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athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit · 4 years ago

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Feral Fatality

(Part 2)

I'm supposed to be working on the requests but here I am. Writing nonsense. But its my nonsense so *shrugs*

Pairing: Jason Voorhees x Fem!Reader

Word count: 2.4k

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence (or so I think), Blood (lots of blood), Murder (as usual), Feral side of the reader coming out for a brief moment, and cursing.

—

Three harsh knocks made you flinch and woke you up from your sleep.

"Hey, loser! It's dinner time. Eloiza wants you by the campfire. Now." Layla, one of Eloiza's side girls, stressed. You sat up, rubbing your eyes before you set your book on the bedside table.

"Did you hear me?! I said—"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you alright. I'll be out." You swear the whole camp could hear her with the way she's squawking.

She stomped off, huffing loud.

You chose to stay in your baggy clothes. A black hoodie with a small yin-yang symbol on your left breast with a matching pair of black and white sweatpants, half of your ebony hair tied up in a ponytail.

It was already dark when you walked out, the moon climbing bit by bit up to the sky and subtly lighting your path. You shivered as a chilled breeze went past.

In the distance, you could see a small fire, dancing, swaying its fiery arms. It would have been a nice sight if not for the people around it.

Even from afar, you could see them engaged in a heated session, the smell of cigarettes and pot reached your senses, making you grimace.

"Yo look, it's (Y/N)," one of them said once you were close to the campfire.

Few gave you glances, before going back to their business. You remained quiet, though you noticed five people were missing in the group.

Fucking in the cabins, no doubt.

Eloiza was in the middle, her ass planted on someone's lap while she held a cigarette, both of them sharing and blowing smoke at each other.

Different. Out of place. You regretted coming out here, but if you didn't they'd only harass you in your cabin. Break down your door, and drag you out just to humiliate you. Then it fully dawned on you; no adults or teachers to protect you here, they could kill you if they wish.

You cursed as worst-case scenarios ran wild in your mind.

Damn, I'm gonna die tonight.

"Layla, why don't give her some food already, she's obviously hungry," Eloiza ordered.

"Ugh! Me again? Why can't you let Betty do it?" She was straddling Jake, vice-captain of the rugby team in your school. Layla subtly ground down her ass unto his crotch. The act was uncomfortable and disgusting to you.

Eloiza shot a glare at her, expression grim.

"Fine!" she jumped off, "I'll be right back babe," she whispered not so quietly. It was clear that they weren't in a relationship, only looking for someone to fuck. Lacking the sense of intimacy that lovers have. The air was just full of sexual tension and lust, anyone who's good at reading people would know.

And right now, you wanna vomit.

"While we wait for that hoe to come back, why don't you sit down with us for a bit (Y/N)?"

"Thank you, but I'm fine standing. I'll just take the food and eat in my cabin," you replied. Your smile was fake and your voice, monotonous. You hid your hands in your pockets.

"I insist, let's chat for a bit," she said. The rest of the group ignored you still as they were busy with their...partners.

You blinked and looked at her right in the eyes.

"No."

You refuse to submit to her, you submit to no one. You came to camp to get away from the noise people like her make. Ironically, you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her either.

"What did you just say to me?" Oh, right, Eloiza hates you as much as she hates being disobeyed. Her face turned red, and it wasn't from the fire.

"No," you repeated.

"No?" she scoffed, "I told you to sit the fuck down. I was being kind to you and you de—"

"No, I won't sit down. And no, you were not kind, you just gave me an order and I refused."

The group froze and looked at you, halting their activities. Eloiza shot up, making you raise your guard and take a step back.

Still, you did not expect her to grab a half-burning log and fling it at you.

You barely dodged, the hefty ember grazing the side of your face, burning your skin and some of your black strands. You took a sharp intake of air and staggered back, dizzy and groaning from the pain as you hover your hand on your cheek. Gasps and cheers sounded around you.

"Nobody. Disobeys. Me." she said, accentuating every word. "You're just a useless piece of shit. You think being a smartass will save you? You do realize that I can kill you right here and now, don't you?" Eloiza threatened as she approached you, her eyes burning holes into your head. A hand grabbed her arm, "Babe, you can't murder her! We'll go to jail if you—"

"Shut up, Evan. No one would know what happened here. It's so easy to say a bear attacked and ate her. And who would notice her gone anyway? Everyone knows her parents don't give a shit about her."

She's right, no one would care if I'm gone. Nobody would give two shits if I died.

"But—"

"I said shut up, didn't I?! Do you want to die too, huh?!"

"Let her have fun, Evan," Betty commented.

"What the fuck is going on here??" Layla was back, carrying a bowl of soup.

While they were preoccupied, you twisted on your heel and bolted, your vision spun but you didn't stop. While a handful of traitorous thoughts tells you to drop dead, that you should just die than prolong your suffering, your heart didn't. Yes, not a soul cares about you, but you have yourself, your books, and your art. There was no fucking chance in hell you'd let them have their way with you.

You raced to your cabin and slammed it open, closing it in the same fashion and locking it in place. Your face was throbbing, stray tears stained your cheeks as you searched for a handkerchief to wet and cool your burns.

You eventually managed to lessen the pain, thanking yourself for bringing skin ointment. Your hands were shaking as you applied it to your skin, whimpers escaped your lips as it stung a bit. You took deep breaths to calm your heart down...

In. One. Two. Three. Out. Repeat.

—

Jason Voorhees stood in the shadows as the scene took place.

A girl was telling you to sit, and you refused politely, yet she asserted.

The others ignored you until you outright said no.

Was it so surprising to hear one word from your mouth that the whole group turned to you?

The girl snapped, took a burning log by its safe edge, and threw it at you. It hit your cheek and you staggered backward.

His grip tightened around his weapon as alarms rang in his head, an overwhelming urge to protect you arose. You did nothing wrong and that woman harmed you.

She was shouting, threatening to end your life. A man stopped her but...

Jason heard what she said, the words only made his sight darken with rage. What did she mean by "your parents 'don't give a shit' about you"? Did they not love you as a parent should to their child?

He sees you dash back to the cabin in haste and silently praises you for taking the chance to escape, he wouldn't want you to see what he'd do to them. The killer watched for a little longer only to make sure they wouldn't follow and hurt you again.

With you out of the way and safe, he emerged out of hiding. He threw an ax with precision, splitting open one's head like a coconut, the blood spattering on the ones nearby. In an instant, they shrieked in terror, their faces turning pallid, terrified as they scattered in different directions.

The hunt begins.

—

You broke out of your trance when the screams reached your ears.

Oh.

You were no fool of course. You knew the legend about Jason Voorhees was true, just from looking into the cases of mass disappearances, bodies never seen again. With no evidence, no one believed it, thinking it was just an old story to scare people away, a silly myth.

Nobody, except for one little you.

Well, maybe there was somebody else but you know what I mean.

It wasn't hard to connect the dots. There were two conclusions you came up with;

Either the killer was real or the people found themselves in the stomach of a monster.

You preferred the former, honestly.

Somehow, you expected this to happen. It was part of the reason why you came with them even though you knew the possibility. Risking your life in the process just to see him with your own eyes.

Wow, what's happened to me...

You sat up on the floor and as if on cue someone pounded on your door.

"(Y/N)!! (Y/N) Let me in! Open the door and let me in!"

By the sound of it, it was Betty.

You ignored her pleas, she deserves to get torn in half for being the bitch she was...

Wait.

Why not do it yourself?

A glance at the toolbox was all it took for you to stand up and take out a screwdriver. You approached the door, Betty still pleading for her life behind it.

"Please, please! I don't wanna die yet! I'm too young to—"

She stumbled forward when the door opened. But instead of a thank you, she screeched as you tackled her to the ground and stabbed her in the eye.

Stab.

Her blood splattered on your clothes and skin as you drove the metal tool into her skull several times. The squelching sound of meat and bones surrounded you together with the deafening pounding of your heart.

Betty had long gone silent. Her face was unrecognizable once you stopped.

Oddly enough, you felt a familiar thrill with what you did. It was the same one when you won your first contest, received your first trophy, and made your first masterpiece. It was a first.

And it was...enthralling.

You sensed someone's eyes on you. You looked up and saw a tall and massive man with a hockey mask covering his face, standing a few meters away, his machete dripping with blood. A glint of blue flickered in his eye for a moment.

Jason Voorhees.

Not knowing what to do and still high in the moment, you waved the bloody screwdriver at him and smiled.

"H-Hey," you uttered out.

The murderer—well, you were a murderer now too— trudged towards you, stopping when a scream to your left cut through the air.

—

Jason honestly couldn't believe what he was seeing. Little you with a little tool, gouging the brains out of the one he was chasing down.

With a screwdriver.

Multiple emotions went through him that moment, he was shocked that you could kill someone with your tiny hands, proud that you just killed said someone that was his prey, and relieved that you were alright.

Wait, were you?

He was snapped out of his thoughts when you waved and greeted him. You just waved and greeted— what? Why weren't you running back inside your cabin? Why didn't you scream at the sight of him? Did you not know him? Was the blood on his clothes and the weapon he was carrying not ringing any bells?

Jason wanted answers and moved to close the distance between you, but then a shrill cry echoed.

Someone got snared in his traps.

He looked at you, your face was dirty with blood, but your eyes were wide open, not of fear, but happiness?

He'll have to finish his hunt first. He gave you one more look before he trudged to the origin of the sound. He'll visit you later, that is if you're still here. He wouldn't be surprised if you used this chance to get out of the place, and he'd let you. You were innocent...different, and the murder you just did was well-deserved, albeit shocking.

It was the one who injured you, the cause of your burn, miserably crawling on the ground as her foot bled through the jaws of a bear trap.

"Help! Please help me!! I'm dying! Somebody help—"

She howled as the killer gripped the source of her pain and dragged her back to the center of the camp, taking the long path on purpose.

Jason was always angry in one way or another every time people came to disturb the place, but this? Oh no, all he sees is red, not a word had been heard from his mother ever since.

He would usually kill them the instant he catches his prey, but he wants—needs— this one to suffer. He knows, more than anyone, how it feels to be an outcast, to be bullied for being different. This hideous woman is going to die slowly, the pain she gave you a hundred times more agonizing.

"Let go of me you fucking murderer!" She shouted, kicking and clawing on the dirt in hopes of stopping him. Jason paid her no mind, his eyes focused on the fire that glowed close.

This bitch will burn to ash.

He stood in front of the campfire and brought up her body over it, her long blonde tresses turned to nothing as she flailed and shrieked pathetically. The killer crushed her legs before he let go, the flames big enough to devour her entirely, scorching her alive.

A yell from behind drew his attention as another one ran towards him, an ax lifted and ready to attack.

"Die you monster!" They shouted, embedding the ax on his shoulder. Jason felt no pain from the shallow wound, only an itch.

What a lousy attack.

Jason pulled out the silly thing and bashed it on his assailant's skull with one heavy strike, crushing the bones beneath. Lifeless, he tossed the body into the fire, the cries died down moments ago, only the smell of burnt flesh filled his nose as the embers crackled remained.

The undead man stalked away, feeling better than before. There were still a few people waiting to be disposed of.

Jason Voorhees will not rest until every single one of them is dead.

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aer-in-wanderland · 4 years ago

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구미호뎐 | Tale of the Nine Tailed - Lost in Translation EP01

In which my sister and I sat down with a pint of mint chocolate chip and wrote down everything that occurred to us while watching the fan-subbed version of TotNT EP01. Contains mild spoilers.

Prologue

We open with an excerpt from the Hyeonjoonggi (현중기・玄中記), which the internet informs me originated in China sometime between 265-317 CE. In Korea in particular, gumiho are typically thought of as being female, but this is an example of a classical text that says they can be either. From what director Kang Shin Hyo said at the TotNT press conference, the premise of TotNT began with the idea of challenging this base assumption by making the gumiho male and placing him in modern-day Seoul. I would translate the passage as follows:

When a fox becomes 100, it can become a beautiful woman, or become a man who has relations with women. A fox that lives for 1000 years communes with the heavens and becomes a cheon’ho (heavenly fox). Its gifts are like that of a powerful shamaness; it can perceive things more than 1000 leagues distant.”

To my sense, the passage was introduced to show precedent for the existence of male gumiho in traditional folklore, as well as to illustrate that foxes over 1000 (cheon’ho) can be closer to deities than monsters.

On to the show. The year is 1999. I’m surprised the subs left ‘Fox Ridge’ untranslated as Yeou Gogae since it seems like it would be relevant information that the place where the accident takes place is somehow tied to foxes.

When the imposter parents (who I believe are also foxes) chase little Ji Ah up into her room and her not-dad says, “You little brat!” (or at least, that’s what the subs we’re watching say), this is an example of what’s called ‘code switching.’ His phrasing is somewhat old-fashioned, which in this case helps to give the impression that he’s not human since it’s the cant of creatures in traditional fairytales. For anyone studying Korean, the line is, “요 년 봐라,” where ‘nyeon’ might mean anywhere from ‘girl’ to ‘wench’ or even ‘bitch.’

Okay, I have to ask. Does no one else in Seoul drive on Fox Ridge? How did Ji Ah have time to go home, get attacked, and then be returned to the scene of the accident (I’m assuming by Yeon) before anyone came across it?

Also, how did Yeon know where to take her? He tells grown Ji Ah that he just happened upon her after catching the scent of blood, but I get the sense there’s more to the story than that. I feel like this is part of a larger pattern wherein Yeon goes out of his way to rescue someone and then pretends as if he didn’t.

