivice to the computer screen over this message. You have an hour to decide or we’ll have to go without you”. 

“What do you want to do, Danny?” asked Blue

“Of course we’re going to help, he’d do it for us. Plus, we can finally go on our own adventure just like he did”.

Blue looked excited. “Yeah, adventure!” Then his face fell and he looked down at the dog bone. “But what if there aren’t any bones there?”

“Fine, go get as many as you want, I’m going to write dad a note”.

As Blue ran to grab a bag to collect his precious bones, Daniel went to write his dad a note. He paused before beginning, unsure of what to say, but decided it was best to keep it simple and direct. 

“Dad, Andrew is in the Digital World again. He needs my help, so me and Blue are going to go bring him home. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine and back again before you know it. See you soon. ~ Daniel”

“I’m ready, Danny,” Blue cheerfully stated, carrying a plastic shopping bag full of at least 4 dog bones still in their packaging.

“I told you, it’s Daniel. I’m not nine anymore,” retorted the annoyed boy as he walked back into the family room. 

It was time. Daniel took a deep breath and took Blue’s hand.

“Let’s do this,” and with that, he held out his Digivice to the computer and the world dissolved in a swirl of colors. 

--------

“Keiko, something’s happening!”

At the sound of her partner’s voice, Keiko Kurosawa looked up from reading her book. The young Japanese girl’s short, black hair, broad-rimmed glasses and outfit (consisting of her school’s blue and white seifuku underneath a black sweatshirt emblazoned with a cartoonish skull) marked her as the quiet type with some unusual interests. What she saw was one of the many television monitors scattered around the Digital World beginning to glow bright enough that she was forced to turn away and shield her eyes. When the light faded, there stood two new figures. One was a human boy a year or two older than her wearing a red tee shirt emblazoned with a yellow star, a pair of khaki shorts, and an expression of wonder. His brown hair was unkempt, causing it to look spikey and showing that he wasn’t the type to care much about how he looked. Next to him was a small blue-green dragon Digimon.

Daniel looked around in amazement. They had arrived in a clearing in a forest, scattered through which were multiple shipping containers buried part way in the ground with no apparent logic or order. Two humans were present, one was a girl in glasses, who was crouching on the ground reading a book. Next to her was a Digimon that looked like a large, purple and white hamster with batlike wings in place of ears. The other human was a few years older than Daniel, around Andrew’s age. He had Asian features and dark, angry eyes underneath short black hair. His clothing (consisting of hiking boots, long pants, a jacket over his black shirt, and a backpack) was practical and clearly intended for someone who spent a lot of time outside. No Digimon stood next to him. 

Woah, Blue,” exclaimed Daniel, “We’re really in the Digital World aren’t we?”

“Beats me,” was the dragon’s reply. “I’ve never been there either”.

“You are in the Digital World,” said the girl. “You can call me Keiko”. Normally she wouldn’t let someone she just met use her given name like that, but when surrounded by Americans do as the Americans do, right?

“What’s up, I’m Daniel,” Said the American (a bit too loudly), as he grabbed Keiko’s hand, making her start a bit at the sudden gesture. “And this is Blue, my partner. Are you DigiDestined, too? That’s your partner? A Patamon, right?”

Keiko was taken aback by Daniel’s abruptness, but she was granted a second to think of a response as her partner angrily spoke up.

“You got dust between your ears? I’m no Patamon, I’m Tsukaimon!”

“Calm down, Tsukaimon,” admonished Keiko. “And yes, she’s my partner.”

Blue opened his mouth to give some response to Tsukaimon’s bluntness, but was interrupted by the third human, who had stepped up to the children and Digimon. 

“Now that you’re here, we need to get a move on,” he said bluntly.

“Who are you?” asked Daniel.

“Clark Yun,” responded the older boy. “I’m a friend of your brother’s and the one who decided to bring you in on this. Let me get something straight right away. I’m the most experienced one here and if you want to get through this safely, listen to me.”

“Uhh ok,” responded Daniel, bewildered by the older boy’s bluntness.

Clark nodded. “I’ll fill you in on more later. For now, we’re in a hurry and need to get moving. But first, there’s someone we need to talk to.” With that, he turned and walked toward the center of the clearing, where a small metal object was embedded in the ground.

“Is he always like this?” Daniel whispered to Keiko as the two followed.

She shrugged in response. “I just met him today and he’s barely said two words until now.”

“I reckon he could use a lesson in manners,” angrily muttered Tsukaimon. 

Clark reached down to the metal object and flipped a switch. Above it, a hologram flickered to life, displaying a young, brown-haired man in a robe.

Daniel gasped. “You’re Gennai, right? The DigiDestined chatroom has tons of stories about you!”

The man chuckled. “As happy as I am to meet a fan, no. My name’s Benjamin. You can think of me as Gennai’s colleague or brother. Or both. Clark here has helped me out with quite a few issues in the Digital World. Right now we have a problem I think you, Daniel, and you, Keiko, will be uniquely suited to solve.”

“My brother, right? Is he in danger?” Daniel asked.

Benjamin nodded. “I’m afraid so. You’ll need help to rescue him. Clark is going to guide you to the Subroutine Jungle, the home of lord Baihumon of the Harmonious Ones. He will give you aid. On your way-”

Whatever Benjamin was about to say was cut off as a combat knife shot out of nowhere, impaling the hologram projector and destroying it in a shower of sparks. 

‘GET DOWN!” yelled Clark. He shoved the shocked Daniel and Keiko behind the nearest shipping container. Their Digimon, being programmed for a dangerous life, had automatically started moving toward cover. 

“What’s going on?” asked Daniel as he picked himself up from the ground.

“It must be a wild Digimon,” said Keiko. “Maybe we intruded on its territory or scared it.”

“That’s no wild Digimon,” replied Clark in a deadly serious tone of voice. “I’ve seen those throwing knives before. It’s Sealsdramon. An assassin. It will wait as long as it needs to to get us. We need to fight and I don’t have a Digimon. It has to be one of you.”

Keiko and Tsukaimon shared a look. “We’ve been to the Digital World before, but not to fight,” said Keiko. “Tsukaimon hasn’t even Digivolved past her Rookie stage.”

“What about you?” asked Clark, turning his gaze to the least experienced member of the team.

Daniel swallowed. Blue had Digivolved, but never been in a real fight. All they knew was what Andrew had showed them 

“Don’t worry,” said Blue. “I’ve digivolved before. We can take care of this, right, Danny?”

Daniel nodded. Of course they could do it. Andrew could, and he showed them what to do.

“You bet we can, partner,” Daniel said, forcing down the shock and worry of the unexpected attack. He pulled his Digivice out of his pocket and held it out toward the little dragon. “Let’s do this”

Dracomon Digivolve to… Coredramon!

In place of the little dragon stood a much larger one. Seven feet tall, with dark blue scales and a pair of wings, the Coredramon’s razor-sharp claws and powerful fangs showed this was a creature programmed for combat. Blue’s wings raised, then beat down, propelling him above the shipping container in one powerful motion. 

“Blue Flare Breath!” A stream of blue fire shot from the dragon’s mouth in the direction the knife had been thrown from. The flame shot toward the trees, splintering them with the sheer power of the blast. Something moved between the fallen trees.

“Left!” yelled Clark. 

Blue, still airborne, whirled left just as another knife shot from the forest, clipping him in the shoulder. Blue roared in pain and let loose another Blue Flare Breath toward the new origin of the knife. More trees splintered and ignited, creating a haze of smoke that began rapidly filling the forest. As Blue squinted, trying to see through the smoke, a figure shot out of it behind him. This Digimon, Sealsdramon, stood shorter than Blue, no taller than an adult man. It had the appearance of a bipedal dinosaur, but its entire body was covered by or composed of metal, making it look more mechanical than biological. One eye was a large blue lens while the other was smaller and red. Two scabbards emerged from its shoulder, a knife held in each one. A third knife was clutched in one mechanical hand. 

Daniel barely had time to yell a warning before the Sealdramon leapt forward. “Death Behind” it declared in a monotone voice as it drove the dagger into Blue’s back. 

Blue roared in pain as the Sealsdramon leapt off of him, leaving the blade in his back. It quickly drew a replacement from one of the twin scabbards, which quickly grew another knife. Blue whirled around and dropped to the ground. The two Digimon glared at each other before charging. Blue lashed out with his powerful claws, aiming a blow at Sealsdramon’s neck, but the assassin dropped down, sliding along the ground and delivering a slash to the dragon’s ankle. 

“Coredramon!” shouted Clark. “Sealsdramon can’t fly!”

Blue’s eyes widened. He once again turned to face Sealsdramon, this time with a notable limp. He roared in challenge and began another charge. Sealsdramon accepted the challenge and once again rused at the blue dragon. Bue once again reached out a claw at Sealsdramon’s head and the other Digimon once again dropped into a slide. This time, however, Blue’s strike had been a decoy. His powerful tail whipped around and wrapped itself around Sealsdramon’s arm. With mighty wingbeats, Blue the Coredramon lifted off into the sky, carrying the captured Sealsdramon with him. 

Sealsdramon slashed at Blue’s tail, attempting to free itself. It needn’t have bothered though, as the coils of the Coredramon’s tail loosened and the larger Digimon dropped it. Too late, Sealsdramon realized its mistake. It has no ability to maneuver in the air, a prisoner of its own momentum. Here, the Coredramon possessed all the advantages. Sealsdramon threw its knife at the target, but Blue the Coredramon was too fast up here. Before the assassin could draw a new knife, Blue had flown directly above it. 

“Blue Flare Breath!” Another jet of blue flame burst forth from Blue’s jaws, aimed directly downward at Sealsdramon. The enemy Digimon, unable to dodge, could only cross its arms in front of it to try to deflect the flame, but this was in vain. The Blue Flare Breath impacted Sealsdramon, slamming it to the ground in a pillar of blue fire. Sealsdramon twitched a few times, then fell still. In less than a second, it died, dissolving into the raw data from which all Digimon are born. 

Blue was barely able to reach the ground before he de-Digivolved back into Dracomon and fell on the ground in a heap. Daniel ran over to his partner.

“Blue! Are you ok?

Blue opened an eye to see Daniel holding him. “Hey, Danny. I did it.” he said weakly

“Yeah, buddy. Yeah you did,” responded Blue’s human, with a worried voice.

Clark, Keiko, and Tsukaimon hurried over to the pair. “We have to go, it’s not safe here,” said Clark. “You did a great job, but you’ll need to rest on the go. They know we’re here now.”

“Who is? What’s going on?” Demanded Tsukaimon as Daniel scooped his partner into his arms. 

“I’ll fill you in on the way,” was the response. “We need to go before they find us again.”

With that, the older boy turned and walked into the forest. After exchanging a look, Daniel, Keiko, and Tsukaimon followed him into the unknown. 

[serendipityjxmn]

Chapter 13

TW: None

Words Count: 1.7k

Link to Masterlist

Link to Chapter 14

“Jimin?” You softly call. He looks up from his toast in front of him. “Um.. I saw someone unfamiliar with your security.. apart from Jinhyeok and Daniel.. is he new?”

“Ah. I forgot to tell you. His name is Taeseok. He’ll be your bodyguard from now on.” He casually says and went back to eating his toast.

“What?” You say a tad too loudly, startling him. “Why?”

He looks at you again. “What do you mean why- to protect you of course, you idiot.”

He calls you an idiot. Yet you have no idea why your heart flutters at that. Maybe you really are an idiot.

“I can’t be around you all the time and now that the public knows you, you’d need security.”

You swallow. It’s the cons of being a public figure, you guess. Or being married to one.

It’s a busy day at the office that day. You don’t see Jimin a lot. He even tells you to go home first since he had few things to be done. You figured to wait for him but then decided against it since you have something else to do.

Back at home, you’ve been rummaging and scrounging through the kitchen just so you can do what you can with the plan in your mind ever since you find out about Jimin’s birthday. It’s basically still two weeks away but early planning never hurts, you guess.

And that’s how you find yourself teteering dangerously on the edge of a stool because god forbids that the cabinets in the house is freaking high for you. And you curse whoever stacks the antique porcelain cup set so high but thinking it might be Mrs. Lee, you grit your teeth trying to reach it.

“Goddamn it, I just can’t reach it-“ you grumble.

As if on cue, Jimin’s voice broke through the kitchen, startling you and making your hand hit cabinet door before you feet starts to lose balance.

“Fuck Y/N-“ is the last thing you hear before you find yourself succumbing to the gravity and falling in less than elegant way to the ground.

Except the ground doesn’t feel so rough.

A grunt from beneath you makes your eyes shoot open and you’re met with the sight of your husband, his face merely inches from you. His brows creased and his expression pained. It takes you a few moments to realize you fell on top of him.

“Oh my god- are you okay?” You move your body but Jimin ends up grunting again and you panic even more.

“Y/N,” he calls you. You freeze but continue to stare at him in alarm. That’s when you realize that your hips literally met against him, making your private area right against his crotch. You gasp and wastes no time getting up, muttering tonnes of apologies at once.

He gets up as well. “I.. didn’t mean to startle you.”

You shake your head. “No.. I’m- I’m sorry I didn’t hear you come. Do you need anything?”

You look up and sees Jimin has his right hand on the back of his head, like he’s shy. He clears his throat.

“I.. got something for you.” As soon as the words come out of his mouth, you could’ve sworn his cheeks are flushing.

You look down at the gift perfectly wrapped in front of you. Slowly, like in a trance you take it from him.

“It’s uh.. I got it from a friend. Long time ago. And I don’t use it.. so.. if you wanna use it.. if you don’t it’s fine-“ Jimin is rambling at this point while you unwrap the gift.

It’s an art set. A freaking expensive one at that. Complete with the canvas, brushes and all kinds of coloring.

You look up and realize Jimin has left you so you start towards him, half running until you see his familiar back in the hallway.

“Jimin-“ you call him and he turns. Not thinking for a second, you hug him tightly. “Thank you.” You say as soon as you let go of him, holding his hand tight. “I love it.” You say in all honesty because you really do mean it.

You wish you could treasure your husband’s look of surprise mixed with some embarassment forever. He looks too adorable for your heart.

“Yeah, um-“ is all he says before he turns his back again and walks away.

You feel your heart pounds so fast as you watch his retreating figure.

No, don’t fall for him. He’s dangerous.

You hug the gift set tight on your chest.

But who are you kidding.

You. Like. Him.

Fuck.

And that’s the main reason that you wake the next morning feeling different. You’ve woken up beside a sleeping Jimin, your own freaking husband for weeks now and yet there he is, still sleeping soundly but your heart is behaving erratically.

Even when you’re having breakfast with him, you feel nervous that you can’t quite look at him in the eye. Like you’re staring at your crush. God, damn it you feel like a highschooler again. A hormonal highschooler.

You’re not yourself at work either. You know your husband has always been good looking but he looks extra handsome today, you think. Or is it just your biased mind talking?

If good looks are illegal, you’d probably be the first to sue him.

“Y/N?” Jimin calls you, pulling you out from your trance of thoughts. Your cheeks flush, feels like you’ve been caught in your embarassing thoughts.

“Y-yes?” You ask as you stand beside his desk in his office.

“You’re so out of it today. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing.” You quickly say and excuse yourself before you can further embarass yourself.

At home that night, taking a huge deep breath and trying hard to calm your trembling hands holding a a cup of coffee and a package, you knock on Jimin’s study room door. You enter after his answer.

He seems busy on his computer, barely looking up to register who’s coming in. You approach silently, almost tiptoeing though you have no idea why.

You put the cup of coffee on the edge of his table together with a wrapped package beside it.

“Jimin..” you call him cautiously. When he doesn’t look up, you continue. “I.. have something for you.”

That seems to pique his interest as he looks up from his work. He looks at you then at the gift you place on his desk.

“I.. made it myself but- um I don’t know if you’ll like it..”

He reaches the package and his fingers move to unwrap it so you quickly turn on your heels, exiting the study room with a pounding heart. His reaction to opening your gift isn’t something that you think your heart can handle.

You had made him a custom name plaque for him to put it in his office. If he ever finds it to his liking. Which you secretly hope he does. You’d made it before with little source you have but you’ve been contemplating too much whether to give it to him because things hadn’t been smooth with him all the time.

But recently you feel like you’ve gotten much progress in your relationship with your husband. So you figured you would just man up and give it to him. Though you promise yourself to make something else for him using the art set he gave you.

“Y/N!” You hear it before you turn to see Mina running breathlessly towards you.

“Mina what’s wrong-“

“This- take this-“ she says still out of breath. “For meeting with the Japanese after this, you’re sitting in the meeting right?”

“No I’m not-“ you begin but gets cut off instantly.

“What? Really? Oh God- please if you don’t know what the meeting’s about Mr. Park wouldn’t allow you in though. Y/N please can you help me out this once? My stomach is really really killing me now.” She continues to beg, clutching her stomach harshly.

You just couldn’t say no.

Even though you know you know how your husband could be in the meeting room. Especially when someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.

And that’s exactly what you’re doing right now.

And it doesn’t take long for Jimin to excuse you and himself outside the conference room and you know you’re absolutely doomed.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He hisses outside the door, where everyone in the office could hear him shouting at you, his wife and you flinch. “The Japanese are waiting in the fucking conference room!” He barks.

You don’t know how to answer him. Do you tell him that Mina’s supposed to be sitting in? But that would put her on the spot so you decided to shut your mouth. Though you wish he would tell you off somewhere private instead.

“I didn’t pay your salary for you to fuck around-“ he snarls and the atmosphere gets even more tense.

It isn’t your fault.. You’re not the one who does it, not even the one’s supposed to sit in the meeting..

Feeling thoroughly unfairly accused, you feel your eyes start to water.

Your husband, ever the cold person doesn’t seem to take pity with your cry.

“If this is what you wanna do here, then you should’ve just sit the fuck home.” He hisses and you’ve never feel so hurt by his words. He just made this a whole lot personal by mentioning home. Jimin doesn’t waste another second and immediately turns on his heel.

Turn around and say you’re sorry.

But of course, Jimin doesn’t do that.

Someone approaches you as soon as Jimin’s gone, you’re not sure who with your unclear vision to ask if you’re okay. You hastily nod then gives a small smile before retreating to your desk.

This is a very cowardly act, you think.

But you just can’t hold it in anymore. Perhaps you’re better off not knowing what your husband does at work. Clara Kim, his cold attitude towards you.. it’s too much..

With a heavy sigh, you pull out a drawer on your right. Your hand reach for the letter you wrote few nights ago.

You resigned as your husband’s secretary.

A/N: surprise chapter drop! Hehe. I hope you guys are ready, the rollercoaster ride of emotions is just about to start 😎 brace yourself!

Link to Chapter 14

Posted on 210427 9:00PM

[sisterspooky1013]

Damsels, Chapter Four: First Day

By SisterSpooky1013 / Read Previous chapters here

Rated E / Tagging @today-in-fic

Angel leads Scully out of Ricky’s office and back down the hall, pointing to various doors.

“Here are the customer bathrooms, we don’t use these. That’s the exit to the lobby, but we have our own door in the back. Through here is the floor.”

Angel makes no mention of the other, unmarked doors in the hall. She pushes the “Enter Here to be Dominated” door open and they walk into a large room with the floors and ceiling painted black. To the left, there's a long bar that covers nearly the entire wall with at least twenty stools butting up to it. Directly across from the bar on the right wall, there’s a small round stage with a gold pole erected in the center. A shallow counter, just wide enough to set a cup, runs along the entire perimeter of the stage with chairs neatly pushed in against it. A mental image of herself on the stage while men look on flashes in her mind and she shakes her head gently, forcing it away. Along the back wall are several small partitions; little rooms constructed out of dark red curtains that are currently pinned open to reveal a loveseat and table in each one. The rest of the room is filled with small black tables and chairs, and can probably seat upwards of 100 people. Angel leads Scully to the left, approaching the bar.

“Back here is the bar, obviously, and this is Queenie, our lead bartender. Queenie, this is Diane, Ricky just hired her,” Angel continues.

A tall Asian woman stands from behind the counter holding a case of Jack Daniels. She has wide, round eyes and a diamond-cut chin, her full lips painted dark red and her black hair tied into a high bun.

“Hey,” she replies, “is Diane your stage name? You’re getting soft, Angel,” she teases, casting Angel a flirtatious smile.

“Oh, no, we actually haven’t gotten that far yet,” Angel replies before turning to Scully, resting one elbow on the bar top. “So while you’re waitressing, you’ll talk to Queenie a lot. She can make any drink under the sun. Tip her out twenty percent of whatever you make.”

Scully nods and wishes she had something to write all this down. Between the new terminology and rules, she's already getting confused and is bound to make a mistake. Angel leads her to the other side of the room and climbs gingerly up onto the stage.

“This is the stage, duh, and this is the pole. We call him Paul, the pin to make it spin or stationary is down here,” she leans and points to a small pin at the base of the pole.

“Oh!” Scully exclaims, “I guess never realized the pole spins.”

“Common misconception,” Angel goes on, wrapping her knee and elbow around the pole and spinning a couple slow rotations as she speaks. “But that’s why you don’t want to put oil or anything slippery on your legs or arms. You need to be able to get a good grip, especially while the pole is spinning. We’ll talk more about that later, come up here.”

Scully baulks and looks around, but climbs onto a chair, then the drink rail before finally getting to the stage itself. The room looks even bigger from up here.