Episode 01 Title Card: What Happened on Fox Ridge

According to Yeon’s alarm, our current timeline begins on Saturday, August 29, 2020, and he has a wedding to attend. 2020 yet no COVID19? I guess this really is a fantasy drama. ;p

The BGM playing while Yeon gets ready is called ‘The Fox's Wedding Day,’ or, more literally, ‘day when a fox goes to be married’ (Yeou ga shijip ganeun nal) and it’s actually Yeon’s theme. I was expecting his theme to be the track entitled ‘Gumiho,’ but I guess not lol

The sun-shower. In both Japan and Korea, a sun-shower is known as ‘a fox’s wedding’ (kitsune no yome-iri/yeou ga shijip ganeun nal), so this is already cluing us in that the bride is a fox (I say ‘bride’ because both these phrasings typically apply to a bride marrying into her husband’s house. The phrasing is different for grooms, who ‘receive’ the bride). This is what Yeon means when he arrives at the wedding hall and says, “That’s because a fox is getting married today.”

It’s strange to me that the bride’s identity has completely dropped out of the subs. She’s Yeou Nui (literally ‘fox sister’), a folklore character of the Brothers Grim-style horror school of fairytales. Her thing is that she’s a gumiho who preys on families with only sons who desperately want a daughter. She insinuates herself into their lives, brings calamity down upon them, and finally, eats their livers. Like most fairytales, there are many permutations of her story, but many of them feature her saying she’s consumed 999 livers. I understand where - absent this context - some people might have seen Yeon as the bad guy here (spoiler: he’s not).

The subtitle here for Yeon’s line says: “But you need to know that changing your identity isn’t as simple as you think.” What he literally says is:

Yeon: How did you go to ground so completely? You think that if you change your face and your identity, your blood-stained past will change too, right? But changing lives isn’t as simple* as changing subway lines. [*Note: ‘simple’ is in English]

This is the first real dialogue we get from Yeon, and one thing it’s doing very intentionally is showcasing just how much he’s adapted to modern life. It does this both with the content of what he says (talking about changing subway lines), as well as with the amount of English loan words he tosses around. So I personally would have kept the bit about the subway in if I had been translating.

Yeou Nui’s line was translated as, “Please forgive me,” but it should more properly be, “Spare me,” or “Let me live.” Yeon is an enforcer, not a judge. (Also, ‘forgive’ is another word entirely).

Yeon’s line that’s subbed, “Listen, you fox. How could you dare dream of having a happy ending after eating so many livers?” is the result of what’s called diagonal translation, which is an unfortunate side-effect of subtitling conventions. What he literally says is:

Yeon: Yeou Nui, after eating the livers of countless adoptive parents and older brothers* how can you dream of a happy ending?

[*Note: The word he uses for ‘brothers’ here is 오라비들, which is a semi-antiquated word, and again, the sort of language used in folktales]

Yeon’s line, “Here’s a piece of advice” is more literally, “Here’s a bit of advice stemming from experience,” which is the first hint we get in-drama that he’s been in a similar position.

Nam Ji Ah

We get our first introduction to adult Ji Ah as she narrates the script she’s editing for her TV program on her way to the wedding hall. When Jae Hwan worries about her changing the script without the writer’s permission (again lol), Ji Ah's response translated literally would be:

Ji Ah: Then let’s go with this. PDs’ livers have to be swollen or coming out of their bodies.

That’s a pretty disgusting image in English, so I don’t blame the subs for changing it to something more sensical and less graphic. But as a cultural note, in Korea and Japan, having a large liver means to be gutsy or brave. Ji Ah’s character description similarly describes her as, ‘a woman whose liver is [so large it’s] coming out of her body,’ meaning she’s about as gutsy as it gets.

Okay, call me a cynic, but I loved Ji Ah’s line about not being able to digest wedding food due to the choking atmosphere of forced happiness pfft

Jae Hwan saying, “Who knows? You may meet your destined partner at a place like this,” as Yeon walks by in the background = Jae Hwan unwittingly hitting the nail of the head #1

Lol Yeon acting like a bored kid held captive at a dinner party while the wedding takes place. Bless Lee Dong Wook because I’m sure it’s all ad libbed. I feel like this could be a game: spot the LDW ad lib.

The Wedding Hall Incident

When Yeon returns to her dressing room after the wedding, Yeou Nui changes tactics from begging to putting her hackles up and challenging Yeon. Linguistically, that’s marked by her code switching to an archaic cant. Yeon, however, remains unfazed and responds with the most modern thing possible, completely undermining her bravado:

Yeou Nui: Oh former master of Baekdudaegan, what authority have you to condemn us?

Yeon: Get a hold of how she’s talking (rhetorical). Hey, if it wasn’t for you I would’ve been watching American TV shows while eating ice cream today!

Okay, I love the way Yeon materializes his sword. I thought he was (un-)transforming his umbrella at first, but he later does it with a plank of wood so I assume he can do this with pretty much anything?

On the topic of his sword, I posted a gif set not long ago referring to it as a sa’ingeom (사인검), literally ‘Four Tigers Sword’ (referring to the year, month, day, and hour of the tiger when such swords were supposedly forged). You’ll notice it doesn’t have a cross-guard since they’re traditionally ceremonial swords rather than actual weapons. The first sa’ingeom were made during the reign of King Taejo (1392-1398), but I assume they gave him one despite it being somewhat anachronistic because they’re also said to cut down evil spirits and ward against calamity. Mostly, though, it looks really cool and is very traditionally Korean.

Not for anything, but I love this BGM track that’s playing during the wedding hall fight (‘The Uninvited’). This short action sequence was so great. I wish we could have seen more of Yeon hunting down supernatural baddies. Also more of those gumiho eyes. More gumiho everything in general.

As he stabs her, Yeon’s line to Yeou Nui in the subs was rendered as, “Don’t do something stupid like falling in love in your next time.” I would have translated this as, “If you’re reborn, don’t do something so [useless] as falling in love.” Again, for anyone studying Korean, the phrase is ‘사랑 따위" (sarang ddaui). ‘Ddaui’ means ‘such a thing as,’ and it’s always used to disparage whatever proceeds it. There’s no good way to communicate that disparagement in English grammatically, so I opted for ‘useless’ in an approximation.

The BGM that plays the first time Ji Ah spots Yeon leaving the wedding hall is called ‘White Pupils’ (or literally ‘white eyes’). The imagery typically associated with that is death, so I’m curious what inspired the track title. Maybe they mean ‘white eyes’ like the fortune teller since it’s used at fateful moments?

“Who knows? That may be the story you were destined to cover.” = Jae Hwan unwittingly hitting the nail on the head #2

“Were they mass hypnotized or something?” = Jae Hwan unwittingly hitting the nail of the head #3. Thank you, exposition fairy. ;)

Okay, when Ji Ah and Jae Hwan examine the scene, Ji Ah’s line is subbed, “I need to see what that woman of this love story looks like,” which is ungrammatical in addition to being wrong. What she actually says is:

Ji Ah: I need to see the face of that protagonist of the Romance of the Age. [And I believe the ‘protagonist’ she was referring to is actually Yeon ;) This is bordering on meta, seeing as he’s actually the protagonist of the epic romance that is TotNT]

Kim Soo Oh

The BGM playing while Yeon sits in the park people-watching and then looks pensively at his hand is called, ‘Thread Rings.’ Between that, what LDW alluded to in his VLIVE, and some still cuts I saw of deleted scenes from EP16, I’m convinced there was something more to those rings that got cut due to time constraints. ㅠㅠ

Fun fact: This scene between Yeon and Soo Oh was the first scene of the drama that they filmed.

When Soo Oh asks Yeon what he’s doing there, the sub for Yeon’s response was, “Nothing other than waiting for someone.” That strikes me as off in tone as well as pacing. I would have translated it as, “Just.....waiting for someone.” (which is literally what he says).

When Soo Oh asks Yeon why he’s waiting, the sub says, “Because a fox can only love one person till death.” I don’t really have a problem with that translation, but what he literally says is, “Once a fox takes a mate they never forsake them. Until death.”

Sub: “How are you coping with that?” / “Not well.” > Literally: “Are you okay?” / “I’m not okay.” I actually like the sub here since it better conveys how precocious Soo Oh appears in this scene. He seems to alternate between precocious and adorably dim throughout the drama depending on who he’s with, though when he’s with Rang, it’s mostly the latter pfft

When Yeon turns down Soo Oh’s offer of friendship he says, “Your nose. I’m not big on men with runny noses. And human lifespans are too short to be friends with me.” Yeon's use of ‘men’ struck me as funny since I guess to someone over 1600 years old, an 8 year old and an 80 year old aren’t all that different. Also, Yeon giving serious life advice to an 8 year old is adorable. He talks to him like he’s an adult.

The Afterlife Immigration Office

Between the BGM and the way the camera pans up the endless levels of shelving, did anyone else feel like Yeon entered Hogwarts for a sec? (not complaining) ;)

For the record, Yeon uses banmal with Taluipa and calls her halmeom (granny). In contrast, Hyeonuiong is pretty much the only character Yeon speaks to in jondaetmal and addresses respectfully as ‘elder’ (eoreushin). He speaks to Ji Ah’s parents politely as well, but it’s mainly because they’re her parents.

The text introducing Taluipa’s character wasn’t translated in the version we’re watching but it reads: ‘The god who rules over the River of Three Crossings (Samdocheon), the boundary between this world and the next.’ The hanja for her name (奪衣婆) refer to her traditional role, namely, removing the clothing of the dead for her husband to weigh on the Uiryeong’su (su = tree) to measure the weight of their sins. This is the same tree that the Uiryeong’geom (the wooden sword that appears in EP13), is allegedly carved from.

Lol Taluipa saying she has to keep up with the times but also using a computer that’s positively ancient (come to think of it, it’s probably from the 80s since that’s her favorite decade)

Again, I’m surprised that Yeou Nui’s character name dropped from the subs completely. The subs here just say, ‘the female fox.’

For Taluipa’s line, the subs say, “You’re to obey the order and capture who you’re sent after,” but that’s a loose approximation. More literally, it should be: “If the higher ups say to bring someone in, then you just have to bring them in.” I’m only mentioning it because the line implys that both Taluipa and Yeon report to someone higher up the chain of command. Otherwise they may be misconstrued as Taluipa’s orders.

Yeon’s line, “My compulsory military service has gone on for 600 years. How could I not go crazy?” is hilarious when you consider that Korean men are required to complete 2 years of military service, and even that often feels like an eternity, so I think for any Korean, the idea of 600 years of it is just exceptionally cruel. The line is iconic enough to have been included in Yeon’s character profile.

I noticed this a while back, but ‘mountain god’ is being consistently translated as ‘mountain spirit.’ Technically, Yeon is (was?) a god, if a low ranking one in the grand scheme of things (the Korean word is ‘sanshin’ where ‘san’ = mountain and ‘shin’ = god). I understand the use of ‘spirit’ though, since he’s not a god as gods are typically thought of in western mythologies.

Lol Yeon sticking his fingers in his ears (I would bet money this was also an ad lib)

Taluipa has a line that’s subbed, “Foxes never stay in debt.” More literally, it should be, “They say foxes repay eunhye no matter what.” You can find my explanation of eunhye here.

Wow, the subs really dropped the humour ball on Taluipa’s line here. First off, she says, ‘Right now’ in English. And while the sub says “Do you want your freedom back?” what she literally says is. “Do you want to be discharged?” (since Yeon had just likened his duties to military service).

On his way out, Yeon actually tells Taluipa, “Halmeom, you’re going to go to hell” (which is not the same as the underworld/afterlife as it said in the subs. Taluipa’s job is literally to ferry souls, so she goes to the afterlife all the time anyway). Also, when he says “I’ll pray for it everyday,” his phrasing is that of an elderly person pfft

As I mentioned, Yeon speaks formally to Hyeonuiong, who in return affectionately calls him Yeon-ie or Yeon-ah, which I find adorable.

Lol I’m not used to Ahn Gil Kang playing such a friendly character. Seeing him wheedle Taluipa with aegyo is hilarious.

Code Red

Somewhat of a side note, I can’t help but wonder, is Shin Joo’s last name ‘Gu’ because he’s a gumiho, a la My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (2010)’s Gu Mi Ho-ssi?

I wish the subs had just left ‘Lee Yeon-nim’ as-is, instead of changing it to ‘Mr. Lee.' As a general rule, I’m in favor of preserving character forms of address when translating.

Personally, I would have translated the name of Ji Ah’s TV program as: ‘In Search of Urban Legends’ rather than ‘Unveiling Urban Legends.’

I really like the dynamic between Ji Ah and writer Kim Sae Rom. “Should we fight?” / “Yeah, let’s fight~” How great is it that this drama doesn’t have a single catty, bitchy, stuck-up or otherwise obnoxious female character?

For anyone keeping track, Shin Joo speaks to Yeon in jondaetmal while Yeon speaks to Shin Joo in banmal, underlining their master/retainer dynamic.

Side note: There are actually multiple ‘types’ of jondaetmal: what I think of as ‘neutral polite’ (i.e. simply adding ‘yo’ to the end of all your sentences), the more formal polite (i.e. ending with ~[seu]mnida), that which elevates the subject, and that which lowers the speaker. The interplay of the four allows for varying degrees of politeness. The way Shin Joo speaks to Yeon is pretty much the highest degree. That doesn’t mean they aren’t close. Polite language can indicate distance but also level of regard irrespective of distance. This applies to Rang and Yoo Ri as well.

Again, Shin Joo calls Ji Ah ‘PD-nim’ but that became ‘that female director’ in the subs. PD-nim is a respectful (and non-gendered) form of address, and it’s perfectly suited to Shin Joo’s genial and deferential personality, so I wish the subs had just kept it.