“So, just from a Bird's Eye view up here,” Angel continues, “those seats against the wall back there at the end of the bar we call the rock section. Dudes just grab a seat and order a soda and then nurse it all night. Never pay for dances, never come to the tip rail, nothin’. Just sit there like a damn rock. It can be a fun challenge when you’re waitressing to try to get them to buy more drinks, if you’re into that kind of thing.”

“Tip rail?” Scully asks, sensing that this will be something she has to do a lot.

“Right, these seats right here,” Angel points to the seats that are lined up along the perimeter of the stage, “are the tip rail. You have to sit here or be close to it in order to tip stage dances, hence the name. Something else you’ll hear is doing a mini-lap, which is just when you let a guy at the tip rail motorboat you or put his face in your ass or whatever. Usually you’d do that when they give you a really fat tip.”

“I thought Ricky said the men aren’t allowed to touch you?” Scully clarifies, subconsciously rounding her shoulders and crossing her arms protectively.

“Ah, important distinction. WE can touch THEM, but they can’t touch us. So like, I can rub my tits on a guy's face, but if he grabs them, he’s toast. There are some limits to that I’ll tell you about later, but you can’t give a good lap dance without touching so we definitely touch, it’s just always us who does it, not them.”

Scully is impressed by the degree to which Ricky seems to embrace the “women in control” model, but she’s curious to see whether it’s all talk.

“So that middle part with lots of small tables,” Angel is now pointing to the middle of the room, in front of the rock section, “that’s usually where the whales sit, like Mr. Keane. They’re too classy to sit at the rail but you can still see pretty good from there. And lastly, over there,” she now points to her right to the small curtained rooms, “those are the VIP rooms. We’ll talk more about those later too when we talk about the rules, but they’re basically where customers can take a girl for a private dance.”

Scully feels a pit in her stomach. No matter what rules they have in place, there is no way she can be safe behind a curtain with a man who is paying to access her body. Her distress is interrupted by music suddenly pouring from the speakers at an obscene volume, making them both jump. It cuts off as quickly as it started, and Angel turns to look at a small raised booth behind and to the right of the stage.

“What the fuck, Ben?!” she shouts, raising her arms in an angry gesture.

“Sorry, Angel, my bad!” A thin Asian man with a narrow face and a goatee waves down to them apologetically.

“That’s Ben, the DJ. He’s not usually so obnoxious,” Angel says to Scully, then turns and shouts up to Ben. “This is the new girl, Diane!”

“What the fuck kind of stage name is Diane?” He calls back down. “Also, hi, I’m Ben,” he adds, waving again. Scully smiles warmly and waves back.

“We haven’t picked her name yet!” Angel shouts back. “We really need to pick your name, girl, this is getting old fast,” she says to Scully.

“Um, this may be a strange question,” Scully starts, “but, is everyone who works here Asian?”

Angel looks off into space for a moment, lost in thought. “No, but everyone here right now is, huh?! That’s a weird coincidence. Anyway, Asian is a big group. Denny out front is Samoan, which is actually Pacific Islander. Queenie is Vietnamese, and Ben is Japanese. And Ricky is white as fuck,” she bursts into a fit of giggles at her own joke.

“And what about you?” Scully asks her.

Angel turns and starts to walk away from her, casting a coy glance over her shoulder. “I’m whoever you want me to be, Baby,” she says with a flirty lilt in her voice, before adding “come on, I’ll show you the back.”

“The back,” accessible by a door just behind the stage, is a long hallway with restrooms, a staff locker room, a break room with a kitchen, and a dressing room for the dancers.

“So, I’m gonna show you the dancer’s room now, just so you have an idea what you’re working towards, but just FYI that they really don’t let the waitresses come back here. After this I’d keep your ass out if you don’t want to get torn a new one,” Angel advises her.

The dancer’s room is modest in size with mirrored stations set up along two walls and a small bank of four more in the middle of the room. Each station is slightly different, but most have a makeup kit, hair products, and a box that locks with a code to store cash tips. Three of the stations sit empty. Along the back wall are four doors, and along the left wall is a double-height clothes rack full of straps, sequins, lace, and mesh of all colors. While the floor had smelled like cleaner on top of stale beer and sweat, the dancer’s room is sweet and perfumed with hints of vanilla and cinnamon.

“What’s through those doors?” Scully asks casually.

“The second one on the left will take you outside, that’s the one we can use to come and go without having to go by the customers,” Angel answers. “There’s another one of those at the end of the hall out there you can use while you’re waitressing. The door on the far right is a single stall bathroom. The other ones are storage or something, I don’t know. They’re locked.”

Scully gives no reaction to this information but makes a mental note of it for later. After they look at the general staff locker room and the kitchen, Angel plops down at a table near the fridge and Scully follows suit, taking the seat across from her.

“So, before we go grab lunch, let’s figure out your stage name so we can introduce you to people properly,” Angel begins. “There’s kind of a tradition here that your stage name starts with the same first letter as your real name. I don’t know why, and people will say it’s not a ‘rule’ per se, but if you don’t do it it will probably seem weird.”

“What’s your real name, if that’s okay to ask?” Scully inquires nervously. Not having real names will make this whole investigation a lot harder.

“Oh no, it’s fine. They aren’t a secret or anything, we just don’t like the customers to know our real names. My name is Ann. So Ann/Angel, both A’s. Queenie’s real name is Quyen. You can ask any of the girls and they’ll tell you their real name if you want. Except maybe Lexie, she’s a stuck up bitch. So I’ll just tell you now, her real name is Leanne.”

Scully laughs good-naturedly, though she has the passing thought that a lot of people may describe her as a stuck up bitch too.

“So, something that starts with a D, what suits your fancy?” Angel asks. Seeing the worried look on Scully’s face, she makes some suggestions. “You could go with a classic, like Diamond. Something a little more stereotypical like Destiny. Oh, what about Desiree, that’s really pretty, and it suits you.”

Scully considers it for a moment. Who she’d really like to be is Dana, on her way home from this insanity. Given that isn’t an available option, Desiree isn’t so bad.

“Yeah, I think I like that,” she says with a shy smile.

“Great, can I call you Desi?” Angel asks excitedly.

“Sure,” Scully responds, and then follows a very spirited Angel out into the afternoon sunlight in search of something to eat.

They end up at a little Mexican restaurant a short walk from the club. It’s the kind of hole in the wall place that only locals know exists, with tacky pink paint on the booths and dusty Cinco De Mayo flags criss-crossing the ceiling.

“So, Angel, how’d you end up working at Damsels?” Scully asks as she drags a tortilla chip through the watery salsa. She’s highly motivated to solve this case and get the hell out of here, so there’s no sense in wasting time.

“Oh, I just met Ricky through mutual friends and he told me about his club. I was a dancer at a total shithole before, so coming here was such a huge relief.” She stabs at the ice in her drink with a straw, breaking it up into smaller pieces.

“Are you working towards something else, or is there something else you’re hoping to do?” Scully asks next.

“I might ask you the same, Desi,” Angel returns with a slight cock of her head, and Scully realizes that was a rude question.

“Sorry, I guess I still have a lot to learn about the social nuances of this job.”

Angel shakes her head dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just a question you get asked a lot as a dancer, as you’ll find out. Everyone thinks you’re just stopping here on the way to something better, something more legit. God forbid your life plan is to show your ass for cash, right? I mean, that is true for some of the girls; Tibet is getting her masters and Magenta has a day job as a therapist, but I honestly just like it.”

Scully is more careful with the wording on her next question. “What do you like about it?”

“Well,” Angel takes a bite of a chip and chews thoughtfully, “I grew up with really judgmental, uptight parents who basically made me feel like I was dirty and disgusting for existing, and for being female. I was always really ashamed of my body and when men looked at me, I thought I was doing something wrong to bring it on myself. After I moved out, my friend took me to a strip club and I was totally blown away by the confidence the women had with their bodies. Men were looking at them, but not like they were gross and sinful, just like they were…beautiful. And they looked so powerful up there commanding all that attention. And I just wanted to be up there like that, celebrating my body and deciding what happened with and to it. And here I am.”

Scully sits quietly, absorbing an answer that she wasn’t expecting to hear. She thinks about her own upbringing and the “good girls don’t” mentality that tainted her early sexual exploration. Even as a fully grown adult in consensual, committed relationships, she couldn’t shake the underlying guilt that she was worldly and sinful for desiring and having sex outside of marriage. It bleeds over into her relationship with Mulder, she knows. She can accept any physical attention he bestows upon her, and in fact wants it desperately, but for her to initiate it would mean…something. Something she isn’t ready to admit, even to herself.

Angel speaks again, interrupting her thought. “What about you, Desi, what brings you here? I showed you mine, you show me yours…or whatever.”

“Oh,” Scully says, scrambling to bring her cover story forward. “Um, I, uh, I got divorced recently, or I’m legally separated, anyway. I just got my own place after living with my husband for seven years and I haven’t really worked that whole time, I just supported his work. So, I don’t really have any marketable skills.”

Angel smiles. “Shoot, that ass is a marketable skill, girl! Those titties are hella marketable.”

Scully blushes, unused to anyone talking about her that way, and is surprised by how flattered she feels by such a crass compliment. Their server arrives and sets their plates down, and Angel’s demeanor shifts a bit as they dig into their meal.

“Okay, so down to the nitty gritty. Like I said, there are rules for us as dancers, and for waitresses too. Ricky mentioned his feelings about heroin and meth, right?”

“Yep, that will not be an issue,” Scully says confidently, spearing a bell pepper with her fork.

“Good, so also don’t get, like, super drunk or super high while on shift. A little to take the edge off is okay, but a drunk stripper is just pathetic. Like I said, the men can’t touch us, but it’s okay for us to touch them, EXCEPT we do NOT do extras at Damsels. No hand jobs, no blow jobs, and definitely no fucking, not even in VIP. Not in their car outside, not behind the dumpster, it’s a very hard and fast rule, no pun intended. Ricky will fire even his best girl in a heartbeat if he finds out she’s doing extras. Oh, and no kissing.”

Continue Reading on AO3

[escapewriter]

pairing : jaehyun x reader x taeyong

synopsis : He knew that falling for his new neighbor was risky, but it was something that he had no control over. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t contain the shade of red his ears turned into. And even though that was all in the past and you had forgotten him, his ears managed to give him away the next time he saw you.

genre : slight fluff, angst

warnings : none

wc : 3.2k (3216)

a/n : hi everyone! this is my first nct oneshot! i am not sure if i will write for nct because time plays such a factor and i write for a few groups already. i cried a lot when i wrote this. neway, this oneshot is part of @jaeyoonurl collab!! be sure to check it out mar’s work and all the other writers who participated in the collab as well!! but neway, i hope you all enjoy this!

this is now playing collab

Jaehyun walked along the sidewalk, kicking the tiny pebble in front of him. His eyes never left the ground as he didn’t want to lose the small stone. His earphones were connected to his phone as he listened to his new favorite song, ‘Japanese Denim’ by Daniel Caesar. He softly hummed to the tune, listening to the somber lyrics of a love that should have lasted a lifetime, much like how denim lasts forever.

He was on his way to get some lunch with an old high school friend. It has been a few years since he last saw him, as he had lost contact with many of his high school mates, so it felt nice to plan to meet up with him. Jaehyun was curious about what his old best friend had been up to.

The small cafe they planned to meet at was quite far from his apartment, so he left his house early because he wanted to walk and enjoy the fall breeze. He inhaled slowly, taking in the scent of dead leaves as he strolled through a large park.

The song had just ended, but he had clicked the icon to have it repeat over and over again. It was perfect for the weather and the occasion of meeting with his friend because of how it brought the feeling of nostalgia and memories that he wished he could forget. But he can’t help but be reminded of what he went through all those years ago.

I don’t stand in line, I don’t pay for clubs, fuck that

But I wait for you.

I don’t like to drink, I don’t like to think, fuck that

But I ponder you

~ It was the summer before junior year. Jaehyun watched the new neighbors from across the street unload boxes from the large truck. His eyes wavered, debating if he should go out and help, but the decision was made for him when his mom came into his room and said to go out and introduce himself.

He made his way out the door and across the street. He said hello to the two adults and introduced himself politely. “Do you guys need help with carrying the boxes?”

“It might be too heavy, dear.” The woman shot him a worried look before turning to glance at her husband.

“It’s okay, I won’t give him anything heavy.” He watched as the older male hopped into the truck, retrieving a typically small box, and handed it to Jaehyun who was waiting on the floor. “You got it?” He nodded and followed the woman to the house before stopping in his tracks.

Jaehyun’s mouth fell agape, his eyes never leaving you as you emerged from the door and into his line of sight. “Oh! Jaehyun, this is our child.” She put her hand behind your back, bending over a bit to whisper in your ear. “Go and introduce yourself to the nice young man sweetie.”

You smiled shyly before saying hi and telling him your name, “It’s nice to meet you.”

He gulped, sending you a soft smile as he felt his ears turning into a bright red. “I’m Jaehyun.”

Your mom smiled at the interaction, happy that her child has a new companion in this foreign neighborhood. “You guys can talk later. Go help your father, and Jaehyun follow me. I’ll show you where you can put the boxes.”

//

Jaehyun sat on a chair on the porch in front of your house. He drank the water your mom had given him after helping your dad assemble the dining room table. He took a deep breath, sighing as he felt the warm summer air cool his sweaty face. His eyes traveled from the front yard of his house across the street, to you who was watering the grass and plants.

He said your name softly, thinking about how it rolled off his tongue. He smiled to himself, thinking that you two would become good friends.

He watched as you turned to look at him from across the yard, curiosity in your eyes as you smiled at him. His ears turned red. ~

Jaehyun turned the corner, the pebble he was kicking earlier long forgotten. He avoided stepping on the cracks of the sidewalk because he really believed his mom and her ‘superstition’ about breaking her back anytime he stepped on one. He shouldn’t believe it now that he’s older, but that fear lingers in his brain.

He looked around the open space of the park seeing children play in piles of leaves and dogs running around as their owners threw a ball to play fetch with. It was a calm and beautiful sight — the sight of love and happiness.

I’m bending it over,

You’re my four-leaf clover,

I’m so in love, so in love

There’s no one up above,

Forever’s a long time, yes

~ Jaehyun looked up at the door after hearing a knock. He took a bite of his pancake as he saw his mom open the door. He thought it was the mailman, but when he heard your voice greet his mom, he choked on his food.

He watched as you entered the house, a smile on your face as he gulped down his glass of water. “Jaehyun, sweetie,” he looked at his mom, and from the corner of his eye, he saw you take a seat in front of him, “I heard from their mom that they’re attending your high school. You should walk to school together and maybe show them around.”

Jaehyun nodded his head slowly, his eyes not knowing where to focus. “You two should get going. You don’t want to be late on the first day of school!” She leaned down to Jaehyun’s level, “Don’t forget to skip the cracks on the sidewalk.”

Rolling his eyes, he took the last bite of his pancake before he stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder, kissing his mom on the cheek before heading out the door with you following behind. He stepped off the porch and began to take long strides to the direction of the school. “Hey! Wait up!” He turned his head and stopped for you to catch up. You ran up and stood next to him, a bright grin on your face, “I know we’ve met a few times, but we never really talked, you know?” Jaehyun didn’t know what to say because he was more afraid of what he would say. “Let’s start over,” you held out your hand, introducing yourself to him, “I hope we can become good friends.”

He shook your hand, nervously smiling as he shook it. “I’m Jaehyun. I hope we can be good friends too.” His ears turned red. ~

Jaehyun checked the time on his watch. He had a decent amount of time since he left early, so he decided to sit at the bench in the park.

The cool breeze ruffled his hair and made him shiver as he hugged his jacket closer and tighter around his body. Hearing the leaves on the trees rustle, he looked up as a cluster of orange, yellow, and brown leaves cascaded down with the flow of the wind. His eyes followed one leaf as it slowly fell to the floor, then began gliding along the pavement and soon onto the grass. Next to it was a little girl.

She spun around, arms wide open and head tilted back. She giggled as a few leaves fell on her face. She let out the loudest laugh as her father picked her up and spun her in the air, her mom close by, capturing the entire moment on her phone. It was such a beautiful sight, and it was also rare to find.

My blue jeans,

Will last me all my life, oh yes

So should we

I’m spending all this time

~ Winter has approached quickly and the school year is going by fast. Jaehyun had become your best friend. After he had shown you around school and introduced you to some teachers and classmates, he also took you to explore popular places that students usually go to after school. From that point on, the two of you were inseparable — that is until after winter break.

Jaehyun was currently in the kitchen making you a snack as you waited in the living room. Today was the last day of school for winter vacation which lasts two weeks. Jaehyun was especially excited because it had been snowing and both of your yards were perfect for snowball fights, making snowmen, and snow angels. He was excited to make this winter memorable with you.

What he didn’t know was that was the most he would get from you.

He entered the living room and handed you your snack, sitting down next to you on the couch and looked at the TV. “What are we watching?”

You took a bite of the sandwich he made, chewing a bit before speaking. “There’s Christmas movies playing. I haven’t been able to see one in so long.” Jaehyun nodded his head and also took a bite of his sandwich before subtly looking at the side of your face.

You were too into the movie to notice his staring.

His eyes moved from the top of your head, down to your piercing eyes, to your slightly smiling mouth. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. And he really wanted to because he felt that he had already been obvious enough with going the extra step of doing things like bringing you breakfast because he knows you don’t have time to make some yourself, or making sure that you remember to water the plants like your mother had asked because you tend to be very forgetful.

He shouldn’t even be thinking of you in this type of way. But when you turned your head to look at him to point out something from a movie, he couldn’t bring himself to look away as his ears turned red. ~

Jaehyun slowly got up from the bench and began to walk down the pavement to the direction of the cafe. He chooses to give himself some time though by stopping in an antique store to keep himself occupied.

He enters the cramped store, slowly strolling through the narrow aisles. He looks at the little knick knacks displayed, thinking of how cute they are. A certain picture frame caught his eye.

Inside the frame was a painting of a boy in the middle of the desert. He had nowhere to go and had no idea where to look — he was by himself, alone.

Jaehyun stared at the picture, thinking about how he ended up like the boy in the painting. It was such a simple piece of art and he doesn’t know why he connected to it so much. But he took it in his hands anyway.

Met you at the shop, sun was getting hot, I’m lonely

I’m in the city on my own

Never would’ve thought you’d be the one, I got a homie

But that’s the way it goes

~ It has been two weeks since Jaehyun returned to school from winter break. And in the span of those weeks, you had managed to get yourself a boyfriend; Taeyong. He didn’t know when his two best friends began to like each other, let alone get one anothers number, but he is the one to blame for his own heartbreak because he introduced you to Taeyong.

But you are happy. And that’s all that matters to Jaehyun.

He entered the school gates, head hung low as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to endure. He quickly walked to his classroom and sat in his assigned seat next to the window. He looked outside the window, seeing the flakes of snow fall to the ground before being taken away by your booming voice.

He looked at the door, watching you walk in, hand in hand with Taeyong. He smiled softly and forced his eyes to not look at your connected hands. You sat in the chair of the desk in front of him, Taeyong sitting at the desk right next to you.

You leaned your head on Jaehyun’s table, looking up at him with a pout on your lips. “I’m sorry that you have to walk by yourself to school. Taeyong picks me up now.” He watched as you shot your boyfriend a cheeky smile before turning your attention back to him. “It’s okay right? You didn’t wait for me?”

He shrugged, showing you a sign that it was okay. “Only a day, but once I found out about you two, I didn’t wait because I figured he takes you to school.”

“Oh! I’m glad! I’ve been so,” you looked at Taeyong, “distracted lately,” you returned back to Jaehyun, “that I haven’t gotten the chance to tell you.”

He shook his head indicating it was fine and that he didn’t mind. What a big lie.

Taeyong cleared his throat, “I can always give you a ride too, Jaehyun. It’s kind of cold, I mean, your cheeks and ears keep turning red.” Jaehyun smiled in embarrassment of his cheeks turning red because of the freezing weather.

“Thanks man, but I’m good. I like walking in the snow.” His ears are a completely different story. ~

Jaehyun stood at the register of the antique shop, the painting in his hand. He doesn’t know what brought himself to buy it, but he felt like he needed to. He felt too much of a connection to it to let it just continue to sit in this antique shop and collect dust.

He smiled at the cashier, paying for the item and putting it in the bag. He quickly made his way out of the store, taking in the autumn smell as the breeze blew against his face, turning his cheeks a light shade of pink.

It was half an hour before noon and he still had a long way to go. He turned up the volume on his phone, humming to the tune of the song.

I’m reaching Nirvana

Goodbye sweet Rwanda

High school was never for me

I say let it be, let it be

Forever’s a long time

~ [ Jaehyun felt warm as he slept in his bed. It might have been because spring had ended and summer was starting.

His eyes snapped open when he felt an arm wrap around his torso, hugging him closer to their body. He looks to his side, his eyes widening when he sees you there smiling at him. “Good morning, baby.”

He thought this must be a dream — it has to be a dream. You’re dating Taeyong, this can’t be real. “You okay Jaehyun?” He watched your hand come up and cup his face, your thumb running over his cheek. His heartbeat calmed down, eyes closing as he leaned into your touch.

“I’m here with you. Everything is oka—” ]

“Jaehyun~” His eyes shot open, for real this time as he looked at his surroundings and then next to him. You weren’t there.