I read an episode recap where the recapper mentioned she wasn’t sure what Shin Joo’s deal was. At the time I was confused, but now I think I get it. In the subs, Shin Joo says, “When I’m a seasoned veteran? I’m now up to the point where I’m wondering if I’ve turned into an actual person.” What he actually says is:

Shin Joo: No way~ How long have I been living in this (the human) world? Recently, I sometimes even have an existential crisis wondering, ‘Am I a person or a fox?’

[So he flat out says he’s a fox here, but that wasn’t reflected in the subs.]

Fun fact: this was Hwang Hee’s first scene that he filmed with Lee Dong Wook, and the BGM as they exit is Shin Joo’s theme.

I love the way Lee Dong Wook played this scene where they pay their tab. That is all.

It’s only as Yeon and Shin Joo exit the restaurant that we see that the sign out front reads ‘The Snail Bride’ (Ureong Gakshi). This is another folktale in-joke, since the snail bride’s whole thing is that she cooks delicious meals for her human husband everyday.

For the record, the Snail Bride (Bok Hye Ja) also uses honorific language towards Yeon and calls him ‘Lee Yeon-nim.’ I just assumed it was in deference to his ex-mountain god status, but it turns out she has a personal reason for holding him in high regard as well that we discover in the final episode.

As Yeon and Shin Joo walk away, Shin Joo’s line is subbed, “That show’s actually quite famous.” Since Korean doesn’t require a subject, the sentence is somewhat ambiguous, but I understood him to be referring to Ji Ah herself rather than the show since he says: “[Something is] really famous around the broadcast station.”

Lee Rang

Lol Kim Beom. How are you 32 years old?

I love how sharp and no-nonsense Ji Ah is. It’s so refreshing to not have to wait for the characters to catch up to what the audience already knows.

Rang’s theme that plays as he transforms back into his suave self is so iconic. The music director (Hong Dae Sung) really is a genius. It’s funny when you think about how different Rang’s theme is from Yeon’s.

Fun fact: Kim Beom shared in his Instagram LIVE that Rang ‘picking the wrong shoes’ was actually intentional. He was testing Ji Ah to see if she’d notice.

Okay, Rang says here that he likes, “everything about her (Ji Ah) from head to toe,” (not in a romantic way but in a grudging respect/she’s fun to toy with kind of way) but what happened to that? Are we supposed to assume that he would have liked her if she hadn’t been the object of his brother’s affection? But he approached her knowing that’s who she was...? I don’t know. I do know I wish they’d had more scenes together. Their verbal sparring is great.

Side note: One Korean fan nickname for Rang and Yoo Ri that Kim Beom liked was ‘Hoket-dan,’ playing off the Korean for pokemon’s ‘Team Rocket’ (Roket-dan) and mashing it together with the ‘ho’ from ‘gumiho’ haha

Yeon’s obsession with mint chocolate ice cream is a hilarious counterpoint to his status as a cheon’ho and his ex-mountain god title. Point to the writer. In Japanese, this would probably be called ‘gap-moe’.

When Yeon tells the man behind the counter, “When I’m indebted to someone, I’m obligated to return the favor,” he’s once again talking about eunhye. As a fox, he’s supernaturally bound to repay good deeds done for him. As far as I’m aware, this is unique to the drama and not part of the traditional gumiho lore.

Yeon eating ice cream like a happy kid XD Lol Lee Dong Wook, how are you 39?

Fun fact: Yeon’s line when he answers Rang’s call, “The number you have reached doesn’t exist, you punk” was an ad lib by Lee Dong Wook. The combination of the formal phrasing found in a typical voicemail recording followed by ‘you punk’ is particularly funny. It’s so witty I actually wouldn’t have known this was an ad lib if LDW hadn’t confessed as much himself.

“Let’s meet.” / “I refuse.” / “I’ll set your house on fire.” Hahaha What is with these brothers? Are they 1600+ and 600, or 16 and 6? Are the zeros silent??

Bus 1002

Ji Ah: “If possible, pick a different dream. I’ve been on the clock for 22 hours straight now.” I like Ji Ah so much. She’s unpretentious, intelligent, honest, driven, resourceful and witty.

Lol As Ji Ah struggles with the old man, you can hear Yeon offscreen urging the driver to get moving. Only he calls him, ‘driver yangban.’ Yangban is originally a word for a nobleman, but much like the word ‘lady’ in English, what was once a term of respect is now...not. lol Also, I’m pretty sure this was another ad lib by Lee Dong Wook since it happens entirely in the background.

This scene with Ji Ah piggybacking the old man is so classic spooky-folktale. I love it.

"You’re the only person I saw.” *Close up of the totem pole* They managed to make that whole sequence creepy despite nothing actually happening. Cool cool cool.

So our old drunkard is revealed to be a Mokjangseung (mok = wood). Jangseung in general are totems that stand at crossroads and the entrances to villages. tvN published some backstory info explaining Ji Ah’s past with this particular Jangseung and why he elected to save her which I translated here.

Aaaand we’re back at Fox Ridge. I can’t believe I only just noticed this, but the episode title could refer equally to the accident in Ji Ah’s past and this bus accident in the present.

Of course Rang staged the accident at the site of Ji Ah’s greatest trauma. Also, the fact that he knows that about her is telling.

Appropriately, the BGM playing as Ji Ah arrives at the scene of the accident is ‘Fox Ridge’ (Yeou Gogae). Iconic.

Back over to Yeon. The first time I watched this I wondered where on earth he was heading in that downpour but it turns out he was in pursuit of Rang, who had given him the slip.

Seeing Yeon limping injured through the rain ㅠㅠ Also, while Yeon later tells Ji Ah he carries his umbrella everywhere because he hates his fur getting wet, he clearly isn’t bothered here, choosing to keep it sheathed on his back instead. I guess all bets are off when he’s in Gumiho Mode.

Detective Baek and Ji Ah speak in banmal and he calls her ‘Nam Ji Ah,’ which I assume means they’ve been friends for a while.

Wow, good for Ji Ah for having made note of the exact number of passengers in the midst of all that chaos. I certainly wouldn’t have.

Hospital Encounter

So after Rang gave his brother the slip, Yeon realizes the next day that he’s at the hospital thanks to the news article Shin Joo reads out to him. Idk but I like that shot of the two of them heading out. There’s something vaguely Avengers about it. Which is maybe not surprising given that was another early influence for the show.

I liked this conversation between Ji Ah and ‘Soo Young.’ We get to see Ji Ah’s own resolve and drive in the advice she offers: “Even so, I hope you’ll become strong. It’s way more fun to be a PD than a victim.”

As with when he arrived at the wedding hall, the cinematography + BGM as Yeon approaches the hospital with his red umbrella is just A++

The BGM playing when Ji Ah spots Yeon approaching the hospital information desk isn’t on spotify or anywhere else that I’ve seen. It reminds me a bit of the ‘Tubular Bells’ theme from the Exorcist (a movie I actually haven’t even seen). If anyone knows what it is, I’d love to know.

“My only talent is my face~” pffft Also, decidedly untrue.

When Ji Ah tells Yeon, “Yes, I’m scouting you, but not for that,” She literally says, “but not for that genre.”

And now the subs say ‘Fox Ridge.’ Okay, then.

When Yeon says, “From the sound of it, it won’t be well made,” ‘well made’ is in English. Again, the peppering of English through Yeon’s speech makes him sound more modern.

When Yeon says, “Plus, I’m very devoted” his line is more literally, “Plus, contrary to how I look, I’m the devoted type.” Are you saying you look like a player? pfft

Yeon is such a big softie, so why does he keep threatening to kill people? Does he not realize they might take him seriously?

For this entire conversation (interrogation?), both Yeon and Ji Ah are switching back and forth between polite speech and banmal, almost on a sentence by sentence basis. On the whole, it gives the impression of a verbal sparring match.

“It’s not as if this was a blind date. No thanks on a second one.” lol I do enjoy cheeky Yeon.

Oh, I love that Ji Ah thinks on her feet. Using her leather bag to lift Yeon’s fingerprints was a smart move. Although, I’m not entirely convinced it would work that well in real life.

The ‘grim reaper’s outfit’ exchange was a coordinated ad lib between Lee Dong Wook and Hwang Hee. I mean, of course it was lol Casting Lee Dong Wook is the gift that keeps on giving.

Was that supposed to be Yoo Ri entering ‘Soo Young’s’ hospital room in those boots?

Minor detail, but ‘Soo Young’ calls Ji Ah ‘eonni’ meaning ‘older sister.’ It’s common convention in Korean to refer to people by familial ‘roles’ that fit their general age range even when you’re not actually related. I could digress, but I guess I just find it jarring when they have her addressing Ji Ah by name in the subs since Ji Ah is older and virtually a stranger.

Okay, when ‘Soo Young’ hears that Ji Ah lives alone, the smile she gives is effectively creepy.

The contrast between ‘Soo Young’s’ narration and the events of what actually happened on the bus that we see as viewers is great. Point to the director.

Wow, Rang really just slaughtered a whole bus worth of innocent people without a thought. I feel like we all managed to forget that about him as the show progressed. Hats off to the writer and to Kim Beom’s compelling performance. I actually worried initially that Rang would remain a one-note character because that would have been such a waste of Kim Beom, who is a fantastic actor. I’m so glad that wasn’t the case.

I love the subversion of viewer expectations when it turns out that Ji Ah knew all along that ‘Soo Young’ wasn’t who she claimed. This is something TotNT does repeatedly and well. We get both the dramatic tension of her being in danger and the satisfaction of her having had the upper hand all along. Point to the writer.

I’m pretty sure Ji Ah knocked that pitcher over with the express intent of using a shard from it as a weapon. Point for character consistency. Past or present, Ji Ah is apparently a ‘stab first, ask questions later’ kind of girl.

The Brothers

“Hey you! I clearly told you I didn’t want a second date?!” Haha Oh, Yeon.

I saw comments from Korean fans about how Yeon burst into her house with his shoes on here, and now I can’t not think of them when I watch this scene: ‘Entering the house with your shoes on...in the Republic of Korea...Ha...’, ‘Even if you bust the whole house apart, you have to take your shoes off before entering...’ lol

I love Yeon’s line that’s subbed as, “As if, brother.” In Korean, it’s “Do you want to die, little brother?” The word he uses for ‘little brother’ is ‘아우야,’ which, while still used occasionally today, is an antiquated word Yeon might just as easily have called Rang 600 years ago. It’s also, in contrast to the first half of his sentence, quite an affectionate term of address.

Rang’s line subbed as, “It’s a long story, but the family has a dirty past,” should more properly be: “It’s a long story, but you might say we come from a broken home.” Saying they have a dirty past makes it sound like they’re the mafia or something. Also, as a fun language note, the expression is literally ‘a bean-powder household.’

“Are you worried I’ll be sucked into the Underworld?” should be: “Are you worried I’ll go to hell?” Not sure where they got ‘sucked into.’ Rang just means when he dies. Also, I wish the subs would do a better job distinguishing between hell, the underworld, and the afterlife. They’re three different words.

“It’s because you embarrass me, that’s why.” Lol at the way Yeon covers his eyes. That’s definitely another ad lib from Lee Dong Wook.

When Rang calls time here, he actually calls Yeon ‘hyung.’ I suspect this wasn’t in the script but rather something that slipped out subconsciously on Kim Beom’s part, since the writer was clearly saving that word for when it would hurt us viewers the most. ㅠㅠ

Yeon’s line is subbed, “Old habits really do die hard,” but it should properly be: “You still haven’t fixed that habit?”

“If you don’t find it until the end of the next month, this woman will die.” This should actually be: “If you can’t find [that] by the next end of the month, your woman will die.” The subject is actually omitted so it’s unclear to what exactly Rang is referring, which is intentional. I also understand hearing ‘your woman’ (ni yeoja) as ‘this woman’ (i yeoja), but when they later flash back to this conversation they use a different take in which the line delivery is clearer and I’m confident it’s ‘your woman.’ This also explains Yeon’s confusion, since at this point he didn’t even know she’d been reborn.

I Waited for You

For anyone wondering how Ji Ah got into Yeon’s apartment, apparently his house code is 0000 lol

From his expression as he discovers and then watches the video she secretly took of him, I feel like Yeon is impressed with Ji Ah in spite of himself and I’m 100% here for it.

For the record, from this point forward, Yeon and Ji Ah use banmal with each other. Ji Ah has a tendency to speak to many of the supernaturals in banmal, which is honestly the opposite of what I would have opted for in her shoes.

Yeon’s question of, “How did you come here?” could mean either, ‘What brings you here?’ or ‘How did you get [in] here?’ in Korean, and honestly they’re both valid haha

Minor note, but she actually says his Korean age is 36, which would be 35 by the typical reckoning...except he’s actually ~1636 so it’s a moot point, really.

Ji Ah’s line, “Now I can proudly say that it’s fate,” translated more literally would be: “At this point, it really is fate and not coincidence.”

I feel like Ji Ah’s strategy of throwing herself off the balcony here is possibly the only thing she does in this entire show that strikes me as dumb. Like, I’m pretty sure if Yeon hadn’t been both benevolent and able to fly (and she had no guarantee that he was either), letting her just fall here would have been the easiest way for him to resolve the matter/the only thing he could have done.

Yeon’s line, “Did you just test me?” is one of the rare instances in which he code switches to archaic speech. I guess using his gumiho powers put him in a Gumiho frame of mind. ;)

On the whole, I prefer the instrumental OST tracks to the lyrical ones, but ‘Blue Moon’ is just sooooo catchy. I wish they had continued using it more.