“Jaehyun, sweetie,” He looked up at his mom who was putting a damp towel on his forehead, “don’t get up. I was trying to wake you up for school this morning, but you got a fever. Must be from walking in the cold so much. I’ll drive you to school from now on until winter is over. Just rest today, honey.” He couldn’t help but feel disappointed when he realized it was all a dream.

You weren’t there with him, you didn’t greet him good morning, you didn’t cup his face in your palm and soothingly stroke his cheek, you weren’t with him. You were with Taeyong.

He let his head relax into his pillow as his mom got up and left the room, closing the door softly. He looked over at the empty spot on his bed, wishing that you were actually there to take care of him.

No, he shouldn’t be thinking like this, especially since you’re dating one of his best friends. Friends don’t imagine themselves with their best friends' significant other. That’s just wrong in so many ways.

But he couldn’t help but think about how you would take care of him when he’s sick. Thank god no one saw his ears. ~

My blue jeans

Will last me all my life, oh yes

So should we

I’m spending all this time

Jaehyun reaches the cafe on time, spotting his old high school friend sitting at a table outside the shop. “Jaehyun! What’s up man? Been a while hasn’t it?”

Jaehyun laughed slightly, giving the other male a hug as he took out one side of his earphone, “It definitely has man, it definitely has.” He took a seat across the older, sighing as he put his bag with the painting on the chair next to him. “So, what have you been up to lately, Taeyong?”

He watched intently as Taeyong leaned back in his chair and sharply inhaled. “Well, I opened my dance studio.” Jaehyun’s eyebrows shot up as he mouth fell open in shock. “I hired a bunch of talented dancers and we give lessons to kids and even some trainees from different companies too. It’s a big accomplishment.”

He nodded his head, “Wow Taeyong, I’m sure it is. I’m so happy for you! You’ve had this dream for so long and you finally achieved it!” Taeyong laughed slightly as he looked around.

Jaehyun felt the breeze blow again, the autumn leaves flying past as the speed of the wind picked up, similar to the tempo of the song as it closes to an end.

“By the way Jaehyun, I forgot to mention,” He looked at Taeyong, his hand playing with the other on his lap, “it was disclosed, not many know about this, but I wanted to tell you.”

You don’t even know me

You don’t even know me

“I got married.” The bells of the cafe open as someone walks out with three drinks in a cup holder. They approached the table, giving Taeyong a kiss on the cheek before setting down the drinks.

“I hope you boys like hot chocolate! Long time no see Jaehyun!” Jaehyun looked up at you, his heart shattering as his eyes moved down to the ring on your left hand. “Oh! You told him babe?” You lifted your hand so Jaehyun could get a better look, “He proposed on our seventh year anniversary.”

Jaehyun looked at the ring, forcing out a smile, “I’m so happy for you both.”

The wind blew harder, the leaves and dust now flying in the air. Taeyong stood up, “Hey let’s all go inside, Jaehyun’s cheeks and ears are turning red again.”

The pair made their way into the cafe as Jaehyun grabbed his bag with the painting in it. He hugged it close to his body, feeling lost now that he knows his love will never be enough. He breathed heavily, trying to get the ringing in his ears to stop.

Upon entering the cafe, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing all his energy onto something else, something that will make him breathe and feel better.

I’m hanging from the tree

I’m hanging from the tree

His ears were no longer red.

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

a poem for small things

by Admin 1 & 2

The time has come, the first proper post for this segment we’ve settled on calling a poem for small things, a nod toward BWL and its Korean title. Like we said in our call for submission post, this is supposed to be something like a place full of positivity for vminnies (and perhaps the occasional namjinist) where you (and us) can share whatever we’d like in connection to vmin, both as vmin and as Jimin and Tae the individuals, and have something to raise our mood and also strengthen our vminnie confidence. We’ve gotten several wonderful submissions and quickly realized that for this first post the theme is mostly how I became a vminnie, even if three submissions talk more about vmin moments they enjoy instead.

I think it’s a really interesting theme, especially since everyone’s story is different, and everyone seems to find something else about vmin that captured their attention and hearts so sharing these memories and experiences is a great way to start off this segment. We’ve said it many times before, though I don’t think you can say it enough times, but this bond that Jimin and Tae share is truly special and so one of a kind, it’s wonderful to see how we all relate to and resonate with it in our own way and find something in it that makes us fall in love with their loves, regardless if we see it as platonic or romantic love. Love is love after all. 95z is love.

For the order of these submissions, we’ll simply go in the order in which we’ve received them. Most of them came from anons, which is more than okay. We’ve also opened the possibility of submitting posts for those who would like to submit wordier posts/asks, should we do another edition of this. It all depends on how much you’ll enjoy it and if you’ll come through with more submissions that could be gathered for future posts.

Anyway, enough talking from our side, let’s dive into these submissions below the cut, shall we? Like we said in the original post (and demonstrated in the preview post), we’ll add some of our commentary and observations along the way, too.

From anon: This is going to be long winded story but Vmin is like a Serendipity to me. I've heard of BTS mainly from my hubby when he complains that times sq is packed because of BTS (when they’re in town and doing their rounds of morning shows). I knew they were very popular but it was a great surprise that i discovered them after watching ILand during lockdown. Their songs were great and i started playing their classics like Fire, DNA Fake Love etc. Then they did an appearance in the show...

I love how you heard about BTS because of your husband and Time Square being packed, this is honestly the most original and unique version of how I’ve come across BTS I’ve read over the years. Amazing!

I was drawn to Taehyung's beauty during their appearance in Iland. And my first Vmin ? moment was when Tae commented about being handsome and attractive are 2 things and being attractive weighs more - along those lines... then JM made a comment that its unfair that he's both and Tae was like Im talking about you... I went like ok he thinks JM is attractive- theyre good friends.... then Jimin did the FakeLove choreo and the camera focused on Tae and he had this wide smile...The Iland Tae/Jimin clips made me do a double take but I dismissed it since it was just only a few seconds worth of screen time but still...

I-Land vmin was really something else in both episodes. 

Fun fact: I-Land was the first Korean survival show I’ve ever watched, mostly because it had something to do with BH and since it was streamed online with subs in real time. Unfortunately, my faves—Daniel and Taki—didn’t make it into ENHYPEN, though I’m happy that Taki will be in a future Japanese BH group.

But, going back to vmin, that moment with Jimin dancing FAKE LOVE and Tae looking at him with that boxy smile as though Jimin hung the stars in the sky? I melted, even if it was just one of those brief moments, yet still it’s so cute! And it was all over sns being shared by vminnies and non-vminnies alike. What a great time that was.

Then VMAs Dynamite perf happened- both Vmin looking good. I saw a lot of their promos especially the Jimmy Fallon interviews... and I noticed in hindsight how JF was so careful when referring to Jimin ... Since Tae was my first bias, I searched YT for Tae related content eventually saw in my YT feed Vmin moments. Theres a lot of Vmin content in YT or maybe the T*ek*ok ones didnt really register as extraordinary to me. But defo the Vmin moments were extraordinary to me,,,the BV4 sleeping together, kitchen role play & BV3 JM excited to see Tae and them holding hands and then Tae crying and then Tae's busking with Jimin cheering him on were all amazing to see. Up to this day this specific YT vid stood out to me first 

I actually went to check what video this is, and also looked at the comments where my favorite was this one: The staff member went straight to Jimin to tell him V was crying. That's all you need to know. They’re not wrong with that one, are they? That is pretty telling. BV3 vmin were a work of wonder, truly. Jimin watching Tae sing that Sam Smith song during the dinner in the sky looking all soft and endlessly fond?

Jimin encouraging Tae to busk and gently petting his hair was just such a pure moment and showed how much Jimin appreciates Tae and the talent he has, how in moments when Tae might brush aside wanting to do something, is a little hesitant and unsure, Jimin will stand up for him and give him strength/encouragement, which reminds me of Tae’s vlive in April 2020 and the fact that Jimin had told him that he wants to be his source of strength. Beautiful. And it shows that it wasn’t just pretty yet empty words, but something he truly meant. They both do.

Then i came across vid trans of Friends & cried first time hearing it especially when it got to the part "One day when the cheer dies down, stay hey.." It felt raw and honest to me. Then there's MOT:E concert and that part in Dynamite where they bumped their heads seemed bizaare to me - i was like were they fighting? because JM looked really fierce(or maybe emotional) then i saw the close up. i couldnt remember the exact moment I became a Vminie but it made quarantine easier...

This, I’ve noticed, seems to be a recurring theme among quarantine ARMY and vminnies, the fact that becoming ARMY and vminnies made it easier, and it fits with what we’ve been saying about BTS for years: they will find you when you’ll need them most. And in these trying and uncertain times, it’s certainly proven true once again.

Thank you of much for your submission and sharing your story with us, and I’m glad they could make quarantine a little easier for you.

From anon: I've been following BTS on and off since BST, but only really consider myself a true fan late 2019. I can't recall having a bias at first, but I was captivated by Jimin's everything when I binge-watched all their content. I must admit, my first OTP is T*e/k*ok, where I fell down the route of considering Jimin 'an interfering 3rd party' in their relationship, and it shamed me. Since then I've been cycling through Jimin ships, namely yo*n/m*n, j*n/m*n, m*ni/m*ni, and I even thought that j*/k*ok was real at some point. Strangely, Vmin never struck me as something extraordinary. I don't want to blame anyone, but Vmin caught my eye after I watched official BTS content without filter (presumed bias/judgement) all in their glory. I realized that while other ships may go up-and-down as in one day there's a frenzy and another day quiet af, Vmin has been and is still going constant. That's what makes me love Vmin, and for the first time in my fandom life, I have no qualms about whether they are real or not. Their bond, whatever it is, is already precious and something to be cherished forever. Thank you for providing us vminies a special corner to speak up about our experience 💜

You’re very welcome! I hope you’ll like how this turned out as well. Thank you for sharing your story with us and personally I find it fascinating how, despite Jimin being the one who captivated you most at first, you still fell into the “he’s an interference for my ship” trap that’s quite popular with that particular ship. I’m glad though that that never ruined your love for Jimin. It’s also really interesting for me how you went through different Jimin ships yet it took you the longest time to notice vmin. I feel like, because vmin and vminnies are more “low key” than the other bigger and louder ships, as well as Tae and Jimin simply being quieter in their interactions (not always but you get the point) as compared to, for example, Jimin’s interactions with Hobi, Jungkook, or even Namjoon, it takes people a while to really notice them.

This is my favorite part of what you wrote, and I think it’s a great way to describe vmin in general and what makes them different from other ships in the grand scheme of things: I realized that while other ships may go up-and-down as in one day there's a frenzy and another day quiet af, Vmin has been and is still going constant.

From vminot7: So i fell into BTS hole after watching blood sweat and tears mv casually on youtube. Jimin immediately stole my attention with his unique voice, graceful moves and handsome features even though i didn’t know their names at that time. I watched more MVs and jimin continued to hold my attention but i was also extremely drawn to taehyung's voice and facial expressions. So i started looking for more content such as RUN BTS and other compilations and realized my love for all 7 of them. I also noticed how jimin always had a soft spot for taehyung and was curious about their dynamics. I started looking at more of vmin content and i was really surprised to see how in the early days they were nowhere near as soft with each other as they are now. I think they have a unique bond and i have never come across anything quite similar. Now vmin are both my biases and my bias wrecker is hoseok.

I admire jimin for being a hardworking, passionate perfectionist but also a caring soul who is always ready to offer love and comfort to people in need. I love taehyung for how he looks at the world in his unique ways and how he has a childlike awe for things and how he is so passionate over the things he loves. The thing i love about vmin together is how they are so different yet work so hard on their relationship when it would be easier to just not try that hard.

Ah, another mention of the queen that is Blood, Sweat and Tears. The MV truly is such a masterpiece so I’m not surprised that it caught your attention, and especially Jimin since he was…something else in that MV, or like Tae said, his eyes were temptation (this boy, I swear). Since you mentioned how in the first years they were nowhere near as soft with each other as they are now, I think watching their dynamic and relationship change and evolve over time showcases the one thing I think a lot of people (as well as movies and TV shows) forget or gloss over, despite it being so incredibly important: in order to make a relationship of any kind work, especially in order for it to grow as deep and strong as the one between all members and especially vmin, you need to put in the emotional work to make that happen. You have to make an effort, have to learn to understand the other person and teach them to understand you as well, learn to appreciate and love their little quirks and how to accept others. And it’s so clear that that’s what vmin did, continue to do, and it more than paid off in the long run. I’m glad you highlighted that in general but also as something you love about them.

While the overall bond between the members is a class of its own, I think especially what vmin have achieved is a whole masterclass in relationships and fostering strong ones, in and of itself. There is a lot I think we can learn from them and I’m so happy that people recognize how special they are.

Thank you so much for your submission!

From anon: There’s this small moments in Dear Class of 2020 that i just adore! I’ve watched it at least 20 times this past month

It starts with “Spring Day”- tae and jimin laugh and look at each other and it’s just so sweet!

Also, maybe it’s my delusional mind but after tae’s and jin’s small and adorable moment- it seemed that jimin did the same with junkook right after maybe out of i duuno if jealousy but like “pay attention to me too” kinda way- dont know really and maybe it’s me being extra🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree partially, in that Jimin watched Tae’s and Seokjin’s adorable moment, obviously must’ve thought of it as cute just like we did, and thought he could do the same with JK. I don’t think it had anything to do with jealousy, especially if we work off of the idea that vmin are a thing, but also because it’s a performance and these things primarily serve the purpose of being cute and entertaining use, in other words, it’s fanservice (which isn’t the evil word some portray it as). Also, within that same performance, Tae and Jimin actually sang some of the lyrics toward each other, therefore they, too, had a cute moment they shared with big smiles and everything, just like you mentioned.

But we’ve gotten to see much more of Tae’s friendship with Seokjin in 2020, and especially the second half, so it was really sweet to see them interact during that song. Their friendship and dynamic is really a beautiful one, just like JKs bond with Seokjin, which I feel we’ve also gotten to see more of in recent months. Part of me (and that part can very well be wrong) feels that perhaps once the members caught on to Seokjin feeling the way he said he did/does, they decided to give him an extra dose of love and affection, off camera but also on where we can see it. That isn’t to say that they didn’t show him any of that before, but maybe they increased the intensity a little, a reminder that Seokjin truly is loved, that he deserves all of this, that it’s just his imposter syndrome (or at least what sounds like it) lying to him.

I’m still so touched and moved by the fact that he trusted us enough to share his feelings with us, to gift us Abyss and how it came to be, and that Bang PD was on his side and coaxed him into pouring his feelings into music, even if it would be “bad”, that the fear of it potentially being “bad” shouldn’t hold him back (and Namjoon helping in even if just a tiny bit with the lyrics). It was one of those times where I feel like we were all reminded that regardless of our opinions of BH and their doings, the members are surrounded by kind people who have their best interest in mind. After all what’s good for Bangtan is also good for the company, a win-win for everyone.

…wow, okay, I kind of went off on a tangent, I’m sorry…

Either way , then we have “Mikrokosmos” where we have a sweet moment at their part and towards the end where they switch mic and hear each other

I love this performance overall and especially “spring day”- jin’s and j-hope’s lovely voices and of course tae’s!! This song fits them so well and all the members of course

Well this is my rent , i love your blog and always wait for another post! Also i love the new idea and look forward to it!

Thank you so much for your submission and for bringing up their Dear Class 2020 performance. It was a truly magical one, and after reading this the first time, I did go and watch it again. To this day I’d still very much like to know how and when and why the mic switch between vmin happened, and I kind of hope that we might get a Bangtan B*mb or EPISODE about this eventually and it might shine some light on that question. Overall it was one of my favorite performances on 2020.

From Sky: While I enjoy cute, physical moments with VMIN, I really do value how emotionally attached they are to each other. For example (I don’t know if it fits as vmin moment but), I love how Jimin asked V to take the Promise cover photo, and how he ended up putting V’s name for credits on the cover. (Special Thanks to V, Best Photographer) This really shows a lot. Coz he can easily choose any Bighit photographer to take it. He could have chosen JK because we know how he takes good pics and vids too (and also apparently alot of people say that vmin had a falling out and that Jimin and JK were much more closer, lol). Or he could’ve asked Suga too bec he’s into cameras too. But he didn’t. He chose V, and chose to shout it out to the world how thankful he is for V’s help. RM co-wrote Promise, and maybe had offered more help in this project, but he didn’t put it in the cover. I’m not saying Jimin is ungrateful for not crediting RM in the cover. The difference is that he and RM had a vlive regarding the making of this song, a lot of people already know RM’s participation, he was officially credited as co-writer and Jimin really showed how thankful he is to RM. But no one knows of V’s participation (except for a snippet in that Run ep), so Jimin felt the need to tell it to everyone. I’m sure it’s not only the photos, I think he wanted to acknowledge how V helped him through the process, whether directly or indirectly. Also, remember this is Jimin’s first non-album solo single. By putting V’s name in it, he is sharing this very special song with his soulmate. How endearing it is! V also included Jimin in his first full English song. He used the two bears given by Jimin as Winter Bear’s cover photo and he included the photo Jimin took (sleeping V in the plane) in the MV. Like, seriously, they are trying to consciously imprint each other in their life’s milestones, openly or subtly. I’m crying. 😭

This was lovely, and yes, Jimin could’ve asked whoever to take those pictures, could’ve chosen any other ones, and yet he wanted Tae to be the one to take them, wanted those specific ones as covers. It’s very sweet and creates this subtle connection between Jimin, the song, and Tae. Sure, it isn’t the first time a picture Tae took is the cover for a SoundCloud song (the picture of JK on the 2U cover was also taken by Tae if I remember correctly), but it’s the fact that Promise is Jimin’s first non-BTS song, his first solo release, that makes it that much more special. Even more so when you think about how meaningful that song is to Jimin, and by having Tae as cover picture photographer, he’s in a way forever attached memory wise to that song as well, right?

The same also goes with Winter Bear and the two ceramic bears. Remember how excited Tae looked when I kinda spoiled that gift being a thing happening in an upcoming RUN episode during Jimin’s vlive during the summer 2019? Adorable. It’s also curious how though the title is singular—winter bear not winter bears—there’s two ceramic bears. One for Tae, one for Jimin? Maybe, or maybe I’m reading too much into it. Either way, it’s really cute, and it was a very thoughtful gift, even more when we think about just how much Jimin loves that song.

From anon: Love this idea it's super cute!! 1st thing that came to my mind is a rather simple moment, jimin bopping taehyung's nose and making a lil game out of it

Taehyung asking for more and that dazed smile 🥺 he had the same expression in that concert when jimin placed his face just above him, tae's smile afterward... it was so pure u could almost read "love" in his eyes lol

What a lovely note to end this post at, thank you for that. I don’t know what got into them during that photoshoot for Season’s Greetings 2020 but this was so disarmingly adorable. I remember when that moment appeared all over every sns and everyone just melted, myself included. Their smiles, the cute clothes, Tae’s head on Jimin’s chest, the softness and innocence of it, just all of it. It truly was so pure and like this sweet visualization of ‘love’.

And with that, we’ve reached the end. Did you like this? I had a great time reading your submissions and adding my little comments to them. If you’d like for us to continue this, same rules as last time, send in a submission marked with “VMC” and once we’ll have enough of them gathered, we’ll do this again, if you’re interested in more, that is. Send in whatever positive vmin you have, a thought, a moment, a memory, whatever you’d like.

Thank you once again to everyone who participated! :)

[five-rivers]

(1/3) I. Uh. Have an idea for a sequel to the pep talk short? Post-Kamino, Izuku is down on himself because he doesn't feel like a worthy successo to All Might. He's in some public space when a boy (Danny) asks him what's up and Izu (trying to keep ofa secret) says he's upset about how everyone talks about AM like he's dead. Danny (hiding everything about himself including seeing the vestiges) jumps on the topic, talking about everything awesome about him that didn't come from the quirk.

(2/3) (And yes, the vestiges add a lot, especially Nana) But he also manages to work in helping Izu (by talking generally about the emerging generation of young heroes) (Btw, Clockwork warned him about not mentioning his 'quirk' because he's a bad liar and Izu would poke holes in that story in 10 seconds) What Danny wasn't warned about is that Izuku was in that public space because he was waiting to meet up with Toshinori, who heard everything and recognized his friend from middle school.

(3/3) (maybe he confronts him or maybe he's just grateful for whatever kind of divine intervention this is)

Izuku’s hands trembled.  Which was.  A thing.  Had been a thing for a while, now, actually.  Since the sports festival.  

The fight against Muscular had made it worse.  

Not that he regretted saving Kouda or anything!  The opposite, really!  It was just...  He wished he had found some way to do it without shattering his arms.  Again.  

(Something dark within him whispered, go for his eyes.  The only muscles there are in the iris, and clearly they aren’t enough.  Take the prosthetic and slam it into-)

(No, he had said back, unwilling to go that far.  Unwilling to mutilate another human being to that extent, even a murderer.)

He winced internally, and rubbed his palm with his opposite hand.  He wondered if All Might, if Toshinori-san, ever thought like this about All for One.  

Probably.  

“-Kamino,” said someone passing behind the bench, taking quietly to the person they were walking with.  “It’s such a shame.”

“I know.  I just can’t believe he’s gone-”

This time, Izuku’s wince was external.  Ever since the Kamino Ward incident, he’d been overhearing conversations like that one.  More than once, he’d been on the receiving end of a conversation like that one.  Especially if he was out in public and in his UA uniform.  

Which he wasn’t right now.  He was in a low-key All Might brand hoodie.  For some reason, he’d been reluctant to wear the more... obvious ones anywhere Toshinori-san could see him.  That’d just be weird, right?

A pair of feet come into Izuku’s line of sight, and he looks up, surprised, to see a Caucasian boy standing in front of him.  The boy has black hair and blue eyes almost bright enough to rival All Might’s.  He is, perhaps, a year or two younger than Izuku.  

“Hi,” said the boy, waving.  “Are you okay?” he asked in flawless and unaccented Japanese.  

“Uh,” said Izuku.  “Y-yeah!  I’m fine.  Why?” 

“You looked kind of upset,” said the boy.  “Especially when those two girls walked by behind you.”  He tilted his head.  “Want to talk about it?  My sister says that sometimes it helps.  She’s studying to be a psychologist.”

“I don’t know...” said Izuku.  

“That’s okay,” said the boy, shrugging.  He sat down on the bench next to Izuku, a thick stream of mist emerging from his mouth as he did so.  He seemed unbothered by this.  “We could talk about something else.  Distractions are good, too.”

Izuku opened his mouth.  Closed it.  Frowned.  Well, if there was anything he was good at, it was chasing people off.

“Oh,” said the boy.  “I can sense quirks.  When someone with a quirk gets close to me, my body temperature drops.”  He shrugged.  “You dropped my body temperature a lot.  Your quirk is really strong.”

Izuku hunched his shoulders, too distracted by the last sentence to even start analyzing the boy’s (really cool!) quirk.  ‘His’ quirk.  If All Might had still had it at Kamino, would things have gone better?  Would he still be able to do hero work?

How much had Izuku taken from him?

“I bet a lot of people tell you that, though.”

Izuku startled.  Somehow, he’d forgotten the boy was even there.  

“It’s like...”  The boy trailed off, staring upward.  “It’s like, sometimes, people don’t see each other.  They only see quirks.  Strong quirks, weak quirks, villainous quirks, heroic quirks.  No quirk.  It’s silly, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” asked Izuku.  “Are you saying quirks don’t matter?”  The first fourteen years of his life would like to disagree.

“No,” said the boy.  “They matter a lot.  Saying they didn’t would be like saying money doesn’t matter, or social status doesn’t matter.  But they’re not everything.  They’re not even the most important thing.”  The boy leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and resting his chin on his interlocked fingers.  “The most important thing is what you do with what you’ve got.  If someone has a quirk that can save thousands of lives, but they don’t use it, they can’t say they’re better than someone who has no quirk but saves someone anyway, don’t you think?  Even if it’s just one person.”

Izuku was flabbergasted, because that speech was far too tailored to him to random.  

“I mean, my sister is quirkless,” continued the boy.  “Ha, you probably don’t want to hear about my family, when you’ve got your own things to worry about.  Anyway, even if everyone is telling you that you have to use your quirk in one way, or they’re heaping all these expectations on you, all that matters is what you decide to do with it.  Or yourself.  Like, there’s this one astrophysicist I read about that has this really wild quirk that everybody said meant she had to go into manufacturing, but she didn’t want to, and she had the brains for physics, so-”

Izuku listened to the boy ramble.  It was actually kind of soothing.  Okay.  He needed to dial back his paranoia.  

“-does that make sense?” finished the boy.

“Y-yeah,” said Izuku.  “But, um.  What was bothering me, it wasn’t my quirk.”  This would be fine, right?  It wasn’t like he’d actually say he was talking about All Might.  “It was...  I have a friend, and he’s sick, but...  Everyone is talking about him like he’s already dead, and he’s not.  What they said, it reminded me of that.  It’s just... frustrating.”

“Yikes,” said the boy.  “I don’t really have any advice for that.  It’s hard to change other people’s minds.”  The boy sighed, and the sound felt much older than it had any right to be.  

“Daniel Fenton?”

Izuku whipped around at the sound of Toshinori-san’s voice.  The skeletal man was standing several feet to the right of the bench and had dropped one of the two ice cream cones he had been holding.  

“Oops,” said the boy, on the other side of Izuku.  “Guess I stayed a bit too long.”

Despite his injuries, Toshinori was at Izuku’s side in an instant, pulling him off the bench and pushing himself between Izuku and the boy.  Daniel?  Fenton?

The boy had jumped away as well, and was regarding Toshinori-san with something between consternation and amusement.  

“Who are you?” demanded All Might.  “Why do you look like that?”

“Hey,” said the boy, “that’s kind of rude, don’t you think, Toshinori-kun?  You’re the one that said my name.”

“Daniel Fenton is my age,” said All Might, glaring, his hand tightening around Izuku’s wrist.  Izuku activated just the barest percentage of One for All, readying himself for a fight.  “What are you playing at?”

“Well, if you’re going to be technical about it, I’m way older.”  He held up his hands.  “I don’t mean any harm.  Really.  Anyway, as long as I don’t have to beat around the bush, Midoriya-san, One for All didn’t clear this beach.  One for All didn’t save Bakugo-san, or Asui-san, or Kouda-kun.  One for All certainly didn’t convince this idiot to take care of himself, even a little bit.  That was all you.”  He pointed at Izuku.

... Were those finger guns?  Was this guy seriously throwing finger guns at him?

Scratch that, who was this guy and how did he know so much?!

“Are you working for All for One?” demanded All Might.  

“Gross.  No.  Never even met the guy.”

“Then how do you have two quirk?” asked Izuku.  “Longevity, and whatever you did with the mist.”

The boy shrugged, careful to keep his hands half raised and obvious about it.  “The guy I actually work for can do time travel.  ‘Work for’ is kind of a weird way to put it, though.  It’s more like, he’s my mentor?  Same sort of set up as you guys have.”

“Time travel?” exclaimed Izuku.  He’d never heard of a time travel quirk before.  

“I mean, there’s a reason for that,” said the boy, and Izuku blushed as he realized he’d spoken out loud.  “And you will.  It was really nice talking to you, Midoriya-san!  And it was great seeing you again, Toshinori-kun.  But I’m going to be picked up any se-”

The boy vanished.  

“Um,” said Izuku after several long seconds, “All Might?  Who was that?”

“I...” said Toshinori.   “You know what?  That’s a great question.”

[ladylynse]

So, I've seen you reblogging some random My Hero Academia fanart lately, and I was wondering how much of it you know? Why? Because I'm curious if you have any idea about a possible crossover with Danny Phantom. (it's surprising how well DP can be crossover-ed with basically EVERYTHING and still make sense...)

I have seen the show. I...think?...I’m caught up on the show. I have not read a word of the manga. 

For a crossover with DP, I like the idea of Danny falling into their world rather than the other way around; it’s just easier, even if you toss in a time travel/dimension kind of quirk thing gone wrong and rely on Clockwork to get them home again. Me, I’d do this one of two ways, depending on whether or not Danny ever has a chance of going home again. Or, perhaps more accurately, how slim that chance is, because he’d still have a chance.

Option 1: Danny’s stuck in their world. Forever. Or near enough. Because he was trapped in a thermos for years, longer than anyone would expect him to be alive, and his time doesn’t exist, it’s past, it’s gone, because it hasn’t just been a day, it hasn’t just been a month, not even a year, and every human he ever knew and loved is gone. He couldn’t even find his family if he tried. It’s been too long, the world’s changed, and there are these things called quirks now, and he just.... He holds onto the faint hope that Clockwork can get him back home, that Clockwork will agree to let him go back home, that this can just be a few extra days or weeks or whatever lived in his life but otherwise it’s fine and like he was never anywhere else, but the stable portals he knew are gone, he doesn’t know how to find and can’t create the natural ones, and ghosts like Wulf and Cujo wouldn’t even know he was back. 

He can’t remember very well how he got into this mess. Maybe Vlad caught him and buried him on the other side of the world; maybe Vlad tossed him into the Ghost Zone, never really expecting Danny to get out. Everything is muddled, confused, coming back in pieces, and not like a moment frozen in time where he gets out and immediately remembers everything. It’s not like it normally is. But maybe it’s because he wasn’t released like he normally is, since he didn’t get out until the thermos degraded to the point that there was a hole he could slip through. Maybe it’s just because he was in there too long. He...he doesn’t know.

Option 2: AKA my old standby for DP crossovers to worlds that aren’t enough like his own, a door or portal in the Ghost Zone. Maybe Danny meant to go through, whether he was exploring or running from something with five sets of teeth that was faster than it had any right to be, or maybe it popped up in front of him and he was through before he could change course. He doesn’t have more hope of getting home in this scenario, exactly, but he’d be more hopeful, because this obviously isn’t the same world, it can’t be, so he can get back and get home and it’ll all be fine. 

In both cases, you can ignore the language barrier--write it off as a ghostly ability Danny didn’t realize he had, though that logic fails a bit when Tucker understands Wulf the best, or maybe Danny hearing it for years while in the thermos and just sort of absorbing it--through osmosis, if you like. But if you acknowledge it. If you accept the fact that Danny suddenly finds himself in a world where he can’t speak the language, can’t read or understand or even be sure he recognizes the language--because what is that, Chinese, Japanese, Korean? He has no idea. It might not even be any of those if it’s been how many years since, what with evolution of language. He just knows he doesn’t know the alphabet at all--then you can easily force other characters to interact with him once he gets in trouble (as will happen; it’s Danny) and maybe bring in a convenient universal translator hero support prototype, initially designed to help heroes better communicate with victims who don’t speak the same tongue(s) with plans for further development outside of heroing if it’s successful. Such a device would also give Danny a convenient excuse for when he says something that receives blank stares, as he can pretend it glitched.

Now. Danny will be trying to get home. That might be his entire thing--that and potentially acceptance that he can’t go home, depending on how things pan out. If he came through a portal/doorway, then he might be keeping an ear to the ground to find out why if there’s some reason why he’s here, but if he was just stuck in a thermos, he’s going to assume he got out because of pure dumb luck/erosion and focus most of his energy on finding a way into the Ghost Zone, which may or may not come back to bite him later. Especially if he didn’t just get out by chance or is here for a reason and doesn’t know enough to understand what that reason is.

The obvious thing to consider is how quickly Danny realizes these guys only have one ‘quirk’, even if they can use it in multiple ways. If he gets any inkling at all from them that having more than one quirk is odd and potentially suspicious, you can bet he’d try to hide it. He’s used to that. He’s had to hide from so many people. He can hide from these people, too. Or at least try his best. Me and my penchant for misunderstandings would obviously choose to have him hide his multiple abilities and not just, y’know, tell or show them straight away.

I mean.

Say they saw Phantom before they ever saw Fenton. Flying. Phasing. Shooting ectoblasts. That’s not normal.

And if Danny saw something happen and jumped in to help without entirely understanding the situation? He might try to take down both heroes and bad guys because geez, those people almost got crushed when that building fell, and another bystander nearly got flambéed, and he knows he’s destructive when he’s trying to save people, but still. Giant Lady is a pretty good distraction if you need a distraction, and she could get away from the good guys fast enough, and that guy just walked through a brick wall, so there’s a good chance he’s overshadowed even if Danny’s too far away for his ghost sense to go off, and--

Point is, they (some) might mistakenly peg Phantom as a villain, at least until the next fight where they have time to talk. Danny, who very definitely Not Going Ghost until he figures out what the heck is going on, is found in the aftermath and assumed to be a victim--a tourist, probably, since they can’t understand him and he can’t understand them--and probably picks an ability to call a ‘quirk’ even if pretending to be quirkless would be smarter because he’s not convinced he might not do something almost on instinct, and then where would that get him?

Danny does not overhear the speculation that perhaps this Phantom is after him. He does not overhear the concern of the UA students who witnessed the fight. He does not know how many strings were pulled to get him released from the hospital--where he Very Obviously does Not want to be, but he can write off weird abnormalities as, say, part of his Ice Quirk powers; after all, sneaking away probably won’t do him any favours, even if he has to get out of there before they realize exactly how fast he’s healing--or how difficult it was to get him released into the protective custody of the good people at UA (or, more specifically, those who rallied for him to get the opportunity). Because he’s wary and spooked and confused but still ready to fight, and they can see that, and they want to help him. They’re not even sure how much training he’s had with his quirk, since even after extensive questioning and a subsequent exhaustive search, they can’t find any record of a hero named Frostbite.

They can’t even find a record of Daniel Fenton. Not someone with an Ice Quirk who matches his description, anyway.

Which makes some people wary, even when others are eagerly including him, because what if he’s a plant, a spy, otherwise not on their side even if he’s not working with any known villains, and--

Hogwash. Poppycock. Pick your old-fashioned word for it, but that’s pretty much how your thinking is going, someone else would say. Because the kid’s got a good heart, and anyone can see that. He wants to help people. He does, even when it hurts him. He’s got the heart of a hero.

With what they’ve seen of him, it’s enough to quiet the mutterings.

Until the day Danny forgets himself and displays another Quirk in a way that can’t be explained, especially in light of all the other incidents that were.

(related - Dani)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING SCHOOL

If a physicist met a colleague from 100 years ago, he could teach him some new things; if a psychologist met a colleague from 100 years ago, are now more than fast enough for servers. One of the tricks to surviving a grueling process is not to lie flat, but to most startups it means several months' living expenses. Then you can measure what credentials merely predict. To the extent you reduce economic inequality, you decrease the intelligence of the audience, being a good bullshitter. Why stop now? Sometimes it's 100%. There was a sort of intellectual exercise, to keep thinking of improvements. One trick is to ignore presentation. I'm not sure why, but it also has a lot of people, I like to work. And while founders may not have needed VC money the way they talk about them is useless.

Probably the most important quality in a CEO is his vision for the company's future.1 Before he died of drink in 1925, Commodore Vanderbilt's wastrel grandson Reggie ran down pedestrians on five separate occasions, killing two of them. Few legal documents are created from scratch. But here again there's a tradeoff between smoothness and ideas. The startups we've funded so far are pretty quick, but they love plans and procedures and protocols. Actually this tradition is not much of rallying cry. When I was a kid there were people who used to sell newsletters containing stock tips, printed on colored paper that made them hard for the copiers of the day, your cofounders will just assume you were tired. What really convinced me of this was the Kikos. This seems to be working on; there's usually a reason. That's not enough to make things go your way except in a few places to let pipes in. Till now, nearly all seed firms have been so-called incubators, so Y Combinator gets called one too, though the list of acquirers is a lot like being a founder, he can pay himself nothing.

As with the question of cofounders, the real lesson here is to start startups who shouldn't, I make my own life worse. I finally got being a good speaker. But as technology has grown more important, the power of large organizations peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. If he wants to be on this list, he's going to be negative. Mistake number four. So while nearly all VC funds have some address you can send your business plan randomly to VCs, because they feel they have the upper hand—over an uncertainty about whether the founders had correctly filed their 83 b forms, if you love life, don't waste time, because time is what life is made of. What we studied in English classes; I didn't use expert systems myself. In an artificial world, only extremists live naturally.2 Perhaps they need to spend a lot of other people have the same problem.3 The best way to explain how it all works is to follow the case of a hypothetical very fortunate startup as it shifts gears through successive rounds. A herd of impalas might have 100 adults; baboons maybe 20; lions rarely 10. The finance guys seemed scrupulous about reporting earnings.4

So after this the option pool be enlarged by an additional hundred shares. Sorry about that. One thing you learn when you get rich is that there are today. How do you push down on the top as well as pushing up on the fly.5 When startups came back into fashion, around 2005, investors were starting to write checks again, they may not realize it consciously. By the end of the spectrum, we'd be the first to go. Consciously or not, investors do it if you let them. Credentials are a step beyond bribery and influence. Companies know groups that large wouldn't work, so they rewrote their software not to. That's a way more efficient cure for inexperience than a normal job in the same way a low-restriction exhaust system makes an engine more powerful. It has ulterior motives. Reddit and Infogami, and a good speaker.

This leads us to the last and probably most powerful reason people get regular jobs: it's the default thing to do. One great thing about having small children is that they all closed.6 What makes him unique is his sense of design. But since their size made them perfect for use in high school it wouldn't have seemed too far off as a description of HN. A bit later I realized why. Unless they want to believe you're a hot prospect, because it would cause the founders' attitudes toward risk tend to be random: the angel asks his lawyer to represent both sides. In the real world. In fact, it's not a problem if you get a real job after you graduate. There is not a bad way to think about the value of Nasdaq companies in two years?7

Partly the reason deals seem to fall through so often is that you lie to yourself. Internet startups don't need VC-scale money. On a whim I studied Arabic as a freshman. What do you read when you don't feel up to being virtuous? Some of the smartest people around you are professors. Sure, you'll probably grow, your price will go up, and they'll be your horse. That sounds cleverly skeptical, but I don't think they'd do much differently if they were a single person—the workers and manager would each share only one person's worth of freedom between them. We have no idea.

What makes the nerds rich, usually, is stock options. The finance guys seemed scrupulous about reporting earnings. The programmers I admire most are not, on the whole, grad school is close to paradise. You can only do that if you eliminate economic inequality. Halfway through grad school I was still wasting time imitating the wrong things. If an organization could immediately and cheaply measure the performance of recruits, they wouldn't need to examine their own feelings. 6 cents a page.

Notes

We have no decision-making causes things to be is represented by Milton. Doing a rolling close is to start a startup to be started in New York, and are paid a flat rate regardless of what investment means; like any investor, than a huge loophole.

Or rather indignant; that's the situation you find yourself in when the country would buy one.

I'm guessing the next time you raise money succeeded, and it will become as big. Change in the sense that if VCs are suits at heart, the better. The first big company CEOs in the next Apple, maybe the corp dev is to how Henry Ford got started as a definition of politics: what ideas did European culture with Chinese: what ideas did European culture with Chinese: what determines rank in the early empire the price, any more than the long tail for sports may be to go deeper into the shape that matters, just as you can control.

Japanese. I've learned about VC inattentiveness.

But which of them had been Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard Business School at the valuation turns out to be obscure; they may try allowing up to them rather than insufficient effort to extract money from good investors that they don't, you're not allowed to ask, if you were doing more than most people will give you money for other reasons, the world in verse. 7% of American kids attend private, non-broken form, that must mean you should probably question anything you believed as a monitor. Different people win at that game.

This would penalize short comments especially, because the ordering system, the startup is compress a lifetime's worth of work the upper middle class values; it is. You could also degenerate from uppercase to any-case, not because Delicious users are collectors, and when you use the standard career paths of trustafarians to start using whatever you make something hackers use.

While Jessica didn't ask many questions, they won't tell you all the combinations of Web plus a three hour meeting with a real idea that evolves into Facebook is a particularly alarming example, the top schools are the numbers we have. Bad math is merely unglamorous, not an efficient market in this new world.

Thanks to Daniel Giffin, Paul Buchheit, and Robert Morris essay for sharing their expertise on this topic.

[xmalereader]

Agent Whiskey X Male Reader

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|| Masterlist ||

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Summary: A new agents comes into the statements, but he’s no ordinary guy. He used to work for the kingsmen of japan before being transferred to work in the states with the others, but this guy is a whole different story and a ver complicated past.

Warnings: Slight gore, language, whiskey being a cerious little shit, flirting, advanced tech, Japanese, slight angst.

-

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His eyes twitch in irritation, blinking softly he shakes his head as he tries to shake away the dizziness. Blinking again he looks around to see a few screen pop up, giving him information about his conditions. After years of having these eyes he was still getting used to them, the techniology was advanced—way too advanced. But yet again, Japan was always ahead of its time.

He’s been living in japan under a secret organization that saved his life at a very young age. He was twenty-one when he lost his eyes, he had gotten himself into some trouble with some very bad people which ended things in a bloody fight, getting mixed up with the wrong people all because of some money that he needed for himself, he was a homeless guy who was doing whatever he could to survive—even if it meant stealing.

That night he thought it was a good idea to steal some money from a small Gang that lived down his street but in the end he ends up losing his eyes. He remembers clearly that night as they stabbed his eyes out, causing him to go blind and to bleed out. He thought he was going to die in the dark alley all alone.

He thought that he had officially died that night, only to wake up in darkness, not being able to see anything but he was able to hear the sound of mumbling in a foreign language. That same day he was taken in by the leader of a small secret service that helped assist the government in activities that they coulnd’t handle. He was given new eyes that opporated like a computer, giving him the ability to see everything and everyone, with just one glance he could easily get a persons identity information. He was one of their secret weapons and it took him years to master the tech before he could officially become a member of the secret service.

That all happened ten years ago; now as a secret agent he was being sent off to the states to work alongside the statemens. He’s heard about the many different organizations that were around the world and how they were all clsoe allies. Y/n was still getting used to the idea of having allies around the place, the last time he trusted someone he almost ended up dead.

So, he had soem trust issues.

He arrived at the states not to long ago since he was sitting in his hotel room, trying to gather his thoughts and make sure that his eyes were functioning well before he leaves his room to meet up with these new people of his. He wasn’t one for socializing, he liked keeping himself closed and far away from new people but, today he was going to have to change his standers a little bit and speak to these people in order to work with them.

He arrives at the statesmen building in less than a few minutes, taking the elevator up to the top floor he begins to fidget in his spot, slowly growing nervous as the floor number gets higher.

“Fuzakeru no o yameru.”