And that concludes Episode 1. I’ve never posted anything like this before, but hopefully it was at least mildly interesting. Let me know what you think.

#tale of the nine tailed #totnt #lost in translation #I've never done this before so think of it as an experiment #this is what happens when language nerds watch dramas #korean language #korean culture #kdrama #구미호뎐

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oil-spill-hero · 4 years ago

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Honey Catches Flies

//Sasaki’s anti-hero au is HEEEERE

Once again, the triggers are tagged, if child abuse/family member death hurts you in any way please do not read!

In this AU, Sasaki takes an opposite look on life after her mother had passed. I would love to write some threads with this version of Sasaki, it would just have to be iconless because I have very little icons of her with such a grim face.

Without further ado, Sasaki Mizuki: Revenge.

Sasaki Mizuki used to be the happiest girl. All smiles and laughter, jumping in puddles and rescuing worms from the sidewalk after it had rained. Her seventh birthday was supposed to be spent with her mother. It was supposed to be happy.

But it wasn't. After her mother had been attacked, and killed, by a petty villain made of sludge, she didn't smile. She couldn't smile. Her mother was her light, everything that kept her going in life.

She couldn't get the thought out of her head, no matter how hard she tried.

"Why hadn't the heroes showed up? Why did they wait until it was too late?"

She asked her father those questions often, and she would swiftly receive a blunt answer, before being hit and tossed around.

"Heroes are disgusting creatures. Anyone with a quirk is a disgrace to society. Anybody with a quirk deserves to die!" His words echoed through her mind, as she watched the night sky.

She didn't know it yet, but that burning and longing feeling was not for the return of her mother.

No, she longed for revenge.

She began when she was thirteen. She had figured out very quickly she should shape shift, stealing the forms and quirks of those that she makes contact with.

She would pretend to be a fan, walk up nice and sweet to the hero, flashing a bright smile.

"Excuse me," her voice dripped with honey, perfect for catching flies and their egos, and a single tap on the arm for their attention was all she needed, "I wanna be a hero just like you when I grow up!" The thought of becoming so selfish made her feel sick, but she finished the flattery quickly, before running away giggling, keeping up her fan-girl attitude until she turned the corner, her smile being replaced by a scowl, vomit bubbling in her throat from the words she spewed.

She would take their form, and destroy. Not only buildings, but their careers. They were accused of doing horrid things, nobody being able to tell the difference between Sasaki's shifting and the true hero.

And nobody would dare accuse a sweet thirteen year old girl of such horrible acts of destruction.

As she got older, and continued her rampant actions of total chaos, she was given a pamphlet, a general hero on the cover, and the top read "APPLY TO UA TODAY!" She felt sick to her stomach, and as soon as she got home, she tore it up. She was full of anger, how DARE someone think that SHE wanted to be a hero, become one of the greedy people who let her mother DIE instead of showing up to defeat the villain until the very last second.

She didn't want to go to school anymore, if this is what society has come to. Forming children to become greedy, money and fame hungry heroes who only saved people who were worthy.

On Sasaki's sixteenth birthday, nine years after the death of her mother, she ran away from home. She packed as much as she could in a backpack, and took off for somewhere, anywhere that wasn't this place she despised. It didn't matter if she had to sleep in alleyways, or beg for money on the streets, she would do anything to avoid being brainwashed in a hero society. She would have to keep moving, finding more and more heroes to destroy across different cities.

It was all she wanted. To destroy.

She wanted her mother back, but that wasn't possible.

The next best thing was her revenge.

#had to repost #shhh #💛muse💛#tw family issues #tw referenced abuse #tw: child abuse #tw: death #tw: family problems #♣AU: Anti-hero♣

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koreanboyswriting · 6 years ago

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In Translation Pt. 1

Words: 4k

Genre: Fluff and Angst

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader (Feat. All Members)

✨ Notes: IN TRANSLATION IS BACK BITCHESSS! I finally rewrote part 1 just a tiny bit differently, but I have so many ideas for part 7 (I think that’s what's next?? lol) and I’m planning on updating soon!! Keep an eye out lovelies!

Light wasn’t even streaming in the window yet, it was before dawn and the sun was still nestled in its bed, the moon still at its peak. Your bed was all to inviting and cozy, the covers were pulled up to your chin and the comforter was just the perfect amount of weight to want to keep you in bed. You were exhausted, you had stayed up all night excited and nervous for the new spot that your agency was going to put you in. Apparently, a k-pop boy group was going to be doing a lot of American press for a few months and you were the best English/ Korean translator they had. The position was of the upmost performance and secrecy as they were a very famous and popular group. You had been working at the translator agency for a little over a year now so your managers and colleagues trusted you, but they were required by the music label to keep the identity of group a secret till the day of because the music label was afraid you would tell someone and cause a media storm before they were ready to announce the news.

You were excited but wary because several of your coworkers had worked with k-pop groups before and had described them as snobby and stuck up, and those were just the girl groups they said the guys were worse. They thought they had a right to everything because they were attractive, rich, and famous. Some of my coworkers even said that the members would proposition them or make passes at them. And though all of this turned me off, the opportunity was too good to pass up, the money was great, and if they needed to travel they would pay you extra to go with them, and you got free time to yourself if you were to go on trips with the group. Getting paid to travel sounded like a dream and you weren’t turned off by all the bad things you heard because you were sure you could handle yourself, Korean men were worlds different than American men. And you definitely had experience dealing with them, Koreans by comparison were angels because you rarely met a Korean man who would force himself on you with the confidence that American men had, they each had their flaws though, which you got to experience firsthand; being that your mom was Korean and your father was from New York.

They fell in love when your mom had come to the States for school, which made your childhood very different from other kids. Your mom moved to America to be with your dad and they had you and your younger brother, Cameron, this meant constant trips to Korea with your mom for weeks at a time in the summer, it also meant that Korean was your first language and elementary school was a struggle to learn English while all the other kids were lightyears ahead of you. It also meant you took funny things in your lunch to school and got teased, while the other kids had peanut butter and jelly you were eating kimchi. You were definitely thankful for it when you were older though because you got to skip through all the required language credits in high school and college. And though being a translator wasn’t your dream job you loved doing it because switching from English to Korean was as easy as breathing now and you could speak both without an accent. Plus, in Korea everyone needed and wanted to learn English so you made easy money and did really well for yourself. Korea was also really beautiful and you needed an escape from the States, and all you that left behind there.

You rolled out of bed and looked in the mirror and even though your exhaustion was written in the lines of your face, you decided that today of all days was the day to look your absolute best. You showered and went through your morning routine meticulously putting extra care into your makeup and each brush of your hair. After you finished you went to your closet and pulled on a black long-sleeved dress and your over-the-knee boots. Black was required part of your work uniform; the agency didn’t mind what you wore as long as it was all black, which meant your already all black wardrobe was put to good use. You threw on your favorite pink coat for color and paused in front of the mirror. You were already taller than most Korean girls thanks to your father’s American blood and you were unsure if heeled boots would be your best option, being that you didn’t want to be taller than the boys. But fuck it you looked great and if you felt great and the boys were intimidated then maybe they would be less likely to push you around.

You pulled up to your agency building at 9 o’clock exactly and walked in the door only to be steered out by your boss and the owner of the company, Kim Byung-hee. Your boss tightened his grip on your arm as he yanked you to the side of the building, you tripped after him the heeled boots not helping with your already clumsy nature. Once he was satisfied that you were mostly hidden from street view he started rambling off in hurried and anxious Korean.

“Y/n this job is if the upmost importance and I need you to listen to every single word I say.” He breathed heavily looking at his boss, then began to whisper faster, “The group you will be translating for is BTS,” your eyes widened but you quickly composed yourself. “You need to do every single thing they ask, and I mean EVERY SINGLE THING,” you opened your mouth to protest, but Byung-hee looked at you with a murderous look in his eyes and you shut your mouth right away. “I don’t care if the ask you to fetch water for them or demand you to clean their clothes, if they like our agency they will come to us for all future translation jobs, this is very important do you understand me?”

You started to think about what this job really meant to you and if this was something you were readily willing to accept. You had always thought that your boss respected you, hell, even liked you and enjoyed your company, but you now truly saw what you meant to him and what all his employees meant to him, but you needed the money and you had already committed yourself to the job and if you turned him down now then he would never give you a job again. So, you looked up into his eyes with grim determination and nodded your head. Your boss sighed with relief and his shoulders sagged and he looked at Byung-hee as if to say, “see I told you she would agree.” Byung-hee looked at you with approval in his eyes.

“If you do your job well, I’ll see to it that you get promoted to recruiter and a raise may be able to be negotiated onto the table if you play your cards right.” He stuck out his hand to you, and you shook it excited about the possibility but weary of how far you were willing to go to get it.

After the somber conversation, your boss and Byung-hee escorted you inside proud of themselves for manipulating one of their employees into doing what they want. You began to sink in on yourself and question why you were really chosen for the job, at first you had thought it was merely based on skill, but now you were thinking it was because you were a woman. Many of the translators at the agency were women as well but they all specialized in other Asian languages like Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Thai. You were the only woman who did English translations the rest of the Korean-English translators were men. Of course, the men wouldn’t want another man working with them they would want something to manipulate. You were becoming more and more disgusted with BTS by the second and you hadn’t even met them yet. Whereas, you initially gasped with excitement, that excitement was quickly festering into anger and frustration. You pulled yourself back to the present and tried to focus on the words Byung-hee and your boss were telling you.

“Now we’re not sure if they will need you to travel, it’s highly unlikely since they have a very close team of people that have been working with them for years, and probably will not want to take on someone so new, also accounting in that Kim Nam-joon already speaks English. But he might want the help.” Byung-hee and your boss continued on and once again you faded out of the conversation until your boss called your name.

“Y/n! Y/n! Are you listening?”

“Yes sir! Rapt attention.” You straightened up in your chair and pulled your face into one of seriousness and business-like calm.

“Big Hit is sending a car to pick you up and take you to their offices where you will meet each of the members of BTS, Mr. Kim will be there with you when you meet them, but not the entire time as he will be discussing a contract for you with their managers, while you are meant to get comfortable with the members and how they want you translate things.” He paused and looked at you, “Do you understand?” he probed.

“Will I get any say in the contract?” You asked, finding that at least here you would put your foot down.

“You will only be consulted if they request you for travel, otherwise the contract will be the same as many others that you have done, they may require a non-disclosure agreement, but it’s nothing too different than before.” You nodded your head in relief, finally assuaged in some sense, feeling like you had control over at least one small thing.

“Big Hit is outside,” Your boss looked down at his phone and then continued to speak and Byung-hee got up and exited the room leaving you alone with your boss. “Remember everything that you have done before applies here, treat them as you would any other respected official you’ve worked for before.” You nodded getting up from your chair, and making to leave the room, you could see Byung-hee out the window already greeting the driver and whoever was with him.

You had your hand on the door handle when your boss grabbed your arm gently, “Look y/n I didn’t want to put you any situation that would make you uncomfortable, but Mr. Kim gets like this whenever we do any high profile jobs with k-pop groups, please understand, and let me know if you have any problems, you know my phone is always available, and I will do anything that’s within my power to help you, should you need it.” You softened at his connection, finally sure that your boss really did care for you, but some matters were still out of his control because at the end of the day he was an employee just as you were. You nodded your head and gave him a hug, “Thank you Mr. Lee,” You bowed your head, and he smiled at you like a father would as you left the room, giving him an unsure smile through the glass door as you walked down the stairs and out the front doors.

Byung-hee opened the door for you and you got into the black SUV, buckling your seatbelt. You looked up and Byung-hee was introducing you to the driver and one of BTS’ bodyguards. You smiled and reached forward and shook the driver’s hand, who introduced himself as Yi Daejong, insisting you called him Dae, as every one of the boys did. You smiled and then extended your hand to the bodyguard, who seemed permanently stone-faced as he introduced himself as Gi Deok-su, you shook his hand and he offered you a gruff nod as a hello.

Dae took off winding through the streets at a fast although not uncomfortable speed, you arrived at Big Hit Entertainment in minutes as you fiddled with your fingers in nervousness, it seemed you were good at hiding it though as Byung-hee chatted to Dae, happiness conveyed easily in his tone. Dae leaped out first and opened the door for you, as Deok-su opened the other for Byung-hee. Dae extended out his hand as well to help you down and he gave you a warm smile, you knew then that Dae was someone you were going to enjoy their company for however long you were with BTS. You walked around the car till you were facing the front of the building, from the ground it easily looked about ten stories, it was all stone and glass, built to last but also to inspire elegance and sleekness. Dae and Deok-su guided you and Byung-hee up the stairs and into the building. The interior was clean and modern, there were two white couches facing each other with a metal and glass coffee table in-between, this waiting area was opposite a massive white and glass desk that stood in front of a large trophy case displaying several gleaming trophies. You looked around in curiosity trying to memorize everything to tell your only friend, Eun-a later. Dae called your name to get your attention and you bowed your head in apology and hurried after them your cheeks blazing. You walked down the long hallway passing several offices and dance studios, people working hard within all of them, when your entourage suddenly stopped, and it took all your balance to keep from bumping into the back of Byung-hee. You walked into the meeting room and sat down in a leather rolling chair next to Byung-hee as Dae left the room to fetch whoever we’d be meeting next.

Your looked down at your twiddling thumbs as BTS’ main manager, Manager Sejin, walked into the room. He looked in a rush and you didn’t know whether to speak or stay quiet till he said something, Luckily, your inner monologue ended with him speaking first.