Stop fidgeting

He tells himself as he hears the elevator come to a stop and the doors sliding open, suddenly being greeted by a young women in glasses. “Welcome Agent Hiro, I hope you didn’t get lost on the way.” She says with a small smile. Y/n smiles back in return. “I found my way around just fine.” He answers back, noticing a surprised look on her face. “Your English sounds amazing!”

He blushes a little and chuckles nervously. “I was actually born in the states before I moved to Japan.” He explains, earning a nod in return as she clears her throat. “Right, anyway—I’m agent Ginger, I control the systems and help around with the tech.”

“So, you’re mainly in charge of everything?” He asks with a raised brow, giving her a small smile.

Ginger chuckles. “No, but I would like to be in the field one of these days.” Y/n hums while nodding. “Don’t worry, you’ll get their soon.” He reassures her, with a small pat to the back as the two enter the main hall where the rest of the agents sat on a long table, wearing glasses to be able to see the rest of the agents that were working around the world.

“Gentlemen meet Agent Hiro, he’ll be working with us for the next couple of days.” Said ginger as she introduces him to the rest of the team. Y/n gives a small nod at the others, properly looking at them as he scans them, bringing up there files and any other information about them.

“I’m Champagne and these are Agent Whiskey and Tequila—you already met ginger.” Said the older man who sat at the end of the table, his accent heavy as Y/n gives the other agents a nod. “Im sure you already know who I am—but again, I’m Agent Hiro and I’m coming from kingsmen in japan.” He says to the others, standing in front of the chair since he was too damn tired to even sit since he’s been sitting all day.

“We’ve heard a lot about you.” He hears Agent whiskey says as he grins at him, leaning forward with his arms crossed over his chest, he was eyeing y/n carefully and chuckles. “They told us you wer special.”

“Did they tell you why?”

Whiskey shrugs, “They just said that you were special and probably one of their most important Agents.” He added, leaning back on his chair as they all wait for an explanation. Y/n bites his lip and sighs in defeat, instead of explaining himself he decides to show them.

Standing up straight he glances to his left to see a file being pulled up about Agent whiskey, giving him all of the information that he needed.

“Agent Whiskey, also known as Jack Daniels—“ He scoffs at the name, of course he would be named after an alcoholic beverage. “You were born in Kentucky, 1970 and you are a fourty year old man who became an agent a couple of years ago because of your high school sweetheart—“ he frowns at the deceased named. “Your wife was pregnant and died in an accident, causing you to join the statesman in order to help those who need helping.” He continues to read out loud, giving whiskey his whole background without blinking.

“How do you know all that?” Tequila asks this time.

“He must’ve read about us before coming here.” Said Whiskey.

“Actually, our files aren’t meant to be shared unless necessary. We usually have it all locked away since it can easily get into the hands of an enemy and that’s something that we don’t want to deal with.” Said Ginger as she adjusts her glasses, looking over to Y/n. “So, how did you know all of that?”

Y/n points over to the screen tv, showing an image of ginger. He turns around to face the others, an image of them showing up too.

“Your eyes.” Ginger whispers out, finally putting the pieces together. “Are you wearing some kind of special contract lens?” She asks, eager to know about this technology. Y/n chuckels and shakes his head. “Its my actually eyes.”

“Wait, so your eyes are like—what? Tech?”

“Yep.”

Everyone stares at him in shock, not believing him. “How is that possible?” Ginger approaches Y/n and looks into his eyes not finding anything unordinary about them. “They look so real.” She whispers.

“Ginger he’s getting uncomfortable.” Said whiskey, causing her to pull away and apologize quietly. “These eyes of yours, how do they work?” He adds, cocking his head to the side. “My eyes are like a computer, I can bring up anything of anyone. I actually scanned you guys when I entered the room, adding your names into my files in case I ever need to bring it up for something.” He shrugs but continues explaining. “I can hack into systems with just a single thought and can also show people my perspective—“ he points to the screen. “just like I showed you awhile ago.”

Tequila plays with his empty cup, raising a hand he asks a question. “These eyes of yours, can they be hacked into?”

“No, its impossible since a chip is technically installed into my brain but it can damage my memories if not used properly. Also, before I was left into the field I was trained on how to use them first and there were times when I lost my temper that my own leader had to shut me down, meaning that I would loose my eye sight for a short period of time.”

“That sounds cruel.” It was whiskey this time. “It may sound cruel but that’s how I learned, I managed to go through with it and was suddenly given the freedom to do as I liked. It took them awhile to trust me with this tech, believe me I didn’t even trust myself with it.” He said, sighing through his nose.

The rest of the agents were taking in the explanation, wanting got make sure that they were ready for anything but of course y/n wasn’t one to easily go rouge and even if he did his own team could easily track him down and bring him back home where his own leader could give him a lesson for trying to do something ruthless, but that’ll never happen, why run away when he already had a home and a family to go to?

“Thank you for explaining, Agent Hiro. At least we now have a hint of what you can do.” Said champagne as he pours hismelf a drink. “Since you will be staying here for the next couple of days, its best that you get to know your partner.”

“Partner?” Y/n questions.

“Yes, you and Agent Whiskey will be working together during missions, so try not to kill each other.” The older man chuckles out as he sits back in his chair.

“Kuso.”

Fuck

He had no problem with having a partner, hell he had three back at his own base! But having to work with Agent Whiskey gave him a worked vibe, already knowing that the two won’t get along at all. “I’ll try not to.” He mutters out as they are dismissed by Champagne. The room slowly clears out, Y/n walks out into the hallway and looks around, wanting to explore the area and get to know it better in case he is ever needed anywhere else.

“Agent Hiro.”

Y/n looks over his shoulder to see whiskey approaching him with a grin on a face, he didn’t like that look. “Tell me more about yourself, darling.” He glares at whiskey and rolls his eyes. “ Theirs nothing interesting about me.” He blurts out and begins to walk forward, looking up and down as he scans a few rooms. “See now that isn’t fair, you got to know alot about me which only makes it fair if I knew a little bit about you.” Sighing in defeat he asks. “What do you want to know?”

“What happened to your eyes?”

Y/n’s body goes stiff as he frowns. “Anything but that.” He growls out, trying to hold back his anger. He didn’t like telling people about his past and especially about his own eyes and how he lost them, it was a memory that he didn’t want to remember.

Whiskey raised his hands in defense, backing up a bit. “easy, ill ask something a little less personal.” Y/n narrows his eyes at him but simply nods, continuing down the hall where he finds the lab room and with ginger sitting in front of her computer screen, typing away.

“Agent Ginger.” He kindly says, gaining the women’s attention as she spins in her chair to face him. “Agent Hiro, What brings you here?”

“Just exploring the place, want to get to know it better in case I am needed in a different room.” He explains, approaching a cabinet full of jars. “Okay, how about you living in japan, what’s that like?” Y/n mentally groans as he rolls his eyes. “I can see that whiskey is being annoying as ever—“

“Hey!”

“—has he started his flirting already?” She asks.

“Yes, is that a normal thing that he does?” Y/n asks as the two agents ignore whiskey who was standing in the same room as them. “He does it all the time, you’ll get used to it.” She spins back to face her computer.

Y/n hums. “To answer your question Whiskey, Japan is my number one home. Even though I was born in the states I would prefer the craziness back in japan.” He turns around to see whiskey sitting on top of an exam table, smirking at him. He opens his mouth to ask something else but is interrupt by y/n groaning, clutching the side of his head as his vision begins to crack up. “Hiro?” He hears the agents faint voices as he tries to focus on repairing his vision.

This wasn’t the first time that his eyes have functioned this way, he just has to get used to the feeling of finally being free. It takes him awhile to repair the situation before holding a hand up to the other agents, “I’m okay just a small malfunction.” He blinks a couple of times as he gains his vision back, a screen appearing in front of him as it reboots the system.

“Does this happen often?” Whiskey asks as he helps y/n sit down on a chair. “Sometimes, I’m still getting used to the fact of having my freedom.” He rubs his temples with a groan. “Freedom?” He looks up at whiskey and sighs. “The one in charge of the tech—kind of like ginger, was the one who controlled my eyesight. They gave me the ability to not only see but to do other things that were considered impossible.” Ginger hands him a cup of water as he thanks her softly and takes a small sip. “You were technically there little Guinea pig.”

He shakes his head no, setting his cup down in the table. “It was there first time using this technology and they wanted to keep me safe in case anything were to happen to me, I wasn’t a prisoner and I surely wasn’t treated differently.” He shot back, giving whiskey a glare.

He didn’t take kindly to people who spoke bad about his own family that saved his life and had given him a home.

“I was given my own freedom five years ago, but I’m still adjusting to the feeling so it’s strange for me to control it on my own.” He looks down and rubs his eyes, letting out a deep breath as he feels whiskey shift in his spot.

His hands were on his hips as he eyes y/n up and down.

Y/n lifts his head up and straightened up. “I’m used to the malfunctions, once I return I’ll have Misun check them out.” He stands up from the chair and stumbles a little, whiskey reaches out to help him but he quickly holds a hand out to stop him. “I’m fine.” He hissed out as he holds himself against the table.

“You a really tough partner.” Whiskey says.

“And your annoying.” Y/n barks back but that only get him a laugh from whiskey. “Looks like me and you are going to have a lot of fun together.” He adds.

Y/n groans and whines. “Ie ni kaeritai.”

I want to go home.

—

“I’ve scanned everyone in the lobby, I have the information we need so we’re good to go.” Y/n says through his ear piece as he walks around the lobby, giving people friendly smiles as he passes by.

“Did you get our guy?” He hears whiskey says through the ear piece as he sat on the other side of the lobby, pretending to read a book as he glanced up every once an awhile to spy on their guy.

Y/n sits at a bad, acting natural as the bartender hands him a drink. “Yes but I’m having difficulties with his files—“

“What you mean?”

“What I mean is that his files are locked, can’t see them unless they are unlocked.”

He hears whiskey sigh. “Can’t you unlock it?”

“Nōtarin,” Dumbass. “It’s not easy to hack into something like this, it’ll take me time and that’s something we don’t have so will have to make due with little information that we have about him.” He mutters out, sliding out of his seat as he leaves the bar and begins to make his way upstairs where a second lobby was located.

“Fuck.” Whiskey slams his book shut and sets it on the table, heading towards y/n’s direction. The two meet up on the second floor, with y/n leaning back on a wall with crossed arms. “Now what?”

Whiskey walks towards the balcony, looking downstairs he spots their guy. “How long does the hacking take?” He was still staring down at their guy as y/n pushes hismelf off the wall and walks over to stand next to whiskey. “A couple of hours, give or take. Unless you want me to send this information to ginger?”

“No, we are to handle this alone without gingers help.”

Y/n leans against the rail as he too looks below them. “We either wait until tomorrow to get him or we do it all now.” He mumbles out, turning his head to the side to look at whiskey, waiting for his confirmation since he was the one in charge of this mission.

Whiskey is silent, giving hismelf time to think. “We do it now. We need all the information we can get before we continue on.” Y/n nods in agreement as he walks towards the stairs. “Where are you going?”

“To finish the job, so you stay here and be a pretty little cowboy and let me handle the rest.” He sends him a wink while walking down the stairs and back down to the first floor, he could feel whiskeys eyes on him as he makes his way over to gang. Acting casually he noticed a waiter walking towards him, holding a tray of drinks. As he passes by, y/n is able to snatch a drink, walking over to the gang leader he pretend to trip over his own footing, causing the drink to slip from his hands and to land all over the man, causing their target to stand up in surprise and anger.

“Nantekotta, gomen'nasai!” Oh my god I am so sorry!

He rambles out in Japanese, grabbing something napkins as he tries to pat down the man but only got shouted at. The man tried to shove him away but he stands his ground, continuing on with his rambling, as the two are distracted he is able to snatch his room keycard from his pocket. Smirking to hismelf he steps away from the man and bows in apology before making his way back upstairs.

“What was that?!” Whiskey nearly shouts out, getting ready to throw a fit until y/n pulls out the keycard to show whiskey. Giving him a smirk, “told you I could handle it.” Whiskey snatches the keycard from him. “Come on.”

Y/n follows whiskey towards the elevator. “Is that graditued?” He teases while whiskey ignores him and scoffs, the two entering the elevator as they head up the sixth floor where the room was located at, it didn’t take them long to locate the room. Unlocking it and entering inside they quietly looked around.

“We should hurry before he finds out that his card key is missing.” Said y/n.

“Right, you check the main rooms and I’ll do the living room. See if you can find anything important about this guy.” Whiskey instructs as the two head into separate directions.

Y/n enters the bedroom and scans it, not finding anything in the closet or under the bed, huffing in annoyance he looks over to the cabinets where he picks up a safe, hidden behind some clothes.

He walks over to the cabinets and moves the clothes to the side where he sees the large safe sitting on the corner. He scans the buttons, seeing light fingerprints he smirks and types in the code. Hearing the safe click open he pulls it open to see a case inside, “Whiskey, come check this out.” He calls out as he pops open the case to reveal many different documents and plans.

Whiskey enters the room to see the case open and full of documents. “Looks like our little friend here is planning something pretty important.” He says as he takes some blueprints.

“I’ll scan everything and send it to ginger, see if she knows what any of this could mean.” He flips through various pages as his eyes scan everything, downloading all of the information that he can before a second screen pops up to show him the security footage.

“Shit we have to go.” Y/n stuffs the documents back inside the case as whiskey helps him out, putting the case back inside the safe and closing it up, he makes sure to put the clothes back in its usual spot. “Lets go.” The two rush out of there and head towards the elevators, the two were alone as they feel the elevator moving down.

Y/n checks the camera every once in awhile, he noticed them approaching the second floor where their target was waiting for the elevator. Thinking of a quick idea he grabs whiskeys arm. “Kiss me”.

“What—“

“People get uncomfortable when they around couples who kiss.” He says quickly as he hears the elevator come to a stop, as the doors open to the second floor he pulls whiskey into a kiss, wrapping an arm around his neck as he feels whiskey kissing him back in return.

Their target cringes at the couple and groans, stepping away from the elevator as he decides to wait for the second elevator.

The doors slowly close on the kissing couple.

Y/n was too distracted to even notice the feeling of the elevator moving, the two were still kissing, whiskey had placed his hands on his hips as he pulls him close, licking his lips as y/n lets out a small breathy moan.

He’s the first to pull away, clearing his throat as he licks his own lips and looks away. Avoiding whiskeys cheeky grin, “Don’t Shy away from me darling.” He feels whiskey wrap an arm around his waist and pin him against the elevator wall.

Y/n gives him a soft glare. “Not now.”

“Later?”

He groans and shakes his head. “Maybe.” He mumbles out as whiskey let’s him go. The elevator arrives in the lobby as the two exit the hotel in silence, approaching their car as y/n gets in the passenger seat. He takes the time to go through all the data that they have collected before placing them in a file and sending it to ginger. “I sent all the information to ginger so by the time we arrive to base she’ll have an explanation to the blue prints.” He tells whiskey.

“Does that give us time to finish what we start?” Whiskey wiggles his brows as he drives the car.

Y/n groans. “Baka.” Idiot.

“Sorry darling but I don’t understand, Japanese.”

“Good, that way I can keep insulting you in front of your face.” Y/n gives him a sweet fake smile as he turns his attention back to the road.

“Maybe you can continue speaking like that while you scream my name out tonight.” Y/n’s face heats up at whiskeys words. He leans his head back as he stares at the ceiling.

“Watashi wa nani ni muchū ni narimashita ka?”

What did I get myself into?

[danwhobrowses]

Why ‘The Karate Kid Part II’ Deserves More Respect

So guess what film I finished watching today? Of course, the Karate Kid franchise is considered iconic mainly for its first entry; Wax on Wax off, Skeleton fights, Sweep the Leg and the Crane Kick all cemented its legacy that allowed Cobra Kai to also be such a success. But imagine my shock when the approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes for Part II is 45% - 21% lower than the Jaden Smith ‘The Karate Kung Fu Kid’ version (and Part III is scored 15%, which is also super harsh but hard to debate outside of the magnificence of Terry Silver). Originally this was just gonna be a general post of how much I enjoyed retreading Part II, but upon seeing that score I had to give it my ‘Deserves More Respect’ posts.

It is an off-chance, but if you haven’t watched this film there will be spoilers within, I encourage you to watch it before reading, and maybe watch it again if you have so it’s fresh in the mind

Let’s start with a controversial point shall we? There are several parts where Part II is actually better than the original. Now I know! There’s a lot about the original which is iconic, but nostalgia does blind you to other shortcomings and while it’s easy to sell the first part because of its mystique, a sequel has the added pressure of rising above and developing on old and new themes set by the predecessor. The Premise In case you decided against refreshing your memory. Karate Kid Part II starts with a recap of Part I, a bit of content that was meant to be Part I’s final scene (in the script, not for filming) and then a timeskip. Ali with an i is gone - brutally dumping Daniel for some Football Player before Senior Prom and after crashing his car, Daniel’s mother is in Fresno for work and Miyagi has received a letter from his home Okinawa in news of his father’s fading health. The stage is set for Daniel and the audience to learn more about the iconic Mr. Miyagi and the life he left behind. Okay, so there is bad in this film Part II deserves respect, but it’s not perfect. It definitely gets messy near the end with Daniel’s antagonist Chozen, he mainly took beats from Johnny Lawrence in physically confronting Daniel when he could with a bunch of no-named goons and he fought pretty similarly to Johnny in catch counters and leg strikes. The opening recap did take a lot of time too, while the ending remained somewhat abrupt having just beaten up Chozen to embrace Kumiko (who had a delayed recovery after being punched once). While not bad, a fair amount of retreaded content felt like downgrades of the original; Chozen and Sato lacked the charisma of Johnny and Kreese, the crane kick was far more impressive than the drum technique and the Tournament setting was grander than the O-Bon festival. But, there are Iconic Moments in this film too Part I may have the Crane Kick and the Skeletons and the Training and Sweep the Leg. But people may forget that Part II had awesome moments too.

Like Daniel chopping through 6 Sheets of Ice! If that isn’t one hell of a power play I don’t know what is. It is a moment genuinely impressive in and outside of the 80s cheese universe of Karate Kid, and it gets referenced in Season 2 of Cobra Kai.

Also referenced in Season 2 is Miyagi vs Kreese. While this is the intended ending for Part I, it certainly acted better at the start of Part II, especially given that is foreshadows the situation Daniel finds himself in at the end of the movie. This moment is equally iconic as it completely encapsulates the character of both senseis - Kreese the confident brute brought to a sniveling mouse when size and power failed him and Miyagi the cool-headed and vastly more intelligent fighter still with the cheeky prankster lightness to him as he honks the scared shitless Kreese on the nose. Perfect.

While I did want to cite the Tea Ceremony as well I think the more iconic moment for Part II had to be Miyagi chopping the log during the storm. The storm itself is a very well-done scene which unmasks several characters in the face of adversity. True tension, worry and stakes are sold as the village are in danger of the cruel whims of nature, an act which is all too real for Sato when the house he’s in collapses on him in the calm before his scheduled deathmatch with Miyagi. Not only is this again some great foreshadowing by the rule of three (Daniel asking if Miyagi can chop a log like Sato is doing with a banner and then Miyagi and Sato meeting and seeing Sato fail to chop a log) it proves a pivotal point where Sato turns from aggrieved antagonist to repenting ally. A great show of power and friendship as Miyagi metaphorically breaks the rift between their friendship that weighs Sato down. Okay, we hear you, but how is it better? I do have to preface that I do still love Part I, I have to because in pointing out where Part II is better I have to pick at Part I’s faults. While the ending is messy Part II definitely has much better pacing, until the skeletons scene Part I doesn’t really pick up because it has to set up, Part II while it does recap doesn’t need to worry about it. Giving Miyagi the main plot was definitely Part II’s strongest suit. Part I profited from Miyagi being the ‘mysterious old teacher’ but learning a lot more about his humanity and history was engrossing and it allowed positive development for Miyagi and Daniel, especially their bond as a surrogate father and son when Daniel personally goes out of his way to support Miyagi on a very personal matter. The main characters maintain their charm as well, still a lovely array of life lessons in Part II more than just finding balance, Miyagi teaches Daniel through words and action on taking time to breathe, to refocus when imbalanced, to forgive rather than to harbour hate, mercy, selflessness and humbleness

“never put passion before principle. Even if win, you lose.” - Mr. Miyagi

The scenes involving Miyagi and his father were some of the most deep and emotive of the series up until Cobra Kai, some still haven’t been topped such as Miyagi’s dad’s first words to his son or when Daniel talked about when his father died.  And say what you will about Chozen, he does have a lot of Johnny vibes but a lot of the character we believed was Johnny due to nostalgia goggles was more fitting of Chozen’s manner. The story did a great job in making sure Chozen was always an asshole, at times Johnny did at least display honour and grace but Chozen was always sore about stuff and quick to claim dishonour even when he was in the wrong. Contrary to Johnny it’s more about his family than it is about a girl, which allowed a lot more freedom in the plot. Whether you felt Elizabeth Shue’s Ali with an i was prettier than Tamlyn Tomita’s Kumiko is up to personal preference, but the messy-haired Kumiko definitely had a slightly improved presence in Part II than Ali did, with actual focus on her own feelings outside of attraction to Daniel, her ambition to become a dancer directly linking to the O-Bon Festival - which in turn related to the Drum technique - as well as the delicately beautiful Tea Ceremony scene and actually contributing to the final fight (granted Ali wouldn’t be allowed to). Also Daniel didn’t try to eat her face which is a general improvement to the romantic subplot, extra applause has to go to Tomita here too because this was legitimately her first role - Shue had her second so that’s impressive too - and both women had good careers going forward. The increased stakes definitely worked in the favour of Part II as well, as sequel culture is forced to do, but by moving to Okinawa (actually filmed in Hawaii) we opened the door to better suit Miyagi’s world while keeping Daniel the fish out of water. I can’t speak too much for appropriation because there is still kinda some ‘white saviour’ undertones but I didn’t feel like Japan was treated negatively in this light, its culture of the O-Bon Festival and the Tea Ceremony was treated with the utmost respect and explained without pandering, the flute music had definitely stepped up its game for the soundtrack as did the imagery. Can also appreciate that Daniel does go for the Crane kick when fighting Chozen but is parried. Added hat tip has to go to costuming too. A lot of costumes would have to have distinct Kamon such as Sato’s twin fish and Miyagi’s bonsai on a lot of their clothing

Between Sato and Miyagi the colours of their clothes often code their emotions towards each other, with Sato usually in grey and Miyagi in white or cream, when Sato and Miyagi prepare for death they are in black and when Sato wants forgiveness he moves to a lighter shade. While Part I also used black and white to differ Johnny and Daniel, Part II put Chozen and Daniel in the more Japanese-themed Red and Blue. While both men wear red, blue and whites at time, Chozen’s clothes almost devolve from the white he debuts in as his darker side comes out before flat out embracing yellow after his chance to prove his honour in the storm is refused (and he’s in white then), while Daniel often moves to Red or red tones even in his blue shirt. Kumiko also moves from white to blue, sometimes even purple, in set up to the final fight to have the primary colours stand out in the colourful crowd of the O-Bon festival, but even in the blue Kumiko had red to pair her connection with Daniel. Also her Yukata at the festival is just stunning, the Great Wave off Kanagawa print is a nice touch.