“Hello, I am Mr. Sejin. I am BTS’ main manager the boys will be in here shortly to meet you and then we’ll leave you…” He trailed off looking at you to fill in your name, “Hi sorry,” you gasped, “I’m y/n.”

“Great, y/n, I will leave you alone with the boys to get better acquainted. First, I need you to sign this non-disclosure agreement, which basically says that we won’t sue you as long as you don’t reveal any private information or business information to anyone, got it?”

You nodded quickly and picked up the pen he set down in front of you and hurriedly scratched you signature into the thick paper. He pulled it up just as you finished and extended his hand to Byung-hee.

“Sorry to be curt but we are in a bit of a rush today as BTS will be having an over the phone radio interview today so you will need to be well acquainted with the members in thirty minutes while Mr. Kim and I roughly outline a contract in another room, they will be in shortly.”

Byung-hee gave you a stiff nod as he swept from the room already speaking fast in hush tones with Mr. Sejin, who had his ear inclined to Mr. Kim, nodding intently. You sat there wondering how long shortly would be, when BTS came shuffling into the room.

You stood up quickly, and sucked in a breath, holding it, not sure what to with yourself. They all looked as if they just came from one the dance studios you had passed on the way here, they were all wearing Puma in varying amounts. V and J-Hope were each wearing a full Puma tracksuit, whereas Jin and Suga were only wearing hoodies, and Jimin, RM, and Jungkook were each wearing different colored and fit track pants. Sweat glazed each of them in a light sheen, but it was as if they were glowing, not dirty. You had seen their faces plastered on billboards, and flashing across TV screens for years, but none of those did them justice to how beautiful they were in person. RM was the first one to introduce himself, he walked around the table to you as each of them made themselves comfortable, V, Jimin, and Jungkook plopping into chairs, while J-Hope and Suga leaned against the wall, and Jin stood neatly next to the table. You turned your attention to RM, who was holding out his hand a welcoming smile on his face.

“Hi, I’m RM, but you can call me Namjoon,” he introduced himself in English, you smiled and meekly cleared your throat, “Hello, sorry I’ve been speaking in Korean all day, I’m y/n.” You blushed and tried to keep your calm.

“No need to apologize, I completely understand, switching back and forth can be hard sometimes,” You smiled back nodding in agreement as Namjoon began to introduce you to the group, switching to Korean, “This is Jin.” Jin reached across the table, shaking your hand politely and giving you a small wink. “This is J-Hope.” J-Hope moved from the wall and walked toward the table to reach and shake your hand, “You can call me Hoseok,” he gave you a beaming smile, making you smile back just as warmly. “This is Suga.” Suga moved from the wall as Hoseok did, and stretched out his hand to shake yours, “Call me Yoongi,” He gave you a small smile, his eyes conveying his disinterest. “This is Jimin.” Namjoon went on as Jimin ran his fingers through his hair and extended out his hand to you, you smiled and shook his hand as he gave you a little smirk. “This is V—.”V cut him off and stood from his chair to lean across the table and shake your hand, “Call me Tae,” he smiled at you as if you were something to eat, and shook your hand firmly clasping the other side of your hand with his. Namjoon rolled his eyes, though there was laughter in them as he spoke again, “And lastly, this is Jungkook.” Jungkook didn’t move from his chair, just leaned forward and extended his hand, his eyes smoldering and holding your eye contact a beat longer than necessary, after your hands came apart.

Hoseok and Yoongi moved from the wall and settled themselves in chairs next to the other members, as Namjoon sat down next to you.

“So, do you think I need the extra help?” Namjoon spoke up in English and the other members turned to each other and began talking, uninterested in your conversation. “Well me personally, I think your English is fantastic, I guess Manager Sejin, just thought you’d get tired of continually translating,” You shrugged your shoulders at the end of this feeling at ease around Namjoon, as he had an intellectual, but warm air around him. “Well, thank you,” He puffed up his chest in mock pride, but quickly chuckled all the air leaving his chest.

“Means a lot from a native speaker, I’m guessing…?”

“Oh, you noticed?” You smiled at his astute keenness to others around him, “I was born in the States, so my first language was Korean and my mother and school taught me English at the same time.”

Namjoon nodded, and turned towards his members, who quieted down as they noticed his attention only Yoongi kept talking to Hoseok till he realized they were all quiet.

Namjoon effortlessly switched to Korean, “Alright guys were doing the radio interview in fifteen and y/n will be here to translate everything they say, you can answer back in English if you want, if not I’ll translate for you, cool?” They all nodded in response, and you smiled at them doing your best to be open, you looked at them and noticed Jungkook still giving you the same intense eye contact. You turned away and began talking to the other members about which English phrases they were comfortable with and taught them some simple ones to say back. You were resolutely looking anywhere besides Jungkook and you noticed him smirking from the corner of your eye, and you decided to busy yourself with taking off your coat as Manager Sejin walked into the room with Byung-hee. Byung-hee looked extremely satisfied with himself and you didn’t want to know the bad news before you had to, so you focused on your clasped hands in front of you and smiled pleasantly at Manager Sejin. He looked at the boys and began explaining the parameters of the interview, to which they all nodded, mouths closed in respect to the elder speaking. Mr. Sejin then pressed the accept call button in the intercom phone at the center of the table and we were greeted by the booming voice of Michael Thompson from TheDailyScoop.

“Hey there to all, my ARMY’s out there we have BTS on the phone today, can you guys say hello?” Namjoon looked up and counted down from three, to which they all announced together, “Hi, we are BTS!”

After the interview was over the atmosphere relaxed, Namjoon thanked you several times for identifying words that he didn’t understand. And the members all looked at you with more respect in their eyes as you had proved yourself to be of some benefit to them. You felt proud of yourself, as Manager Sejin seemed to be very impressed with you and Mr. Kim looked pleased at your performance. Manager Sejin began to talk with the members about their upcoming press tour as Mr. Kim pulled you aside and began to whisper into your ear.

“Y/n, if you do well these next couple days Mr. Sejin is considering bring you onto their American press tour, so perform well and you’ll have the position we talked about available to you the second you come back.” You nodded trying not to show the excitement on your face at the opportunity. You straightened your posture and listened attentively as the members to Mr. Sejin as Mr. Kim excused himself from the room pressing his phone against his ear.

After Mr. Sejin finished addressing the members, he turned to you, “I’ll need you back here at 8 a.m. tomorrow as we have important matters to discuss regarding the next interview, this will be live, so the environment will be very different.” You nodded to show your understanding and all the members rose together, you following suit and grabbing your coat from the back of your chair. Mr. Sejin exited first, followed by Jin and Namjoon who called out his thanks once again. Hoseok, Yoongi, and Jimin left next laughing loudly at something Hoseok said, this left you with Tae and Jungkook. Tae winked at you and left immersed in his phone, and you finally moved from your standing position the side of the room towards the door only to be stopped by Jungkook as he blocked your exit. He was entirely way too close for a business relationship, so you stepped back, so you could look into his face instead of his lips. He was wearing all black and it suited him very well, and even though he still glistened with sweat, he still smelled of his amber cologne, mixed with salt of his sweat, it was pleasing aroma, and it drew you in like an embrace, but you weren’t about to get star-struck in front of this man, who clearly knew how attractive he was. So, you fixed your face with a mask of cold indifference and finally met his intense gaze.

“Can I help you with something?” You said in your business voice.

“No, no, I’m okay,” He responded, you stepped to the right in an attempt to go around him but he blocked your exit again. Now you were getting frustrated, you were about to open your mouth with a retort, when he placed his finger over your lips and leaned down to your ear, “Shhh… I hope I’ll be seeing you around.” He brushed his hand across your lower back and exited with the door clicking softly behind him.

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green-violin-bow · 7 years ago

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The wonderful @lmirandas prompted me “Hello wonderful you!! OTP prompt 23. “who was that? oh… your cousin…” Mystrade 😉 you are the best!” but I’m doing it as a proper post because the cut never works inside asks for me on mobile (sigh). Thank you so much for the prompt, lovely! I slightly took liberties with the actual wording, but I hope you won’t mind 🦄

Greg uncaps two bottles of beer and passes one to John, who has just emerged from the bathroom. He leans back, kitchen counter hard across the base of his spine.

“Good to see you Greg,” smiles John.

“’S’becoming a tradition, this,” says Greg, as they clink beers. He nods around at the Christmas decorations, at Mrs Hudson’s mince pies, the mulled wine keeping warm on the stove. Mrs Hudson and Molly are playing with Rosie on the sofa, while Sherlock bows out something sweet and lively on the violin to make the little girl smile.

“Yeah,” smiles John, watching Sherlock. They both take a sip of beer, and Greg tries consciously to stop his eyes straying to where Mycroft is standing, next to the mantel, tall and elegant in a charcoal three-piece suit.

“Bloody hell,” murmurs John under his breath. “Who’s that?” He nods to the man currently engaging Mycroft in conversation. He gives Greg a sidelong glance. “Must be related to you, right? Jesus, Greg, did you look like that – what, fifteen years ago?”

Greg runs a hand through his silver hair and gives as much of a grin as he can manage. “Cousin. Tom. People say we look a lot alike, yeah. Although I had the –” he motions to his hair, “– even then. Lives in Paris, but he’s over in London for work ’til Christmas Eve. Promised I’d look after him a bit, although I’m so up against it myself at work we’ve not seen each other much.”

John puffs out his cheeks and licks his lips. Sherlock is suddenly in the kitchen, large hand on the back of John’s neck. John smiles up at him, soft and relaxed.

“Admiring our guest, John?” asks Sherlock silkily.

John grins and slips his arm around Sherlock’s waist. “Never.”

Sherlock gives a small smile and leans slightly against him. “Well, I have to warn you, I think he is shortly to find out what it means to be verbally eviscerated. And then possibly physically deported.”

Greg and John turn to look at the scene. Mycroft and Tom continue chatting. They’ve switched to French.

“Why?” asks John.

“Flirting,” smirks Sherlock. “I distinctly heard him asking Mycroft for dinner. Repulsive.”

They watch the ongoing French conversation – animated on Tom’s side, coolly amused on Mycroft’s – for a long, anticlimactic moment.

“Don’t think that deportation’s on the cards,” chuckles John quietly. “Looks like Mycroft might’ve got himself a date.”

Sherlock wrinkles his nose forcefully and snaps his gaze back to his brother, indignation and disgust written all over his face.

Greg swallows hard around the bitter lump in his throat, and drains his beer. When he sees Sherlock begin to look round, he drops his gaze quickly to the floor, the only – partial, inadequate – protection he has ever devised against the man’s infuriatingly soothsayer-like ability to read minds. He puts the empty bottle down on the counter.

“Just gonna –” he mimes smoking, and heads for the door.

“You’ve given up,” says Sherlock, indignantly. They’d had a pact.

“Started again,” he says over his shoulder, as he escapes down the stairs.

He doesn’t, in fact, have any cigarettes. He sits morosely down on the doorstep and rests his arms on his knees, looking out into the soggy, chilly darkness of Baker Street. It’s late, and the night buses are less regular this near to Christmas. The eternal ambulance siren wails in the distance. He thinks about all the crimes probably in progress, and rubs his eyes. I could plead a call from work. In fact, I could go in for a bit. Could do with getting through the paperwork on that Brixton case.

It’s not like it’s Tom’s fault. Just because he’s been nursing a hopeless crush for years, without the stones to actually do anything about it. So many meetings with Mycroft, over so many years; summits about Sherlock essentially, at first, the business of keeping him alive. But then, once Sherlock had John, things became a little less clear-cut. Perhaps there was a little more – well, with Mycroft, the word ‘personal’ didn’t apply, but – a little more talk about things that weren’t Sherlock. A slight expansion of the conversation.

And Greg had known for a long time that he found Mycroft’s sharply-suited man of mystery act attractive. But what he hadn’t expected was to come to truly like the man. There’s a tenacity in him he recognises at a bone-deep level: the grim determination to keep going, no matter what. He respects that.

“Do you need a cigarette, Detective Inspector?” Half-silk, half-snark, Mycroft’s voice snaps Greg out of his reverie.

Greg rubs his eyes and exhales before answering. “What, your low-tar things? No thanks.” His voice is as light and humorous as he can make it.

“Low tar they may be, Inspector, but they still contain nicotine. So far, your attempt at smoking does not seem particularly successful.” Mycroft descends the steps and stands next to Greg.

Greg huffs a wry chuckle. “I’ve given up, really. Just – just taking the break anyway.” He stands up, and tries to think of something to say that isn’t ‘so, are you going on a date with my cousin?’.

“Anthea is waging a campaign to make me switch to vaping,” says Mycroft with a delicate shudder.

Greg snorts. “Oh, yeah, I can just see you surrounded in a cloud of forest fruit-flavoured nicotine,” he grins. “Really suits your image.”

The corner of Mycroft’s mouth twitches, and he puts his hands in his trouser pockets. On him, the gesture never looks casual. Elegant, thinks Greg. Damn him.

“Rosie’s French is improving greatly,” says Mycroft, and Greg sneaks a sly glance sideways. Mycroft’s biting his bottom lip, a tiny unconscious gesture that makes Greg’s heart turn over. He looks quickly down at his own worn brogues.

“You been teaching her?”

“A few words only.”

Christ. She’s probably got the grammatical structure and plenty of vocabulary down pat, then. “She trying it out on Tom?”

“Indeed.”

There’s an awkward moment of silence. Truth is, Greg admits to himself, Tom’s a much better fit for Mycroft. Banker. Multilingual. Loaded. He sighs.

When Mycroft speaks, it is with a touch of hesitation that Greg has rarely heard in his voice. “It seems that your cousin and I have a business contact in common,” he says, cautiously. “We have arranged to set up a dinner with her when I visit Paris in the new year.”

Greg’s stomach flips, and he works hard to stop his eyebrows shooting up. “Yeah?” He pushes his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. Oh. He cuts his eyes to Mycroft’s, and quickly away again. “So what’re your plans for Christmas?” he asks, awkwardly. An oblique glance tells him that Mycroft is frowning slightly.

“Dinner at our parents’ house. Sherlock, John and Rosie will of course be there too.”

“You back in London after, yeah?”

“Indeed. On Boxing Day, in fact.”

“Not much of a break.”

“Unavoidable.”

“Yeah. Well. I just wondered if –” he takes a silent, deep breath, looking fixedly at the red Number 18 night bus, idling at the stop across the road. “You don’t fancy going for a drink somewhere, do you? Once you’re back, I mean.” He has the urge to babble, to cover his embarrassment. Shut up. Fuck, it’s a long time since I asked someone out. His stomach squirms.

There’s a silence. Watching Mycroft from under his eyelashes, Greg witnesses a complicated play of surprise, confusion and indecision.

“Yes,” says Mycroft.

Standing on the bottom step of 221 Baker Street, Greg feels briefly dizzy. He takes a breath. “Right. The Friday, maybe? The twenty-ninth?”

Mycroft slips his phone out of his pocket and thumbs through the calendar. “Certainly.”

Greg saves the appointment in his own phone, fingers ever so slightly clumsy. “You’ll text me about a time, yeah? I know you’ll be busy.”

Mycroft gives a terse nod.

“Right,” says Greg lightly. “’M going to go and get one of Mrs Hudson’s mince pies.” He holds the door open for Mycroft, and definitely doesn’t stare at his arse on the way up the stairs.

Much.

Prompt me!

#mystrade #mystrade ficlet #prompt fill #my fic #john is very tactless

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harcoxrt · 7 years ago

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In this verse, Joanne has become a grim reaper after ending his own life. Due to the backstory I’ve developed that explains what drove him to suicide, this verse is set at any point in time after the current events of the manga.

Joanne is now aware of the supernatural happenings that once went on right under his nose without him noticing, and also has all the basic abilities that come with his new existence. He is only moderately stronger than he was as a human, but he has a far greater level of endurance and is extremely agile and light on his feet. He is and immortal reaper, and as such, can only die (again) by the blade of a death scythe.

His eyes are now the distinctive chartreuse phosphorescent that all reapers possess. The glasses he chose for himself upon completing his training are black, oversized frames with rounded edges, with temple pieces that start wide and gradually taper into a thinner width at the earpiece. At the start of each temple piece are two painted, stylized roses; one a metallic gold and the other a bright crimson. I will still use icons for this verse, so please know that even though Joanne won’t be wearing glasses in my icons, he will still have them for any thread set in this verse. As an additional reference, he chose to have his death scythe modified into the form of a folding pruning saw because he finds it easy to handle and likes that its blade can be folded away.

At the end of his human life, he kept heavily to himself and avoided interacting with others whenever possible, and he is slowly relearning how to be more social. He trusts his new coworkers, but only moderately, and if he feels like questioning them about something, he won’t hesitate to do it. He is still the curious type, always eager to learn and practice his newfound skills and abilities. As such, he has adjusted reasonably well to his new life, given the circumstances that led up to it.

However, he isn’t too fond of working in the field to judge and collect souls, and would prefer a position in the Dispatch’s forensics department. His preference will be taken into consideration due to his high marks during training, he’s been told, but for now, he has been sent to collect souls and assist in the investigation of the “irregulars” (bizarre dolls) that have been appearing in London as of late. He has consoled himself on the matter by thinking of it as a trial run for a forensics position since he gets to take part in an investigation, and, truth be told, he also hopes to use his assignment as a chance to overcome his lingering fear of those very same creatures.

Below the cut is the backstory I’ve developed that explains why Joanne would take his own life. It also adds further detail to the process of him becoming a reaper. Trigger warnings for mentions of depression, violence/gore, drug overdose, and suicide apply. Another, less serious warning: this is long.

The moment the story hit the papers, there was chaos:

“Horrible Murder by Sphere Music Hall!”

A range of emotions struck him the first time Joanne held a copy of the paper in his hands—first, sadness for the woman shown in the photograph; pictured lifeless in the dirt. Then came the shock, disgust, and utter horror towards the rival music hall that he and his bandmates had been working so hard to defeat. The people of Sphere Music Hall were far worse than competition; they were murderers!

Could Redmond and the others have known? Were they part of some kind of awful scheme by the music hall?

It was indeed an awful thought fit to match the deed itself, and Joanne would have rejected the idea if not for the secret he knew about his former upperclassmen. It deeply saddened him to think that they might have yet again soiled their hands with more blood, but in truth, it would not have surprised him. They had paid for it once with expulsion, and surely they would pay again.

The blond sighed, lowering the paper down onto his desk. Something had seemed unusual about the photo for the cover story the first time he’d glanced at it, and now that he looked at it again, he saw what it was. Strangely, there was a piece of cutlery sticking out of the gun held by one of the men in the picture.

Confusion came next. The story gave no discernible reason for the cutlery in the photograph, only mentioning that the photo had been provided by a freelance photographer. The knife in question—for he was almost positive that the piece of cutlery was a knife because of how it fit in the gun—appeared to be quite ornate, but beyond that, there was no visible indication of who it belonged to or where it had come from. The style of the knife alone narrowed down the owner to one associated with nobility, and aside from his own family, the first noble to come to mind was—

No; It couldn’t be! But…if it was, then why the knife, and why Funtom Music Hall? He’d never gotten a straight answer as to why Funtom Music Hall and the Phantom Five even existed. All he knew was that Sphere Music Hall held a certain allure that put the citizens of London in danger, and the goal of Funtom Music Hall was to draw people over to somewhere safe. But with another woman dead…it hadn’t worked.

…Or had it?

The thought chilled him to the bone, and his body became rigid in his chair, a whirling ball of nausea forming in the pit of his stomach. Phantomhive simply didn’t fail. He’d seen that first hand at Weston while the two of them had been fellow students. Not only that, but both Phantomhive and his butler had praised the group of five for their excellent work.

What if Phantomhive had known this death would happen?

The article itself gave the cause of death as blood loss, yet there were no serious wounds visible on the the body of the woman in the photograph, nor any signs of wounds that might have been hidden underneath her clothes. That most likely meant she was dead because her blood had been drained from her body—a horrifying death, to be sure, but why? And assuming that was the true cause of death as the article said, why would one of the guilty men be brandishing a gun? The man must have tried to shoot someone, or else there wouldn’t have been a reason for him to have it out, but he couldn’t have shot at the victim.

Perhaps at the photographer? No; there was no way a freelance photographer would be able to defend themselves with cutlery in such a manner, and if only the photographer had been there to apprehend the men, Joanne personally doubted that the photographer would have lived to help publish the photo. Scotland Yard certainly wouldn’t be throwing around dinner knives either…which led him back to his original assumption of nobility. Phantomhive was the only noble who made sense, given the circumstances, but the blond just couldn’t picture Ciel throwing a knife directly into the barrel of a gun. It would have taken a great deal of precision and force, and although Weston had seen another “Blue Miracle” with the help of Phantomhive, Joanne knew from a very personal experience that it was because the Earl played dirty—not because of strength or skill.

Another name in connection with Phantomhive rose to the forefront of his mind, and he longed to reject the possibility, but logically…he could not.

…Mister Michaelis. Phantomhive’s butler. It would, in an odd way, make sense—a butler wielding cutlery as a weapon. If he accepted that as fact, the rest of the puzzle pieces fell into place quite neatly—Ciel had known this would happen, and Michaelis had been there to help the photographer. Sphere Music Hall was indeed responsible for the murder, for he could plainly see a bracelet associated with the hall adorning the wrist of one of the men in the photo, but Phantomhive had known—maybe even wanted this to happen.

And the Phantom Five had helped, including him.

Joanne felt physically sick to the point that it made his stomach ache, and he shakily slumped forward, cradling his head against his arms on his desk. How could he have been so stupid?! He had thought he was helping; doing something good. Instead, if his deductions were correct, he had been an indirect accessory to murder—all because he had been so blinded by an immoral love. Hot tears stung his eyes before spilling over, running down his cheeks and dripping onto the newspaper. He cried himself to sleep that night, still sitting at his desk until the next morning when the first sound of the school bell stirred him from a fitful, restless slumber.

He became a recluse again, keeping to himself and largely ignoring anyone who tried to cheer him up. At first, he still tried to focus on his studies and perform his fag duties, but eventually those too began to fade into the background. He couldn’t concentrate; couldn’t bring himself to care, and with each step he took to force himself to go about his daily routine, he felt as if he were simultaneously slogging through thick, wet mud and sinking into quicksand.

He lost his position as the fag of the Red House prefect, and the occasional nightmares he’d been having became more and more frequent. He often woke up screaming, or with his cheeks stained with tears, or both. Nearly every night, he would dream of undead corpses chasing after him, dragging him down to sink their teeth into his flesh. Sometimes he was lucky enough to wake up before they caught him, and other times—more often than not—he would not wake until after one or more of the monsters had begun to devour him, biting and tearing away at his limbs.

He never told anyone, though. They would have thought he was crazy, especially if he mentioned that some of the dreams also featured the Phantomhive butler crushing the skull of one of the monsters just before Joanne himself met his doom.

His reputation was ruined, with many of the Weston students whispering that he’d gone mad, and he simply let them talk. The loneliness he felt was soul-crushing, but at the same time, he couldn’t bear the thought of trying to be around others and pretending that everything was still normal. He couldn’t trust that they actually cared; he barely even trusted himself. How could he, knowing that he had been duped in such an awful way?

He no longer yearned to see his former professor—or so he told himself, anyway. He should hate the man, by all accounts, and yet a small part of his heart still ached at the thought of the kindness Michaelis had shown him. He had no way of knowing how much of that kindness had been genuine, and he was terrified to think that it might have all been nothing but another ruse.

The ongoing tears and nightmares didn’t ever stop for more than a couple days at a time—until the day he finally decided to end it all.

He didn’t want it to hurt, as he’d been hurting too much to bear already, so he did the only thing he could think of that might work without causing him too much additional misery or pain. Weary from a lack of sleep and miserable indeed, he decided to visit the campus infirmary. It took very little effort for him to convince the nurse there that he was feeling unwell, and he soon found himself resting in one of many beds housed in the infirmary. After he listed his supposed “symptoms,” the nurse brought a large bottle of chlorodyne tablets to his bedside, along with a glass of water for him to drink. He took the recommended dose, even attempting a small smile afterward to show his thanks, and the bottle was left behind in case he felt he needed more later to ease his ills.

Within the hour, another student came in with a few scrapes and large bruises from a rather rough cricket practice, and as soon as the nurse turned their back, Joanne grabbed up the bottle of “medicine” and dumped several more tablets into his hand, shoving them into his mouth and swallowing them right away with another sip of water from his glass. He did this again and again until the bottle was empty, hurriedly sneaking extra doses each time he was sure the nurse wasn’t looking his way. With such a high dose of the drugs in his system, the fate he wished for came swiftly, and his eyes soon drifted closed. The last thing he remembered was the odd sensation of floating even though he knew he was laying down on a bed, and then it was over—or so he’d thought.

After his suicide, Joanne was in for a rather rude awakening. He was thrust into the world of being a grim reaper, placed in the Dispatch’s training academy with little mercy. His eyes, once a bright pale maroon, were now a starkly bright duotone green that gave off an almost phosphorescent glow in dim lighting. His human self was no more, he’d been told, and his existence was now that of a death god—immortal, but bound to serve the Dispatch and aid in the judgement and collection of mortal souls.

He was given a pair of standard-issue spectacles to compensate for the fact that his human death had cursed him to become incredibly nearsighted, and as was suggested, he threw himself into his new studies, taking it upon himself to learn everything that the educators at the academy endeavored to teach him. It had been incredibly strange to learn that a whole different world existed outside of the human one he’d known, especially with all the additional, more modern luxuries and technologies he now had access to, but he drank it all in nonetheless. The novelty of it all, as well as his newfound immortality and abilities, were a wonderful and welcome distraction from the utter despair he’d felt at the end of his life as a human.

Weeks and weeks passed, going by in a blur, and by the end of the training term, Joanne had earned himself both impressive and solid scores for each course of study. For both the written and ethics portions of his training, he scored triple-A marks, and in practical skills, a solid B. At the end of his training, he was assigned a partner to work with for his final exam, and his re-entry into the human world was jarring. He’d become so immersed in his new life that he’d actually managed to forget how awful humans could be, and it was with a heavy heart that he assisted his partner with their collection assignment. After their success, he and his partner returned to hand in the collection report and were subsequently granted permission to go choose their own personal spectacles. Joanne was officially a full-fledged reaper.

#ooc ;; 𝑒𝓃𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀 #v: reaper ;; 𝓇𝑒𝒷𝑜𝓇𝓃 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝑜𝓌 #I wasn't sure if I should but ???? I really wanted to use these ideas #and it feels so nice to have them written out ahhhhh ;w;

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supaliaxpress · 8 years ago

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Episode 12 Goblin Review: An absolute fate that is beyond human beings’ eternities

OMG!! Episode 12 was such a wild ride... I don’t even know where to begin! DAMN, GR made me fall in love with him 12 times over in this episode! Warning: This review is gonna be super long.