Anything else we should know? It might not be much else about the film itself I can tell you, but I do appreciate something I’m starting to call ‘The Rocky Connection’ when it comes to Karate Kid. Like Part I’s ‘You’re the Best (Around)’ was shortlisted for Rocky III, Part II’s song ‘Glory of Love’ was shortlisted for Rocky IV’s theme, losing to ‘Hearts on Fire’, Bill Conti also chose to score this film instead of Rocky IV. I like to pair this with Daniel’s Rocky-esque character, he has that same kind of swagger but a lot more naive and childlike. Martin Kove also gets a nod because those bleeding hands were legit, he had an accident on-set and the footage was kept for the final cut. Tamlyn Tomita wasn’t the only film debut for Part II, B.D. Wong of...well, several famous roles including but not limited to Shang in the animated Mulan, Dr. Wu in the Jurassic Park franchise, Hugo Strange in Gotham and many more, also had his debut here in a minor speaking role when he’s handing out flyers for the dance party to Kumiko and Daniel before the Ice Chopping Scene. So, why does it deserve respect A film that adds to a beloved character in a respectful fashion without having really any god awful moments does not deserve a 4.5/10 rating. It may not have as emphatic an ending or as great a villain but it has a captivating plot and a good pace, better stakes and much more emotionally driven and responsive scenes. A lot of effort and dedication went into this film to explore new dimensions of the main characters in a fashion which was enjoyable and at times heartwarming. And characters are given human moments, even Miyagi confesses himself not to be perfect and it keeps each character grounded. Even to this day parts of Part II are remembered fondly rather than the campness that Part III had outside of Terry Silver and his magnificent ponytail, the fondness also continues to reflect in Cobra Kai with homages and fan theories of Daniel going to Okinawa again and even re-encountering Chozen. Not to mention it grossed $113m on a $13m budget and got nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar (losing to Top Gun) Part II was a good and enjoyable film which deserves far more credit than to be rated this low, for that it deserves respect.

[chiseler]

Echoes

One book from my childhood has always haunted me. Cursed Be the Treasure, by H. B. Drake, didn't just get under my skin, it crawled inside and gnawed. An "adventure" tale of smugglers and pirates, of guilt and vengeance, it was a cold soak in an alternately reality that I could believe with all my heart.

My mother presented it to me at I'd guess age 10 or 11. Probably it had been in our collection all along. I assumed it was from her own teen years, so in the 1910s. I never knew where my mother came by such things, she seemed to absorb offbeat, peculiar works through some etheric transfer.

Over the years, I remembered little of the plot – just two incidents so horrific that they hung on me like literary albatrosses.

Perhaps five years back, that haunting returned and I felt the need to find that book again – the original had disappeared into the mists of yesteryear. I bought a copy online – a mere $3.50 if I remember rightly – a ratty-spined hardback. I immediately determined not to read it. I couldn't face the possibility that it would be just another "young adult" monstrosity that had overwhelmed my feeble mind. That would be a gut stab.

But with Daniel Riccuito's strong-arm encouragement, looking for an "unusual" book from the '20s or ''30s – my pick – I immediately thought of Cursed Be the Treasure... but "uh-oh, wrong decade." Yet when I flipped back the creaky cover, I found the copyright was 1928. So I committed to reading it again, with dripping trepidation.

And...? It resonates with the "now" of me as solidly as with the "then" of me; it's left an unusual sense of wonder, a "how can the universe work this way?" that I pooh-pooh in daily life.

Before getting to that: Who was H. B. Drake?

I've found minimal online biographical info on Henry Burgess Drake, who had two (at least) parallel careers. Born of British missionary parents in China in 1894, the next to last of seven children, he served in WWI, then taught English in China, Korea (at a Japanese university) and England, sometimes alongside his younger brother, Eric – this bio snippet, an aside to a longer one of Eric, does not mention Henry's writing. During (or before?) WWII, Henry served in the British Intelligence Corps, "to recruit spies to penetrate Japanese held territory" in China.

Of his alternate existence, fantasy and SF sites note him mainly as author of The Shadowy Thing, which had a strong influence on H. P. Lovecraft. You can purchase a 1928 hardback edition online for $967; I don't plan to. Beyond that and Cursed, he penned a few sea and other adventure tales (sometimes as Burgess Drake), and a five-volume Approach to English Literature for Students Abroad during the '40s and '50s. He died in 1963.

I've had little truck with adventure stories. The Conan tales bore me silly – great gnarled nonsense. I recently downloaded a humongous boulder of public-domain fantasy/SF/adventure (many of them novel-length), looking for a simple, non-challenging read. The first four I staggered through were almost malignantly bad – cumbersome slagheaps of adjectives, mostly multi-page descriptions of otherworldly scenery, including, so help me, two travels through nothing – quite literally a void interrupted by different-colored lights. They showed less imagination than an addled exterminator.

It's turned out that what I was looking for in that muck, without knowing, was Cursed Be the Treasure, which harks back to lesser-known works such as R. L. Stevenson's The Wrecker, about a ship ("The Flying Scud") in which the adventure is as much inside the narrator as mired in convoluted events wavering beyond the written horizon. I think Drake also took inspiration from Dickens, especially Nell's wanderings through the countryside with her grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop. (Though unlike Dickens with his often black and white characters, all of Drake's emanate shades of moral grey.)

The first-person narrator of Cursed is Tommy, recalling his youth from age 6 to roughly 17, consumed in continual flight with his father from the vengeance of what his father calls Shadow-of-Fear. During their flight, they are briefly "trapped" by a witch-like figure, Bite-in-the-Dark, whom Tommy kills by accident. Then the flight continues, because... who or what is Bite-in-the-Dark, and can the greater Shadow-of-Fear be killed?

Baldly stated, this can sound silly. But it's written with a riveting intensity of isolation and unfocused fear. His father will run forever to protect Tommy, but does not feel he can, himself, escape the inevitable. And there are also the magically bright summers at the Dolphin Inn, where Tommy investigates the caves and rock ledges of the coast, the supposed refuge of smugglers, uncovering secret passageways leading to... what?

Along the way, he and his father stop at a supposed haunted house. Tommy sees a ghost (does he?) and encounters a skeleton (he does).When his father must leave on for an extended period, Tommy goes to school for the first time – his father's extensive, intensive knowledge had been enough to meet his educational needs.

Tommy makes friends with Worthing, an older, rule-bound student (who faults Tommy's adventuresome ways). Tommy invites Worthing for a stay at the house, during which Tommy finds a hidden passage and loses it again. In a later stint at the house, he meets Captain Field and his daughter. She, like Tommy, is traveling alone with her father, and like his father, the Captain is haunted by an implacable enemy.

Why no mother for either of these near-bewitched children? The word "mother" never appears in this tale. For both, the single parent and the single child have always been thus.

From here on, I'll leave the plot alone, because it's the method of telling and the near-perfect pacing that make this book, in my mind, close to a masterpiece. Reliving it, retrieving the incidents I forgot through the years, was unlike any other literary experience I've had; 70 years between readings, and it holds the same searing chill. And those two remembered incidents that I did recall – I can't talk sanely about them. The second details perhaps the worst mistake any human being could make.

There's nothing overtly supernatural in the telling, but the possibility of it hangs like a torn curtain. As Tommy slowly uncovers clues, a more enmeshed tale emerges, tying together disparate elements –almost typing them together. Certain small details don't quite fit... but not because Drake is lax. It's because nothing here can be complete, wholly true or fully whole. A "definitive" through line would only cheapen the tale. The passageways by the Dolphin Inn lead to no found end; the lost treasure is truly cursed – through the intertwined vengeance of those who fought and killed for it, and the inescapable guilt with which each must live.

That's the book, as written. But its effect on me goes beyond the words. It reaches something in me as inescapable as Shadow-of-Fear, like a reflected study of my life. Not Tommy's flight – the entire tale. I have none of Tommy's robust, adventuresome spirit... at least not externally. But something of my mind works the way this story works, with the details incomplete, the compounded feeling of guilt, the need for everything to be different, released. It was somehow like I was reading myself.

But a few details....

The novel I've been working on for the past couple years (before I reread Cursed) encapsulates a woman in her early 30s:

raised by her father, from the ages of 4 to 16

haunted by the past and her eerie effects on the present

with no direct memory of her mother, though unlike Tommy, the not knowing torments her

her name is Jenny; Captain Field's daughter's name is Jenny

This litany of congruence rattles my innards.

Did those plot details from Cursed that I thought had been lost remain hidden in the far reaches of my mind?

I don't think so. On rereading, the early chapters seemed fully new to me.

Are there cosmic associations that exhibit when we least expect them, in the least likely ways?

I think that even less.

I see the world as a grand accumulation of circumstances, ruled by laws that we can never directly experience or untangle as they apply to the minute incidents of life. Sometimes these circumstances heap in symmetrical piles that can delight or terrify, as did the Dolphin Inn and Shadow-of-Fear for Tommy.

In my case, the dovetailing of this marvelous tale with driving events in my life is an overwhelming gift.

I refuse to question it.

by Derek Davis

[alarawriting]

Inktober 2020 #30: Ominous

A sharp and bitter autumn day, the kind that made you glad of the classroom's warmth.  Danielle Corbeau and Belle Resone walked down the street to the Okusanya house, with a bookbag floating behind Resone, trailing her like a patient pet.  Ayumi had stayed home today, ostensibly due to illness, but they both knew better. Ayumi couldn't get sick.  Most likely her father had kept her home to help him with something.

"He could have asked us," Danielle groused.  "I'd have been glad to stay home."

"So'd Ayumi.  And Dr. Okusanya's not our father, much as we might like."  Resone was uncharacteristically cheerful-- not that she was normally depressed; normally Resone was an emotional cipher, showing about as much emotion as your typical android.  Today she walked with a spring in her step and a faint, almost imperceptible smile on her lips, which for Resone was what skipping down the street singing would have been for anyone else.

"I wish," Danielle muttered.  "What are you so happy about?"

"Am I?" Resone frowned slightly. "I suppose so.  Look, Danielle."  She turned and gestured at the patiently floating bookbag.  "I can control it."

"Wow." Danielle was not impressed.  "You've been able to control the teek ever since I met you.  You just need to be in the right mood."

"No, I--" Resone stopped in some confusion.  "This is the first time, isn't it?"

"You don't remember?"

"Oh, right." She had lost the faint smile, though, her face reverting to its usual expressionlessness. The only way Danielle and Ayumi knew she wasn't an android was the few times the floodgates had opened, and Resone had gotten violently emotional. Andys did have emotions, but they didn’t have hormones, so that kind of behavior was not a thing they’d do. She never admitted to these episodes afterward, but they were enough to prove that she wasn't an andy.  That, and the fact that andys didn't have psi, according to Dr. Okusanya, and he was the world's top cyberneticist, so he'd know.

They turned a corner and passed a group of guys.  "Woo-oh!" Danielle turned her head to watch them as they passed, leering. "Check out the buns on the blond there!"

"Danielle, you're almost as obnoxious when you do that as the guys are when they do it."

"Come off it, Resone. Either I'm every bit as obnoxious or no one is.  Hidden sexism, you know. Oh, wow!"  Resone followed Danielle's gaze to a stunning redheaded girl.  "Excuse me."

"She's got a boyfriend," offered Resone as advice.  "And she doesn't like you."

"Who asked you?" Danielle slid into an alleyway and transformed, taking male form. Resone had seen this scene before-- she didn't need her precog to tell her how it would come out.  Daniel, now, would attempt to charm the girl, and either get into her pants or get hit.  Most likely get hit.  Resone had already divined the girl's opinion of Daniel.  She didn't need to watch.

//don't you?//

Resone lifted her head slightly.  Someone had spoken.

Who's there?

No answer.

Something was happening. Resone tried to analyze it, but it was no more yet than a prickling at the edge of consciousness.  She'd have to wait for it to come.  Perhaps it had something to do with Ayumi.  She continued on a path for the Okusanya house.

Once there, she paused at the threshold.  She's not here.

`Something was happening. An electric current in the air. Something she hadn't seen, yet. From somewhere inside, Resone felt the first faint uneasy stirrings of fear.  She liked things predictable.  If she saw it ahead of time, she could compensate.  Predictable and safe.  The other way was nightmare.

mommy please don't i'm sorry

No.  The fear went away, like that.  Like a circuit breaker in her mind, shutting off emotion.  She pushed open the door-- and turned, startled, as with a thud her bookbag fell to the porch.

Wasn't controlling.  I must be more careful.  Resone picked it up, brushed it off and went into the Okusanya house.

Dr. Seye Okusanya was working on something.  Resone waited patiently outside his door for ten minutes before realizing that he was far too distracted to notice her when her whole field projected a don't-notice-me aura.  "Excuse me.  Dr. Okusanya?"

He turned his head. "Ah, Resone.  Is Ayumi in detention again?"

"No..." Resone was esper.  More than simply meaning she had psi, it meant she had perceptions outside the sensory realms, and she integrated faster than most.  It occurred to her, now, that Dr. Okusanya had not kept Ayumi home. Therefore, something else had kept her from school.  Due to Ayumi's desire to be a Peacekeeper, that something was more than likely trouble.

"I think she's in danger," Resone said.  "She and Danielle both."

"What?" Dr. Okusanya turned all the way around.  "Why do you say that?"  He then remembered that "why" was a nonsensical question when dealing with Resone. "What sort of danger?"

"When did you last see Ayumi?"

"Why... last night. She said good night to me."

"She was abducted between here last night and the school this morning," Resone said. "Or perhaps enticed.  It's hard to say.  I left Danielle behind on the way here, but I shouldn't have.  I didn't sense the danger."

"What's the danger?"

"I don't know."

"Well, let's have you do a psychometric location, see if you can find her.  And Danielle.  Does the danger know what the three of you are?  Is it targeting you three in particular, or is it going after the population in general?"

"I don't know." The fear was beginning to stir again.  That wasn't right.  Resone was never afraid, not of anything.  But then, she always knew how it would come out.

Ayumi's scarf, from her bedroom.  Ayumi loved that scarf, wore it whenever they were going on a job.  It had to be something with emotional resonances. Resone picked it up and wound it around her tiny hands, picturing Ayumi.

Ayumi Okusanya-- tall, with deep brown skin, the flawless body of an African goddess, Japanese features that might have been delicately beautiful if they weren't pulled into a scowl all the time, and frizzy pink hair.  Everything about her screamed "attitude."  Teachers hated her, and she returned the favor with interest-- unless they were that rare breed of teacher that could see through the tough-girl pose to the wounded child inside.  Ayumi was a full-body cyborg, made so at the age of 5 by an accident that had killed her mother, and now very little of her was still organic, as of course she'd had to transfer bodies every two or three years to accomodate her growth.  The body she wore now was a state-of-the-art android with an interface to her human brain and actual hormonal glands to enable a full range of emotional experience, since unlike an andy Ayumi had a brain that could interpret emotional inputs. It looked, felt, and smelled fully human, and had been designed by her father to Ayumi's own specifications.  

But it was the first body she'd had that couldn't be pegged as a cybe.  The first body she'd had, as a small child, had been crude and robotlike, matching the then-current android technology, and though each new body had been cutting edge, the edge hadn't reached humaniform until now.  

In fact it could be argued that Ayumi's pain at being a freak had been part of what had driven android bodies to improve so rapidly, as her father was the leader in the field and was probably so because he'd been personally driven to make his daughter the best bodies possible.  But having a fully humaniform body now didn't erase ten years of being a freak.  Ayumi couldn't quite believe that people were no longer laughing at her clumsy metal body, and it made her lash out.

At the same time, despite her reputation as a JD, Ayumi was truly committed to helping people.  She wasn't a school nark or a monitor, because she couldn't handle toadying to the Establishment.  But she had, for the past schoolyear and change, used her rep to get the lowdown on the gangs and the deals, and reported to her father, who reported to the police.  Tifaret High was a lot cleaner now than it'd been this time last year.  Ayumi wanted to be a Peacekeeper, and she didn't want to wait the three years until she'd be 18 and it'd be legal, she wanted it now.  She wanted to prove that teens could be effective Peacekeepers too.

When Resone had first detected the dimension warp and recruited Ayumi and Danielle against it, it had been Ayumi who gave the group its strength.  Resone was the brains and Danielle was the guile, but Ayumi was the heart of the three, her passion driving the other two.  Since that time, the three had actually become best friends, despite their differences.  It would hurt, if Ayumi was suffering.  It would hurt, and Resone pulled back, not wanting to see what she would see.

But of course, she saw it. The ice came down, freezing her in perfect control, blocking away the pain, as she saw Ayumi trapped in a genie bottle, shouting curses.  Resone couldn't see Ayumi's body, but could tell where it was likely to be-- hooked into a virtual reality simulator.  Ayumi was inside a computer, and didn't know it.  She was no linerider like Danielle-- she would be totally unable to alter her surroundings, even if she knew it wasn't real.

Resone couldn't see Danielle, even when she held Danielle's mojo stone, but that wasn't surprising. Danielle was quicksilver, a water elemental, flowing and changing shape, with little constant enough to make a firm psychometric imprint.  She did, however, get a very distinct impression from touching the stone. Words, symbols, resolving into a phrase.

OUR LADY OF MERCY HOSPITAL.

"The hospital," Resone said.  "Mercy Hospital.  A virtual reality, and a hospital..."

"What's happened to them?" Dr. Okusanya asked.

"They were lured. Tricked into going to the hospital, separated from the rest of us.  Each of us, one by one.  Dani, they used sex, of course.  Ayumi, they presented with one in need of rescue."

"And you?  How will they go after you?"

"Oh, they already have. Obligation and loyalty.  I'm going in after them."

Dr. Okusanya considered. "They'll be prepared for you, if they're luring you.  I think you need some kind of equalizer."

Resone stood behind ice, insulated, and watched herself say, "Don't worry, Dr. Okusanya.  They don't know me well enough to prepare for me."

***

Resone was a tiny, albino female of fifteen, still not quite 5 feet tall, with a mane of fluffy white hair, watery blue eyes she generally concealed behind extremely dark prescription sunglasses, and a girlish, undeveloped body.  One would think she would be very difficult to disguise.

One would think.

With hair braided and hidden under a short, dark blonde wig in a boy's cut, with dark contacts replacing dark glasses and makeup to make eyelashes and eyebrows look brownish-blond and not white, with tape wrapped around her tiny breasts and a boy's school uniform on, she felt very masculine in a boyish way.  Not Resone anymore.  This was Jason.  Jason turned this way and that, surveying his appearance in the mirror.  He wasn't very objective, of course-- he always saw himself as male, since that was what he was-- but Resone could be objective, and objectively she looked like Jason.  So let it be.  She let herself be Jason, and strode off purposefully, heading for the hospital.

//Something's happening, and you don't know what it is, do you, Belle Resone?//

Nobody here by that name. Sorry.

He walked to the hospital, sensing dimly a gathering storm.  The warp was active.  This was another stage of the strange war the intruders waged.  The hospital was not the hospital.  The street was not the street.  Like traveling between air and water, he stepped onto the street and everything was different.  Yet he couldn't tell exactly how it had changed.  Everything looked the same.  Change of refractory index-- inside, it was the same. It was the outside that was different.

Jason was afraid.

He wanted to be Resone again.  Resone was sheltered under ice, cold and insulated from fear.  But Resone couldn't do this.  They were looking for Resone, so she could never walk in directly under the eyes of the receptionist.

"Young man, where are you going?"

The receptionist was a pinched and dusty old lady with piercing glasses and the smell of moldy fish, not quite drowned by antiseptic chemicals.  "I'm visiting someone," he said.