So that bastard Joong Won wasn’t dead after all and had the audacity to approach Eun-tak with his disgusting hands. Idk... her ghosts friends were being awfully weird. Thank goodness she didn’t touch his hand and told them to leave. After experiencing a frightening sight, Eun-tak ensures that she has a lighter in each and every one of her jackets (fuck, I’d do the same too and even put a back up lighter just incase). Then we see a depressed Sunny as she tries to make up her mind about GR, but it didn’t matter anyways cause Sunny knew she would finish in 7 shots and started with “I want to date him.” As for GR, he discusses with a grim reaper friend that he wants to have his memories back despite the painful longing and the consequences that come with remembering them. Shin notices that GR hasn’t been well lately and tries to find out the reason for GR’s behavior, but Eun-tak comes looking for GR’s help to translate Shin’s journal. She finally finds out that the journal wasn’t a love letter, but instead the words she was told by DH were Shin’s personal thoughts. This causes a domino effect causing Shin, GR, and Eun-tak to finally realize the many “mysterious” things that DH has done and said.

The conversation between DH and Samshin was finally revealed - showing a very different DH from what we know. Samshin questions this his motives and why he brought them together, while he answers back, “It was fate.” This mysterious DH speaks with a presence of almighty and knowing... which suggests that God has always been listening and watching. The most interesting thing was when God said, “All God does is ask questions.” This means that God asks questions because he already knows the answers, but it’s up to ourselves to discover them, to think through them, and to make our own choices based on what we believe. With the scene of the butterflies flying out from DH’s body, it suggests that God has been inhabiting DH’s body to watch over Shin and GR. The look on their faces was priceless as they couldn’t believe that God was in front of them all this time, such as the saying, “God is closer than you think.”

Though Sunny knows GR’s identity of being a grim reaper, the first thing that concerned her was if there were any female ghosts who approached him. This shows that Sunny is quite strong-minded for accepting GR’s position as a grim reaper and just how amazing her attention and consideration to people’s situation (To both Eun-tak and the grim reapers who came to eat at her restaurant). Joong Won stirred trouble by approaching the female grim reaper, who was a maidservant during Goryeo, to discover her past by touching Sunny; apparently she committed a huge crime but we don’t know what she may have done exactly to put her in that situation (Maybe she was conspiring with Joong Won? Or maybe she did something to pit Wang Yeo against Kim Sun?). From the earlier confrontation with God, GR contemplated over about what God meant when he said, “I’ve never erased your memories. You made the choice to erase them.” He probably felt conflicted after learning that it was HIM who chose to erase his memories... not God - therefore this suggests that people who become grim reapers choose their own fate to erase their memories.

I wasn’t prepared for it... our loving Grandpa passed away due to a heart attack. It was heart-wrenching to watch GR informed Shin of Grandpa’s death and how Shin asked GR to take care of him because, “I don’t want him feeling sorry toward me, even in his last moments... he mustn’t be tethered down to anyone in his next life, but live freely.” The way how DH looked when he realized what had happened and watching Shin cry as he mourned for Grandpa’s death killed my soul, “A man who was good-hearted every moment of every day rests here.” Eun-tak provided the best form of comfort: a hug in silence. During times of pain and sorrow, sometimes a silent hug is what people need the most because they just need to know that there’s someone there for them. With Eun-tak’s childhood, she gave the best advice, “That’s why the people left behind have to live their lives to the fullest,” because she is trying to do that herself for her mother. DH showed so much growth with the passing of his Grandpa and it was touching how GR, Shin, and Eun-tak tried their best to cheer him up with their own gifts (I loved how GR cut the apples into bunnies, Shin made his special dish, and Eun-tak was willing to give her camera to him, lol). Despite DH’s feelings of regret, it was very mature and thoughtful of him when he went to dust the candelabras/silverware, “I’m worried that Grandpa might be fretting over this.” He even acknowledged Secretary Kim as the CEO and how he has much to learn from the bottom up before becoming the man his Grandpa was, “I’ll learn everything well, from the bottom up.... how to play baduk, too. And I’ll become a good older brother, father, and grandfather to you.”

Firstly, I’m so glad that Secretary Kim is not Joong Won! And secondly, we see that Grandpa leaves behind two letters with one for DH (his credit card T.T) and the other for him (his name is Kim Do Young). His letter said, “If someone whose last name is Kim and first name is Shin, meaning “belief” comes and says “I’ve come to claim what is mine,” give him everything. Everything I’ve left behind is his. He will walk through the rain and disappear with a blue spark. If he does that, know that that man is truly Kim Shin.” From what Grandpa wrote, it almost sounds like he knows Shin’s fate and this might be how he “returns to nothingness” - or how the drama might end for Shin. First, it’s important to note how he took the time to explain Shin’s name meaning “belief” and I think this suggests that Shin must believe in himself, the people he loves, and maybe God (regain his faith in the gods) to attain peace. And once he “walks through the rain” which symbolizes spiritual rebirth (or overcoming an obstacle) after he claims what is his, Shin will “disappear with a blue spark” which might be him “returning to nothingness.” Disappear with a blue spark could mean that 1) Shin will be reborn as a human after the sword is removed or 2) he will go to heaven. Why? Blue symbolizes stability (truth) and, also, heaven. Sparks symbolize a new source for a flame which can possibly be interpreted as a “new life” for Shin; thus the future of Eun-tak calling out to the “President” could actually be SHIN!! :O DH and Samshin walked pass each other again as the same in ep 1, but this time DH being himself. We learn that he is the “child who has nothing but kindness. And because of that, you brighten the world,” which is the DH that we all know.

GR expressed his feelings of jealousy towards Shin for being an uncle and, for a split second, Shin saw Wang Yeo’s face in GR which surprised him. We then learn that Shin’s solider friend, Kim Woo Shik, was reborn and had applied to work for his company. Shin sees Eun-tak off on her first day of college and he presents her the necklace he bought in Canada, “It means “a fate decided by the heavens” in French.” This necklace is significant because it represents how their relationship was fated by God, but at the same time Shin took action into his own hands to ensure that he was the one who bought the necklace from 10 years into the future. Also, gifting a necklace usually symbolizes a strong connection between the giver and the receiver. Just saying, but what a perfect use and advertisement of SNOW when Eun-tak sent him a picture showing off her new necklace and to assure him that she’s safe, but I’ve also noticed how the word “death” is used often as a pun in this drama. I cried when Shin reunited with his friend, hired him, and how CEO Kim spoke to him with respect while presenting the gifts to Shin’s friend, “Because you saved the country in your past life.” T.T

Ah, I love how Eun-tak is not ashamed to do cute stuff with Shin! But most of all, I love how she’s always thinking of what she can do for him such as giving him the money to repay Sunny so that he can see his sister. And I love it even more that she initiated the kiss and left Shin flustered, “Small and tiny mean the same thing. I want to come here every day.” But damn, that Joong Won just had to ruin my mood by showing up and revealing to Eun-tak that GR is Wang Yeo. But most of all, he’s causing trouble because he “wishes for their demise.” This obviously left Eun-tak conflicted, especially when GR came to talk with Eun-tak about him, Sunny, and Shin being connected in the past and about his true identity. With this conversation, GR resolved to confront Sunny, return her memories so that she could remember Shin, confirm if he was apart of her past, and erase her “sad and difficult memories” along with him so that she can live a normal life. It was so sad how GR decided to let Sunny go as his answer to the question as to why he chose to erase his own memories, “I, who gives you nothing but wrong answers hope that this, at the very least, is the right answer.” OMG!! Their kiss was so deep filled with longing for each other, but at the same time with sadness because they can’t be together. But it made me so happy to see Sunny greet her brother with her memories back and the joy on Shin’s face realizing that his sister remembers him.

However a shocking revelation, Eun-tak cannot see ghosts anymore! :O Why? I’m not exactly sure but it may be connected to Joong Won’s appearance or it may be God’s doing? Or it may also be due to her becoming an adult and no longer considered a child because only children can see ghosts? But I was so glad that she at least told Shin about Joong Won - I was beginning to wonder when she was going to tell him. Finally Shin and Joong Won met again after 900 years - it seemed like Joong Won was “hunting,” which gangshi do hunt for life source during nighttime. BUT WHY CAN’T SHIN KILL THAT MOTHERFUCKER DAMNIT, “You can’t slice away the 900 years of history we have together.” Essentially, what he meant was that something stronger and meaningful can only kill him because you can’t change what happened between them no matter how much you try to cut it away. Also, if Joong Won really is a gangshi... they can’t be killed by swords. He revealed to Shin that Wang Yeo has been beside him all along and Shin realized it was the truth when he confronted Sunny. It hurt my heart when Shin said to Sunny that she insists on protecting that idiot even in this lifetime... Shin must have felt betrayed, but knew it was inevitable. GR finally confirms to himself that he’s Wang Yeo when he went to the temple and understood why he erased his memories, “It seems that I was the source of the worst memories, after all.” Shin can hear GR’s thoughts and approached him while walking up the stairs just as he did 900 years ago, but this time Shin finally reached the king and was able to deliver the message that he couldn’t relay before he died, “Your Commanding General Kim Shin... is here to see you, Your Majesty.”

But if you watched towards the end, we get a scene of the King holding the robes of Kim Sun and he asks, “These beautiful clothes have no owner... are you searching for them, perchance?... you may take them.” This may mean that he regretted killing her and, despite even holding onto her clothes after death, she wasn’t coming back to him. Therefore, he burnt her clothes so that maybe she may finally rest in peace (finally letting her go).

So in conclusion, all the players are in place and the climax of the series will happen in the next episodes: the Goblin, the Bride, the King/GR, the Queen/sister, and the evil Eunuch. Now that we know Shin can’t simply kill Joong Won at any convenient time and Shin and the King finally meet again, perhaps Shin will be able to “save” Wang Yeo this time and they may be able to defeat Joong Won together. However, despite all of these answers - new questions were created. Why can’t Eun-tak see the ghosts? What will Shin do next? Did Sunny really forget GR? How do you kill that bastard Joong Won? Was this God’s plan? Personally, I think Sunny didn’t forget GR/Wang Yeo because, despite she had a tragic ending, I believe she cherished every moment with Wang Yeo/GR and that’s how Shin was able to confirm that Wang Yeo was indeed GR. Therefore, even if GR erased her sad memories, she has the happy memories of him and she died as “the woman who loves him who is the sister of a traitor.” In the next episodes, we’ll definitely learn more about Wang Yeo and how he lived his life after killing Shin’s family. We finally learn that God has been watching all this time and was the reason for how things happened the way it did. Also, there was another death card announcement for Eun-tak and I think it might be related to Joong Won? Ugh.. I just want Shin and GR to make up so that they can kill that bastard and then run to their woman and never let them go in this lifetime. T.T

Other Reviews:

Episode 1-4 Review: Our Homegirl Eun-tak

Episode 5 Review: 10 years into the future, You’re still beautiful and bright as ever, but I’m not the one beside you

Episode 3-6 Review: I can’t help but stare at your smile (Grim Reaper x Sunny Relationship Review)

Episode 6 Review: If you had really been a bad person, he only would’ve created a Goblin, and not the Goblin’s Bride

Episode 7-8 Review: It couldn’t be helped that this was the beginning of this tragic love story (Grim Reaper x Sunny Relationship Review)

Episode 7 Review: Is the thing that I’m trying to steal one more glimpse of… my own immortal life? Or, is it your face?

Episode 8 Review: I beseech the heavens and ask that, on a certain day, after 100 years, on an adequate day… I can finally tell her she was my first love

Episode 9-10 Review: I was thinking about whether or not I should hold your hand one more time (Grim Reaper x Sunny)

Episode 9 Review: I’d like it if I could use that as an excuse to continue on living on… together, with you

Episode 10 Review: Your magic doesn’t work on me.. you can never escape me

Episode 11 Review: So you did come and go for a moment in my life

Episode 13 Review: My Life must have been a reward because I met you

Episode 14 Review: Please, someone save me from this curse

Episode 15 & 16 Review: The Person left behind must go on living life

Deok Hwa and Grandpa Theory Review: From this moment on, this child will serve you, your Lordship

Important Anon Question regarding Pedophilia

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empressofnothing · 8 years ago