"It's not visiting hours," the turtle-mouth snapped.

A stained clockface on the wall read a dreary four o'clock.  "When are visiting hours?"

"Not until five."

Hands of the clock spun, aged and rusty things responding to Jason's will.  He was dominating, not like passive Resone.  He was free to act, to control.  "But it is five," he said.

"It's only--" The receptionist glanced up.  Jason worked the same alchemy on her watch as she looked away, so it confirmed the lie. "That's strange.  Where does the time go?"

"The time eaters get it," a tall black man said, and laughed at his own joke.

"Who are you here to see?" the receptionist asked.

The lobby was filled with people, loud and chaotic.  Old smelly women with bulging black handbags as weapons against the world.  Young women in loose t-shirts with huge breasts and screaming dirty children clinging to them.  Snot-nosed brats of 11 or so flinging slingshot spitballs at each other. Dirty unshaven men in undershirts with beer bellies.  And the black man with the spiked dreadlocks, the mishmash mismatched clothing that covered plaid, solids, spots, in bright and loud colors, a ridiculous leisure suit and a ridiculous bowtie, askew, over a Day-Glo yellow shirt.  The man with the piercing grin.

//Something is happening, but you don't know what it is-- do you, Belle Resone?//

Jason pulled a name and a number out of the air.  "Room 23B," he said.  "Rachel Buscaglia.  I'm her brother."

"You have to be over 14."

"I'm 15.  I'm short."

//You're also a girl, girl-child.//

Shut up.  I'm a boy.  "Can I see her?"

Unable to find another reason to prevent him, the receptionist muttered, "I suppose so. Elevators are back that way."  She gestured vaguely.

Jason lost it as he left the waiting room.  The man in the mismatched clothes was following him, and a surge of fear swamped him. Be Resone, cold, controlled. Resone turned to face the man, safe behind a thin but strong layer of ice.  "Excuse me, why are you following me?"

"We're going to the same place," the man said cheerily.  "I'm Rachel's brother, too."

Resone frowned. "Rachel who?"

"Rachel Buscaglia. You remember, girl-- or maybe you don't, oh well.  But we're going to the same place.  You're gonna need help."

"I don't need help. I don't know you."

"I'm the March Hare."  He grinned broadly.  "Also known as the Cat Who Walks Through Walls.  That was a book by Heinlein, long time ago.  Good book."

"Who are you?"

"Who are you?"

"Resone.  I'm Resone."

"I like your first name better."

"What?"

"Belle. Bella.  Beautiful.  Vous erez La Belle Dame Sans Merci, n'est-ce pas?  The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy.  Ah, Bella."

Resone stiffened. "Don't call me Belle.  I don't go by it."

"Somebody does."

"What?"

"For someone who's supposed to be such a hot esper and have so much on the ball, you can be dense, chère Belle."

"Don't call me that! I'm Resone!"

A white heat threatening to crack the ice.

my belle my beautiful belle come to daddy belle

The ice engulfed.  The anger drained out into the encroaching dark. Why should I care what he calls me?  "I have things to do."

"So do I.  By some strange trick of fate, many of them are the exact same thing as yours.  How's that for coincidence?"

"Hmm.  You're an esper, I take it."

"You know all about me, Bella.  All you have to do is think."

"Perhaps I don't care to."

She headed for the staircase.  Danielle should be found first, because she could hook into the line and find Ayumi. Resone might be esper, but she wasn't a linerider.

"Perhaps not. Where to?"

"Find Danielle."

"Could be rough. I think our friends are about to find you."

"Really." Resone didn't sense any danger-- but then, her senses seemed to be somewhat dulled here. “What am I expected to do about that?”

“Well. You in the mood for a fight, or you wanna hide and keep your powder dry?”

“I think I should hide,” Resone said, looking around. The elevators were coming. 6, 5, 4, on one elevator. 5, 4, 3 on the other. Her eyes fell on a set of double doors that she wasn’t supposed to go through. There.

The March Hare, or the Cat Who Walks Through Walls, or whatever his name was, followed her. “Interesting choice.”

As soon as she was through the doors, she whispered to him. “You are too distinctive. There’s no way I can not be here with you beside me. Go away.”

“Mm, no.” The Hare opened the nearest door. It was an empty examination room, darkened. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t join forces. Hide in here.”

Resone raised an eyebrow. “A fifteen year old girl hides in an empty hospital room with a grown adult, probably in his forties at least, that she doesn’t know. What’s wrong with this picture?”

He sighed explosively. “Bella. Such a correct and careful girl you are. Do it or don’t, but I can’t help you if I can’t talk to you, and we can hardly talk while you’re not here.”

“I think you can talk to me when I’m not here,” Resone said. “I think you’ve done that a few times today.”

A broad grin split his face. “Guilty as charged, but there’s can do the thing, and then there’s can do the thing and still have the juice left to run a mile or jump a fence. C’mon, Belle, I gotta save it for the parkour.”

Resone was used to knowing everything she needed to know. Remain passive, remain quiet, but look at everything. She was legally blind, and her mother couldn’t afford to get her cybeyes – Dr. Okusanya had offered, but for some strange reason her mother hadn’t been willing to entrust the father of a random school friend of Resone’s with doing surgery on her child, even if he was well regarded in a field she knew absolutely nothing about. Imagine that. But she watched everything, and she listened to everything, and if she held still, knowledge just came to her.

This man was an incomprehensible black hole. He was a singularity where knowledge went to die. Resone wouldn’t tolerate that.

With the faintest sag of her shoulders that on anyone else would be an explosive sigh, perhaps with eye roll, Resone went into the hospital room and let the March Hare shut the door.

“I’m going to begin by saying you’re an asshole,” Resone said. “And extremely creepy.”

“Oh, now ‘asshole’ I’ll own to, but when you say ‘creepy’ it sounds less eldritch horror and more Uncle Grabbyhands. If that’s what you’re picturing there then you got it all wrong.”

“You keep calling me by a name that’s not mine. You’ve referred to me as ‘beautiful’ and ‘the beautiful lady without mercy.’”

“A man can’t make a play on words about your name? I was joking, child. Have I touched you? Looked at you anyplace below the chin? But I’ll admit, I’m not used to dealing with kids, and I’ve been around a long time. Was a time they’d have strung me up for talking to you, white girl… if they could catch me. I’m gonna talk the way I know how, but I don’t mean nothing creepy about it. Unless you mean creepy like Slenderman or the man hook door hand story. In which case I absolutely mean it.” He grinned.

“Are you going to call me by my name?”

He sighed. “I suppose. You know, a fellow has as many names as I do, he doesn’t get so hung up on them. And you’ve got a lot of names, too, but then again… I’m guessing you don’t. Can’t read you as well as I’d like, to tell the truth.”

“The feeling’s mutual.” Indefinable pressure. Time, pushing at her, and a sense that space was congealing around her. If she didn’t move soon she never would. “Who are the enemy?”

“Well, chère, thereby hangs a tale.”

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

This is all I have on a story called “Welcome to the House of Fun”. It’s quite old; I had to revise a good bit, mostly for cultural reasons (Ayumi’s dad, for instance, originally had a name that was African, but it was an African woman’s first name and the last name is a word but not a name, mostly because in the 90′s and early 00′s we did not have the resources for research that we do now.)

The time stamp on the file before I started working on it claimed I started this in 2001. I’m pretty sure it’s older. Ayumi, Danielle and Resone are a trio of teenage heroes (do not call them magical girls) who are essentially a mishmosh of elements from other stories. In Ayumi I’m counting Asamiya Saki from Sukeban Deka, Cyborg from Teen Titans and The Major from Ghost in the Shell, at least.

There is some stuff in here that is very, very 90′s, DC Vertigo-inspired, that I am likely to pull back on. I may rethink what’s going on with Resone, or maybe not. 

[evien-stark]

✧I Need You✧ Chapter 95

“Café ou thé?” Tony’s work around, his gentle hand, asking you in a wonderful purr of french- coffee or tea? The two of you had been working on your … traumas, and when phrased like this, there was no spike. No extra voice in your head. No remembering of the immense pain. Just the sound of his voice and a simple question. One you could answer without thinking too much. 

“Tea, please.” 

Though the vacation didn’t have an end date (and officially didn’t even have a start date, to be fair), you both knew it was coming to a close, soon. Which was fine. You couldn’t stay hidden from the world and all your responsibilities forever. Much as you would have liked to. 

When he came around the small table, interrupting your view of the forest and mountains beyond, you tipped your head up, accepting the press of his light kiss at your forehead as he settled a mug of freshly steeped tea in front of you. This was what your life was supposed to be. This was how you wanted to be. It just wasn’t meant to be. 

So you had to enjoy it now. And in between little touches of lips and snuggles, tea and coffee gone, you asked, “Can we go on a hike?” There was just so much scenery facing you since you’d gotten here. It seemed a waste to just look at it once and never actually enjoy it. 

“You going native on me?” 

A little joke, a short shared huff of laughter. And then on a hike the two of you went. 

It had just rained- a freezing sort, entering into December now. (Truly a very long lived- deserved vacation.) Maybe it hadn’t been the smartest idea. But you pulled him over one path, and he tugged you over the next. Birds were still singing here, somehow. Or maybe it was just your imagination. The thing that mattered was it smelled earthy, it felt good. Most of your life now was surrounded by screens and walls that trapped you. Just being able to look up into a massive lush sky…

It was as he’d moved to sit on a log, a few hours into such a freeing walk, that you stepped out over a ledge. Holding to yourself as you looked down. 

Something blew by you as you closed your eyes. And saw… just the two of you. No one around for miles. Except… 

You could have sworn you’d heard him speaking to you- something garbled and soft. Turning, arms folded, you gave him a curious look. “Did you say something?” 

He arched a brow. “You hearing things?” 

“Must have been the wind.”

                                                        ----

Since Tony had fulfilled your only ask by way of returning to nature for a handful of hours, before you were due to set off, he asked you to accompany him around Tokyo. You knew this would be a bad decision. There wasn’t anywhere the two of you could go that was that full of people that you wouldn’t be seen. 

Which is exactly what had ended up happening. More than once groups of people surrounded the two of you, asking for pictures and autographs. If Tony wasn’t acting like such a shutter-darling, soaking up all the attention (especially when asked to do the famous Iron Man pose), you might have had a problem with it. The longer it went on, the more suspicious you grew. Did Tony want to go out only to get seen? But the real reason for the outing became clear when he took you to a small shop, tucked away from all the screams and shouts, all the hustle and bustle. There he made light conversation with a very old shopkeeper by way of JARVIS for translation (Japanese not his strong suit without assistance, which was fine, you didn’t speak it at all). Once all was said and done he was presented with a very old but beautiful tea set, which the shopkeeper wrapped up so gently in pretty black and silver paper. 

Once Tony paid and had it under his arm, he turned to you with one of those softer smiles of appeal. “Mind if we hit DC on the way back?” Ah. 

So, very easily you let him know, “Of course not.” 

You had a floral arrangement prepped alongside a minimal yet somehow grandiose dinner, as per Tony’s instructions, and called ahead to the nursing home to have them clear a part of the cafeteria for you. The table was wonderfully set, quite cozy and almost… like a home. And the two of you stood, his arm around you a little tight- that small yet steady thrum of anxiousness and that sadness he tried to bury swirling about as a nurse helped Peggy in and sat her down. 

As she looked up at him, her hazy eyes lit up. “Oh- Tony- I didn’t know you were stopping by. I thought they were marching me out for some grand final moment in the courtyard.” Chuckling, truly delighted to see him. 

You let him go, standing back, so that he could give her one of those quick squeezes, a little peck on the cheek, and the low voiced, “It’s good to see you, Aunt Peggy.” 

“You’re as handsome as ever. Like your father- don’t tell him I said that. Getting into all sorts of trouble, I’ll bet.” Giving him a pat on the face, really looking at him as he sat down beside her. “How is Howard? And Maria? I feel like I don’t see them much anymore.” 

The painfulness hit you, like a sharp poke in the chest. “They’re fine. Hey- I got you something-” Trying to cut off the cyclical repetition of an aging mind. 

“Oh- you didn’t have to do that- and this dinner- that’s you, too, isn’t it. You’ll make the staff work too hard.” She took hold of the carefully handpicked present he’d brought from her. 

“That’s what we pay them for.” Sarcastic as ever in the face of it all. When he half turned to give you a look over the fact that you were sort of awkwardly just standing there, you moved to sit down. You’d spoken to this woman a few times now, a little more personally the first you’d ever met her, but… it never stopped being hard. 

And as soon as you got comfortable, she looked up at you. “Oh, hello. Who’s this? Don’t tell me you got another assistant.”

“Hi, ma’am-” You’d done this introduction more than once. It never stopped being difficult. 

Though she smiled, she looked at Tony. “What happened to Pepper? I always thought-” 

“Pep’s fine. Working hard, like always.” He gave her a little gentle touch at her arm. And then… just like the sparse times you’d done this before, he reintroduced you. You sat there, hoping the clouds would dissipate, but knowing they wouldn’t. “-my girlfriend.” 

“Girlfriend, goodness. When are you getting married?” Waving a hand at the both of you. 

At this he smiled. “For once, I don’t think that’s up to me.” 

She put her hand down over yours. “He’s a fine man. For the most part. If you can tolerate that mouth every now and again.” 

You couldn’t help your giggles. “Truer words have never been spoken.” 

“Hey, thanks.” He put his elbow on the table, and settled his chin in his upturned palm. 

“Oh- this is gorgeous- thank you-” Peggy had finally unwrapped her tea set. And yet, seemed a little more preoccupied with the conversation at hand. “I mean what I said, you know. And if he gives you trouble, send him here. I wasn’t afraid to put him in a corner when he was a boy, I’m not afraid to, now.” 

“Oh?” Wanting to hear all about that. 

“Yes- well. It takes a village to raise a child right- especially a boy- especially a boy like Tony.” And while said boy was about to try and cut this off, you felt the slip, and she put her hand on his arm next. “How are Howard and Maria? Are they coming? And Mr. Jarvis, and Ana… I feel like I haven’t seen them in a while.” 

Tony put a firm hand over hers, giving her a squeeze. “They’re alright, Peggy. Everyone’s okay.” 

“I love it when I get to see everyone… and Daniel- do you know… I think… I think my room has been empty for a long time…” 

There was a flutter of panic- first from Tony. “Dan’s okay, aunt Peggy. Everyone is okay. Hey- are you hungry? I think somebody actually went outside and shot this turkey, so we should probably-” Then from her. “Daniel- I think… I think my room is empty-” 

“Hey, look at me, okay?” It took all your fortitude to sit through this. As Tony placed a hand on her face, turned her to look at him. “Everything’s alright.” You weren’t sure what to do. Or, more importantly, if you should do something. But… watching the both of them struggle… 

You slipped. You went deep. And with that bright orange sky cast above you, you settled a hand on Peggy’s heart. Everything is okay. Everyone is okay. Imparting calm and a wash of ease. 

And when your vision cleared, you saw her smiling at Tony. Her trembling had stopped. They were talking about something, though the words were muffled. Underneath the table, you held your hands together tightly. “Dear?” But she called your attention forward, and you saw the both of them looking at you. “I’m g̴o̸i̶n̵g̴ ̸t̷o̵ ̷m̸a̸k̸e̵ ̵t̸e̸a̸. W̴̱̊ö̴͚̘́̿̂ͅu̵̢̾̈́̎l̸̲̇d̵̤̑ ̴͓̔ý̴̏̄ͅo̸̯͝ū̷̫̯̳ ̵̟̇́̔l̶̩̝͊ī̵͜k̶͖̕e̸̩͋͝ ̴̱̦̩̏̀́s̴͚̏̈́̓ǫ̶͇͒̌m̷̢̙͉͗̔̏ḛ̷̺̀?̴͚͉̔̓͑?̸?” It came out in dark static. That accent-

You swallowed hard. And held yourself steady through the rise of urgent panic. Tony was dealing with enough. And who knew- if you spiraled, you could potentially kill Peggy. 

“Yes- that would be… that would be nice…” Be strong. Be strong… 

                                                       ----

Once outside the facility, Tony took your hand in a grip that threatened to crush your bones. But you let him. Because it grounded you. It wasn’t until the two of you were back on the jet, still hand in hand, your gaze out the window, that he finally spoke- “Thank you. For everything you just did back there.” 

You found yourself nodding mindlessly. “Yeah.” 

“I’m sorry. I should have realized- I should have thought-” About to apologize for the monumental gaff of accidentally inviting you to tea time with his sick aunt. 

“Hey… who is Ana?” But now you were the one cutting off a wave of panic, with the undertow of heavy guilt. Because. Honestly. Right now? You just couldn’t handle it. “Ana was Jarvis’ wife.” 

Along with Howard and Maria… Tony’s life had been laid bare. A string of accidents and tragedies had left him alone for a very long time. A continual cycle until it had just been him in a big house with a familiar voice… his hand had clutched to yours so hard, so suddenly, probably thinking the same thing. Visiting the one face that had been such an integral part of his growing up, yet was doomed to not be able to grasp the losses they’d all suffered. 

The people who had raised him. All gone now. That was the way life was, wasn’t it? But the other man she’d been the most concerned about… it seemed fairly obvious. You put a hand over his to try and ease the grip he had on you. He apologized when he realized, by way of lifting your hand to press a kiss to the back.

In the silence you dared to ask. Just to get the whole picture. Finally.

“Who is Daniel?”

“Dan was Peggy’s husband.” 

“Oh.” 

You wondered briefly if Steve knew about that, considering… 

                                                       ----

Really none of your business. But- as if you’d invited more storm into your house- the minute that you and Tony had gotten back, the man in question was practically waiting to pounce. Your elevator had only just exited on the top floor, you had only just stepped out, gone into the kitchen for a glass of water with Tony- and then the telltale ding hit the floor, and the two of you stepped around the bend to see him standing there. 

Tony, speaking with a mouth half full of stale cookie (that had been sitting on the counter in a box since you’d left), “You okay, buddy? You look like you ran all the way up the stairs- but- I seem to remember hearing our private elevator just open…” Making no effort to show that he was getting annoyed with all the unannounced visits to what was basically your home. 

There was little hiding the frustration leaking off of him. He shook a weak gesture Tony’s way before pointing your way. “Can I talk to you, please?” Then, also not hiding the look he gave Tony before his eyes came back to you, “-in private?” 

“Oh, good.” Tony answered first, turning back around. “I don’t have to be part of whatever this is. Squabbles over the toilet seat being left up I imagine.” Pressing a little kiss to your temple before departing. There was a quiet message between the two of you here. No secrets, and it had been that way for a long time. So he trusted you to go talk to Steve and deal with whatever this was. And trusted you to talk to him about it if it was serious. And not just over petty living squabbles. 

And with the way Steve was looking at you… “Sure. In the living room okay?” 

“Somewhere more private. If you don’t mind.” 

“Oh.” Although you and Tony had been gone for a month, sure, you had hoped they’d be able to handle themselves. But as usual, the literal second vacation was over, it was back to stress and nonsense. “Sure. Let’s go to my office downstairs.” 

“Thank you.” Curt with just as sharp a nod. 

Holding back a sigh (and practically all your nerves), you stepped in line with him by his side as you called the elevator back. And then got in. And then… waited in terribly strained silence while it descended. Upon opening onto one of the Stark Industries floors, you got out first, and waved off all the people trying to hand you things and ask for stuff. Opening the door to your office, you allowed him in first, and then closed the door behind you. 

As if even this was not enough, after looking around (like he’d never been in here before, which was certainly not the case), he gave you a look. “Nothing we talk about leaves this room, right?” 

He wasn’t just asking to speak to you in confidence. And, understanding that, “LUNA, nothing comes in or goes out for the next twenty minutes.” 

She answered fairly quickly, “Yes, ma’am. All channels blocked. Nothing leaves this space.” 

You gestured for him to sit down on the long couch backed up against the wall, and you sat on the plush chair in front of your desk facing him. “Okay. So. What’s the matter?” 

He sat forward, hands clasped together. “What do you know about the Zodiac weapon?” 

Unable to help the curious turn of your head, a few blinks- a little pause for thought- as that didn’t sound familiar but… you had to think about it to make sure. And when you were, “I don’t know what that is. Is it something serious?” 

“It’s a biological weapon.” 

Oh. That was something extremely serious. “Do we have orders to go get it?” 

“No need. SHIELD already has it.” The look he was leveling your way was icy. It put you in your place for a moment. It wasn’t just frustration now. It was pretty white-hot anger. “Swear to me you don’t know anything about it.” 

It felt very much like he was accusing you of something, and it was hard not to immediately get defensive. “I swear, Steve. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Giving this room to breathe, keeping your eyes on his. You weren’t sure what was going on (although you could guess), but if he distrusted you, it was going to be one step in a long fall downhill. That much you understood. “What’s going on? Should I be worried?” 

He stared at you for a few seconds longer before his eyes closed for a moment as he dropped his head in a shake. “No more so than you and Tony usually are. I know it feels like a long time ago but… I feel stupid for giving the two of you grief back on the helicarrier. Even knowing what we found out then… it just never ends.” 

“...Steve?” Really not knowing what to do with that. He was talking about before New York got attacked? 

He looked up at you again, gaze softer, but no less serious. “I think you should step away from SHIELD, effective immediately.” He was trying to protect you from something. But… 

It was starting to get on your nerves. He was refusing to tell you what this was all about. “Why?” 