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A Wraith's Work

This is something I wrote for a contest. It is the final draft but if any one you have constructive criticism I'd be happy to hear it! I guess a trigger warning can apply as there is a semi violent scene so take caution! Hope you all enjoy! -- According to Millie, fall in Virginia was the most whimsical time and place in the world. She believed in the impossible, and if you asked the young woman, in what season would the impossible be made possible, she would say autumn. She knew the impossible could be made possible with a dream and maybe some pliers. She just wasn’t expecting the impossible to find her that day. She breathed in air that smelled of dreams and decaying leaves. An array of red, yellow, and brown made nonsensical paintings on the ground. She stepped on the leaves, feeling a childish satisfaction when the plants gave way in a song of crinkles under her feet. She grinned, ready to run like the wind when she tripped on her untied shoelaces. She toppled to the dirt. “Aw, man!” she growled. It was difficult to tie her shoes alone. She tucked the unraveling shoelaces into the sides of the shoe. She was rising to her feet, knees on the ground and her hand in the dirt, when she saw the hound. Her body reacted to the horrifyingly familiar sight in a split second. Her chest constricted. Her heart pumped so fast she felt it was ready to burst forth from her flesh. In her mind, she heard malign growls ripping from a muscular black and brown chest and saw disgusting strands of saliva dripping from a wicked maw. While her mind was muddled with the violent memory, she could not tear her eyes off the hulking black dog. It was larger than any dog she’d ever seen—bigger even than the taxidermied wolves she’d seen. Its long legs rippled with muscles. The black fur was horribly matted and long. She kept still, praying to God that the hound would move on without seeing her. God was not with her on this day. The hound, agonizingly slow, turned its head. Millie sucked in a painful breath when she was met with its face. The hound’s eyes were red. They weren’t bright, they didn’t glow—they were the color of drying blood. Her mind cried out. Demon, it said. Run. She gained control of her body and scrambled back, scraping the skin on her hand to the point where she felt blood. The dog began to take steps toward her, watching her with his impossible eyes. Her back hit a tree stump. She opened her mouth in a soundless plea and shut her eyes. She felt the hound draw close—so close she could smell its breath; breath that smelled of rot and nightmares. Millie shielded her face with a trembling hand and waited. “You’re not supposed to be here.” • Millie burst into the garage, almost stumbling over one of her Dad’s model airplanes. She slammed the button and the garage door began to close. She stood there, regretting her decision to skip school for the first time in her life in order to hike and enjoy the day---escape the world she hated. But it had all gone wrong. She glanced at the clock. It was 4:15. Under it was a calendar for 1991. Her Dad hadn’t gotten one for the New Year yet, even with it being October already. She walked into the house, hoping her father wasn’t home. The smell of chili wafted from the kitchen. He was home. Thoughts of the hound buried but not forgotten, she tried to sneak past the kitchen. “Millicent?” Her father appeared from the kitchen doorway. He was an older man, shown by his whitening beard. His hands, large, black, and weathered, carried a bowl. An apron was tied around his bulky middle. He was a muscular man, but Millie knew he was a fragile soul. Loud sounds made him dizzy and harsh words made him sullen. Her father, gentle giant that he was, cried over worship music and gleefully played with the toddlers at the daycare he worked at. Millie knew his rage was nothing to fear as it was nonexistent. But she knew he loved her more than anything, and his worry was hard to look at. “Your school called,” he began. “They said you weren’t counted present for the eighth hour.” “Yeah…I, uh, went to the woods.” “Why would you do that?” He paused, looking grave. “You aren’t doing anything… bad--are you?” He seemed to struggle for words. “No! Of course not Dad!” “Good. I know no one here would hurt you, but you’ve never done this.” “And I won’t do it again. Skipping school wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Kind of boring,” she said, thinking of the hound’s red eyes. “Good, good. Would you like some dinner?” he offered, stretching out the bowl towards her, childish hope on his face. “Sure Dad.” • The hound did not appear again until two nights later. Millie had been punished by the school for ditching, but it was held in the library, where Millie searched for answers. All she found was a Sherlock Holmes story. Stereotypically---like out of a horror film---the night was foggy to the point of blindness. Millie was dressed in her pajamas, and was finishing up feeding her tarantula, a gargantuan creature by the name of “Big Joe.” She liked creepy crawly things. Maybe they could bite her, poison her, but they couldn’t maul her arm to the point of necessary amputation. Millie didn’t like dogs. They were big, loud, smelly, and some were mean. She had a dog once, a little beagle named Toby, but he was long gone. Nor was he there to protect her when the rabid Rottweiler latched his teeth into the flesh of her arm. Race car posters covered the walls of her room, and she was headed to reposition one of a blue Formula One when she heard it—the howl. She scrambled out of bed. Out the window, nothing could be seen but gray, and the black of the moonless sky. She didn’t know what compelled her to force open the window and climb out. She just did. She also didn’t know why she ended up behind the graveyard. If wasn’t so deep in her trance, she would have scoffed at how typical the night was turning out. There was more to this graveyard however. It was not what it seemed from the outside. In front, was the regular cemetery where those recently passed were buried. Behind, was a burial ground of the past. And not just a burial ground, an execution sight. Slaves who were unlucky enough to be caught in escape attempts were hung at this location and buried without markers or a funeral or any thought to the fate of their poor souls. She’d never been here. Her father had. A descendant of slaves, he believed it was important to know their people’s history and honor them. The fog was thick, almost blinding her to the tall trees around her, but not to those red eyes. “You,” she stammered. The hound watched her. They stood there, staring at the other for what seemed an eternity, before Millie felt she had the wits to speak once more. “Who are you?” she asked. The hound answered. “I’ve been called many things. Pestilence. War. Famine. Death. I’ve been called the Devil himself.” “Are you? The Devil, I mean.” “I could be, girl.” “My name is Millie.” “Your name is Millicent Abigail Green. You wish to race cars, and believe you someday will, despite your missing arm.” She grabbed the end of her right arm bashfully. “How do you know that?” “I know everything about everyone. And you were not supposed to see me in the woods.” “I…” “You are not marked. I do not understand why you saw me. And I, girl, understand everything.” For the first time, the dog’s voice betrayed a hint of emotion. Confused, and bordering on angered. Millie stood enraptured, fear flowing like blood throughout her body. “You’re not supposed to die,” the hound went on. “What?” she exclaimed. The hound slumped its shoulders and let out a faint breath that billowed white in the freezing air. When he spoke again, he sounded irritated. “I am here to claim a soul. You are not that soul.” Millie could not speak. “And I have no idea of what to do with you. I suppose I could leave you be, to wonder whether you have gone insane, no one believing your story—you scarcely believing it yourself.” He suddenly fell silent. “Then what will you do?” she asked. “I am bound by divine law to never harm a soul that is not marked for violent death.” “You’re a demon…” Millie whispered. “You could be right, you could be wrong. I could be a demon as well as I could be an angel.” “Well, what are you? I mean, what do you think you are?” The hound’s eyes flashed with something unintelligible. “I am everything, but I am nothing.” The hound, furrowing its brow as if confused at its own declare, turned and bounded into the woods, leaving Millie alone with the ghosts of violent histories and the encompassing fog. • Two days later, Millie sat on a colorful rug at the Rose Petal Daycare, watching her father play with a toddler girl. She was sketching in her notebook, a book filled with cars and spiders, a grim portrait of a black dog. “You be the mommy and I’ll be the daddy!” she heard the baby girl cry. “But I am a daddy,” her father said, laughing. “Well then, Ms. Madison can be the mommy!” Her father froze. “Sara…Ms. Madison left, remember?” he got out. “Oh...ok,” the girl said, faltering. Millie closed her sketchbook and walked to the bathroom, ignoring her father’s cry for her. She splashed water from the sink on her face and sucked in a heavy breath. Once she looked up, deep red eyes were staring at her. She screamed for a split second before throwing her hand over her mouth. The dog was closer to her than ever before and it took its toll on Millie, flashbacks to the rabid animal that took her arm running through her mind. “Your mother left you,” the hound said. Millie replied, trying not to sound pained, “Yes, she did. A year ago.” “Do you know why?” “No. Guess she got tired of us.” “I know. Would you like to?” “No.” “She seemed kind. She loved you, until she didn’t,” the hound observed, sounding confused. Millie asked why he sounded that way. “I understand the physical circumstance. I will never grasp fickle human emotions.” “And you never told me who was going to die,” Millie realized out loud. The dog sat back against the brick wall. “I cannot tell you. It is unnatural.” “Unnatural how?” “A human knowing the future can only bring about turmoil in your world.” “My world? Where are you from?” The hound answered. “Heaven. Hell. Purgatory, perhaps.” The hound’s face showed no emotion. He almost looked like a normal hound in that moment, despite his size and girth. He suddenly stood and began to walk towards her. Millie jerked and jumped back, slipping on water on the floor. She fell back and curled down on the floor, tears pricking at her eyes and her lips curling. The hound closed in and Millie buried her face in her knees. “I am sorry.” When she summoned the bravery to open her eyes, the hound was gone. • 1979 was the worst year of Millie’s life. Toby had been a good dog. When he was hit, Millie had been watching. She recalled the screech of the tires, a sudden agonized yelp, and most of all, her mother’s arms wrapping around her. They buried the poor mangled animal on her grandparent’s property. Though her memories of the happy little dog were fading, Millie still visited the grave from time to time. It was only two months later that the rabid dog took her arm. Though her father claimed responsibility, she knew that it was her fault. She shouldn’t have left Grandma and Grandpa’s house. She had wanted to go home; she was tired and bored. When she saw the dog, she was ecstatic (memories of Toby were still fresh then) and approached him. Her young naïve mind did not take heed of the feral look in his eyes. She went to pet him and the dog opened its dripping mouth and sunk its teeth into the lower part of her right arm and thrashed its head from side to side, ripping open her flesh. She screamed. She cried. Her anguished sounds were what alerted her father. She did not remember much after that, but she knew that somehow, someway, the dog had let go and her father had shot it. Her flesh was mangled and torn and she was losing blood in copious amounts. As she sank into unconsciousness in her grandfather’s arms, who had picked her up and was rushing her to his truck, she caught sight of red eyes in the trees. The doctors had apparently decided that the best course of action was to remove the mauled arm. Her wound was mostly near her wrist and the doctors took her right hand and a little bit of her arm. It would have been useless anyway, with its dead nerves and ripped tendons. Since that day, her heart leapt in terror at a lone bark, the hint of a sharp tooth, or even her neighbors walking their yellow lab puppy. She hated dogs. • Four days later, she asked her father why her mother had left. Madison Green had been kind, beautiful, and intelligent. When she left in the middle of the night, it had shocked the small community. Her father had chased after the car, yelling for her. Since that night, Jerome Green had been more vulnerable then he ever was before. “I don’t know, baby…it’s not worth thinking about. I don’t want you thinking about it, okay?” She had said yes, still thinking about it, and her father bid her goodbye and kissed her forehead, explaining that he had to grab milk from the corner store and that he would be back within twenty minutes. It had been a normal night enough. She watched television, fed Big Joe, and ate popcorn, hiding the evidence of her snack in the bottom of the trash can. She didn’t think much of the doorbell ringing. When she opened it, Officer David stood there. Upon hearing his words, Millie screamed. • The day of her father’s funeral came swiftly. Her grandparents hovered around her, as if they were terrified she would be taken from them the way their son had. It had been a robbery. Her father had tried to console the desperate man, only to be met with death. It was a horrible service. The music was too sad, the air was too cold, and the people were too sympathetic. And it lacked the presence of her mother, who hadn’t been found, despite the town’s attempts to find her and tell her that her husband had been murdered. After, Millie wandered into the forest, and sat down on the mulch. Twigs snapped and somebody sat next to her. She turned, and saw the hound’s dull red eyes. “You,” she said. “Millicent.” She and the dog stared at each other. “Why’d you have to do this?” Millie whispered. “It is my work.” Millie was silent, until she asked him the question she asked her father. “What happened to my mother?” The hound sighed. “Madison Green was contacted by an old lover, one from her school days. She was tired of her mundane life and went to him at his insistence. They are currently expecting their first child.” Millie pursed her lips and looked at the ground. “I thought she loved me,” she said quietly. “She does…but she does not.” Millie let out a nearly silent sob and then let herself go. She cried, she screamed, and she beat the ground with her fist. Sometime during this, the hound had moved closer, and when she came to, she was nuzzled into his muscular shoulder. “I think I know what you are,” she said to the hound. “And what do you think I am?” he asked softly. “You’re a wraith,” she told him. He was quiet. “I wish I was not.” Millie asked him another question which she knew the answer to. “I’m never going to be a racer, am I?” “No.” Millie rubbed her dripping nose on her black dress. “I think I’ve known that.” “But you will be something else, Millicent.” “What?” “I can’t tell you.” “Racing cars was my dream. I don’t know what I’ll do.” “Just because your dream is impossible, doesn’t mean you stop dreaming altogether,” the hound said quietly. Millie looked at him. He was looking at her with a strange look in his eyes. Wind blew through the trees. The cold burned her chapped nose and lips. Looking around, she realized they were at the slave graveyard, where they had their first conversation. “Do you have a name?” she asked him, as they sat on the graves of the dishonored men and women whose names were unremembered. “I was never given one.” Millie, her hands still wrapped in his fur, said, “How about Toby?” “You wish to name me after your annoying insect of a dog?” “Yes,” Millie answered without a second to spare. “I suppose if you wish,” Toby said, a glint of true happiness flashing through his face before he smothered it. “It is not a name fit for a wraith---for a monster.” Millie smiled. “I’ve always been fond of monsters.” She swore till the day she died that the hound smiled at this "I think I saw you. On the day I was mauled.” "I was there,” Toby confirmed. “You nearly died. I have…watched you since, though I never thought you would see me.” "Maybe God wanted me to see you.” "God. The gods. Perhaps the devil.” Millie laughed. His riddles bothered her no more. “Well, whoever’s out there wanted this,” she said to him. "I do not know who is out there,” he confessed. “But whoever they are, they are in possession of a nonsensical mind.” "Obviously, did you know that the light hitting us right now is thousands of years old? I mean, who even thinks of that?" They both looked up at the canopy of trees, where light was beginning to shine through the bare branches down onto their graveyard. "It does not make sense,” Toby said. "Maybe it’s not supposed to.” THE END -- This is a much more convoluted story than the word limit allowed, honestly. I wasn't given enough haha. In the end, I was trying to convey that the graveyard turned from a place of turmoil and grief to a place of happiness for Millie and the hound. I wasn't able to do all that I wanted to do in this, like delving into Madison's and Jerome's characters and relationships, and Millie's phobia of dogs, and the hound's character in general. The hound and Millie have a deeper relationship than what I was able to convey in this. And the town itself is a lot more supernatural in my head than in this. So this is just the bones of the story. It'll be a lot deeper if I revisit it someday. Thanks for reading!

#in which empress writes

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