“You know why.” 

Asking you plainly to put the pieces together, so I don’t have to tell you. But that wasn’t really working for you. And when your dead-eyed stare yielded no results… “JARVIS.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“Tap the SHIELD grid. Get me everything we have on- what did you say?- the weapon Zodiac-” 

Steve put a hand up. “Don’t do that-” 

“These files are encrypted ma’am. Level 8 access or higher.” 

A small silence came over the room. You were looking at Steve. Steve was looking at you. And then you made your next move, “Give me clearance.” And by that you meant- just go in there and take what I need. 

“Yes, ma’am. Allow me a moment, please.” 

Steve stood up suddenly, hands tight at his sides. “This isn’t necessary. Look- I’m just asking you to stay out of their business for the time being. I went out on a mission for them and came back with something I didn’t like.” 

You stared up at him, crossing one leg over the other, putting your hands on your knee. “I don’t play games with half of the pieces. You should know me better than that. You wanna tell me what’s going on?” 

“Just listen to me-” 

“I would if you’d say anything.” 

“Ma’am.” JARVIS stopped your bickering. “Mr. Stark now has the files.” 

And at that you really bristled. “I didn’t say send them to Tony, JARVIS-” 

The door to your office opened, and in walked, wouldn’t you know it- “Yeah, well. Mr. Stark doesn’t like being kept in the dark. Also- you have your own programs, why’re you ordering JARVIS around?” Tony, with a tablet in hand, scrolling over whatever it was JARVIS had unearthed. 

“That way if he gets caught I can blame it on you.” Joking, of course, but you smiled oh so sweetly up at him. 

JARVIS spoke above you, “I never get caught.” 

Tony came to a stop in front of your chair and turned the tablet your way, handing it down to you. Although his eye roll was directed skyward. “Oh please.” 

Steve was getting upset. “Alright, I’ve had just about enough of this- I was trying to do you a favor-” 

You tried to tune him out, but when that wasn’t working, you just started reading aloud. As you did, Tony turned towards Steve, arms folded, narrowing his eyes. “The weapon known as Zodiac was recovered by Agent Margaret Carter in New York City, from a small band of movers, destination unknown. Agent Carter disobeyed direct agency orders to carry out the mission alone.” Reading this part purposefully, as it dampened Steve’s fire and quieted him. Perhaps a terrible thing to do but… 

Taking a breath, you continued. “Zodiac is an incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous weapon, capable of destroying an entire city. Compound list… ingredients…” Skimming through stuff you didn’t understand. “Zodiac listed on record as destroyed effective April 1951- under authorization of Howard Stark and Agent Carter... Moved to bunker facility for further…” 

Feeling like you just couldn’t finish the rest of it. What was the point? It was clear what was going on. When you looked up from the tablet, you caught Steve and Tony just looking at one another. ...as always… haunted by ghosts of a past they could not change. Yet it seemed like every time they encountered them, it was all entangled. 

As per his silent request earlier, to kill the maddening silence in the room, you put the pieces together. “Someone stole it from SHIELD. And they told you to go get it.” 

Steve looked away. “Not just me. Rumlow and Nat. Both of them knew the truth about the whole thing.” Shit. Rumlow you really couldn’t have cared less about. A STRIKE team lackey. But… Natasha getting on Steve’s bad side was bad for everyone. He finally looked your way again after a deep breath. “They’re trying to justify it as a security measure. That by putting it on record as destroyed, no one would come looking for it.” 

Tony scoffed. “Yeah. Why not just actually destroy it?” Bitterness dripping off him. You reached a hand up to sooth over his leg. He stopped holding to himself so tightly, but he was still incredibly annoyed. “This is SHIELD’s MO. You can’t tell me you’re surprised.” 

Why not destroy it? Because maybe they’d have use for something that could level a city. Some day. Yeah. That was the SHIELD you knew.

And at this? Steve shook his head. “Not surprised anymore just…” 

“Disillusioned.” You finished for him. It was always one step forward ten steps back with them. At what point was it going to stop? “So what do you wanna do about it?” You could bring it to Fury. Get yelled at for digging around. And… then what? Probably nothing. But you didn’t want to just leave Steve hanging. 

He shook his head again. “Nothing. I just want you to stay out of their way for a while. ...they wanted you on the mission. It was a good thing you were gone. Both of you.” Redirecting his gaze to Tony. Something softer. Like he’d been thinking about this. A lot. “What would have happened if we’d lost control? You think SHIELD would admit they were at fault?” 

Tony’s head tipped forward, a curve of his brow in what was definitely the most dryly sarcastic look he could muster. “What are we doing here? Playing least-likely-scenario? SHIELD will admit they’re wrong about anything the day you do.” 

“Hey, I’m not above admitting my mistakes.” Putting his hands up. “Just before you walked in I was saying-” 

“It doesn’t matter.” You put a stop to the both of them. Because it really just didn’t. Tony poking at Steve’s supposed righteousness wasn’t going to help. Even if it was somehow in a fond manner. “Look- I work for SHIELD, same as you do. If I stop taking Fury’s calls about that kind of stuff, he might get suspicious.” 

Tony shrugged. “Let him. When he decides to show face, I’ll let him know about the extensive life insurance policy we have out, and in the event of a negligent death on their end-” 

Finally you stood, rubbing a hand between his shoulder blades. “Okay. Alright. We’re not going there.” He was getting just a little worked up. “Also I thought they wouldn’t provide payout considering our lifestyle.” 

He half grinned at you. “Not for both.” 

“Wait- so which one of us has one?” Confused now. He was probably joking either way but- 

Steve cleared his throat. “Look- I actually have somewhere I need to be. Can I just get a little resolution here?” 

Looking his way, Tony threw him another look. “What do you want us to say? We’re surprised SHIELD sent you on a mission they preordained with their secretive bumbling? Or that-” 

“I just want her to stay out of their field work for a while. Until I can get a better sense of who we’re working for. Who we trust.” 

“You and me both.” 

It was impossible to hold back your sigh. “I appreciate the both of you looking out for me. I’ll… try to keep extra busy. And put Fury’s calls through to voicemail. Okay? But… don’t start hammering at the walls here. And… go easy on Nat, alright? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say she probably put in a scathing report.” 

“I’m not ready to call it quits. With anyone. Just… keeping an eye out. I promised to keep things clean between us. I meant it.” 

Whether or not what she did was right, Natasha worked for SHIELD. At a deeper level than the rest of you did. And had for a long time. And… as you understood it, owed them a lot. She was no fool, either. If this had been a stupidly dangerous mission, caused over foolishness and ineptness by SHIELD (especially by Fury), you were sure she had gone to Nick’s office and told him exactly how she’d felt. 

Tony shrugged, arms still folded. “Debrief right into a shredder, I’m imagining. Nothing in the world changes over word documents. Especially not that world.” 

Looking towards Steve you gave him a little nod. “Thank you. For telling me all this.” 

At that his brows lifted. “I didn’t.” Then he smiled. “But you’re welcome.”

Stepping closer to him, Tony held out his hand. And when Steve put his hand in Tony’s and gave him a firm shake. “Thanks, Captain.” They sized each other up respectfully, in that way the always seemed to, and then Steve turned to leave. When the door was closed, Tony stuck his hands in his pockets, looking at you. “What did he mean by that- keep things clean?” 

You recalled it easily. “When I was watching him at the Retreat- when we snuck out that one night-” 

“When I let you out, you mean, yes I remember.” 

“-a paparazzi snuck up on us. And I… mildly persuaded him to go back to his car and delete his footage. Steve kinda figured out what was going on, and thought I was put there to manipulate him.” 

Tony huffed out a laugh, coming closer. He put his arms around your shoulders, drawing you in. “As if you need the thing to manipulate anybody.” And when you arched a brow at him, hoping he wasn’t insinuating anything terrible, he just grinned. “All you have to do is bat those big eyelashes at somebody and they’ll work for you for free. Believe me. I’m a first hand witness.” 

“Excuse me.” You feigned offended, pressing your hands against his chest. “You better not be talking about what I think you’re talking about.” 

“Okay- well- in this instance- I put you to work for me- but I think it applies-” He leaned in, nose nuzzling against yours. 

It was a shame that he so easily drew giggles from you, but you attempted to stave him off. “I think you’ve been with me too long- is four years too long? You’re starting to view everything from a very romantic lens. And let’s not forget- you were fucking anything that moved for sport back then.” So. He was wrong, in this instance. He didn’t need to rewrite history. You loved him all the same. 

“Not you.” 

“You tried.” 

“Not hard enough.” Silencing your continued giggles as he leaned in, pressing his lips to yours. You indulged him, wrapping your arms around his neck, sinking in easily. You’d only just come back from a vacation all to yourselves, full of moments like this- like this, but no single one the same. Yet there was still always room for more. As he barely parted, his murmur caught you feeling flush. “I told you… it’s always been you.” 

“What���s gotten into you?” Not that you minded by any means. But… all things considered, you both had just been told something very serious. And here he was acting like he’d barely paid any attention, and all that had mattered was- 

“Not four years- do you realize we’ve known each other a decade?” He said these words in between kisses that were growing longer and longer in length. “I had a feeling- while we were gone but… I had to check my math…” 

“Ten years, really? Has it been that long? ...you’re sure?” 

“I’m always sure.” His smile pressed to yours. It was that  charming confidence, mixed with just this overwhelming feeling of adoration, of love, that really swept you away. The next kiss became the last, sealed in a perfect touch of parted lips. His arms pulling you that much closer to him, yours winding tighter around his neck, pressing yourself against him. It was just as your head was growing dizzy, the faint sound of a deep murmur in the back of his throat- 

Interrupted by the sound of your office door opening, and Pepper’s voice- “I tried to keep a giant workload off your desk but I need you to- oh!” The two of you broke apart, and while you, guilt and heat pooling in your cheeks alike, directed your gaze away-

Tony was looking at her rather vexed. “Excuse me- didn’t I teach you a long time ago that a closed door means knock?” 

“God- I’m- I’m sorry- also- you two have a whole floor upstairs to yourselves- there’s no reason to- in here? Really?” 

You forced your voice to work. “I’ll get right on whatever it is- can you just give us a minute?” 

She made a bunch of noise, none of which were actual words, until she found some at least. “Yes- fine- but only a minute. And you better not be doing that when I come back.” Very quickly she shut the door behind her. 

A sigh escaped you. “Back to work.” 

“Or we could take her suggestion and go upstairs.” 

Despite yourself, he poked yet another round of giggles out of you. Maybe it was just how lightheaded you were feeling. “I don’t think that’s what she was suggesting.” 

“I’m taking creative liberty here.” 

Reaching up to cup his cheek in your palm, you drew him down closer again, leaving a carefully sweet kiss on his lips. “Later. And… thanks for coming to my rescue.” It was no coincidence he’d come running down here after seeing you’d been accessing deep SHIELD files- after being toted off by Steve. It wasn’t because he thought you couldn’t handle it.

It was all too easy to see he’d literally rushed downstairs to check on you. Make sure things were okay. Or get you out of the situation if you needed out. “Always.” Murmured against your lips. 

Time enough for one last kiss. 

[creatingnikki]

Dearest Yvonne,

You know, I have been reading a lot of Asian Literature lately – Korean, Japanese, Indian, and more. One trend that I have noticed, and one that I personally relate to, is the dilemma between traditional values and Western ones. When you grow up reading, watching, and listening to Western books, movies and TV shows, and songs, you start to live a sort of parallel life.

Until I was 15 years old I genuinely believed that I would have a prom at school despite knowing full well that our schools here have no such concept. But it seemed so inconceivable to me to not have a prom because that’s literally one of the major rites of passage I associated with teen years and high school. This is just a silly little example but there are several tiny thoughts, preferences and beliefs like these that were so in contrast to my life here in India.

Another personal dilemma? Language. The first language I ever learned was English. It’s the language I am the most comfortable in and the language in which I think my thoughts. The second language I learned was Hindi. The third language I am learning now is Korean. Now, growing up a lot of stupid children at school made fun of me because I couldn’t speak Hindi as well as I could speak English. They accused me of having an accent and of not being from India. The more they teased me, the less Hindi I spoke. It started to become foreign to my tongue to a point that when I started to try speaking it again, I felt awkward and the words flowed in a very robotic, unnatural way.

Then, two years ago when I was in my final year of college and was trying to figure out the herculean task of what to do with my life after graduation, I saw a lot of YouTubers who were as interested as me in the Korean culture go to South Korea and teach English in school. I was like, yes! That’s it! That’s exactly what I am going to do. So, I do some research, I go to the official website of that program in South Korea and then my heart breaks because I am, as an Indian, not considered a native English speaker. Yes, I cried and perhaps threw a few things around in my room in my frustration. But honestly, it was more like heart break. So, basically the language I have been using since I learned to speak, the language that feels like home to my tongue, the one that I use to articulate my thoughts, my feelings, my existence basically…that’s never going to be considered mine?

You can bet that brought a lot of emotional turmoil and questioning of who I am and where I belong and what I should be. But the point is that the reason I hate questions like…describe yourself in a few words…is because I can’t. I can’t and don’t even want to try to fit myself into a one-dimensional, concrete, suffocating narrative. I don’t want some lousy adjectives to be all that I am because that’s a lie. I don’t want to have to choose one culture over the other. I don’t want the language I speak to limit me. See, this is the point where I am not able to clearly articulate myself because there’s so much emotional baggage on this one but what I am trying to say is that I have learned a few things about what home is…it’s not a person and it’s not a place. It’s a feeling. A feeling of comfort with myself. With who I am, where I am and how I am. And I am rarely ever home but even for the brief period that I am, it’s the best place to be.

But that, of course, is poetry. Home inevitably comes to also mean places and what I am realising after embracing so many cultures and values and meanings of home is that you don’t have to pick one. We are truly the lucky ones if we can call two places home. And sure, it won’t be physically possible to be at both at the same time but to go away from one place, that is home, and to arrive at another that feels like home too…that has to be the most beautiful thing right?

I lost my meaning of love too. A long, long time ago. And while time may heal and teach you a few things, it hasn’t found me my meaning of love yet. And I don’t think time will be the one to do that. I will have to. But until I do, I know my brain who just wants to protect me automatically associates pain and heartbreak with love. I know that isn’t right, that isn’t what love is. The Love Project is a way of me proving that to my brain. Hearing other people’s lives, beliefs, love history and values and experiences…I can provide it the factual evidence that it needs to deny the misconception that love is pain. I know that I can’t gain my meaning of love from that of others. And I’m not trying to do that anyway. I am first trying to get my brain on my side. And may be by going through other people’s answers and their love letters, you can also help your brain with that.

Work and love are two important things when mixed together can become very problematic and I know you already know that. About not falling in love with people who we are not meant to…I have only ever fallen in love with such people so I don’t even know what to tell you other than that I hope you can find clarity soon. Clarity is such an underrated thing in life. We focus on everything but it not realising that if we achieve that it makes most other things in life a piece of cake. I hope you find yours in time.

Good luck and loads of love,

Nikki

PS I would highly recommend the book Conversations with friends by Sally Rooney. Before I read that book, adultery, for me, was such a black or white thing. I was shocked at the way this book made me see and realise certain things.

PPS I would also recommend one of my all time favourite books – Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer. It’s about two adults who randomly come across each other, two people who souldn’t, and it’s all written in the form of emails that they share. It’s actually a translated book and is originally in German. So, if you know German, wow. You should totally try it in the original text and if you do, do let me know what you think of it.

PPS Yes, I find a lot of my meaning, solace and understanding of the world and people from books and I like to share these pieces of clarity with those I think could make something out of it xxx

I wrote this letter for Yvonne based on some questions they answered. You can read the questions and their answers here.

Guys - I have received 29 people’s responses for The Love Project - 29 days of love letters. So I won’t be accepting anymore, however, you can read other letters here.

I may do this again later in the year and if you would want to receive a love letter from me then, you can drop in your email ID here xoxo

[emoboijk]

MYG | Lo-Fi Beats (03)

Lo-Fi: an aesthetic of recorded music in which the sound quality is lower than the usual contemporary standards so that imperfections of the recording and production are audible.—fluff, angst, idol!au

prologue :: 01 :: 02 :: 03 :: 04 :: 05 :: 06 :: epilogue

1,065 words

p.cred

You arrived at the door to Yoongi’s studio at 7:47 PM, punched in the key code you’d memorized and maneuvered the door open while juggling two large bags of chicken.

“What are you doing here?” He didn’t look up from his computer screen. He knew it was you because you were the only person who: one, knew the passcode and two, was unafraid to use it. (One time, right after the Blood, Sweat, and Tears comeback, Yoongi hadn’t come out of his studio for nearly 24 hours and a manager used the code to get in and check on him...the results weren’t pretty).

“It’s past 7:30, Yoongs - have you had anything today besides that cocoa and some coffee?”

“Fuck, is it really? ” Yoongi rubbed his eyes and turned around in his chair. He ran his fingers through his hair, “I had some water.”

“I brought chicken,” you held up the bags for him to see, and moved to sit at your favorite spot on his couch.

He sighed and stood from his chair, moving slowly across the small room toward you. You leaned over and unpacked the bags as he sat down close to you, his thigh touching yours. Out of habit he leaned against you and said, his voice brimming with love and gratitude and exhaustion, “You’re the best.”

“Yes,” you agreed, holding out a pair of chopsticks to him, “But I won’t feed you, so get up.”

It took less than thirty minutes for Yoongi to devour nearly half of the food. You reached up to wipe a crumb from his chin affectionately, “You shouldn’t starve yourself.”

He shrugged and reached for another piece of chicken, “I don’t do it on purpose. I’m just busy.”

You frowned. You respected his art, loved his art, but you thought there should be a limit to how far he would push himself for it. It was one of the only things you both consistently disagreed on. But you weren’t in the mood to chastise him, he was an adult, after all, he can take care of himself. Instead, you changed the subject.

“So, who was Mr. Heebie-Jeebies? From earlier?”

Yoongi chuckled and swallowed the chicken in his mouth before replying. “Daniel Ito. I guess he’s a big-time producer in Japan? He’s half Japanese, half American.”

You furrowed your brow, “What’s he doing here?”

“He made an offer to Joon and me.”

“An offer?”

Yoongi nodded. He’d been putting off telling you all day because he knew that you would want him to take the opportunity, and he was afraid of how much that might hurt him. He took another second before he couldn’t put it off any longer, “He knows that our contracts with Big Hit are expiring soon, so he made an offer to sign us with a company in Japan. A company that gets lots of international attention.”  

“Woah, what?”

“Yeah. He offered us a ton of money, a contract that would allow us to keep working with BigHit, luxury apartments in Tokyo, creative freedom...”

“Oh,” you nodded. “What did you say?”

“No,” he said nonchalantly, taking another piece of chicken.

“What? Why? That’s an amazing opportunity.”

He shrugged like he hadn’t just turned down a multi-million dollar contract, “Well, I had to stay in Seoul.”

“What for?” you furrowed your brow.

“I mean the boys are here, I’m not ready to give up on BTS. I don’t think I ever will be.” He looked at the ground and fidgeted with his hands. He was nervous.

“Well, you all are going to have to take a break soon, right? Seokjinie is about to enlist, and Japan is pretty close, you could come back for projects.” You were trying to convince him, you could hear yourself trying. It was an amazing opportunity, a way to get his name even further out there, to get him the success and recognition he had always deserved. You were ignoring the sharp pain in your stomach that came at the thought of him leaving; but, it wasn’t about you.

He looked at you, wide-eyed like when you were kids, “But you’re here.” He furrowed his brow like he had said something Earth-shattering. And maybe he had because your heart was beating like a jack-hammer, your mind racing through the implications of that statement.

“Yes...” you said slowly, letting his sentence ferment in your mind.

Yoongi looked at the ground and in a voice smaller than you thought he was capable of, said, “You’re my best friend...I don’t think I can live without you.” He looked up again, and his expression was so serious that it made your breath stop in your chest.

“Yoongi,” you whispered, your hand finding his atop his knee and squeezing his fingers, “You will never have to live without me. I’m—” yours, you would’ve finished, but your phone rang suddenly. A harsh sound compared to the soft whisperings of your conversation. Instead, you flinched and said, “Sorry,” twisting to retrieve your phone from your bag.

“Hello?” you said, the irritation in your voice less than hidden.

“Hello.” You’d only heard the voice once, but you immediately knew who it was. Daniel Ito. Your brow furrowed, and Yoongi tilted his head in question. “I need to speak with you.”

“Excuse me?” you said. Who did this guy think he was?

“About a potential contract. I’m sure Yoongi-ssi has mentioned it to you by now.”

His voice was like a knife being sharpened against stone, and it unsettled you. How did he know Yoongi would tell you about the opportunity? Why did you get the feeling he knew even more than that?

“Yes,” you said.

“I’m still interested in working with him, and I’m sure you want what’s best for him, maybe you can give me some ideas on how to win him over.”

Your mouth was open, but you didn’t know what to say. You looked over to Yoongi, who was watching you with curiosity and a trace of concern. You already knew you would do absolutely anything for him, as long as it was in his best interests.

“Okay,” you said, nodding even though he couldn’t see you.

“Wonderful,” he said, and the sound is almost sinister, “Let’s meet on those benches by the river tomorrow at 9:30. And let’s not bring Yoongi, hmm?” And then the line went dead.

author’s note—cue dramatic music ;)

04: blackmail ↝

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